"It was seventeen years ago."
As Atlas' flashback begins, a vague image of him appears.
"I'm assuming you know why the eastern part of the world has been dubbed the 'Dark Continent', no?"
- "Yeah. The Dark Wizard destroyed the last remaining life there and took it for himself."
- "Correct."
As Atlas travels through the Dark Continent, a man with a demonic purple aura appears before him.
"For the first ever time, I came face-to-face with the Dark Wizard himself. His energy was pure evil and reeked of death. His mere presence blackened the grass."
Atlas powers up against the Wizard, who responds doing the same.
"We exchanged few words before we started our battle. It was one for the ages."
Akio is amazed at Atlas' description of the battle.
"Myself and the Wizard were of almost equal power, as if the source was.. similar, to say the least."
Suddenly, the Dark Wizard's aura turns black, and Atlas' aura flares up.
"We clashed fists, and an explosion occured. However.. that was the end."
- "What? Why?"
Atlas kneels, vomiting blood. The Dark Wizard stands above him, ready to finish him off, but he leaves instead.
- "...I made a mistake."
Akio's eyes widen.
"The price for the power I had obtained was too severe, and my body was unable to handle it. Now, seventeen years later, my body has reached its limit."
- "Father..."
- "Akio, that power was a drug. I became too complacent. I thought I could finally defeat the Dark Wizard. I didn't care about the prophecy. That was what brought upon my downfall. I'm telling you all this because I don't want you to repeat the same mistakes I did."
As the flashback ends, Atlas hugs Akio.
"Your power must be pure. You must not let it control you. When the time comes, your potential will flare and you'll reach something that I never could. I believe in you, son."
Akio doesn't say anything back, but he does hug Atlas. Afterwards, the father congratulates his son again, before leaving to finally enter his retirement and the final stage of his life.
As Atlas closes the door, though, he looks deeper into the corridor, nodding. Standing there is Jack, confused as to why someone was there and shocked when Atlas nodded at him.
Suddenly, his eyes widen, as he slowly walks towards Akio's room. He opens the door silently.
- "What the hell happened?"
Jack looks on at Akio, leaning against the office table with his arms crossed and blood coming out of his mouth, the latter having bitten his lower lip.
- "My burden just became that much heavier."
Akio looks up at Jack, as a part of his right sclera becomes orange, before turning white again.
...
Silence.. for a few seconds at least, before Jack breaks it.
- "Do you want to see what I'm working on?"
With a silent sigh, Akio smiles.
- "Always. However, give me a second."
Akio points at his left, where Aoi's sleeping. Jack understands Akio's notion, and he goes to his office.
After a while, Akio comes to Jack's office, the latter quickly telling him to close the door.
- "After all, we don't want to interrupt the others."
As soon as the door closes, Jack opens the lights, gloating about his genius as he points towards a heavily reinforced door on the right wall of his office.
"Come, my best friend."
- "Alright..?"
Akio's questioning what Jack is trying to pull off with this, but it can't be that bad. Right?
---
As I walk towards the door with a hint of excitement and worry, a "reflection" in the office's back wall grabs my attention. I look towards it, only to see nothing. However...
"Hey, Jack."
- "Hm?"
- "Is there something going on with that part of the wall there?"
Jack looks towards where I'm pointing, and he pauses for a bit.
- "Don't worry about it."
His response clearly implies that something is going on, but at this point I'm not willing to ask.
- "I'll take it."
Turning back to the door, Jack presses the big red button on the side, having a very clear label:
[DANGER]
Normally this would put me on guard, but knowing Jack, it won't amount to much.. will it?
Suddenly, Jack sidesteps, deliberately not giving me a prior warning for me to do the same. As the doors open, a large gust of wind comes my way, forcing me back and tearing parts of my outfit apart.
I put my guard up, but it still wouldn't have been something one would expect from just wind. As it stops, I look to see that I've actually even received a few shallow cuts.
---
Jack looks at Akio, who's looking back at him with confusion and excitement.
- "Hey, what the hell!?"
- "This was just a taste of what's in there. Step in."
Akio heeds Jack's advice, even though the latter practically ambushed him. As the newly-appointed General steps into the new room, he does realize that the atmosphere inside is far heavier than outside.
While not immediately visible, Akio focuses, seeing that the room is closed off, only having another set of reinforced doors at the right side.
"Do you like it?"
Jack enters after Akio, wanting his opinion.
- "It is.. interesting. What did you do?"
- "It's a sparring room. The gust of wind that attacked you is just scratching the surface, but we can get to all the cool features later. For now, the only thing that you need to know is that no matter how rough you get with it, the room won't receive so much as a dent."
- "That's fun, but have you tested it?"
- "Let's see..."
Jack recalls to the two times he brought in Genkei and Atlas behind Akio's back, since he wanted to keep it from him until it met his (Jack's) expectations. To his credit, almost nothing happened to the room.. aside from the fact that Genkei left a huge dent in one of the walls and Atlas burnt the floor, but it's up to standard now!
"Yup. Come on, don't you want to try it?"
- "You bastard..."
Akio grins.