'Strange.'
Staring at the petrified men standing a few feets before him, Reo cocked his head slightly to the side.
It appeared his eyes had been playing a little illusion on him for a while now, but Reo knew better than to think so. What he was seeing truly was no illusion or delusion.
"What was that, you little brat?" Borris menacing voice spat coldly at him, but Reo's mind was currently split between understating the strange phenomenon he was experiencing and the wary and threatening gazes the three men sent at him.
Precisely right before him, enshrouding the three men was an ethereal misty shroud of light suffusing from their figures. The surreal shrouds of glowing mist were like fickle curtains, like auras, leaking from their body and licking the air.
And amongst the three shrouds of ethereal mist was an avid distinction between them.
The more skinny and lanky man, Marco, had a pale yellow colour to the misty aura enshrouding him, while in opposition, Borris and Bowen each possesed a colourless grey aura that was far milder than the slightly more pronounced hue that surrounded Marco's figure.
Ignoring the threats of the men for a brief moment, Reo glanced his eyes around, a seed of understanding slowly blossoming in his mind.
Then looking down at his hands, Reo clenched his fingers into a fist.
'Is this...' he thought wistfully. A prominent deep blue misty glow emanated from his figure and shrouded his clenched arms.
'I see. ' Reo closed his eyes for a quick passing second, spreading his consciousness outward into the surrounding as understanding dawned on him.
"It appears I've unlocked a new limit or ability of my Mental Core, ' mere minutes earlier, before making his presence known to the three, Reo had felt a slight trembling sensation and a tingle from the front of his head.
That was as a result of his Mental Core expanding.
'I noticed the Mental Core worked in a similar manner with a Mana Core. That was to be expected as the principle of the spell was based almost entirely on the organ, and just like the Mana Core, my Mental Core does, as a matter of fact, undergo a similar cycle of expansion and contraction. And with each cyclical breakthrough, I experience an expansion in my range of limits and abilities. '
The Mana Core worked just like a muscle; only upon external and repetitive strain does it solidify and strengthen, and in turn, the Mental Core works almost exactly like the Mana Core.
This was the main reason why Reo would constantly spend most of his twenty-four hours a day exercising his Mental Core by constantly releasing short burst of his mental energy into the atmosphere.
X'xebecc's rune was designed in this process to slowly, overtime, bestow upon the user gradually, the full capabilities held in the true spell. It was after all, a training method, and only with each breakthrough does one unlock a new and distinctive ability from the rune.
And it appears this time around, Reo could with his eyes see some strange glowing hue surround his figure and others.
At the same time, it was clear his senses had experienced another passive boost. His already sharp vision seemed far clearer and his hearing and sense of smell already long surpassed the human limits at this point.
He could almost feel every fiber of his muscles and almost every single strand of hair on his body and his range of perception was startling.
It felt... exhilarating.
The only reason he had been confused at first was because not often had he felt a breakthrough with his Mental Core, as it took a far harsher requirement to do so than the Mana Core.
And as for the strange auras he saw, Reo had an inkling as to what they were.
But.
'I'll think of that later. ' as soon as he concluded his thoughts, Reo's eyes glassed over, becoming two dreary pools of pure darkness that seemed to suck in all of the light.
"Are you fucking ignoring me, you brat?!"
At the exact same time, Borris enraged voice reached his ears.
'It's much slower than usual...'
Reo's wistful thought seemed to linger as time seemed to draw almost infinitely from his perception. And in the stillness of the encompassing moment, his glassy eyes watched with all the time in the world as Borris massive fist drew for his face.
At that point, Reo had another trifling thought.
'X'xebecc's rune is terrifying.'
He simply retracted his head back by a single inch and evaded the swung fist without a single change in his dim expression.
Borris eyes sharpened and widened, feeling his fist knock nothing but air. His gaze quickly traced back to the kid who leaned backwards then back stepped a couple of steps as he put some reasonable distance between themselves.
Then he watched as a familiar thin smile arc upon the boy's lips.
"!!"
Instantly, a chill ran down Borris's back as he found himself involuntarily jumped a few feets back, with his internal alarms blaring red dangerously.
"Wh-what was that?"
It appeared Borris wasn't the only one to feel something was wrong as Marco stuttered heavily the same question that lingered in his mind.
That smile...
Reo's pleasant and crisp voice resounding once more like before.
"Hey~hey, you still haven't told me what you were talking about, hmm~. You three uncles...were saying something rather interesting before I arrived~"
That smile...
The edges of the smile never reached his lightless eyes.
Though his voice sounded sweet to the ears, there was a boundless void amongst his tone. There was no trace of feeling or emotions; there was no rage, no fear, no bloodlust, no anger.
No life
But his eyes...
Those eyes, in contrast to the haunting warmth of his smile, were dark, lightless and murky.
The longer they stared, the deeper it felt they fell. They reflected nothingness and encompassed the embodiment of 'abyss'.
Bowen found himself snaking his fingers round the grip of a short knife hidden inside his clothes. A singular premonition dominanted his thoughts.
No, all three of them shared the same instinct.
That boy was dangerous...he had to die.
At the same time...
Reo's smile slowly receded and his eyes became two pearly slits, leaving behind only a lightless void.
"What did you say you were going to do to the village again?"
His voice was impassive and cold and his expression was incomparably still and solemn.
To someone like Reo who had only recently begun to understand the feeling of belonging, the village was a severely sensitive topic for him.
In response to his question, Bowen charged forward, menacingly.
"Wouldn't you like to know!" He disregarded the dread and dark premonitions he felt each time he gazed into the lightless slits of the boy's eyes and rushed him with squared shoulders.
No, it was precisely because of the unsettling feeling he got from the boy that he decided to get rid of him immediately.
As Bowen's figured flashed before Reo's unperturbed vision, the young boy raised his empty gaze and his lips parted.
"Very well. I'll be beat it out of you."
A small sharp knife shot threateningly at him towards his head at a vicious speed, but once again, Reo's perception of time came to startling halt.
If one was perceptive enough looked closely, they would notice at that exact moment, a subtle pale golden glow hidden in the depths of his black lightless eyes.
It was for a second, but to Reo felt like a passing eternity.
He shifted the position of his head to the side, missing the sharp blade of the throwing knife by a few centimeters as a few strands of his hair dispersed in the air.
Reo's dull eyes apathetically glanced at his servered pieces of hair in the fleeting moment the knife flew passed him, then his gaze darted to the opposite side where he shifted his head toward, at the massive fist of Bowen braided with what resemble brass knuckles, reaching for his face.
At a single glance, it was obvious the knife served the purpose of putting the target, Reo, on the path of the fist. It was like a pincer.
But Reo had his cognitive abilities working at tremendous perception.
He shifted his feet slightly at the last moment and casually moved his head back in place, away from the path of Bowen's fist, then instead met the attack with one of his own.
Reo clenched his fist and his arm blurred. It was needed to be noted that there was no stance behind his seemingly premature punch.
But it was fast and powerful.
Immensely so.
-THUD
A heavy thud resounded as the two blows collided in mid air; Reo's bare knuckles met against the metal brass of Bowen's, and a miniature pressurized gale exploded forth upon collision.
Reo's feet dug partially into the ground, but he remained rooted in place, his fist not giving an inch against Bowen's strength and he impassively stared down the shock filled face of the older man whose brows jumped in disbelief.
For a moment, silence prevailed in the lush greenery. A drifting cloud cast a looming shadow against the vicinity, and carried with it were the muffled wail of wind.
'I...I can't move it... ' Bowen's mind blanked out at the single thought.
Not only had the boy been able to block his fist with the bare of his own, but he expressively suppressed his strength with his despite he was five times the size of the little boy.
No matter how much he tried, his fist wouldn't move forward and Reo's outstretched arm wouldn't budge a single inch, either.
Worse yet, the boy's expression never shifted.
Reo's glassy eyes reflected Bowen's stunned expression, and his lips coldly parted, his voice held with cold indifference and Bowen's world crumbled at his words.
"Is that it?"