Lawa was lying on a mat spread on a stone bed, basking under the sun, while listening to the chirping voices of young children playing with red clay known as Marmara.
He was 14 years old this year, a lazy boy with no care in the world because his parents left a good fortune inheritance that could carry his life with luxury and peace.
He doesn't need to tire himself like others in pursuit of glory. Their clan is strong, they have professions for different aspects of life.
Not to mention, unlike the rest of the world, they have an easier time cultivating because they have everything they need within the Stone Wall.
Marmara Stone Wall was the region they lived in. A massive stretch of land filled with naturally occurring giant rocks and stones.
"Hooo!" Lawa took a deep breath with a smile as he thought, 'Whenever Lami isn't around, life becomes simple!'
Lawa hated complexity, he wanted everything to be as simple as possible. At the sight of complex things, he ran away from it. Like now, at Maroon Stone Academy, a Professor of calculation was there blabbering.
He hated calculations, which was why he ditched school today.
The good thing was his sister wasn't around to nag him.
"You have potential, you should focus on your studies more!"
Lawa tilted his mouth and mimicked his sister.
He stretched his hand and a ceramic cup flew toward him with juice made from smashed fruits and candy ruby.
It was a very luxurious drink, and he sipped it with contentment. His mood brightened and relaxed more.
Boom!
Crack!
Shatter!
A sound of explosion was heard and Lawa sprang up to his feet and looked ahead. The children below the cliff also stopped what they were doing.
The sound of stone shattering wasn't new to them. They hear it all the time; in fact, they can even understand some information coming from it.
And this time, it sounds like a breach. They didn't see it but they just know it due to the intrinsic connection they have with the rocks and stones in their Marmara Stone Wall.
The next moment confirmed their fear as a wave of energy swept around and powerful Limit Masters and other Masters moved fast, appearing only in a blur.
Boom!
An explosion reached Lawa and knocked him back. The rock and stone around released a ripple that protected the children, including Lawa and other adults.
They were trained on where to go and how to react when situations like this were to happen.
Lawa turned toward Inner Caves but he noticed the entire mountain above was collapsing. Every cave and every house imploding and collapsing.
Fragments were falling and breaking, one rock rammed at him. Due to him being part of the clan, he was only pushed away and wasn't injured.
When he tried to stand, he felt heavy, his eyes were covered with thick liquid.
Lawa pushed away the dead body on top of him and was shocked to find it was Limit Master Jona, their Calculation professor.
In a daze, Lawa walked around; bodies of Limit Masters were strewn around. "Good, good!"
He said to himself, he was terrified but the thing that made him make those comments was his sister, she was on a mission.
Above in the air were True Masters fighting to death against an unknown army of Humanoid Metals.
Marmara Clan True Masters were truly powerful cultivators, above average compared to other cultivators. However, the armour of humanoid metals wasn't easy to deal with.
Once they saw unavailable defeat they activate a strange skill and latch on the True Master and explode.
That will injure the True Masters badly and the rest of the humanoid metals to gang on them.
Just then, an explosion happened and slammed at Lawa, he almost fainted, but then a group of kids ran to him and dragged him away.
On their body was Calm Gem, which they took from the Maroon Stone Academy to help them make accurate decisions in the chaos, unlike Lawa, who was barely keeping himself standing.
The moment they slammed a Calm Gem on his forehead, Lawa snapped awake and his emotions calmed down.
The dizziness and fear that were overloading him immediately reduced.
"You idiot, you ditched school and almost got killed?"
An older kid shouted in anger before she calmed down after realizing some kids at the school had died. Maybe if Lawa was there he would have died too.
"Thank you, Luna", Lawa said to her before he said, "We need to run away. I have a bunker in the Old kitchen!"
With Calm Gem, their thoughts move smoothly as they run toward the Old Kitchen and hide inside a deep underground where the deep scent of spices is high.
Old Kitchen was the general open-air kitchen that the clan's old ladies established to cook and nurture young girls and boys in the knowledge of cooking and food preparation.
It's also a place where everyone can go eat anytime in the day.
Lawa learned about the bunker from his sister. She used to keep a very rare cooking ingredient in it.
However, the four kids hid not for long when the entire place quaked before it was yanked up, and they were exposed.
A 3-meter humanoid metal stood, and behind him was a floating Crafwork. It flashed a light that slammed at them and their Calm Gem shattered.
Their subdued fear and terror amplified instantly.
Due to the light, Lawa and Aanu's bodies glowed while Luna and Sani's bodies were dull.
The humanoid metal blurred in the kid's eyes before splashes of blood and breaking bones were heard.
"Sani..!" Aanu shouted, seeing his brother was crushed under the feet of the 3-meter giant.
Lawa stepped back in fear, his face covered in blood from Luna's death.
"Wha…what…?" His mind was completely broken.
"Bring them here!" A sound came from the floating Craftwork. Immediately, Lawa and Aanu were yanked forward.
Out of terror, the kids didn't see a man distance away.
He observed them before he walked forward, appearing for just a moment, and stabbed a White Metal at the back of their neck, and it immediately began consuming their blood and expanded.
That caused an excruciating pain beyond what their mind could handle but as they were about to faint, a serum from the White Metal seeped into them, jolting them awake again.
"AHH!"
"AHH!"
Their screams filled up the kitchen area. Lawa and Aanu's faces became beet red; their eyes bulged as if they were about to pop out.
Amidst the scream of agony, the sound of breaking of bones and tearing of flesh can be heard.
The White Metal consumed their back flesh and some of their bones. Their skin was also consumed as it was then filmed with a white substance.
Their hair stood on end before it began to fall; their nails became sharp and metal-like.
Their stomach organs were completely consumed and replaced with strange Craftwork pieces.
In just under ten minutes, Lawa and Aanu were transformed into half-metallic creatures.
Their neck and back spine protruded with a metallic lustre.
Their head bent to their chest, their face fixed in absolute agony, and their mouth still emitting wails of pain.
"Go find more children!" The man ordered before he disappeared.
Sanity returned to Lawa for a moment but was squashed by the pain.
Their bodies jumped toward different locations where they knew for sure children like them were hiding.
That was the beginning of 21 years of agonizing life.
What Lawa and his friend were turned to was known as Scouts and Hounds. Everything they saw their master see.
They have increased reflexes, and due to a semi-metal body, they aren't easy to damage as they have no vital organs apart from their brain and heart.
But they have been altered to allow them to be repaired even if a small part of them was harmed.
After a decade of servitude toward their masters, Aanu died.
He just snapped and jerked for seconds before he stopped moving. His organs have failed just like that and he died.
A spark of sanity returned to Lawa for a second before it vanished.
That was just the beginning.
There were numerous raids to mining areas of Marmara Clan and Lawa was used as a Hound to kill numerous of his clansmen or abduct them.
After decades, Lawa's Masters gathered their strength unlike ever before and attacked the Marmara Clan Stone Wall again with overwhelming force.
They now have finally understood what they were looking for and how they can obtain it.
Marmara Stone Wall was breached using a terrifying new bomb they crafted.
More than 10 million Hounds were released to whittle down the forces of the clan.
Amidst the Hounds were true soldiers hiding to infiltrate and cause damage from the inside.
Lawa as a Hound was at the last hundred thousand because he was one of the longest Hounds to exist without being destroyed in a scout mission or just snapping dead.
These resilient Hounds were valuable because they were the template to create more like them.
With him was a new batch of Hounds that had better craft and durability, but he was a 21-year-old relic that was still being studied.
However, that doesn't mean he is not expandable.
Marmara Stone Wall was filled with caves and burrows underground; even after the Marmara Clan's powerful Cultivators wiped out the majority of the Hounds, a few hundred thousand sneaked in, reaching everywhere.
This time, it wasn't an outright massacre but a capture. Some hounds will explode, the force and mist they released made the clansmen dizzy.
Hounds like Lawa, who are now called Winged Hounds, will drag them out and then throw them into the sky.
From elsewhere, an attack will come down, killing the clansmen, and their bodies fall on an unassuming rock found everywhere in the Stone Wall.
But what happened next was the reason that brought them back, and that was the blood of the clansmen would seep into the stone, and it glows before a fist-sized stone appeared floating at the top of the dead clansmen's chest.
Marmara Miracle Stone can be harvested like this.
Anything termed a Miracle was an Exceedingly Rare resource with miracle-inducing phenomena.
They were now killing children, babies, women and everyone they laid their hand on harvesting the Miracle Stone.
The invaders known as Weish pushed forward their entire Craftwork ships, weapons and their own strongest soldiers hindering the true powerhouse from saving their people.
They have been planning this for centuries and now they are gaining what they want.
Lawa was jittering; the sheer amount of death was pulling his mind to reality, making him forget his eternal pain, but he still had no power to stop himself from dragging his brethren to their deaths.
Heck, True Masters were being turned to Miracle Stone let alone Masters and those at Amber Stage.
More than 20,000 babies alone were slaughtered in just 6 hours. Crying mothers and children can be heard when they are all dragged to their cruel fate.
A pool of blood accumulated from the massive death, then the cloud above suddenly became red, and then Miracle Stone stopped appearing on the killed clansmen.
The atmosphere became bleaker than before, and a silence pervaded the battlefield.
Both the invaders and defenders instinctively moved away from each other and looked around. Their hearts were pounding.
An unassuming old stone shattered, and a man of 5 meters in height with a robust physique came out and gazed at the invaders.
His eyes were hollow, containing no emotions, and his skin was covered with Ancient Glyphs of the bygone era.
He grabbed a random stone, and it moulded into a simple stone-cutting axe.
By then, more than half of the firepower and abilities of the Weish were directed at him.
However, with a casual strike, all were destroyed, and the red cloud above split in two as everything within the strike path was obliterated.
Lawa's flying wing stopped, and he fell; he felt as if he gained control of himself.
Raising his head he saw an old man among the pile of dead bodies blinking.
'He is alive!' That was the first thought he had in 21 years. The old man was alive even though Miracle Stone was harvested from him.
He looked around, hoping for more to be alive, but as far as his eyes could see, no one was.
In 5 seconds the Weish were half destroyed before they released an Island Crushing Bomb.
A wave of heat and force obliterated everything on its path except for the Absolute Masters and the mysterious Marmara Clan Ancestor.
Lawa didn't even know what hit him.
***
Lawa snapped awake and found himself on the mat spread on the stone bed. He was still holding his ceramic cup that was half full of crushed fruits and candy ruby.
"It's a dream!" He exclaimed, trembling. The ceramic cup fell, and the juice spilt over.