Chapter 4

'This is gonna suck!' thought the boy as the banged-up little buggy rolled along an uneven dirt road.

He thought with how much everyone hyped up this royal institution they could send better carriages for them.

Instead, they had to ride in these rotting old carts which were too crowded in his opinion.

In this one cart alone there were a dozen kids all scrunched together in this small space which was clearly not made with transporting large groups of people in mind.

What was even worse about all this is that as we traveled even more kids were crammed into here.

The cart he was trapped in kept getting more and more crowded to the point where he felt like he was going to suffocate, it was utter hell.

Thankfully after about twenty or so kids were stuffed into here they stopped adding any more children otherwise the boy would have lost his mind.

The boy who was sandwiched between two sweaty older boys twice his size could only groan as they slowly made their way toward the capital of the kingdom.

...

It took a few days for the caravan of young children to make their final stop at the gates of a massive stone wall that surrounded the capital and the boy couldn't be happier.

It had been an excruciating few days stuck in this sardine can of a buggy but now he was just glad it was going to be over.

At this point, he no longer cared about the royal institute he just wanted some goddamn fresh air!

Shoving his way to the back of the cart the boy took deep breaths while looking all around so he had some idea of where they had stopped.

After peeking over to the front of the caravan the boy couldn't help but freeze and marvel at the sight of the giant gates surrounded by towering stone walls.

If the boy had to guess the wall was close to 200 feet tall and was probably as thick as 60 feet and as for the gate itself it looked to be nearly fifty feet tall and was constructed out of solid steel.

He was thoroughly impressed by this wonder of human engineering.

A sight such as this would even be considered impressive in his old world of towering skyscrapers.

"Okay brats when we get past the gates stay quiet until we reach the institution and no getting outside the carts understood!" yelled a tired and angry cart driver.

The boy then reluctantly put his head back into the carriage where he silently waited to arrive at this royal institute, everyone keeps flapping their lips about.

As the cart rolled through the streets the boy couldn't help but notice the morbid atmosphere that permeated every corner of the empty city.

The capital looked sad and gray like all the life had been drained from the cobblestone houses.

'What the hell who died? Why does this city feel so depressing?' thought the boy as he observed the rundown buildings and crumbling roads.

"It seemed like everyone in this whole city just gave up something horrible must have happened for the entire capital to be like this." said one of the boys in the carriage.

The other children agreed with this including the boy after all it only made sense that a great tragedy must have befallen this city in recent years given the mood of the capital.

"Shut it we're here!" yelled the cart driver.

The cart came to a screeching halt at the entrance of a large castle in the center of the capital.

At its front stood a man in black armor shrouded in a crimson robe with golden trims along with a group of stalwart-looking knights in silver armor.

"Prostrate yourselves for you runts now stand in the presence of his highness king Ezekiel Fulcher!" exclaimed a fierce-looking man clad in gold armor.

This man looked to be more important than the other silver knights as he was allowed to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the king and wore glittering golden armor that looked quite expensive.

The children not understanding their situation naturally freak out but a quick glare from the golden man was all it took to silence the children and make them fall to their knees.

No one could understand what was happening it was almost like the gravity around them suddenly came crashing down on their heads carrying the force of a runaway freight train.

Many children fell unconscious from the sudden weight pressing down on top of them.

One unlucky little girl even started bleeding out of her nose and ears before crumbling to the ground like a puppet whose strings were cut.

It was only after this did the golden man finally decide to stop and luckily it was right before the boy could join that unfortunate girl.

He looked absolutely miserable covered in sweat, muscles screaming from over-exertion, and bones still creaking from the pressure.

"Now that you are all quiet let me explain your situation," said the bored-looking king.

His attitude surprised everyone including the boy, how could he not care about one of his subordinates almost squashing all of them?

Also how the hell did the golden bastard increase gravity enough to be able to crush someone like that?!

"My name is king Ezekiel, as you all know you are here because the royal institution is accepting commoners this is true but before you may enter I must test something first and don't worry this test won't affect whether or not you will enter," said the king in an uninterested tone like he didn't want to be here.

The boy couldn't help but notice how sad he looked.

His face was unshaven his golden hair was disheveled and he just had this terrible air of sadness around him, he was clearly a broken man.

'Okay red flags everywhere I need to find a way out of this!' thought the frightened boy as he worked his way to the rear of the group.

His actions didn't go unnoticed by the king he gave him a nasty look before elbowing the golden knight next to him.

The knight nodded before focusing on the boy who crumpled to the ground under an intense force.

The boy screamed as his joints rubbed against each other and his muscles were pushed to the limit before tearing apart like sheets of paper.

Only after the boy's cries died down did the knight stop.

"Let that teach you all a lesson there will be no running from his majesty!" yelled the furious knight.

This only served to further terrify the children but it did have the desired effect, all the other kids who thought of leaving quickly decided to change their minds.

No one wanted to end up like that poor little boy after all.

The boy bloody and bruised cursed his reckless actions before, while under the gazes of a surprised crowd, slowly returned to his feet.

'Hmm? Now didn't expect that but he still doesn't look too good, he definitely has some broken bones.' thought the tired king as he looked at the broken boy's body.

"You over there boy, looks like you can take a beating so I guess I'll test you first so you don't bleed out before the day is over!" shouted the king.

He then ordered one of his silver knights to walk over and grab the boy.

The knight saluted the king by beating his chest like a gorilla then ran over to the boy, grabbed him forcefully, and dragged him over to the king.

The boy was unceremoniously thrown in front of the king leaving the children to wonder how could they treat an injured young boy no older than three years old so roughly.

"Get the needle!" shouted the king who seemed agitated for some reason.

A knight then hurriedly approached the king with a strange foot-long needle on a red cushion.

The needle looked like a comically large pin cushion needle with a copper body engraved in runes and a round red bulb on the end the size of an apple.

The King picked up the needle and then shoved it into the boy's chest causing all the children to scream.

The King furrowed his brow which caused the children to quickly shut up.

"Calm down you noisy brats I didn't pierce his heart I just need a blood sample so shut up!!!" shouted the king like a crazed beast.

It was like something flipped a switch in his brain and now the king had lost it!

He furiously ripped the needle out of the boy's chest before shoving it into the golden knight's arms.

"Test the blood and let's hurry this the fuck up!!!" screamed the king who looked like he was inches away from killing someone.

The shiny gold knight quickly took the needle and flipped it upside-down so that the blood could drain into the red bulb.

The knight waited and after a few seconds, his eyes widened when the bulb started glowing.

The King was equally surprised but surprise quickly turned to horror then it turned into a strange madness that take over the king.

"Son of a bitch! Not again this means one of those Cultivars will come...no not again! Never again!!!" wailed the king who was now whipped into a wild frenzy.

He lashed out at the boy, pulling out a bronze great sword coated in runes he aimed to sever the boy's head, for some unknown reason, he wanted madly to kill this boy.

"Now, now what's going on here?"

The King froze when he heard that voice for it was the voice of the man who had haunted his dreams for nearly fifteen years.

"You...you!!!" roared the king as he pointed his sword to the sky.

Suspended from mid-air a man in white robes with a red dot on the center of his forehead stared down at him.

He had long straight black hair, piercing blue eyes, and jade-like skin without a single imperfection.

He looked young no older than twenty years old but what was really strange about him was the pair of antennae that sprouted out of the top of his head.

To call them weird would be an understatement, they just looked so fake.

The antenna were just long black rods made of some kind of plastic with little round nubs at the ends.

It looked so stupid!

"Hey, you little shits I'll have you know these antennae are a clan requirement, stop staring!" yelled the man with the antenna at the crowd of gawking children.

"You bring me back my son!!!" roared the king.

The man turned his attention back to the king, scoffing at his request.

"Your "son" is now a member of the green perish clan and has been since we took him all those years ago. Stop lamenting over something that happened in the past and just so you know your son is happy and healthy. He is now a consort of a lady from the main family and reached the fourth evolved realm! His life is so much better than anything you could give him you lowly mortal!" said the man arrogantly like he was talking down to a child.

"Mother...fucker," snarled the king like a beast.

Right now he looked so furious it looked like his eyes would pop out of his skull.

"ENOUGH KILL HIM, KILL HIM!!!" screeched the king like a baritone banshee who was losing its goddamn mind.

The knights however refused to move, paralyzed by fear.

The King noticed this which only served to piss him off even more.

"Cowards one and all if you won't kill him I will!!!" shouted the king who pointed his sword at the man.

Focusing with all his might the king activated the runes on the sword which caused flames to shoot out like a high-powered flamethrower.

The man yawned and raised his hand to block the flames.

"Hahaha! You fool these are mystic flames created by an artifact you can't just block it!" shouted the king in a mocking tone.

The antennae-wearing man just sneered in disgust at his provoking words before flicking away the flame blast like he was swatting a fly.

The kings mocking expression soon morphed into a pale ghostly vestige, consumed by helplessness.

"Impossible...that was an attack from our kingdom's strongest artifact...no one can just block it," stuttered the frightened king.

"Hehehe! Stupid old fool that's a mortal artifact sure it's strong for a human weapon but a human weapon means nothing to a Cultivar like me!" yelled the man in a mocking tone not unlike the king's previous tone.

The King consumed by his fear and weakness crumbled into a heap on the ground and began sobbing like a newborn.

The antenna-wearing man relished in his despair but then he paused while trying to remember why he came here in the first place.

"Oh, right our sensors detected a seed so where is he!" commanded the man to the knights below.

The knights, terrified and unsure of what to do, handed the unconscious boy to the man who descended from the sky.

That's right the boy had fallen unconscious a long time ago after the needle pierced his chest and was completely unaware of the events that were happening around him.

"This is him?! Well beggars can't be choosers," said the man as he reached for the young boy.

"Not so fast green perish scum!" shouted a giant bronze-skinned man clad in black robes with bloody red trims.

The man from the green perish clan glimpsed over at the giant of a man with a lazy look in his eyes.

"Oh, just great some brute from the shattering bone clan is here looks like things are about to get ugly," said the antenna-wearing man while glaring menacingly at the giant bronze man.