One and a Half Months Ago
•The Cradle—12 days after Arc was Deported
"Begin!"
The instructor screamed as he unlocked a huge container. The moment the padlock dropped, a huge gust of wind blew off the door from the inside. There was no one in the container, but the "wind" was blowing ferociously around the 10 year old cradle trainee, Amy Cross.
Spiral swallows— tier 19 birds which constantly move faster than the speed of sound leaving destruction in their wake. Due to their immense speed, they cannot be tracked with the naked eyes and appear as huge gusts of wind blowing ferociously.
This didn't faze the 10 year old prodigy though. The environment's temperature instead, started rising rapidly as heat exuded from her aura. This was followed by the instant formation of several hundred balls of fire, each being compressed to the limit.
"Flame Release: Raging fireflies!!!!"
The balls of fire were all released at the same time, travelling in haphazard directions then exploding. However, with each explosion, a spiral sparrow dropped the ground, charred beyond recognition.
"Test Complete. Sparrows eliminated: 2,476, Time: 1.76 seconds. That's a new personal best, congratulations Amy....."
Amy ignored the instructor, instead looking at the walls dazed while wiping her sweat off with a towel. She already missed her two friends who were deported earlier in the week and was feeling lonely without their presence
"Arc, Katie.... I'll become the strongest paladin and then...we will meet again someday, promise"
She muttered those words to herself, still ignoring the instructor. The man's next comment got her attention though
"Ofcourse....when he was your age, Ash Stollen took down over ten thousand swallows in less than a single second....he was something alrigh—"
She flung her towel in his face at the speed of a cannon but the man caught it with ease.
"Tch"
"Seems like you finally snapped out of it, haha. Next exercise!"
Amy hated being compared to Ash. It wasn't born from jealousy though, it was because she hated Ash Stollen as a person—primarily because of the way he treated Arc like he didn't exist.
*CREAAAAAKKKKKK
The gates opened and from it came the dropouts transport vehicle. Amy ditched her training, chasing after the transport vehicle— somewhere in her heart she wished it had all been a dream or misunderstanding and that she'll be greeted by Arc and Katie who were brought back to rejoin them.
She caught up to the vehicle as it parked and peeked inside— ofcourse, her delusional wish was crushed by the empty transport boot.
"You need something, kid?"
Craig asked from behind, looking down on 10 year old.
"D-Did they make it to the orphanage okay? The o-orphanage is a nice place with lots of smiles, right? They'll be happy there, right?..."
Tears started rolling down her eyes as she was fumbling all over her words. She had to come to terms with the fact Arc and Katie aren't coming back to the cradle— back to her.
*Pat pat
"Your friends made it there alright. They're in a happy place and will continue to smile. I'm sure they'll want you to keep smiling too, right?"
She nodded to the man patting her head and wiped off her tears, trying to be strong for her friends who were gone, with the determination to live up to their expectations of her.
Little did she know, one of those friends was gone permanently. Craig picked up his bag, preparing to leave.
"Well, I have a meeting to get to so I'll be going now little Ms—"
"Amy. Amy Cross. Remember it! I'm going to become the strongest paladin in history!"
"Hahahaha.... Just remember the rest of us when you reach the top, okay?. See ya, kid"
Craig left to meet the higher ups. To file a report on his just concluded mission... And confirm the death of Arc Stollen.
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The dim lightning in the room gave off a brood, eerie atmosphere which was complemented by the cold aura exuding from the higher ups—anyone in their presence would undoubtedly feel each drop of cold sweat trickling down their spine and ofcourse, any normal person might even have a nervous breakdown right there and then. Not Craig though, he was composed and cheerful before his superiors in what resembled a council room, reporting the deaths of the dropouts.
"Did you confirm his death? Did you find a body?"
"Ofcourse, Mr Dean"
This was a lie. He felt like it was too much of a pain to go searching the forest so he had the driver of the vehicle scan the forest with a bird. They found blood splatters and few body remains so he concluded they were all killed by some beasts.
"You better have! If we find out otherwise, they'll be hell to pay!"
"Haha, you worry too much, Ms Mika. What do you take me for?"
"It's precisely because it's you that I'm worried, you lazy bastard!"
"Hahaha, that foul mouth of yours isn't doing you any favors, y'know. That's why you're 37 and still single"
"Why you little...."
*WHOOSH
Lord Micheallis raised his hand and the room fell silent instantly. This wasn't a skill or technique, merely a testament to his authority.
"Well done Craig, Here is your next mission"
He handed him a sheet of paper with the details
"Already??? I wanna catch some z's"
"Complete this and you will be recommended for a promotion to Master 2–"
"—I'm in!"
Craig grabbed the paper instantly and saluted, then walked out of the room still composed. The moment the doors closed however, he started jumping for joy
"Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Guess who's about to be Master 2, this guy! this guy!"
"Achieving Master 2 at 27? As a cradle trainee, you should be embarrassed"
"I'll have you know I'm only 19!"
Craig turned in frustration to the person picking a fight with him.
"You sure they didn't lie about when you were born? Could've fooled me"
"Shut up, Ash. By the way, you had another assimilation test yesterday, right? How'd it go?"
A couple veins popped up on Ash's head
"Sigh—"
"Failed again, huh?"
"I don't get why that has-been doesn't just give in to me!"
"You didn't expect it to be easy, did you? After all, that "has-been" is Mugen, once regarded as the strongest general in the overlord's army 5000 years ago"
5000 years ago, in the overlord's army, there were two people, near equals in power who were considered for the title of strongest. One of them was Mugen, King of Infinity whose power was only limited by his limitless imagination.
The sealed body of that monster was locked in the basement of the facility with the cradle trying to harness his incredible power through their masterpiece.
"Enough about that. I assume your report went well?"
"Ofcourse it did!"
"I see..."
"You're awfully calm for someone whose brother was just killed"
Ash looked at Craig with his usual, indifferent eyes as he responded.
"Why should I worry about someone whose destiny was death from the moment he was born?"
"Damn!"
"I have no brother. The lifeform known as Arc Stollen was just a useless waste of space living on borrowed time. After all, he was supposed to die the day he was born"
"Geez. I wouldn't want you for a brother"
Craig shrugged at the emotionless masterpiece the cradle created. Ash noticed the paper in Craig's hand.
"You going on a mission?"
"Yeah.... It's in one of the gate worlds we already sold. What was the name again? Baloney? Batriphach?..."
He looked at the paper again.
"Yeah, Baldur..... And this job might take a couple months, what a pain. "
"You best get ready. I'm going to try conquering that has-been again"
"You got it"
In a weird twist of fate, the hunter known as Craig Smith was heading to the world of Baldur which also happens to be where Arc will be spawning a month and a half from now.
Well, Baldur is a big place, they might not run into each other..... maybe.
The footsteps of Craig and Ash echoed down the halls as they headed in opposite directions.
"Just hope something sweet happens on this boring ass mission"
Craig said to himself as the he disappeared from the hallway.