On a bullet train, heading to Dettory.
Dettory was a metropolitan area. Famous for its quiet atmosphere. No one leaves their houses unless they have to either go to school, work, or groceries. Kids playing inside the house was a norm. It was difficult to make an acquaintance with anyone with your guard down. You would always need to be wary of everyone, no matter who it was or how long you've known them.
A total population of fifteen million, the average crime reported every year was twenty-two-thousand. Making it the number one in the world for highest crime rate.
Any business running longer than three months are guaranteed to be involved with some crime. Loan sharks, blackmail, extortion, etcetera. The bigger the business, the bigger the crime. Child pornography rings, illegal drug trafficking, human trafficking, slavery, mass murder. If it's a crime, it happened and is still happening.
People living there are either thriving off crime or forced to stay by a crime they were previously involved in. Those who come to Dettory don't leave. Ever. Especially if you're involved with high paying jobs.
An awful place to live, a terrible way of making money, it was the perfect place for criminals to thrive. The reason why the government hasn't been involved with solving the issue was because they benefitted from the crimes. Big crimes. The bigger the crime, the bigger the income.
The same goes for the sorcerers. Some sorcerers were involved. A specific sorcerer known by the name Terry Terror. He's not the traditional type of sorcerer who can cast spells at will. He only has one spell, though he never used it against anyone yet. He never needed to. His strong innate physical prowess was enough to keep competition at bay.
Shujin's bullet train finally stopped after two hours. The first reason he took a bullet train was because he had never been to Dettory before, he can only teleport—long distance teleportation—to places he's been before and specific locations he can see with his eyes—short distance teleportation.
The second reason was he never rode a bullet train before. He usually just flies or walk. This time, he wanted to enjoy the anticipation of the crime-filled country.
He got up from his seat and walks out the bullet train. Eyes followed his movement. A person with a unique clothing choice and a cartoonish mask, he looked like he was a terrible mesh of 2D and 3D animation. He hopped off the train and onto the platform. He looked around the station, admiring the modern look of everything. He admired how technology have grown over the years. The concept of a vehicle that can carry over a thousand people at a time, travel at high speeds, and incredibly comfortable to ride on was something he never thought would happen. Granted, he is a sorcerer that can travel across the world in a few seconds, but he always admired man-invented things. Like telescopes, steam engines, and pocket watches.
Shinkansen wa ii desune… He admired excitedly.
Shinkansen wa ii desune = Bullet trains are great.
He walked past the checkpoint, or jumped over it rather. Luckily, there were no guards to stop him. He saw machinery that looked really interesting to him. It was a tall box with glass displaying ramen. He stared at it observingly. Checking its sides, its back, he wanted to break it open to see how it works. After two minutes of being an attraction to people, he moved on to the next thing.
Eventually he left the station and was headed to find his target. He walked down the sidewalk, passing stores and alleys. He looked up to the sky, looking for a tall building for a vantage point.
He saw a building that was at least fifteen stories tall. He wonders how such building could be created by man. Thoroughly, he was impressed. The building was a hundred meters away from where he stood. He flexes his knees then pushed off the ground. In an instant, he landed on top of the building. Inside a circle that had a giant H painted in the middle, a helipad.
He walked to the edge of the building and leaned forward, feeling the cold breeze of wind through his clothes and mask. He looked down, at the far ground. If he fell down and landed head first, he could survive it without a scratch. He could imagine him plunging to the ground clearly, feeling the impact right at the top of his head. The force rushing from his head to his neck and shattering his skull and neck, or at least that's what he wishes.
There's something he hadn't figured out yet, something was preventing him to do anything he didn't want. Something was keeping him alive and going. He was fully aware of himself, yet unable to move an inch. A state of paralysis that he kept fighting with his strongest asset, his mind. His head started twitching back and forth, his arms tremor like a quaking earth. He felt no pain, but like an insect he felt an irritation that was maddening. A sensation he wanted to stop but was helpless to counteract it.
After a few seconds, his twitching stopped and the world around him went quiet. He closed his eyes and visualized the man he was looking for. His mana sense reached the entire country, he sensed millions of lives, and very few were sorcerers. One stood out as an anomaly to him. Five kilometers away, stood a young man with a certain presence. Knowing this distinguished presence, Shujin was beckoned.
Five-ish kilometers east.
Shujin turned to his left and aligned himself eastward. He made a circle with his right hand, he puts it up to his right eye and looked through the hole. Scoping the distance, he deduced that it was at least four kilometers.
He put his hand down and surged electricity to his entire body. Inverted Light is what he would call it. The mana he has doesn't belong to him, drawn from something or somewhere not of this world. He surged not parts of his body, but every cell in his body. Tedious as this was, it was a flawed method of amplification. By imbuing every cell with mana, each cell moved independently. In this state, if he moves longer than five-thousandth of a second, he would tear himself apart until his cells was scattered around the world. Reducing him to nothing.
During this state, he could move at light speed, but only five-thousandth of light speed. The world bending view known as Reality Snap is to use an immense amount of energy to create a visible curvature of space time, when seeing the world bent around you, you would be temporarily staggered and leaves an opening for an attack. It was a technique taught from at least two hundred years ago. He has implanted Reality Snap and Inverted Light together for so long, it almost looked like it was one spell.
In an instant, Shujin was falling from the sky, four and a half kilometers east from where he was standing earlier.
Whilst falling to the ground, Shujin was sensing the man he was looking for, he was inside a building, on the top floor---the fourth floor. The building was filled with a lot of people. The room the man was in had a dozen people in it, excluding the man.
I should knock on their door, Shujin wanted to get there on foot. He landed on the ground, creating barely so much as a sound. He continued heading east to the building. After a few minutes, the building was in his sights. Closing in. Only a hundred meters away. Now, right in front of the building. It was an abandoned building. A building that was meant to be some sort of office but was unused, perhaps due to some previous criminal records.
Four people were guarding the door, they wore the same model leather jacket only differed them in their choice of color.
The four immediately took notice of Shujin, "the fuck are you?" the first guard asked with a confused and disgusted look on his face.
"Henna otoko o sagashiteimasu."
"Huh? I don't speak Japanese," the guard spoke his ineptness. "What's he saying?" He asked a different guard.
"He's looking for some guy," the second guard translated with a heavy voice.
"Ain't no one here you can find, now get lost or we'll kill ya."
"Naze itsumo korosu?
"What's he saying?"
"He's saying why always killing."
"Afraid, are ya?"
Shujin sighed and walked forward. He walked past the four guards with no hesitation. The first guard was confused as he just walked past him without a second thought. The guard grabbed Shujin's shoulders, forcing him to turn, "hey!" He called with a demanding voice.
Shujin turned around, surged Invert Light to the tip of his right index finger. He held his index finger against his right thumb and flicked his index finger onto the man's chest. A small attack that ended the man's life in an instant. A giant circular hole was made on the man's chest. The sides of the hole weren't dripping blood as it was cauterized the moment Shujin's finger touched his chest.
"Sate…"
"Wh- Who are you looking for, sir?" The guard asked, tremoring in fear.
Sate = now then
The man with a hole in his chest fell to the ground lifelessly. Shujin stepped over him and stared at the second guard. "A sorcerer."
"H- He's inside, on the fourth floor."
"Yeah, I know."
Shujin's mask-mouth grinned wide to the corners of his mask. He burst out an electric shock big enough for the other three guards and fried them. They should be dead, if they survived, they wouldn't be able to feel anything anymore. Might as well just die.
Shujin progressed into the building. Through the doors, a spacious room with couches where goons sat down. Shujin counted fourteen goons armed with guns. Before the goons could do anything, Shujin conjured his knife, swiped through the air and the heads of the goons fell on the ground and blood squirted out of their necks. Cutting the building's walls and other furniture that were laid out. None of the goons knew what killed them, in fact, they didn't even know they died.
Shujin looked around the room and found an elevator next to the stairwell. He walks around the couch full of the beheaded and stood in front of the elevator door. Shujin punched the doors off and found that the actual elevator wasn't there. Just an empty elevator shaft. Shujin decided to take the stairs and immediately head for the fourth floor. The emergency door was closed, Shujin didn't really know how the doors worked. He held the bar and pulled it up, thinking it was a sliding door. Pulled it to the left, didn't work. Pulled it to the right, didn't work. He pushed the bar down and the door clicked. The weight of the door wasn't a bother to him. He was able to push the door open easily.
One room on the fourth floor that attracted him. One big room. He walked to the front of the entrance, a double metal door. Shujin grabbed the knob on one door, twisted it and pushed the door open.
On the other side, six people. Five regular people and one sorcerer.
"Am I in the right room?" Shujin announced himself.
"Who are you?" A man took a hit of his cigar then asked with a heavy voice. He blew out the smoke right after.
"I'm looking for a man named Terry Terror? I think he's in here?"
"What business do you have with him?" A young man asked. He looked to be in his twenties. Wearing a white button-up shirt, folded his sleeves unevenly up to his elbows. Half his shirt was tucked into his pants and the other half hung out.
"I'm looking to build a team."
"What for?"
"I'm planning…" Shujin suddenly killed his presence. It was impossible to tell where Shujin was without looking directly at him. He then let out his mana wavelength and made it loud and clear to Terry Terror. "…To burn this country to the ground…" He stated with great will.
The entire room felt the pressuring wavelength coming from Shujin. They trembled. The young man starts to sweat.
"He'll do it. In one condition," the young man stated.
"What's that?"
"Prove that you can take on everyone in this building. Without magic."
The young man grabbed some sort of button from his pocket and pushed. It was a panic button that would alert every goon within that building.
"What the hell are you doing?" The cigar man asked nervously at the young man.
"Starting with them," the young man pointed at all five people in the room.
Shujin had an idea of the young man's game, he decided to play along. Mahou shinakute ne?
Mahou shinakute ne? = No magic, eh?
The man with the cigar, across from Shujin. Three guys on his left, one on his right. The young man backs away from the middle, he knew what would happen, he doesn't know how things would happen.
Shujin dashed forward, faster than any of them could see. Shujin grabs the lit cigar from the man's mouth, then turned it around, he then chokes the man, forcing his mouth open to gasp for air. Shujin then shoved the cigar down the man's mouth. Burning his throat. The man screamed, cried, and struggled to break free. The one man on his right pulls out a handgun from his waistband and shot Shujin's temple from pointblank range. The bullet ricochet off his head, making his head tilt over slightly. Shujin slowly turns his head to the guy and glared at him with his cartoon-like eyes.
Shujin dragged the man he choked and shoved him to the guy with the gun. He dashed forward, pushing the man and the guy to the wall behind the two. Crushing the guy with gun, breaking his ribs, stabbing his own lungs. He then lifts the man up, still in a chokehold, half dead, he slams his head to the ground, folding his neck to the side. Shujin then lifts his right leg high up then stomps the man's head unnecessarily. Shujin crushed his skull.
The other three henchmen were hesitant to approach Shujin, a man who took a bullet to the head and killed two people with no struggle in brutal manner. Could they even stand a chance?
One henchmen misjudged the situation and pulled out his own gun. Shujin runs up towards the guy, ducks under his erected arm. Shujin placed his right shoulder under the henchmen's elbow then grabbed his forearm with both his hands. Shujin lifted his body, bending the arm the wrong way slightly, then pulls the hand down against his shoulder, snapping the arm completely. He pivots around, stood facing the henchmen he just attacked, he points his fingers outward, pointing at the man's throat, and snaps forward. His hand pierced through the neck and he started choking. Shujin twisted his hand and grabbed the trachea and pulled it out.
Shujin crouches down quickly, grabbing the gun the henchmen dropped. The two other guys had good intuition to leave the building. Shujin didn't know how guns work, so he threw it instead. The gun landed on the henchmen on the right of the door, knocking him forward to the door. The henchmen on the left pushed the other guy away and grabbed the door knob. He grips onto the door knob tightly. He suddenly lost sensation from his waist down. His legs had no strength, he couldn't feel them. Yet, they were still there. He coughs up blood and glances down to see a bloody fist though his stomach. Shujin had broken the man's spine while punching through him, paralyzing him.
Shujin pulled his hand out and the man flopped to the ground, slowly becoming lifeless as his blood flooded the room. The other henchman on the ground struggled to get back on his feet. Shujin looked at him, pitifully. Shujin looks up, thinking, how should I kill him?
Shujin grabs the hair of the man, forcing him to stand up. The man was weak, unable to stand properly. Shujin turns around and rests the man's nape on his right shoulder. He then pushes the head down and snapped his neck. That was kind of a limp way of killing. Oh, well…
"Majide, omae dare?" The young man asks.
"Watashi Shujin-desu."
"Chigette, omae no tsuyosa no hanashi dayo."
"Ahh, sou yuu imi ne. Ore wa nagai jigoku o ikinuite kimashita."
Majide, omae dare = okay, who the hell are you?
Watashi Shujin-desu = I'm Shujin
Chigatte, omae no tsuyosa no hanashi dayo = No, I'm talking about you strength
Sou yuu imi ne = That's what you mean
Ore wa nagai jigoku ikinuite kimashita = I've survived a long hell
The young man shook his head, unable to understand what Shujin meant by a long hell.
"Now then, kill everyone else."
"Mou shinda yo ne..." Shujin laughs.
"Ehh??" The young man confused. He used his mana sense, and realized everyone was, in fact, dead. He was surprised, he didn't detect anything from him.
"Mou shinda?" The young man was still in disbelief.
Mou shinda = Dead already?
Shujin was smirking on his mask, now he only had one problem to deal with. The young man. He is a sorcerer, a different kind at that. He is an anomaly class. He can sense the impurity of his mana from his wavelength.
"Now…"
"Acidic Malice," the young man uttered.
The world around them suddenly faded away, and appeared everywhere was an ocean of strong, corrosive acid. In seconds, it could disintegrate a full-grown elephant completely, leaving nothing behind. Not even bones. The acid was up to their ankle. The young man could increase the level of acid, but it would exert a lot of mana. A non-sorcerer would've been completely disintegrated by now but due to unusual circumstances, the acid had no effect on Shujin. To him, it was just like a pool of water.
"Imaginary Dimension, impressive," Shujin complemented.
What? He should be dead by now. What the hell is he? The young man was baffled.
"I wonder what your benefits are."
"What?"
"Don't you know? Imaginary Dimensions' benefits differ depending on the caster. Full control of the terrain, which is what I'm assuming what yours is. Or increase in mana output by a few hundred-fold, by drawing mana from this world and others. A terrain advantage, like the famous Eternal Fall. Forcing your opponent to constantly be in free fall, giving absolutely no leverage whatsoever."
"Is there a reason to hide the benefits?"
"Depends on the sorcerer you trap, I suppose."
"Did I get lucky?"
"We'll see."
Tentacles made of acid emerged from the ground and tied up Shujin's legs. It grew tall, about a dozen meters, then twirled Shujin around before smashing him to the ocean of acid. As the acid splashed, the young man thinking he did something. Only to realized Shujin was standing beside him, his arm over his shoulders.
"Y'see, your Imaginary Dimensions only works against people that can die."
"Tch," the young man complained, he erected more tentacles and charged them at Shujin. The tentacles clashed against each other, Shujin had already escaped. He was now floating above the acid. He conjured Inverted Light Blade. A blade that drains mana. He drove the blade to the acid. The acid was then electrocuted and due to its special properties as a semi-liquid, it hardened. Giving Shujin a place to stand.
"You're confused," Shujin points out.
The young man was indeed confused, he had a terrible poker face for it. He didn't know what to do, his trump card was made useless.
"If you join me, you'll be fighting against the world, not me. Will you join me?"
"What's in it for me?"
"What do you desire? Money? Power?"
"I want to live how I want!"
"Then live as so. Join me, Terry Terror."
Terror recalled his Imaginary Dimension, returning them to the building. Terror started shaking and breathing heavily. To project one's thought into a reality takes a huge toll on the body, a test of endurance. They could ultimately die while casting it. An impractical technique unless the caster is strong willed.
"I'll join you. What do we do?"
"I'm thinking of three things."
"What?"
"First; the man with hell flames, the second; a corpse, the third; a Dayton ring."
"What are they for?"
"To ensure our victory."
"Gotcha."
From thin air, Shujin pulled out a blue book that was floating about. Terror had no knowledge or care for it. Shujin began going through his book, flipping page after page.
"Whatchu looking for?"
"Looking for a looking spell."
Shujin found the spell and immediately casted the spell. The spell doesn't really work unless you can visualize what your target is. It is almost impossible to find someone simply by name. You need to know what the look like and their wavelength.
Terror watches Shujin working in quiet interest. He was impressed seeing a person using a grimoire for the first time ever. "Woah..." He gasps. After waiting for ten seconds, Terror asks, "find him yet?"
"Not yet. I have to look for them individually..." Shujin stays in focus, shuffling through people with heat cores, seeing if any of them could fit the bill of the man with hell flames.
"How do you know about this guy, anyway? Is he famous?"
"He isn't necessarily famous, but he is known in Jiin. A mere rumor."
"You sure this guy exists?"
"For sure."
Then the room around them grew in temperature. From the warm twenty-eight degrees Celsius to an uncomfortable fifty-two degrees Celsius. It was unrecognizable at first, but Terror found himself sweating. His shirt progressively getting wet. His eyes became heavier as the temperature of the room continues to get hotter.
"Why the fuck is it so hot?" He pants aloud.
"Looks like he's found us," Shujin turned around halfway.
Shujin suddenly was laying on his stomach, his head pressed against the ground with a boot. Terror was hanging off by a tight grip on his neck. Terror didn't know how he was suddenly being choked.
"Why are you looking for me?" The man demanded an answer.
"Were you nearby?"
"No, I was in Jiin. Now I'm here. Why are you looking for me?"
"Long trip, I see. I need your help."
"For what?"
"Aren't you filled with rage? Don't you want to let that all out?"
"No, not really."
"Wait, really?"
"The hell do you even know?"
Shujin disappears from under the man and his heel crushed the ground. The man glances back with mana welling up inside him, ready to blast Shujin to cinder. The man throws Terror across the room to free up his hands.
"What will convince you?"
"What exactly is your plan anyway?"
"I'd like to repeat history, specifically the Destruction of Bright."
The man then analyzes Shujin with his Mana Sense. Not an ounce of mana oozing off you. What the hell are you?
"You're a Light Core, aren't you?"
"You're assumption would be correct."
"Can't you do it yourself?"
"It's more than just destroying the country. I would like to have this entire continent inhabitable."
"And you be what exactly?"
"Who knows?"
The man pauses and thinks about it for a moment. Would it be any worth to actually join the masked maniac.
"Actually... I'll help you out."
"Really?" Shujin raised an eyebrow. "What changed your mind?"
"Never mind that," he replied. "Though I would like to see you fight."
"Here?"
"Yes."
Shujin was immediately pushed out of the building, quickly crashing into another building. That was fast, he nods. The building Shujin crashed in had fifteen floors filled with office workers. The man gently lands at the center of the roof. The moment his foot made contact, it sent pressuring flames that crumbled the building in seconds. Not even leaving a single bit of rubble. Now just a pile of dust mixed of building materials and bones.
Shujin was in the middle of the road. Due to the explosion, cars that were driving by panicked and swerved away. A car ran into Shujin, he raised his dagger vertically and the car split in half. The man appeared behind him. "You're fast, aren't ya?"
The man reached backward with his hand and tapping Shujin's shoulder. One second they were in the middle of the streets, one second they were in a burnt city. Flames engulfing the city around them, buildings collapsed on each other. Shujin moved away from the man and stood across him.
"This isn't a Imaginary Dimension, is it?" Shujin presumed.
"It isn't," he nods.
"Where did you bring me exactly?"
"A place I can call home," he says proudly.
"Vela the Flame's, right?"
The man smiled and applauded. "Yep, that's right."
"What's your name?"
"Michael."
"And your name here?"
"Ablaze."
"Fitting. So, you'll join me?"
He's not fazed by being brought to a place anyone would call hell, he isn't all talk. Ablaze was pleasantly surprised by Shujin's reaction.
"Yeah, I'll join you," Ablaze laughs.
"Good, can we go back to our universe now?" He replied, scratching the back of his neck.
"Sure."
He knows we're in an a different universe too? Very interesting.
In an instant, they were back in the middle of the street. Causing a big traffic jam, several fire trucks came in to put out the big fire Ablaze caused.
"We have two more things to do, for now," Shujin said as he turns to walk back to their original building.
"An errand already?" Ablaze scoffs.
"We'll be traveling together, don't worry."
"Was that tentacle guy a part of this?"
"Yes, a problem?"
"No, just that he's lightyears below either of us."
"That's rich," Shujin laughs.
"You don't believe that."
"Well... He's still a hassle for the average High-rank sorcerer."
Seeing the guy's wavelength alone, it's probably some sort of acid infused tentacle, so yeah it would be a hassle. Unless, you're a light core, Ablaze thought silently.
"What's this errand?" Ablaze asked.
"King Corruption, ever heard of him?"
"Yeah, why?" He nods.
"We're going to revive him."
"Wait, how?"
"The Blue book."