"How do you know my name?"
When Cale took a step back and straightened his back, the other man's smile widened.
"You're breaking my heart," he said, putting his hand on his heart as if he was upset.
"How can you not remember your best friend?" Cale frowned.
He was disturbed by the man's insane behavior. He also knew from the man's words that he knew Cale somehow, but he had no memories of the real Cale. He only remembered a few words from the novel.
"Oh, right!" he said and took two steps forward, his eyes wide. "You didn't remember anything," he said and started laughing like crazy.
"What are you talking about?"
"Cale, Cale, Cale," he mumbled and clicked his tongue. "They really didn't like you at all," he said and looked him up and down.
"I don't know what you're talking about, but stop your bullshit and tell me why you're here! How do you know my name?"
"Your composure was our masters' favorite thing," he sighed.
The smile froze on his face when he said, "Your masters sent a man with a big mouth."
"You were always like that. You know what I would give to carve those calm eyes of yours in any situation," he smiled.
"Try it," Cale smiled and raised one eyebrow.
"You're overconfident as always," he said, gesturing to the men standing behind him.
"Are you sure you can handle all of us together?"
"You think too much of me," he said sarcastically. "Now tell me how you know me?" he said in an ice-cold voice, activating the monarch aura for the first time.
The men standing before him were at least C-grade hunters. But Cale was confident. He would survive, as he always had.
As the monarch aura put pressure on the men in front of him, Cale saw the smile fade from the scarred man's face to a feral look.
"Stubborn as always," he said and raised his hand. "Attack!"
Behind him, two black robed men attacked at the same time. Both had daggers in their hands. Cale had activated Limitless Void before they attacked, so he thought he had the advantage. But he realized he was wrong when a dagger grazed his arm.
"Chaos is superior to all forces," the man with the scarred face said in awe, and what he realized bothered him.
Cale activated the chaos energy in his body. The man with the scarred face laughed maniacally as the shimmering energy, reminiscent of the starry night, rippled throughout his body.
"Finally! Show me your real power!"
When Cale saw that Limitless Void would not work on his attackers, he realized that the only way to deal with them was chaos energy.
When the duo attacked him again, Cale ducked to avoid the attack of the one swinging a dagger at him and kicked the one approaching from behind. When he punched the first attacker, the attacker was hit hard in the stomach and flew backwards, crashing into the wall.
Before Cale could catch his breath, two other men behind the man with the wounded face attacked him. One took a step back as he swung his sword. When the other jumped in the air and threw a punch, Cale crossed his arms and raised them in front of his face, knowing he could not dodge the attack.
When black and red chaos rippled and crackled between him and the fist that connected with his arms, Cale was thrown backwards by the force.
His feet slid backwards, leaving craters in the road. He lowered his arms and saw four of them running to attack him. Cale pressed his hand to the ground. A black lake formed under his hand.
The black liquid took shape, revealing a panther and a raven.
"Wow! As expected, you are the best!" he shouted excitedly.
Cale was disgusted by the excitement in his voice. It annoyed him that he acted as if this power was given to him for free.
"Go!"
When its calm voice reached the creatures created from the energy of chaos, they left their places majestically and rushed at their enemies.
The black panther had a mystical aura, with shiny black fur and red eyes. It leapt into the air and grabbed the arm of one of the men holding a dagger and bit it off.
The raven attacked the eyes of the man holding the sword with its claws. While they took care of two of them, Cale continued to fight the other two.
As the two swung their swords, Cale ducked and kicked them both at the same time. The men took two steps back and before they could recover, Cale punched one of them in the face with his fist.
The man swung his sword once more and was punched in the hilt as Cale took a step back. When his sword fell from his hand, Cale grabbed his neck and twisted it, breaking his neck.
When the raven and the panther had neutralized the other two men, Cale jumped in the air, caught the last one with his head between his legs, twisted his head with his hands and broke his neck.
"Hahahahahaa!"
Cale gasped and saw the man with the scarred face clapping and laughing hysterically.
"Ah, telling the incompetents to finish you off was a waste of time anyway," he said, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye from laughing.
"Is it your turn now?" he asked as the judge activated the aura. The smile of the man with the scarred face froze with the pressure he felt and he gritted his teeth.
"Don't underestimate me!" he shouted.
Cale was surprised to see chaos energy around the body of the man with the scarred face. He had thought he was the only one with this power that worked well. And he realized that he was not wrong.
The chaos energy looked like Cale before the purification. Like a turbid and viscous liquid.
"Don't be so surprised, my old friend! We have found a way to harness chaos energy, though not quite like yours."
"More like inviting death," Cale said calmly, and the man with the scarred face laughed as if he had said something funny.
"That's why we need you once again. Come with me Cale, this place is not for you!"
"Experiments to the death? No thanks," he said and waved his hand.
"Are you going to stay with those who abandoned you?" he said angrily. Cale no longer cared how quickly this man's moods changed.
"So what I want is to be tied to a chair and experimented on?"
"You were commissioned to serve our master! How dare you betray this great duty?"
"Who is your master?"
"Y-you!" his trembling fingers pointed at Cale. "Have you forgotten even the Black King?"
"Well, as you realize, my memory is not good," he shrugged.
Cale was now trying to buy time while talking to him. He knew that this man was not an easy target like the others because of how quickly he came out of the dominant aura.
The chaos energy moving like a shadow beneath his feet continued to move towards the man with the scarred face without his attention.
He also had to get information from him. He had to understand who this man from Cale's past in the novel was working for.
The Black King, the chaos experiments... These were things from Cale's past in the novel.
"You," the man said, a wild smile on his face. "How much do you remember of your past?" he asked, and Cale frowned.
"What are you talking aba-"
Cale's frown relaxed at the realization and he took a deep breath. Cale realized that he did not remember his old life. The only thing he knew about himself was that he had been stabbed before he came to this world.
He couldn't remember what kind of life he had lived before he was stabbed, his face, his name, nothing. There was a big gap in his past.
"You realized it, didn't you?"
"Why don't I remember?"
"We can give you your memories back, Cale," he said, stepping forward with a benevolent smile on his face and opening his arms wide. "Be with us and the whole world will be at your feet! You will be one of the Black King's most valuable servants!"
"I thought you had something important to say," he said, rolling his eyes. "I'm not interested in serving anyone. If it's very important, the Black King can serve me," he said, smiling sweetly.
"How dare you!"
As if at the end of his patience with Cale's insolent behavior, the man with the scarred face suddenly unleashed waves of chaos energy on him.
Cale tried to protect himself by raising his arms as the wave of energy hit him, but it hit him hard. As Cale was thrown through the air by the force, the windows of every building the energy passed began to explode.
When Cale hit one of the moving cars, it crumpled like paper. Screams rose in the air as the crowd suddenly erupted into chaos.
When the man with the scarred face suddenly stopped in front of Cale, Cale was surprised by his speed. He was grabbed by the neck and lifted into the air. When the scarred man raised his hand, Cale saw that his fingernails had grown long and sharpened like a knife.
Cale groaned in pain as the man with the scarred face dug his knife-sharp nails into Cale's stomach. Blood poured out of his mouth and trickled down his chin.
Cale pulled the chaos energy he had initially activated out of the ground. Cale was able to escape from its grasp when the black energy face emerged from the ground in chains and wrapped itself around the injured man's arms and legs.
"Do you think this will stop me?" he shouted, tearing the chains off like ropes and clawing at Cale.
The panther bit his arm and Cale took the opportunity to punch him in the face. He staggered back a step with the force of the punch.
Before he had a chance, Cale punched him again. Again and again. As blood started coming out of his mouth and nose, he was kicked in the chest, sent flying through the air and dragged along with the car he hit.
Cale groaned and held his stomach, thinking that would be enough, but when he saw the man with the scarred face standing up, wiping the blood from his lip with the back of his hand and grinning at him, he knew it wasn't going to be easy.
He saw the scarred man reach his hand towards the ground. Under his hand, black blurry energy rippled and a strange monster that didn't even know what it looked like appeared.
"You're not the only one who can make monsters!" he said, grinning wildly.
Cale called his own monsters to him and got into position.
'All right, let's see how good you are.'