Darkness Behind the Flames

After a few days, Akihira and Ichitsu approach Ishihaya.

"We're ready to train!" Akihira and Ichitsu both say.

"That can't be, it's only been 3 days. Impressive, you both might just have what it takes." Ishihaya says while amazed.

They all go to a big empty field nearby farvein.

"ALRIGHT, LET'S BEGIN!" Akihira says in excitement.

"Woah, woah, slow it down buddy. Before we begin, you need to know about what we're going to be facing off against. Firstly, the demon king has 2 main lines of defense and about 2000 highly trained soldiers. The first one being "The 5 Thorns of hell" the guy you encountered 'Rolgith' is the leader and therefore the strongest of them, and each of them command about 400 demon soliders " Ishihaya says to them.

"So your saying each of us have to take on about 130 of them?" Ichitsu then says.

"Yeah, but that's not all-" Ishihaya gets cut off.

"OH HOW MUCH?! THIS IS ALREADY TOO MUCH FOR MY BRAIN TO HANDLE" Akihira interrupts ishihaya.

"That wasn't even much info, although i didn't expect you to sit quitely throughout this entire thing" Ichitsu says to akihira.

"Oh shut up" Akihira says as he looks away.

"How can you be so Immature? Anyways, please continue ishihaya." Ichitsu says.

"Ahem, So above the 5 thorns of hell are the 2 main guards of the demon king known as the "Dimension Duo", they stay near the king all the time, their incredibly powerful warriors chosen and trained by the king himself. Even one of them at near full power can beat all of the 5 thorns without even breaking a sweat. So it's necessary that you two train harder than anything you've ever done before in your lives! Understood?" Ishihaya says.

"YESSIR!" Both Akihira and Ichitsu say.

"But one question, Ishihaya." Ichitsu says.

"What is it?" Ishihaya says.

"How do you know so much about the demon king and his army?" Ichitsu asks.

"Well, I was one of the 3 bodyguards of the former king. Fought along side him up until his death, he was real good person. But anyways, let's get back to the to the topic at hand." Ishihaya says.

"Let us begin, I'll teach you how to unlock your powers and learn to control them as such you can use them at any time. Now Concentrate, Feel the wind, hear the sound of the moving leaves and visualize the world around you with your eyes closed. Then you will feel something rising from within your body" Ishihaya says.

Akihira and Ichitsu start to concentrate around their surroundings. A whole day had passed and it was night time now, Akihira and Ichitsu still struggling to control and manifest their powers.

After three days, Ichitsu felt something he could hear that slight wind that touched his skin, he could sense the leaves falling from the trees. He had done it, Ichitsu could see the world with his eyes closed.

The sky started turning dark, a dark purple-ish aura surrounded Ichitsu and wind started moving fast around him. Then a grey color sword came flying to Ichitsu he raised his hand and caught the sword as Ichitsu grabbed the sword an intense flash of that aura came down from the sky and onto Ichitsu then the aura shrinked and was absorbed by the sword, Ichitsu then opens his eyes.

"I did it!" Ichitsu then says.

"Incredible, I've never seen so much power immediately after awakening." Ishihaya thinks to himself.

"Absoloutely splendid Ichitsu! That was marvelous. That was some powerful aura, but don't let it get to your head. You still got a long way to go." Ishihaya says.

"Thanks!" Ichitsu replies.

Meanwhile, Akihira concentrates and enters an unkown place, he opens his eyes and looks around and sees he's in a place surrounded by fire. He then sees a bird like creature covered in fire flying above him.

"WOAH! WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?! AND WHAT IS THIS PLACE?!" Akihira Asks

"You are destined for greatness." The creature says.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" Akihira asks.

"You will find out, eventually." The creature replies.

Just as Akihira was about to ask another question, Flames spread around his whole body. He felt an intense power and got a grip on how to use it a little.

In the real world, as Ichitsu and Ishihaya were talking they felt an intense heat start coming from Akihira suddenly flames burst around his body.

"Looks like he finally got a hold of it! I knew it he could do it!" Ichitsu says.

Akihira then opened his eyes, Ichitsu starts to walk towards Akihira but then is suddenly stopped and pulled back by Ishihaya.

"Why'd you do that for?!" Ichitsu asks in anger.

"He's not Akihira right now..." Ishihaya says.

"What do you mean?" Ichitsu asks in concern.

"Take a good look at him, it seems he's losing control to-" Ishihaya stops talking.

As Ichitsu looks towards Akihira he could see his eyes were cold and his fire started turning black.

"Wh-what is this insane pressure? Feels like i'm stuck in the ground!" Ichitsu says as he's frozen in fear.

But Ishihaya acted immediately and temporarely sealed akihira's power, which brought Akihira back to his senses.

"Akihira! Akihira! Are you with me?" Ishihaya asks.

"What happened? Why are you screaming? jeez" Akihira asks.

"You went out of co-" Ichitsu was cut off by Ishihaya.

"You began to use a bit of your powers" Ishihaya says.

"Wait, I DID?! AWESOMEEE!!!!" Akihira says in excitement.

"So, what'd you see when you were concentrating?" Ishihaya asks.

"Well lemme think, I suddenly entered a different place like it was a whole other world or something everything was covered in fire there," Akihira replies.

"Is that all?" Ishihaya asks.

"Feels like there was something more but i just can't seem to remember it" Akihira replies.

"Alright, you've both done amazing. Let's go back and rest up!" Ishihaya says.

When they reached the village camp, Ichitsu says to Akihira.

"Damn, That's a crazy power you got there. You should rest for now"

"You think so? welp i'm tired, Goodnight." Akihira Says

After Akihira falls asleep. Ichitsu goes outside to meet Ishihaya to ask him about what happened to Akihira.

"So, what really happened to him?" Ichitsu asks.

"I'm not really sure myself but there's something evil about Akihira's power, get some rest for now." Ishihaya replies.

Ichitsu tries to fall asleep but he kept thinking about what happened to akihira and what Ishihaya said to him and couldn't sleep.

In the morning, Akihira was woken up by Ishihaya. He then goes outside and meets Ichitsu.

"Hello there!" Akihira says as he smacks Ichitsu's back.

"Yeah, hey..." Ichitsu says with a fake smile.

"You should get ready, we're heading out so from tomorrow your training will start and you won't see each other for 3 months." Ishihaya says.

"Wait, WHAT?! We wont see each other for 3 months!" Akihira and Ichitsu both say.

"You will be training in different places, since you both have completely different abilites." Ishihaya Says.

"I see, that would make sense-" Ichitsu says.

They set out to a secret dock, hidden from the world.

"We're almost there" Ishihaya says.

"What even is this place and how come nobody else comes here?" Ichitsu asks.

"It's a place hidden by a powerful enchantment so no one can really enter it unless their allowed to." Ishihaya replies.

"Alright, here we are. It's time for you guys to say your goodbyes" Ishihaya Says.

Akihira and Ichitsu say goodbye to each other. Ishihaya gets ready to leave on a boat. As Akihira was about to get on the boat, Ichitsu says

"Akihira, after 3 months I will be stronger than you i'll work hard to become stronger."

"Hahaha, sure whatever you say. BUT I'M GONNA GET EVEN STRONGER SO YOU BETTER WATCH OUT" Akihira says.

"We'll see about that in 3 months" Ichitsu says.

Both of them smile while saying waving goodbye.

Ishihaya then takes Akihira to the place where he will be trained and then after 5 days he comes back and takes Ichitsu to the place he will be trained.

END OF CHAPTER 7