-At the Kingdom, before Kuro died-

"Hold your kids up high, make sure to not bring too much of your belongings, hurry!"

"Fighters, gather at the gate, now!"

"Evacuees, to that castle, before they come!"

The Kingdom of earth was in panic. Everyone had begun evacuating, the people were saying their farewells to their families and friends as they went onto the gates, and their weapons were being brandished.

"Durn, what's the situation?"

"Ah, your highness. The situation... It's grim. All I can say is, the more that that dragon gets close, the more confidence I lose. I can't say anything about the stampede as the trees are covering them; All I can say is that I'd rather handle the stampede than the dragon."

"That bad huh... Lyka, report."

"Yes. The monsters are as much as 'that' incident with Ms. Leona years ago."

"... How many of us do you think will live?"

"Us 6 will be fine, however... The people who will fight alongside us..."

Zeoth caresses his brows at the thought of the huge amounts of people who might die.

"Is there really no other way?"

"... I'm sorry sir. Even with this strategy, there is still a huge chance of failing."

"So long as many people would survive, I'd take it."

As both him and Lyka were discussing, Loile runs to them and kneels in front of Zeoth.

"Your Highness, please give me the permission to go back to the dungeon."

Zeoth, with a surprised and disappointed face looks to her as she pleads.

"Why? Are you willing to abandon the people here?"

"No sir, however..."

"No. We need to minimize our losses."

"Sir, please listen! Kuro's still there fighting!"

Zeoth immediately turns back to her as he hears his name.

"What?! Why is he there?!"

"He... He insisted to be left there in order to hold off the horde of monsters swarming to the gate. I told him that I'd come back for him, but if we keep delaying, I fear something bad would happen."

Zeoth slams one of the castle's protrusion in a fit of rage.

"SHIT! How can things get any worse?!"

Lyka, Durn and Merune had also become stressed at the current situation. If they were to play it carefully, they'd lose the one person they'd need in order to cancel the prophecy, the Silver King. However, if they were to choose to sacrifice him, they'll minimize their losses. If they were to rush things, not only would they lose far more people, but the chance of rescuing Kuro would still be slim as he could be dead by the time they arrive.

"Shit... Where's Rai when you need him..."

They all look in front of them, seeing the trees around the Kingdom get trampled on. Zeoth grabs Loile's shoulders as he kneels to her.

"Loile, if the battle here weakens to a degree wherein we can handle it now, I want you to take some men and run towards Kuro."

"Thank you sir."

With the looming Dragon of death slowly creeping in as it soars the sky, he could only utter weakly as he could see it.

"... Gaia save us all..."

 

-Meanwhile, at Rai-

Rai holds out his staff against the rocks that were behind him and tries to concentrate on gathering his mana.

"'Earth magic: Cave!'"

Yet there was nothing.

"SHIT!"

Rai slams his fist against the wall in a fit of rage. Looking around, he could feel his mana being drained by the dungeon's interior, as if that trap was specifically made for him.

"Should I transform? No, that won't guarantee that I can escape from this damn place... Gosh damn it."

The time when the earthquake happened, Rai made the people that was following him rush back to the Kingdom just in case his suspicion was correct. Angered, he grits his teeth.

"Damn it, I have no time to think. I need to go to Kuro before he makes contact with her."

"Sir! We've returned with help!"

"-?! What the heck are you guys doing here?! I thought I ordered you guys to retreat!"

"We did sir... However, we think that the Kingdom's situation isn't something even his Highness could handle alone."

'She planned it out. Shit!'

"Alright, I need you to get me out of here right now. I'll return to the Kingdom at once."

"Sir, please stay away from the debris. We're going to destroy it!"

Rai steps away from the debris' line of sight, away from potential friendly-fire.

"Explosion!"

"-?!"

As the caster blew up the debris, Rai became certain as to who helped them.

"Merlin. What are you doing here?"

"Your magic trace disappeared. I went here as fast as I could to make sure whether you're still alive or in danger."

"Why not dead?"

"As if you're gonna die that fast."

The both of them laughs at each others jokes, however, the atmosphere becomes serious once more.

"What happened?"

"It's her. The First Silver King, she's looking for the one who holds Shin's soul."

"Then that means time is against us."

"Yeah... All of you, return to the Kingdom with Merlin. I'll need to rescue him first before we go there."

""""Yes sir!""""

"Be quick. I won't be able to hold that Death Dragon for long."

"Wait WHAT?! Shit, no time to waste. Let's split up, now!"

Rai immediately rushes ahead. Just as they said, there truly was a huge death dragon currently attacking the Kingdom. Distant shouts and magic were heard and seen from the Kingdom.

"Wind mages, focus on redirecting the wind away the Kingdom! One whiff and we're all dead!"

"Die you pieces of shit! 'Earth's grasp'!"

"Fuck! Retreat Squad G to the healers, hurry! We need to maintain this border, don't break the position you idiots!"

As Rai looks a little back, he could see Merlin, flying from the sky as she heads onto the Death Dragon.

"'Ode of the Elements'."

With her staff directed to the Dragon and the huge army of monsters, she creates a huge magic insignia at both the sky and the ground below the monsters as her eyes glowed. The mana she uses shows itself as a rainbow, holding all of the elements combined for one grand magic.

At her command, the winds gathered and formed multiple hurricanes within her range, absorbing the winds that the Death Dragon releases. The Dragon that was pre-occupied with the Kingdom looks at her and opens its mouth as it concentrates its breath.

"Oh no you don't."

With a swipe of her staff, multiple icicles rained down from the insignia, targeting all of the monsters as well as the Dragon. Losing its concentration, its attack blows up on itself, with the explosion still being absorbed by the huge hurricanes.

Within her range on the ground, the burning trees sprout from the ground and attacks all the monsters within their range with their scorching thorny vines.

Rain from the insignia started pouring to the monsters, melting them away as it healed the defenders who came into contact with it.

Like a song about to reach its climax, meteors spawn from the sky, bombing away at the monsters.

Everyone looked up at the source of that chaos to see Merlin waving at them in a cutesy manner.

"Are we even needed here?"

As Rai saw that she could handle it for a while, he knows that once that dragon becomes enraged, even she wouldn't be able to save everyone. Using the absurd amount of mana he still has, he rushes to the dungeon Kuro was in.

 

-Meanwhile, at Kuro-

"COME ON BIG BOY!"

Within the dungeon's systems, the King Blant was being overwhelmed by its prey.

Kuro threw barrage after barrage after having his energy restored, even with one hand, the King Blant fears the crazed Kuro. With his transformation only transforming his face, the King could see how insane Kuro had become, with him emitting a grin not even a mother could love, how can one not fear him?

The Blant had no choice but to use everything it has to speed up just to escape Kuro. As it ran as fast as it could, Kuro's face shifted from being a smiling maniac into something similar when a person breaks their 'toy'.

"Ah, I'm no longer satisfied."

Kuro preps himself on the ground like a marathon runner, shrinking his wings and spikes along with his legs getting bigger and bigger. The ground shakes as his body looks more and more like a bomb that's about to burst.

"5... 4... 3... 2... 1..."

The Blant kept running until it saw the pathway for the lower floor, wherein it sped up a lot more. With one hand left, it struggles to keep its footing.

"- DIE!"

Kuro's legs burst him forward as he ricochets around the whole dungeon, rapidly nearing the King Blant. With each bounce, the dungeon cracks up on the locations of each one. As the Blant looks back, its heart is suddenly pierced by Kuro, whose claws were burning white.

Kuro stops his bouncing as he holds the scorching heart of the Blant King with a disappointed look.

"So, what are you gonna do?"

Without turning, Kuro talks to the one he had 'killed' before.

"As expected of the current 'Silver King'. However, if you don't wish to fight, surrender to us and we will spare you."

"What of that 'painless death' you were boasting about?"

"... I suppose that you won't be joining us."

"No shit."

Kuro's left arm fully regrows and blocks the surprise attack with his barrier. Kuro smiles as he turns to his next opponent.

"Let's have some fun, shall we?"

"Tch, cocky brat."

As the shade prepares itself, Kuro strikes it down immediately.

"Oi, don't you at least have the decency to wait for your opponent to finish?!"

"Lmao, as if I'm stupid enough for that shit. It's a fight to the death! Heck, you guys even tried to kill me at my weakest, and now it's my turn to attack!"

'Tch, I can't fail now, especially when master is here!'

The shade launches multiple beams from behind it, but Kuro changes the shape of his fist similar to the shape he used when he first fought the Blants and bounced all the beams away from him as he kept getting closer and closer.

'Shit!'

Kuro dashes onto the shade as he keeps deflecting the multiple amounts of beams.

"Gii?!"

"Die."

Kuro punches through the shade, however, he couldn't get his arm out.

"Got you."

"Tch."

Kuro's shifts his form from thin and nimble into his normal transformation. With his wings back, Kuro uses his wing talon to attack its head and kicks it away from him. However, all 3 of his body parts are now stuck into it.

"Hahaha, did you really think I'd lose to an inferior like you?"

"Trivia: what's the weakness of a shadow?"

"Huh?"

Kuro's body begins turning white as he stares into its supposed eyes.

"Let there be 'light'."

"Shit!"

The shade jumps away, letting go of Kuro, whose whole body is enveloped with orange fire.

"You bastard, do you intend on burning away the air around you?!"

Unbeknownst to it, in front of Kuro was an interface.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Warning: You only have 2 minutes left!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

"2 minutes. That's all I need."

Kuro clasps his hands together towards the shade that couldn't even get close to him.

"'Fire serpent'."

'Shit, I need to tell master about the vessel. He's crazy!'

On Kuro's hands, Kuro creates a huge orange fire wyrm and seeks the shade.

As the shade escapes, it felt itself slowly melt away due to the powerful light that the worm emits. The shade kept on shooting multiple beams, but they were all useless from the worm's radiance.

Climbing up the multiple floors that Kuro and the Blant had gone through, it was evident that the shade was panicking. The time it took for the shade to run up to the surface however, was already 2 minutes.

"Huh?"

As it looks back, the fire worm had dispersed itself. The only way magic can cancel itself is when mana is cut, depleted, or something happened to the caster.

"Ha, I guess I got worried for nothing. But even though he hasn't awakened all of his powers yet... To think that even I and the Blant King would be overwhelmed..."

"I know right?"

"Who-"

A shining sword immediately cuts the shade's head off of its body. With its remaining consciousness, it saw the perpetrator.

"My student will become stronger than your King."

Rai puts up his weapon and stabs down the shade's head.

"Next time... I'll have your head..."

"Even if you were to use your real form, you wouldn't be able to do anything against me."

"Grr..."

The shade's body slowly melts away into nothingness. At that sight, Rai rushes to Kuro's location while casting wind magic in order for the air to circulate around the dungeon a lot faster.

"Come on come on COME ON!"

As Rai rushes through the dungeon, he could see the damage Kuro and The Blant King had done. The scorch marks Kuro had left behind from his fire worm, the cracks from Kuro's attacks, and the ground's destruction from the Blant King's retreat.

After just a minute, he finally found Kuro's mangled body.

"Kuro!"

As Rai went close, he could see that Kuro's transformation had been undone, and all 4 of Kuro's limbs were bleeding out. Kuro had passed out due to the lack of oxygen because of his attack against the shade. Rai opens up his bag and pulls out multiple bandages in order to seal out the bleeding and tightens it so that pressure is applied.

"Shit, I don't have time."

Rai rushes out the dungeon with Kuro's body. As the Kingdom's within sight however, he can see the Dragon, still standing strong, opens its wings and flap. It wanted to escape.

'Right now, I can kill that thing, but...'

Rai looks at the bleeding Kuro that was under his arm. Seeing this, he had no other choice but to continue to the Kingdom.

---

"Wake up."

Kuro could hear a voice ring on his ears, however, he decides to ignore it and return to sleep.

"It's time for school."

"Shit I'm late!"

Kuro wakes up, but instead of the modern home he was familiar with, it was... Different. The room was big, there was a lot of space that was too much even if there were 5 people in it, but most of all, it filled him with nostalgia.

Kuro walks to the door that was far away and opens it, only to reveal a lot of green outside the room. It was a forest, filled with plants he had never seen, yet he knows which ones to avoid and which ones were safe. Progressing through the forest, he finally reaches the light, only to end up in another room that was nostalgic to him.

This room only had a piano in a theater-like stage. Kuro caresses the keys as memories that were both by him and not him flood in his eyes. Looking behind the piano, he could feel air through the opposite side of the curtains. As he nears it, a hand suddenly grasps at his neck.

"You... Run."

Another shade similar to his past dream shows up in front of him. More pop-up from the curtains as Kuro panickily tries to remove the hand grasping his neck.

"69,420... RUN... FROM HER... RUN... GO!"

They shout at him in unison to run away. Kuro's fears strike back at him as he tries not to remember his past.

"Stay... Away from me... Please!"

""""GO! GO! GO!""""

"Get out... of my head!"

And then, a strong gust of wind dissipates everything but Kuro. Nothing was left around Kuro; no rooms, no shades, nothing.

As Kuro curls away due to his fear with tears rolling down his eyes, a soft hand caress his hair.

"Shh... It's okay now... Rest..."

Kuro's jagged breathing slowly stabilized itself as he was taken care of by someone. Caressing his hair gently like his family did to him, his tears gradually stopped. A lullaby that was familiar, yet unfamiliar was hummed by the person.

Kuro looked up and saw the girl with black hair.

"Who...?"

She smiles.

"Look for me at the bottom of the dungeon. I'll be waiting."

---

"-AH!"

Kuro pants as he wakes up from a seeming nightmare. As his vision clears, he could make out an unfamiliar ceiling. Looking around, curtains cover his surroundings.

'The infirmary huh...'

Kuro tries to sit straight as he pushes his...

'Wait arms?'

Kuro removes his blanket and saw that his arms have returned, same with his legs.

'Well hot diggidy...'

As Kuro stands up, he falls down easily, as if he had been a newborn.

"Hooo... Fuck me..."

Whispering to himself, Kuro tries to stand up once more.

'SIR!'

"Holy-"

Kuro falls on his butt again.

'You fucking...'

'I apologize sir, our connection was cut earlier.'

'Well duh, I fainted... But it looks like we were rescued.'

'Sir... I was cut before you were defeated by the Blant King and that shade.'

'What?'

'I heard your voice so many times... But I couldn't answer. I'm sorry sir.'

'No, it's not your fault. We just have to get stronger, that's all. Your fault is my fault. You are me, and I am you. Remember when we fully connected for the first time?'

'... Okay sir.'

Kuro chuckles to himself.

'Good. Now, since you're looking to atone... I'll need you to help me stand up.'

'Of course sir!'

Kuro could feel his mana course through his entire body.

'Since your muscles are still recovering due to it being recovered recently, I had to cover your muscles.'

'Thank you. Use as much mana as we can. I need to go there.'

'Okay sir.'

Like a puppet on strings, Kuro limps to the huge door that leads to the outside of the infirmary.

Pushing out the heavy door, Kuro was met with 2 guards on standby in front of the door who were laughing at each other.

"Yeah, I know ri- Sir!"

The 2 guards help Kuro out.

"Sir, you shouldn't be standing yet, you need to rest."

"Sorry, but there's somewhere I need to go."

"We know sir, but still-"

"Please."

"Kuro what the fuck."

Kuro is met with Rai, who was with Zeoth, Yild and Merlin.

"Rai. I need to go to that cave."

"Kuro, what happened? And how did you get your limbs back?"

"I don't know, but I need to go to that cave again."

"Why?"

"I need to meet someone."

"Kuro you can barely even walk with mana, how the fuck-"

"Rai, please."

Zeoth tries to enter in the conversation, but before he could even do so, a loud thud was heard.

"What was that?"

As Rai wonders what the noise is, Kuro rushes back to his cubicle in the infirmary.

"Urrgghhh..."

"Aina!"

Kuro rushes to Aina, who was lying on the floor.

The others who followed him were surprised to see Aina.

"What are you doing here?"

"Ehh... Sleeping?"

Zeoth: "Wait, you know him?"

Kuro: "Wait, you didn't tell him?"

Rai: "Wait, you know her?"

Yild: "Wait, when did you meet each other?"

Kuro: "Wait, you didn't even tell your Mom?"

Merlin: "We're too loud. We need to leave this room so as to not bother anyone sleeping."

As Aina giggles at the sight of their shenanigans, Kuro sighs. 

"Come on, let's get you up."

Kuro holds out his hand but Aina refuses to move. Because of that, Kuro went closer and touches her.

'Hmm?'

"Rai?"

"Yeah?"

"Is it possible... For no mana to go rotate one's body?"

"That's impossible. Why are you..."

Rai's eyes widened at the realization as to why Kuro asked that.

"Well shit. Aina lost control of her limbs."

 

Chapter 24 -END-