Damien grimaced the moment he stepped in between the twin glowing pillars that were the entrance to the proto-space, arriving on the other side.

  "Yeah, I was right. I hate this place," he said right as he came through the other side.

  They were on a grassland filled with some kind of purple grass that looked like it'd been baptized under a necrotized sun, given its shrunken, dead looking features. The place was a nightmare of night and death, with thick black mist saturating the entire atmosphere. And despite his Spirit lord enhanced vision, Damien still found it difficult to see through the mist.

  "Yup," Keilan stepped beside him. "Can't argue this."

  With a sigh of resignation, Damien stepped further in. He could already taste the stench of crawlers in the air, and he definitely didn't like it.

  The grass beneath his feet crunched loudly like dead wood as Damien moved, which drew a wince from him and a scowl from Keilan.

  "Why don't you just blow a trumpet to fully alert the entire space to our presence," Keilan hissed. "Since that seems to be your goal."

  "It's not like I did it on purpose," Damien grumbled.

  "I find that hard to believe."

  "Whatever."

  [Would you both focus?] Gray said, appearing into vision. [You're in a space filled with mind controlling monsters. You of all people, Keilan, should know the consequences of failure.]

  Through the corner of his eyes, Damien saw Keilan shiver, and he had to hold back a smile from creeping up. That should serve him right.

  "You've been quiet lately, Gray," Damien looked up at the floating tiny figure. "I know where you've been staying, I just don't know what you've been doing."

  [Ehh, I've just been catching up on a few novels.]

  "Novels?" Keilan said with raised eyebrows. "You? Gray? Novels?"

  [I think I've said something of the sort before,] Gray rolled his eyes. [Besides, what's so unbelievable about it?]

  "Nothing," Keilan shrugged, but Damien wasn't willing to let the matter die.

  "Ohh, not nothing." He folded his arms. "If Keilan won't say it, I will. We don't believe you, Gray."

  [That's insulting you know? You're kind of insinuating that I shouldn't be able to read.]

  "I made no such accusation and you know it!" Damien scowled. "What I'm trying to understand is you having an interest in novels. You don't seem like the sort."

  [Oh, and how would you know that? Hmm?] Gray scowled back.

  "It's just that— you—umm. Arghhh!" Damien growled. "If you're truly reading, then what's the title of the story?"

  [If you must know,] Gray said with an exaggerated air of arrogance. [It is called Hopeless Love.]

  "Hopeless Love?" Keilan said skeptically. "That sounds like a cringy romantic story."

  [What did you say?]

  "Nothing."

  At that, a smile slowly crept up on Damien's face, soon morphing into something devilish. "Don't be shy, Kei," he said innocently, purposefully ignoring the pleading look his brother sent his way, and then he turned towards Gray. "Keilan doesn't want you to know that he also reads romance novels."

  Gray paused, and then slowly turned to Keilan with a smile. [Is that true?]

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  "Aren't we supposed to be focusing on our surroundings?" Keilan replied, completely bypassing Gray's question.

  The little grey man huffed. [Deny all you want, it'll come out one day.] He said. [Anyways, you're right, we need to focus more on the mission.]

  "I still don't understand why we had to come here," Damien said. "We could have simply asked a mind essence wielder to help train our willpower."

  [Training will not grant you potential,] Gray replied. [And there's a certain benefit that comes with training under the threat of death: You learn better.]

  [Besides,] Gray continued. [You could always take the easy way; it'll only cost you a longer time than we've planned.]

  "How long?"

  [Mhmm, give or take, a decade or more.]

  "What?!" Damien and Keilan both said at the same time.

  [Ha! Did you think the Verrille boy came into the power you see now all of a sudden? While you both were trapped in that Proto space, he was training. While you both were fleeing the 'recruiters' of the petty nations in your home planet, he was training.]

  Gray came to hover in between both brothers. [And his trainers weren't some ordinary Spirit King; they were powerful Divine Kings and even Ascendants. That was the reason it was even accomplishable in that short amount of time. You two are fortunate enough that while you didn't have the same training as him, you went through a much more heinous experience than he could handle at that age. All you just have to do is go through a few more and you'll match him, and even surpass him if the ordeal is great enough.]

  Damien grunted, but ultimately agreed. He knew very well that his mental strength, strong as it might be, was no match for that of Vanis'. Damien had seen the man control a vast number of swarm techniques, far more than Damien could. All that was done with his mind.

  At most, when wielding his Starfall technique, Damien could hold up to maybe three dozen stars at once without feeling like he was being stabbed in the brain with a blunt knife. Seeing Vanis control more than a hundred really hit him with the grim understanding that, amongst the vast number of Spirit lords on the planet, Damien was probably on the middle of the ladder. He didn't want that. What was the point of pursuing something if one couldn't aspire to be the best at it?

  That was why they were here. Damien wanted to put his mind through the greatest ordeal he could think of, and that was going against creatures specialized in the art.

  Slowly, they moved past their entry point and approached the ambient thick mist. Damien would have preferred to fly, seeing as it would have made things much more convenient, but he knew how dangerous that could be. Not only would he be leaving himself wide open for sniping, but he didn't know what was infused within the mist. It would be very annoying if he found himself crashing to the ground all because of some poison infused mist.

  "Does anyone else find it nerve wracking that our senses are severely limited?" Damien asked right as they reached the mist border.

  Keilan grunted beside him. "I hate this. Reminds me of when I got ambushed."

  [I don't have any issue with it,] Gray said cheerfully. [This mist isn't enough to constrain me.]

  "Why don't you help us scout ahead then."

  [No can do, boyo,] Gray said, and then his voice took on an air of exaggerated sageliness. [To soar through the sky, a bird must first learn how to jump from a tree.]

  At that, Damien rolled his eyes "Please, Gray, don't ever try to be mysterious ever again."

  [But it was mysterious, right?]

  "No," Damien and his brother said at the same time. "No, it was not."

  Damien sighed and then turned forward to face the mist wall that was in front of him.

  "Is that a cockroach over there?" Keilan said suddenly.

  With barely an instant to think, Damien turned and lashed out with a scything wave of destruction, cutting through the mist and tearing a dozen metre gash into the earth.

  Looking at the area, Damien expected to find an at least injured creature, if it wasn't dead already, but what he found was a torn up earth and a disturbed curtain of mist.

  He shot a glare at a grinning Keilan. "Haha. Funny," Damien said dryly.

  "Oh," Keilan heaved with barely contained laughter. "It— it. It definitely was funny!"

  Damien ignored Keilan and then turned to Gray, who, he found, to his utmost un-amusement, was struggling to hold back a laugh. "Aren't you supposed to be the neutral one? I fail to see what's funny about this. There could have actually been a Cockroach over there."

  [Yes. Yes, I agree with you.] Gray said. [But did you even check where the Cockroach was before you lashed out?]

  That was when Damien remembered that Keilan had not specified where the Cockroach had been. And with that embarrassing knowledge, he decided wasn't going to be engaging in any childish argument any longer.

  "I'm done with you both," he said before he stepped into the mist.

  Involuntarily, Damien shivered as he stepped across the wall of mist. Despite not sensing anything untoward, something at the back of his mind pleaded for him to run away, to flee this domain of deathly creepiness. And Damien would have done so had Keilan and Gray not stepped inside a short while after.

  He mentally sighed in resignation, careful not to let any of it show on his face, but given the look Gray shot his way, he doubted he'd been successful.

  [Before I go, I hope I don't need to warn you both to be careful,] Gray said, drawing the attention of both boys. [Most of the creatures here might not have the raw strength to bring you down, but what they lack in physical, they greatly make up for it with Mental. So, stay safe.]

  Damien snorted. "If we wanted to stay safe, we shouldn't have walked into this place in the first place."

  [Don't be witty, Damien. You know what I meant.]