Chapter 5 - The joint mission

Akio wakes up, with tears flowing from his eye. Next to him is Hisako, who holds her dear son's hand, crying. Akio, though, has a solemn look on his face, as he hugs his mother. She tells him that Theos' funeral is about to start.

Realizing the implication of that fact, Akio swiftly gets up and equips an appropriate outfit, signaling to her that they must go now, for they have little time left. They leave at once, and surprisingly enough, they arrive just as the funeral begins.

The two stand proudly next to the other Generals, as well as the successors, Ruby and the young boy who was saved with the help of Theos (chapter 1). Akio is surprised to see a certain man standing at the end, though he is barely able to recognize him.

This does come as a surprise, though, since Akio is sure that he had seen him somewhere. Well, it doesn't matter. The funeral continues as planned, and all of the Generals give speeches about Theos' legacy and in what ways he related to his predecessor, Theos I.

Everyone kept talking about their experiences and adventures with Theos, showing that the man could be considered a god amongst men, in a positive sense. The funeral soon reaches its climax, however, as everyone drops flowers on the coffin of the deceased, after which, it is buried.

When Akio goes to leave, however, he cannot. He feels as if something's calling out for him. When he looks behind him, he sees something reminiscent of Theos' staff, Apotheosis, but when he blinks, it's gone.

That's weird. Akio cannot explain it, nor even make any sense out of the event for that matter, so he leaves swiftly. He sits in a park nearby, recounting all of his important moments with Theos, and he starts tearing up.

"Father... Even after death, you continue to influence each and every one of us. Thank you."

As he continues to sit on the nearby bench, he feels a light breeze, as if he feels something, or rather, someone, talking to him. Akio stands up and extends his fist onto the sky, smiling at whoever is communicating with him beyond the universe.

After this little trip down memory lane of his, Akio goes to the orphange, where Ruby resides for the moment. He'd think that Ruby is somewhat upset because Akio didn't visit her at all ever since his failed mission, but instead, she is full of joy, clearly trying to ignore the recent death that had occurred.

Ruby is ecstatic to see Akio, of whom she has grown quite fond of, as she rushes over. Akio is also happy to see the young girl, and they actually talk and play a bit, but Akio has to head back home. While he was going back, however, a man stops and starts to talk bad about Theos to Akio.

"How do you feel now that your father's gone now, you punk? I bet that you're unhappy, but guess what? It was for the better, that demon would've killed us all!"

Akio is infuriated, but however, he does not stoop to the level of this man. Instead, he simply shoots a death stare at him, as his eye and hair turn black, while some parts of his body follows. The man is scared to the core by this, as he could only see a dark and bottomless pit in Akio's eye, as he runs away to save himself.

The young teen shakes his head, as the dark spots around his body disappear, and his hair and eye change back to orange. Akio wonders what was that, but he doesn't mind it much, for it allowed him to protect his father's reputation, even like this.

When he arrives home, he sees that Hisako and Ichika have already arrived. It's not hard, but they try to adapt to the absence of Theos, something which they can somewhat cope with. Akio, on the other hand, finds it harder to accept.

The longer he thinks about it, the more darkness fills his mind, but Akio tries to stop it. These negative feelings cannot take over him.. they must not. Afterwards, he sits down to eat dinner with his mother and sister, as they all try to take their minds away from the empty seat where Theos used to sit.

The dinner table is not as lively as it was, but still, it is quite rowdy, at least that it something that does not change. Akio is happy to notice that, as they all make jokes, very much as if Theos himself was here.

After this scene, four months pass, as Akio continues to attain new levels of strength alongside Genkei and Jack. During this time, he has also strengthened his bond with Ruby, who now starts to view him as a father figure.

As the four months had went by, Akio has actually started recovering from his former injuries, with some scars remaining, though Akio views it as the signs of his effort, though now, this is not the time to pay attention to such miniscule issues, for it is time that Akio to begin going onto missions again, and this time, it's an interesting one: a joint mission between him and Genkei.

Having his cousin on his feet the entire time, Akio does not arrive late, something which both of them are happy to see, though this one is a tough battle, they can feel it. They both power up to their respective magic attributes, fire and wind magic, respectively.

The battle begins. The synergy of Akio and Genkei is flawless, as they had been trained by the two right-hand men of Theos himself, and even they had the very same rivalry. Apparently, some things do in fact pass on to the next generations.

After weakening the soldiers a little bit, the two teens charge up their attacks.

"Fireball!"

"Turbulent.. slash!"

The attacks fire, though Akio's lands first. The damage caused on impact by the fireball is not as Genkei's slash, however, it is balanced as the damage caused with the passing of time increases. The turbulent slash, though, deals a great amount of damage

Now, getting serious, Akio starts to use Durandal, while Genkei infuses with fists with his wind magic. The former starts slashing through soldiers, while the latter begins punching the ground, causing massive earthquakes on some parts of the land. Later, Genkei channels his wind magic in a way that a tornado is caused, furthering the damage. This slaughter continues for a few minutes, with the soldiers' numbers dwindling, but Genkei turns around, as his look of confidence turns to one of horror. Akio is merely seconds away from his untimely death, very similarly to his father, but Genkei cannot reach him fast enough.

"Akio!"

The successor's voice echoes out, but Akio hears it, smirking.

"Do not worry, Genkei, for I have surpassed my limits! Behold, this is my new technique, 'Burning Sense'!"

Akio's sclera turns orange, while his iris changes to a white color. Merely centimeters away before the attack lands, dealing the fatal blow, Akio teleports out of the way and subsequently in front of the soldier, landing a gut punch.

This power is quick to fade away, however, as he had only very recently acquired it. Akio falls to his knees, with Genkei asking him if his okay, but Akio replies that it's simply the fact that he had expended more magic energy than he had calculated.

He gets up soon after, calling out Durandal to him. Akio then walks towards the soldier, and he starts to cut him down, though he soon sees that for some reason, his slashes are ineffective. This makes Akio sheathe his two swords once again, as he uses his very fists.

"It appears as though I can only rely on my own strength.. very well."

With a barrage of punches, Akio starts dealing a reasonable amount of damage, but he is shocked to see that the soldier had caught his right arm, breaking it, however, this does not faze Akio. Now knowing what he must do, he unsheathes one part of Durandal, as Akio once again tries to activate his power.

This attempt succeeds, though only for a mere three seconds, in which Akio must dodge the soldier's punch and slash his hand. Right as the power wears off, Akio manages to have Durandal connect with the soldier's right hand, but it barely makes a shallow wound.

The soldier laughs, but Akio continues his struggle. He infuses all of his magic energy into Durandal, as it begins to cut through, though it starts emitting sparks of lightning. Finally, Akio's effort proves to not be for naught, as the soldier's hand is finally cut off.

Alarmed, the soldier now uses magic to block the wound temporarily, as he rushes at Akio with his left hand. Akio, though, is at a spot where he has the advantage, so he dodges the attack, instead using the now-empowered Durandal to cut off both the soldier's left hand and head off.

Finally, Akio had succeeded. The strongest soldier had been defeated. Genkei comes closer, announcing that he has defeated the remaining soldiers, as he throws a healing injection at Akio, who catches it and injects the fluid onto his broken arm.

The arm heals, and the two fist bump as a means of congratulating each other. Shortly afterwards, the citizens of the province come out, since it was now mostly safe, and the reconstruction begins. Akio and Genkei obviously lend all the help they can give, since they did cause most of the damage.

A few hours pass, as the work was done quickly, with help from two successors, and the duo return home. The city, albeit having not completely recovered, has made a good amount of progress, but it's not enough to compare it to what it once was.

After their somewhat intense mission, Genkei and Akio take a few days off, going to school and everything, but Akio is quick to take up some missions again, however, this time, he requests to only be assigned missions that are related with restoring the city to the glory it once held, before it had been taken away violently four months ago.

Akio is very much ecstatic to know that there are a few, however not many missions related to that, and he requests to take each and every one of them. The secretary is quite worried, though, for Akio has not matured enough, and it means that he may not be able to respond to all of them.

After having assured the secretary that he can take them on, Akio goes back to the orphanage, knowing well that he had not seen Ruby in a while. The little girl is upset, and that is understandable, as Akio hadn't visited in over three weeks.

Ruby pouts, saying that Akio did not care about her, but Akio digresses. In order to cheer her up, he buys her an ice cream. As Akio had expected, Ruby's anger went away in an instant, as Ruby was nothing more but a child.

She eats her ice cream, and then, having forgotten what she was upset about, Ruby plays with Akio, stating her interested for interesting, noting that she wants to "be like daddy!" Akio laughs, patting Ruby on the head, saying that he will be waiting for her when she feels that it's time.

Speaking of time, Akio notes that he must go now, for he has to attend to a mission. Ruby asks him if he'll come soon, and Akio smiles, confirming that. No, he says that he'll visit whenever he is given the chance.

Soon enough, he reaches his destination: the city's colosseum. It's the hardest mission yet, and Akio thought that if he cleared the harder ones first, the rest should be a piece of cake. Remembering the details, Akio also recalls the fact that it isn't as hard as it should be.

Apparently, the government thinks that design-wise, it would be better to have it partially destroyed, as it would really imply how old it is, as it was made centuries ago, by Theos I. Akio, on the other hand, did not simply take up this mission because he wanted to help with the rebuilding, but because he wanted to experience the legacy that his ancestor had left behind all those years ago.

Over the span of a few days, Akio and his coworkers gradually make more and more progress, to the point where the mission finishes. This view.. is amazing. For some reason, a feeling of nostalgia flowed through him, as if he had seen that sight before.

Well, it doesn't matter. This mission's finished, so he should move onto the other ones, but first, he had to rush back home, as he had to take something. Hisako awaited him there, and she asked how the colosseum was coming together.

Akio couldn't hold back. He told his mother that it was completed, and that it was a masterpiece. It truly lives up to the glory of it's creator. Hisako is very much delighted to hear that, as she also chuckles.

Afterwards, Akio waves his mother goodbye and leaves, having taken what he needed. He checked in with the secretary in the headquarters, but to his surprise, someone else was there also. That someone was Alister, a member of the battle division, and someone very close to Theos.

The two greet each other, with the huge amount of respect between each other being mutual. Alister notes that Akio has gotten very strong in such a small timeframe, and Akio brushes it off, saying that it was a joint effort.

This makes Alister laugh, but soon after, he gets serious.

"Akio. Some day, I want to spar with you. Not the current you, but the strongest you. I'm sure that you understand."

After hearing Alister's words, Akio nods, saying that this feeling is mutual. They shake their hands, going their own separate ways. The weeks pass, and Akio finishes all of the rebuilding missions, as his fame had increased drastically.

Now, however, was the harder part. Akio had gotten used to simply rebuilding, so he had gotten rusty when it comes to actual fighting missions, so he'll have to go on a joint one, but he doesn't quite mind.

And so, a new joint mission between him and Aoi begins.