With his mouth quivering, Delton frowned and responded, “I’m afraid so.”
Lucius shrugged his shoulders, then went back to watching the shows on his phone, “Hmm. It was worth another shot.”
Delton stared at his arms and hands, flexing his muscles and causing some of them to bulge out in unnatural ways. Feeling the energy welling up, he released a punch. Nodding his head, he performed the morning training routine again, focusing on the changes to the different muscle groups.
While eating breakfast, Delton said, “Don’t worry, old man. I’ll still fulfill my end of the deal.”
Lucius looked at Delton and gave him a knowing glance, responding, “I know you will.”
And while only less than two months passed for Delton again, another year of Lucius’ memories passed on. From following Caelus and Fortissimus, Delton saw the war between the draconians and birdmen grow more and more intense. However, with Fortissimus’ plan with the slime race, they were able to have enough ‘meat’ to answer to the ever increasing demand from the draconians.
From following Caelus, Delton saw the kid savagely massacre several small draconian and birdmen camps. Sometimes Delton could not help but to vomit at the remnants of the battle. Watching Caelus take on a completely different persona when battling, Delton grew warier when Lucius forced him to possess Caelus.
Waking up after sleeping within the child Lucius’ mind, Delton saw that Lucius had a solemn expression and did not even have the cell phone out. He asked, “Everything alright?”
"No. This was a terrible day.” Without saying any more, Lucius followed Marcus and the child Lucius to the training ground.
Delton shrugged his shoulders and followed, performing the morning training routine with the other kids. His soul body had undergone a complete qualitative transformation in the past two years from training. After the first set, he possessed one of the oldest kids in the group, and after performing another set, possessed another kid.
"Their insights and their focus are so different from one another. But no matter how strong I get, I still can’t peer into Marcus’ mind,” Delton said as he finished the last set in his corporeal form.
After the morning training, Delton started walking to the village entrance. Having arrived at the front of the entrance, he stood by the already waiting Fortissimus and Caelus.
He looked at his side towards Caelus. Caelus never had the aura of a kid. Even more so now. While barely reaching his father’s chest in terms of height, the pressure that he exudes was much more powerful than his father’s. Thinking back to the savageness of Caelus’ battles, Delton felt his back sweat. Shaking his head, he simply waited at the entrance.
In a matter of minutes, most of the villagers and children had assembled. Then, the village entrance opened. A group of hunters entered to the applause and warm welcome of the villagers.
The group of hunters now were a farcry from five years ago. Most had several scars that riddled their bodies. Some were even missing appendages. Their numbers also decreased by a noticeable amount.
The now five year old Lucius still climbed upon his father’s back, to the laughter of the other hunters. The wives and children embraced the hunters and wiped tears from their eyes. The elderly and disabled hunters could only grimace when they saw the group of hunters return.
Watching them all interact with one another, Caelus gripped his fists and turned around to head to the town hall. Fortissimus did not stop him, but instead welcomed the hunters with the other villagers. After the welcome, he also made way to the town hall.
Delton was about to follow them, but Lucius called out to him, “I’ll remain here for the time being.”
"I’ll be back whenever Caelus comes back then,” Delton responded, scrunching his eyebrows. Reaching the town hall, which only had Fortissimus and Caelus present, he stared at the familiar map of the Savage Lands. On it were several marks. When Delton saw each mark, he thought back to Caelus and his experiences fighting the draconians and birdmen.
Fortissimus, holding a note, spoke with a slight smile, “The war’s almost over. And it looks like the draconians are gonna be the ones to reach out for the truce. From what Olbek sent me, they’re planning on dividing the Savage Lands right down the middle with the birdmen.”
"How about the encampment?” Caelus asked, causing Fortissimus to give him a baffled look.
"It’s weird. From Olbek’s note, the draconians are having their soldiers make movements that spread them out thinly. It doesn’t look like they’re retreating properly. However, with all the soldiers spread out, there’s only about a couple hundred or so draconians left in the battle encampment.”
Caelus looked towards the horizon, “I’ll head there then.”
"Child, what do you plan on doing.”
"I’m planning on ending this stupid war. I know I can defeat their general. He’s the one who sliced your arm off back then. He’s that monster who made our village work so hard that most of the hunters barely stayed alive. Now’s the time to get revenge.”
"Child, you’re too cold-blooded. Peace is just around the corner.”
“This truce is temporary. By ending their general’s life—“
“--we’ll only be under the rule of another superpower, but this time it’s just the birdmen.”
"Hmph. They’ll all be dead in a matter of years.”
“Child, restrain yourself.”
“I’ve been restraining myself. Now’s the time to release the pent up anger within me. Not just for me, but for the whole village. Pay him back with his death.”
When Caelus said this, a cold and baleful aura took hold of the room, causing Fortissimus and Delton to start suffocating. Caelus spoke, “You know you’re too weak to stop me. I’ll be back by tonight.”
After witnessing Caelus leave in a blur, Fortissimus slammed his fists on the table, splintering it into millions of pieces, “Idiot child! We’re so close!”
Having grown more proficient with the use of his soul body and the geography of the land, Delton accelerated his view to Caelus’ back, who was leaving behind felled trees and holes on the ground.
After a half hour, he came upon a group of around twenty or so red draconian soldiers. Seeing the human kid charging at them, the draconians drew their weapons and got into formation shouting out in the human language, “Stop, human!”
"Do you know who you’re messing with, brat?”
Caelus simply ignored them and crashed into their formation with an unstoppable momentum, causing their armors and weapons to break, blood and metal pieces flying everywhere. He then laid waste to the group of soldiers. With each punch or kick, he bore a hole through a draconian’s body, easily killing each one of them. In a matter of seconds, there was only one draconian, who was carrying a broken blade, left. The pride no longer in his eyes, he dropped to his knees begging, “Y-y-you’re from that human tribe. Fortissimus? How’d you know of our plans?”
Ignoring those words, Caelus shouted, “Is the general still in the camp?!”
"Yes! Please spare—,” Caelus punched that draconian’s head, exploding it into a bloody mist. Without looking back, Caelus went on his way, disappearing with a blur.
Delton looked around him, “Tch. Just like the other camps. This kid’s too ruthless. I’m getting desensitized with all of his killings.” Without delay, Delton’s view accelerated, yet again.
Caelus dashed his way there, and in an hour, they reached the encampment, that Delton had been in two years ago. Most of the camp is in disarray as there were weapons, armors, and materials all laying around. Delton looked to the sky and saw that the originally clear sky had grown orange. Squinting his eyes, his thoughts were interrupted with a crash, as Caelus had started attacking small groups of draconians.
Like an unrestrained savage, Caelus had picked up a blade lying around, and killed several soldiers with each move. Some of the draconian soldiers shouted out, getting the attention of the whole camp, and started to run away in fear.
A blue blur headed towards Caelus, who had just sliced a regular draconian in half, bathing him in blue blood. Noticing the attack, he turned into a blur as well and met the blue blur face on, causing the blue blur to be thrown back into a boulder. Before the dust could even settle, Caelus charged and performed a leaping kick to drill the blue draconian within the boulder, which crumbled and broke apart from the force.
Even though he had seen some of what Caelus was capable of, Delton could not help but to fall down on his ass, frightened at the massacre Caelus was enacting.
Caelus went out of the dust and debris, now also covered in green blood. Seeing one of their captains obliterated, the regular draconian soldiers who stayed to watch, began to run away. Some of them tripped from the fear and pressure. However, Caelus did not give them a chance to escape as he continued the killings.
Suddenly, more blue blurs appeared, but Caelus simply stopped and stood his ground. He then raised his leg up to his head and kicked downward, smashing one of the blue blurs down to the ground, revealing an unconscious blue draconian, who had bitten and lodged his teeth into Caelus’ leg during the interaction.
Unable to move his leg, Caelus could only contort his body to try to avoid the other blue blur. In the next second, a huge chunk of flesh from his side had been torn away, causing Caelus to wince.
Yanking the blue draconian’s mouth off his leg with his hands, Caelus stomped down again, turning the head into a meat paste. From the corner of his eye, he saw the other blue draconian, who had wounded him, carrying a trident and preparing another attack.
Without any obstacles this time, Caelus had parried the trident with his arms and ripped the trident from the draconian’s claws. Caelus then stabbed through the draconian’s heart.
Continuing his rampage, Caelus finally came face to face with a yellow-scaled draconian, who wore a golden chest plate and a golden armband with a dragon engraved on it. With a deep and grating voice, “Eh. You look familiar. Ah yes. So the kid who barely stopped sucking his mother’s milk grew up to be this strong.”
"Yes. And the idiot commander turned into an idiot general.” After saying this, Caelus rushed to the draconian commander and let out several punches, leaving several dents on the yellow draconian’s armor.
All of a sudden, another blue blur approached behind him. Wounded and lacking energy, Caelus could only turn and block with his arms in an X shape, as a serrated tail swiped at him, pushing him back and leaving several cuts on his arms. The blue draconian shouted out, “What the hell kind of body do you have?!”
Using the momentum that had flung him, Caelus sprung back to the blue draconian, grabbed hold of the two horns, and kneed him in the face, with enough force to cave the entire face in. Caelus, then ripped off the horns and wielded them like daggers, as he pounced on the yellow draconian.
After dozens of blows, Caelus left several deep holes into the yellow draconian’s body. With another move, he chopped down with one of his hands, severing off the arm of the yellow draconian, then kicked the draconian to the ground.
He taunted, “Ha. Did that hurt?”
"Aaaaaahhh! Of course it hurts! Stupid human!”
"That’s for slicing my father’s arm off back then. This is for forcing my village to go through that stupid deal,” Caelus then severed all of the other limbs, but this time, the yellow draconian did not scream out. Caelus continued, “And now with your death, this stupid war will end.”
Caelus was about to land a finishing blow, but seeing the yellow draconian flash a wicked smile, caused him to lower his hand and ask, “What’re you smiling for?”
"Haakhaakhaak! You’re no better than us! You probably think we’re monsters for what we did, but you’re no different. With enough power, those weaker than you don’t matter.”
Anger showed on Caelus’ face, but he coldly said, “If you got nothing more to say other than boring crap, I’ll send you on your way.”
"Haakhaak! Fortissimus’ village? Right? Haakhaakhaak! I shall submit to your overwhelming strength, but it’s just even with all that power, your village should be destroyed by now.”
"What the hell are you talking about?!”
"We were planning on retreating father behind the borders, but we don’t want those disgusting birdmen to get any of the benefits, so we’re looting and pillaging all the villages and tribes within our path. By this time—“ Caelus slammed the horn down, severing the neck of the draconian commander. Delton and he then looked up to the sky and saw that ash was falling, and that the sky had turned a darker orange.
Wide-eyed at the information, Delton accelerated his view to the village, and saw that several parts of the wall had been broken into. Fires surged throughout the village as several screams could be heard.
