75 Chapter 75. Vanessa's story

"Drat! What the hell is this report?" a black-haired man dressed in fine robes furiously slammed his fist on the table causing it to break in half along with the report.

The rest of the men around the table were shook to the core as all the muscles in their body tensed up in fear.

"We have two whole sub-units was rendered mentally unstable. That is over ten thousand well fed soldiers that are unusable," the man angrily spoke. He then looked at one of the men around the table, "Explain yourself!"

Immediately the man shook in fear as he cursed his luck in his head. He immediately stood up and replied, "Commander, this incident began about ten days ago. And I was only informed about it five days ago. We managed to get some information from three men who had managed to stay sane. They said that they had seen a demon and fear shook their body and it was so terrifying that they could tell that one gaze from the demon would be able to end them."

"It must be an illusion expert then," the commander suggested.

"That's what I had initially thought but then we asked the army's illusion expert but she stated that this did not seem like an illusion as the level of rendering people insane is only found within the top experts and that there is no possible way for the Lapis Kingdom to be able to recruit such a figure," the general informed.

"We need to stop this. Any suggestions?" the commander decided to ask the table as he himself could not come up with a good solution.

"Commander, if I may request it. I want to lead the charge with my unit and finish off this person," the general suggested as he stood up and bowed deeply.

The commander paused for a few seconds before ultimately nodding in approval, "Okay. I permit you to go. The rest of you must make sure you kill enough people. We need to fill up the object before it's too late."

"Yes commander!" all the generals at the table saluted and all left the location.

Leo was currently sitting on top of a branch on a tall towering tree where he could see the whole scene in front of him.

Rays of the setting shone on him, encasing him with its warmth as he enjoyed the view while cultivating.

Achoo!

Suddenly, Leo gave a loud sneeze which interrupted him, Garrick, and Vanessa who had just climbed up the tree.

"Holy Molly!" Garrick exclaimed in shock as he did not expect that to be the first thing he would hear as he got up.

"Oh. Hey guys," Leo embarrassedly looked at them.

"You guys need anything?" he asked to the two of them.

"No, not really. We wanted to train with you," Garrick answered as he walked to Leo and sat down beside him with Vanessa also joining them shortly after.

"Sure. I don't mind helping you guys out," Leo agreed as he took a deep breath while relaxing his body as he looked at Garrick with his heavenly eyes as he observed his body and he fell into deep thought.

"I see..." Leo spoke as he stroked his chin in a very sagely manner.

He then turned to Vanessa and did the same for her.

"Ooo... This will be fun," he commented as he got up.

"Wait here a moment, I'll be back," he told them, leaving the two confused to the core.

A few minutes passed and Leo reappeared again with nine large bars of heavy metal that were wrapped in cloth. He walked to Garrick and handed these to him.

"From now on, I want you to have these tied to your body when you fight. One on your calves, thighs, arms, shoulders, and your back," Leo informed as he tied all the heavy metal bars on to Garrick' body.

Garrick did not immediately disagree with it but when he felt the weight of the bars, his facial expression suddenly tensed up as each bar was unexpectedly heavy. Weighing about eighty kilos each. Nevertheless, he forced his mind to think of this as training and did not go against it.

"Once you are able to moved around with ease, we will switch to a heavier one," Leo spoke. He then took out a long extremely thin thread made of silk and ran through about four hundred leaves and hung them across the countless sub branches that spanned out from a single main branch on the other side of the tree.

"This is the next part. When we're not fighting, you can try this for fun. The challenge is to cut each leaf cleanly in half in four seconds."

"What?!" Garrick's eyes practically flew out of their socket as Garrick could not believe what he had just heard, "How am I supposed to do that?"

"The secret to that will be the axe and how you use it. There is a very strong night-like energy that is hidden in the axe. I don't know how to access it but if you are able to figure it out then I am sure that you will be able to accomplish it," Leo ensured with a warm smile.

"Ok!" Garrick smiled brightly as he walked over to the leaves and immediately began practicing his movement with axe.

Seeing Garrick have work to do now, Leo then turned to Vanessa, "Okay. Now to help you."

An extremely tense feeling of fear and foreboding fell on Vanessa as she forced out a very scared stiff smile.

Her feeling did not escape Leo's perception as he let out a short laughter, "Haha! Don't worry. Your one is different."

Phew...

"But I do have a few questions for you."

Hearing this, Vanessa simply smiled as she nodded.

"Your heart is extremely heavy. It is not good to hold such stress and let it weight you down to such an extent," Leo spoke as he sat down next to her as he looked at the sunset.

"I once read a story. Stress and your worries that you hold are like a glass of water in your hand that you hold out. As time gradually passes, your hand will get tired and if you don't let it down then your hand will eventually give out and the cup will drop, causing a mess," Leo spoke in a very scholarly like tone as he reminisced back to when he first saw that story on his phone.

Hearing Leo's story, Vanessa was deeply affected and her mind began conflicted.

"Look at the world in front of you," Leo suddenly spoke, bringing her out of her tranced state. Her eyes then lifted towards the landscape in front of her and an amazed look immediately in her eyes.

Two large brown rock cliffs separated by a huge one kilometer crevice, creating a large dry majestic canyon. Enhancing the landscape, was the orange vermillion sun as the day bled into nightfall, bringing the stars into life and the white strobing light of the moon slowly rose on the opposite direction.

"I was a member of a sect in the western coast. We came here to fight but we were ambushed by a rival sect and only I made it away. My big brother sacrifice himself to let me escape safely. We were already too far from the sect so I escaped to a city where I joined a mercenary group and eventually I ended up here. but my mercenary group was quickly eliminated by the Ice Deity group because our leader had a dispute with them," Vanessa began to open up as her worries slowly faded as she looked at the beauty of nature.

"I see. So why is your heart so heavy?" Leo asked seriously as he could not figure out what part she was holding so deeply.

"When my brother died, I felt so powerless. So weak. So puny," Vanessa spoke as an extremely sad expression appeared on her face with tears slowly appearing in her eyes as she looked up., trying to stop them from pouring out.

"I see," Leo nodded understandingly as he understood everything Vanessa was talking about. He had also felt the same back on Earth. During his grandparents' death and especially his death.

But now, he was here. A place where he could climb and get to the top. Where he could just train with his extra talents. But then a thought hit him. People here could be just like him. They do not have such talents and are powerless.

"Okay! This is how your training is going to go. I'm going to help you by instructing you where to lead your energy within your body. I'll try my best to help you get to the point where you are able to take revenge for your brother," Leo decided and told Vanessa.

"I do have a single sentence for you though. This should help your heart. 'No how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.'"

A large warm heartfelt smile appeared on her face as she nodded resolutely. It has quite surprised her that Leo was this eager to help her when he had only known her for slightly more than a week, But nevertheless, she was extremely thankful to him for saving him and making her feel better.

'Brother, life has not failed me. I might have just found a way. I promise to get revenge,' she motivated herself as she followed Leo's instructions and found that it had drastically improved her strength.