Chapter 27-Crimson Rain

<Cusco, Peru>

Itachi stepped off the plane for their final match before they would have to go to Venice to compete in the national tournament. Over the past couple months they had traveled all round winning many badges. Their team was already ranked the highest next to Britain Egypt and China for the number of badges obtained.

After winning the first one in Japan, they had soon traveled around many Asian countries winning pretty easily as they gathered badges. China, Korea, and many others were defeated without too much trouble. They had moved onto many European countries. Russia was not too difficult, and they defeated many other countries such as Germany, France, and Bulgaria in Europe. While the defense teams were weaker than the main teams traveling around, their track record was shocking since they had never been defeated and they always beat the defense teams first try.

Itachi's cultivation had greatly risen over the past couple of months. Shadow and chaos which he had awoken the most recent were solidly at the second level of high tier giving him powerful new abilities. His shadow magic gave him a powerful domain type ability that shrouded an entire area in darkness weaking other elements, perfect for stealth type attacks. He also gained an ability to greatly condense the shadows creating a deadly shadow sword that could smash into an opponent.

His chaos ability gained unique ability to directly change matter to whatever he willed it. It could directly change the composition of something to a molecular level, and ever since he had broken through he had been working on increasing his control. His first tries at changing matter resulted in an unrecognizable lump of iron when he had tried to change one of his steel spears. He had to focuse intensely on what he wanted to change something. After some practice he managed to change his spear into a solid metal knife. The more he practiced, the more control he had and currently he could condense the materials making them stronger along with making them sharper when he manipulated it into an edge.

One day when he was practicing however, he had tried to pull all the molecules apart instead of arranging them and the result was shocking. The entire thing disintegrated into tiny molecules of iron that fell to the floor. He had figured that along with the ability to rearrange matter, he could also break it apart which was quite useful. Another ability he gained from high tier was an enhanced version of his chaos blades. He could send a barrage of high powered chaos blades that almost instantly arrive at an opponent as it cuts through space. They attack the opponent from all sides cutting the opponent apart.

His previous elements had all arrived at high tier level 4 which was the max level, and he could sense his cultivation speed had immensely fallen. The gap to super tier seemed far and Itachi wondered what he could use to speed this up. He already had an immense amount of souls inside his lil loach pendant boosting his speed, yet his cultivation speed had still slowed down greatly proving the gap from high tier to super tier was no small matter. He had the strongest magic of high tier unlocked, and his strength had received a large boost.

'Maybe I can find some way to gain entry into the void temple in Australia' he thought. That was the place with the highest chances of breaking through to super tier after a mage arrives at the peak of high tier. It was a special place made as a result of a spell space magician using a complex spell... Jk he fucked it up destroying space in a large area while he was never heard from again.

On the bright side however, they had managed to stabilize it creating a tunnel through it surrounded by a special building to prevent issues. The platform is surrounded by the essence of space which is able to help many magicians make the complex leap into super tier.

Along with increasing his elements during cultivation, his demonization form had made a huge breakthrough in strength. The more powerful elements he had, the stronger it would be so every time they rose, he could feel his demonization strength increase.

Peru was their final destination they would be fighting against before they moved onto the venice finals. Arriving in Cusco they made their way towards the Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco or in other words, The National University of Saint Anthony the Abad.

The whole area was surrounded by rugged mountains as the city was quite close to the Andes mountains. They were visible in the distance towering over the city in the valley. While there were many monsters hidden in the depths of the Andes mountains, the sea would always be a worse threat, and this was actually considered one of the safer cities in Peru.

Most coastal countries had suffered greatly at the hands of sea monster and this south american country was no different. The coastal cities such as Lima near the coast were actually in much more danger. The safe zones had solid defenses from the mountain areas developed after 100's of years of warfare, so the was little chance for invasion from land.

Greeting the team was a small group of Peruvians with one good-looking middle aged man with a well trimmed beard stepping forward. "Greetings students from America, we welcome you to our university" he spoke with a slight accent but his english was otherwise fine.

Stepping forward Itachi greeted him cordially in fluent Spanish "It is our pleasure to come visit and experience your nations culture" he said with a small smile looking through the corner of his eye at his teammates annoyed reactions.

Walking forward angrily it was naturally the fiery tempered Gabriella who stepped forward first thrusting a finger accusingly at him "We accepted the fact you spoke Japanese since you lived their before, but then you spoke French, German, Greek, and now you speak Spanish too, please explain" she said royally pissed off at this genius mage who still seemed to have time to learn a bunch of foreign languages. Let it be noted that most of the people on the team were extremely hardworking to reach their strength and they barely had enough time to cultivate, let alone learn foreign languages.

Returning her glare with a small smile he spoke up "I'm just naturally talented"

"Bullshit" Ryan immediately called out as he stared at this annoying enigma of a person "I have not once seen you even read a book, let alone study a foreign language."

Adding on to this the usually quite shy black haired Grant spoke up "languages normally take years to learn yet you seemed to have learned over 6"

"What can I say, languages just come easily too me" he said with a little smirk feeling bad for all those who have to take hours of online courses to learn a language such as spanish (A:N- Damnit).

*Sigh of course Mat the level headed team captain came to the rescue "Alright, putting aside Itachi's suspicious mastery of languages, this is our final match before Venice. Naturally with our placement we already made it to the next round, but we are currently tied with Britan for first and China along with Greece are only 1 badge behind.

Might as well take on this last opponent before we start the major competition."

Finishing that conversation they turned to face the bewildered Peruvians who were still watching this exchange. The man from before was still awkwardly standing their as he finally found the chance to continue the

conversation "Err its nice you know Spanish, now if you would please follow me the battle grounds are this way."

Since the university was only a few miles away they actually decided to walk and they were quite glad of their decision. "The mountains are quite beautiful" Catherine walking beside Itachi spoke up as she glanced around the valley looking up towards the large rugged summits of the Andes mountain range. the town was near the base of a valley that extended into a vast forrest too large to see the end of.

"Hmmph, the Rocky mountains are much bigger" said an annoyed Olivia who never seemed to appreciate the places they visited. "Oh you have been their before" Itachi replied looking with a mock look of interest at her with a face that pissed her off.

"I've seen it a from a distance a couple times" she said annoyed at Itachi's seemingly constant references to her circumstances. She had yet to find out anything about him and it was starting to annoy her greatly. She wondered if he had some sort of connection to that black dragon they had seen before.

It was very warm and the whole area had quite a relaxing atmosphere. The city was quite nice with quite a few families eating out at open pavilions at nearby restaurants. A group of kids were playing soccer at a nearby field with a few parents sitting nearby chatting while they drank.

The area was quite sunny, but Itachi could't help but notice some dark rain clouds brewing farther away near the mountains. Better not delay our flight Itachi thought a bit annoyed since if they were hit by a thunderstorm, they would have to wait for it to clear before takeoff.

Itachi did some research to learn more about the nation and he learned the government was run by the Peruvian Liberation Army which was actually had its headquarters in Cusco. They were quite strong even internationally with quite a few strong super mages that made their name.

Putting that aside they arrived at the university, and sure enough it was quite an easy match. Their format was 5 1v1 matches and Itachi had no need to go out. Gabriella, and Lucas easily one the first two matches with little trouble as they were definitely a top tier strenght on their team. Grant was sent out next which should have wrapped up the win, but unluckily, their team captain named Maria had a powerful light element that made it difficult for him to gain any advantage. It prevented him from using his shadow movement, and she constantly put on pressure with a combination of destructive fire attacks, along with earth defending herself from retaliatory attacks.

He still had a good chance of beating her due to his earth magic, but unluckily his powered up petrification had just been blocked by a last second earth shield while she sent back a powerful heavenly flame burial crashing down onto Grants defending earth defenses which exploded the rock sending him flying back. He broke a wrist in the fall, but he wanted to keep fighting since he wasn't injured too bad. Mat however decided their was no point in getting injured for one round and they should just send out another better suited student.

Sure enough Ethan went out next while they kept Maria as their representative since they didn't have anyone better. It was a good match but Maria was constantly unable to do anything. her powerful fire attacks were blocked by sturdy water shields. Petrification high tier earth magic was blocked by a ice wall.

Ethan had good counters for her different attacks and she was unable to make much headway. Meanwhile, Ethan sent out a barrage of attacks along with a powerful water wave that crashed over her destroying her earthern defenses.

Having already charged up Advanced(High-Tier) fire magica powerful heavenly flame funeral sent hundreds of fiery meteors crashing into her defensive lightshields. Seeing her on the verge of collapse, he immediately recalled them only staring at the girl.

The girl who saw this immediately surrendered the match since it was her loss. If her light shield broke, she would immediately have to save her life by a defensive magic took, and that would be an automatic loss anyway since they were not allowed in the competitions.

'aahhhh finally done with all this tiring traveling" Itachi said stretching his arms out as he loudly yawned.

"Tired? you spent most of the trip sleeping if I recall" said Gabriella not missing a chance to annoy him

"Man's gotta sleep after all the hard work I've been doing" he said with a lazy grin on his face

Jumping in the conversation was Chelsea the team healer who had just finished healing up Grant's broken wrist "You only fought a couple times and you almost looked lazy during the matches like you weren't using any energy so I wouldn't talk about being tired." she almost snapped at him quite annoyed he never seemed to take anything seriously

Walking forward was the headmaster of the school they had recently met

"It was nice to compete with you all. Sadly we won't be able to see each other again at the venice tournament" he said in a cheery yet sad tone. Although their national team didn't have much of a history doing well, they hoped to make it this year. Sadly they had not made it inside the top 32 teams although they had been close to their credit. The first phase was already wrapping up and the deadline for all matches to be submitted so the rankings could be calculated was in a couple days.

They were walked outside by the headmaster along with a few of their students who actually were quite friendly. While it's not like they were expecting to lose, they weren't surprised, and they didn't seem too heartbroken about the loss.

A few could speak different levels of fluenity in english so a few easier conversations could be carried out. Itachi chatted a bit with a curious Maria who had apparently watched some of his limited fights that were recorded.

She recalled how he was being called one of the aces of the team, and they hadn't seen him fight too seriously with most of his few matches being one in a couple of moves. She asked him a lot of common stuff with questions such as "where are you from?" and other stuff which Itachi mostly answered truthfully while he had to lie in a few areas.

The sky seemed a lot darker giving it an ominous look as the previously brightly lit city was covered in shadows. A loud thunder was heard in the distance as arks of lightning briefly lit up the sky as thunder was heard a few seconds later.

Gabriella immediately looked up distastefully "Stupid rain, better not impact our flight" she said with annoyance evident in her tone

"Very stormy in the summer" Maria replied simply in english understanding most of what the blond haired girl said

Frowning Itachi watched the approaching curtains of rain as the storm moved closer. Something didn't feel right he thought with a sense of dread. What was wrong with him, It was just a simple storm right?

Soon a down pour of rain came down starting to drench everyone as many carried their bags over their heads to shield from the heavy rain. Looking down at his hand Itachi noticed a slight red tint inside the water droplets. Wait.... Red Tint? "SHIT", not good this is just like Bo City he thought panicked the Black Vatican must be here.

Immediately he released his immense telekinetic powers in a wide arc around him completely freezing the rain in place over the area of several miles "Everyone Listen Up!!". It was hard for others to hear him in the rain, but the telekinesis did the trick as the group turned in shock to see how powerful his telekinesis was. Stopping the rain in place seemed like a near impossible feat, but the red tinted raindrops hung around them in a spectacular sight. The Peruvians looked at him in wonder at his display of power while even his own team was similarily shocked at this strength.

Most of them had never seen his space element in action, and while they knew it was powerful from stories from what happened at the lake, it was another thing to see them in person.

"Trying to show off" Gabriella said playfully while she was quickly shocked at the dead serious look on Itachi's face. 'Hold up, he never looks serious, Whats going on' she thought a little scared internally while she kept up a smile.

"This is not normal rain" he said seriously as he gazed over the group that he had the full attention of. "This is an experiment of the black vatican. If we don't take action soon, this entire city will be overrun by bloodthirsty monsters" he said seriously as the group felt a simulatenous chill in their spines as they took in his words.

"We need to warn the army along with evacuating civilians away from near the edges of the zafe zones. As I speak, thousands of monsters are currently swarming driven mad by the need for blood by the drug in the rain" he said in a grave tone

Reacting immediately the headmaster pulled out his phone quickly dialing the one of the General Fernandez who should be inside one of the fortresses at the walls protecting the safe zone. Picking up was a grumpy tone "Yeah hello what to you need, I'm in the middle of a game right now" he said slurring his words obviously drunk as a game of poker could be heard going on in the background judging by the voices.

Immediately the panicked voice of the headmaster rang out "The country is under attack, you need to raise the alarm because the city faces total destruction" he said practically shouting into the phone as the lazy voice of the general spoke out again "What do you mean, it's puuuurfuctly fine here" he said as a bit of giggling was heard in the background "hehehehe, you like what you see general" a seductive tone sounded out from the other side while the students looked at each other disgust shown on their faces.

"I'm not playing around" he growled angrily into the receiver "We're being attacked by the black vatican and as I speak hordes of monsters are rushing towards the city"

"Ughhh, I'll check it out I assure you nothings wrong. Boys! Someone Says Their Is Some Monsters Coming Over, Let's Go Check it out" he called out as a few groans of annoyance were heard.

With a greatly irritated expression Itachi looked at the headmaster "Is this the standards your members take with protecting the nation?"

Shaking his head he looked worriedly at the young man "They shouldn't be, this is bad. They must have grown complacent lately"

"We have a few guards, they should've alerted us to anything happening" the general spoke in an annoyed tone "visibility is not too good, but their is currently nothing nearb- wait... I see a dark shape.... Is the ground moving?!" a panicked shout rang out that instantly turned the listening groups blood cold

"No, It's Impossible, How Could There Be That Many!" the fear filled voice of the commander rang out.

"I'm going to die, I'm going to die!, I'm Going To Die!!, I'M GOING TO DIE!!!" he frightfully struggling to even think straight as the group listening heard the sound of the phone hitting the ground. Suddenly far into the distance multiple bright beams of light shot into the sky so bright that they were even visible in the rain. Following the corresponding signals, the bone chilling sound of a Siren wailed around the city like the sound of death itself signalling the Black level alert which instantly sent the city into a panic.

If blood red alert meant rivers of blood would flow, black meant total annihilation. The fact the alert level jumped straight to black signified they couldn't even begin to comprehend the scale of the attack.

Phone still in hand we could faintly hear the general in the background shouting while horrible sounds were heard in the back ground. Screams were heard as horrible sounds of vicious snarls and... slow heavy footsteps.? Suddenly all audio was cut off as a distant crash sounded out from the direction of the border while the entire earth seemed to shake with what had occurred.

A few buildings collapsed from the miniature earthquake as the students looked over in horror into the distant direction of the wall where the sound seemed to originate.

A few fleeing pedestrians ran past while one young black haired boy in particular shouted "The Monsters Will Eat Us Because We Are Cattle" while he ran down the street with a scarf drifting behind him.

Looking around the near scared shitless group while after shocks still ran through the ground from the power of some unknown thing,Itachi decided he needed to cheer them up a little. "At least you can say, General Fernandez went out with . a..... Bang. Ehh? Ehh? anyone?" Guess it wasn't that funny. It's still better for them to be angry at me than to be frightened by the invasion he thought staring at the annoyed glares he was getting.

Moving back to a grim tone once again Itachi looked over them "Prepare for battle because your lives depend on it"