Several weeks ago. Back in Osberg, a duke meditates.

  Tarion

  After a long day, with aching joints and sore muscles, I closed my eyes and folded my legs on my master bedroom floor. Hands rested on my knee as I relaxed my taut body. Mental images settled me in as I settled into my groove.

  Circles spun, and my chest pounded like a thousand hoofs on grass. Qi rushed from my lower dantian to my healed heart. I focused. Shoulder, elbow, hand back to elbow, shoulder then to my other limbs I scanned with qi in the same fashion. Meridians were healthy. Now to train. I focused. Warming my eyes with qi.

  “Your lifesight is better.” Master Zhi spoke behind me in her raspy elderly voice, fanning herself in the warm room. "Less leakage. I knew you were talented, but this... this is scary. Charles, I am so sorry that you live in the same generation as this freak of nature, or I would be saying the same things to you.”

  Charles shrugged with a smile as he also meditated beside me. “I’m glad. I am not equipped to take the burden of expectations.”

  Like an open vial, I released qi to my fist, and bright gold light coated my calloused skin. Another day of many; practice the same Qi shifting techniques. Shoulder to elbow to hand to elbow and back again and again and again.

  “Master…” I leaned back on my hand.

  Zhi laughed. “Finally. Are you bored?”

  I perked a curious eyebrow. “How’d you know?”

  With a knowing smile on her face, the elder fanned her face. “He was the same damn way.”

  “Who?” I asked. I turned myself around to see her fully. Who could make a gruff granny smile like a child playing the fields?

  “Yuran again?” Charles spoke from my right, stepping from his meditation with a creaking body. “Yuran did this. Yuran did that. You are so much fatter than Yuran.”

  “A disciple?” While Charles picked me up, I asked Zhi, whose face suddenly filled with grief.

  “Former.” She coughed as she turned away, trying to hide her despaired face. But one quick glance at my face and she relaxed. “He was bored as well. ‘Why don’t I learn this?’ or ‘His technique is amazing; why can’t I copy it?’. I will tell you what I always ask him.” Zhi pointed directly at my engaged face and said. “Do you want to be amazing at one technique or be a better fighter?”

  “Better fighter, of course.”

  “Exactly. You are an adaptable warrior, and you have now seen your fair share of battle. Is it better to have a singular attribute much higher than the rest?”

  I shook my head.

  “We train in the fundamentals to have an answer to every solution. Energy-diverting, rushing tide, gold skin and lightsight. The four arts. Four parts of a whole that is the He…” Zhi cleared her throat. “We have a saying where I am from. To become strong, we eliminate weakness. Why teach a single technique to slash carve mountains in two when every movement of your blade can cut hills?”

  I scratched my hairy chin in thought. “Why can’t I just learn foundation techniques and higher techniques in tandem?”

  “Time.”

  Zhi brought down her green sleeve, and Qi swirled on her arm like a drill. “Want to learn this?”

  I nodded fast.

  The drill dissipated, and four swords of light hovered over us like objects of heaven. “Want to-” Charles and I bounced our heads faster like kids in a toy shop. A sword pointed at Charles. “Several years.” And a sword pointed at me. “Several months. Only if you only practice the technique and only this technique.”

  Several months… by then all our plans...

  Two swords aim their sharp pointed their humming qi at Master Zhi. “Several decades.”

  “Damn! You're old as fuck!”

  Blades of light sparkled away, and wrinkled golden fingers curled for a flick.

  Back parallel to the floor, chips of wood fell on my face. A leg tripped me, and the fan whacked me on the side of my temple. “I deserved that, haha. Ouch…”

  “Youngers are always on the go, trying not to waste time while doing the time-wasting. Focus on the foundations. I don’t care if it's boring. Boring will save your damn life, like it just did. Legs folded. We will try again.”

  “Yes, master.”

  From the floor, I glanced at a wall bored through by a single golden finger.

  Better get back to training.

  A frail hand caught my arm before I sat down. “I teach this way for you. For what you will become. Train earnestly, and the fruits of your labour will bear fruit.”

  I pivoted to her, and with deference, I bowed to her. “Your teachings have brought me far already. And with my life saved by your hand, I will trust your teachings to the end. I may ask foolish questions; your words are always engraved in my heart, Master Zhi.

  My bedroom door burst open with a curly blonde huffing with a large tome in her arms. The duchess raised her old book that resembled an unearthed mummy.

  “DEMONS!”

  “Wut.”

  “FALLEN ANGELS, the enemy of the constellations!" DEMONS! THEY WANT TO SUMMON DEMONS!”

  Tonight

  Tarion

  Divert it like qi.

  Plonk.

  This ‘draconic’ energy warmed my eyes. Scales of black grew around my eye sockets as the sky brightened with my extreme vision. I can finally see the curse. Rather, the absence of mana is created in its trail. I see the thousands of black lances fly to me. I smiled.

  Learning is such fun.

  Two bubbles of water swam in front, forming crystal-like swords of holy water. An air platform fractured under my feet as I charged with flash steps at the wall of fire. Crystal swords spun like propellers. Blending the lances in my way, each step pushed me harder against the wind.

  70% feet. 30% to e-

  A great black fire broke the swords. A left hook to my face twisted my body 1080 degrees and a right hook to my left kidney halted me in the air.

  “YOU THINK HOLY WATER WILL SCARE ME!?” Black armoured hands grasped onto my long black hair, and an angry Duke Wolfburn attacked with a right punch. I calmly parried it, and with feet powered by the new power, I kicked the demon-tainted out of my hair. The air rippled in waves, and a knee to the face shook the atmosphere.

  “WHY!?” Holy water condensed above my fist and my left rocked the cursed man into the clouds. With wind, I chased with fervour, and my right straight burnt through the black chest armour. Under the starry sky, the Wolfburn consumes poor souls as black mist regenerates.

  “WHAT WILL THEY GIVE YOU TO BETRAY MANKIND?” As the light of the holy water dulled, I summoned holy water from my inventory. Becoming a crystal sword, I slashed down on the duke, and he swiftly evaded with obsidian wings.

  The duke looked down at his bizarre visage with pride. “I’d say this was a great gift.”

  A kick to my spleen knocked me off my equilibrium. A blow to the back. Kick to the head. A rib-breaking punch brought a tear in my eye. A sky-ripping uppercut was dodged. The hairs on my chin ignited like a match from the duke's fist. and an ear-deafening right straight was sidestepped.

  I focused. Months of practice and my seven circles sped qi to my left hand. Water condensed to a ball flashed into my hand from my inventory.

  THROOOM.

  The small bubble of water fired at my hand like a canon, wrecking the black carapace of the duke, who looked confusedly at his wounded body. Bearing his beastly teeth, he hissed at me with a volatile look in his red eyes. “Greystone…Greystone… GREYSTONE!!!”

  Black armour thickened on hammering fists, and I caught his strike.

  As practiced.

  I felt the rush of power absorbed through my hand, elbow, shoulder, circle, and then my right leg for a thunderous kick to his intestines. Armour split on his stomach, and a knee cracked the armoured face of the keeling Duke of Vioden. An old man shrieked as fire burnt his arms to a crisp. Wings flapped desperately as I grabbed the armless Kellen's neck. “LET ME GO!”

  Two water swords swam behind the Wolfburn and cut off his wings and legs. Just like the wound on Duke Kellen’s chest, they fail to regenerate like his arms. Summoning all the holy water, six swords were stabbed into the cursed duke. He roared death wails like a dying lion. Regenerating arms reach for me as they slowly heal.

  “What? finding fewer souls to eat? Nice, my men work fast.”

  Knumby grey arms wiggled towards me. “I’ll pull your damn soul out and eat it whole!”

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  I squeezed the duke’s trachea as hard as I could while my left hand guided the swords of water deeper into the black armour to his heart. I watched the duke's eyes bulge from strength.

  “UNHAND ME, BOY!” Lightning parked from every part of the cursed man's body. I absorb it all, redirecting it to an air-rippling punch to the gut.

  (00:00)

  Phew…

  Kellen

  My fist pounded my nephew's stomach until yesterday's dinner was strewn on the bloody grass. Slaps messed up Joshua's face, making him blue and purple on his young face.

  Grabbing his long, tied-up, red Woflburn hair I used to envy, I whispered close to his ear. “Where…is…she?”

  “I-I-”

  “WHERE IS SHE!?” An unforgiving knee bruised Joshua's organs. WHERE!!!!???”

  “I DON’T KNOW!” Lightning sparked from the young fella with all he could muster. I shook off the little sting.

  “Maybe your brother will know after I offer your head to him!”

  Heightened senses felt something sharp and long, travelling at an absurd speed. It hummed with an energy that scared my whole being. My single-edged sword battered it down. The icicle paused in the air before it could hit the ground and shot at my head again. Releasing the boy, I evaded with a step back.

  “Grey uncle, get away from my boy!” A curved sword from a foreign land sliced down. Tendrils of mist blocked the blade.

  “Sorry!”

  Like soft clay—no, like snow—the tendril crumbled from the strike.

  “Them weird stuff ain’t gonna work with me!”

  A slice up, I leaned away, was followed by a flying ice stake. My blade guarded my left leg, and an empty hand caught the stake. “ARGH!”

  Holy water, damn, let me finish this fast.

  “Looks like you wanna finish this fast.” The ice stake zipped around my head, darting like a dragonfly. My eyes got used to the speed, and with lightning on my blade, I burnt the holy water to vapour. “Sorry, I have a task to complete." From a flask under his chainmail, the old warrior's holy water turned to ice. “So stay and wait for your turn!”

  I see. I can't underestimate any Greystone.

  Stance straightened. I finally see the enemy for the warrior he is. Two hands held my new sword. Black lightning-coated feet shuffled on the grass.

  The man of Greystone turned around in shock as my sword tore through his back. The Greystone’s weapon swung wide from the right.

  Too slow.

  Two cuts made their mark on the old man’s chest. The foreign weapon still swung, banging into my weapon with a loud clang.

  The greystone looked at his injuries. “What the fuck is this?! Cut like you mean it!”

  Even in my transformed state, my wrist still hurt from the strike.

  “Your name,” I asked him.

  “Loran. And Kellen, right? Great name. Wonder where you got it from.”

  “From a great man.”

  “HAHA.” The elder settled in a low, slouching stance. “I like you. You say funny stuff.”

  Tarion

  “Why?”

  My grip on his neck became weak. Holy water could only exorcise the curse for so long till its power ran out. The swords felt stuck in the Duke. “My family. It couldn’t have been for the crystals. What did we do to receive your ire?” But I needed answers.

  “HAHA” The duke spat out blood on my arm. “Still, you know nothing! Are you not aware of the loathing your damn family has brought on themselves? YOU ARE THE ENVY OF ALL. Not the Wofburn’s. Look at what you horde. Woodlands fill with the thickest and strongest trees in Friedland. Your numerous mines are filled with gold, coal and gems! You produce the highest rate of mana users on the continent! Although southern nobles snub you and your ilk, envy and fear lace their insults. You look at me, wondering. ‘Fear?’ LOOK AT WHAT YOU’VE BROUGHT TO MY PEACEFUL DUCHY. ONLY MAYHEM AND BLOOD THEY WERE RIGHT TO FEAR!”

  My hard grip on his neck returned. “Peaceful? You fucking hypocrite! I fight because of YOU! I did not make you a monster who slaughters his countrymen for a bit more power!” I glanced at his injuries with a smile. “Was it worth it, Duke Wolfburn? You beg, weak and trembling in my grasp. Your family is ASH! Mixing with the blood of the commoners you despise. YOU SACRIFICED EVERYTHING AND GAINED NOTHING!”

  Cold red eyes do not wallow in pity. It all meant nothing to him.

  “I can…rebuild! I am WOLFBURN!”

  “Enough.”

  Fire engulfed the Wolfburn’s head, and the Wolf yelled his scream into the empty night sky.

  “WHY. WHY MY MOTHER?”

  “I…I didn’t kill her… I didn’t order... I couldn't do anything about… Their orders are absolute. Osberg needed to be controlled and restrained for the good of the empire!”

  “For the good of the king... His own sister..." My hands trembled. I gulped, swallowing my disgust.

  “Sweet Mary~. Such a rebel with intelligence in her young eyes. It's why my heart fluttered every time I laid my eyes on her when she came to visit Gwen… Your father felt the same as I and, in the end won her hand. The King didn’t care for her; however, she was a useful tool. But with letters unanswered, the king saw his asset swayed by a rival. A rival to be brought down. I beg him. With money, gold, women, gems, food. I couldn’t stop him.”

  I bowed to him… prostrated…

  The duke’s arms healed to his elbows, and he coughed again. “Did you know my Daughter loved The Duke of the North too? The love triangle was quite fun to watch. However, when Mary and the bastard hitched, my daughter became mad with envy. I could relate… But I train her better, to keep a cool head. My first failure. Like a forest fire, her love for the bastard of the north was too great, breaking her soft mind. Stalking led to spies led to the king notice her.” Duke Wolfburn smiled. “You can guess what happened next. With a new foreign poison in her hand from foreign lands. She finally earned her place.” He shook his face with disappointment. “Should have trained her better.” He whispered.

  The cult and royalty had ties? Have?

  “And… My father…”

  “Oh him.” The duke smiled with a broken and bloody face. “I was supposed to kill him later for the crystals. But up north, during the war, I realised.” The duke looked up at the sky. “Fate wasn’t fair.”

  Arms grabbed my wrist, and with a million jolts I was spasming. My swords fizzled into water vapour and a fist hammered me out of heaven and back to earth.

  “I knew!!” Bouncing off the dirt, Kellen the First shot from the air like a comet, eviscerating everything around. “That strength, it left you!!!” Holy water made a shield to protect my chest. A puch bounced my head against the ground and another and another and another. The last of my holy water formed a sword, and Duke Kellen’s grey left arm was cut cleanly.

  “Argghh!” An obsidian right hand grabbed my bloody face, dragging it across the messy battlefield floor with legs made of tendrils. “I saw your father cut through thousands of soldiers as a seventh circle!” A thick city wall unbroken by hundreds of sieges rushed closer in my vision.

  Fuck me…

  A massive slam spread cracks along the wall, caving my face in stone that trebuchets couldn't dent. Pulling out chips of stone, the cursed duke pulled back for a second slam. “Seeing such a beautiful display of supreme strength and skill. A new feeling came over me... jealousy! Can you believe that!? A VIODEN DUKE, JEALOUS!”

  Not again!!

  Running up the wall and twisting from his grip, the last of my holy water formed a greatsword.

  “JUST DIE!”

  I slashed from above with all my strength for a shield of black to receive the strike. My slashes tore through, and new shields appeared before my sword was brought up to swing. “DIEEEEE~!!”

  One last slash pelted the shield. Holy light receded from the water sword, and I was left shocked with my jaw agape.

  “I look at you, feeling the same putrid feelings!” Duke Wolfburn walked to me with legs of mist tendril. “Whether I get the key from your corpse or not, this feeling must end!” Lighting shot the burly duke faster than a bullet. Black's armour transformed into a large sword on the inhuman’s arm.

  Fundamentals.

  A blue light flashed a family treasure into my hand. With calm and raging circles of thousand storms, mana blazed on my greatsword and settled to a calm tone on my blade.

  I linger and receive the strike from above. A left foot stepped inward as rushing tide dragged the cursed blade to my left. Before the bones in my arms turned to dust, energy was redirected. Hand, elbow, shoulder, circles. Lifesight saw where cursed concentrated. A core. Like a tadpole in water, it moves around the torso. I marked my target and leapt closed with a mana propulsion. Mana and Qi mixed on my sword. The twisting of rough waves and still waters created a hurricane on the weapon's edge. Potent gold shone on my blade, slicing the monster.

  From waist to shoulder, the midus-touched greatsword carved. Sucking in a breath, the cursed duke’s torso slipped down slowly before flopping on his blood.

  Plonk.

  “Grey…stone…” My gold cut a reaching arm. A blaze from my palm burnt away the Duke’s left-over flesh.

  “Please.”

  I cut tendril after wandering tendril. Waiting for his last words, my family heirloom loomed over the ruined Wolfburn. Gold left my weapon with a flame.

  The duke's satisfying wail fell on no other ears but mine.

  “It escaped me as we were fighting, Wolfburn. My mother was young. Really young. And your heart fluttered?”

  “S-S-She knew… The jezebel… I saw…her eyes….” He stuttered, barely able to keep his demonic eyes open.

  I left the greatsword to hover with a tether and found a stone to rest my exhausted body. “Creepy, isn’t it?” The fiery blade cut into the skin, slowly descending on the savaged duke. His skin boiled and blackened.

  “Please… My son…”

  “No more deals with wolfburns. Thorn was the last.”

  I plunged the sword deep with the fire of hell, searing the duke inside out.

  My father's killer convulsed, cursing my name to the constellations he betrayed. It's strange. Should I have felt this happy? Stories tell of revenge. That it makes you cold. That its worth amounts to nothing. But as I warmed myself with a burning wolf on this chilly night, I smiled. I laughed. My head tingled from the joy. Should I feel this way? A hero wouldn't. But a DUKE... A GREYSTONE WOULD.

  "Thank you for the land." Fist to the chest, I saluted the burning corpse. "I will take care of it."

  I sucked in a breath. taking the moment in. Water droplets from the air washed my face of blood as stars peeked through the cloud. Did they see it? Mother, Father... Twin stars blinked.

  I remembered her. A mana tether pulled my blade back to my hand. One more person.

  A powerful presence laid their eyes on me. A raveging beast he snarled from afar, grabbing Loran by the throat.

  Oh yeah… Him. From my inventory, a pill gave a bit of energy. Here we fucking go… How long I would last with these little reserves, I did not know. But I couldn't skip a fun fight.

  Stretching my legs on the stone seat, I spied my step-uncle and waved at him to sit at the campfire.

  Kellen

  My soul broke.

  The bloody Loran fell from my hands.

  Fire. From a screaming mouth, a blaze erupted until the screaming ceased. Loran wiped the blood from his face, chuckling with his broken ribs and lacerations across his body. “Your turn, Kellen. Oh wait, is it Duke Wolfburn now? AHAHAHAH!”

  Tarion waved to me, basking in the light of my father's corpse. I gritted my teeth into diamonds, blood dripping from the corners of my while salty tears fell. I manifested power. Gave this strange force my all. I sacrificed all. To get rid of this stain from the world once and for all, I must.

  “GREYSTONE!!!!”

  Lightning shot me at my nemesis. Black mist cloaked me in its carapace. Souls full of malice power me forward. My revenge will be complete; this mist will it give to me.

  Tarion stood. Confidence spread on his swollen face as he rested his blade on his shoulder.

  “Do you remember?” Mana burnt on his sword.

  “IT ENDS TONIGHT!”

  A bright spark of light lit the entire battle. The world quaked like never before.

  Something was strange. Dust blew away with a wave of Tarion's hand. Stuck in the ground was my sword.

  What…

  The Duke of Osberg looked at me with pity to his right. Completely missed.

  “I expected too much.”

  Something plunged into me. I walked back. Blood splattered from my liver.

  “Did you know your brother made a deal?”

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