Three Face

These people were strong, so strong that they inspired a small feeling of helplessness in him, something told him that if he didn't explain now things could go south.

"I'm Michael, a wandering Contractor," he finally said pausing a bit before continuing.

"I was sent by the Silence to keep an eye on you," hearing this Aiden frowned.

"Yap Lotus likes you," Landon suddenly said but Aiden didn't answer, he didn't fancy the sudden attention.

Seeing Aiden frown the man said, "I don't mean any harm, my mission is just to watch, honestly, I'm a random Contractor I've not even joined a family yet."

"Bam!"

Aiden's feet left the ground, and he was suddenly in front of Michael, "whoosh," without hesitation, Aiden threw a violent punch at him.

Micheal had a panicked expression on his face, but somehow he managed to dodge.

He stepped back in panic, "P-please calm down bro I was wrong, please, just let me go," he stuttered.

"Are you still going to pretend, Miss Three Face?" Aiden said nonchalantly; as soon as Aiden spoke the man's eyes widened and he looked towards Aiden with shock.

But that shock vanished quickly, a smile graced his lips replacing the look of panic.

"How did you notice?" a female voice suddenly sounded out from the man's lips, this created a very unusual sense and even Whisper raised her brows from where she was hiding.

"I'm a fan," Aiden simply replied, as dark veins appeared in his arms, Aiden moved "Whoosh," he struck again this time even burning a small amount of soul energy to increase his speed.

That combined with the boost in strength from his soul armor made him deadly.

But, Three Face evaded with ease, and this made Aiden pause, something strange seemed to be happening to her, her face was melting revealing a white mask underneath.

Her hair also grew longer and her body shape changed slightly, resembling something much more feminine.

"That's better," Three Face muttered slightly but she suddenly sidestepped, "whoosh," a figure kicked past her, it was Whisper, and she didn't stop there.

She turned around delivering another swift kick but Three Faced dodged again.

Aiden didn't just stand by, he also moved, "Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh," the sound of the wind hissing filled the surroundings as Aiden and Whisper attacked with commendable cooperation.

But strangely they never hit her once, after attacking for a while both of them suddenly stopped.

Three Face giggled, she seemed to be enjoying this, and Aiden didn't like that at all.

"Did you put all your life points into agility?" He grumbled as he moved again rushing towards her at the limit of human speed which translated to slow for a Contractor.

Three Face was relaxed, as Aiden punched she evaded, but then something alarming happened, Aiden changed the direction of his punch almost immediately, it was almost as if his hand was a snake.

Three Face didn't expect that at all, something like this required precision, control and to a large extent raw power, Three Face twisted her body, barely dodging the punch.

The hit had grazed her, but not in a way that would cause any kind of harm, with this Three Face became cautious, and she created some distance between her and Aiden as she said, "The tournament is in a few days Aiden, you should prepare."

With that she threw an envelope towards Aiden and her body faded out of view, she had disappeared, but Whisper was still on guard.

Cautiously Whisper looked around trying to find any trace of Three Face, but she didn't find anything.

Aiden on the other hand felt gloomy, he had caught the envelope but Landon's words still resided in his mind, "you used 80% of your total soul's energy, 19% left," that stunt just now had cost him.

Opening the envelope he was surprised to find a stack of cash inside, with it was a note, "we treat our people well," Aiden read out loud.

Meanwhile, far away from where Aiden stood a figure zoomed by shuffling through the trees, she was heading deeper into the forest instead of the other way around, it was Three Face.

"No wonder he's caught the vice captain's attention," she thought as she muttered, "he's quite weird," caressing her side she felt a light sting that made her uncomfortable.

In her body, she could feel an extremely small amount of foreign energy and she didn't like the effects, fortunately, this energy was reducing.

Meanwhile, Aiden and Whisper had relaxed after confirming that Three Face had already left, "how did you notice?"

Whisper couldn't help but ask, she knew that Aiden had extremely sharp senses much sharper than hers but that didn't explain how he could decipher Three Face's identity.

Three Face was part of the Silence main team, she was a master of disguise and evasion and could take on any persona, even though her attack power was the weakest among all her teammates she made up for it in speed and agility.

When fighting demons or other Contractor on her level she would use poison to seal the deal.

The worst part was apart from Miss Lotus nobody could claim to have seen her real face.

In response to Whisper's question, Aiden didn't know what to say, "I don't know?" Aiden said.

The moment he set eyes on Three Face he felt something wrong, but he couldn't place his finger on it, it was Landon who notified him that he was talking to a female human and not a male.

All he had to do was think of anyone connected to the Silence with the ability to change their appearance, there were quite a few known so he just guessed.

And surprisingly he guessed right, he was lucky.

Aiden almost couldn't believe it, these were figures that his past self had only seen on TV, or in magazines.

He literally had magazine cutouts of the members of the Silence main team pasted on his room wall.

But now meeting one of them in person seemed like a normal Thursday afternoon, he couldn't help but smile at the thought.

"You should consume the last soul now," Landon suddenly said, "ok," Aiden agreed.

Increasing his strength was the priority, although he didn't believe that any new Contractor would be his match right now.

Immediately a completely black soul appeared in his palm and a delightful aroma invaded his nostrils.

Aiden enjoyed the taste of souls but he had never consumed a real demonic soul before, he couldn't help but compare souls to food.

Compared to souls Aiden seemed to have lost the taste for normal food, of course, he could still eat it but it all tasted bland, similar to flavor fatigue.

With that thought Aiden threw the soul in his mouth, and a pleasurable feeling invaded him.

Compared to the two human souls which were about the size of a football the demonic soul was quite small, equivalent to the size of a tennis ball, thanks to that Aiden could just throw it in his mouth.

Aiden suddenly felt something hot flowing throw his arm before settling down, suddenly Landon notified.

"You have consumed a demon born of Sloth, usable point Stealth +2"

"Stealth?"

Aiden thought feeling confused, "Your training is over Aiden, would you like to view your current abilities?" Landon suddenly asked.

But Aiden didn't reply instead he held his chin as his thoughts raced, "one moment please," Aiden thought to Landon who let out a low hum.

He then turned to Whisper, who was perched on a tree like some sort of feline, "hey Whisper," he called out.

"Yes, my Lord?" Whisper answered curiously.

"Can you please spill the beans on how your inherited memories work?" Aiden suddenly asked while trying to sound polite.

"Why are you suddenly curious about that?" Landon asked, it seemed that even he couldn't resist the urge to eavesdrop.

Honestly, Aiden had wanted to know more about Whisper's situation for a while now, sometimes she seemed strong and intimidating, and other times she seemed as weak as a noodle in a rainstorm, it was weird.

According to Landon, the seeds were god-level beings that fought alongside the soul sovereign, if Whisper had the experience of a seed she should be far stronger than she was now.

"Well it's in bits and pieces," Whisper finally said after a thoughtful.

"Bits and pieces?" Aiden echoed with a confused tone.

"Yeah," Whisper responded before darting in, "picture yourself in a room full of random video tapes, each one showing you snippets of someone's life and with every increase in strength you get a new equally random piece, something it's important and sometimes mundane, after all the seed of fear had lived for millions of years."

"Hmmm," Aiden scratched his head pretending to make sense of the concept when in reality he was as lost as a penguin in the desert, he understood what she meant but some things confused him.

"My Lord," Whisper suddenly called out attracting Aiden's attention, as she continued, "Can you tell me what a soul tastes like?" Whisper asked.

For the next few hours, Whisper and Aiden exchanged words as they got to know more about their abilities.

*********

Name: Aiden

Race: Human (Advanced)

Level: First Gate (15%)

Strength: 11

Speed: 7

Stamina: 9

Agility: 3

Perception: 22

Soul energy: 11 (100%)

Temporary points: (Stealth: 2)

Innate skills: (Semi Immortality)

(Soulless)

(Soul body)

(Soul gaze: First gate)

(Soul armor: First gate: 8%)

(Unknown)

(Unknown)

(Soul control: First gate)

(Soul Grace)

(Infect: 1/1)

(Soul tongue)

(Soul storage 0/3)

Skills: (Dagger mastery: Advanced)

(Blade mastery: Novice)

(Crafting: Terrible)

(Adaptive combat: proficient)

Aiden was currently in a taxi heading for south city, by his side was Whisper who sat next to him.

Since the selection was three days away Aiden figured that he'd go visit his mom.

In the meantime, he was looking at his current abilities and he was surprised, the first noticeable improvement was his gate level.

It has gone from five to fifteen percent, his strength had also increased from four to eleven, his perception had increased to twenty-two and his stamina had increased from six points to nine points.

Other than that his soul energy increased by six points bringing it to a total of eleven, in his temporary point tab he could see two Stealth points, which he assumed he gained from eating the demonic soul.

His soul armor had increased to eight percent as well.

Aiden was particularly impressed by his combat skills as well, which had increased from advanced to proficient.

He didn't know how high the improvement was but it served as proof that his hard work had paid off; feeling curious Aiden decided to check on Whisper's improvements.

Name: Whisper

Race: Human (Advanced)

Level: First Gate (34%) (May be limited by creator)

Strength: 12

Speed: 14

Stamina: 8

Agility: 12

Perception: 7

Fear energy: 15 (100%)

Innate skills: (Fear feeding)

(Stealth: basic)

(Semi immortality)

(more abilities may be gifted by the creator)

Skills: (Light steps: Advanced)

(Adaptive combat: Mastered)

(Chakram mastery: perfect)

"Of course, she's still stronger than me," Aiden sulked.

He thought that he could finally keep up with her but it seemed as if she'd been holding back, "don't be too discouraged," Landon said, before darting in, "Your new goal should be to reach the fifth gate quickly."

"Hmm," Aiden hummed in response, according to Landon only at the fifth gate could he reach a high enough level to cure his mother.

Looking out the window Aiden couldn't help but smile, they passed BB Hotels.

His memory of that place was still as fresh as ever, thinking about it now most of the people he knew worked in this building, "they all probably think I'm dead," Aiden thought.

"We're here," the cab driver's voice sounded out, causing Aiden to let out a breath.

After an eight-hour ride, they made it but it was evening already. They paid the man and he drove off.

"My lord, do you feel that?" Whisper asked grimly.

"We're being followed," Aiden replied calmly, his reaction hinting at his early awareness.

"Should we do something about it?" Whisper asked, but Aiden just chuckled.

"Leave them be," he muttered as he walked toward the revolving door, the duo attracted gazes from nearby people after all both were quite good-looking.

Aiden wore a dark round-neck t-shirt, a high-quality leather jacket, and a pair of black leather boots, while Whisper wore a sleek and form-fitting pantsuit, paired with a tailored blazer.

Since they had cash they didn't hesitate to buy some good quality clothes on the way here.

They both walked into the building Aiden in front with Whisper following behind, looking around Aiden noticed that the hospital hadn't changed much other than some insignificant details everything remained the same.

With that he moved towards the reception, "oh," Aiden raised his brows feeling surprised, the nurse at the reception was someone he was familiar with, "Sharon?" Aiden called out.

Hearing her name the nurse who seemed to be absorbed by her computer raised her head, and greeted with a smile, "Good afternoon sir how may I be of service?"

Raising his brows Aiden asked, "Don't you recognize me?" his question made Sharon focus on him more, the man In front of her was handsome, and looking at his toned body she couldn't help but stare.

There was also a beautiful woman by his side who she assumed was his girlfriend.

But something was off, for some reason, this face seemed familiar, he knew her name but she wasn't surprised, after all, most of the patients knew her, "who is this man?" Sharon thought.

Seeing the confusion visible on her face Aiden sighed, "It's me Aiden, I'm here to see my mother in room 905."

Hearing this Sharon suddenly frowned, her change in expression was so sudden that even Aiden was surprised.

"Sir Impersonation is a crime and we do not condone such in this establishment please I'd have to ask you to leave."

"You think I'm lying," Aiden muttered, with shock evident on his face.

Seeing that the man in front of her still planned on keeping his act Sharon's eyes narrowed in disgust, "please leave immediately or I'll call security," Sharon repeated.

Aiden was quiet for a while but then a chilling aura spread out from his being making everyone in the room shudder.

Sharon saw the man in front of her narrow his gaze and suddenly she felt as if she had a blade placed on her neck.

Slowly her hand moved towards the red button under the table, but the cold aura suddenly disappeared.

"You should make sure to watch this year's selections," he said as he turned back, walking away with Whisper.

The normal people made sure to give the good-looking duo some space, after all with that aura just now there was a high chance these people were Contractors.

"It makes sense, not everyone would recognize you, my lord," Whisper sighed.

"I know," Aiden said, he just wanted to see his mother after so long, for other people it had only been less than two years, but for him, it had been more than a decade.

He was just annoyed when he couldn't get to see his mother which explained his outburst, "Do you want me to kill her?" Whisper asked out of the blue.

Aiden's head suddenly turned to look at her, giving her the, you did not just say that look.

"Why don't we find a good hotel," Aiden suggested to Whisper, who nodded in approval.

They would relax for now and go back to Twilight City tomorrow, before they left Aiden turned back to stare at the building.

"What do I even want to see my mother for?" He asked himself.

He didn't know why but he suddenly felt disgusted, irritated by his pitiful nature.

Visiting her wouldn't be any help, it wasn't like before when he would just go there to mourn in helplessness.

He wasn't so helpless now, "the next time I come here is to cure you, just hang on Mother, it won't take long."