11 Withered Heart

You'll die.

Zephyr was considering what to do. The Royal Academy most likely did not have any sort of resources which would actually aid his growth. This 'organization' Arlo was inviting him to join was a global one, it was obviously a way better choice.

However, there were most likely many cons to joining this organization as well… Most likely he'd never be able to leave once he joined unless he overpowered the master.

His lips curled slowly. Why would he refuse a challenge?

In the end the worst which could happen is him activating the Root of Destruction and mixing it with his Root of Darkness to cause an enormous earthquake or something of that level.

"Zeph, come here, we need to talk about something." Mother Saya's gentle voice bypassed the walls of the room and entered his ears.

Zephyr frowned, although her voice was 'gentle' it was also accompanied by a hint of worry and depression. He had honed and trained his senses to the maximum, so he could easily notice such a change.

He shrugged, nothing too bad could happen from a discussion anyway.

~~

"Have you heard, a newbie is getting added to our team next month."

The sun had reached its highest peak for today, the rays of it were scorching the ground, which appeared to have seen no water in ages.

The silhouette of a woman slowly made itself visible from the thick and tall trees of the forest she had been inside of.

"Mars, our aim should not be disrupted by talks of a newbie joining our team. I'm sure they have it all planned. He most likely is some kind of prodigy anyway."

The woman's appearance was fully visible after a few seconds of walking. She possessed a voluptous body which seduced many men who had yet to graduate.

Her silky black hair was freely waving from her back. She stood at a decent height of a meter and seventy five centimeters. Her blue eyes resembled the ocean, expressing a world of knowledge.

Mars, was a young man who knew the beautiful woman for a very long time. His facial features were decent and overall you could say he was averagely handsome for some.

One of his favorite quirks was spreading information, but it was never of 'that' kind of information. He was one of the best information breakers in the entire organization.

The woman's name was May, she was Mars's cousin and one of the most experienced fighters of her team, made out of six members. Typically they'd never separate like this, but due to various reasons she and Mars had to take a separate mission without their team.

If you had not already noticed by the short conversation, May didn't really like Mars that much. Mainly because he was always annoying and talkative.

"Why you still are part of the organization is still beyond me." May snorted as she walked forward."Hey, I have my own uses!" Mars defended himself with a hurtful expression.

"If it was up to me, your uses are lower than your wrongs… So I'd kill you."

~~

Zephyr looked over the horizon. Arlo stood behind him with a wide smile he could not just simply hide. He was truly happy to have discovered this raw gem first. The look on Tai's face when he was hit by the realization was simply exciting to imagine.

The town would not realize the disappearance of Zephyr until it was far too late to make any change.All that was a fragile and thin gust of wind.

"Let me quickly tell what you will do now that you are part of the Red Dawn." Arlo spoke with a yawn. After a day worth of traveling, he was not afraid that they might discover their tracks which were practically invisible anyway.

"Usually brats like you are sent back into the headquarters to learn and become experts of Qi or Mana, but you are a special case. You are at the same level as me, a Silver Rank expert of Red Dawn."

"So you will directly be given the rank of a One Star Silver Rank Member. This gives you the right to be assigned to a Silver Grade Team, the superiors have already done that for you however."

"You've been also given the title of one of the top youth members of Red Dawn, so be honored to hold that title you brat."

Zephyr continued to be silent. Currently, he was wearing a dark cloak which fit him very well and aided in cloaking his appearance just in case the orphanage demanded he was found despite him leaving a message.

"Tell me about the team I will have to join."

Arlo raised an eyebrow at the calm way the kid was absorbing all of this information. For one, he did expect the kid to panic a bit, this resembled the brainwashed kids back at the headquarters way too much for his likings.

"Well, I don't know too much personally, but from what I've heard they are a team of pros. Don't be surprised if they come out with something like making you kill in your first mission though, there is a rumor I heard about them hating rookies like you though."

"Usually they die while in the wilderness, so this team usually tries to avoid them. Good luck brat." Arlo said with a shrug as if he couldn't care any less.

"We call that team...The Withered Heart."

~~

"Withered Heart."

Mars muttered with a low tone, rubbing the emblem of their team, a heart which seemingly had withered.

"It is said that most members of our team have no heart, their emotions lay on purely lies." Mars said with a blank expression, unlike before when he had been talking to May, his cousin.

Blood dripped from his free hand, despite having a personal weapon with him, he had not even moved it even once while fighting the mountain of corpses behind him.

His head was tilted to the maximum, a wide smile appearing on his face. " I wonder if these poor fellows behind me… Even had the chance to see their hearts before they died?"

"Are you done with your part, Mars?" May walked into the scene, no blood visible in her clothes. Her part of the mission was done cleanly.

"As usual, you dirty yourself without a need to. Where is leader when you need him…" May growled trying to ignore Mars's insane facial expressions right now.

After a good minute, he finally calmed down and sighed."Apologies~ I kind of overdid it, didn't I?"

"You need to really work on your desires Mars. I am sure that leader won't like the way you played with them, maybe one of them had a wide-range Communication Spell?" May complained as she sat down.