Chapter 27: The beauty of death

As he walked towards the grand tree, Nobe realized that he had no shoes on. But he enjoyed the feeling of the grass brushing against his feet, they were oddly soft and that made him enjoy it more.

Reaching the grand tree, Nobe finally saw the woman up close. Beautiful, was his first thought when his landed on her. light green eyes with gradient going lighter from top to bottom, perfectly aligned facial features that fit her small face coupled with an amazing jaw line and her pink lips.

At the moment Nobe really had nothing sexual on his mind, after all he's in a completely new area that he knew nothing about and even though he could use his element here he knew he wasn't very proficient in it, but what was on his mind was respect for this woman in front of him, reason?. Well, it's because he could 'see' the mana flowing out of her body.

Let me explain. Usually the body for any creature be it human or monster only absorbs mana, its only once the person or creature has reached a certain stage that their body begins to leak mana. this isn't a sign that they are unable to maintain mana in their body, no, that's the stage above them. It means that they are able to create their own mana respective of their element. Take Nobe for example, if he were at her stage he would be leaking out the essence of time. So far not much is known about this stage since the only human who has reached this stage is matriarch of the house of darkness. Of course the founders reached this stage and probably more but there are no records about anything concerning this stage and higher. All Nobe knew was that the woman sitting in front of him is not someone he can even touch.

"Take a seat." The woman's enchanting voice resounded once again. Once Nobe heard it he shivered and bowed respectfully then took the seat in front of her, well, more like on the only chair there.

Since Nobe had no idea what this woman liked or hated, he decided to go the respectful route since it didn't hurt and probably wouldn't lead to his death. As such, Nobe sat straight and kept his mouth shut.

The woman stared at Nobe in silence while Nobe kept averting his eyes, this went on for some time until Nobe got tired of it and decided to look the tree that was behind said woman. The design of the tree on the door amazed him and now looking at the actual thing it captivated him, mesmerized by the tree Nobe completely forgot about the woman in front of him and scrutinized the tree.

Even though the wind pushed strongly against the tree, it stood firm and didn't waver in the slightest, the tree reminded him of a certain someone but then he realized that that memory didn't belong to him and that made his relived face revert to a dull and static face. But none the less he stared at the tree. At one point he begun following one of its falling leaves with his eyes.

The leaf fell gracefully, though it's course was changed by the wind a few times he still chased after it with his eyes, why?, he forgot, but what happened next made him remember.

The leaf gently landed on a head full of silver-white hair. For a moment Nobe thought that the grass had changed color, but that thought was soon changed to, 'Since when was the grass at my eye level ?.' Nobe then begun lower eyes, and soon he was met with a pair of light green eyes staring at him.

Nobe tilled his head in confusion and asked with utter disbelief and curiosity, "Who are you?."

In his defense he was staring at the tree for more thana hour and forgot everything around him for a moment. The owner of those light green eyes smiled kindly and replied.

"You and your kind call me… mother nature? I believe."

With that sentence alone Nobe's eyes widened as he slightly leaned forward, as he remembered what happened an hour ago while he looked at her in disbelief while she continued staring at him with the same smile on her face.

***

*Haa* *Haa* *Haa*

The continuous sound of panting resounded in what was akin to a void, but with a floor.

Mono was drenched in sweat as he panted heavily on the floor, in front of him was a man who looked at Mono in amusement with a grin on his face and not even the slightest sign of fatigue.

'How long has it been?' Mono thought with a self-deprecating smile on his face. He has been trying to attack this man in front of him for the past how long, and unaspiringly he hasn't landed a single hit but even more surprising, this man in front of him hasn't attacked or said a thing ever since Mono begun assaulting him all he did was smile and look at Mono try.

After collecting his breath for a moment, Mono decided to give up and raised his hands above his head and said, "I'm done."

The man just looked on and did the same, "I'm done too." This obviously confused Mono, but the man continued, "Since you failed, I'm going to have to teach you, after all you never knew in the first place, so I'll go easy on you." Mono was honestly dead confused.

Opening his mouth to utter a phrase, the man vanished and left behind his voice, "For now call me Orion." With that Orion appeared in font of Mono crouched with his fist back and a genuine smile on his face. Mono could barely follow that speed but luckily for him he put his arms down during his confused status, at Orion's punch directed at Mono's stomach, Mono crossed his arms to guard against the punch, but sadly since it was a half-assed guard, and he underestimated the power of Orion's punches once Orion's fist made contact with his guard his forearms were shattered on impact.

The force of Orion's punch knocked Mono high into the air where Orion was waiting, flying straight into Orion's location, Mono was once again greeted with another punch to his stomach but this time, it landed.

"___!" Mono yelled in pain as he was hurdling towards the ground.

BOOM

A thunderous sound resonated in the pitch-black area. Whizzing in pain, Mono rolled over a grasped his stomach in pain with his arms while the man was nowhere to be seen. After some time Mono realized that he was using his arms which were the first thing that were shattered, looking at them in confusion a voice rang out from the darkness.

"You can't die here no matter how many times I will kill you and your previous injury shall be healed once another one has been delt to you, though the pain shall still remain."

Whatever Orion said was true, Mono did still feel the pain from his broken arms, but they were working just fine, but since no other attack has been delt to him his internal organs and broken ribs were still actually damaged.

Even though Mono does know nearly every weapon art and martial art, he hasn't practiced even half of what he knows, just a few movements and attacks and as for his personal styles, they are all flawed, he just brags about them but knows they need more effort and time than he wants to give and in all honesty he hasn't even held every weapon.

He Is aware of all of this and mainly relies on his element to make it seem like he has learnt them all and that is an insecurity to him. But sadly Orion could care less as he appeared once more in front of Mono, this time with his knee stretched out.

He grabbed Mono's head and bashed it into his knee, he then let go of Mono's head and flung his foot forward and struck Mono's chin.

"Since you failed, I'm gonna beat you to death back-to-back until you learn something. Oh and don't think this shall be your first and last time, we'll be doing this almost daily."

Mono barely heard what Orion said, since the pain still lasts the same applies to shock and Mono here was struck twice on the head.

Stumbling backwards, Mono tried to regain his bearings, but Orion wouldn't let him.

"Experience your first death."

That was all Mono heard when Orion appeared in front of him and struck his palm towards his head, then everything went black, once again.