Duri said, "I know of them. I heard of them. From Marshy. Harvest has been giving their followers mythic beast blood and making them cause havoc on earth. And they try to force strong women to have hybrid babies with them, as soldiers for Reborn. And their leader…is your brother?"
"Me and Reborn are two different beings. But of the same blood. My motives for doing what I do are simple, though no one really knows. Same goes for Reborn. He was loved by everyone in the Arcane realm, he was popular. Popular and praised because of his powers and natural strength and speed. His powers such as mine almost rival the Titans, the guardians of the Garden realm."
"Does his plans have anything to do with yours?"
"When he was alive, he had no interest in getting the beast tamer weapon."
"What the hell happened with Reborn?"
"...Harvest was a realm. A realm called Harvest."
"I'm not stupid."
"Anyway, Reborn had a fallout with me and the family, he ended up moving to Harvest and being taken care of by a guardian. But our mother and father didn't like it. Harvest realm was one of the biggest realms out there besides the Garden realm, Harvest had four parts to it. My parents ordered an attack on the Harvest, since they were guardians and all. When we attacked, the Shadow realm had their affairs with the Harvest realm, for reasons unknown. The Shadow realm was in battle with us, destroying the Harvest realm, and they had some Titans on their side as well."
"Why didn't my people fight you guys?"
"The Shadow realm had no quarrel with us at the time. There was another large group that attacked the Harvest realm, but I can't speak their names."
Duri started walking back and forth, saying, "So you bastards don't know why my Shadow family was attacking Harvest..and you claim there was another group there..did those unknown people attack you guys?"
"No. They didn't."
"And what the hell were YOU doing?"
"I watched it all. I was only a child. My mother and father thought it was a good idea for me to watch and learn what happens if we ever left the Arcane for a mere Harvest realm."
[FLASHBACK]
[150 years ago]
[Harvest realm]
14 year old Zabel was sitting in the middle of a grassy area, as fire and smoke was blasting everywhere. There were hundreds of dead or decapitated bodies near Zabel, and Zabel looked sad.
There was blood everywhere on the ground, the sky was red, and there was red rain falling from the sky.
All around the realm, powers were being blasted, weapons were clanging, explosions and fire sprinted all over the place, and there was screaming.
In front of Zabel, came walking his brother, 13 year old Reborn.
Reborn was covered in white wrap like a mummy, he had blood all over it, he had a black halo over his head, and he was holding two glowing golden swords in both hands.
Zabel asked Reborn in a scared tone, "Reborn…why?"
Reborn answered, "Why what?"
"I just saw you kill these people…you're killing too many people!"
"So? I can do whatever I want."
"And why are you talking like that? You talk like an adult.."
"The guardians of this realm have shown me much wisdom, big brother. You always thought you were better than me, I'm ahead of you."
"No..you always thought you were better than me. I envied you."
"And so did I. But times have changed. I do not need the Arcane anymore. I noticed our family was corrupt, the killing I'm doing is nothing compared to the killing mother and father do to people who don't have riches. They killed the poor in their own realm because they thought poverty would bring a curse on the Arcane. And they destroyed other realms, draining the energy from that sun's realm for more power. All of that for what? I'm tired of the corruption. And the injustice. True corruption lies within the heart of the wicked, for the bones who are righteous bless the beds of the ones under them."
"P-people can change! Come back with us!"
"No. I'm afraid I cannot do that. I will always call you my brother, but never my family. You too are corrupt with mother and father and the other guardians of the Arcane. Even if Harvest falls today, we will rise again one day and be greater than we've ever been. If you survive this, Zabel, you will be my true enemy."
"Reborn!!!"
Running up behind Reborn, were four men wearing gold and black robes and white halos, riding on flaming horses.
Reborn turned around to them, and the men jumped off the horses, as gold and white power circules around their swords and hands, even creating gold and white power orbs.
The men said:
"We can't spare you, Reborn!"
"Yeah! We had our orders, but you're too strong for us to contain!"
"We'll be doing this for the cause of Arcane!"
Reborn replied, "What a waste of courage."
I'm a split second, Reborn dashed past all four of the men with his two glowing swords, and the men and the horses splattered around in blood, they fell to the ground dead.
Zabel's eyes shook, and a tear was falling down.
'This is not my brother! This can't be Reborn!...What did Harvest do to him?!'
Zabel stood up on his feet, and started running towards Reborn, jumping over dead bodies, screaming, "Reborn!!!!"
Without turning around, Reborn pointed one of his swords at Zabel, and in that moment, a loud wind blasted from the sword and under their feet, the ground cracked, and a large hole was blown in Zabel's chest.
Zabel was shocked, and he fell down on his knees, breathing heavily and fast like a dog.
Reborn said, "Blows like that won't kill people of our kind. But you won't be able to talk or move for a while. Consider this a blessing, brother. It could've been worse."
Reborn was walking away slowly, and Zabel was trying to speak. He couldn't because of the hole in his chest. Suddenly, Zabel was barely moving his arm up, trying to reach out to Reborn, and little puffs of air were coming out of his mouth.
Reborn stopped, and thought, 'He's moving? Tsk. This is why…he will be my true enemy.'
[FLASHBACK OVER]
[PRESENT DAY]
[DURI AND MARSHY'S HOUSE]
Duri said, "He was that strong?"
Zabel answered, "Yes. We found out not everyone in the Harvest realm died, and that Reborn had taken them somewhere safe. Since then, Reborn and his remaining survivors were taking down smaller realms and absorbing their suns' energy to get more power."
"Then he found out about earth.."
"Exactly. We figure he wanted to take down bigger realms, he had acquired a bigger goal. We don't know what his real motive is, but we heard that he wanted to take control and rule over all the realms in existence, wanting to create and build an army of hybrids from earth's women."
"Why earth? There's other realms with people in it."
"Not humans. Earth is the only place that has human women and men. Any hybrid mixed with a human is destined to be overpowered. That's just how it is. That's one of the reasons why the Titans favor earth so much. Earth's civilization are seeds of strength and manifestation. You should know that."
"Too bad I fucking didn't. Why are you telling me all this anyway? What do you expect me to do?"
"When I appeared in your mind a few times, I heard Harvest was trying to bring Reborn back from the dead using a dark and forbidden ritual. And you are well aware that rituals that are done correctly with the right ingredients have power. If Harvest does manage to bring Reborn back, you will need my help to kill him."
"I don't need your help to kill anyone. And why don't you and the Arcane just come down here and do it yourself?"
"We are forbidden from earth. The Titans watch over earth closely now since you arrived, and ever since they found out what I wanna do with you. Even if we weren't forbidden, we still couldn't invade. We are not strong enough to fight all the Hosts and the Titans at the same time. We spend our time daily destroying realms and absorbing suns, we need enough power for the upcoming war. Duri, we will kill you and take your body for my own goals. But I can't do that if Reborn or Harvest kills you."
"War?"
"War. It will arrive sooner than you know it. Reborn is a hard being to kill, it took the Hosts of your world a week to kill him, the longest battle earth has ever faced. He is that strong. And if he is resurrected, he will be even stronger."
"Just tell me how to kill him now. I'll write it down. Along with how I'm gonna murder you when I see you."
"The longer I stay in your head, the more pain it brings to mine. I'll be back again."
Zabel went away, and Duri stood there in the middle of his room.
Duri thought, 'A war is coming? A war that I'm in the middle of? Zabel would go that far as to fight us and the Titans just to acquire my body. And he doesn't want Harvest or Reborn taking me down before he arrives with the Arcane. Now I'm caught up. If it comes down to it, I'll need Zabel to tell me how to kill Reborn…his own brother. Reborn's motives could be that he wants to make a change, that he wants all the realms to be governed in his image and reign. So much shit is going on. I'll have to write this in my journal later. Oh that's right, I gotta go to the tournament!'
(5 minutes later)
The sky was dark, and there was music bumping in the city. The sidewalks were crowded with party people, and there was heavy traffic.
People said:
"Can't wait for this tourney to start!"
"Katai's competing in this tournament!"
"This is gonna be sick!"
"I got soooo many people watching my live right now!"
"This tournament is probably the most hypest and most popular out of all the tournaments this week!"
There were news vans outside of the arena, and reporters reporting things.
The twin reporters Jin and Mara were out there as well.
Mara was recording Jin with the camera, and Jin said into his microphone, "Wow! What an electrifying event! There's only a few seats left in this event, everyone is trying to get a hold of them! Maybe the Titans should have created a BIGGER arena! Haha! No but seriously, there's millions of people tuned into his tournament which will begin in three minutes. If you're at home and you wanna watch this tournament, you better start running now!"
Mara cut the camera off, and Jin asked her, "How was that?"
Mara responded, "Amazing!"
"Yes! I don't know though, I felt less energetic this time!"
"Cheer up, Jin! You'll be happy once we get ANOTHER promotion!"
"You're right! Haha! I'm so glad we caught that fight with Duri and Yoshida, that definitely brought us up!"
"Hell yeah it did!"
Inside of the large tournament arena, hundreds of people were seated, eating, and talking.
Kazuma, Ren-Ren, Jiyu, Nine, and Seven were sitting in a row together.
Seven asked, "What's taking that idiot Duri so long? We are literally holding a seat for him and we're not even supposed to do that."
Kazuma answered, "Maybe he's having a hard time picking a good outfit!"
Ren-Ren said, "I love this hotdog.."
Kazuma replied to Ren-Ren, "Haha! I bet I can eat more than you!"
"Hoooohoo. This will be our 30th food eating contest! I'm gonna order a bunch of hotdogs now!"
"Perfect!"
Jiyu was looking really nervous, a lot of boys were looking her way and also looking at Nine and Seven.
Jiyu said, "Th-they are staring at me too long…I-I.."
Seven and Nine laughed together, and slapped Jiyu on the shoulders.
Nine said to Jiyu, "They might think you're cute."
Seven added, "Exactly. To attract a boy even more, just play hard to get, and they won't stop trying to come for you."
Nine agreed, "You know it."
Seven and Nine fist bumped each other.
Jiyu said with a nervous tone and look, "I-I'm not good at impressing b-boys…I never had a boyfriend.."
Seven and Nine looked at each other, and grinned.
Seven said to Jiyu, "We're gonna break you out of your nervousness."
Nine added, "Hell yeah."
Jiyu answered, "Re-really?.."
"Yeah but not now. Patience is key."
A few miles away, Duri was jumping from rooftop to rooftop, he was wearing black skinny jeans, white sneakers, and a blue hoodie along with the black band around his forehead.
Duri was jumping high, even launching himself on top of tall cranes, spider crawling to the very top.
Duri was looking over the city, spotting the tournament. He heard the loud music and crowd.
'City is lively tonight. Hasn't been like this in a while. Everyone is talking about some Katai kid. He's the reason the hype is insane right now. Gives me more of a reason to watch this tournament. Katai sounds strong.'
Duri jumped off the crane, and was falling down to the ground upside down, allowing the wind to breeze through his skin, hair, and clothing.
'This right here…gets rid of my stress. I do this often..I hate when I don't do it…that's because I'm usually busy kicking someone's ass or getting my ass kicked. Marshy should try this. I've been seeing her lately, watching her expressions and emotions. Ever since Reborn and Harvest was mentioned, she's been acting depressed and down a little. I want her to feel at ease.'
Duri was about to hit the ground, until he kicked off the air, blasting on top of another roof as he kept running.
Nearby civilians watched it from down below, commenting:
"Is that…"
"I saw the birthmark on his face, it was definitely Duri. I saw. Mhm mhm I saw."
[Tournament Arena]
[Locker room]
There were 10 fighters in the large locker room. Loud rap music with a heavy bass played, and there were lockers everywhere.
Some of the fighters were big, small, or normal sized. Some of them were stretching, drinking water, talking and arrogantly laughing with each other, praying, or putting on their gear.
They said:
"I'm ready to beat the shit out of all of you!"
"I wonder what the prize is for this tournament…"
"No one ever knows."
A man in a corner that was praying said, "Please watch over me in this fight.."
"I've trained too hard for this!"
Among them was Katai. Son of Ferrow. (Ferrow - one of the leaders/Centurion of Harvest.)
Katai was on the phone with his father Ferrow.
Ferrow answered, "Son."
Katai instantly went through a backdoor because it was too loud in the locker room, and he was out in the back of the arena.
Katai asked Ferrow, "Dad. Why aren't you here?"
"I have other things to attend to. I already know you will win the tournament. I've trained you intensely."
"Is the thing you're doing more important than my big fight?"
"Yes."
"..Dad.."
"I will see you at home later. I'm on a task for the purpose of Harvest. I will bring you something back that will help you gain more power. Goodbye now."
The phone hung up, and Katai almost crushed his phone into pieces.
Katai said to himself, "...Fuck that damn Harvest cult! Whatever. Whatever. I got the beast blood with me, I don't need him."
Katai pulled out a tube of red and purple beast blood, and he only drank a little bit of it.
'This should be enough to win this tournament. Exactly enough.'
Katai closed the tube and put the rest in his pocket.
Before he could walk back inside, Duri landed feet first on the ground behind Katai.
Katai stopped, and he turned around and looked at Duri.
Duri was brushing himself off, and said, "Good. I'm not late."
Katai asked Duri, "Who the hell are you? Did that CULT send you to kill me just because of what I shouted?"
"Heh? I think you have the wrong guy, dumbass."
"I know you…you're Duri."
"..And you're Katai…"