I've been gone for a long while (probably 2 years). Life got in the way and school messed me up even more. Well I am back now and I wont promise to keep the story updated regularly. And thanks for the reviews and faves everyone. The next chapter will be a conclusion for the introduction arc before I dive into Riser arc and more goodies and whatnot.

Don't have much to say so that's all.

"Speech"

'Thought'

Flashback

(Aerion Speaking out loud)

(Aerion Speaking through thoughts)

{BOSS speaking out loud}

Please Read, Review and Fave this.

ON WITH THE STORY

Morning light rays hit Ronnie's eyes like swords. He rolled around his bed before finally giving up on trying to cover his eyes from the sun-rays. He got up, stretched himself for a while before looking at himself in the mirror. His red eyes were really one of the most striking feature on his face. He stared at himself for a while as his mind took a stroll down the memory lane, when his facial features weren't like this. When he had black short hair, blue eyes and a skin that didn't make him look like if he never experienced the sun. His hair nowadays looked as if it was lion's mane and cutting it was a difficult proposition to Aerion whom suggested it.

Today was one of the few days that he wouldn't train under Aerion. A few weeks ago he had began training under Aerion and he could see a vast improvement in his skills and how easier it had become to use magic. But something bothered him, and that was every time when he fought he would lose the fight in the end due to one or two opponents escaping his calculating gaze. 'Until you are able to figure out why you lose you will never be strong enough to face the challenges coming for you', that was what Aerion had told Ronnie every time when he lost a battle. It had been bugging Ronnie a lot and he just couldn't figure out what the problem was. Ronnie's expression morphed to a more serous look as he contemplated how to beat Aerion's challenge. After a little while he decided to give up on the matter and focus on other issues mainly how to blend with the predicament he was in at the moment.

It wasn't long before a knock was heard on Ronnie's door, "Ronnie, are you up yet?". When the first knock was unanswered another one followed, still no answer came. The door knob twisted once, but the door didn't budge. Yurishia twisted the knob again and used a bit of excess force when the door finally gave in and the makeshift chair was pushed away from the door. Upon further inspection, Ronnie wasn't sighted anywhere near his bed. Yurishia was about to panic before she heard the sound of running water in the bathroom. With that she released the breath that she didn't realize that she was holding back. She decided to leave the room and would have to speak to Ronnie when he came downstairs for his breakfast.

After a while Ronnie came out of the bathroom, bathed and with a towel on, but he had changed up his hairstyle. After an extended squabble with Aerion, the dragon had allowed Ronnie to style his hair in a way that he wanted. He now had less spiky hair with two bangs coming from the front towards his ears. The front looked like a bent spiky star of sort.

After a moment of watching TV and making breakfast preparation Yurishia was about to call out Ronnie again before she heard sound of footsteps on the stairs leading to the dining room. She had been observing him for a while and she wanted to ascertain somethings for herself. Upon the arrival of Ronnie in the dining room, Yurishia invited him for breakfast before asking him to join her on the dining table implying she had something to talk about. During the meal, the atmosphere in the room was tense enough that much the only sounds heard were the sounds of spoons and chopsticks hitting each other or other utensils on the table. After a while Ronnie decided to break the tension and initiate a conversation, "So, how have you been lately cousin. You don't talk with me much nowadays." Ronnie spoke casually.

Yurishia raised her brow and dropped the chopsticks she was using, she sighed a bit before looking straight at Ronnie's eyes, though they were shielded with the visors. Yurishia spoke in a flat tone, "Are you really initiating the conversation with that statement Ronnaille?". On hearing his full name being spoken by his cousin, Ronnie knew that this conversation won't be a light as it seems.

"Take off the visors and the link Ronnaille." It wasn't a statement as much but more of an order. Ronnie was puzzled, multitude of questions swarming his mind at that moment; did she know about the supernatural world, was she part of the supernatural world and if so how deep was she involved and many other questions of that kind. 'She knows!' It was the most prominent thought on his mind after hearing the statement. Taking a deep breath, he took off his visor then dropping on the table while keeping his eyes closed. He then followed by dropping his link too then opening his eyes to face his cousin.

Red eyes met blue eyes, it was a stare unlike anything Ronnie ever felt. He felt as if those blue eyes could see through all the deceit he had done over the years he lived.

"So, when are those secrets of yours going to pop up?", was all Yurishia said calmly with a hint of smile and mockery.

It felt as if thunder just stroke Ronnie and fried his brain. His mind went on overdrive thinking of ways to escape the predicament he was in. After a bit of contemplating he decided to give up and speak the truth as he could see no way to escape the predicament he was in. Just as he was about to speak, Yurishia decided to drop another bomb on his mind.

"I know about the supernatural world cousin." Was all she said before picking up her chopsticks and proceeding to enjoy her breakfast.

"How?" It was the only word that came out of Ronnie's mouth and it was all that he was thinking at the moment. Aerion was not around to help him out of this mess and his other tenant never interfered in matters that weren't beneficial to him.

Putting down the chopsticks again, Yurishia let out a sigh, looked at Ronnie with a faint smile before speaking again, "What you know cousin, is just the tip of the iceberg.". She picked up the chopsticks again and took a mouthful of her breakfast, swallowed it before looking at Ronnie with a sharp gaze then spoke, "And from now on, no use of those goddamned forsaken toys unless it's to fool the public. I know your condition well enough, so please never take me for a fool ever again."

It was with that statement that the tension at the table had been relieved to an extent and gave way for Ronnie to start sorting out his own things in his mind. With the silence brought by the previous talk, Ronnie's mind started to wonder back on the reason why he had failed Aerion's test over and over again. 'Let's see, every time I lose it's either due to overlooking maybe one or two enemies on the field. Then why does it happen so much? Am I too overconfident with my skills? Or, do I rely too much on my skills and forget to hone myself? Well, lets see whats the issue next time I'm on the field.'.

Breakfast ended without further mishaps and after that since it was weekend Ronnie had an appointment with the Occult Research Club. Some things had to be clarified between him and Rias and her peerage before bad blood existed between them. As much as he could see, the only one who seemed a bit on the provoked side was Issei and quite frankly he had no idea what made him pissed of at him. Arriving at the old school building which served as the base for the Occult Research club, Ronnie took a deep breath before opening the doors and going inside.

It was dark, creepy and silent with little light coming through the windows but much of it was blocked by the big tree outside. The only sources of sound in the building were the creaking of wood under Ronnie's feet and the occasional murmurs and laughter heard from the door at the end of the corridor. He took one step forward, then another one and another one before steeling his heart knowing he was about to face devils and some of which may react somewhat ferociously (Issei specifically) at him.

Arriving at the end of the corridor, he knocked on the door once before pushing the door open so as to get in. He expected to find devils moving around doing devil works but what met his eyes was the complete opposite. Kiba was on the couch having tea, Koneko was on the edge of another coach munching on her chocolate silently keeping to herself, Akeno was moving around with a tray serving drinks and Issei was making jokes along Asia and Rias. It did not look like a devil's gathering to say the least, it looked more or less like a normal students gathering to his eyes. With a bit of help from the sound he made by clearing his throat Ronnie was able to garner the attention from the ORC members and announcing his presence.

"Hey everyone." it was a simple greeting which invoked a multitude of responses. Kiba waved at him smiling, Koneko just looked at him before going back to munching her chocolate, Akeno smiled, Rias and Asia replied back with a 'hi', though it had mixed emotions especially from Rias and Issei just stared at him saying nothing before turning away and proceeding to do his things.

"Take a seat, and Akeno please give him something to drink please." Rias spoke while gesturing at Ronnie towards the coach.

"Rias, *sigh*, well, I'm here to settle things. We started on a bad footing so I kinda hope we can fix that situation." Ronnie started.

"Firstly, Rias I am grateful for all that you and your peerage have done for me up to now. Also I'm sorry for the inconveniences I brought upon you and your peerage and I will offer my support of any kind to help you and your peerage, simply I'm looking forward to an alliance with your peerage if you agree. Lastly, Issei I'd like to have a word with you please if you don't mind." It was a record speech from Ronnie as he had never spoken that long for a long while (blame it on his sorta anti-social way of life).

"Speak." Issei retorted.

"Privately." was all that Ronnie replied back.

"Before you go, can you please elaborate further on how you want to collaborate with my peerage." Rias questioned while reading reports on her desk.

Accepting the cup of tea offered by Akeno, Ronnie blew on the tea first before turning towards Rias and speaking, "Well, I don't know much about the working of you devils, but I mean I could help with any of those tasks which I may be able to perform. I don't like being indebted to someone so please take this as my way of repaying you and your peerage for saving me back then." He then took a sip of the tea from the cup before putting it back on top of the saucer and setting it back on the table.

Rias seemed a bit satisfied by the statement maybe considering she just nodded and kept on reading the reports. After a while she put down the reports before sighing a bit and looked at Ronnie for a while seeming in a contemplating trance before saying "Ok, meet us here on Monday after class hours and maybe I can find something for you to do to pay back the debt you owe me and my peerage. If you have no further thing to say to me, you are free to stay and observe the workings of a devil."

Ronnie drank his tea in silence contemplating on how things are to progress from then on and how to balance his life which has just been thrown in a turmoil. Finishing his tea, he got up bowed at Rias before asking for Issei to follow him to a private place for their conversation. And with that he left the meeting room to another room in the building with Issei trailing him.

While all of this was going on, no one in the room was able to notice a golden-orange bird sitting on a branch near the window staring at the events prevailing inside the room. After a while the bird burned into thin air.

The journey from Kuoh High to Ronnie's home was about to be interesting for Ronnie. Aerion had been conversing with Ronnie all the way from the time he got out of ORC building. With all the questions Ronnie had regarding magic being bombarded one at a time to Aerion, the conversation had turned from a berating session to a lecture session. Ronnie had been berating Aerion before due to him ditching him during breakfast in the morning.

{Stop Here!}

All hairs on Ronnie's body stood straight, it felt as if electricity was coursing through him and he went blank minded for a while before collecting himself. Aerion presence in his mind was suddenly gone and any kind of connection that he felt he had with him was instantly shut off.

{Take a right}

A dark alley was presented to him as he turned right. It was quiet, dark and secluded with the only sound coming from it being of little critters chewing or moving around. Ronnie had suddenly lost control over his body since the voice began speaking and was quite scared at the moment. The voice that had taken over his body was none other than his other tenant. One so powerful even saying his name was scary. This tenant had so much power that it leaked whenever he made an appearance whether physically or mentally. The name of such tenant was Blitzerion, the heavenly beast of power.

{I'm mildly impressed with the progress you have been making with your training.}

A heave of sigh followed right after that statement as Ronnie regained control over his body with his face plastered up with a smile. "Many thanks, my lord!" It was all he spoke before being cut-off by Blitzerion.

{I said mildly, while you have been improving in astonishing speeds for a mortal, that's a snail pace to me. But, I have seen enough in your training and made my own adjustments. From now on, you will not be training in Aerion's realm, rather in the realm of beasts.}

"Umm.. one problem my lord, where is the realm of the beasts?"

Just as he finished speaking, multitudes of information bombarded his mind regarding the Beast realm, what it is, where it is and how to get to it. The whole sequence for opening a beast gate revolved around his mind as he tried to mold beast essence in the manner elaborated in his mind. The process was painful to his just as the time his eyes, ears and skin were first healed after that gruesome accident. His blood boiled and his nerves felt as if they were dumped in a corrosive substance. But the pain felt on his body paled in comparison to what he felt in his soul. It was like a thousand horses galloping over his soul repeatedly.

He fell on the ground, curled up in a ball rolling on the ground. Any attempt of screaming from the pain was unsuccessful, it seemed that his voice box didn't want to respond to his command neither did the tear glands also want to respond to his commands. A minute passed, then two, then three, five, ten, fifteen then finally about 30 minutes later the pain eased enough for him to be able to stand up and focus a bit.

Even with pain coursing throughout his body, there was a new feeling also coursing throughout his body too. This feeling felt like raw power with untapped potential. It felt weird to say the least but the most weird this was the figure shrouded in starry dark multicolored cloud staring right at him before disappearing in a magical circle. As if on cue, more information was released in his brain regarding how to get into the beast's realm.

Ronnie entered a meditative trance as he started to summon his beast essence creating a unique gate and key to be used by him. A few moments later a triangular magic circle formed in front of him with magic runes in the sides and a sword crossed with a great ruler in the middle. A corresponding mark also formed on his palm but unlike the great circle in front of him, this one radiated so much power that Ronnie's hand was trembling from the sheer power in that sigil. With a bit of magnetic force between the sigil and magic circle, the two came in contact before Ronnie's world flashed in white and then everything disappeared.

T.B.C