II. A New Start

"...Welcome, all of you who have been chosen." The man said, his gaze cold like the northern ice.

With his hands glued to his back, the man took a step forward confidently, he doesn't seem to be carrying any sort of weapon, but that only tells everyone of how skilled he must be is.

"Who is that?" A boy asked to his mate beside him.

Soon, almost everyone began mumbling to each other, they expressed their thoughts quietly, whispering to one another.

"Hey, you're the only girl in here i see, what's your name?" Someone asked Calea, he was standing beside her so it's kind of to be expected.

"Huh?– Oh umm, My name is Calea.." Calea responded, she felt a bit nervous since she never really had any experience talking to other boys beside her brothers and some of the guards.

When that boy with black hair and purple eyes heard Calea's name, his face suddenly turns into bewilderment, like he just seen a ghost or something else.

"C- Calea!?" He whispered, his tone of voice suggest that he should be screaming right now, but since there's many people, that would gather too much attention, "Calea De' Frederica!? The princess of Lunarfall?!"

"A- ahaha.. Yeah, that's me.. But you can just call me Calea.." Calea replied, still nervous but starting to feel a bit comfortable.

"What's a princess like you doing in this place— Ah im sorry, nice to meet you, my name is Nedu, Nedu Heimhen, and it seems like we're both been forcefully kidnapped to this place.." Nedu said with somewhat a playful voice, even though both of them have been kidnapped, Nedu doesn't seem to show any sign of fear or anxiety.

"Nice to meet you–" Calea wanted to say a few more words but it was cut by the middle-aged man voice.

"Alright, alright, calm down will you." The man said, "Now, from here on out, i will explain what will happen to all of you."

The atmosphere suddenly went quiet and serious, with everyone stopping their chat and instead focusing on the man alone while heightening their hearing senses to listen to what the man will say.

He clapped once, and looked at everyone again with his piercing gaze, "Listen up shitheads, address me as Axe, and from today onwards, say goodbye to your previous life, whatever you have before will not be available in this place." Axe said, "In here, only the strongest can survive, we have gathered you all in here for one reason only, and that is—"

A short waiting took place, leaving everyone at the edge of their seat, one after another, their face began to show a slight anxiety, and when it is time for Axe to speak, their expression cannot be more true..

"To turn all of you, into a merciless weapon on the battlefield." Axe said menacingly.

Immediately after Axe was done with that sentence, silent filled the room for a solid 10 seconds, no one was capable to speak as they were too stunned for their mouth to work, however, it didn't take long before one of them raised their hand to ask a question.

"Wh– What do you mean?" Said the brave boy with black hair that has a blue line of bangs infront.

"Hmm, it seems like your brain is more stupid than i expected" Axe replied mockingly, "I will not say this again, so keep your ears open– All of you, will be trained by us, so that your brain will slowly, but also can be forced, to listen to no one but us, keep this in mind, from now on, you are our slaves, you're nothing more than disposable that is ready to be killed and tortured at any given moment."

A shocking words, one that couldn't be easily believed by anyone, yet even so, that same words now has been said by Axe, and there are no way of escaping from the truth, everyone including Calea was shaken, their face all shows a sign of desperation, a need to escape, but there was nothing they can do.

"What a joke, are you fuckers serious?.." One of the boy there spoke, "What the fuck did you just say?.."

That boy walked forward and approached Axe angrily, his presence feels heavy as if he had an invisible aura around him, but that wasn't enough to budge Axe.

"Slave? Me? Barfal? Stop joking around, you think i would let myself be a tool for you!?" Barfal said as he stood toe to toe with Axe, although there's a significant height difference, it didn't scare Barfal off, instead he felt even more fired up.

Barfal's refusal and also bravery managed to convince more people to stand up for themselves and fight back.

"YEAH! Stop joking around you shithead! Do you think we'll allow ourselves to be treated as a slave!?"

"THAT'S RIGHT!!"

Suddenly, Barfal smiled and uses this short moment where Axe let his guard down because of his focus was directed to the revolt to try to punch him.

'GOT YOU!' Barfal thought, his fist flying at an incredible speed towards Axe's face, he thinks that he got him, but in reality, it was never that easy.

SWOOSH!

"What!?" Everyone reacted to the quick reflexes that Axe have.

In that split of a second, Axe not only parried Barfal's punch, but he also grabbed his wrist, locking Barfal in place where he couldn't pull his arm back due to the different in strength.

"What the—" Barfal panicked as he realized that his attacks were futile.

"Guys like you are always the most fun to punish, because i can see how quickly your confidence and ego plummet into the depths." Axe said coldly, "First punishment, disobedient."

CRACK!

"AAAGGHHHHHH!!!!!" Barfal screamed, his right hand got disjointed by Axe, he can feel his bone wanting to penetrate through the skin of his hand.

"And second punishment, an attempt to attack the intructor." Axe said as he began to focus his senses to his left hand where it was touching Barfal's skin, soon after, a string of mana channeled from Axe to Barfal, when the mana arrives at Barfal's body, it triggers a set of magic contraption that is placed on his neck.

"W- Huh?.." Barfal said anxiously as he saw the collar on his neck glowed in orange light followed by a strange fizzling sound, as if a fuse was being lit.

Before he could react to the changes, Barfal's vision was blacked out, not because his eyes were covered, but it was because his head had exploded into multiple pieces.

BOOM!

And just that, Barfal's legacy ended there, everyone watches as his lifeless and headless body fall to the floor while blood gushes out from his neck.