A week had passed. The sun was about to set. Leo had finished his exhausting training, his body covered in sweat and his clothes torn from the intensity of the exercises.
I said to him while holding a towel, "That's enough for today."
Leo replied in a tired voice, "I feel like I'm going to die…"
I laughed, "This is only the first week."
Leo said emotionally, "I'm definitely going to die."
I patted his shoulder, "The more you develop, the easier it gets. Don't worry… Now, go to your room."
"Okay…" he said, dragging his feet.
After a while, I sat quietly in my room. I took off my jacket and lay on the bed. I stared at the ceiling for a moment, then said in a soft voice, "This knowledge of fate… I'll just sleep."
I slowly closed my eyes, as silence filled the room.
Nine years ago
I woke up confused. My hand on my chest and breathing slowly. The weather was extremely hot. "What was that strange dream… volcanic lava."
I heard knocking on the door. I got up from bed to open it.
"It's 10 AM, sleeping prince," said Langst.
"It's a day off, man," I replied before shutting the door in his face.
He said before leaving, "Then we'll beat you to the mission."
Not like I want to go on a mission anyway...
I'm in the third academic stage at Limitless Academy, and still, all the missions are extremely easy. Everything ends in seconds. I think I'm truly the strongest. No, we are the strongest.
After getting ready, I left my room and headed straight to the academy's exit. On my way, I met Sylan and Yuron. "Good morning," I said to them.
Sylan replied, "How sad, you guys have a mission."
Are you mocking me…?!
"Of course, of course, let's not forget the one who ran away because a girl talked to him!" I said loudly.
Sylan's face turned red, and he wanted to respond, but I used my Shingen attack to dash away. Who told him to mock me right after I woke up!
I exited the academy to find Langst, Rivan, and Elios waiting for me. And of course, the academy's guard, Fyorai, opened the gate.
Elios is a man with white hair, sharp eyes, and a constant calm smile on his face. His eyes are Small and pupils are brown. His physique is nearly perfect, just like me and Langst.
Unlike him, Rivan has a normal body, but he's working on improving it. He thought he wouldn't need a strong body because he uses an ability that doesn't suit direct combat, but he finally started training his body after feeling the strain in battles.
His hair is brown with a bit of red at the ends, and his eyes are extremely rare. There's a light darkness under his eyes as if it's natural eyeliner. His pupils are crimson. He is the bearer of the inherited ability in the Norotoshi clan, so it's no wonder he looks so unique.
Rivan, Elios, and Langst. These are all I have.
Fyorai told us before we left, "This is a special-grade mission, so be careful."
Rivan put his straw hat on his head. Elios tied his hair. Langst leaned on Elios's shoulder. And I wore my black gloves, saying, "No need, we're the strongest."
We entered the gate, and the moment we exited from the other side, four swords were flying toward us.
Without moving even an inch, Elios manipulated the wind to push the swords away.
The floating kingdom, Sky, is under attack. The kingdom of Sky has always been weak in terms of its army and warriors. And now it is being attacked, and its center, which keeps the kingdom floating in the sky, is being threatened.
And who better to save the situation than us? No one!
We descended to the ground and started heading toward the center of the kingdom.
A group appeared trying to stop us. We looked at Langst, and he understood what we were thinking. His hand turned into a blade, he smiled, trying to hold back his laughter. And suddenly, the enemies' clothes were torn, leaving only their underwear!
Man, their shocked and blushing faces nearly killed me with laughter!
We held back our laughter and just looked at eachother.
"Someone tell them our real goal is… getting back to eat lunch," said Elios, laughing. I feel like tears were about to fall from his laughter.
They tried to attack us, but Rivan used his ability, manipulating the surroundings to create an invisible wall in front of us that blocked them from entering. He then said, "Do you prefer tea or insulting enemies more, Langst?"
Langst replied with a smile, "Laughing at people like them doesn't match the taste of tea."
The wall vanished, and I used my ability to freeze all the enemies before they could take a single step forward.
We continued on our path as enemies appeared around us. We defeated them like we were crushing ants and moving forward. I yawned when we reached the center of the kingdom to find a grave surrounded by blue flames. Is this grave what keeps the kingdom of Sky floating in the air?
I extinguished the flames with my ice, revealing the grave to my eyes. It was encrusted with all kinds of gems and surrounded by flowers I'd never seen in my life. I didn't expect to feel comforted by a grave. On the tombstone, it was written:
"Here lies the body of the one who gave us our dream. Here is the last stop for the soul of the ruler of earth, Skyram."
Before we could do anything, we received a call from the academy:
"There's a high-ranking A-grade cave we need you to clear."
A gate opened before us, and Fyorai emerged from it saying, "Enter, it will take you directly to the cave's location."
I prayed to the soul of 'Skyram, the Ruler of Earth,' and then entered the portal with the others.
Indeed, we emerged right in front of the cave. The Shinta radiating from it is truly intense—you could classify it as special grade, and no one would doubt it.
But in the end, it was easy. While Langst and Rivan were killing the monsters, I created an icy basketball court and started playing with Elios.
As we played, Elios said, "I wonder how each of us wants to die."
I answered, "Your question is strange." Was he trying to distract me from the match to score a point? A failed move!
He dashed quickly and passed me while speaking, "I just thought of it and started feeling curious about it." He tried to score, but I ran at high speed and stole the ball from him.
I landed on the ground and said, "You're curious about strange things, but fine. I want to die in any way except in battle. No, I won't die in battle at all."
I dashed toward his area. He tried to block me and said, "You hate losing, as usual. I want my death to be meaningful. I don't want to die for nothing."
I dodged him and scored a final point. Then Langst spoke while fighting the monsters, "I don't want to die alone," he looked at us smiling. The green blood on his face reflected the light of the torch on the nearby wall.
Rivan spoke after crushing the monsters around him, "I want to die with great knowledge. Knowledge that benefits the world."
At that moment, I noticed Elios had grabbed the ball and scored a point on me. "Take that in your frozen butt!" he said, laughing... This wind demon is a cheater!
"I'm going to curse you to death!!"
We reached the end of the cave. The smell of monster corpses filled the place. Like rotten potatoes mixed with meat and a bit of white cheese...
We entered the boss room, but we found him torn into pieces in the middle of a lake of blood, the dim lights of the torches on the walls reflecting off it.
At the end of the room, a man turned to face us with cold eyes and a pale face. Before I could see his full features, his face turned pitch black and empty, and he charged before I could understand what had happened.
He forced Elios to swallow a glowing stone and hurled Rivan against one of the walls. He then turned and tried to attack Langst. I tried to block him with a wall of ice, but he destroyed the wall and lunged at Langst.
Langst tried to block him with his hands turned into blades, but the man, with a single strike, hurled him toward one of the walls.
Who is this man… where did he come from, and how did things turn like this! Why do I feel this intense tension!!
I attacked him directly with spears of ice and tried to freeze his feet, but he easily destroyed the ice and knocked me to the ground with a single blow.
His hand destroyed the cells in my chest, and the blood-covered stones struck my back. After that hit, he vanished from in front of me. I raised my head to see he had gone to Elios. The glowing stone was stuck in Elios's throat. The man inserted his fingers into Elios's mouth and forced him to swallow the stone.
I tried to stand, but I froze in place because of the scream that came from Elios. He held his head and pulled his hair tightly amid his continuous screams. His body trembled violently, as if he were seeing the lowest point in hell. No, worse than that. As if he were seeing what lies beyond hell.
He looked upward and started crawling away, as if he saw something on the ceiling. And in the end, he lost consciousness.
The man turned and began walking toward me. Every step in the lake of blood echoed through the place while droplets of blood scattered in the silence. The outer silence.
I quickly stood and tried to attack him. Again and again. Ice blocks. Arrows. Spears. Cold winds with sharp shards of ice. I tried to freeze the entire place, but he grabbed my neck.
And in a single moment, he crushed my body to the ground. I felt my blood mixing with the surrounding lake of blood, which in turn drowned me. My vision gradually became blurred. I tried to use my ability, but for the first time in my life, my ice didn't appear. My ice was no longer cold.
Is this… really my end?
I... want to live..!
---
Langst Vitaline
My head hurts badly. Elios' screaming has stopped. What happened to Yarasou and Rivan?..
I emerged from the rubble, searching with my eyes for anyone. And in the end, I saw him. Yarasou was completely crushed. I feel his Shinta weakening little by little.
And with it, the flames of the torches weaken. I attacked the man at that moment, but he stepped toward me in a swift motion, and his black face was now facing mine.
Even though it was just a fraction of a second, I felt like the darkness would consume me. A darkness like nothing I've ever seen in my life. Though it was empty, I saw tortured souls and heard crumbling screams within it.
He grabbed my head and threw me toward a wall that shattered, sending me into a hidden room.
I tried to stand and use my ability, but I couldn't.
Did he aim to weaken the Shinta flow…? Does he want me to just sit and watch him kill us?
At that moment, I saw a sword in the hidden room. A black sword.
I must fight.
I held the sword and stepped forward in pain to fight. The man watched me silently.
Each step made my body groan in pain. And the man just watched.
I reached him after a few steps that felt like thousands. I swung the sword with my weak, tired hand, but he was unaffected.
My body is now too weak to fight because of his disruption of the Shinta flow. But I felt something strange.
15
I felt something from the sword.
14
A strange aura. I collapsed to the ground.
13
A strange aura flowed into my body. And with it, I heard a voice say a name. "Lin"
12
I felt that something was being taken from me.
11
I felt like my body was being destroyed from the inside.
10
I coughed blood and vomited right after.
9
I felt like my eyes would explode.
8
I clutched my chest with my left hand.
7
Tears began to stream from my eyes, and with them every breath left my lungs.
6
I felt nothing.
5
I felt nothing but pain.
4
I didn't feel my head, submerged in a lake of blood…
3
In which hope also began to drown.
2
At that moment, I realized we were finished.
1
I realized that we… are not the strongest.
0
And at that moment. I felt an aura that had vanished just seconds ago. An aura I know better than anyone. The aura of Yarasou Vitalis blazed again.
---
Yarasou Vitalis
"You haven't sent me to hell yet," I said to the man. A strange smile crept across my face. I don't know why, and I don't know how, and even though despair fills the place, I feel that I truly… am unbeatable. I came back from the dead.
The man looked at me and said, "Very good. The mission is complete."
"Wait, wait, why leave when things just got interesting?"
The seas and oceans, the lands and the poles, the galaxies and the dimensions, all bear witness to my strength.
Above the earth and beneath the sky, beneath the earth and above the sky, I am the strongest being in existence.
I raised my hand slowly. Gently. No, I see it slow, but my hand was faster than that man could comprehend.
The ice launched—but it wasn't ordinary ice. It was something like a beam of ice.
Freezing and destroying everything in its path. Even air particles wouldn't survive it.
Even the gods bear witness to this power.
I am the first person in a thousand years to achieve a double awakening.
Before the attack reached the man, someone emerged from his shadow, and they vanished. No, they teleported.
He survived. What a shame.
The double awakening occurs when a person is on the verge of death. Usually, in such moments, very few beings master an advanced Shinta technique: Flow.
A healing technique like no other, mastered only by the elite of the elite. It restores limbs and organs and fully heals the person.
The only way to kill someone who has mastered Flow is either to decapitate them or to hinder the flow of Shinta.
But the double awakening—it's something almost mythical. The last time it happened was a thousand years ago. It only happens to people… we could say they are special miracles.
A will to live, a desire for power, and sufficient potential. These are the requirements for the double awakening. And I am the one who achieved it.
The double awakening grants mastery of both Flow and Fusion.
In that moment, amid the silence that prevailed, I heard footsteps behind me.
I turned to find Rivan approaching slowly. His breathing was heavy and broken. His eyes wide open and his condition pitiful.
He spoke in a trembling voice, "Yarasou… did you see it too?"
He was about to collapse, but I caught him. "See what?" I asked.
He looked at the ground, then at the ceiling like Elios did. "The rulers."
After he uttered that word, he lost consciousness.
---
The Present
I finally woke up from sleep. The weather is hot and my body drenched in sweat.
"Oh my god, what a nightmare."