The orb turned white and began to hum softly, when the humming stopped there was the number two in roman numerals written clearly on its surface.
Grandpa Matt let out a sigh of relief as he patted a flustered Steve on his back.
"Level two huh?" Lord Forger retorted cooly as he documented Steve's information for the contest.
"He just awakened his Mana yesterday though"
Grandpa Matt said with a tint of pride in his voice
"What?!, Just yesterday?"
Lord Forger shook with amazement, his pupiless eyes wide in surprise
"Is something wrong?"
"No, no… everything's fine"
"Now, we need a weapon for him….specifically a sword"
"Oh, that's not a problem", Lord Forger said and called his fairy handmaid, Belinda into the room.
Steve was shocked when he saw a glittering lady with wings that was the size of a puppy fly into the room.
She was glittering so much that Steve couldn't make out her features properly but he knew that she was beautiful.
He had never seen a fairy in real life before so he had to suppress the urge to grab her out of the air and inspect her.
"Yes my Lord"
Her voice was low and tiny as she spoke to her master.
"Show the young one to the weapon room"
She bowed and led Grandpa Matt and Steve out of the room.
When they had left, Lord Forger turned to Joaquin and said,
"What do you think?, do you think he stands a chance?"
"His growth is pretty scary…but he's up against the best, we just have to wait and see…."
....
Steve was left alone in the weapon room, a large room that contained weapons of all sizes and shapes arranged in shelves and racks, it was like a library of weapons.
He was annoyed because none of the swords he had tested were good enough, they were either too big or too small, too long or too short
"Argh, this is just so annoying" he said as he returned another longsword to it's place. He was about to pick another one when he felt a huge spike of mana.
"!"
"What the hell was that?"
He thought as his head began to throb from the sudden Mana spike he felt.
He was still getting accustomed to the sensitive Mana perception that awakened with his mana so little outbursts of Mana usually left him stunned especially when he was around Joaquin who was a high ranking mage.
He turned around to check whether Joaquin was in the room but he didn't see anybody there and the door was shut.
He picked one short sword and held it in a fighting stance as he slowly walked towards the door, he was a few metres from the door when he felt the spike again but this time he felt it coming from the other end of the room, still walking slowly, he crept up to the end of the room but was surprised when he didn't see anything.
"Argh man… What's wrong with me, I'm just been paranoid"
He said and ran his free hand through his hair.
He was about to turn and walk away when he felt the spike again but this time, he felt it from a huge rectangular wooden chest that was neatly placed behind one of the shelves at the end of the room. He pulled the dusty chest out and knelt before it after dropping the sword that he held, it was then that he noticed that there was something written on the top. He blew away the dust that covered the top with his mouth and brushed off the rest with his palms only for him to see the words
JUNK WEAPONS
"What? Is this a joke or something?"
Steve found himself saying aloud as he read the words written on top of the wooden chest.
He was about to return the chest when he remembered Grandpa Matt's words when they entered the building
"….Yes boy, things are not always as they seem on the outside, never judge a book by it's cover…"
'There's no harm in trial'
He thought to himself as he began to prod the chest open with the sword that he had dropped earlier.
After little struggle, he flung the cover open only for his nose to be assailed with the pungent scent of rotten and rusty metals, his face cringed in disgust and he covered his nose with his hands. The chest was filled with many long swords and short swords of different types but all of them were rusty making them to have a rusty red color.
"Gross!"
He screamed loudly as cockroaches, crickets and termites skittered away due to the sudden influx of light into the chest.
He would've closed the chest the moment he saw these insects but the feeling he was getting from the chest was too familiar, as familiar as the feeling he got whenever he saw Grandpa Matt's sword. He looked closer and what he saw shocked him to his bones, it was a sword with a red blade, if he hadn't looked closer he would've thought that it was a rusted blade, whoever put it there must've thought that it was a rusted sword.
He pulled it out and smiled at it, it was the perfect length and size for him and the red blade glistened in the light.
"Wow…my search is over"
Steve gushed over the sword's beauty as he admired it in the light.
Later, he joined the others in Lord Forger's quarters.
"Were you able to find a good sword?"
Grandpa Matt asked him as Steve walked in,
"Yeah"
He said as he laid the sword on the table
"A red blade…"
Grandpa Matt trailed off as he saw the blade's colour.
"Red blade?"
Lord Forger said in shock, his pupiless eyes wide in surprise
"There's only one sword I know that has a red blade but it was lost shortly after the divine war"
"Red's fury… I've also heard about it"
Joaquin chipped in.
"How did you find it?, It's been missing for generations…."
Lord Forger sounded baffled
"….But are you compatible with it?, activation weapons do not activate unless they are unbonded from their original wielders"
Lord Forger said to Steve
"Activation?" Steve retorted
"You see boy…activation weapons are more powerful than regular weapons and can only be activated by a compatible wielder, that bond exists for as long as the original wielder is still alive, apart from Red's fury and the fiend slayer, the six weapons of sin are the only activation weapons to exist"
Grandpa Matt explained to a confused Steve
"So?…I don't really have to activate it, I just have to be comfortable with it for the contest"
He said and turned away to the door, there was a twinge of disappointment in his voice
"Let's train Grandpa, we don't have much time left".
***
Ebun and the cloaked man stood on top of the Graylon city mountain looking over the city that they planned to overrun.
Ebun had called the cloaked man there to go over some of their plans
"Where is master Tobi?"
The cloaked man asked Ebun as he relished the cool breeze on top of the mountain, he had always wanted to spend some quality time there.
"Why asking?!" Ebun snapped,
"What does a low life like you want with master Tobi?"
"I'm sorry master"
"Be sorry for yourself, out of three Heracles in this city, you only managed to kill one…..I don't know why I haven't gotten rid of you by now, you're so useless"
"I'm sorry master but everything is still going according to plan"
Ebun's eyes turned orange as he screamed in rage
"Plan?!, Plan?!…what sort of plan is that that allows a Heracles boy walk into the fiend's hell on a quest to get the very thing that can kill our master….did the power I gave you cloud your senses?"
"No, I'm sorry master, allow me to tell you my plan"
He said and prostrated himself on the ground before Ebun.
Ebun looked at him with scorn, every cell in his body was itching to devour this pathetic soul but something kept on prodding him to let him live.
"I will kill you soon….keep that in mind"
He said angrily and his eye color returned back to normal as he turned away from the cloaked man to face the city.
"I planted Tsuchigumo in the Infernal realm "
Ebun turned and looked at him again in surprise.
"You mean the ōgumo of the Whitemore continent?"
"Yes master, she will kill Steven Heracles"
Ebun smiled and looked away, now this was the reason he preferred working with humans than fiends
"They always think ahead…."