Ladro stood in the mirror, staring at his bloodied face. He raised his hands towards the mirror, taking some of the red dye on it. He grunted as spread it on his hair.
Ladro coloured his hair red and looked at his hands, his movements were jerky but controlled.
"What else did I think would happen!" He roared before looking to his side, there a man was sprawled on the cold hard stone. His eyes were aimless and his body covered in his own blood.
The man had a deep cut in his chest, and a missing organ.
"This world… is rotten.
I am too weak to change it… I am not as strong as I was once after all.
If the world does not change, should I?
NO! That very idea is repulsive.
If the world cannot change, then I will change it.
I will throw away my dream until I am strong enough to achieve it."
As Ladro's mind calmed down he realized he had started to speak like his old self, making him spit at his shadow.
He looked at himself once again, his red hair and bloodied hands did match well.
He looked into his own eyes, the experience and pain was well hidden, but his ambition was not.
…
Elias stared at the red sun which was slowly diving into the ocean beyond horizon. The great cloud was slowly drifting away revealing the first Dusklay he had seen in a while. Even if he had forgotten the dead bodies, he still knew that he spent many days in the false treasury.
Elias stood up and walked out of the Clair jungle, He embraced the chirping of the birds along with the humid air as he called a carriage.
He gave the handler money and asked him to go to the first Pere, central mural. The handler nodded and said something to the beast bound to the carriage.
Elias stared outside, while others thought he was amazing in infusing and using lights because he never practiced in front of them; in actuality, he never did the practices Haoki told him.
He was much, much less proficient in using lights, thus he simply did not try.
He was gambling.
After three hours the carriage stopped in front of a huge mansion , Elias got out of it staring at the blue mansion with wide eyes. He felt a sense of humidity in it while he could not see any water around.
He curtly bowed at the entrance and was taken inside by the gatekeeper.
Elias was taken to a tastefully decorated room as he waited for the owner of the mansion.
"Why would Haoki's student come to meet me?"
Elias heard the melodious voice as he turned to his right. There a man wearing long flowing clothes walked towards him holding a golden cup.
"I want to make a deal." Elias's voice was plain, devoid of any nervousness.
"Oh, really! What is it?"
"I heard most grade 2 priests only have one or two Requims." Elias relaxed his back and spread his hands.
"Sure, do you have a Requim lying around?" The man joked as he sat in front of Elias.
"Why? How did you know?"
The man was taken aback as his voice lowered, "Don't joke about things like that."
"I have a Requim in my blood, you do know how to extract such kind of Requims."
The man leaned forward, his eyes stared at Elias as he contemplated something. Elias could feel bloodlust leak out of his elegant and carefree demeanour. "Why would you think that? I do not have such means."
"That is why you have connections," Elias chuckled.
The man let out a low whistle before raising his hands; "Alright, what do you want in return?"
Thank fucking god I am the student of a 'respected duke'!
…
Elias stared at Ladro for a bit before laughing, "Dude you finally killed someone… fuck, that must have been hard, personally I forget about those sad things."
Indeed, Elias had forcefully forgotten the memories of the two slaves he had killed.
Ladro's eyes seemed a bit distant, as if looking at something no one else could see.
"I did… he was trying to assassinate me, so–"
"Holy shit, that's cool."
Elias and Ladro were surrounded by hundreds of other Laity. They were a group of murderers acting as if they were normal kids.
Most of them, along with Elias, were around 25 days old. Elias did not know his age so he just estimated it.
In front of him was the Duke.
The woman had long blue hair with a dark golden claw on his left arm. She was a mountain of pure muscle, with her broad shoulders and muscular figure many Laity were staring at her.
She was wearing a long, flowing tunic around her waist with a simple cloth on her chest. She held a Requim in her hand as she spoke,
"The first competition is simple. There are one thousand three hundred, forty-nine Laity here. By any means, be it violence or any simple self derived competition, bring the number of participants down to seven hundred fifty Laity."
…What the fuck!?
"The competition begins now!"
Elias suddenly thought about how close they were to each other and instantly used the second ability on the farthest rock, being around 10 metres away from him.