Eight Years Later-
A man crushing dry fallen leaves under his heavy feets walking toward a small wooden hut in the forest. Standing in front of the lock door, he first knocked on the door. Not getting any replies from the other side he said, "Nyxon! Wake up, you don't have a lot of time." Calling Nyxon, Egbert repeatedly knocked on the door.
"Coming…"
Slowly Nyxon opened the door, his messy long hair covering his eyes going all the way below the waist. He was wearing black loose robe. He bent down a little as due to his six feet height, his head was about to collide with the upper part of the door. "Look at you, in an hour the competition is going to start, and you just woke up. Quickly! Wash your face and go."
"Don't worry master, I will reach there on time."
Pulling Nyxon's hair, "AaAaa! I am going." Egbert pulled Nyxon out, "Go quickly, or I will drag you to the competition ground like this."
With his right hand, siding his hair covering his eyes, his eyes were normal black eyes not star shaped like eight years ago, Nyxon shouted, "Okay…Okay…Okay… I'm going, " Lowering his voice he continued, "Please leave my hair, or else how will I go."
Egbert left his hair, Nyxon quickly ran toward the river near him. Reaching there, he washed his face and as he was about to go back, "It's been a while I should take a quick bath."
Removing his clothes and the space ring from his right index finger. He went into the river, his whole-body physics changed from what it was eight years ago. His muscles were covered with scratches. His half body was in the river, he looked down on his face reflection, light of his eyes and his face smile slowly started to fade away. Soon his facial emotion turns the same as that of eight years ago.
*Space Ring→ One type of magical storage ring with capacity to store infinite numbers of things. It is very rare, and only a few people have it. Knowing Nyxon doesn't have magical energy, Egbert gave his Space Ring to Nyxon so that he could use it to store lots of weapons or things he likes. Other Storage Rings have limitations accounting to their levels and price. *
The hatred of being betrayed was still deep down in his heart. In eight years, he tried his best to forget his painful memories but those always come back to haunt him.
When he first started to learn, it was only to get revenge but as he spent more time with Egbert his goal changed. Making an ambition to be the strongest, so that he didn't feel helpless in front of anyone like before, he was trying to bury his urge for revenge which can erupt anytime.
'What are you doing? Go back to being normal.' He heard a voice, which sounded the same as his voice, but it was deeper than his. It was the voice of his thoughts. "Shut up! There is no one beside me, let me rest for a while." Looking at his reflection he shouted.
As he couldn't forget his painful memories, he mastered his emotions and facial expression. Just looking at his face, no one could tell that it was just a fake illusion of expressions.
After a while, he went back to normal and came out of the river, wearing his clothes and space ring he went to Egbert. His loose clothes hide his muscular body making him look like a normal teenager. "Master! I'm ready to go." With a cheerful face he said.
Egbert with a katana in his hand came out of the room. The sword's length was the same as his arm, It was made of silver with its grip made of iron without any softness to it. It was white in color, but there was a bluish tone near its sharp edge.
"Take this katana, it can withstand some of the strikes from the weapons that are covered with magical energies." Giving the katana to Nyxon he continued, "Also, remember only to use it when you feel like your life is in danger and don't stop to defend yourself till it breaks apart. Otherwise, if anyone sees this, they would most likely try to steal it away from you."
"Okay, Master." Taking Katana, he stored it in his space ring and continued, "Let go then."
"Not me, you will go alone. We will part away here, I have already taught you all the things I can, now there's nothing I can teach you." Putting his right hand on Nyxon's shoulder, he continued, "I hope we meet again."
Hearing from today onward, he would be all alone. He felt a sense of loneliness for a second but soon he went back to normal. In his mind he thought, 'And I hope we don't meet again.'
Even though he was not sad as Egbert was leaving him, he was genuinely feeling grateful toward him as he taught him sword techniques. Bowing down his head, "I will be always grateful to you for saving my life, and taking me, one who can't use magical energy as your disciple."
"Enough of your chattering now go."
In the end, hugging each other, both of them walked away in different directions.
Walking for half an hour, Nyxon came out of the forest. In front of him there was a wide river and it's other side the town was located. Seeing a bridge on his right side, he kept moving forward, from his right an earthen road was going toward the town. He went on the road and kept walking, beside him there was no one.
Passing the bridge, he reached in front of the big gate of the town, two soldiers with spears in their hands were standing on each side of the gate. As he went closer and about to enter inside, "Hey! You." Soldier on his left shouted.
Nyxon looked toward him, he pointed finger toward himself asking if he was calling him. "Yes, you. Come here." With a slight innocent smile on his face he walked to the soldier, "You don't seem to be from the town, are you new here?"
"Yes, is there any problem?"
"No, but." Waving around his hand with a laugh, the soldier continued, "But, can I know where the sweet girl came from?" Seeing Nyxon's long hair, he started to make fun of him. "Let him go, why are you harassing the kid?" Seeing the soldier on the other side tried to stop him, but instead he shouted at him, "You keep your mouth shut, or I will ask my brother-in-law to take away your job."
And with the fear of losing his job, the soldier didn't say anything and kept watching.
"Tell me, don't be a shy baby."
'Kill..Kill..kill him!' His inner voice said to him, but ignoring it Nyxon backed away from him, "Hahaaa! You make a good joke uncle."
"I'm not joking baby."
"In that case, it looks like you are losing your eyesight in your youth. I have herbs, tell me, you need some, I will give you for free."
"What did you say?" The soldier shouted at him while the other one tried to control his laugh. Just to show his strength and thinking Nyxon was weak, with his spear in his right hand he tried to attack him.
'I told you to kill him in the beginning, without any reason you wasted time.'
Seeing only two soldiers and not a single person around, Nyxon made up his mind to kill both of them. But before he could do anything, an iron sword from Nyxon close right came flying, it cut through the spear of the soldier and the sword's tip stuck in the ground making it stand vertically.
Nyxon looked back, but there was no one, as he turned toward the sword, seeing a young girl around his age standing beside the sword, he was shocked that he didn't notice when she came.
With white hair waving through her waist, which was shining in her red Cheongsam, and a black smiling mask covering her face with only her beautiful amber like reddish-brown eyes were showing through the mask, she stood next to Nyxon.
Holding onto the sword's grip, she said, "What is going on here?"
The soldier knew she was stronger and even if he asked another soldier for both of them together will not be able to harm her.
"Hehaha… Nothing, I was just playing with the kid, right kid?" Slightly bowing down toward Nyxon he continued, "Sorry, for wasting your time, now you can go. And in future if you need help, feel free to ask me." While he was saying softly, with his eyes he was threatening Nyxon to go away without saying anything.
Knowing he was getting late for the competition, without saying anything he walked inside the town. The girl's eyes were on Nyxon as he was walking away. "See, he didn't h—." Before he could finish, his head fell on the ground following it, his body also fell down. With her sword soaked in blood, she turned around looking at empty space, she said, "Did I ask anything? Why did you have to distract my focus from him?"
Seeing the sight in front of him, the soldier standing on the other side frightened, his whole body was shaking with fear. Turning toward him, "Opps! I forgot about you."
"I--I didn't see anything." With a trembling voice he said.
With a smile on her face she replied, "That's good to hear, Elder. Can you please help me to clean this place, we don't want people seeing this on the gate, right?"
"Ye..yes I will remove him from here and also clean the road."
"Wow! I didn't expect you to be so caring." Taking out a gold coin out of her ring, she tossed it in front of him, "Take it as a reward, and don't forget to keep your word or you don't want to meet him in hell, right?"
"Yes..yes.. I will."