As Alex's carriage made its way to the Drazen family auction, far in the distance, at the borders of the Fiore Empire and the Gast Kingdom...
"P-Please, d-don't kill me, I have a wife and a child," a man with the Gast royal family insignia implored, his face stricken by deep terror and horror.
This man was the captain of the task force sent to repel the forces dispatched by the Fiore Empire in their bid to reclaim the fortress recently seized by the Gast Kingdom.
On the captain's forehead, a peculiar, luminescent green symbol glowed ominously.
"A great ability, a wife, and a child. You must be really lucky. Damn, I'm envious!" remarked a handsome young man with blue hair and eyes, as he casually approached the captain, a sharp dagger glinting in his hand.
"Because of you, I'm feeling rather gloomy, you know... So it's only fair that you meet your end," the young man murmured.
Before the captain could say anything, the young man coldly sliced through his throat.
The air was filled with gurgling sounds as the captain attempted to apply pressure to his neck in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding. Regrettably, his efforts proved ineffective, and moments later, his life was extinguished.
In the very instant the captain drew his last breath, the green symbol on his forehead disappeared as if it had never been there to begin with.
Meanwhile, the young man with piercing blue hair and eyes appeared distracted, staring into empty air like a fool.
After a brief pause, he nodded approvingly to himself, a satisfied smile playing on his lips. "That's quite an impressive ability," he murmured softly.
"Too bad everyone here is already dead, so there's no guinea pig to test it on," the young man sighed as he glanced at his surroundings.
All around the young man, several corpse could be seen. Some were decapitated, some were burnt to the point that one couldn't even recognize them.....********augmente un autre exemple
Each person to whom these corpses belonged seemed to have been killed in a unique way compared to the others. The only noticeable feature they had was the armor of the Gast Kingdom they wore, though even that wasn't visible on some corpses.
"S-Sir?!" A hoarse voice sounded behind the young man.
The one who spoke was a middle-aged soldier of the Fiore Empire.
Despite the man's attempt to compose himself, a hint of dread couldn't help but be felt in his voice as he addressed the young man, and why wouldn't he feel dread? He had just witnessed him massacre a whole contingent of hundreds of people all alone!
The young man being able to massacre hundreds of people wasn't the astonishing thing here. What was unbelievable and, quite frankly, immensely dreadful was the fact that there were dozens of Level 5s in the contingent, while the whole contingent was led by one Level 6!
The captain the young man had just killed off was the Level 6, and he was quite a big shot in the Gast Kingdom.
Yet, the fight against this contingent hadn't even lasted half an hour before the young man had completely wiped them out!
The difference in strength between a peak level 5 and a low-level 6 was akin to day and night. Meanwhile, the increase in attributes going from level 5 to level 6 was at least ten times greater than the increase from level 1 to level 5!
Therefore, witnessing someone at the higher tier of level 5 decimate dozens of level 5s and even one level 6 in what felt like mere minutes was nothing short of incredible!
At this point, even the soldiers of the Fiore empire accompanying this young man were terrorized by him.
"I-Is that you, sir Mustang?" The middle-aged soldier inquired.
Although he was pretty sure that it was the young man he had traveled with, he had to make sure. During their way here, this man had changed appearance more than three times. Each appearance of his was completely different from the others, so the soldier had to make sure, perhaps this one before him was just one of the Gast Kingdom people who had survived. Though, once again, he was confident that the young man was the one he had traveled with.
As he thought, the young man snorted and asked in a disdainful tone, "who else could it be?"
Mustang turned to stare at the middle-aged soldier, his cold blue eyes seeming to pierce through the man.
"S-Sorry si-"
Mustang raised a hand to halt him and commanded, "Inform the others to get moving; we will seize the fortress before nightfall."
The soldier nodded and hastened to inform the others that they should be on the move.
Mustang observed the departing soldiers for a moment, then pivoted to stare into the distance.
There, separated by dozens of kilometers, stood a colossal fortress whose walls gleamed with steel.
'By tonight, I will be done with this mission and get the heck out of here to continue my mission,' Mustang thought, 'I have wasted too much time here.'
****
A couple of hours later, Mustang, followed by the soldiers of the Fiore Empire, finally crossed the distance separating them from the fortress and took cover in the woods of the forest surrounding the fortress.
"Stay here; I'll handle things alone," Mustang ordered.
Without waiting for the soldier's reply, Mustang got up and strolled out of the forest.
'It would be the perfect opportunity to try out this ability,' he thought as he approached the fortress.
"HALT!" A man stationed on the fortress wall bellowed as Mustang approached. "CEASE MOVING AND IDENTIFY YOURSELF AND YOUR PURPOSE HERE; OTHERWISE, WE WON'T HESITATE TO ATTACK," the man threatened.
However, despite his threat, the man with blue hair continued his advance towards the fortress.
"TAKE DOWN THIS FOOL!" the man atop the walls screamed at the soldiers around him.
Without hesitation, the soldiers swiftly took up their positions and unleashed a volley of attacks upon Mustang.
The barrage of attacks directed at Mustang included a combination of arrows, fireballs, ice spikes, and other elemental projectiles, all designed to strike from a distance with deadly precision.
Despite being the target of the attack, Mustang didn't even bother to try to run away or defend himself. He simply continued his steady stride towards the fortress, unfazed by the assault.
As the shower of attacks landed at the spot where he was, everyone thought he was dead. That was until the fog of explosion cleared and they saw Mustang standing there without the slightest hint of wound on his body, even his clothes were pristine, as if the blasts had never touched him.
For the first time, Mustang looked up towards the man shouting at him earlier, then he conjured a small ball of fire in his hand, the flames dancing in the air.
A split second later, this ball of fire split in two, then in three, then in four, multiplying rapidly until dozens of fiery orbs encircled Mustang, each radiating intense heat.
"Now, let's see what this can do," Mustang muttered, excitement gleaming in his eyes as he activated his newly acquired ability.
The balls of flames surrounding Mustang began to swell, expanding rapidly until each fiery sphere, initially only a few centimeters in diameter, grew into towering mini-suns, each stretching twenty meters high.
In the blink of an eye, the darkness of the night in this corner of the Fiore Empire vanished, engulfed by the brilliance of the flames surrounding Mustang. The fiery orbs were colossal and radiant, casting an intense glow that could easily be mistaken for the light of day.
"This ability is really great," Mustang smiled insatisfaction.
The ability he received from that captain allowed him to enlarge his elemental attacks by at least twenty times their original size. The amazing thing with this ability was that it required only a minuscule amount of mana to activate, yet it magnified his attacks twentyfold!
It consumed exponentially less mana than if Mustang used his fire manipulation ability to make these fireballs grow to this size. This ability was truly a godsend for him, as he always struggled with his mana reserves.
'I never thought I would get such an ability in such a lame place,' Mustang grinned.
"A-ATTACK HIM! NOW!" the commander of Gast's soldiers shouted to his men when he finally snapped out of his shock.
Unfortunately, he was too late. Before the soldiers could do anything, Mustang unleashed the onslaught, hurling the dozens of gigantic fireballs towards the fortress.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of explosions took place the instant the fireballs collided with the fortress, their immolating flames melting both the metal walls and the unfortunate souls within the fortress.
"AHHHHH, H-HELP!"
"I-I'M BURNING, SOMEONE DO SOMETHING!!!"
"HOT! HOT! HOT! IT'S DAMN HOT, PLEASE HELP ME!"
The harrowing cries of the burning souls trapped within the fortress echoed across the land, their agonizing pleas reaching the ears of all the people nearby, sending shivers running down their spines.
Meanwhile, the one who caused all of this could be seen with a pleased smile on his face as he observed the carnage he had caused.
'After this one, I only need to reconquer a few fortresses,' Mustang thought.
Thanks to the skirmishes at the borders of the Fiore Empire increasing, more fortresses and regions were conquered by other kingdoms, so the Fiore emperor had tasked Mustang to reconquer them.
If it weren't for his boss's orders, Mustang would have never accepted to be used as a weapon by the emperor, but it is what it is; he couldn't disobey his boss's orders.
"Ugh, when I think that after that, I would need to attend a fucking family gathering and help some brat become the heir of his weak-ass family, like I have nothing better to do!" Mustang cursed in irritation.
The more Mustang thought about it, the more pissed off he became. Just thinking that he, of all people, would have to lower himself to help some weakling disgusted him to no end.
"What a pain," Mustang sighed.
Unfortunately, he had no choice; he could only do his best to wrap everything up and concentrate on his true mission.
'Killing the carrier of the sin of lust and retrieve his artifact.'
*****
This chapter mark the end of the second arc!
I will be taking a two days pause.
Peace✌️