"I can't believe my brother is working with Eiden!" Ryan roared first thing in the morning, waking up Mina. Jumping out of his bed, he rushed to the door. "I'm not going to let this slide! I can't let him do this! I'm gonna beat the crap outta him!"
As expected by Ryan in Harold's eyes, he'd rush right into danger without any sensible plan. He knew a lot of people like that in his past, and they all had horrible deaths. He didn't want Ryan to be part of that list. "Jeez, calm down, dude! Isn't your brother the police chief?! If he's in that position, that means he's most likely super strong!"
"TOO STRONG? THAT JUST MEANS I GOTTA DO SOME MORE PUSH-UPS!" He darts off into the halls. They could hear his yelling get quieter by the second. Yue ran after him, yelling, "Wait, your injuries are still severe! You can't be training yet!"
"Well, I should get going too." Gently shaking Mina awake, she murmured in her slumber. "Ehehehe... Harold, you look super tasty."
"What the hell was she dreaming about?" He continued to shake Mina, as she was a heavy sleeper. He knew a scenario of sharing beds like this isn't normal between two people, but everything about Mina reminded him about someone he knew in the past, and he couldn't brush off that feeling. "No, no, no... I can't be thinking of her anymore. She's probably dead anyway. I must move on, I must move on! But..." He gazed at Mina, a flicker of a forbidden memory flashed in his mind, causing him immense pain. Moments later, her snoring pauses, signaling waking. Yawning, she clutched onto Harold's shirt. "Good morning, Harold..." she says, rubbing her eyes with her hand. Turning his head to see Mina's groggy state, he gave off a smile of relief. But underneath that smile, was a sharp pain in his heart. "Mina, you feeling better now?" he asked. She lazily nodded in response, nearly falling asleep again. "Come on, let's go find Harlibue. I want to talk to him about something." Harold said, sitting up on the bedside. "Okay, fine..."
Both of them exited the nurse's office. It was passing hour, so the academy's halls were flooded with students. "According to our class schedules, Harlibue's office should be on the third floor." Guiding Mina by holding her hand, she straggled along half-asleep. Konge fluttered onto his shoulder. "Are you going to tell that Harlibue guy what happened to Mina recently?"
"Yeah, and I'm hoping he has some answers, too."
Students who passed by them gave many stares. Some were disdainful, others were lustful toward Mina. Harold batted a mean glare at them. "These damn perverts!" He increased his pace, pulling Mina further ahead. "Come on, Mina, we don't have time for these morons." Getting to the vice principal's classroom, he entered without knocking. In doing so, he hears the noises of women letting out lewd noises.
Konge, Harold, and Mina witnessed a truly unfathomable sight. It was Harlibue watching an inappropriate scene between an elf and an ogre. As they stood there in utter shock, Harlibue looked back to see them. "Oh, unexpected visitors! Nice to see you guys!" he says as the moans grew louder from his TV. Harold covered Mina's eyes with a shuddering hand, but she still witnessed something she shouldn't have. "S-So that's what it's like when you get v-violated..."
Turning off the TV, he approached them with a cane in hand. "So, what can I do for you guys?" he said in a nonchalant manner. "U-Um... let m-me explain carefully." Harold said, still taken aback by the events that transpired. "It'll take a bit..."
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"Hmmm... I see. So pretty much, the Everlasting Darkness attacked Mina and nearly turned her corrupt. And your fancy little spirit creature used Divine Light to purify her." He took a sip of his tea before leaning in toward Konge. "What a unique spirit creature you can summon with your Artifact."
"Well, I don't exactly summon him; he summons himself."
"So is it like an Artifact ego?"
"I don't know; not even Konge knows either." Harold says. Konge also gave a thumbs-up to back up his claims.
"Well, analysis on your Artifact can come later. Right now, the problem at hand is way more concerning. The Everlasting Darkness was obliterated years ago, but now it's returned and targeted Mina. And we also have confirmation that it is the Everlasting Darkness solely due to a creature from that era who has fought against it before." Harlibue says, staring directly at Konge.
Moments of critical thinking went by as Harlibue sat there in silence, tapping his foot on the ground. Then, he came to a conclusion. "Well, shit. I have no clue what to do in this situation."
Konge whispered to Harold. "Are you sure this was the right guy to go to? He seems quite pathetic." Harold nodded to Konge. "Yeah, on second thought, it might've been a mistake..." he replied to Konge.
Harlibue stood up and proudly put his hand on his chest. "Now, listen. I'll try my best to figure out something. I am the strongest on the continent, after all. And not to mention, you guys are being hunted right now! I am also working hard on that, too!"
The vicious ogre assault on the elf that the three of them had seen on his TV earlier said otherwise.
"How about you show us some results before boasting that... especially after what we've seen earlier?" Harold told him, crossing his arms.
"Listen here, youngster! You don't understand! That's my favorite anime! I've been watching that since high school! I can't miss a single episode!"
"And how old are you now?" questioned Konge.
"I'm 27."
Konge flipped out, pecking Harlibue. "WATCH SOMETHING NEW! AND WHY IS THAT SHOW STILL MAKING EPISODES?!" Harlibue covered up, trying to bear through the constant pecks. "I don't know! Don't ask me, I'm not the producer of the show!"
"Yeah, you traumatized poor Mina! Look at her!" Harold said, gently planting his hand on her head. Throughout this entire conversation, Mina had been dead silent until now. That's why, when Mina gave off eyes of starvation toward Harold and muttered the words "Gettingviolated...", it kind of scared him. His voice breaking a little, he questioned Mina. "W-What was that...?" She didn't answer. She simply just stared at him as if she was deep in desire.
Harlibue sighed, saying, "I think I just opened Pandora's box..."
Replying in confusion, Harold asked, "What do you mean by that?"
Glossing over what he asked, Harlibue jumped up from his seat. "Let's start on your special training right now! I'll give you a free pass to skip your classes today! Hip, hip, hurray!"
"YOU DEADBEAT TEACHER!" Konge screamed, pecking Harlibue's forehead.
Afterward, Harlibue led them to the academy's training ground facility. "This is reserved for classes, but I reserved it for the entire day today." Hearing that sentence, Harold understood what his intentions were. "Reserved for the entire day? That means we'll be doing something annoying."
Harlibue took out his cane and tapped it on the solid cement floor in front of him. "Sit here. I'll begin your first lesson." With both Mina and Harold sitting there, they waited in silence. "Now, in your current situation, you have no choice but to get stronger. Even I can't protect you guys all the time."
Mina raised her hand, wanting to ask a question. Pointing his cane at Mina, he called on her. "Yes, my wonderful student!?" he announced.
"Mister Harlibue, aren't we already super strong?" she asked. Chuckling, he spins his cane around before stabbing it below him. "I mean, at your guys' level, you'd probably be able to take down an ogre encampment together, but that'll be your limit. Ogres are incredibly powerful monsters, but it's a huge world out there. Ogres are just on the surface." Harold knew his mother hunted down monsters for a living, so he wondered how far she got in terms of prey. "Would she be able to do the same?"
"Now, let me explain how you both can get stronger. Third-year students at this academy start learning this, but I'm sure you guys can learn this early on." He gave a thumbs-up, in which Mina and Harold didn't have high hopes for.
"People use Rysen in two ways. One is by external use, and the other is by internal use." He pulls out a lantern with an inscription written on it. "As you all know, inscriptions take in the Rysen that lingers in the air and use it for themselves. This is what it means for Rysen to be used externally. The same works for spells as well." He swipes two fingers over his cane while chanting an incantation out loud. "Chazaq."
A white glow emanates from his cane. As he swings it in the air, he smashes it onto the floor, creating a huge crater from the destruction it produced. Surprising both Mina and Harold, he swiped his cane behind him, disabling the white glow. "I just used what was called a Holy Spell. It absorbed Holy Rysen, which was blessed to me and allowed me to produce a spell that buffed my cane! Pretty cool, right?"
"So, pretty much, external use is just using Rysen from surrounding sources." Harold stated, to which Harlibue nodded to. Following up with a question, he says, "What does it mean by internal use?"
"Allow me to demonstrate." He took a deep breath, causing a blue glow to form over his chest. "Internally, we have Rysen naturally flowing in our bodies. They flow throughout our bodies like a bloodstream and even have a storage area that acts like a heart for it. This storage is called a Rysen Storage." Holding out his hand, a watch built up with a neon green glow on his palm. "This is how our Artifacts gather power. The stronger your Rysen Storage is, the more powerful your Artifact is."
He pointed his cane at Harold. "Let me show you something even cooler! Harold, take out your fancy little Artifact and hit me with all you've got!"
"Are you sure...?"
Harlibue nodded. "Go ahead!"
He summoned Grand Radiance and charged up a blast of Divine Light toward Harlibue. Shooting a blast, it hits Harlibue directly in the chest. In the aftermath of the light dissipating, it was shown that not even a mark was on Harlibue. Mina got up and summoned out her two Artifacts, Sorrow and Ruin. "Let me try!" She hurled both acid and hellflames at Harlibue, which didn't affect him at all either. "Ah! He's cheating!" Harold yelled, pointing at him. Mina nodded, pouting in protest. "Yeah! He's cheating!"
"No, guys. Whenever you strengthen your Rysen Storages, your physical stats gets increased! Your speed, strength, durability all gets increased whenever your Rysten Storages evolve. This is because your body naturally adapts to the amount of Rysen that is flowing in your bloodstream."
Mina pointed at Harlibue's clothes. "Then why are your clothes unscathed?"
"Oh, I used a small Rysen barrier around them so I wouldn't end up naked when taking your attacks."
He came toward them and put his hands on their shoulders. He then shoved them to the ground and forced them to sit. "Now, what I want you both to do is just simply concentrate on producing more Rysen in your body. Rysen is naturally produced in your body, but to train your Rysen Storages, you must manually produce it. It's like how a person can walk, but if they wanted to train their cardio, they'd go jogging!"
Harold raised his hand. "Um, how would we know if we're producing more Rysen though? I've never had that feeling of producing it before." Harlibue pulled out two glass orbs from his coat and handed them to both Mina and Harold. "These have a manual activation inscription on them. If you want to activate these inscriptions, you need to personally pour your own Rysen into it. Go ahead, give it a shot."
Focusing hard, Harold tried his hardest, but nothing came of the orb. "This is kind of hard..." Looking over to see how Mina was doing, his jaw dropped as her orb glowed frivously. "Look Harold, I'm doing it! See!" Stunned at how she immediately managed to activate her orb, he slumped over in defeat. Harlibue chuckled before walking to the exit.
"Where are you going?" Harold asked, still trying to pour Rysen into the inscription of the orb. Waving at them, he says, "Oh, I'm going to deal with some other business, I'll come back later to check your progress though!"
Closing the door behind him, he took out a cross, which rattled strongly.
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Entering Mina and Harold's dorm room, Harlibue surveyed the area. His cross was rattling at an incredible rate in the room, signifying the thing that Harlibue was searching for lingered in here. Clothes littered everywehere, ruffled bedsheets, and opened cabinet doors. He sighed in utter disappointment. "It hasn't even been a week yet, and these two are total slobs! My display of comic figurines are neater than this!" Clearing his throat and adjusting his tie, he got back to business. Stepping near windows of the room, he noticed a morbidly obese squirrel. It was Livia, snoring by the window. But sensing Harlibue's aura, Livia immediately woke up, shivering in total fear.
"Don't act innocent. I'm going to kill you right now." Harlibue told Livia.
Livia noticing this, grinned. Then, her eyes turned pitch black, letting out a devilish chuckle. "How impressive. A mere mortal can sense my presence even in this soulless vessel!"
Harlibue clutched onto his tophat, letting out murderous intent. "You dumbass, even if I wasn't notified about you, I would've found out eventually."
Livia wagged her squirrel tail before darts of darkness spurted through the window, shattering glass everywhere. These darts flew beyond visual comprehension, almost near instant in terms of speed. But for Harlibue, that was nothing. As the darts neared him, they gradually slowed before stopping in place. In his hand, his Artifact is revealed once more. A stopwatch that is neon green. The hands on the watch constantly spiral in a loop as the rate of clicking noises the watch produced accelerated. "Wow, for a primordial being, you're quite slow!" Harlibue dashed in at an incredible speed, attempting to grab Livia by the neck, but a strong force repulsed him back, nearly snapping his hand in half.
Was it an unknown Artifact? A powerful inscription? Or something beyond human comprehension? Either way, for something to nearly fatally wound Harlibue so easily gave him quite the thrill.
Livia began to enlarge in size, deforming their body in the process. "PRIMORDIAL? NO. I AM SOMETHING THAT GOES BEYOND THAT. SOMETHING BEFORE THE LIGHT, SOMETHING BEFORE THE CREATION OF ALL. I AM THE EVERLASTING DARKNESS, ONE BEFORE TIME, THE ONE BEFORE EVERYTHING. I AM THE ORIGIN."
Then with one burst, Livia popped like a balloon, letting an eerie smog flow out the shattered window. A voice lingered for a moment, before disappearing completely. "The seeds have already been planted. Your intervention will be futile in the end."
Seeing that, Harlibue yawned. "Lame." Seeing the shattered glass, he took out his phone. "I might as well call the maintanence crew to patch this up. Then, I'll get back to watching my favorite show, Tifa's Demise! That ogre scene today was so good!"