Chapter Text
Five Years After Kazuto Meets Veldanava
One day, after another session of harsh training with Shisho. I was completely lifeless on the ground.
"Oi! Kazuto? Still alive ?" Shisho asked with a light tone.
No, I'm dying but thank you for your concern. I replied sarcastically in my mind. As ever, Shisho was merciless in his training, asking to break a quadruple barriers that possess both magical and physical reflexion ability is in the realm of impossibility if you ask me, and all of that with a ordinary sword.
"It's not the sword the most important factor here! It's you, so if you can do it then when you will have a stronger sword you'll be unstoppable." he explained with a bright face. Truly a overpowered immortal dragon's logic, how can a simple human like me could achieve that? nonetheless I couldn't refuse so I really tried my best, exploring the limits of my current strength and I concluded one thing :"It's hurt a lot!"
First, when I tried to use a spell to test if its ability to reflect magic, absolutely anything I throw returned with the exact amount of power.
So magic is no good, or maybe totally useless even. I thought, and when I tried to use the sword, the shockwave it caused bounced back, thankfully I wasn't going all out in the first try.
How I'm going to even scratch that wall !?. I complained internally, but I know Shisho wouldn't give me something impossible (I liked to think at least); there must be a trick or something.
Let's try with a combinaison of both magic and sword's skill then!! This time I'm sure it's gonna be different, I focused my mind, gathering my magic in my sword, fire bursting out of it, growing more and more at every seconds. I tried to compress the flame into the blade of the sword, some flames escaped from my focus and danced off the sword in the form of sparks.
I could feel the heat rising from the sword, enough to even burn my skin, my hands the first victims.
Let's do it!!
"UOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!" a single point, thrusting with all my might at a single point of the barrier, the tip of the sword collided with the barrier, causing a giant explosion -- but the sword broke before it pierced all the way and the explosion bounced back; the amount of power thrusted returned back to me.
"GAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH !!!!" a scream escaped from my mouth as I was throw several meter backward crashing helplessly on the ground, my body almost compleletely burned, my hands were almost ash and part of the hilt and the blade of the sword melted from the amount of heat.
"It was a good idea to combine magic and physic attacks but it isn't enough, it lacked precision and the amount of concentrated power wasn't manipulated correctly." Shisho commented with a light tone, as he approached me. "But you made a good judgment, trying different approach before going all-out."
"Oh! Right, I almost forgot to heal you." He snapped.
...Thanks, but please don't forget I am just a mortal, Shisho. I thought before my mind went black, such state was almost a daily sight for him.
A wave of light errupted from Shisho and healed my heavily injuried body in a matter of seconds. As expected from a ultimate being, absolutely every single wounds disappears and my body was in perfect shape.
"Now repeat, but with more power!" Shisho added with a smile, a smile that signed my doom, as he summoned a new sword.
Why on earth does God lack common sense?! I screamed internally.
Again I was faced against a impossible task, spending all day trying to break the quadruple barrier.
***
Meanwhile, a woman with silver long hair, glancing at Kazuto with her golden eyes with a annoyed look.
"I still can't understand why Elder Brother brought that man. He isn't strong nor possess anything special." She complained in a low tone.
"Velzard, don't be so harsh, Kazuto may look like that but he has potential." Kazuto's Master, Veldanava, replied calmly to his younger sister.
"But he don't have a seed nor an egg. His soul isn't pure, not only that but it's been five years he's been training under you and he is still only a Enlightened." Velzard complained.
By "seed" she meant a "Demon Lord Seed" and "egg" stand for "Hero's Egg"; Velzard herself didn't meet anyone who possess them, but she knew about them from her brother, who explained to her that special individual could possess the potential to evolve into a higher life-form capable of acquiring Ultimate Skill, and maybe even capable of harming them, the highest and strongest life-form in the world.
"... I know. Kazuto is running away from something. I don't know what since he always dodges the subject and I don't want to force him to talk about it. But as long he don't face it head-on he would stay stuck at this level." Veldanava admitted, letting out a sigh.
"Is that why you give him a task impossible for his level?" Velzard inquired, both of them looked at Kazuto trying to break the quadruple barrier from a distance, trying to use different ways such as casting different spells at the same time, using Aura Blade and even using his Unique Skills but either the sword break because it couldn't support the amount of power Kazuto poured in it or the attack bounced back or even both.
"Ahahaha! Whatever you mean? I just thought it would be fun to give him that task!" Veldanava brushed her off. "But it's true that he shouldn't stay like that, ...now that I think about it there is something I could do for him but it's too early." he added with a little smirk.
"So you won't help him to solve his current predicament?" Velzard questioned as she turned to look at her brother's face."I thought you would help him the moment he's stuck, why wait?"
"When educating someone, you must be patient, Velzard. Let them see and understand the problem, allow them to face it, and try to solve it on their own. I admit Kazuto will not become a Demon Lord nor a Hero—he simply doesn’t meet the requirements. But life is full of surprises. Who knows what the future holds for him?" Veldanava replied, a grin never leaving his face.
"And you're the one who said that Elder Brother, you already have something in mind, right?" Velzard muttered as she looked incredulously at her brother.
"...It's too early." Veldanava replied as he looked at his disciple struggling in his training, before remembering something and turned to his little sister. "By the way, Velzard, it wouldn't hurt to get along with him you know."
"......I don't know what you're talking about, Elder Brother." Velzard retorted sheeply as she walked away.
***
After a day of humiliating myself, I simply lay in a field of flowers, hoping to find some rest. I closed my eyes under the starry sky, letting the night breeze soothe my mind.
"So there you are." a voice resounded, I didn't even need to turn around to know who was that.
"What, Shisho?"
"I was just looking for my dejected disciple. How are you?" Shisho replied.
"Desperate, ...and tired." I replied, not hiding my displeasure.
"Ahahaha! Well if you have enough energy to complain then it should be fine." Shisho declared lightly.
"Has anyone ever told you that you’re a pain, Shisho?" I grumbled. Seriously, how does your brain work to come up with these Spartan training sessions?
“There’s still more to come—at least three more years before you graduate,” he replied with a radiant smile and a thumbs-up.
Oh no, you're joking, right? THREE more years!!? I could feel my soul screaming, begging to run away, to the eternal sleep where I would have nothing to care.
"Oh, I didn't know a human's face could grimaces that much. Ahahaha!"
"Aren't you the almighty, omniscient God who created us?" I retorted without even looking at him, I could feel a frown on my face but so what, Shisho is always like that. But what he said wasn't what I expected.
"I did created the World but I gave up on my Omniscience and Omnipotence after that."
"Huh? ......What's that mean?"
"Hmmm! ...Well, it wouldn’t be fun if I knew everything that was going to happen, don’t you think? So, I threw them away." He replied, nodding to himself. This guy... it's like he's talking about random stuff that barely matters.
"...It's... Wow... Can I have a minute?" I replied, my head pounding... like, seriously.
Shisho didn't seem to see the problem in that, tilting his head.
"Think nothing of it, it's not gonna help you anyway. Your problem is how to break that barrier, don't mind the little details."
"Little details"? I think it's pretty important, though. I ruminated inside.
But well, that Shisho for you, not caring how out of ordinary he is, in more ways than one.
"But Kazuto, are you gonna sleep here ? Shouldn't you go back now ?" Shisho continued, his tone a bit more calmer.
"Nope, can't move. Anywhere is fine with how tired I am." I said. "But you only came for asking that ?"
"What? A teacher can't worry for his favourite disciple ?" He replied with a smile.
"Well, I AM your only disciple though." I retorted, I can already feel my veins popping out. "But, let me understand what you just said previously, you were Omniscient at the beginning of the Universe ? And you threw that away, only because it wouldn't be fun ?"
"Gahahaha! Well, yeah! Something like that. But I still caught a glimpse of the future in that moment, even if it was only for a hundredth of a second."
"Huh? What? Like what ?"
"To put it simply, I could see the entire future up until the moment someone with the power to influence it intervened. From that point on, the future became blurry. Of course, I could look into it if I really wanted but that's not a big deal."
"So in the future, someone will be able to alter the timeline, isn't that kinda dangerous ? Do you know who's that ?" I asked, my curiousity too much to handle, must be pretty impressive if someone possess the power to change the future.
"Of course, I know! But don't worry, there is no problems." He replied.
"Eeeh, well if that's all, I'll sleep." I finished before turning to the side. Even if there were such person, it's not really my problem anyway.
"...Of course, there wouldn't be no problem since the one who will acquire that power is..." Shisho's voice seemed distant and before I knew it everything went black.