PoV Folarin
We were immediately summoned into our temporary home after the god finished speaking. Each one of us had a small, separate room. They were rather simple, as they only contained a single bed, a small wardrobe, and, lastly, a small lamp on the right side of the bed.
I still had a piece of a massive shard of glass stuck on my shoulder. I could feel a few cold drops of blood dripping down my arm.
I tried to pull out the shard with my hands, but I quickly stopped because of the pain.
'Come on, Folarin, all in one go, all in one go.'
At that moment, Satsui came into the room. He probably smelled the scent of blood. As soon as he saw me in the bed, he rushed in to help me.
I just silently pointed at the piece of glass stuck inside my shoulder, and he immediately understood. He then went away and quickly returned, wearing some disposable gloves.
He proceeded to give me something to bite on while he worked on my wound. He extracted the piece of glass with just one motion of his arm. Shortly after, Forren and Tsuitame came into the room carrying a first aid kit and a bucket of water.
I think I also saw Valis clinging to Tsuitame's back, but I couldn't confirm my suspicion as I was quickly stripped of my clothes and tied up in a chair while the others were working on cleaning the wound.
They left as soon as they finished tying me up to the chair. After finishing washing the wound, Satsui asked me.
"Can you heal your wound with your magic or?"
"I should be able to heal this injury just fine."
"Are you sure? If I remember correctly, you had a lot of trouble trying…"
"I'M FINE!"
"Ok, then you're free to heal yourself." He said this while untying me.
He slowly backed away but kept his eyes directly pointed at the wound. I, on the other hand, had to gather whatever mana was left within my body, and then I started working first on closing the wound. It was a painful and slow process. I did it because I didn't have much mana left and wanted to make the most of it without wasting anything.
After closing the wound, I tried to start the healing process but didn't have the mana to completely heal it.
'To think I would be able to reach my limit multiple times in a matter of a single month is absurd. Back then, even managing to use 10% of my total mana in a month would've been a miracle.'
In the meantime, I didn't notice that Satsui had gotten closer; he put his hand on my shoulder, and then he started injecting his weird magical power into my body.
"This…"
"I just didn't have enough mana. Give me an hour or more, and it'll be as good as new." I answered before he could ask anything else.
"Now get out; I have to dress myself."
Dressing up was more difficult than I thought; I simply chose a sweater paired with some baggy pants since it has been getting cold lately.
Once I got out of my room, I decided to go down to the ground floor to see what the others were up to. What I saw was very strange.
For some weird reason, Valis was sitting on top of Tsuitame and ordering him to do more push-ups while Tsuitame was doing push-ups on top of Diego, who was also doing push-ups.
Instead, Forren and Satsui were carrying large quantities of meat outside. They were going back and forth while being followed by a weird girl who I think I saw tied up in the bathroom during the ninth stage.
"Repent!" She was shouting while gently whipping Tsuitame in the ass with a belt.
"Never!" shouted Diego back while doing one more push-up.
"Then do 10 more." Valis tried to whip Diego but, in the end, only managed to hit Tsuitame.
"Oh, hi Fori!" Cheerfully said Valis while whipping Tsuitame.
'Fori?'
"Good morning, Miss Belladea." Said the struggling Tsuitame.
"Good morning... There's no need to be so formal with-"
"DIEGO, KEEP DOING YOUR PUSH-UPS!" Suddenly, Valis screamed.
"YES SIR!"
"IT'S MA'AM!"
"YES SIR! YES MA'AM!"
"Ten more push-ups!" and she whipped him once more.
He then got faster and faster, making her lose her balance, and when she was about to fall, she regained her equilibrium and returned to sitting straight.
'Maybe I should just leave them be...'
"Why are you also punishing Tsuitame?"
"He knows why."
I didn't really understand the situation he was in, so I decided to just reply with an awkward "ok" and then go check what the others were doing.
"Maybe we should fold this in tinfoil. I saw many people doing this in some videos to cook it evenly." I heard Forren say.
"Are you sure? What if it makes the meat taste bad?" Satsui replied in a worried tone.
"Should we look for a guide somewhere?"
"NO!!" That shout startled me.
"I mean, it's just some barbecue. What could go wrong here?" Said Satsui.
"So you know this stuff?"
"I've only heard stories about it. What about you?"
"I once saw a man looking at a video of some other man cooking this stuff, but he never really got into it. From what I could understand, this is the thing rich people eat, right?"
"Yeah, I was thinking the same, but what if we ruin this marvelous piece of meat?"
"We have a lot more left-"
"I don't want to waste precious food here."
Then they both remained silent, staring at the piece of meat that was resting on the flameless barbecue.
"First of all, what kind of meat is this?" asked Satsui.
"I don't know; it was just a cut that was big enough for all of us. Flip it over. Maybe we'll be able to tell in this way."
The chunk of meat was not even that big; it was probably 60 or 50 cm long and about 30 cm high. Once they flipped, the ribs became particularly visible, yet they were bigger than any animal I had seen so far.
Forren and Satsui also seemed perplexed at the sight.
"Sooo… first of… I think we should season it first."
"Isn't it already salted?"
"I don't know."
PoV Daniel
'Is there something here that's remotely interesting?'
I then started searching around the house for a library or maybe a TV to watch something.
The portal was directly connected to one of the many spaceships that we used to travel around unexplored areas. The ship was orbiting a small red planet.
More specifically, it was located in the domain of Hyung. In this zone, there are a bunch of portals connected to many different planets nearby, besides the ones that usually lead to the main network of portals. Nowadays, there are too many portals for me to count or even remember, so I started dividing some specific areas among the members of the Golden Order. The more they could memorize, the bigger their domain could be. The top 10 strongest had the smallest domains of them all.
The ship had remained unharmed by the large wave of mana and was currently empty.
I dragged Hyung's cocoon into the cafeteria, gently laid him down at one of the few tables, and grabbed a small mix of a nutritional paste for him.
When I returned, I saw that the cocoon had completely dried up on the outside and had started to fall apart.
"So." I said while sitting next to it.
"Can you tell me what happened?"
He didn't answer.
"I know you're awake, Hyung. Can you at least tell me who did this?"
He remained silent once again.
"Soooo... are you going back to Ibraxia now that you have lost ten times back-to-back?"
"I didn't lose. We ended up in a draw."
"Both Hollis and Areus were still standing while you collapsed on the floor."
"It was Areus. He also suffered a great loss. I managed to cut off one of his limbs."
'You did WHAT?!'
"So we got the name. The motive? Ah, I can probably guess why. "
'They were Kane's disciples and almost considered him their father. But they never attacked him in this way in the last couple of years. They never hid their hostility, but it never escalated to this extent.'
"Why did you call them back?" He asked in a defeated tone.
"It was something we thought necessary."
"Why."
"Hyung, why did Areus attack you?"
"Do you know how it feels to walk down the stairs in your own house and to be met with murderous intent as soon as you reach the ground floor."
"Have you ever apologized to them?" I asked while leaning forward.
"Why do I have to be the one apologizing?"
"Because you were in the wrong."
"What did I do that was so wrong? He stole what was rightfully-"
"IT WAS NEVER YOURS!"
"I was the one chosen to be the dragon knight."
"The egg never chose you, and even then, once a dragon has chosen his knight, that will be his one and only knight. I thought you knew since you are a hunter."
He remained silent.
"What are you planning to do now, once word spreads around-"
"I don't even want to think about it." He said this while leaning backward and covering his eyes with his right hand.
We remained silent for a couple of minutes, then I started talking.
"How do you intend to deal with Areus and Hollis?"
He once again remained silent.
"Don't you want to make peace with them?"
"It's impossible."
"You still haven't tried-"
"When fighting Areus, he never once hesitated before striking a potentially lethal blow, whereas Hollis stated out loud that I was irredeemable in his eyes."
"Well, the event is probably still fresh in their memories, and you still haven't even tried to apologize or make up for your mistake."
"Daniel... Which side are you on?"
"I'm not taking any sides here. You did something wrong, and Kane also overreacted at the time. We failed to stop him in time. Many lives were lost, but you were the one who instigated him."
"Then why do I have to apologize to them?"
"Because they also got dragged into this problem and because they deeply cared about Kane. They suffer every second of their lives knowing that he was denied the choice to make his own decisions. He was robbed of his powers and stripped of his memories. That included the memories they shared with him, and you... you were the one that brought him to that state. "
"You mean the choice to kill me?"
"No... well yes, but that's not what I mean!"
"Then what about Florine? She never apologized to anyone. "
"There is a reason she was not allowed to follow us on this mission, even though she's the second strongest. She would've probably been murdered as soon as we reached this place. At the moment, the only thing that keeps you alive is that unusual ability of yours. "
He didn't seem to get it, so I got up and started creating a portal that led back to Florine's house, where I left the kids.
"I'm your friend, and you know it, Hyung. We've known each other since I was basically a kid. This is sincere advice from a friend: apologize to everyone. Even if they don't forgive you, keep apologizing. With enough time and effort, you'll be able to earn their forgiveness. "
As I was walking through the portal, suddenly Chris popped into my mind.
"One last thing before I go, be wary of Chris. He's still a bit jaded by the whole thing. You should stay as far away from him as possible. He may be under you in the official rankings, but he never showed his true power. Kinda like Kane... He definitely learned a lot from him."