Chapter 48: Struggles

"My love, I'm so sorry. I apologize for all the trouble I put you through. With tears in his eyes, Leo says, "I should have watched my mouth and maybe we wouldn't have to go through that."

"Oh, but it's my fault too, I got both our masters killed," Iris says crying.

"We both got our masters killed and we almost went with them but now who will get revenge for them if not us?" Leo says with a sorrowful face.

"Oh, but didn't you get your revenge because you killed the god of chaos?" Marcella says.

With a sad expression, Leo says, "Revenge has two types: a full revenge and a half revenge. A full revenge is what we seek. We need we have to resolve the central issue, which is the leader of the twelve gods,"

"Oh ok," Marcella says.

"Ok so where are we going?" Leo asks Iris.

"You know where," Iris says staring at Leo.

"Oh lord that place you are joking right," Leo says with a pained expression.

Iris says patting Leo on the back. "Nope not at all. Let's go,"

"OK," Leo replies back.

Leo waves his hand and a small crack appears; it grows steadily, until it is large enough for a fully grown man to walk through it. Iris and the pets fly through the portal and disappear, then Leo takes Marcella's hand and leads her inside the portal.

They all appear at an old area with a colossal temple in the center. Leo starts to walk over to it.

"Where are we?" Marcella says.

"This is the old temple of the vortex master who is also Leo's master," Iris says.

"This temple has been around for a long time since i was one year old, so it's been here for a long time," Zoe says.

"Why is Leo so silent?" Marcella wonders while whispering to iris.

"I hope you understand that Leo can hear you. He blames himself for his master's death, so he says nothing out of respect and honor," Iris says to Marcella.

"Oh, did his master mean that much to him?" Marcella replies.

"Yes Leo's master had just saved him and taken him in. He had been relying on his master for a long time and then, because of his choice he died and Leo blames himself," Iris says.

"Oh ok," Marcella says.

As they walk up to an old training ground, Leo looks around a bit before tears stream down his cheeks. Upon arriving at the training ground, Leo yells "I am home." Everything changes and becomes cleaner and newer. Leo walks into a building and everyone follows after him.

The door closes behind them. A wooden doll is in the center just standing there with no movements.

Marcella is called to the middle after 5 minutes of everyone looking around the room.

"It's time to fight that doll," Leo says with a huge smile.

"But it is not moving," she replies back with a confused tone.

Leo circulates a small amount of qi into his finger and shoots it at the doll's heart. The doll shakes and starts to move around before getting into a fighting stance.

"Ok go fight it we need to see how much we need to train you," Leo says.

"Ok, Marcella says before heading towards the doll. She is face to face with the doll and she gets into a mediocre fighting stance. As the doll takes in this information and processes it, she jumps back and throws a fast right punch, breaking Marcell's defence and hitting her in the arm. She flies backwards. When she lands, the doll kicks her back up into the air, then starts punching her. The doll stops punching her and steps aside. Marcells falls to the ground. She gets up unharmed.

Marcella asks, confused, "what's going on why I don't feel the pain of getting hit that much?"

"Well that is because i turn the doll on to Level zero and you start taking damage at level one," Leo says with a bit of sadness in his tone.

"Pffttt, be grateful you are not at level one or the doll would have done something else beside that," Iris says.

"Come on fight it again and this time focus on defending and blocking," Leo says with a grin.

"I am not going to be able to hit this doll right." Marcella says.

"Figure that out for yourself," Leo says.

"Marcella heads back toward the doll and takes a boxer stance; the doll in turn takes its own box stance. It slowly walks up to her and throws a fast left jab. Marcella blocks it but the doll fires another one, fakes a left jab and fires a right one and lands it on her temple. Marcella backs up and watches the doll move. The doll throws a right punch, which she blocks. It counters the punch with a punch to her stomach, but Marcella dodges it. The doll puts distance between them, switches its stance. It humps over and lets its arms dangle in the air.

Marcella switched from her weak boxing stance to a martial arts stance. As the doll rushes at her, it spins in the air and tries to kick her in the face. She blocks the kick and grabs its leg. After grabbing the doll leg out of the air, Marcella slammed it into the ground before punching it in the face. With that hit it ends the fight between the both of them.

Zoe says in a cheerful tone, "She's the same as you, just a tad slower.".

"What zoe talking about?" Marcella.

"Oh, its because we both have the primordial fighting body, you have half, and i have the other half. And while you rely on your mind, I rely on my body to do things others can't," Leo says.

"Oh so that's why the fight got easier," Marcella says.

"No you suck at fighting, that's why it took you so long to beat the level zero doll your brain processed the doll movement and came up with some effective counters," Leo says.

"Not like you did any better when it was your first time," Marcella replies.

"No hehe he did way better than you. The only levels that he did not beat first try were levels one, five and ten." Zeo says in a cheerful tone.