Nolan opened his eyes Groggily, He remembered walking inside the central plaza with utmost caution and then everything became blank.
' How did i?' he thought, question made nolan take a breath to digest the fact that enemy strength was far more than he could handle alone.
His eyes sharply shifted around, to get the sense of his situation and surrounding. He was sitting at corner, tied behind with ropes which he was unable to break free from with his strength.
His mana sense was still active yet he failed to gaze ahead of this room,
" Granalite.." He cursed in his heart, to not appear impolite and abusive to the child that was laying beside him, even if he was unconscious.
The boy was lucas, whether his resistance toward kidnappers or maybe trauma of situation had forced him into slumber. Nolan sighed in brief relief that he had found him, unharmed, as of yet. But this situation didn't ease him a bit.
Nolan looked at another hostage, This one young vampire in his mid twenties. Of course Nolan prayed that this vampire would be of any help, as even he was untied and left free just like lucas.
" Why am i the only one tied?" He obviously knew why, though it didn't please him. " How annoying.." Ropes tied his hands tightly, which didn't feel very pleasant but that wasn't only reason for his displeasure.
Keeping young vampire in corner of his eyes, nolan's gaze and mana sense swept through the small room once again. He didn't wanted to miss out on anything that could hopefully save their lives or endanger it, but unfortunately he was only met with disappointment.
The room was smaller in comparison to other rooms, which he had seen in his earlier and not so dangerous visit. The room was old, though this whole monumemt was ancient but over the period of time it had developed in many facilities while retaining it's original structure. But this room was old, untouched for many many years and so source of light was a sphere of LED light placed in the center.
" Ugh.." Young vampire regained his consciousness, feeling subtle pain and stiffness after walking up from unwanted sleep. His voice drew nolan's attention back from the light.
" Who are you?" Nolan asked, Seeing the young vampire was slowly coming around.
Young vampire lifted his face up, side of cheeks that laid on floor had visible pressed impression and redness. But now his face was once again regaining his usual feature.
" I'm vito Corleone." He said, squeezing his eyes to dampen the blurryness that clouded his vision. And once that was gone, vito noticed nolan.
" Champion, Am I dreaming?" He asked himself, suddenly excited, and then doubting.
" No you're not, I'm here just like you. Kidnapped." Nolan hinted their situation Indifferently, Judging by vito's goofy smile Nolan suspected that he wasn't quite on the same page and needed a reminder.
Vito who was feeling lucky to meet a national champion was suddenly struck with subtle realisation, his head hurridly snapped right and left.
" Don't panick Vito, Stay calm." Nolan hoped this wouldn't happem, but it was too much to hope that any civilian wouldn't panick finding themselves kidnapped.
Vito was overcome with fear, Fear of death. Fear made heart beat faster and breathing deep and louder. Nolan's word pressed no relief, as if they fell on deaf ears.
" Look at me, Look at me vito." Nolan forced Vito to gaze straight in his eyes, " I'm here, And we'll get out once you untie me."
Vito found logic in those words.
' Yes, he is two time world champion with skill like no other, if anyone could escape this then it's him.' Vito saw a logical way toward an escape and without wasting a second he crawled behind Vito.
Booom....
A huge sound of explosion shook the wall, filling Vito with more dread. And each vibration and sound easily struck his nerves, making him shiver in fear. Vito tried, but his body didn't respond the way he wanted. His hands shook uncontrollably, and his fingers hardly made sense of knot.
To make situation more worse.After the first, series of loud explosion shook the room.
And in time, Sound of explosion kept getting more closer. Wall trembled, as if someone was banging on the wall that was before them, like a wild animal raining it's frenzied headbutts to break free from it's prison.
" Look at this idiot.. haha.." a moderately deep, male voice filled with mockery laughed from a corner, instantly allerting both vito and nolan. And their immediately followed his voice.
His visage remained hidden, in a corner that was very dimly lit but not just that, he had no presence.
' How did I not sense him?' Nolan thought, pulling his arms to break free of this restrains, in which he miserably failed.
" Hahaha.."
Dark visage of individual laughed once more, he was enjoying. Maybe futile effort of nolan or almost having heart attack of an expression by vito, or maybe the loud bangs from otherside.
Hidden man walked in light, his steps were silent but only because he wished that his body became visible to nolan.
" What did I expect?, Another idiot running around wearing his mom's bodycon." Nolan's saracsm made masked man laugh, a bit plainly though, as if he was faking it.
" I saw that your hands are not sharp as your tongue."
" Open them up and we'll see." Nolan smirked and said with a second worth pause, " mommy's boy."
Masked man stood up before him, average height with muscular built that was visible over his bodysuit.
' What the fuck is he doing?', he'll kill us.' Vito feared nolan's irrational behavior, fear tightened around his neck with each of nolan's bold provocations.
Nolan knew how this doing of his will affect vito, and he didn't expected it any other way anyway.
Not just him but anyone who wasn't familiar with this type of environment would react the same.
Only reason nolan could cope so well because he was a fighter, his profession had hardened his mentality even in pain and provocation.
Of course it didn't make him stupid to act this arrogantly before an enemy. Especially an enemy that he wasn't able to detect, that stealth skill showed certain amount of proficiency of his enemy's skills.
" I was informed to not get into your schemes, to not free you no matter what you say but I just can't help it." Masked man silently walked behind nolan and kicked vito away angrily, " But it would be shame if I didn't get to rip your tongue out before I hung you up for world to see." Sword shimmered out of his ring, as it swiftly and silently slashed down the ropes.
Nolan didn't react hasty, instead he looked at vito who was lying grunting beside lucas, hurt but not very.
" Let's get to it." Nolan glanced over his shoulder once and stood up and walked toward the center.
Masked men gripped his sword even tigher, feeling indignant inferiority just by his words and followed. It was his flaunt walk with no fear that irritated masked man, made him feel out of control. Especially when he looked at his handsome face twisted in smug look,
Masked men threw his sword without a word, which stabbed the floor just beside the lucas.
" You should use it, Not that it would make any difference."
Masked man ran, with intent to run him through. His speed allowed him to cross the distance in blink of an eye but he passed through only air, nolan stood beside the sword that had barely missed lucas and pulled it out.
" You won't say this is unfair, would you?"
" And they call you champion." Nolan smiled innocence as he took the stance,
" They do because I win, no matter what."
Nolan drew the sword for a swing and dashed ahead, Masked man turned, ran straight with no hesitation.
Masked man knew it in an instant that nolan had never used any sword, his action were amateurish and It was only at this moment that he seeked to take advantage using a weapon.
" Monkey with a knife is still a monk-" His words died in his mouth, with a cold icy arrow plunged through his brain that killed him instantly.
Nolan felt the chill, from the arrow and from the fear that ran down his spine for the first time in a while. He couldn't follow how and from where that arrow arrived but, it killed the man he himself would've struggled with his life. Nolan froze, only his eyes moved, searching for the killer and found no one.
Vito's attention only came through once he heard the sound of dead body falling hard and his eyes shot wide open even among residual pain as he noticed masked men lying in pool of blood. By the time he noticee, manifested ice arrow had vanished, body had fallen and wound was too small for him to notice but only blood.
" Nolan??" He muttered,
Nolan waited, unmoving. Expecting if his death was coming or not, and after a few heavy breath he concluded that it wasn't.
" We're safe." He said as he lowered himself to lucas, checking for his pulse or any injury.
' Good, he's unharmed.' He also looked at vito, suspecting if he was the one who did this, but aside from his clearly inadequate yellow rank, the boy seemed really scared shit.
" We're safe." Nolan repeated and slumped down beside vito.
And then he heard a very soft, almost bristling murmur. He was holding a sword as he turned towards it and saw a hole on opposite wall of corner, where the banging sound was coming from. A sharp door sized whole, Where fine dust of ice shone on ground till they evaporated like nothing, leaving no trace of any magic.
" That should be our exit." Nolan was sceptical with this unseen help but he knew he had no saying in matter. So he lifted lucas up in his arms and walked. Vito picked himself up as well, groaning and followed.
Other side of passage was hell, and it's very characteristic nature, dead. Mummified and dried up civilian bodies and masked kidnappers with their cleanly mutilated body parts littered around.
Vito immediately threw up, his head spun and bowels churned. Nolan was no different, He was barely choking down the urge to vomit.
" AAAAGHHH..." Sudden and violent Scream of agony unnerved both nolan and vito, it came out of nowhere and died in a moment. Nolan striked an eye to see a man lying to his far right, he was the only one looked alive with his head burning in dark pink flames. His screams ended almost instantly, killing him in seconds.
Nolan could swear he heard a chuckle from other end but he was too distracted by the sight to actually believe it. His eyes reflected the fire, fire that spread in a instant, burning every body in sight and within a breath room became clean with no blood, bone or body to be seen, as if earlier image of cruelty had been nothing but an illusion.
Nolan saw white pristine throne above the podium, gold plated tables and chairs lying broken and barely hanging glass chandelier squeaking.
Even vito's vomit had vanished, it happened so fast that neither nolan not vito had time to even think that fire could kill them and by the time they realised, it had already died down, gone without making any sound.
Bammm...
" Surrender or die motherfucker." large door to the throne room slammed open with a thunderous warning,
Dozens of soldiers stood outside, pointing their gun inside and checking for explosive trap. But there was nothing, other than three people standing just as confused as them.
A soldier who was their leader signaled other to inspect this room and other places, though he himself looked relaxed as he walked toward nolan,
" Very very very huge fan sir nolan, the champion."
*******
Half an hour ago,
Throne room was unsightly before, but now it was bloody with all the mutilated bodies. Carpet was red but a good soak of blood gave it a different, darker shade to make it distinct.
Eren stood between decapitated bodies and pool of blood, naked. He could regenerate his body but not the clothes, though he did not feel shame. His eyes wide open, burning with rage and fixed on only one of his enemies, The giant.
But before he could get to him, eren needed to clear the path that was filled with dozens of masked enemies.
Subconsciously eren had stopped breathing and his stagnant, unflinching posture striked fear into those standing before him. They knew that parts of those ripped and cut apart limbs and torso belonged to eren, but now some of their own had been addition to that litter. It was matter of time before they all would join without any doubt, and they will not wake up again. So the fear, of death, was gradually making sense to them, especially since they saw eren being not humble and mannered with his killing. Death was bad, but brutally painful and annoyingly long death was hell on it's own.
Contrary to their paranoid thoughts, Eren ignored them. To be more precise, he ignored the notion that they were living beings who deserved any consideration, to him they were just chess pieces to cut before reaching the king.
Eren felt his mana reserve being filled at visible rate for tenth time now, and during this he had already broken through the green rank which offered him increased physical prowess and more refined, large amount of mana. He could feel the shining of light green core in his adynamic soul. But this was not all, he was noticing his mana getting even more denser and his core getting more heavier. He reasoned that this feeling was because of this unusually high cultivation speed, in regular everyday progress he wouldn't have felt this.
Eren's eyes, though fixated on giant, could see things that other couldn't. In his eyes world was much dark, dim cause of fine black smoke that obstructed light. But this smoke was his power and it was everywhere. Floating while drifting in the world without exerting any presence in reality, it simply passed through everything, like mana, almost.
Eren could wait and find many things about this power, but neither he had time nor intension. He only knew that with his exerted will unto the world through consumption of mana he could shape the darkness. Tiny action of swinging his finger in the air could result in exponentiated invisible cleave that decapitate his enemies, simple flick could become a powerful punch and a punch could become an impact of full speed running train, though it was in future, as for now he needed fully swinghis arm to create an lethal.
Eren didn't hold back, he abused mana, Though a thought to decrease the power of his attacks through reducing the fueling mana did cross his mind, but it crossed itself the next second as he found himself unable to feel slighest bit of sympathy towards his enemies.
This silence may have lasted only a moment and then someone finally broke the breath, allerting everyone into a battle once again.
Eren sliced his hand to nearest masked men, his enemy raised his sword in defence instinctively but invisible power sliced his sword and his head apart, clean. Broken sword clinked and head rolled on the carpet before body fell, fountain of blood painted the carpet that had somehow remained clean uptill now bloody red.
Eren felt 20 percent of his mana reserve vanish, which implicated he could only use another 4 of those attacks, if he was any normal individual but he wasn't. His sphere of core was once again getting poured full.
He had no limits to hold him back,
His Enemies feared him now, And they knew that only way to stop him was to once again pin him down before he could unleash another one of his invisible attack. They lunged at him, their swords ready to impale him and among them few even succeeded. One of them held his right arm with sword stuck in it, another two struck his lung and liver. And rest of them tried while this lucky ones restrained him. Next course of their action were clear, kick eren on ground and stitch him with even more swords.
But they had underestimated eren's anger, or his conviction, or his madness.
Eren stumped his right leg firmly, spun with his left in circle with his free hand already drawing a circle.
Drawing that power to move despite being restrained only came because of his affinity with this invisible darkness, he did not just kick air but touched the darkness and in that slim second pulled his power back immediately, which resulted in a recoil for him use and in doing so the swords that restrained him sliced him half around chest and bifurcated his right arm, blood splashed once again but not just his own. Ten of his enemies were cut into two each and fell with their sword. Even those hiding behind their own were cut clean, they ignored the fact that eren could inhance the power and range of attack by putting more mana, but they were not to be blamed. Afterall eren was a mystery that they failed to comprehend. And like that their sword no longer bothered eren.
Eren didn't care that lower of his body crashed lifeless and rest of his torso fell as it regenerated, he only cared about next more. His hands moved midair, killing those few who had survived.
They all fell, and eren once again picked himself up from bloody floor. His eyes never betting, staring daggers on giant.
" That sword was meant to help you understand your power but it seems you didn't needed it afterall."
Eren didn't respond, he was angry and giant's nonchalance to death of his own people did nothing but add fuel to those flames. Eren breathed a pity, once again feeling his mana reserve being filled and closed his eyes. He was making a decision to himself and he was breathing, catching the calm before the storm.
Giant stood up from the throne with an amused chuckle, a light shimmered and brought a crude stone hammer to his hand.
" Hesitation even after all the terrible things I did, oh how disappointing." He twirled crudely patched wooden handle, and hammer that weighted two hundred kilos spun like a toy in his hand.
Giant took a step down the podium and suddenly his presence intensified along with his madness. His step was clear, loud and filled with confidence, so much so that eren opened his eyes and wondered how he showed such audacity, knowing how heinous his actions were.
" You know why I envy you young master eren." giant said, " cause that sword you threw away is more precious than my hammer."
Eren couldn't care less,
Giant took another step down and laughed at his own jealousy,
" I see that you're ignorant as well." Giant shook his head and continued, "mundane weapons can't hold mana but there is no abudant source of mana compatible metals as well, rarity is a proper word." He walked toward eren, kicking dead bodies aside on each step for fun.
" But then we have so many?" He exclaimed fakely, looking at the swords lying everywhere and didn't say any further.
Eren couldn't care less with his games, so he picked up the one of the unbroken sword that was laid near him and readied himself.
Before giant could speak further, eren lashed out and he did not care for mutilated bodies on the floor.
Eren immediately felt huge shadow of an masked man tower before him as he closed in. Instead of getting intimidated, eren grabbed sword with both of his hands and called out mana out of his core.
To his command mana enhanced his body to it's limit once more and rest covered his sword, giving it the enhancement he wanted. Eren aimed for diagonal slash to chest, to heart which he didn't belive would succeed. Gap in strength was too much for eren to have hopes of such, he could fantasize all but reality had never been even close to his expectations.
Giant moved even faster, shielding himself with hammer, giving eren numbing recoil and pain.
" Master eren, Every great thing comes slowly." And swung his hammer sideways, movememt fluid, effortless and unsually fast for such heavy weapon.
Eren saw him move but failed to react, his basic speed of superior cultivation was enough to surpass eren in all aspect and enough to send him flying before he eventually crashed on the wall. Sound of his bones breaking was veiled under loud bang, wall cracked as well. But the man stood up, looking uninjured, and in a moment he was uninjured.
" See that." giant saw eren's wary but hard look, " A powerful attack like that is no fun, It gives easy death. in your case, easy recovery. But that's no fun all." He said, disappointed.
His disapproval preceded with authoritative command over mana, immediately binding eren in place.
Firstly, eren's connection to the external mana broke which onstructed eren from recovering the lost mana that was used for regeneration. And then eren lost his mobility, unable to move as giant's adynamic grip tightened over rein of mana.
Giant relaxed his hammer on floor, smirked and loosened his grip on the hammer as if mocking eren.
Eren knew powerlessness, this was just one of those moments where he was forced to confront himself about it, rather than his enemies.
What could he do?, that was the question with no answer. Death would be an easy answer but not practical and very much out of reach. Eren could practically hear the mocking laugh from that distance.
Eren had no answers, but he had ideas.
' Work damn it.' He though, pulling even more mana out with all his will and effort. Mana enhanced his body to a limit he didn't realise he had, and it gave him strength to oppose the force that held him restrained. Eren lifted his hand up, it took all his strength and made him wonder for what he wanted to do.
Mana was both internal and external force, internal was his own domain and outside it was matter of opposition. He was doing fine uptill now, being restrained by authority of dozen of green rank warrior was not easy but he had managed it. But now it was different. Earlier he was met with wild big cats, but now he was facing a dragon and difference was astranomical.
Eren's hand descended slowly, though fast as a mundane but to his prior agility, he was indeed slow. Black smoke shifted to his command and shaped itself into a crescent blade, it's speed and power unaffectee by giant's authority.
Giant had seen, or rather had seen the aftermath of this power, cutting all his footsoldiers clean even when eren was severely unmatched.
This power acted entirely different from common universal laws,
Giant immediately moved aside, avoiding the attack without much effort, though it didn't seem as if he could see it, and invisible blade moved past him, getting wider as it's power dispered throughout and it died before reaching the throne. Though, it did left a nick on the lowest stair.
" So it has range of 15 meters, and that's your weakest attack. Impressive indeed." His praise was mocking.
Eren lifted his arm once again, but then he felt all that pressure gone and he only saw giant gleaming with mocking confidence.
Eren picked his sword and dashed, gaining his unrestrained strength and speed back, by the end of second his sword was already coming down the gian's head. Sword whistled through air and missed it's target.
Eren landed and hurridly performed a horizontally circular swing, and as he expected giant who had taken a stance behind him jumped and backed away.
" That's twice, You've evaded my attacks. So even though i am weak, my attacks aren't." Eren turned, he was not happy with his discovery.
" If they land, that is." Said giant, And his word amused eren
" I just cut you." Eren smirked.
Giant felt pricking pain across his neck, he touched and felt blood. He was cut, not deeply. His eyes widened as he looked at eren with surprise.
" Now I can cut you without moving a muscle like this." Giant immediately felt sharp pain on his chest just as eren's word came to end.
" You've grown by leaps and bounds young master eren." Giant though cut and bleeding, didn't seem afraid. Contrary, he was even more excited. So much that he broke in a fit of laughter.
" First a magic without any hand sign and now this, attack with only a thought. that's what motivation does but as I stand here, alive, I realise. That it's still not enough." Giant paused, his word sapped eren out of his confidence.
" Shall I give you some more motivation?, young master eren."