Even though Zeralf had improved greatly in his battle prowess in those years that Genzo had picked him, some parts of him still felt loneliness, sadness, and bitterness as much as he always held an emotionless and indifferent attitude and expression. Just some years back, the only thing that mattered was playing, reading, sleeping to lullabies from his mother, and getting in his father's embrace whenever he seldom saw him. But in one night, just a night, everything became foreign to him, and he got exposed to what life actually meant.
What would have happened if that night didn't just exist, what if that night was a dream, would he still be here appeasing his new power hungry life? he bet not. He was sure he would still be somewhere getting nagged by his mother, her beautiful face even at the time of her cold murder still renamed fresh in his memory, something that would forever haunt him, both in his dreams and realities.
'' Momma. '' He bit his lower lips a little bit with force and blood oozed down his chin giving his already melancholic face some mournful depth.
'' I miss you. '' He mumbled to himself.
The feeling of hate, betrayal, and the want for power to set things right though kept him going and they push any thought of weakness to one corner of his mind.
he would not hate the world for his misfortune neither would he save it because the world too was minding its business when he saw hell. He was not shifting blame, he was just reminding himself of who he was now. He would just practise the act of facing what concerned him and just that, nothing more.
he brought out a small white handkerchief to clean the blood stain on his chin, after that he wriggled it and it tore into irregular shreds which he threw away without looking at where it dropped as his body adjusted to the new space-warping feeling.
He opened the new portal which was greatly similar to the one he entered at Nerili city. When he got to the ground floor which was also crowded, he got many dazed gazes which he always got whenever he went out but he didn't really give a damn. Life could not be sour and hard yet you would still not spend abundantly on yourself.
The scene that awaited him when he left the station even though he was not seeing it for the first time still managed to amaze him albeit.
The remote southern region of Majhr was like being on a different planet entirely. There were no flashy vehicles, people dressed in exorbitant pieces, or bustling noise of the usual industrialized city.
The major means of transport were land cars which the inhabitants here found pricey, boats in water regions, vermins like horses for those who trod the forest, and trekking, the most popular.
The smell of greenery was also thicker compared to the industrialized Nerili city and Zeralf could not help but inhale that peaceful smell that invaded his nostrils.
Zeralf headed for the forest which was about an hour's walk from where he was, which he used as a form of training exercise for both his mind and body since he could appreciate the beautiful vegetation there.
When he got to the edge of the forest, he found many EDF agents guarding different angles while checking those who were entering and coming out of the forest.
It takes no genius brain to realize that something was up and Zeralf was particularly curious as to what could have happened for there to be EDF agents taking this part of the world seriously.
The EDF agents were very blunt to the inhabitants sometimes using vulgar words but when they saw Zeralf approaching in his dapper outfit, they took note of the air around the kid and decided to behave albeit. The last thing they wanted to add to their current predicament of guarding a forest is to mess with the kid of an influential person.
''I knew my luck was bad. '' One of the agents muttered to himself with an unhappy tone when he noticed Zeralf approaching him.
'' Young sir, we may have to check your identity before we allow you access. '' The guy tried to put out the most courteous smile.
Zeralf really wasn't expecting this, the forest was just some place to hunt vermin so it was not usually given that much attention but now things seemed to have changed. The problem was Zeralf didn't have any registered identity yet, he only hoped the card he was holding would be more than enough.
'' Here, is this alright? '' He stretched out the card in an unbothered manner, one no and he would turn and leave.
'' This. '' The agents almost dropped the card that he just took. He had only heard of this card in books and had never seen it in real life let more touching it. His light skin turned pale and his face was devoid of colour out of astonishment and excitement.
'' F*ck it, not only is my luck bad, it's even ruined, why did I end up with someone holding this card. ''
'' Lucky me I wasn't rude. '' The agent rejoiced in his head.
'' I can't enter I suppose? '' Zeralf muttered with half annoyance but in a flat tone when he noticed that the guy only stared at him and did not say anything.
'' Ahh of course you can enter. '' the light skin agent with thin long black hair returned the card with clearly shaky hands.
'' Wait a minute why is the EDF getting involved in this part of the forest all of a sudden? '' Zeralf could not help his curious
'' You didn't know?''
'' Oh my bad of course someone like you won't be familiar with this backwater. '' The guy started ranting.
'' Two months ago we found two corpses of Quartz rank Devas and ten corpses of ten mortals gorily laying in one part of the forest. ''
Zeralf's right eyebrow arched when he heard this.
'' The perpetrator had not been arrested yet and since then the security around this place had been strengthened. ''
Zeralf nodded and walked past the guy. He would not sit down listening to someone killed someone story, that was just them being unfortunate and he was not going to butt in.
He entered the forest which atmosphere felt more relaxed unlike how the EDF agents at the edge were making it feel. He walked deeper until sparse sunrays reached the ground. he saw some wild monkeys but he was not interested, he was looking for some gang fight and he knew vermins that would serve that purpose right.
He left the deeper region where tall trees were and went even deeper where the vegetation actually dwindled and gave more of a savannah appeal. There he found his first target, three packs of lions.
Vermins are not Devas in the sense that they couldn't awaken Dharma which separated them from beasts, but they still possessed Ki which made them very dangerous for ordinary mortals and hunters were usually the ones tasked to hunt them mostly for nutritional purposes but sometimes for clothing, mounts, and source of other useful materials.
Zeralf vanished from where he stood and appeared ten meters away, a few meters before the closest lion. it was greatly alarmed by the intruder's presence but before it could roar, Zeralf swung his kusarigama, and the head tolled in the air before smashing a rock.
dead!
He swung the other end that stabbed another lion that was rushing toward him and it jerked in pain before dying too.
Ten spatial cuts appeared and a whole pack got destroyed. he hung his hands down about a meter apart from each other while still holding the kusarigama and then spun in the air. The weapon also spun along with him in a circular motion and any obstacles it met, got simply destroyed.
'' Too weak. '' He thought when he looked around and found only corpses of lions.