Chapter 1 - Prologue (Part 4)

The following day, Shion had shouldered his fully equipped bag. He was ready to go, though no one knew about his departure except his Master and the saddened Shishio.

Shion looked back and saw that Shishio didn’t show himself to escort him out. His face dropped a little: Shishio was one of the few people he was relatively close with. He thought that Shishio might want to see him before he left, but he didn't dwell too much on the thought. He approached his Master, who stood at the end of the training ground.

“Master, I must depart now,” he said. “And I will find The Glaive!”

For the first time in a while, Aldrich smiled. He reached his hand out and patted Shion's shoulder.

“I believe you can find it, Shion.”

Aldrich stood still in his place and watched Shion's back slowly become smaller and smaller in his sight. Behind him, Shishio slowly walked toward him with heavy shoulders.

“You should see him off,” Aldrich told him when Shishio stood a few steps behind him, watching Shion walk down the hills. “He takes you as his brother.”

“... I'm sorry.”

“No need for that now.”

Shishio watched the retreating figure of Shion in the distance. When he walked forward, he never turned back. It’s been like that forever. Shishio would always see Shion’s back going away from him, reaching more outstanding results while achieving more significant goals. He looked like a baby crawling beside a horse race compared to Shion. Their speed couldn't be compared at all.

“When Master said I could catch up with Shion in a few more years, it was all a lie, right?” Shishio braved himself to ask the question that had haunted him since yesterday.

Shishio knew the gap between his abilities and Shion’s, especially after they were attacked by the Hyewolf pack yesterday. Shion didn’t seem to have any trouble dealing with the giant Hyewolf and even helped him finish the others without sustaining the slightest scratch. Meanwhile, he almost lost a limb from Hyewolf's sharp claws, which he could avoid because Shion swiftly pulled him away. If he was alone when the Hyewolf pack surrounded them, he might have already…

“If you believe that you can do it, the so-called lies will come true one day.”

With that, Aldrich walked inside, leaving Shishio staring at the city gates that opened and closed for Shion.

— In a far distant future. At the edge of time. —

A humanoid robot flew high above the outside wall of Jotoheim of Hanging Gardens. It was the largest and also one of the last cities of humans in the world. Most of the Jotoheim was destroyed and collapsed. Even in the face of death, human's sinful nature never ceases to bring further doom upon themselves. They started the war with each other, claiming each other's land and trying to expand their territory. The greediness of a few people brought disaster to many people.

They called it The Chaos World. It was an even worse era than The Dark Ages. In these times, people had no hope in miracles. Their only desire was to find shelter, a place a little bit more forgiving to live in, to let their children live a little longer. There was no need for hope in this ruined world, just survival.

Below him, Zoom saw rows and rows of humans crowding in front of the city’s front gate, demanding to be let inside. They were people who lost their Jotoheim, a city inside a giant dome that served as a survivor base, to the war. They wandered in the barren land to move to another place. But, it was not that easy to be let inside a Jotoheim. However big, the size of a Jotoheim could only accommodate so much. Moreover, Hanging Garden is where The King and their noblemen reside. They wouldn’t open their city gates to the refugees, the victims of the war that they caused.

“Zoom.”

The humanoid robot, Zoom, answered the call from his private transmission line. “Zoom is here. What's the problem, Rubius?”

“I haven't heard any news from Toshiro. Did he inform you of anything?”

“Yes. He informed me that the Maynscer was lost. He is currently looking for it and will return after he finds it.”

Rubius hummed in the other line. “I'll have to report to His Majesty myself, then.

It’s a few days late. You should check on him. Report to me after.”

With that, the transmission line disconnected. Zoom raised his hand, and the Time Stone glowed on his palm. He held the one to travel to the past, and he looked for the timeline where Toshiro went.

After Zoom found it, a crack of hollow space opened up in front of him. He walked inside. The crack closed behind him, swallowed him, and transferred him to another time.

Zoom arrived at a similar barren land as the one in his time. He landed in the vast desert that looked like just the place of some fierce fight. Almost nothing was left except the dried blood covering the Earth and a few furs on the ground. Zoom took one fur and scanned it with his eyes. The data matched what Toshiro was looking for a Hyewolf’s fur. More specifically, it was a special Hyewolf that had been trained to be a hunting dog by them. And it belongs to Toshiro.

“Zoom here. Rubius, I found Maynscer.”

A low chuckle was heard from across the transmission line. Zoom walked over and inspected the blood, and once again scanned them.

“Dead, I guess? Toshiro is going to throw a big fuss.”

Zoom looks to the southwest. His eyes zoomed in for miles until he found the nearest Jotoheim. “Toshiro went ahead of me. It looks like he’s already headed towards the Jotoheim, which is the residence of the person who killed Maynscer.”

This time, Rubius groaned.

“Now, that can't be done. Can you stop him? I know it will eventually collapse, but that’s not the time yet. Is one Jotoheim really equivalent to his pet?”

There was a loud explosive sound from the direction of that Jotoheim. The ground shook under Zoom’s feet, and he already knew it didn't originate from Toshiro’s power.

“I think he already found the answer,” Zoom said.

“Tsk. So be it. What is the Jotoheim that Toshiro was going to destroy?”

A lot of information appeared in Zoom’s eyes about the Jotoheim they talked about. He read them all at the speed of light before answering, “It’s The Jotoheim of Chanines.”

END OF CHAPTER!

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