Chapter 11 : Discovery
It's been a full day after they all had returned and Satoru was now more eager than ever to become stronger after seeing and hearing what Nova had done and realizing the potential that Zankoku holds...
"92...93...94...95..." he kept going on with the pullups he was performing in the clan's compound, in their quite large training facility which was empty aside from him currently there.
Stopping at 100, he caught his breath quickly and tossed the towel around his neck to absorb the sweat while he grabbed the bottle of water and drank it.
The door of the facility was opened by the clan's servant as he let someone inside and closed the door behind them, going back outside. The one who was let inside was Aza for some reason.
"Hey Satoru!" she yelled out while walking towards him and waving.
He just watched her approach him while finishing drinking the water and afterwards placing it down with her now standing about a few meters away from him.
"What are you doing here?"
"Oh, well I wanted to express my gratitude once more for saving me..." she said while looking at him nervous
"And uh... I was wondering if you'd like to be my pair in the upcoming rank up exams..." with her eyes shifting towards the floor.
Satoru had no clue what she was talking about but he assumed that it was something important.
"Sure." he said after a few seconds, trying to remember what it was but failing, knowing damn well he'll ask sensei about it.
Aza's nervous expression quickly warped into a smiling one as she was thrilled that he accepted. "Thank you!" she said. "I was also wondering if I could perchance spar with you?"
Recalling her capabilities and special abilities, Satoru gave it a thought and decided that he's down, saying : "I'm down." after which both of them took their respective fighting stance. "But after this I need to do something." he added on.
-
After their battle concluded, the white haired boy left after Aza did to do what he needed to do. He checked the books in the archives in the village about the shards that Karoi had them collecting but was unable to find anything.
Going to put the book back onto the shelf, he knocked over one and went to go pick it up, but noticed that the title was about Gods. He quickly picked it up and opened it, going to read it.
Their alleged accomplishments as well as battles, descriptions and even some illustrations of them were inside the book. Going from page to page, reading about them all quickly, one page caught his eye.
It was about the Goddess Artemis who didn't have any special battle power abilities like the others such as Zeus, Hades, Poseidon or the others from other pantheons...
Specifically it said that she carried a bow and arrow and was the goddess of hunt, sense and archery alongside other things.
The colored illustration made her appear with long brown wavy hair, gray eyes and a white dress with a golden edge with her ultimately carrying and aiming her silver bow and arrow.
"Interesting..." Satoru thought to himself, going on and on finishing to read the book and even stumbling on some individuals mentioned there such as 'Maeda and Shinji Ronin, Eiko, Sol, Anthrax' and a few more whose names were scratched out.
Upon finishing going through the book, he placed it back on the wooden shelf and searched for another one but was unable to find anything remotely similar to a book about the gods.
With that, he went out of the village's archives and put his hands in his pockets and walked on the sunny streets as it was noon, with no particular destination in mind, just thinking about everything he had read and learnt throughout the last half hour.
From above him someone dropped down, from the tree. It was Zankoku.
He looked glad that he was finally able to find him, being slightly out of breath. "Finally I found you... Nova and I have been searching for you for a while and now he's fighting the sensei Twist in a friendly spar. Come!" he told him.
Without saying a word and just sighing, Satoru followed him as they ran to the opening right outside of the village and saw them battle there, with Nova being dropped onto the floor right as they had arrived.
"Dammit..." said Nova underneath his breath, getting up and turning towards Twist. "Again." he demanded
Despite him putting up the fight and them cracking the floor from their battle, Nova was in the end, after that 'ferocious' battle, dropped onto the floor again. Zankoku went up to Twist and challenged him, with Nova going beside Satoru and crossing his arms, speaking to him whilst Zan battled Twist.
"So were you able to uncover anything about the shards?" asked Nova Satoru, still facing the fight in front of them.
Satoru yawned before responding with : "Nah, nothing."
"I see. Once Zankoku finishes up here, we'll go to sensei's house since the archives have nothing." in a determined tone said Nova, ready to uncover the truth about the shards.
Out from nowhere, someone hopped in for no reason and fought Twist alongside Zankoku. It wasn't anyone they knew but the boy was a distraction enough that even Zan was able to win against Twist, with him going up against the interfering boy now.
Satoru and Nova hit each other with a side eye and raised eyebrow as Zankoku approached them beneath the tree and they turned around, heading to the village.
Not knowing where the location of Karoi's living quarters is, they were forced to go to the village leader's building and snoop there as he wasn't in office today.
Successfully sneaking inside, they entered the office and found the assigned living quarters data book containing their locations.
"So we're really going through with this?" asked Zankoku.
"Yes." said Nova.
After quickly checking the entire data book for his house location under both 'Primal' and 'Karoi', they were unable to uncover it. Quickly, Satoru got the idea to check the Ember High Guard's base as they contain information on just about anything whether it's real or not, complex or not.
Quickly rushing out of the building, they made their way out to the village, to the underground passage and rushed through the caves, arriving to the Ember High Guard base which was oddly empty.
With a computer there, Satoru went to access that whilst Zankoku and Nova checked the data books containing the villagers both in and out of their village, both civilians and warriors.
The base was surrounded by stone entirely with multiple large wooden bridges inside which acted as the platform. It had no decorations and it was served for the purpose of being a base of meeting.
With the screen in front of himself, Satoru faced a passcode that had to be of 4 digits. Recalling his adoptive father mention something about it during his days in the Ember High Guard, he typed in '2817' and the computer unlocked with him being taken to the home screen.
Zankoku and Nova left the books and stood beside Satoru, with each on one side of his and watched as he checked the files.
'The 9 tail beast.' clicked Satoru, and they saw the picture of the hollow Korama and mentions of Kratos. It had mentions of how the beast had a 'brother' unrelated to it by blood. Seeing a statue that they recognized from inside of the village, they saw 2 people and their names mentioned.
'Bane and Zander, the hosts of the 2 foxes.'
There wasn't many things said about them except the fact that they lived around 35 years ago and that their conflict was able to destroy the village as they had fought each other. The reason as to why was not mentioned.
Clicking off that file, Satoru searched about the shards but was unable to find a single mention of it.
"Fox hosts..." muttered Zankoku
"Hm?" said Nova, not being able to hear him
"Oh nothing." he replied back to him.
They found a firewall but also something about Thor. It said that he allegedly created a planet but it didn't have any proof or feats to back it up so it was just a far fetched rumor. It also said that he apparently became twisted due to the villagers not seeing eye to eye with him.
All of them were intrigued and went to search up 'Odin' but it was locked. Seeing under the 'related' page the Aesir massacre, Satoru clicked it with the mouse as curiosity was spiking through the roof at this point from the 3 of them.
As expected, the Aesir massacre file was also locked, so both Zankoku and Nova turned to Satoru and looked at him as if he was all-knowing.
"What?" asked Satoru, slightly confused
"Come on, type something. You're the genius here..." said Nova
Shaking his head slightly left and right, Satoru gave it a thought. With the chilly base they were in and the 5 digit passcode that was required, he thought of something and went to type it in.
'74401' he typed in, with it unlocking and all of them being surprised that it actually worked.
There wasn't much words but were quite a bit of pictures, showing a mutilated Norse Pantheon village to the point of unrecognizability. Not being able to find who or what did it, they went to check for 'Karoi' and 'Primal' but were unable to find anything...
"Well damn.." said Nova in a slightly disappointed tone. "I think there's something I could potentially do, but let's get out of here first."
Satoru nodded as he turned the computer off and all of them headed out of the Ember High Guard base and up a smaller mountain where Nova stood infront of Zankoku and Satoru, going to explain something.
"After I killed Hades, I obtained some quick knowledge. Specifically, some abilities and one that I can use right now which is Echo Location. It doesn't work like how it sounds, but in theory I could locate Karoi's house." he said confidently.
Satoru slightly nodded and added : "Alright, do it."
Nova closed his eyes and focused on his ability, which allowed him to hear and sense all over the village and even beyond. And to his surprise, he was able to locate it.
[Echo Location]
[Type : Advanced sensory ability]
[Requirements : Training or Instant obtainability]
[Strength and reach : Varies on the user, in this case, Nova who is able to sense quite far away]
[Rarity : Epic]
[Obtainability : Training, Transfer...]
[Description : The user has to focus to use it, and the more focus they have and the stronger they are, the further they can use it and the more energy it consumes.]
"Got it." he said after about 30 seconds of silence with only the sound of birds flapping their wings as well as the slight breeze of wind here and there.
"Man... Unlike you two I feel weak..." said Zankoku out of nowhere in a down tone.
Nova turned to him and looked at him telling him "What? No you're not."
"I'm like the only ungodly one on the squad..."
Placing his hand on his shoulder, Nova was able to quickly find a reply to what he said : "If you think about it, the 9 tail beast is a God too so don't bring yourself down."
He slightly smiled and looked up at Nova. "Thanks bro!" with his expression brightening up.
"Oh Satoru, here have this. It's to help you teleport to it so you can 'keep' up with our teleportation and of course in other situations." said Nova, handing Satoru something
[+ Teleportation kunai]
Adding on : "Just imbue your energy in it once and when you want to teleport to it, focus on that energy and form a sign with your hand."
"The same one you saw me perform in Blaze to Nimbus and back!" said to him Zankoku, elaborating it further.
With no time wasted, Nova said : "Follow me now." and began rushing towards the alleged location of Karoi's house."
They went through the village back, outside of the main gate and continuing on for about a minute while Nova recalled the location of it and took a few turns, eventually finding a single house hidden behind a couple of trees and entirely surrounding it.
Before entering inside, Satoru turned to them and said : "We're looking for something about the shards and something about sensei, so don't get distracted." after which they entered inside with Karoi not being home.
The house had basic furniture with everything being wooden and having no carpets. Satoru took the 2nd floor while they two had the first one.
The 3 boys didn't find anything out of the ordinary but did 'ravage' through the place, leaving things on the floor and such.
Nova was able to find a safe but before anything, he heard something and jumped out of the open window and saw the one from before, Twist, spying on them.
He quickly called Satoru and Zankoku who got there immediately and they stood opposite of Twist, basically in a stand off.
"Say..." with the hissing and demonic sound of his voice, "What is your name?" he asked as he pointed at the white haired boy.
"Satoru." he said, staring him down, ready to fight if needed.
"I see.." with the hissing voice, and quickly throwing a head at them, 'vanishing' after doing so.
"Ignore him, let's go put everything the way it was and leave." said Nova, with the dark presence leaving and them going inside, putting everything how it was and leaving his house, closing the door that was for some reason unlocked.
While walking on the grass towards an opening in the forest, discussing what they know about the shards AKA nothing... They agreed for a 1v1v1 spar in base form, each of them taking their fighting stance.
-
The fight didn't last long as Nova and Satoru were mainly fighting, but in the process removed Zankoku and continued on fighting with Satoru emerging victorious.
"Damn... Again?" asked Nova, getting up from his one knee.
"Sure..." said Zankoku skeptically
"I'm down." Satoru said, dispersing the thunder around his hands and all of them getting in a stance once more, being more focused and locked in this time.
-
Despite their fight lasting much longer and each of them being in the fight longer, Satoru still emerged victorious.
"Wow. Yeah I'll go train." said Zankoku as he left from the opening back to the village where he encountered Twist and spoke with him.
"Should we go train too?" asked Nova Satoru while cracking his own neck.
Not thinking much of it, the white haired boy accepted and followed Nova who took them to the peak mountain, the largest mountain, near Ember where lightning was constantly raining upon the surface of said mountain, with the dark clouds nearly covering the mountain top too.
They both took a guarding stance after Nova explained to him that they'll be 'fighting' lightning until they win and the dark cloud vanishes.
With the lightning instantly striking at them, they barely had time to even react due to it's speed. With the next two strikes being fired at them, which they blocked and the few after those as well.
With the 5th one going to strike them, Satoru was able to block it barely with his axe and Nova with his forearms which were imbued with a type of fire of his...
-
For the following 3 days, they constantly battled lightning without any rest, food or water.. But after finally being successful, the dark cloud vanished and they got better at reacting and most of their feats.
Unfortunately though, their divine energy was at literally 1% and they were exhausted, so after fist bumping each other, they both left to their house to get some rest as sleep replenishes divine energy.
Similar as to when a good night's sleep helps the muscle recover, so will with their energy, but at a faster rate than recovering muscle tissue.
Satoru got to the compound, to the small concrete house he had and instantly went to sleep while Nova went to sleep in his house that was on the far east in the village.
Meanwhile though....
Twist and Zankoku were now in a random cave which was devoted to the cult, with Zankoku being unable to move with the pumpkin headed hissing guy walking back and forth.
"Join me, join the cult...." he said.
"No!" he yelled out.
Twist stopped walking back and forth and went to stand above Zankoku who was tied up and sitting on the floor.
"Do you not understand that your friends, Satoru and Nova, are nothing more than selfish Gods who do not care about you? You're no God so why should they?"
Zankoku shook his head and yelled to his face : "You are lying! You know nothing about them!"
"Tch, tch, tch..." Twist made with his mouth.
-
About 10 hours would pass and it'd be the morning. Satoru got up and stretched with Nova knocking on his door, saying that Zankoku hasn't been seen in nearly 4 days.
Satoru rubbed his eye with his left hand and placed his right hand out, making the axe fly to his grip and placing it on his back. They both left the demon eyed clan compound and went to the village.
Nova closed his eyes and used Echo Location once more, consistently expanding the range which took up more and more energy. Or it would have, if it wasn't a nearly passive ability that of the God of Hell.
"Got him." he said, as he instantly started running towards the location, even teleporting with Satoru keeping up with him.
It took a few minutes for them to find the entrance to the cave but they were successful. Rushing through the chilly stone cave, they were able to drop into the lair and saw Zankoku tied up against a pillar and Twist brewing a potion.
"Well well well, look who decided to join us..." said Twist, with the usual hissing sound.
Since it was on sight, both of the two rushed at Twist, battling him in base form and throwing hands.
Zankoku raised his head and with his tired eyes saw in front of himself, becoming enraged from this for a reason. With orange energy being added onto his own, it was overflowing and overwhelming to the point that his aura warped into an orange one and the beast was able to take over, instantly rushing at 3 fighting in front of him.
Before it got to them, Satoru and Nova backed up to not get hit as from behind, taken-over Zankoku was able to punch Twist in the back and send him flying with his overwhelming strength, through multiple shelves of potions and books and end up in the wall, leaving a crack.
"I see..." the pumpkin headed guy said as he rushed back at Zankoku and continued on battling.
[Due to the taken over form, Zankoku is not in control, however... His strength is 2.5x higher than in base and his speed is 3x higher]
Their fight easily destroyed the layer with Satoru and Nova spectating on the side and deciding something. "Should we do something?" asked Nova.
"Nah, this is his fight now." said Satoru, as he watched the fight.
Despite the beast having control, it had memory of how to use Zankoku's techniques and began to fight Twist with them.
Appearing above Twist, it went for a downslam attack with the Wind Vortex, but he was able to move out of the way, causing Zankoku to hit the floor and destroy it to the point it shook the lair a little.
Rushing at him, again, Twist conjured a pumpkin in his hand and threw it at the Zankoku, largening it but he evaded it by jumping and kicking himself off the ceiling and landing a punch to Twist's face, but he grabbed his arm and began to break it, when he rotated his body and hit him again in the face with his foot.
Their fight went on and on until the point where Zankoku's eyes started closing and he fell to the floor unconscious, passing out. Using this opportunity, to not fight Satoru and Nova, he was able to vanish.
Nova picked Zankoku up with no words and formed a sign with his hand, teleporting them to the hospital, where the doctors took in Zankoku and started treating him and his injuries.
Satoru stayed to see where Twist had left but had no luck, so he went to the hospital where he sought out Nova and saw someone similar as Twist walking by, or perhaps the guy that Zankoku fought was someone that Twist was similar to... It was hard to tell.
But the guy seemed to have possess the knowledge that the original sensei Twist held and was allowed inside to see Zankoku. Conspicuous to say the least...
"Yo Nova." said Satoru, in a chill tone.
"What's up?" he asked.
The white haired boy looked down at the floor for a moment and back at him before telling him : "I'll head off for a while to find out more about the shards, and perhaps sensei too. So tell the status of my whereabouts to the leader that it's 'Absent', alright?"
Nova nodded and wished him good luck, with them fist bumping each other's fists and Satoru casually walking out of the village whilst Nova went inside to a Zankoku that was conscious.
There, the guy similar to Twist revealed that he in fact is the Twist and that the one that he is 'host' to, or rather.. His 2nd part is the one that took over and he doesn't have full control yet, but will in 24 hours and additionally apologizing multiple times for what he has done.
"I see... I forgive you then." Zan held no reason to hate him or hold a grudge as he understood, so he forgave him.
Upon that, Nova explained to him what had happened due to him following up with a question of what happened since he didn't remember anything from the point of the beast taking over.
Satoru on the other hand, had a mission in mind and a stomach to feed since he did not have his breakfast yet.
Going through the forests and passing the mountains, the white haired boy was leaving Ember Nation to search elsewhere.