Chapter 23: Revelations

Arav and Yaksh stood in front of the king, who had a small smile on his face while staring at the large statue in the distance.

"Hooh…Son, this kingdom has a long history related to the lord. There's a legend that's been passed to generations.." The king took a deep breath and said in a respectful tone;

"What is this said… legend?" Arav asked in curious yet suspicious tone;

"This place…where you see these elves,..was once a town of artisans that were known as the best craftsmen of this continent. There was one who outclassed them all, a blacksmith that lived right beside that river.."

The king pointed towards the entrance of the city, which was barely visible through the houses and buildings blocking their vision.

"One fateful morning,..his wife found an infant floating in the river. The couple were mesmerized by the purity and innocence in his eyes and decided to raise the boy, as the blacksmith's wife could not birth her own."

The king kept explaining, oblivious to the effect it had on Arav. But Yaksh instantly noticed Arav's usual calm and conserved diminuer losing its footing as snippets of rage and sadness suddenly plagued his eyes;

"The boy grew up under the shade of love and care. But neither of them were aware of the child's true identity, which was revealed in a nightmarish manner. The phoenix clan caught wind of his presence, and demanded him to be handed over. But the late ruler of Chandra kingdom of that time, refused to comply as he considered the boy to be his kingdom's citizen. His decision caused a destruction to fall in the form of a great war. The kingdom lost a major portion of its territory to the phoenix clan, as their strength was far superior."

"What happened to the blacksmith and his wife?" Arav asked,

"We don't know tha…"

The king turned towards Arav, he was forced to stop his explanation as he saw tears streaming down Arav's eyes.

"S..son?" He asked in a concerned tone while stretching his arm towards Arav,

"I..I will return in a short while.." Arav spoke and turned away from the old man,

[HUM!]

Yellow energy appeared under his feet and he flew rapidly away from their location. The king turned towards Yaksh for answers, who felt conflicted by his concerned gaze.

[THUD!]

The energy under Arav's feet disappeared, he landed on the ground beside a large tree.

"UGH!!" Arav grabbed his chest by his right hand, while placing the left one on the trunk of the tree. Memories that were deeply buried inside his heart, with some that were erased entirely, rushed like a raging storm while rooting apart the pillars of emotional control Arav had.

[BOOM!]

A beam of yellow light blew apart the tree. The intense moment suddenly calmed down, Arav felt a huge wall stopping him from accessing any further memories. A wave of confusion and frustration washed over him;

'Why?..Why did I erase these memories…what happened to…mother and father?...' Questions about his past cluttered his mind, adding to his frustration and helplessness.

'What pushed me to make these decisions?...What is this sadness I feel?..'

Suddenly, Arav was alarmed;

[SWOOSH…BOOM!]

A beam of energy created a huge explosion at Arav's location. As the smoke settled, Arav stood with few parts of his clothes burnt off. His brows instantly contracted as he stared at the source of the attack, he saw a creature with an upper body of that of a human male with lower body made of a horse.

[GRR!!!]

He angrily stared at Arav while raising his hand;

[BHUM!!]

Two dark energy spheres formed in his palms.

[SWOOSH!...BOOM!]

Before he could attack, Arav rapidly moved towards him and landed a powerful strike at his chest.

[CRASH!]

"UGH!!.."

The centaur exclaimed and crashed past several trees and finally landed on the river bank. Arav descended right beside him and found him unconscious.

'A centaur…with dark magic?' Arav sat down next to the centaur and stretched his hand;

"HEY!!"

Someone screamed from behind him. Arav retracted his arm, as the tone of the voice showed anger and annoyance. He stood up and looked back and found a teenage boy angrily staring at him. Beside his anger, the thing that caught most of Arav's attention were the boy's blue clothes and silver hair that were accompanied by a silver pair of eyes, Arav also noticed a long sword in the boy's hand.

"...WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT?!" The boy exclaimed from the distance;

"....."

"....I SAID WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT?" The boy exclaimed with even greater volume;

"..."

"...CAN'T YOU SPEAK?!!"

"...."

"WHATEVER, JUST LEAVE THAT GUY ALONE! HE IS MY TARGET…WHOEVER YOU ARE, JUST GO AWAY!. TRUST ME, YOU DON'T WANT TO MESS WITH ME!!"

"[SIGH!].." Arav sighed in disappointment, as he could sense the boy's arrogance and pride in the air. A smirk suddenly appeared on Arav's face, he turned towards the centaur and raised his hand;

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!..."

[WOOSH!]

Arav's hands began gathering yellow energy;

"NO!..."

[WOOSH!]

The energy intensified and formed a sphere,

"NOO!!"

[BOOM!]

"NOO!!!!!!!" The boy's sword got surrounded in silver energy, he jumped towards Arav with great force while creating a crater at his previous location;

"Heh." Arav chuckled as he saw the boy's sword slashing at him. He moved towards the left and effortlessly dodged his attack;

"DAMN YOU!!"

The boy slashed his sword at Arav again, but he moved to the right and dodged it again.

Arav flicked the boy's forehead,

"OUCH!!" The boy jumped back and began rubbing a throbbing red spot right in the middle of his forehead. Arav stayed still and watched him while the boy glared at him in anger;

[HUM!]

His sword got surrounded by silver energy again, he jumped at Arav and slashed his sword. This kept repeating for a while, the boy kept slashing his sword and Arav kept dodging and flicking him, and after some time his entire forehead had turned red.

"You…are weak.." Arav said with a smirk,

The boy jumped back and held his sword in front of him with both of his hands,

[THRR!!]

The air around him began vibrating,

[THWOOSH!!]

In an instant, an incredible silver energy erupted out of the boy. The height of the energy passed every tree around them and made the boy's silver hair glow brilliantly.

'So you were holding back..' Arav's smirk disappeared and he took a fighting stance, while his eyes reflected the silver energy the boy was radiating;

"I warned you.."

As he spoke those words, he jumped at Arav with far greater speed than previously.

[SWOO…SWOO…SWOO!!]

The sound of a sword cutting through air echoed, as the boy relentlessly attacked Arav with every slash having the intention of cutting through him.

"ARE YOU JUST GOING TO DODGE??!!" The boy screamed with his silver energy raging even more.

[HUM!]

The boy was startled, he stopped his movements and gazed at Arav with wide eyes. Intense yellow energy erupted out of Arav;

"NO…"

[SMACK…] [CRASH!]

Arav rapidly moved towards the boy, his eyes followed Arav's movements but his hands failed to swing the sword fast enough. A punch connected at the boy's abdomen and he got thrown away.

He landed meters away and created a small crater around him.

"[COUGH!]...[COUGH!]..Urgh…" The boy groaned while placing his left palm on his abdomen. His hands were shaking with blood coming out of his nose and mouth, repeated attempts at standing up failed as even moving slightly felt a daunting task.

[Tak..Tak..Tak..]

He heard a few steps approaching and got alarmed and tightened his grip on the sword. But to his surprise, a woman with white eyes and wearing white clothes appeared in his vision. Her beauty made his heart thump, making the sensation of the pain fade away.

[GLUPL!]

The woman raised her arms and water appeared with a brilliant glow, the stream of water headed towards his body and his wounds began rapidly healing. Ambu stepped back and the boy quickly stood up, he turned towards Ambu with a bright smile, but his enthusiasm soon disappeared as he caught the sight of Arav approaching behind Ambu.

He raised his sword, while moving Ambu back with his left hand. He stood in front of her with an determined expression while facing Arav;

"Hey…you, I get that you are strong…but leave this pretty lady alone.." He said in a voice full of authority;

"....Heh.." Arav chuckled;

The boy raised one of his brows;

"What's so funny?"

Arav ignored him and turned back;

"Your persistent attempts at hiding weren't successful.." Arav said, the boy confusingly looked around but he failed to see anything or anyone.

[WOOSH!]

Then suddenly, twelve men wearing black clothes with the lower half of their faces covered appeared out of thin air.

The boy's brows widened, he lowered his sword and stepped forward;

"What are you guys doing here?...Did I not ask you to go back?" The boy spoke in a tone filled with both annoyance and surprise;

[WOOSH!]

A red mass of energy appeared right in front of the twelve men with another man wearing similar clothes to them appearing.

"Hmm…Interesting…I failed to sense you,..again.." Arav said while staring at Aizen with a serious expression.

"Perhaps,..you should keep your eyes open..young master." Aizen replied;

The boy turned towards Arav with a confused expression,

"Y..Young..master?...." Then a sudden thought hit his brain,

"Don't tell me…ARE YOU ARAV?!! FROM PADMA KINGDOM?!...THE SLAYER OF NAGAS?..MASSIAH OF ELVES?!!!!" The boy dropped his sword and shook his hands in excitement.

"Uhh…Yes, I am Arav…" Arav responded while taken aback by the sudden shift in demeanor;

"Young Master Arav,..what happened to you then?..I had to go as some important revelations were made regarding 'that' situation, so I could not see what happened after you suddenly went unconscious.." Aizen asked in a serious tone;

"I am not a subject of worry at this moment, I am more interested in the revelation you made and…"

Arav raised his hand with a small amount of yellow energy surrounding his palm;

"Him." Arav said;

[SPLASH!]

The sound of something coming out of the river caught all of their attention, they turned and saw a centaur inside a yellow sphere floating towards them.

"YOU DID NOT KILL HIM?!" The boy spoke, with his usual enthusiastic tone;

"...No." Arav responding while placing the sphere in front of him;

"Isn't this…Sir Drona's mantra?" Aizen asked while pointing at the sphere;

"Oh?..You recognised it?..Well yes, I had the fortune of getting taught by him for a week.." Arav calmly replied;

'...Just a week?..I wonder If Sir Drona himself can maintain it for this long..' Aizen wondered as he saw not a single drop of water was inside the sphere along with the centaur being completely dry.

"We were searching for three days, in that time we had almost mapped every nook and cranny of the entire region around the city. But today, when we had almost lost any hope of finding the children, we found a strange wolf fighting against centaurs. But the important thing was that the wolf had a small piece of cloth in its mouth, a very similar one to the missing children's clothes." One of the twelve men explained, but he got surprised as Arav did not show any change in his expression;

"....They could not catch the wolf as it disappeared, but we managed to surround a group of centaurs. One of them got away and Young Master went behind him.." Aizen completed the explanation,

"Was the wolf similar to this one?...Marichi!.."

[THRR!!!]

Within seconds of Arav uttering those words, a large wolf appeared right beside him. The displaced air caused everyone's clothes to flatter and the boy quickly jumped in front of Ambu, shielding her from the wind, who stayed silent this entire time.

"...It seems you know of i-him" Aizen said with a hint of surprise;

[WOOSH!]

Marichi transformed into a small pup and began rubbing his head against Arav's feet.

"Good job.." Arav sat down and took the piece of cloth off Marichi's mouth;

"....Dark magic…of demonic origin was used in their abduction." Arav said with a serious tone while standing up again;

"Marichi, bring Yaksh…Aizen, inform the king. We must hurry.."

[Chapter 23: END]