2 A New Hope (2)

After another day or so, Zeke finally washed up on some unknown shore. The repeated rocking of the waves eased his boiling rage and soothed away the terrifying expression on his face, but if one were to look deep into his eyes, they would see a deep red-black flame, pulsing slowly in his eyes.

"Ao Feng, that dumb bitch! Who cares how strong you are if you can be tricked that easily? And Markis Tidewater, Prince of the Holy Cross Kingdom. More like the king of assholes. Seriously, scum like that passes for royalty in this place?"

His time on the water had allowed Zeke understand a bit about the world of his predecessor, as well as the unfortunate circumstances of his death.

Simply put, it was case of mistaken identity. Or, more appropriately, someone had the wool pulled over their eyes, and he was just a sacrificial sheep that was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

What Zeke gathered thus far was that Markis was a banished prince from the Holy Cross kingdom. Based on the previous occupant's memories, the Holy Cross Kingdom was a middle sized kingdom that was in charge of the administration of various smaller surrounding kingdoms, like the Blacktree Kingdom that he was from. The reason that Markis was banished from his kingdom to the smaller ones was because he was an incredible debauchee . As prince, he took whatever he wanted, competed at auction houses without even the pretense of bringing money, snatched other peoples' wives off the street. It was finally to a point were King Tidewater had to do something and sent him away.

This, however, did nothing to detract from Markis' behavior, and encouraged it instead. This was because, besides being cast out, there weren't any other punishments. As his strength was at the bottleneck to a Great Warrior, his qualification as an heir to the thrown wasn't rescinded, and everywhere he traveled was covered in a blanket of darkness.

He was even more unbridled abroad than at home, and committed atrocity after atrocity. Until he took it a step too far. Typically, Markis had a 3-layer protective shell that let him get away with his actions. First, as a rank 9 Warrior he wasn't weak. Second, he showed a talent towards Darkness which increased his ability to escape and gave him some control in creating weak illusions. Finally, he still had the backing of the Holy Cross, most situations he couldn't get out of otherwise could be solved be his father's name.

This time he kicked an iron plate. While traveling, he had accosted a disciple of a major sect in a rival kingdom who had been out traveling. What resulted was an ass-kicking that lasted months and crossed many territories. Markis, usually a god in his own eye, had finally met his bane. Ao Feng was a rank 1 Great Warrior with the Light element, which suppressed Markis' strength as well as surpassed and countered his qi, and as a member of a rival kingdom she could care less about his status as a prince.

The chase eventually led them to the islands off the coast of the Blacktree Kingdom leading them to a very strangely shaped island, and a very unfortunate 'Zeke Solgod'.

It turns out that Solgod made a living finding rare herbs or hunting the beasts that resided on the still wild islands, was on the strange island by chance just resting before he made his way back home to turn in his findings to his father to sell later.

As luck would have it, however, this was just when Markis, bruised and battered from a months long pursuit, finally stumble upon the island and captured Solgod. With his pitiful rank 3 Fighter strength, Solgod still couldn't resist the battered and exhausted half-step Great Warrior, and Markis, using his Darkness element and the fact that his injuries caused his aura to fluctuate, camouflaged Solgod to become almost an exact replica of him. Markis looked him over once or twice, then he used his qi to manipulate Solgod into a position that looked like he was recuperating before speeding off in to the distance.

Shortly after, a black haired, long legged beauty arrived, clad in a silver qipao wrapped in white light like armor, spouted some bullshit about justice for the world and ridding evil and all of that, then directly sent out a glowing white sword beam.

The beam easily tore through Solgod's chest, and flung him towards the center of the island.

With a couple of light steps through the air, the beauty chased after him but quickly wrinkled her brow in displeasure.

The power of her slash easily broke the hastily put together illusion, revealing some random weakling. Annoyed by the increasingly long pursuit, along with all the petty tricks that Markis had played along the way had sapped patience. Hence, when she saw Solgod, she quickly wrapped him up in shiny golden chains and brought him before her.

"Where did he go?"

Her expression was cold and grew colder upon realizing that she wouldn't be able to get anything out of him due to the gaping hole in his chest.

"Trash."

In her annoyance, she sent out another light sword beam to sweep him away. Even though the beam was only intending push him aside, its power couldn't underesitmated. She didn't pull her punch because of her state of mind, and with Solgod's life slipping away, that light beam was akin to a full grown California Redwood smashing into his body.

His bones cracked and he continuously spat blood filled with pieces of ground up organs as he flew deeper into the island. Coincidentally this was exactly the cave ravine he first found himself in with the red flower.

And this is where Zeke came into play.

"Well buddy, i guess in a manner of speaking, we made it out of there. Question is whats the next move."

Zeke ruefully thought to himself,as if he was trying to elicit the companionship of the killing intent he carried.

"First things first, what's wrong with me with me? Why can't I move still?"

As if to respond to his question, a vast spiritual strength swept out then condensed into a light ball the size of a golf ball. Once the light ball fully condensed, some new information popped into his head.

"Oh this is my spiritual sense. It can leave my body? Where is my body?"

After a few tries and getting his orientation, Zeke was finally able to find and scan his body.

"Well this isn't in any of the other memories."