The flukeycus dropped down and ran around Chronos, who was steadying his sword. Kagekawa decided to just watch and observe and the flukeycus made sure to stay away from him as the monster could sense Kagekawa’s terrifying power.

Chronos dashed at the flukeycus once it made a full lap and swung his blade horizontally but the beast reacted by leaping on top of the blade. It then lunged at Chronos and punched him with its fist.

"Gah!" Chronos closed his eyes and then opened them again, "Where’d it go?!" He frantically turned his head side to side. In that small moment, the flukeycus picked up a stone and went up into the trees. It made its way quickly away and positioned itself behind Chronos. The flukeycus threw the stone into a bush and naturally, Chronos reacted to the noise. "There!" He faced towards the noise.

The flukeycus then attacked from above and bit Chronos’s shoulder while hanging on his back, drawing out blood.

"Ackgh!" Chronos screamed out, while dropping his sword and clutching onto his shoulder. "Haaah! Haaah!" Chronos panted, "What do I do?!" He thought to himself in a panicked state. The flukeycus went back into the trees, hiding and waiting.

Chronos picked up his sword with his good arm, "It feels unusual to hold it with this arm..." He picked it up with his left arm. Kagekawa had trained him to be able to use both hands however it was clear that Chronos was dominant in his right hand.

"My hands shaking..."

"Chronos! You’re strong enough to beat that monster! Steady your breathing!" Kagekawa looked at Chronos with a serious glare.

"Phwaaa..." Chronos closed his eyes, "Steady my breathing...keep calm. It’ll attack me soon."

The flukeycus threw a stone into a bush. "There!"

It then launched an attack behind Chronos, this time aiming to bite the back of his neck.

"Not this time!" Chronos swiftly turned around with a fierce gaze and vertically aliced upwards, chopping off both of the flukeycus forearms and hands.

Blood splattered onto Chronos’s face.

"GRWAAAAK!" The monster kept screaming and rolling around in pain on the ground as blood spewed out.

Chronos stood over the monster with an aggravated look and stabbed his sword through the monster’s chest into the ground, putting an end to the cries of the monster.

"It’s over...Haaah..." Chronos became exhausted and used his sword as support. "I did it!...master...." He declared while his body slumped.

Kagekawa immediately rushed to him and held Chronos up with his one arm across his chest. "You sure lost a lot of blood..."

Chronos passed out due to his injury and fatigue.

"I’m proud of you, Chronos. It’s your first time really fighting and you’re able to defeat a C-class monster, it’s impressive, especially at your age. Well done." Kagekawa then tossed him over his shoulder, "Let’s head back home and patch you up shall we. Haha!" He then swiftly returned home and tended to his injuries.

≡

Forest of Vastos,

Sedah’s cave

Sedah sat on a raised circular stone pedestal in the sealed-off cave. It was completely dark, no light came through from the outside. He wasn’t dressed in any clothes, he was completely naked from head to toe. His knees were tucked into his hunched-over chest. He wrapped his arms around his legs and stared directly forward at nothingness. He kept staring and staring.

Sedah murmured to himself...

「Врата ада открываются и дают мне доступ.」

A demonic-looking gate appeared and lit up the cave. It opened up to show a dark crimson vortex. Gusts of wind began to blow around everywhere in this enclosed cave.

Sedah then reached out his hand forward into the vortex.

"I will destroy this world in a decade..." He mumbled to himself.

The Sedah that Arthur was raised by had begun transforming into something much darker. His mind became completely drowned in this newfound goal to destroy the world.

He went through the portal and found himself in the air falling at a great height. Soon he crashed onto the land made out of red rock. This didn’t affect him and he brushed it off as he got up. The skies of this realm were completely red as was the ground. There were some critters around that were completely unknown in the human realm. Sticking out of the ground were black rocks in the formation of trees. Ahead of Sedah was a massive castle made out of black stone.

Sedah stretched out his arm and then golden armour manifested onto him. His face showed no expression. He walked forward, making his way to the black castle.

"Hm?" He turned his head, sensing a great beast.

There stood a huge muscular monster that looked like a horse but it was clearly much bigger and less tame than a horse. It had spikes across its back and wore armour that looked like it was made out of bones. Its eyes were red and this monster was ready to charge and attack Sedah, who was completely unbothered.

"NEIGHH!" It kicked its front leg into the air and then charged at Sedah at a rapid speed.

Sedah continued to walk forward, not even paying attention to this grand beast. The horse charged and charged and suddenly fell over. It tried getting back up but the monster’s legs were shaking. The monster then lost all feeling in its legs. "NEIGHHHH!" It cried out as it watched Sedah walking away. Soon after the black-horse monster was helplessly eaten by another violent wandering creature.

"I see...so you’ve come back to your true home." A red-skinned demon with two horns watched over the events that just took place at a distance. He then clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, "Sedah-you’ll pay for what you’ve done..."

Sedah stood outside the black castle, "All seven of them should still be alive..." He thought to himself.

It was true that Sedah wiped out all the demons in the human realm but some remained in the realm known as hell. He had known this but did not bother to truly exterminate every last demon, though he did seal off the demon realm permanently from the human realm. Sedah decided to enter hell to raise an army, though it will prove difficult for him as every single breathing demon detests Sedah.

≡

Kagekawa’s home

Kagekawa laid Chronos carefully flat onto his bed, whose shoulder was wrapped in bandages.

*Knock* *Knock*

Kagekawa answered the door and saw Arthur and Amygdala holding hands with smiling faces.

"Ah! You’re both back. Judging from your faces...I guess the date went well. Come in."

Kageakawa noticed that behind the two was a shorter blonde-haired girl. "Hmmm...whose this Arthur?"

"Ah! Right! This is Excalibur."

"Eh?"

"She decided to come along and I thought why not? Also, she’s close to Chronos’s age so maybe they can have fun together." He then scruffled Excalibur’s hair, "Then this one won’t be so lonely." He grinned from ear to ear.

"I’m not lonely!" She crossed her arms, pouted her face and started stomping on the ground.

"Sorry sorry! But it’d be nice to have another friend right?"

"Fine...I’ll grace this person with my friendship! Take me to this human."

Kagekawa scratched his head, "That might prove a little difficult...he’s injured right now and resting."

"What happened?!" Both Amygdala and Arthur exclaimed.

"Calm down...he’s not gravely injured. Chronos hunted a C-class monster all by himself but he didn’t come out unscathed."

Both of them had a worried expression on their faces.

"I see..." Arthur replied.

"I’ll check in and take care of him!" Amygdala quickly rushed to Chronos’s room, shutting the door behind her.

"She cares for Chronos a lot, doesn’t she Arthur?"

"Right? It’s amazing, isn’t it? My wife truly is the best."

"...Right." Kagekawa turned his focus onto Excalibur.

"What human?"

"Sorry! It’s just that I’ve never seen a soul weapon step out like this. In fact, I’m quite restricted in talking about my soul weapon and I hardly ever see him."

"Hah?! Why?"

"Beats me..."

"What a strange weapon you have."

"Shouldn’t I be saying that to you?!"

"Hahaha! Maybe it’s because I’m so strong that I can roam around in this world!"

Arthur turned to Kagekawa with a happy expression, "Is that true Sedah?"

"I’m not quite sure...I haven’t met many soul weapon wielders and the ones I do meet I just fight. Ah! I don’t start the fights though...mostly." He wavered towards the end. "My weapon’s personality couldn’t be more different from yours Arthur. Haha!" Kagekawa thought deeply for a moment and then answered, "...I don’t see a reason why a soul weapon wouldn’t be able to traverse in our world."

Arthur then looked disappointed, "Ah...so she’s not special."

"Oi...I’m standing right here."

Arthur looked at her and wearily sighed.

"Hey! What’s that sigh and disappointed look meant to mean, huh?!!"

"Ah! I know, why don’t we spar Arthur? You know, weapon against weapon."

"Hahahaaha! This human is way too weak to wield me as of now! At best I’d give him...five seconds. Gahahaha!" Excalibur proudly stated while holding up five of her fingers.

"Hey! That’s not a good thing you know!" Arthur scolded Excalibur.

"Right...you only got your soul weapon just recently. Haha, my bad!"