The scene quickly changed. The red blood and dead bodies turned into a gentle breeze with crystal clear lakes everywhere. It was a beautiful sight, one that Tensei grew to love. Their village was situated near the banks of a river and that river was connected to a waterfall. It was far away from the major four cities of Lukia; it was a hidden village deep in the Soul Forest.
The Soul Forest was a landmark of Lukia. It was a forest that was inhabited completely by soul beasts and no humans. The founders of Lukia thought it was great to preserve land for the soul beasts since humans share the land with the beasts.
A young Tensei was running around with his jagged horns playing with his friends. As a child before the lineage classification he was quite popular. The Lineage Classification was a reading of the demon's blood to see how much of the Arch-Demon of Water's pure blood was in him. Since Tensei was a hybrid he did not have a single drop of pure blood in him and he got thrown away by his friends.
Yet he loved that place. The village that grew to hate him for the way he was born, he still held very deep in his heart. He was exiled and hated but it was his Father's home. It was a part of his blood.
His father always talked about Tensei's mother about how strong and brave she was. Even while knowing the pain of the future she still carried that burden.
"Some burden she had. She left it all to me," complained Tensei everyday.
His father would not respond, instead he would pat Tensei gently on the head and tell him.
"You will learn when you are old enough,"
So when that very place of his birth was destroyed. The naive Tensei, who could not kill a baby Angel disappeared. He was filled with hatred. He became a cold-blood killer.
He trained every day with new vengeance as he re-visited the destroyed village, the smoke growing and growing as a cloud consuming the sky. His mind was also consumed with revenge.
He quickly managed to awaken the One-Horned Transformation, which was something not even his pure-blooded seniors did at his age.
"Why is my brain showing me these memories?" thought Tensei as he watched the brutal murders he committed.
"You are a murderer, yet you can redeem yourself," said a tall mysterious man.
Tensei quickly realised who the man was. The man reached his hand out and grabbed a young Tensei's small hand.
"You are the future so you have to be better than this," said Chiro Zanami.
Tensei quickly woke up and his eyes shot open. It was a bad idea since the bright lights burnt his eyes and he started groaning in pain. He laid there on the bed looking around.
"Where am I?" thought Tensei.
Tensei thought more about the lessons and the things Chiro had said to him. Every word had value especially if it came from him.
"I know what to do now," said Tensei with a grim expressionless face.
"For everyone that I now care about I must get stronger, much stronger,"
Nicole gasped in shock as she watched the recordings on the computer screen. Sasha and Kevin sat next to her also watching with a serious look on their faces.
The blue-haired man was not really blue-haired? The man has an avatar ability? Danso got stabbed in the back by Marline Hermes!
After finishing the recording, Nicole quickly took one of their own security footage and erased it and copied the contents of the footage in the Black Market onto the newly erased disk. Then she got up and looked at Kevin and Sasha.
"We might have to close the restaurant for sometime," said Nicole.
"Why?" asked Sasha.
"We are going on a trip to Rein," said Nicole.
"Why Rein of all places," enquired Kevin.
"We have to meet some friends of Danso," explained Nicole.
Nicole knew the DMMS was in Rein for a long time. It was very obvious with the city being in a bad shape, Jale being in the worst period of time in its history and Relvon being in chaos, Rein was the only place where Danso and his friends could rest in peace.
She also remembered the day where Danso called Nicole after getting his DMMS job. He seemed very pleasant and overjoyed but also had a scent of seriousness to his voice. Nicole was also glad that Danso finally got a job instead of doing nothing and wasting money at her shop all the time. After all, Danso did not get the title of number one customer for no reason!
Nicole stepped outside to see it was raining. The extended roof of the Battle Restaurant protected her from being drenched in rain. She lit her cigarette and watched as the smoke mixed with the rain creating an odd yet good smell. The clouds were grey as she knew they had to leave by tomorrow afternoon. She sat in one of the non-drenched chairs and relaxed.
It had been awhile since she returned to Akuza. She had always been working to create new branches or spread her ideas and explore the country. She was also partially a mercenary that worked for the Mercenary Guild. Completing expeditions into the Barren Wastelands or unknown territories within Laxasis was a job that paid well so she worked.
That was also how she had met Danso in the first place. She was fighting him after someone put a bounty on the Red Samurai. She still got shivers from the fight that day.
Eyes that had experience of a hundred battles.
Ears that were heightened to the level of a bat.
A swing of the sword strong enough to cut down a mountain.
Suddenly a white mist started to form around her. Nicole had not brought her mace with her but still had her pocket knife with her. It was a self-defence weapon she carried from her days of being a mercenary.
Nicole was calm, she had been in situations like this before many times in the past.
The mist continued to creep around her, enveloping the outside world into its grasp. Then, a man walked into the mist with the same blue hair as she saw on the footage.
"Hello Nicole," said Xeno.
"Good Evening," replied Nicole.
"May I take a seat?" asked Xeno.
Nicole nodded before Xeno grabbed the wooden chair and dried it with some soul energy, he crossed his legs and stared at Nicole almost inviting her to say something.
"Where is Danso?" asked Nicole.
"Somewhere you won't find him," said Xeno.
This could only mean one thing and that was he was currently in the Barren Wastelands. It was the worst possible outcome imaginable for Nicole but since she had experience of leading expeditions she was already planning out how to rescue Danso with the DMMS.
"You know too much Nicole," said Xeno.
"Therefore? Don't tell me you're going to do the obvious and kill me," mocked Nicole.
Xeno laughed. "You have a bad sense of humor,"
Xeno quickly threw a knife straight to Nicole's face. She dodged it in an instant and pushed the table slamming the wooden edge on his stomach. Xeno flinched in pain and Nicole quickly got up and punched Xeno on the face quickly making him not able to move.
Xeno gasped for air but Nicole would not let him go she started to choke him and Xeno tried to stab Nicole in the stomach with a pocket knife that he was secretly holding but Nicole quickly slapped the hand away causing the knife to clatter to the ground and fall down to a nearby manhole.
Xeno started wriggling in place while Nicole whispered in his ear.
"I wonder how Danso lost to you? Fraud," said Nicole.
Then an avatar of Xeno crawled up and lunged with a sword attempting to kill Nicole in one attack. Nicole shrugged and deflected the attack, making the other Xeno loose.
Then they both came at Nicole at once and she instantly blocked both of their attacks with her two hands and threw them both on the ground and kicked the blue-haired Xeno. Then another avatar appeared and cut Nicole's cheek. She had anticipated it and she knew she had to conserve energy and stamina to win this long fight. She did not know how many avatars Xeno had. So she was on guard at all times.
"I don't want to use violence on you," said the blue haired Xeno while multiple black haired Xeno's surrounded her.
"Neither do I but you aren't giving me a choice," said Nicole.
All the Xeno's rushed towards her and she knew she had to pull her secret weapon out of her pocket.
"Sorcery of War:- Weapon Enhancement," said Nicole.
Her pocket knife became a blade that was radiating oceans of soul energy. She smirked and got her blade ready.
"You seem awfully full of yourself when you just turned a knife to a blade," said Xeno.
Nicole just kept on smiling and annoyed Xeno. He shrugged and commanded all his avatars to rush towards her. Nicole slashed one's head straight off his neck as all the other Xeno's took a step back but refused to give up.
Sorcery of War was the sorcery that Nicole has. It allows her to turn anything to a weapon and it also allows her to control her weapons in an instant using soul energy. She can teleport with her weapons and even control them while they are meters away from her.
Nicole picked up a rock and turned it into a dagger and then she threw the dagger on to the ground away from the horde of Xeno's. As they were about to attack using all their force, Nicole switched places with the dagger and then quickly turned the dagger into a piece of dynamite.
It exploded and killed off all the Xeno avatars. The blue-haired Xeno was heavily damaged and he started to crawl away but Nicole grabbed him by the hair.
"Your tactics won't work on a mercenary like me, I am not some honorable samurai who would trust anyone," said Nicole referencing Danso.
Xeno smirked before taking a dagger that he had and slitting his own throat. Nicole threw away the body in an instant and quickly cleaned up her mess. The fog started to dissipate almost instantly.
Meanwhile in the Alkanium Soul Cage, after the death of the blue haired Xeno, the main body of Xeno who was inhabiting Suzumi Hokage groaned in pain as he was fighting Chiro and Takahashimi.