Kenno and his group of roughly 30 bandits trekked outside a small town, the man donning a Pseudo-Mythical armour sighing continously as throughout this entire time, he didn't know exactly where he was going.
He only knew he was supposed to be in the Belvion Union today but nothing more.
His followers were looking quite discontented as ever arriving here, they had not been allowed to enter any town or city to rest.
They had been wandering aimlessly for so long and without hearing anything specific from Kenno, which was very, very infuriating. A few days had passed since the death of many of their members during their attempt to raid the Isise and this along with the boss' mysterious battle – that was never explained to them – against some kind of super reinforcement to the city of Evic that Kenno had claimed he could handle, left a lot of suspicion floating in everyone's heads.
The established trust was quickly breaking down and Kenno could feel it.
Day by day, he was losing his men's trust.
"Alright, I can't handle this anymore," a man by the name Udo said as he came to a halt.
He wore a deep scowl as he gazed at Kenno. The man with the true sapphire armour also stopped, his intense breath afterwards showing that he was expecting this to happen.
It seems like this was the final straw.
"If this continues, I'm walking away. As a leader you have the right to have your secrets but as of right now... I can't tell if you're the same person I decided to follow," Udo said, his words seeming to represent what everyone else was feeling.
The looks on everyone's faces mirrored how Udo's did.
Dissatisfaction and disappointment.
What were they even doing?
"You've been acting too strange. It's as if something has a leash on you, telling you what to do. All these random actions. The sudden order for us to retreat back then. How you suddenly had us go back to the Union to hand in our spoils. How you suddenly screamed like you were being bewitched or something that day... All of this... You either explain it now or we take a walk..." Udo said with a determined face.
The others in the group silently nodded.
The tension grew to a terrifying high instantly, which made nearly everyone grip their weapons.
They understand their boss pretty well.
'There is no honour among thieves...'
This was what their boss believed. He was willing to make the most unsightly of decisions on the fly if the situation called for it.
The only reason the unsightly decisions hadn't involved any of the group members so far was because Kenno played the game smart, prioritising the gains first instead of taking losses for the great good.
But still... the situation could change.
Kenno scoffed, his eye twitching as a subtle rage built up within in for a brief moment, but he stomped it out.
He couldn't just kill these bastards.
They were needed alive.
'You wouldn't understand...' Kenno thought while grinding his teeth.
These fools wouldn't get it.
In the span of a few minutes, days ago, he had been killed and humiliated with the same threat of death until he submitted, not knowing that once he did, there were no windows for escape.
The sensation of dying over and over again...
The sensation of a sword plunging into his brain...
None of these fools understood it.
Skullius had forced Kenno into a Tie of Exchange that made him his property.
He was to do exact as Skullius said.
He was to obey every one of Skullius' commands.
He was to never scheme against him.
At first Kenno had thought this was a basic contract with loopholes but after feeling a deep, heavy weight in his soul after the Tie of Exchange was made, he knew this was different.
He didn't even know if telling his men about this was safe.
Kenno's gauntlets creaked as he frustratedly balled them into fists.
"You are ALL following me until the end. If you resist, I will kill you right here. Your pathetic lives will end and not even a bone will be left to testify that you once lived, even as a fucking bandit. That, I swear to you," Kenno said as a chilling bloodlust bled from his body, several white cards blooming rapidly as they were generated by Perfect Aura to float around him.
...!
Kenno threat was a lie of course but...
Unconsciously, everyone, including Udo gulped hard. They believed it.
Kenno's Genuine Incarnation was terrifying.
His technique was pretty basic, its lethality mainly depending on the properties of his armour but these cards... were incredibly dangerous. They were extremely deadly because of their ability to fly ridiculous quickly towards their target and they were also extremely powerful as defence tools as they were Object type Incarnations.
No one here, including the Shamans, had confidence in dealing with this.
"Uh... you must be the ones! I'm so glad I found you!"
pAn,Da n<0,>v,e1 As the tension turned the air rock solid, a cheery voice interrupted, making everyone turn to its source.
A lime haired girl stood behind the group, smiling affably while waving at them.
On instinct, Udo who had been on edge lunged at this individual!
Amid the normalcy of common folk passing by, someone suddenly appearing without them realising was... suspicious!
Udo's senses were alarmed and by instinct, he had already launched a hook chop with his hand to the back of Yuyui's head meant to incapacitate her!
...!
Suddenly, as the casual might of a First Phase Master bore down on the girl, the look in her eye changed momentarily, her arm whipping through the air with the swift motion of her body in a turn!
She exposed her elbow to Udo's wrist and with the other hand, she jabbed with a dagger that hissed with strange flame, lightly stabbing at Udo's armour!
The man paused, his eyes opened wide!
What... This woman...!
Even though she was nowhere near as fast as him, she had launched a perfect counter right when he had limited room to change the form of his attack, her dagger which was definitely Legendary grade threatening to rip him apart through his armour!
Fortunately, she hadn't intended to harm him.
Rather, she stopped herself.
Yuyui looked to snap out of whatever trance she had entered just now, the look in her eyes shifting to a friendly one once again.
"Oh... I-I'm sorry. Hahaha! That was just a reflex. I'm getting too used to being knocked around. I didn't actually hurt you, did I?" she said, carefully looking where she had nicked Udo's armour.
The man dumbly shook his head, hints of shame suffocating him from Yuyui's cheery and kind attitude.
Did he misread the situation?
"No... no. I am fine," he said much to Yuyui's delight. She breathed out a sigh.
She then turned to Kenno who looked to be getting the gist of who she was already. Her next words confirmed his thoughts rather quickly.
"You're the one, right? Blue armour, ugly face, stiff torso... Yep. Master is waiting for you," Yuyui said with a smile.
'Ugly? Is that the profile she was given by... Uh! Forget it,' Kenno thought.
"Where are we supposed to meet him?" he ignored the insulting profile and asked.
"Wait? Meeting who? What's going on?" Udo asked, a chorus of the same question ringing from the others in the group.
Kenno side glanced Udo.
"You'll get the full picture soon enough," he said.
Yuyui smiled and pulled out the Brilliant Dent.
"In here," she said.
Immediately, the figures of the group were skewed and pulled into the pouch forcibly with wails of fear!
There was a dark space where the group seemed to streak through as they were swallowed into the storage tool but before long, this stopped, colour and structure restored to what they saw.
A storm of mana bashed against the faces, making them groan.
It was a heavy mana-infused wind.
A warm, bright sun rested above while giving light to this scape.
Kenno and everyone appeared to be standing near the top of a mountain.
A stout mountain.
Kenno frowned.
'A storage space of this level...' he said to himself, looking around as did the others.
Crackles could be heard beyond, along with sounds of heavy things pounding against the ground, causing light tremors through the mountain.
What was this...?
Kenno took quick steps forward, scaling up the mountain until he reached the top.
When he did, he saw a bizarre, yet majestic sight.
A figure was seated on a throne set in a pool of boiling lava.
A terrifying figure.
It wasn't human. It didn't seem like it at least.
Behind its gracious throne that visibly pulled on vast colours in the surroundings, as if to feed them all to its master, the background of lightning, fierce white light and rising stone pillars added to the majesty of this creature which spoke in deep voice.
"Welcome, dear guests..."
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