Please Train Harder

The spirit world was known as Realm of Illusions. Thousands of spirits lived in this place; it was a whole different world inside Exgreia. And the entry from this was forbidden.

Spirits could go out whenever they wanted and return as they pleased, but different beings weren't allowed to step into this realm. 

There were instances where a few human beings entered the Realm of Illusions without realizing it. Sometimes, they were lost in the sea due to the bad weather conditions, and they would soon wake up in the world of spirits, but Calix, the Spirit King, would return them as soon as possible to the surface of Exgreia.

The spirits treated their home as a sacred place, which nurtured their powers as time went by. Energy was so abundant in this place that even the weakest spirits could manifest incredible power without doing much as long as they were in this world.

A spirit could find a being and bind themselves through a pact. In this case, spirits could be summoned by their partner, and the summoner could use the full power of that certain spirit without limits as long as he had sufficient energy. Spirits loved to have this bond with the elves because of their love for nature, while there were some who chose humans to lend their powers. But never in the records of history was it mentioned that a spirit was bound in prideful beings, especially demons and dragons. 

However, there were also spirits that didn't let their powers be used by someone. They were those who were powerful enough to fight on their own, and the Spirit King was one of them.

Calix was a muscehead who loved fighting so much that he roamed the whole of Exgreia during his younger years just to fight with powerful beings. He had already suffered numerous life-and-death situations, but he never stopped challenging those who were stronger than him, and one of his favorite opponents to spar with was the Demon King.

But a fight kept him cooped up in his place for the rest of his life. It was against the Demon King's General during those days. He lost a battle he didn't expect to lose.

That was an unforgettable memory for him, and so he decided to train and grow stronger to have a rematch, but after tens of years of seclusion, the man he wanted to fight so much disappeared without notice, and the Demon King never talked about him nor his whereabouts since then.

The Spirit King lost his purpose, and he became a neutral being in the world of Exgreia until he heard the prophecy from the Celestial Seer.

He decided to raise his fist once more. However, at that particular time, it was not for his pleasure but for the peace of the world, even if he needed to kill the only being he considered a friend a thousand years ago.

. . . . .

The Spirit King arrived in a forest filled with gigantic trees; each of them had different sizes, and the colors of their leaves were different from each other. These trees were the homes of spirits, and each color signified their respective elements. 

Calix made an entrance by plunging downwards between the group of spirits and a black-haired man dressed in a black coat; he had a small red bowtie below his neck. Calix looked at the group of young spirits at his back, and it made him relieved that no one from them was harmed. Then he turned his gaze to the man.

"The pleasure is mine, Your Highness. My name is Pollux Nightingale, but you can call me Lux." The man introduced himself after taking off his black top hat, and he bowed in Calix's direction.

"Leave! There's no place for a vampire in this realm," Calix replied with a domineering demeanor.

"However, I was ordered to come here to search for something, and as a loyal servant of my master, I would gladly obey even if I needed to flip this world upside down," the man said before putting on his hat on the top of his head. His eyes were telling the Spirit King that he was serious about what he said, and this made Calix step forward.

"Then, let our fists do the talking," Calix said with a wide smile, and then the lightning that was flickering on his body started to compress in his arms. A pair of gauntlets made of lightning enveloped his both arms, and he leaped forward to attack his enemy from the front.

Then, the man named Lux held his hat on the brim and stopped the punch of the Spirit King with a single hand. His white glove tore the moment it came into contact with the sparks of lightning.

"The talks about you were true after all," he said before he smiled, revealing his fangs, and then he moved sideways to dodge the incoming left kick from the Spirit King. 

Calix didn't pull his punches and continued to aim for the vampire's head and body. However, all of his attacks were parried and evaded by the man.

"Slow," Lux said while still smiling.

Calix became flustered by that one simple word. Then he started to insert more power into his punches. And as soon as the man blocked his fist with his arm, an electric shockwave was produced, which destroyed the man's sleeve and flew off his hat behind. 

"You won't win without fighting back," Calix uttered, then he punched the man once more, but Lux didn't reply to him.

Instead, he continued to dodge and block Calix's attack to the point that his clothes were ripped by the sparks of lightning. 

Then, the Spirit King became more irritated due to the man's smile, and he started to activate his Legacy. He threw another punch with his left arm, and the vampire extended his palm to parry his attack, but he was sent flying by an uppercut that connected to his jaw.

Calix smiled upon seeing that his punch was a success. Then he jumped and propelled himself in the air to attack the man once more. Lux raised his arm again to cover his head from Calix's incoming kick from above, but like what happened a few seconds ago, the kick didn't collide with his arm.

Instead, he felt a heavy kick land on his stomach.

Lux was hurled into a giant tree with red leaves, and he slid down from its trunk. The small fire spirits that were hiding inside the tree flew away and regrouped with the other spirits. They were called Salamanders, and their main characteristics were their flaming hair and small remnants of fire that were floating around them; unlike the Sylphs, Gnomes, and Undines, they were the most aggressive type of spirits.

These four were the base forms of spirits called Elementals, and as they matured and reached a certain age, they would evolve into higher beings that were called Guardians, and their elements would grow in different directions. Several Salamanders would start to learn how to produce lightning, while the others would start to conjure unique types of fire that had different effects. This process was similar to that of other Elementals.

Lux slowly stood up after he fell, then he smiled at the Spirit King.

"Misdirection," he uttered, and then he wiped the blood from his lips.

Calix cracked his neck and shoulders, then he bumped his fists with each other.

"I told you, evading alone wasn't enough to defeat me," he said before he jolted forward and aimed a punch once again. His next attack was not a simple punch clad with lightning; there was a small orb of condensed electricity in front of his fist. 

Lux didn't think twice; he leaped away from Calix and evaded the attack. Then the large tree behind him burst and burned into pieces, but it was not the end of the attack.

The orb exploded, and a shockwave reverberated throughout the whole Realm of Illusions. Then, the rumbling vibrations formed cracks in the ground, causing hot lava to rise. The young spirits couldn't hold their ground from the impact, and they tumbled away as soon as the shockwave hit them.

"Your Highness!" cried the spirits before they got up from rolling in the ground.

"Why did you run?" Calix asked with anger while pointing to the man who leaped into one of the tree branches, but the man laughed at his question.

"I'm not that masochistic to let myself experience pain from that attack," Lux smirked in the Spirit King.

"Woaaah, that's intense. Hey Lux, I found it!" A woman wearing a white maid uniform exclaimed after she appeared from nowhere. She had blue-colored hair that reached her underarm, and her eyes were midnight-blue like the sky.

She was carrying an apple-sized boulder; it was so normal that Calix couldn't hold himself back from asking.

"Hey vampire! Do you come to this place for that stone?" He asked his question without hesitation, but Lux didn't reply to him.

Instead, he jumped next to the woman's figure and took a look at the small thing.

"Are you sure about this?" He asked the woman, and then she nodded and even saluted.

"I'm one hundred and one percent sure that it's what we're looking for," she said, brimming with smiles. Then Lux patted her head and put the small rock in his pocket.

"Good job," he commended the woman.

Due to the fact that the vampire ignored his question, the Spirit King dashed forward and performed a punch aimed at Lux's head.

"We're not done talking," Calix said when he was just a meter away from the pair.

However, he was slammed into the ground all of a sudden by an unknown force. He tried to recover but couldn't stand up. He was being crushed by something he couldn't see. Then the man in front of him spoke.

"Playtime is over," he said while looking at Calix. "I wanted to play some more, but we have urgent things to do." he added.

Calix did his best to take a look at the vampire, but his strength was insufficient to overcome the invisible force crushing him from above.

"W-what! D-id, y-ou do?" A few words managed to escape from his lips even though his face was buried in the ground.

The man was walking away when he heard Calix's voice.

"Oh, sorry, I almost forgot" he said, then turned his back to face the Spirit King and bowed, "I'm bidding my farewell, Your Highness. Please train harder!"

Then he looked at the woman beside him.

"Let's go," he said, and then after, the woman put her hands together as if praying to someone, and a warp gate materialized in front of them. 

They entered it as soon as it appeared, leaving the Spirit King stuck on the ground.

And as the portal got closed, the force above Calix disappeared, but he didn't move even an inch. He was deep in his thoughts.

'Am I really this weak?' He doubted his strength, then a piece of memory resurfaced in his mind.

It was about a silver-haired man tossing a black colored dice in the air while saying something to him.

"Maybe the next time we cross paths, you can ease my boredom. Please train harder," the man said.

His reminiscence ended there, and he stood up with his eyes closed.

The phrase "Please train harder" echoed in his brain multiple times. Same words from two different entities; one happened a few minutes earlier while the other was from a thousand years ago.

Calix opened his eyes and stared into the flowing lava, then made up his mind.

'Grow stronger,' he thought.

The Spirit King was so occupied by the idea of getting more powerful that he completely forgot the reason why the two individuals invaded their realm.

. . . . .

A man and a woman walked out of a warped gate in a dark alley, and then all of a sudden the man fell on his knees.

"Lux, what happened? Are you okay?" The woman asked with worry in her face, and she sat down to look at the kneeling man, then fell on her butt due to shock when the man shouted.

"Damn! My hat! I forgot my hat," Lux cried in grief.

. . . . .