{Issei"s POV:}"Partner watch out!"
"Woah!!"
*Swoosh*
*Swoosh*
*Swoosh*
*Swoosh*
It was so sudden, they came out of nowhere. They were the size of middle schooler"s but their strength was through the roof. If not for the fact that Ddraig had warned me I might have been impaled by a pair of blood-red claws. It wasn"t just one either there were dozens of them, but none of them continued to attack and instead, they surrounded me.
"Ddraig," I called out in my mind, "What are these guys?!"
"Vampire Fledglings looks like my guess was right," He replied with a little bit of dread in his voice, "Get out of here, where ever these guys are their master will follow."
"Right!"
Making quick work of the time I got I conjured up a few compressed fireb.a.l.l.s and throw them at the crowd in front of me.
*Swoosh!*
"s.h.i.t!"
Probably reading my movements one fledgling appeared before me and punched my ribcage. The force behind it was similar to the force semi-truck and it caused my internal organs to shake as I spat out a mouthful of blood. Lucky for me that punch also pushed a few meters out of the encirclement. Not even caring about the consequences I shot another fireball at the ceiling letting the ruble crash onto of the fledglings before running away as fast as I could.
"Partner don"t let your guard down!"
"I kno-"
"No, you don"t."
"PARTNER!!"
Not even hearing the sound of anything coming my way I was suddenly pierced in the gut by a black spike coming out of the ground. It was quicker than my sense could react and because of that I suddenly found myself impaled unable to move my body at all.
"H-h-how?!?!" I cried out while bearing the pain in my stomach
*Tap*
*Tap*
*Tap*
"It"s easy really."
"Esau!"
"Correct," Esau said walking towards my direction with heavy steps, "Now back to your question. You let your guard down that"s the answer...well there"s also the fact that I outcla.s.s you in many ways but let"s not worry about the details shall we."
*Snap*
As if that was a signal the spike in my gut started to recede as black treads started to tie up my limbs. As for Esau, he stood right in front of me while examining my condition.
"Um while not the best reaction for getting impaled for the first time you"re reacting better than other people I know." He said while stroking his chin, "Not bad, but unfortunately, I guess this test is over. It was a good run but this is the end."
"Not yet," I thought while activating one of my more unique abilities.
Opening my mouth I channeled my mana into my stomach converted it into dragon fire and released it out my mouth. The side effect of this ability cause my insides to feel like lava but the destructive power was exceptional at best.
*Bam!!*
"I told you while," Esau said after giving me an uppercut stopping my attack before it could start, "You are strong but like I said I outcla.s.s you."
Even if I wanted to refute him I couldn"t even talk due to burning the insides of my mouth, all I could do was look at him as he stood before me.
"You know Issei I"ve trained a lot of people over the years but," He said taking a few steps away from me, "Unlike you they didn"t have such weak resolve."
"!!!My resolve was not weak!!!" I scream in my head since I couldn"t form words in my mouth
"You may want to deny my worlds but current actions these past few moments have spoken otherwise," He said looking down on me, "Earlier you fleed from my [b.l.o.o.d.y Household] which wasn"t bad in itself but even after escaping from once you were caught by me minus that last-ditch maneuver you"ve done nothing to try and escape."
"It"s not like I could," I complained in my mind while glaring at him
"What about your balance breaker?" He asked as if reading my mind, "You"ve been using your boosted gear repeatedly this past hour after all. Even if you have been trying to conserve mana it doesn"t explain why you haven"t used it now. Does it?"
"..."
"Now tell me was your resolve nothing but false bravado or are just prepared to die," He asked, "But well now it"s not time to test your resolve anymore, I want to test your spirit and see how long it lasts."
Confused by his words my glares turned into looks of confusion. I didn"t know what he was going to do but chills started to run down my spine as I saw him snap his fingers.
After that, I could hear sounds of something being dragged towards my general location. At first, I couldn"t see what was happening but after a while, I saw that two of Esau"s vampire fledglings had dragged a body before me.
Even though it was dark and I couldn"t see well when the body was tossed before me my body started to tremble when I saw who it was. A tall muscular lean frame, with long hair reaching his shoulders, and even in the darkness I could still see the brightness in his magenta eyes.
"Aniki" That was the only thing I could think of
"Scary isn"t it," Esau said getting my attention, "I picked him up on his way to school, it wasn"t hard. After observing you these past few months, while your relationship with your brother seems normal you tend to rely on him a lot, don"t you? In a way, he"s like one of your mental support pillars, isn"t he?"
*Groan~*
After Esau finished talking Aniki began to wake up and when he did the first thing he saw was me and my battered up appearance.
"...Issei? What"s wr-"
Not even allowing him to finish his sentence Esau shot a beam of energy through Aniki"s chest. My mind stopped working seeing this, but not long after I began to unconsciously try to break out of my bindings, but couldn"t they seemed to be stronger than before.
Ignoring my struggle Esau shot four more beams energy towards Aniki before he fell to the ground with a loud thump. He could even process what happened before falling. Doing my best to call out his name, I tried to get his attention but nothing happened. Instead, the puddle of blood beneath him grew larger and larger.
"Partner! Don"t look it"s not re-"
Ddraig tried talking to me but I couldn"t listen since tears had already begun to fall down my cheeks. This was something I didn"t want to happen.
"Why are you getting depressed? Did you think this wouldn"t happen one day? Well, you"re wrong even if I didn"t someone would. That"s the fate of those who enter the supernatural world, in this world, the only law is the law the jungle. The fact that you didn"t think this would happen shows that you were naive when choosing the path you find yourself walking."
I couldn"t even respond to his words as I was crying, but just because I couldn"t respond doesn"t mean I couldn"t understand. True I was naive, I didn"t see things as how they were and instead underestimated the supernatural world. Even my former resolve, I made that thinking only I would be affected but I was wrong."
"News flash Issei family, friends, lovers anything that people can use to get an advantage over you will be in danger. Without the power to protect those things, you"ll have to prepare to lose them just. like. today."
He was right, I knew he was right and it caused the despair in my chest to grow larger and larger. All I could do was hope I could fade away from reality as I felt the world around me crumble away. The scene of Esau killing Aniki continued to replay in my head in an infinite loop bring me closer to madness with every rewind. Eventually, all I could think of was shutting myself off from reality and running away.
[Is running away all you can do Issei?]
The moment my will was about to shatter, I remembered a certain phrase Aniki told me in the past and with it came a flood of memories.
----
It was during my last year of primary school and it was also a large turning point in my life. Earlier that year I befriended a wise old man in the park but for some reason, people around me started avoiding me. Minus my family and Katase and Murayama, not many people took the time to talk to me.
I felt alone in school and it made me sad, but I didn"t want my family to know so I didn"t show it at home. Sadly I couldn"t hide anything from Aniki and during lunch one day Aniki appeared before me. Aniki interrogated me until I confessed but I soon found out that he already knew and just wanted me to talk to him and rely on him. Aniki told me I was just hiding from the problem without doing anything to change it.
"Is running away all you can do Issei," Aniki said poking my forehead, "Nothing will change as long as you stay like this."
----
After that, Aniki would continue to tell me that whenever I "ran away" from a problem. At first, I didn"t understand why Aniki kept using the same words every time but now I slowly began to piece bits and pieces what he was implying. Aniki wanted me to face reality and accept it for what it was.
Reality was harsh and cruel things like a happy ending weren"t obtained they were earned. Nothing is free in the world there will always be some kind of set back along the road. My ignorance killed Aniki and for the rest of my life, I"ll have live with that.
*Crack!*
*Crack!*
*Shatter!!*
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"Huh?!"
Hearing the ear-piercing sound of gla.s.s being broken I snapped my eyes open and looked around my surroundings in confusion. I was still in the sewage system but something felt off, not long after I noticed that my body was no longer bound and I could freely move my body.
"What happened?" I asked in confusion
"Well done you"ve done pretty good, five hours worth of time in a dream full of torment would be tough even for me." Esau said while clapping "Not bad, even if time, in reality, didn"t change much you"ve definitely met the time quota if we add your time inside the dream. Congratulation Issei Hyoudou you"ve pa.s.sed the test."
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Author"s Note:
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Hey, guys, I"m still alive (barely) here"s today"s chapter, next chapter will be an explanation of what happened in this chapter as well as explain why Issei was angry in the last chapter.
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Also, question do you need to pay to make a pat.reon cause I just paid my tuition for my freshman year of college and my bank account now has moths in it and I"m looking for a way to get cash since I"m poor now and scholarships take too long to process. I know getting a job would be easier but my work-study doesn"t start for another week and a half so ya.
- The Lost Writer