FEAR!

"Are you not going to help him sir?" The manager asked master Swanson as soon as he felt the pressure

"No I will not, Orn. I have to believe my apprentice can protect himself, or else he would become too Dependant on me" Master Swanson replied

"But he could die" Orn the store manager was very worried

Master Swanson sighed, closed his eyes and took another sip of his horrible tea.

...

Hal knew he had miscalculated and grimoire's laughter was not making him feel better

'At least try to help me' he grumbled to it. He was alone, he had come here without castor, Melinda's trusty guard

'There is actually not much I can do except to absorb a little of the impact which would still leave you to face the brunt of a 7th stage strength which with your 3rd stage is still a large gap to cover"

'Thanks' Hal gritted his teeth and released his own pressure which seemed pathetic in comparison

Rad was seething in anger "I will kill you" he snarled and ran forward to deliver a blow which contained 100 percent of his strength, he was not going to take any chances, he wanted the little bastard to die.

The Instant Rad began to run Hal gave up on the idea of dodging, the difference in strength was too high. He also almost lost all hope of survival after the punch hit

Crack!!

'Well, there goes my ribs' was Hal's thought before he hit the wall. Even after grimoire absorbed a part of the attack's strength, Hal knew he barely survived. To make matters worse, Rad's rage was as high as ever

'Damn, I did not think this through. Grimoire, we've had a long run, I think I might miss you in the afterlife, if there is one'

'A long run?, Dude, we just started talking to each other two days ago

But hal was no longer listening, something in his very core was singing to him, He closed his eyes and found himself in a dark space that he could tell wasn't his mind space, because ever since he began to use astral sense, his mind space had become lit with twinkling Starlights. This space on the other hand was cold and malevolent, with all the negative energy that flooded the space, it seemed like the devil's palace.

Hal felt right at home. For some reason, the negative energies wrapped him like a mother's warm embrace. It felt conflicting. The singing continued and Hal recognized the tune as a lullaby, it was sang in a sad tone that seemed to be saying goodbye. No matter how much he searched he couldn't see who was singing, and then a single word appeared in his Mind: FEAR

Rad moved as fast as he could, hoping to finish this before anyone interfered when hal's eyes suddenly opened, his eyes including his scelera were pitch black, Rad stopped and began to shiver, his eyes opened wide like he was looking at something worse than the devil; his very worst nightmare.

As much as he was gripped by fear, he was also paralyzed by it and could not move, As Hal watched Rad shiver he changed his sitting position to something that looked comfortable to an observer but actually raked his body with pain which he ignored he smiled, and it looked gruesome because his mouth was filled with blood

"Run"

And Rad did, he ran with all of his strength, and when his guards snapped out of their shock, they followed him.

"Ha, thank goodness" Hal rejoiced while occasionally spitting out blood

'Whew, what a rollercoaster, Now explain what just happened' grimoire had not been privy to what happened to hal, so hal shared the memory of the incident.

'A new bloodline ability, nice. I never knew it was possible to enter into a bloodline though, then again i never heard of a bloodline that sings to it's bearer before either' grimoire mused

Hal inwardly raised his brow at grimoire's words, he knew grimoire was a powerful artifact with extensive knowledge, the fact that it did not know of this bloodline's peculiarity showed it was one of a kind.

The bloodline ability; Fear, was able to induce an illusion of a person's worst nightmare but for someone as strong as Rad, Hal could barely use it for 5 seconds, which was why after he had wasted one second changing his sitting position, he gave rad the command to run away.

The sound of footsteps brought Hal out of his thoughts, he looked up and found himself facing Amelia Horst who unlike yesterday was without company. He smiled at her, but this time it was not bloodied,

"You're in bad shape" she said stating the obvious

"I am, so why don't you treat me to a meal"