"W-What is that...?"
Aldo saw a shadowy figure sitting on top of the boulder in front of him, its piercing yellow eyes are the only features that can be seen clearly.
Even the moonlight behind it can't really illuminate its body,
The darkness surrounding its body seems to come from itself rather than the darkness created by the moonlight, it's almost as if this figure is the embodiment of darkness itself.
'I-It has wings?!', Aldo exclaimed inside his head.
Out of nowhere, there seem to be two wings made of shadow sprouted on the figure's back.
But when Aldo blinked his eyes, the two wings were suddenly gone making him confused as even the shadowy figure that looked beastly before becomes human-like, 'Is it just my imagination?'
"Uh...Hello?", Aldo greeted hesitantly.
Hearing this, the shadowy figure didn't reply as it stood on the boulder silently.
Seeing that the shadowy figure doesn't want to reply to him at all, Aldo sat leaning on a tree beside him before he asks, "I'm sorry but why did you kill that creature?"
Even after trying to talk with it, the shadowy figure still kept silent.
The shadowy figure kept looking at Aldo with its yellow eyes that doesn't seem to have any expression, it's almost like this shadowy figure is not an actual creature.
Aldo glance to the side again and saw that the creature is certainly dead,
Whatever this shadow figure is, it's certainly alive since it can kill the beast swiftly.
"If you want to kill me just do it, that's why I'm here so help me out and swiftly kill me", Aldo said again with a sigh, his body is noticeably thinner than before.
Without the clothes he's wearing, he'll probably look like a walking skeleton.
Glancing at the shadowy figure, Aldo saw that it doesn't move even a little and just stayed there as if watching him dying slowly is an amusement.
Aldo leans back his head tiredly while looking at the night sky,
Taking a deep breath of the freezing cold night air, he then said, "Fine, if you don't want to talk or kill me, I'll just search for other beasts"
After saying that, Aldo tries to stand up but failed miserably.
Every inch of his strength has already gone, and his body is slowly becoming stiff from the cold forcing him to sit back down on the snowy ground, "Damn...", he cursed.
With no strength in his body, Aldo is stuck here under the shadowy figure's gaze.
Seconds turns to minutes, the shadowy figure still kept looking at Aldo without even moving from its spot while the snowy blizzard added the thickness of the snow around.
Aldo started to get covered by snow, he now can feel the pain spread to other parts of his body.
At first, the pain starts in his chest and throat, but now Aldo can feel his limbs hurting, his tongue getting stiffer, his insides burning with pain, and even his eyes slowly turning black.
The sickness slowly engulfs him bit by bit like a poison inside his body,
"You know... I always thought that at some point in life I will live a normal life, see my sister getting married to Daley, see their kids grow up, and maybe even get a woman for myself to have kids and accompany me in my old days"
"I believed that at some point in life, everything will be better"
"And life did get better when I became an Ego Fighter that only a few achieve, the joy that I felt after the gamble I did pay off and it was enough to make up the years of suffering"
"I thought everything would turn for the better, everything should become better..."
"Who would've thought that I will be dying here in the woods because of some nonsense sickness alone and also getting stared at by whatever you are", Aldo said while glancing at the shadowy figure on the boulder.
But he then chuckles as black blood slowly flows out of his mouth,
Although he's alone here getting stared at by the shadowy figure, at least someone will hear him ranting even though the shadowy figure probably didn't understand anything he said.
'It's a beast, but at least I'm not alone', Aldo thought with a wry smile.
With his lungs starting to freeze from the cold of the snow, Aldo lean on the tree mocking himself while coughing repeatedly, the life in his body slowly rots away as time passes by.
Just when he was about to take a nap and let this all be over,
"Life is never fair, especially to those stronger ones..."
Aldo jolted his eyes open upon hearing a rough baritone voice, the voice is a bit shaky and echoing but it certainly comes from the shadowy figure.
He glance at the boulder and saw the shadowy figure start to move,
It can't be called move since the shadowy figure disappear and reappeared right in front of Aldo, this caught Aldo off guard as he raises his gaze to see the figure in front of him.
Unlike what he expected, the figure turns out to be a human.
Aldo looks up and saw a middle-aged man standing tall in front with his piercing yellow eyes, and upon closer inspection, the middle-aged man's eyes are not human-like, it's more like a creature's eyes but the middle-aged man was surely a human from how he looks.
His yellow eyes seem to contain blinking stars that make Aldo feels his soul being sucked the longer he looks into the middle-aged man's eyes.
"Do not look into my eyes strong one...", the middle-aged man mutters lightly.
Hearing this, Aldo averts his gaze from the middle-aged man's eyes.
Aside from the daunting and mysterious yellow eyes, the middle-aged man has dark brown skin with two swords strapped on his waist and also wearing a red pendant around his neck.
The middle-aged man is topless exposing his muscular body filled with weird patterns.
Aldo stutters while looking at the middle-aged man that has a dark sizzling aura around him, he then finally asks, "W-Who are you, Sir?"
"Me? I'm just a passerby", the middle-aged man replied with a cheeky smile.
Even though the middle-aged man clearly looks like a human, Aldo feels like he's in front of something else, something or someone that he is not supposed to see.
It's a weird feeling that he never felt before,
Aldo then remembers what the middle-aged man said before, "Why are you calling me the strong one? Can't you see I'm on my last breath already?"
Hearing this, the middle-aged man went to the tree right in front of Aldo.
The middle-aged man then sits in front of the tree while gazing at Aldo, but this makes Aldo widen his eyes in surprise as he saw the man levitating in the air in a sitting position.
He's like an indomitable monk that has lived thousands of years,
"You will not hear me from that distance", Aldo mutters lightly, his voice muffled by the blizzard.
But out of nowhere, Aldo saw the middle-aged man raise his hand before he flicks his fingers sending a subtle shockwave to the surrounding.
Even on his death bed, Aldo was utterly shocked by what he's seeing.
The blizzard around them stops as the snow that is supposed to fall to the ground stopped mid-track, it's almost as if time itself got stopped by a flick of the man's fingers.
"H-How...", Aldo mutters in utter shock.
The middle-aged man smiles slightly before he said, "I called you the strong one because you are one of the strong ones, the strongest one that I see in around two or three millennia"
"Millennia? Y-You look around the late thirties", Aldo replied making the middle-aged man chuckle.
Seeing the reaction from the middle-aged man, Aldo started to have other thoughts.
'For someone that can even stop the blizzard with a flick of his fingers, he might be saying the truth. Even the King that has lived for hundreds of years can't do something like this', Aldo thought while gazing at the middle-aged man.
After briefly thinking, Aldo suddenly coughs a mouthful of blood.
Even though the middle-aged man can stop the blizzard as if he's stopping time, the pain Aldo is currently feeling is still there but he then suddenly thought of something, "Sir..."
"Can you cure this Talentless Body sickness?", he asks with hopeful eyes.
Hearing this, the middle-aged man glances at Aldo with his yellow piercing eyes before he asks repeating what Aldo said, "Talentless Body sickness?"
"Yes... It's killing me right now, can you help me?", Aldo asks again.
But suddenly, Aldo saw the middle-aged man shakes his head as if he just heard something ridiculous coming out of Aldo's mouth.
When the middle-aged man was about to say something,
He suddenly glances to the side in surprise, but soon that surprised look turns into a smile instead as he looks back at Aldo, "It seems it's fate that meets us together"
After saying that, the middle-aged man then walks toward Aldo slowly.
Each time he took a step it feels like the entire place is trembling under his foot, the sizzling dark aura around the middle-aged man becomes even stronger from each step he took before it feels crushing when the middle-aged man finally arrives in front of Aldo.
"The future will be cruel to you strong one, maybe that is why fate brought me here", he said.
Aldo didn't understand what the middle-aged man said by that, but out of nowhere, the middle-aged man gently touch Aldo's head, "But just to be sure, let me ask you one thing..."
"If given power worthy of your constitution, what will you do with it?", he asks.
Hearing this, Aldo was stunned as he didn't expect such a question.
Aldo looks down pondering the question that the middle-aged man asks, 'If I have power, what will I do with it?', he mutters inside his head.
But as he thought of that, Aldo slowly closes his eyes feeling his entire body had gone numb.
The sickness started to devour his body mercilessly but the question from the middle-aged man still rang inside his head, his soul searched for the answer but it doesn't take long as there is only one thing that he wanted to do in his life.
"Brother!", a soothing voice seeped into his head as he remembers his sister.
Laziah's smile that lights up his entire world are the only thing he wanted to preserve, the urge of keeping that smile on his sister's face triumphs over anything that he wanted in life.
It's the sole purpose if he were to keep on living, making his sister happy.
Right after he thought of that, the same echoing voice reverberated inside his head, "I have heard your answer strong one... use this power to face the cruel future in front of you"
"Remember your answer... for you are the strong one"
~
Chirp! Chirp!
Sunlight shines brightly giving a subtle warmth to the cold winter,
The warmth from the sunlight slowly makes Aldo's eyes move under his eyelids, and after a moment he slowly opens his eyes before being greeted by the bright sun.
Aldo slowly adjusted to the surroundings and realize that he was lying on the snowy ground.
Realizing this, Aldo gets up and looks at his surroundings.
The blizzard has passed and it has become warmer thanks to the sun, he feels a bit dizzy for some reason but it slowly recedes after a minute or so.
But as the dizziness disappear, Aldo widens his eyes and immediately stands up.
"Huh?! This can't be real!", Aldo exclaimed while touching his entire body.
Although he just woke up and adjusted to the surrounding, he remembered that he was dying from the Talentess Body sickness but he doesn't feel anything right now.
Not one part of his body feels sick, he even feels more refreshed than before.
After checking his entire body that has miraculously recovered from the sickness, Aldo then stopped as he remembered the middle-aged man from last night, "Is it real? or Is it just a dream because of the sickness?"
"Probably just a dream right? But if it's just a dream, then how did I get better like this?", he mutters in confusion.
The confusion soon got replaced by happiness and excitement, he realized that he now can go keep on living with his sister, he can't wait to get back to his sister that should be worried about him since he didn't tell her that he will be leaving directly.
Aunt Liv probably already told her but she must realize something is wrong,
When Aldo was about to get back to the village, he suddenly stopped mid-track, "Hmm?"
Aldo suddenly saw something on his arm,
There's a pattern that can be seen on his right arm, it was more like a colorless tattoo and this surprised him since he has never had or even thought of having a tattoo.
Laziah doesn't like people with a tattoo, she said that tattoo is for bad men.
Because of that, Aldo never thought of having a tattoo so this is unexpected, he will need to cover this so Laziah doesn't see this, "But more importantly, how did I get this tattoo?'
Inspecting the pattern for a bit, Aldo then found that it was familiar, 'I've seen this pattern'
But just as he thought that he suddenly remembered the pattern he saw on the mysterious middle-aged man that he met last night.
This froze him in place realizing what happened yesterday turns out to be real,
Feeling a bit surreal by the situation he's in, Aldo glanced to the side and saw a lump of snow.
Aldo then went to the lump of snow before starting to dig it, and just as he digs the lump of snow he stumbles back falling butt first, he can't believe what he was seeing.
Just as he expected, the lump of snow is the headless corpse of the beast from last night.
It's a middle-tier beast that got decapitated by the mysterious middle-aged man last night, and this confirms that last night is not a dream, "It's real?!"