James and Leon
Rose and James left the forest. A man was standing in their way.
Rose felt an ominous presence.
The man disappeared and appear in front of James.
"He teleported past me. This is dangerous!" said Rose.
The man swung his odd looking sword
"Greetings, Black Priest."
The sword stopped. The man sensed hostility and quickly back off, letting go of his sword.
"The moment he caught my sword, I felt a chill running down my spine. The captured soul inside my weapon started destabilizing the moment he caught it "
The man grinned. "He is a SS grade alright. What a terrifying man. "
James felt the soul inside the weapon are all in a frenzy mode.
"I can feel there is around thousands soul within this blade and all of it are powerful at their own. Just how strong this guy is. I better not underestimate him. He looked like a hunter to me. But why is he targeting me?"
"Who are you? " said Rose.
"Leon Hart," he introduced himself.
"You are a ranked hunter? Be careful, James! "
Before she could finish her sentence, Leon leapt towards James.
"Don't think I only rely on my weapon to hunt." said Leon.
"I don't understand. Why is a ranked hunter here? To think they will appear when they have been always inactive . If there is any case, they only mobilised themselves when there is a new target for them to hunt. But that target is not something they dare to disturb.... Could it be?! " Rose started to make sense of the situation
"So just how different are you with him, rogue exorcist," said Leon.
Leon throw a straight punch. James re-direct his fist to the side and send a punch to his chest. Leon was pushed a solid 3 metre behind and got his wind knock out from him.
"God, if it isn't for my armour underneath my cloth and my defensive soul armour, my chest will be completely destroyed. This guy.... can one shot a ranked hunter. He is dangerous."
Leon had a huge grin on his face. "Just what a monster are you?"
Rose who saw how a ranked hunter was being pushed back couldn't believe it either on James strength.
"I suppose this is the strength require to hunt down the demon lords. But to think there is such a large gap between a ranked hunter and him. But why is James being hunted? "
Leon who had recovered from the punch raised up his hand. "I have never encounter the forbidden target before but this guy is not someone one you can mess with either. No matter how much I look at it, I no longer see a chance of me winning here. Oh well, guess this is another target that can't be hunted down easily. But why is he with Rose? Is he holding her as hostage? But Rose is trying to warn him just now so I guess they are acquaintances? Hmm, I don't sense any blood lust from him either…"
"I surrender," declared Leon.
James throw his weapon back to him.
"I just can't wait to see the faces of those who will face you in the future. You are dangerous. Just what did you do to cause yourself to be targeted by the Sun king himself? "
"The Sun King?" James was confused. He doesn't know such person. "I don't think I have done anything bad. All I did so far was hunting down demon and searching for the remaining demon lords."
"The Sun King?!" Rose was shocked.
The Sun King or also known as the King of Sol. He is the ruler of the Sol kingdom who is currently campaigning a war with other states and swallowing up many stateless territories. People often dubbed him as the God of War due to his obsession of war. Other than that, he is also rumored to be able to use the power of the Sun and is believed to possess incredible strength. The man who owns almost everything in this world. It would not be far stretch to also call him as the King of the World. "Whatever the Sun touches belongs to me" was his famous tagline.
"This guy is hunting down demon lords? The demon lords that can even give us ranked hunter a hard time and many who have fallen while hunting them down. Besides, isn't our top target one of them as well?"
Leon was now interested at the Rose who is accompanying James.
"What is your relationship with James?" asked Leon.
"He is my partner."
Leon was shocked.
"He is searching for the whereabouts of the demon lords and is accompanying me to gather traces of it."
"Well, if it is the demon lord you are looking for, you are lucky because one of the demon lords has a strong history with the hunter association."
James is not surprised to hear that. It is not mere coincidence that he agreed to tag along with a hunter. As he was wandering to find the next target, he was being guided with a weird intuition in his mind and by following that weird intuition, he ended up with Rose. He didn't know why is it but he felt that someone is guiding him behind the scenes to the whereabouts of the demon lords just like how he was guided to the Red City to find Lus.
Coming back to their conversation, James was eager to hear who is this demon lord that has ties with the hunter association.
"Well," Leon started talking. "I have no interest in hunting you anymore but I am eager to see you hunting down this 'thorn' of the hunter association. With that, I will tell you what I know about this demon lord. So, I have a condition before I am telling you anything."
"What is the condition?" asked James.
"Allow me to accompany you. I would like to see myself just how big is a gap between demon lords and us and you will be the one who can give me that experience. Recently, I have been so bored out of my life. I am looking forward to see your hunt."
"Whatever, I am fine with it. Just make sure you know how to protect yourself," said James.
"Great, now, let me begin. Among the reasons for the ranked hunters to be constantly in seclusion is related to Resghvar which is why I believe you hunting him down will bring so much joy to all the ranked hunter. I still remember when I first gotten my ranking, I was immediately told to not attract too much attention to myself or else it will attract the attention of Resghvar and attracting his attention is a big no-no. Just like a monster that has been too active in his slaughtering will be detected on our radar; we the hunters who are getting too strong will be detected on Resghvar radar. He is the hunter of hunters."
"Why is he hunting down the hunters?"
"It is to become stronger. Unlike the Holy Weapon you are wielding, our weapon the Soul Eater has an almost unlimited growth rate provided that you keep on feeding it with souls. The more powerful souls you imbued it within the Soul Eater the more powerful you become. When I was first brief about Resghvar, I was told that after he abandoned his Holy Weapon and somehow for some reason come into possession with our Soul Eater, he started slaughtering both humans and demons left and right without stopping. His massacre was too outrageous that the Holy Church and the Hunter Association utilizes their force to put a stop to him but all of them were brutally slaughtered. To make things worse, all of the expert that is pursuing has their souls absorbed by his weapons and it made him unbelievable strong."
"And you do know that after absorbing so much soul, one has to be terrifying. Like really terrifying." Leon looked at Rose and Rose nodded her head.
James looked at Rose to seek an explanation.
"Souls residing in our weapons need to be tamed. Hence, hunters usually limit the amount of soul in their weapon. And if your weapon start to contain too much souls, the souls within will start to rebel and it will start to possess its wielder and devour its soul instead. Ranked hunters ranked based on their ability to tame the souls they captured. And Leon here is ranked 6 of the 10 ranked hunters we have in the association."
"Correct, young hunter. Throughout history, there are hunters who went on a killing spree and devour souls non-stop but it severely backfired and it is just one straight way to hell, which is why no matter how much a person's desire to become strong, any person will not choose to walk this path. Well, only an insane person walks this path and they all normally devolve into demons. Resghvar was one of this case. He is really a twisted person after all and to think he originally belongs to the Holy Church."
"Now that you know about the reason why ranked hunters are so secluded, you will also know how to lure Resghvar out. I believe the top three hunters have been dealing with Resghvar all this while as there the people who managed to breakthough to another level of strength. So, to find Resghvar, you have to find the top three hunters. And I can help you with that."
"That's great," said James.
"But we have to go travel to the Hunter Association Headquarters at Yugoslav, and you can't enter with us to HQ because for some reason you are a target wanted by the Sun King. I don't really care about the prize and all this anyway but you cannot step into the HQ with us due to your bounty. It will make things difficult for me if they find out that I am not hunting you down."
"What are you going to do when you are at the HQ?" asked Rose.
"To find out where the top three hunters are. Finding them should give us a clue to where Resghvar is. After all, I believe Resghvar is also hunting for them. The moment you step into the top three ranks, Resghvar will begin to hunt for you.
"So what do you suggest me to do?" asked James.
"Well, just wait outside while we deal with HQ,"
Leon looked at Rose.
"Wait, me as well?" asked Rose.
"Yes, Rose Viante. I have heard your name popping out once in a while. The jewel of the organization and also the one who has the potential to be a ranked hunter soon. So, shall we depart now?"
"Sure."
"Great. Let us go shall we, Yugoslav is quite a journey."
Meanwhile, in an unknown island…
"Hmm, just how much the Hunter Association has degraded," a man was sitting on top of a corpses and holding a severed head with his hand.
"Or have I gotten too strong that killing them has become so easy now."
He throws away the head and begins to yawn.
"M…onster…."
"Oh, you are still alive?" said the man.
He walked towards the struggling man.
"To think that you three are the current top three of the Association. What a pity."
He stabbed his sword into the body and the body went silent.
"I am getting stronger but this is not enough to defeat him. I have to consume more souls."
He looked around at the barren land.
"Well, I do manage to sense a new promising target to hunt down and to think that she isn't a ranked hunter yet. If the top three is of such qualities, then I bet the others aren't that promising as well. Well, I guess it is time to pay her a visit."
"Oh ya, there's also this interesting man who is hunting down demon lords left and right. I wonder will he be an interesting target to hunt as well. Oh well, I will pay him a visit after I collect the soul of that girl."