Joining The Congregation

"How could you have kept that from me?! I thought we were best buddies?!" yelled Sutcliff as he fell to his knees.

Raiyen stepped back in fear as he couldn't understand why his friend accused him.

"You are the son of the Time Master... Why did you not tell anyone?! You could've saved them... You could've saved my sister! I'll never forgive you!" shouted Sutcliff before his body crumbled and turned into ash.

Raiyen slumped down onto the ground, unable to comprehend what had just happened and why he'd have another Element out of nowhere. Was this the result of traveling through Time too much? No, that wouldn't make sense. Not to mention an Element so powerful...

"It's called the Nature Element, where you use the area's weather forecast to your advantage. Then, once you train to higher ranks, you can harness the power of the Sun in your battles. But as far as I can tell, for now, this was your first time fighting against another Mage, right?" asked a voice.

Raiyen instantly panicked as he looked around with his knife ready in his palms. Then, a familiar old face popped out from the shadows to wave hello. This weird guy pointed at one of his feet, which looked like it'd been badly burned.

"Ah... How could I forget this part, my most favorite part of my life... First, meeting the Poisoned Pond and joining the ranks of the Congregation. Then, to earn the title of the Triad Assassins, the Blue Dagger. And to slaughter countless lives for the sake of commands..."

"Such a fun time in my memory collection..." said the current Raiyen, somewhat sarcastically.

"The name's Old Man Pond, and I'm looking to recruit a fine young man to my little group of Mages. Time Mages are such a gem nowadays as not much of you guys are left after the Great Noble War," said the odd man, going closer to Raiyen.

The Time Mage was cautious, but he wasn't afraid as this guy looked quite friendly and knew of his existence as a Time Mage.

"Anyways... That little battle of yours went slightly out of hand, and one of the bolts struck my poor feet here... How are you going to compensate me?" continued the Old Man Pond, purposely lifting his burned feet from the ground to show to the young Mage.

Raiyen instantly started apologizing since he never wanted to hurt a nearby person during his fight. That's when Old Man Pond gave the Time Boy a choice; either learn how to control his powers by working for the Congregation or risk pissing off the Poisoned Pond.

Of course, Raiyen wasn't that far gone yet to fight against someone who knew more about his Element than himself, so the Time Mage chose the first option. The Commander introduced himself as an Aki, a being from another planet, and was titled the leader of the Congregation.

The rest of the things that followed were quite fun and dull, with countless jobs on taking down targets seen as hostile in Old Man Pond's eyes. Although, after thinking back, Raiyen had silently wished he wouldn't have blindly followed all instructions.

While working for the Congregation, Raiyen heard stories of Gillian and Ysabeua, the power couple of the organization. Secretly, the Time Mage wanted to join them, but they seemed to be on the good side of affairs, so they wouldn't consider inviting him into their group.

Raiyen joined the Congregation right after Baldwin was announced to join the Board alongside Z as a secretary. And the only thing that the Time Mage thought of the two was that they were people he could never get along with since they didn't sound fun.

"Why don't you get Old Man Pond to recommend you to the Board? You deserve it after doing so much of his dirty work.." asked one of the Assassins as Raiyen ate lunch.

"I can't... I hate being the important person. I don't like the limelight, and have you seen the people on the Board?! They look horrifying!" exclaimed the Time Mage as he tried to stuff his face into a sandwich.

"Shh! Don't say that about them when you haven't known them! I heard Baldwin can hide in the shadows so that he may be listening to the conversations..."

"Why are you so scared? We're the ones that are supposed to be the ones working in the shadows... Don't tell me you can't do such a simple task?"

"The Board members aren't that bored to do such small things... Besides, Raiyen is right; being on the Board isn't good. They go on dangerous Sting Operations all the time, and I would die if I have to go for three in a row, let alone constantly," chimed another Assassin.