1 Prologue Part 1

Underneath a tall mountain surrounded by the fields of hay at approximately midnight, a deafening sound of two metal objects clashing at each other could be heard as the winds blew ever so roughly. Two people with speed so fast that the naked eye couldn't catch a single glimpse of them. They moved across the fields, fiercely clashing with each other while one of the men was releasing such intense pressure and killing intent that it was almost impossible for the other person even to breathe.

Under the thick cover of night, their battle lasted for half an hour already, and neither one of them had dealt any significant damage to each other.

The person constantly on attack was an older man whose body was built like that of a tank due to the countless battles he has been in. His upper body was completely naked and revealed the massive amount of scars he had, while his long gray hair was tied in a ponytail and waved in the wind, which gave him a frightening appearance.

He wielded a thin cane sword, which was a powerful weapon of mass destruction despite its appearance. The old man jumped from the ground on which he was standing and swung his sword with fierce strength behind it, aiming it at the man standing in front of him.

It was an attack more powerful than any of his previous ones. One that cut the large mountain located behind then right in half.

"You're not holding back, I see."

"Do you want to kill me that badly?"

The person had managed to avoid the old man's fierce attack by moving out of the way in the last possible second before the attack connected and saved his head from being cut clean off.

"..."

"You are taking things too far this time, Elias."

"You're playing with forces of nature that shouldn't be messed with and are endangering all of our lives in the process!"

The person clashing with the old man was named Elias. He was a younger-looking fellow in his early forties with black, slick back hair, dark eyes, and a small amount of facial hair on his face.

He wore old-fashioned and very expensive-looking clothes, the kind that only nobility and lords from the mid sixteen hundreds would wear. In his hand, he held a scythe double the size of himself while white mist oozed out of it and slightly covered parts of his body as well as his surroundings.

"Fufufu, If you think you can stop me, then give your best shot."

"Otherwise, I'll send you straight to the afterlife, old man!"

His words were filled with arrogance and pride. He was confident in his abilities even if he was going toe to toe with a person who was considered one of the world's strongest monsters.

"You cocky little brat…"

The wolves howled as a dark cloud made its way in front of the moon and covered it whole while taking away the light that enabled them to see. This was by no means a natural occurrence. No, it was the beginning of a battle that would leave the entire countryside completely and utterly destroyed. Not even the remnants of its former glory would be left.

"This… might have been a mistake!"

Elias swallowed his saliva before taking a stance and preparing himself for the upcoming battle. At this moment, he slightly regretted pissing off the old man standing in front of him, and the reason behind it was due to him finally taking this battle seriously and changing into his monster form, one which even he was afraid of.

"There's no going back now!"

The previously human-looking old man whose power was equal to that of Elias himself was nowhere to be seen, but in his place, there stood a monster four times the size of himself covered by darkness whose power was now leagues above his own.

"This is the end of the road for you… Elias!"

"May your soul finally find peace as you cross the Sanzu River towards the afterlife."

As soon as the cloud moved out of the way and once again allowed the moon to cover their bodies in the frail light of the moonlight, Elias made the first move and attacked the monster standing in front of him with an attack of equal strength as the one which the old man previously used to cut the mountain in half. The result of his attack and the monster's incredible defense destroyed everything in the surrounding area and left it in an unrecognizable state.

The year is two thousand and four, and two people could be seen walking alongside a dirt-filled road. It was an older man accompanied by a younger-looking woman who wore a distinguished maid outfit and carried a briefcase in her hands.

The man wore a long brown coat and hat with white gloves on his hands. The woman who stood next to him had a worried look on her young and beautiful face as she sneaked glances at his injured face filled with small cuts and bruises.

"What is the matter Mai, you've had that worried look on your face for quite some time now?"

"..."

"Master, I'm worried about you. Things might have worked out for you last night due to a string of luck that was on your side, but if you were to engage in combat once again in your current state, the outcome would be different."

"Are you implying I would lose?"

Mai once again looked at Elias's injured body and the terrible state he was currently in and replied with a simple.

"...Yes!"

Despite the coat and hat that he wore to cover all the injuries on his body, if one were to take a long and careful look, they would notice the shivering coming from his body and that he was barely even walking right now.

"Well, you aren't wrong. To escape with my head still connected to my body can't be considered anything else but lady luck turning her gaze in my direction."

"But even so, I don't know how long I have until they find me once again, and like you said, facing either one of those twelve basters in combat can't lead to anything else but death."

Although their fight lasted for merely ten minutes after the old man had transformed into his monster form, Elias had found himself incapable of defeating him and was left with only one possible path of survival in front of him, and that was to run away.

Just like he said, he had managed to catch the glance of lady luck somehow and escape from the old man's monstrous clutches of death.

"That said, I hope I can find what I'm looking for here!"

The path on which they were walking on for the last half an hour had finally come to an end, and the two were slowly reaching their desired destination, a big and old-looking house surrounded by trees and a field of flowers.

As the two came closer and closer to the house, they noticed the women standing in front that had patiently awaited their arrival for the past few minutes, and upon seeing them, had made a small but gentle smile.

"Sir Elias, I assume?"

The young woman that awaited his arrival wore a beautiful gray dress that matched perfectly with her long blond hair and cute child-like face. However, you looked at it. Elias was completely charmed by her beautiful looks and now had this blushed expression on his face, to which Mai replied with a disappointed sigh.

"Y-yes, and you must be Miss Clara?"

His tone of voice turned much deeper and manlier as he bowed down on his knee, took Clara's slim hand, and gently kissed it.

"I must say, your beauty is even greater than I imagined."

"Oh, umm, T-than you!"

Hearing such words coming from the mouth of a man who she considered to be handsome had left her almost speechless and blushed. Clara's face turned a bright red color as she shifted her gaze away from the gentleman that showered her with compliments.

Their surroundings seemed to have changed as a romantic aura started surrounding them before being roughly interrupted by a briefcase that had come flying at a frightening speed from behind. The gentle hands that threw it and the person to whom they belonged had an expression as cold as ice as they glared at him with nothing but pure disgust.

"Master Elias, don't forget what our reason for coming here was."

"Ah, such a party pooper as always."

"But I guess you're right, now is no time for games. Would you be so kind as to show us around my beautiful Miss Clara?"

However hard she tried, Clara couldn't resist the charm of this handsome man standing in front of her and kissing her hand ever so gently. This action made her face even brighter than it already was, so shook with his charm she could barely pronounce her words properly.

"O-of course, S-sir Elias!"

Standing and observing the situation from afar, the girl who arrived with Elias had an exhausted look on her face that said, "How annoying!". She witnessed these kinds of flattery scenes with her master numerous times, and no matter how many more times she sees them, all of them are too annoying to watch.

"How could anyone fall for that?" She asked herself while following the two of them inside the building as she slowly walked behind Elias.