Purpose

Mysteries tended to stay hidden. They'd rather not be known than have someone figure their truths.

In the same way, the person in front of Steve didn't seem to care about naming himself whatsoever.

Nor even showing his face.

Steve didn't know when, but he found himself in some strange world after losing consciousness.

The colours seemed saturated.

There was this grey filter over them… as if nothing mattered here. Neither reality, nor consistency.

He didn't know why it felt like he'd forgotten how to move. If he could remember, he'd approach the figure and take a look at the face turned away from him. Wanting to know the identity of this person.

The only thing he could do was take in aspects of the man that had nothing to do with his expression.

The man was sitting on a large rock. Wearing copious amounts of leather like he was a biker.

He had a modern-looking tank-top shirt and jeans.

Along with a big old tattered jacket.

"Why can't you stay still?" The man asked him. It looked like he was reproaching him about his acts.

"Me?" Steve pointed at himself.

"Yeah, you… Is it hard for you to stay out of danger for once?" There was irritation in that heavy tone.

But anyone who heard it could tell that he cared.

The only problem was…

'Do I know this person?' He didn't remember anyone like this, regardless of how they looked.

"Aren't you going to answer?" The mysterious figure continued, so the letter went with the flow.

"It couldn't be helped…" Steve shrugged his shoulders. He had no regrets in his choices.

"Weird…" The head of the man finally turned, but what could be seen caused one to be frightened.

Steve took a step back.

Although the back was straight out of a picture, the front of the person was nothing but solid shadows.

That face… it had no human features.

The mysterious man simply has two white eyes and a nice row of teeth visible. His clothes an illusion.

Everything was a lie…

"What the hell are you?" Steve finally asked that question. He raised his fists, ready to fight back.

But the person seemed uninterested.

"Weird…" He spoke up again: "You look different than before. Are you really the man I'd known?"

"You ask who I am? That's easy… I'm no one in particular. But if you want a name, then…"

"Try calling me 'Warmonger'." The strange creature made a satanic smile after introducing himself.

"You're unworthy of accessing the System as you are now, but I'm not strict. I'll let you temporarily borrow techniques from me if you ask. When you find me, I'll also give you a congratulatory present."

"For now, me being here is your early reward. You can thank me now." The man fully turned around.

Warmonger was like a shadow pretending to be a human. When he turned around, all pretends had faded. The sunset background and visage of a biker faded. Leaving only darkness in Steve's eyes.

An abyss that made the shadow's figure blend into the background, but also made his eyes clearer.

There was no way this wasn't some trick…

"What do you want?" Steve held his fists up, but didn't make the first move. Only looking at him.

"Your survival. Which your making real hard." This answer didn't really seem to make much sense.

"I'm making it hard…?" Steve raised a brow.

"Yeah. You got some nice eyes, but did you have to turn your Artes Lines into a natural seal? It wouldn't be strange if you never manage to externalise energy for the rest of your life." Warmonger seemed to know more than what Steve expected.

In fact, he already knew this himself.

"That was an accident… Wait, what is it to you if I survive? Are you inside of me?" Steve felt a bit sad.

He was uncomfortable having this strange existence within him. It'd cause many problems.

"Didn't you listen earlier? You're the one who sent his half-dead spirit to me. This is MY dream realm and personal space. Not yours. Shouldn't I be asking you what YOUR intentions are?" Warmonger didn't seem to care much about what he thought.

But the boy instinctively felt that he wasn't lying.

This place felt detached…

"I thought your purpose was to live quietly." The shadow called Warmonger continued their talk.

"I'm doing what I want." Steve shrugged.

"You never wanted something like this before."

"How would YOU know that?"

"I know everything about you." Warmonger slithered around the boy while falling into thought.

"Then you know what's disgusting. I just didn't want to see that. Get it?" His eyes had glowed.

The shadow noticed the crystallisation of resolve in those silver eyes. Different from the earlier Steve.

"Do you know what Silver Eyes are?" Warmonger suddenly felt like elaborating to see a reaction.

"…Silver Eyes?" There was no way he could have known the hue of his irises had changed recently.

"They are natural born resolve. Normally, you either have them or you don't. It's a difficult to acquire level of inner harmony that will boost your rate of learning skills. You have these eyes. And only because you sealed away all your potential."

"Really?" Steve was pleasantly surprised.

"Yeah… But you'll hit your limit sooner or later if you don't change. For now, leave and return back."

"I have a lot of questions for you now." Steve focused his eyes on the face moving about.

"Were you not listening? Your soul and body are disconnected. Do you want to die? 'Questions'?!"

"Save them for later. Let me give you some advice before throwing you back: Learn some martial arts and focus on creating a new style. I'll lend you my knowledge whenever you ask, but that's not a permanent fix. Grow and learn for yourself."

"Take care." Were the last words Warmonger spoke before throwing him back. Adam awoke in reality.

Barely remembering what he had seen.

…..

….

…

..

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Graid wasn't sure of what to do about his son.

Killing him was out of the question entirely. The only thing he thought about was splitting his child.

Extracting the Warrior Gene affecting his mind.

…But he knew that was impossible to do.

He'd barely managed to lock away his son's potential under a Rule Fixture last time.

This was only because he was a master of Seals.

Now that the 'rule' broke, there was no way of returning his child back to the way he once was.

He saw it in his once innocent boy's eyes.

Corruption had settled in, and he was no more than a Demon now. He had to accept the reality of this.

Any form of extraction would destroy Miliv instead.

So what could he do?

"I'm back!" Farhon kicked open the door, and was surprised by the scene going on before his eyes.

Steve was laid flat on a table.

Graid was sitting on a chair next to a little elvish girl he'd tied up, and Garcia walked around in circles.

'What the heck happened here?' His face turned weird. Looking at Garcia, who nibbled her fingers.

"You didn't do anything, right?" If he added the two things together, the hypothesis was quite dark.

"Do what? Can't you see I'm in the middle of something here? Go grab Diana if you're gonna speak nonsense." Garcia slapped his back and pushed him out, only to turn right back to her.

"Hey…"

"What?"

"…" Farhon gulped when he saw the rare irritation in her eyes. She looked a little bit pissed right now.

"Are you going to just stand there?" She looked ready to throw a slipper. Did he not see anything?

The situation was bad!

"…I'll go get her." This wasn't him being cowardly in front of his wife. It was just being a rational person.

He was an A Rank as a solo Adventurer, and she was at the S Rank. They were a world different.

Regardless of their Class differences.

Farhon went to go find Diana, only to see her returning from outside with dirt covering her face.

She seemed to have had quite the battle to find the coffee beans necessary to fix Steve's condition.

Turn his senses to normal.

"Diana…" Just as he called out, she shook her head. Gesturing she had a headache right now.

When she walked past him and opened the house door, she had the exact same reaction Farhon did.

"GARCIA!" She didn't even stop for a second to think before confronting the woman about this.

"Why are you both pointing at me? Can't you see this isn't how it looks?" She made her case, and with some thought, the two who were at the door realised they might have misunderstood her.

Then coughed in embarrassment.

The four of them sat down to talk about it.

Graid spoke of his past, Garcia lamented of her present, and Diana theorised their future actions.

Only one man sat at the back… overseeing this.

"Are we not going to talk about how he changed eye colour?" Farhon pointed at the young boy.

The rest of them turned to him, then went back to talking about how they could help Graid's son.

Steve was laid down on a straw bed in the living room. Unknowing of the things they talked about.

"Garcia, are you actually alright with harbouring a Demon?" Diana suddenly said something wrong.

"Who are you calling that?! MY SON IS NOT SOME DAMN DEMON!" Graid angrily pointed his gun.

"For all intents and purposes, he is-"

"Stop." Garcia didn't let her say another word. It was too sensitive, so she just repeated: "Stop…"

"…We can talk about all this later."

Graid and Diana agreed… They reluctantly put down their weapons while keeping guarded.

It was natural for this.

Diana wasn't much of a religious person, but after seeing the condition Steve was in… she'd wanted to use it to her advantage. Driving a rift between Graid and the rest. She really had no love for Miliv.

But time allowed her to invest in his problems.

Or to be more precise, the desperation Farhon showed to help his friend made them calm down.

"Settle down. We will all do something. You should leave for now." Diana drove him away to focus.

With Garcia's healing expertise, Diana's magic sorcery and spells, and Graid's knowledge from a greater civilisation, they started to work out a plan for him. Even if 'fixing' Miliv wasn't possible to do.

They finally settled on an idea after a few hours.

"Would this really work?" Graid asked. He had made a lot of concessions to get to this point.

Especially regarding the state of his child.

"You know what will happen if anyone ever finds out your child is a Demon now, right?" Diana was still unfriendly, but she was going to do exactly what they'd decided on rather than complaining.

The choice was up to him now.

Graid looked at the face of the child he had raised this whole time, then thought of their solution.

One part of it was sealing up his child's consciousness and creating a fake double based on his ego. An alternate personality that would see themselves as female and his natural daughter.

She'd lose some of her freedom since it would be hard keeping Miliv suppressed, but she would at the very least fit into society and not get herself killed. Unlike the psychopath that was now his son.

He sighed… then met up with Farhon to get help in creating a magical item to achieve this solution.

As expected, he was immediately won over.

Their roles were then split between them so Farhon could focus on smithing, Graid could focus on implementing seals into circuitry, Diana writing the spell circles, and Garcia making it a holy item.

It was while they focused on this that Steve had awoken from his sleep. Waking after a few hours.

Checking on them to show his face and see what they were doing. That, and talking more to Miliv.

Unexpectedly becoming friends in the process.

Diana watched the two and remembered the coffee beans she'd just acquired. Boiling them in a pot.

Getting them wasn't easy…