"Sebastian?!" Carlos said, surprised.
"Carlos?!" Sebastian replied in disbelief.
Looking Carlos up and down, Sebastian was confused and surprised. He didn't think he would meet one of his friends here. Thinking it was a hallucination, he threw a quick jab and struck Carlos in the jaw.
Bang!
His body slammed against a wall and blood seeped out of his mouth. Carlos was surprised and not surprised at the same time. Surprised that Sebastian's strength had increased by a large margin and not surprised by him attacking him.
"So you're not a hallucination." Sebastian said, staring at him.
"You f*cker! Why would I be a hallucination?!" Carlos shouted back in anger.
Realizing what he said, Carlos started to fear for his life. Contrary to his thoughts, Sebastian held his hand out and he took it.
"You're not aggressive anymore?" Carlos questioned.
"Aggressive? Is that how you viewed me?" Sebastian replied with a bit of aggression.
'Nope! He still has that aggressive personality… But it seems like it's being suppressed by something.'
What Carlos said was correct. Sebastian's personality was being suppressed by the Founder's Blood. Sebastian realized this a long time ago but had forgotten about it as the Founder's Blood was suppressing this memory.
"If you're here, then it means the others are here as well."
"You're correct. I don't know how they'll react once you arrive but Lycaon himself might not want to see you." Carlos was slightly worried.
He knew Sebastian could lash out at any given moment but it seemed like he was right about his personality being suppressed.
"Maybe try to cover your face? Lycaon might not like you considering what you did in the past." Carlos said.
A mask appeared out of thin air and surprised Carlos. What was more surprising was the fact that his presence disappeared.
"That's perfect. Though, he'll likely have his suspicions as you can't use magic but you could say you're trying to advance your physical ranking." Carlos said. "Follow me. I'll lead you to our cave but be careful not to use your auras."
When saying this, Carlos was unsure if it was a good idea to take Sebastian to the group as he did have the strength to survive on his own but he wanted everyone to know exactly how strong he had gotten.
Following Carlos, Sebastian felt multiple gazes from multiple different beasts but noticed none of them were making a move. He immediately thought they were in fear about him but dismissed that thought.
After an hour of walking, they both arrived at a mountain and Sebastian noticed a few of his friends were sitting on small ledges of the mountain while staring at him. Feeling their powers, he noticed the ones on the lower ledges were weaker than the ones on the higher ledges.
"Who's this, Carlos?" One of them asked.
"This is… What's your name again?" Carlos asked, sweating a bit.
"My name is Antares!" Sebastian revealed.
Hearing his name, each of them hopped off their ledges and approached him. They started to inspect his gear and tried to feel his presence.
"Did you enter this place by mistake? Or did you come to rescue us?"
"By mistake."
Before anyone could do anything, a burst of fire was felt as Kai had appeared beside Sebastian and swung his leg toward his head. Putting his arm up, Sebastian easily blocked Kai's attack and did an attack of his own.
With a swift kick, Kai was sent flying through the air and slammed into the mountain. After witnessing that, everyone was on guard and stared at Sebastian.
"What? He attacked me! Of course, I'm gonna attack back!" Sebastian tried to reason with them.
Sensing a somewhat powerful presence, Sebastian saw Lycaon taking his slow time walking down the mountain.
"Here comes the main character!" Sebastian snickered.
"You awfully remind me of someone in the past.'' Lycaon said, finally standing in front of Sebastian. "Are perhaps the one that angered the King of this dimension?"
"If you're referring to the giant wave of ice over there… Then yes"
Before the duo could continue their conversation, multiple beasts came out from the forest and showed their hostility.
"Whatever you did, you obviously did something to anger the King."
One of the beasts that came from out of the forest had lunged at Lycaon. Once the beast was a few inches away from Lycaon, its body froze still and couldn't move.
"Did you beasts not learn from last time?" Lycaon turned to face the beast.
Lifting his finger, Lycaon released a large red ball and vaporized the beast, and continued to destroy the surrounding forest. The other beasts inside the forest stood still and waited for the attack to end as they already knew the limit to the attack.
"Kai, get rid of the fast beasts." Lycaon instructed.
However, Kai didn't respond or rather he couldn't respond. Looking toward his location, he was unconscious
"This will be a good chance to test your capabilities and a chance to repay us for what you did to Kai."
"You!... Fine, I'll get rid of them."
Taking a single step, Sebastian released his killing intent and nearly every beast froze still, including Lycaon and his friends.
"W-What is this?!" A girl asked, frightened.
Sebastian pulled out a scythe and began to infuse his energy into it until one of its enchantments had activated. Soon, a dark sinister energy was enveloped in dark, ethereal energy.
"Watch this and see my true power!" Sebastian shouted. "Sinister Strike!"
With a single slash, the dark sinister wave of energy was released and before the beasts knew it, half of their bodies were cut in half.
Grinning, Sebastian looked back toward Lycaon and his friends, and saw their surprised faces. It wasn't everyday you would encounter someone this powerful.
"Before you try to test someone, be sure to know their real power."
Walking past Lycaon, Sebastian walked up the mountain and arrived at the entrance of the cave. As he was about to take a step, he saw a familiar face walk outside and stare at him.
'So he finally decided to become a blacksmith.' Sebastian thought.
Sebastian put his hand on Baron's shoulder and whispered. "Nice to see you again."
Slowly walking deeper into the cave, Sebastian sat in a lotus position and started to gather his energy back. To everyone, it looked like Sebastian could use that attack more than once, in reality it had used nearly all of his energy.
In Baron's mind, countless thoughts were being formed as he thought about the stranger's words and could only come to one conclusion… He's back… Sebastian's back.
Containing his excitement, Baron noticed that he was hiding his identity and couldn't expose it. He then walked down toward Lycaon and asked for an explanation on what happened.
After a few minutes, Lycaon and his friends entered the cave and noticed Sebastian was in the deepest part of the cave.
'Does this man think he owns this place?!... Maybe we give him that part of the cave.' Lycaon thought, obviously not afraid.
Sitting on his throne, Lycaon's face changed back to his serious and stoic face. Everyone else could help but stare at Sebastian and Lycaon. Baron was the only one that kept staring at Sebastian.
He couldn't help but admire him. For Sebastian was his first friend and never thought in his wildest dream that he would find Sebastian again.
-------
One Day Later…
Lifting his hammer, Baron was about to strike one of his creations until he heard a voice.
"Hey, Blacksmith!" Sebastian shouted at him.
Turning to face Sebastian, Baron placed his hammer to the side and took his goggles off.
"What do you need?" Baron asked.
"How confident are you in creating a high-tier piece of armor for me?"
"Depending on the grade of the beast, but I'm confident enough to ensure it will be perfect."
Walking past Baron, Sebastian stood at the edge of the mountain and looked over the destroyed forest. Looking further, he saw a few beasts including a few of his old friends fighting special beasts.
'Huh? Why aren't they using their magic?'
Leaning forward, he pushed off the edge and landed near his old friends. When getting closer, he saw strange blue particles surrounding the area of his friends and the beast.
Slowly putting his hand through the field of blue particles, he felt his strength weaken by half a rank.
"A suppression field? Interesting…"
Slowly approaching the ongoing fight, he noticed they were actually faring better than he could have imagined. The only problem was that their equipment wasn't good or strong enough to penetrate the beast's hide.
"Dammit! Hey, you! Could you help us out here?!" A girl shouted.
"If I do, I'll be keeping its corpse."
"You greedy fu-"
"Deal!"
Smiling, a spear appeared in front of Sebastian and quickly lunged forward. The distance between him and the beast was closed and with a quick thrust, it had pierced the beast's leg.
In retaliation, the beast swung his hand and slapped Sebastian into a tree. Facing back toward the group, the beast was ready to attack them again but the unexpected happened.
"Did you really think that was enough to kill me?!"
Appearing by the beast's side, Sebastian held two new weapons and in quick succession, he thrusted his blade into the beast several times. Injured, the beast's tail cut through the air and struck him across the chest.
"What are you standing around for! Help me defeat this damn thing!" Sebastian shouted in anger, blood seeping from his mouth.
Snapping out of their daze, they ran forward and thrusted their weapon forward. Reacting, the beast swatted one away and felt the pain of four weapons piercing its hide in a single spot.
"My left blade has the enchantment to weaken my opponents!" Sebastian explained quickly. Even if he had great strength and speed, he couldn't fight a beast that was still higher ranked than him.
His right blade began to glow as symbols started to appear along the edge. A smile appeared on his face as the right blade's enchantment.
Flash-stepping forward, he appeared behind the beast and swung his weapon but was stopped by its tail. A bright light blinded everyone as a strong slash managed to cut half way through the beast's tail.
Roar!
A red hue appeared around the beast and everyone felt its increase in power.
'This suppression field is becoming a pain. I can't sense its rank and my enchantments seem to be affected by it too. It seems like I must use that technique.'
His weapons disappeared as a strange energy could be felt around his fists. Immediately, the beast heard alarms going off in its head and turned to face Sebastian.
Slowly walking forward, the energy around his fists began to increase and the alarms started to get louder in the beast's head. Unable to handle the pressure, the beast tried to leave until a shadow rose from the ground, preventing it from leaving.
Facing another direction, a multiple sword descended and stuck into the ground. With no escape, the beast began to pound its chest and rushed forward.
"That's how a monkey should act!" He smiled.
Once they were a few inches apart, the monkey swung its fist for Sebastian's face. Sliding to the side, he dodged the attack and soon another attack was coming his way. He leaned back and narrowly dodged the attack while taunting the beast.
"Is that the best you can do, monkey?! You may be able to suppress our strength and have a fast reaction speed but that is useless against me. I'm confident in my ability to dodge every attack you throw." Sebastian said as he dodged another attack and another.
During his time at the Dark Guild, Bastian got rid of the seal that was sealing Sebastian's ability to use his sixth sense and Emperor's Will.
Although he was warned not to use his Emperor's Will in the open as it would attract unwanted attention by those who wish to kill every person with that ability. That said, he could use his sixth sense without a care in the world.
After ten seconds had passed, his fists were brimming with world energy. The beast realizing the danger, threw a quick yet powerful jab toward Sebastian but noticed he slightly altered the path of his attack. Sebastian then threw an attack of his own and felt a bursting pain in his arm.
Bang!
The attack sent the beast sliding back and a small hole could be seen in its body. Rushing forward, he threw another jab and the beast was quick to block but it happened again. A hole appeared in its forearm and fear entered its heart.
"What's the matter?" Sebastian taunted.
'I need to finish this quickly! This is harder to maintain than I had initially thought.' Sebastian thought, realizing the danger the technique posed.
Another jab was incoming and instead of blocking the attack, the beast dodged but that's when it noticed another attack was incoming for its head.
"Checkmate!"
Unable to hold the energy any longer, he transferred all the energy from his left fist to his right fist and released it upon impact.
Bang!
The head disappeared and its body fell over. The group witnessed this and was greatly surprised. They all had seen yet another strange ability from the stranger.
'I guess it was too much for my hand to handle.' Sebastian thought, staring at his missing hand.