Behind The Scenes and The Definition Of True Power!

Suzuiya quickly glimpsed at Aaron as they deliberately walked to their planned destination. They were heading towards the dark swamps — Where Suzy was said to be located.

"Are you okay?" Inquired Aaron.

"Yeah, sure, I'm okay. Thank you for asking."

It was quiet for a while until Suzuiya broke the silence, "Are you okay?"

"That doesn't matter — I'm an insignificant figure and I wish to be ignored. Men like me lack sentimentality."

She noticed his tattoo on his right arm, "That tattoo, " she closely looked at it, "What is it?"

"That is also insignificant. Of very little importance to you."

It was a pitch-black tattoo of anomalous depictions of unusual beings. There were also ancient writings in a different language on it. Meaningly, Her understanding of it was very mild.

"You know, you call yourself insignificant. But I actually want to know about you..."

He oddly contemplated her, then he said, "Okay, but I certainly can not tell you everything. It's better to remain secretive."

She smiled, "Okay!"

As they walked, in the distance were a few men on horses. The horses were all carefully equipped with metal armor and weapons attached to their robust leather-saddles. As the jockeys rode the horses, a continuous loud clatter was heard as the horses' metal shoes hit against the brick road.

The jockeys were also equipped with armory and weapons and there were serious looks on their faces. They were all undeniably going to perform an assault in some way or another.

When the men were a few centimetres away, they halted.

The Leader then said, "Hello civilians! Do you happen to know where is the shortest route to The Kingdom Of Atridorne?"

"You are on the right path. Follow the brick road, it is the shortest way to Atridorne. Good luck." Answered, Aaron.

"Thank you, sir—

"Bemis, that is Aaron, De Aaron!"

"Oh my, it truly is him!"

They all bowed their heads.

Aaron stopped them from respectfully greeting him, "Stop it, no need for bowing. Were you not in a hurry?"

The leader Bemis then praised him, "Yes, Lord Aaron! Thank you very much, " praised the captain, "Forgive us for our inconveniences, we'll be on our way now. Thank you again."

They then rode off to Atridorne on their horses.

Aaron continued walking and Suzuiya followed him.

Suzuiya gawked at him, "They certainly do respect you for a noble Knight now, do they?"

"I don't need their respect."

"Okay, I was just putting that out to you. They are all outsiders to Atridorne, yet still, they praised you as if you are a King."

He didn't reply.

A few more steps later they had arrived at the swamp. They immediately noticed the sudden change in the environment. The sky was oddly darker, their surroundings were much more unpleasant, and there was an evil force around them.

As they entered the muddy swamp, their footwears were sunken deep into the wet sticky mud. They both had to raise their feet higher than normal to walk through it. Suzuiya was already lethargic, while Aaron still had most of his energy left.

As they walked, they felt the cold presence of evil spirits around the area, and they felt as if something was looking at them. Note that they were partially blinded by the thick fog. As the spirits whispered into their ears, Aaron promptly gained a high level of paranoia and was ready to fight when the time came. While Suzuiya was trembling and kept herself close to Aaron, her Knight and shining armour.

Amos called out to Suzuiya, "Aghhhhhh! Suzuiya, help me! I'm over here!"

She nervously looked around, "Amos? Amos where are you?!"

Aaron looked for her, "Suzuiya?".

She wasn't behind him anymore.

She started running in the direction of Amos' voice.

She arrived and she heavily panted with her hands on her knees, "Huff, huff, huff!"

In her presence was a beast, it inhumanly turned its skinny neck in a complete circle. Then it imitated Amos' voice one more, "Help me Suzuiya."

It then gradually put a disturbing malicious smile on its exceptionally deformed face and approached Suzuiya slowly. She stood there looking at it, as it exponentially grew larger with every step. Her heart was banging against her bony chest audibly and her little eyes grew larger as she grew fearsome.

"Aghhhhhhh!" She screamed and made it clear for Aaron to hear where she was.

As the beast was about to swallow her whole, Aaron meteored through the body of the creature with his sword.

"Are you alright, " He asked as the beast came crashing into the mud, "Did it hurt you?"

She sighed with relief, "I'm okay..." And her loud thumping heart gradually receded.

He was covered in blood.

"You should not be easily fooled like that. You should've known that these swamps are nested by evil — Don't be fooled by them like that again and stay close."

She followed him. As she walked behind him, she realized that his sword was black and silver — The right side was completely black and the left was almost white and shiny due to it being silver.

"Don't walk behind me, stay beside — who knows what can silently grab you from behind there."

She immediately started to walk beside, and not behind, him.

She was extremely tired of walking through the thick sticky mud. And she had to walk bare-feet because her shoes kept getting stuck in it.

She looked at him as she performed a sluggish gait and immediately noticed that his body was strangely no longer covered in blood.

"There, " Aaron pointed at the house in the distance, "That must be it."

Suzuiya pursued Aaron's brave path. When they were at the front stairs to the mossy stone house, someone jumped out of thin air and clashed swords with Aaron.

"Aghhh!" The confused man struck again.

Aaron promptly defended his body with his trusty blade.

"Ha!"

The man thrust his sword and when his long blade was merely a strand of hair away from Aaron, his sword suddenly went pitching into the air. And then a few seconds later, it fell and its sharp point stuck into the gooey mud.

The man then quickly focused his attention back on Aaron and raised both of his hands. Furious, Aaron was pointing his blade to the middle of the man's forehead, not looking away from him for even a second.

"I surrender—You win!"

Aaron didn't lower his weapon, "Why did you attack in the first place?"

"I-I thought you were a monster, you know they're running all around here!"

The man wore a dirty brown hoodie and he had a rope tied tightly around his waist and his brown hair was in a mess. Note that his brown hoodie wasn't originally brown before, it was white. But at the moment it emitted dust like a crop-duster — Dirty to an insane extent.

Aaron lowered his sword.

The man lowered his hands, "What brings you guys here?"

"We've come to rescue my friend, have you seen him?" Asked Suzuiya.

"Nope, I've never seen a single living person — only souls, souls everywhere, and stupid monsters." The man seemingly spoke with both his mouth and hands.

Suzuiya looked at him again, "We're looking for him — He had wandered off to Suzy The Witch."

"My name is Yusof, and I can help you look for him, I was going there anyway!"

Aaron suspiciously glared at him, "And why were you going there?"

"Ohh, " He put down his hoodie openly transpiring the perceptible bald patch in the middle of his head, "Don't judge me, okay? You see....I'm poor, my home is poverty — I'm living in poverty! Haha! See what I did there?"

"Please continue..." Strictly instructed Aaron.

"I'm poor so I need to get money. And I can get that money by raiding the Queen of Chaos' treasure! I just need to get through this Wirborl first and I'll—

" A Wirlborl you say?" Asked Aaron.

"Yes, the spell on the door sends, the person who enters, into a Wirlborl. At the very end of the Wirborl, like usual, there's a boss — The Queen of Chaos. And then we'll get a way into the hidden Village of Villainy. In the village of villainy, there's a huge castle — and from there it's hello treasure!!!" Yusof boisterously danced.

"So it is only a test?"

"Yeah, it is, the only way to enter the village of villainy. Some say it's a suicidal road to death. Some say it's inhabited by hundreds of villains. But I don't care about any of that, because some also say there's an entire room of riches!"

He continued to do his rambunctious elderly dance of utmost cringe.

Aaron entered, "Let us go in."

They slowly entered the Wirborl.

When they were all in, Aaron's Magical Training System was activated and the door immediately shut.

The interior was easily analogous to the exterior — green mossy brick walls, blood, and other spooky decorations. Except that the interior was essentially much closer to a dungeon.

Yusof then pointed at the lever inside of a skeleton, "There! It's a lever."

He then walked up to it and carefully took it out of the skeleton's body. "Here!"

Upon flicking the switch, the door to the other room was opened and all of the skeletons in the room promptly came alive again.

"The skeletons, they're alive."

The skeletons all approached them but as soon as Suzuiya blinked, all of the skeletons were crushed.

Aaron put his sword in his scabbard, "What skeletons? Let's go."

Both Yusof and Suzuiya were astonished. They never experienced such skill in their lives — It was something to contemplate.

Aaron had no more time to waste, his father was calling him back home with Magic. And he didn't want to disobey him again.

He entered the other room and waited for the blue skeletons to all stand-up. Once they were all on their feet, he crushed all of them, each Blue Skeleton required less than a single hit by Aaron to break.

In comparison to Amos' experience, Aaron didn't have to struggle at all. He didn't get a single cut from any of the skeletons, nor did he have to farm him naively.

"Come on, next room." Said Aaron, as he entered the other room.

As soon as he flipped the switch, the what seemed to be a powerful Litch for Amos, was summoned. As soon as it was summoned, Aaron slashed his blade and destroyed the Litch without having to physically hit it with his sword.

They then entered the final room.

As they walked along the red carpet, they noticed that there was a change in the surroundings. They were not in a dungeon-like area anymore — They were inside a dark castle.

The witch sitting on the throne smirked, "Well, well, well. What is this? Three more foolish people came in just a matter of ten days?"

Her throne was robustly made up of obsidian, rubies, and green emeralds — Sorry for her behind because the obsidian looked extremely uncomfortable for cheeks.

Aaron looked up at her, "Let's just battle, I have no time for your small-talk."

"How rude!!!" She furiously shouted as she released her Goatmen after Aaron.

"Get him, my precious slaves! I want him dead or alive, any of those will suffice!"

As soon as the strange figures were released, they immediately assaulted Aaron. As the first one struck, Aaron detached its head before it hit him and the second one was impelled by Aaron's powerful blow and went flying into its Queen, causing her lips to burst.

The Witch aggressively pushed her slave off of her and sent a Dark Energy Beam at Aaron. Nevertheless, Aaron looked at it and effortlessly slapped it back at her with his hand!

She got hit back unto her uncomfortable obsidian throne.

"You Pink-haired bastard!" She shouted.

She then got up and started continuously blasting Dark Energy Beams at Aaron — This technique was called Dark Energy Burst. Aaron took Yusof and Suzuiya to safety and immediately retaliated. He meteored straight through her heart with his immense speed.

His sword precisely impaled her heart, causing her to cough up blood in his face.

"You monster!" She shouted as she went into her second form, Dark Queen Of Chaos.

Her power levels significantly increased and Dark Mana ran through her veins exponentially. Her burning rage acted as fuel for her Power — As her anger increased, she became more powerful.

The significant change in power was clearly perceptible to Aaron. She shouted, "Cradumn!" And Aaron was impelled straight through the stone brick-wall. She teleported to him and activated her Dark Mana Explosion technique, causing Aaron to get hit into another wall.

As he stood up, a beam of focally concentrated Dark Mana instantaneously penetrated him. As a result, he promptly got hit through another wall. Next, he wiped the blood from his mouth and teleported to her.

Furthermore, He instantly stabbed her to her heart again to kill. As he gradually pushed his blade deeper into Suzy's body, his sword started to glow — Despite being a Holy Knight who used Holy Magic, his sword was considerably enchanted with powerful streams of Black Magic.

She looked down at his blade, "What are you?"

He then shouted, "Celluar Burst!" And Suzy's entire body was eradicated — Omitting solely a small volume of her remaining blood.

This was true power.

Aaron put back his heavy sword in his scabbard and attended to Suzuiya and Yusof.

"Are you both alright?" He inquired.

They looked at the huge hole in his body, which allowed them to clearly see the wall behind him.

Aaron then looked down at the huge hole in his body, "Oh!" He smiled, "I almost forgot about that."

And suddenly his left eye glowed white, and just like that, the hole was nonexistent.

"Come on, guys! We have places to go and things to do — Let's continue!"

They were both still shocked as they followed him through the door.

As they walked through the door, there was a black road in a dark forest. The forests were heavily populated by trees, and monsters were hiding in it. The grass was seemingly dried up and dead, so were the trees. As they walked through the forests, they heard no animals, only strange sounds of monstrous creatures.

As they lethargically pursued on the road's dark path, they came across a huge village that was built down a slope — The Village of Villainy. It was a very cold and dark place, and further, it was very busy. With monsters of every kind strangely guarding the area. There were also many guards in black Armor all protecting the Castle of Chaos.

Aaron and the others carefully observed the area from afar. They were atop a tall hill which was before the slope to the village.

The Queen had just arrived and they looked at her from afar as she unhurriedly departed her luxurious carriage. All of her people quickly stopped their work and happily bowed to her.

She then waved a few times and walked along the red carpet to the gate. When she arrived at the gate, they opened it to allow her to pass. And she stood at the entrance aggressively yelling at the person in front of her — the person had an artificial fox tail and exceptional clothing.

The person then quickly ran off after her yelling and she entered her Castle.

"I'm going in." Aaron confidently stated.

Yusof flew up, "Are you out of your mind?! You'll be killed!"

"Their Queen was easily murdered, what can they possibly do to me?"

Yusof closed his eyes, "So you don't know that she was just a clone of the original Queen of Chaos? The one you fought only possessed as little as five percent of the original's power!!!"

Aaron looked at the village, "And what I exhibited was merely a small fraction of my power too."

"Aaron, please don't go — I don't want you to die!" Pleaded Suzuiya.

"Yeah, she's right Aaron. Besides, if you die, we all die too. What makes you think we can survive in a place like this without a badass by our sides, huh!?"

He thought about it, "...Okay, I won't go. But then how are we supposed to get to the castle?"

Yusof smirked, "Leave that to me..."

They followed Yusof to an underground cave. It was buried deep into the earth and there were rocks everywhere.

"How are we supposed to get to the Castle through here, Yusof? We had been walking for hours!" Complained, Suzuiya.

Yusof glimpsed back at Suzuiya, "Wait, we're almost there."

Yusof jovially walked with his hands behind his back.

He smirked and thought to himself, Heh heh! I'm going to be rich for sure! There's no way I'm going to fail again when this pink-haired freak is with me!

"We are here." They then encountered a metal door before them.

"Aaron, you just need to break that door. Judging by your biceps, that shouldn't be a problem."

Aaron then formally walked up to the door and destroyed it with a single blow.

"Ladies first." Yusof allowed Suzuiya to go in.

As they entered, they saw three dark tunnels.

"This way, " Yusof entered the one on the right, "This is the right way — "Heh heh!"

Aaron kept growing very suspicious of Yusof. How could Yusof possibly know the exact directions to the castle without a map at hand?

"This doesn't look like a castle to me, Yusof," Aaron added.

"We're already in it! Just you wait, " He stopped in front of the bigger metal door before him, "Heh heh, can you break this one down too, please?"

Aaron broke down the door.

Then they took a few more tunnels, taking only the right ones and the last was a left.

Yusof stopped at the metal door, "Last one!"

Aaron also effortlessly broke that one down.

And that's when their surroundings were considerably different. It was better built and it resembled a dungeon.

The four guards heard the breaking down of the door and came to the matter. The first guard wore a metal helmet and full metal black armor, so did the second. The third one was a girl with red hair. However, She wasn't equipped with any amour. And the last one was the youngest of them all, who led Aaron to the assumptions of him being a child. He had long blue hair, glasses and like the only girl, he had no equipment except for a chest-plate and a wooden sword.

They didn't hesitate, they immediately assaulted Aaron.

Only the youngest guard refrained from attacking. Aaron was continuously dodging the rapid violent slashes struck by the two hostile guards. Then the girl, who had no equipment, activated a powerful spell, specifically called Black Nausea — A spell that drastically affects the enemy with head-aching nausea (which affect one's vision).

Aaron's now anguishing vision was extremely blurred and his head was pounding. Due to the spell, he fell to the floor and Yusof had to fight in his place.

Although Yusof was extremely weaker than Aaron, he wasn't a weak man. Despite being incapable of using mana, he was even stronger than Amos. He was highly skilled with his sword and he was very quick.

Yusof then stopped the guard from stabbing Aaron, by slashing his sword. He kept slashing his sword, but the black metal armor was too strong for him to breakthrough.

"Aaron, you're going to have to get up as soon as possible, " he slashed his sword and hit the guard again, " or we will all perish."

Aaron held his head with his hands and gritted his teeth — The pain was extremely outrageous. But luckily, Yusof realized that the red-haired girl was still using the spell on Aaron at the moment. To deactivate a controlled spell, the activator had to stop chanting or using their mana to empower it.

Having realized that the female guard was controlling the spell, Yusof's new target was her.

He crouched down as low as possible and jumped over the two guards in front of him and assaulted the female guard. He did his first skill — Chakra Slash. She was interrupted for one second. But the witch was instantaneously defended by the guards in metal Armor who suddenly impaled Yusof. Little did he know that the time bought was still enough. Because as soon as the spell was interrupted, Aaron had already killed all three of the guards in only a second.

Aaron openly disregarded the fact that there was one more guard, the little boy who only trembled in one spot throughout the entire battle.

"Thank you, Aaron, " Yusof turned around, "But what about the blue-haired one?"

"He is merely an immature child, I do not exterminate children."

The blue-haired boy who wore glasses ran off.

"What now?" Asked Suzuiya.

"We hurry up, do what we're here to do and leave." Said, Aaron.

"Are you boys alright?" assured Suzuiya.

Aaron looked at her, "Yeah, I'm fine. You should be worried about him, " he pointed at Yusof who immediately fell to the floor.

"Yusof!" She cried.

The pain from the punctured hole in his stomach was kicking in.

Aaron looked at her, "Can White-Witches heal people?"

She rolled him over and rest his body on her laps, "Yeah, I'll heal him right away!"

"Okay, do that as soon as possible."

"The treasure, " Yusof added, "We can't forget about the treasure."

She spent three whole minutes into healing Yusof. But apparently, a cut from a sword enhanced by dark mana was essentially much more difficult to heal when compared to an analogous cut from an ordinary blade.

Then out of thin air appeared a man before them. He was tall with long skinny legs, he had black jeans with his hands in his pockets, a malicious smile, fangs that were perceptible even when his mouth was closed and skin which was significantly white and pale.

The man then malevolently smirked and said, "I thought raiders were smarter than this, " He immediately charged the raiders, " Two men and a young woman? Autonomously coming here without a guild was hogwash!"