Oak Town: July 7, x777
Oak Town was peaceful under the dawning night sky, the stars barely peeking out from the horizon as the most influential character in the city walked to an outcropping in the forest. His eyes were laced with a bit of tiredness as he stifled a yawn and gave a dismissive wave to the nearby pedestrians.
Damn paperwork...
Jose had almost forgotten about his little appointment with the rodent. He only remembered once Aria came back from his spontaneous appointment with the runt 2.
Hopefully, the kid doesn't waste my time.
Jose wanted to hand off his work to Aria and sleep, but sadly, his afternoon was busy, and he wasn't one to lie if he could help it.
"Hey, Jose! You're late!"
The runt was making it a close call, though.
"Be quiet, rodent; I was busy," Jose muttered as he walked into the dead field and stumbled upon the dead field where the rodent was in the middle of self-imposed training. Jose ignored the brat's grumbles as he pointed to the center of the field of dead grass and spoke dryly, "Hurry up and show me what you've got so far. I don't have all day."
"It's night. What else do you have to do?"
"Sleep."
"Lazy ass," Vera murmured, shivering as a shade shot through his chest and gave him a scare. Vera growled at the lonely ghost before he ignored the cackling hindrance and turned back to his shadow, "Come on Sho. Let's show him what we can do since he's old and needs to sleep by eight."
"You're running laps around Oak Town tomorrow."
"How petty!" Vera clicked his tongue as Jose scoffed and rolled his eyes before making a shooing motion with his hand to signal the start of the lesson. His feet left the ground as he floated and sat on an invisible throne in the air to watch. "I'm ready whenever you are rodent, oh wait."
Jose stuck his hand in his requip space, pulling out a cup of tea as he leaned on his chin, "Alright, better. Now, you may begin. Try to be a little competent."
"Asshole," Vera murmured as Jose sipped his tea uncaringly before Vera took a deep breath and looked at his shadow. Who nodded and crawled towards his back as four shadowed arms began sprouting from his shoulders. The extra limbs got stuck about halfway out as Vera cursed under his breath, "Damn. Well, it's still a work in progress."
"I can see that," Jose replied blandly as he watched the boy give him four middle fingers from his four arms, well, two human arms and two shadow stubs, before the shadow arms dissipated. The brat's shadow curled back into the ground as Jose gave the kid his notes on his work in progress: "Offensively, it's decent, but in terms of flexibility, it doesn't help. You already have close-range options."
"Yeah, I know that," Vera admitted as he pulled his sword from his waist and tossed it to the side. He sat on the ground with the sheathe in his hand and beckoned Sho to try and crawl into the shadowed portion of the container, i.e., inside the sheathe.
"That's why I was thinking if I could get Sho to squeeze in here, he could hide in it, and I could throw him at enemies—a ranged ambush."
It would be such a good idea if Sho didn't keep getting stuck about halfway into the opening.
"It'll take a while before Sho gets used to it, though," Vera mumbled with a sigh as he set his sheathe on the ground, and Sho gave up his attempts. The two looked up to see Jose's reaction, and they were not surprised to see it was brutally honest.
"It's a very dumb idea, considering you have to lose your sheathe to use it, but it has a bit of merit."
He wasn't calling them useless trash again, though.
"Try to get better at it, and we'll see how it works in combat during one of our weekly sessions."
They would take that as a half compliment.
"Anything else to show me?" Jose asked blandly as he watched the kid take his gracious advice with a bit of a smile and turn back to his shadow, who nodded and crawled onto his skin. Except this time it didn't stick out in a fist of anything like usual, it stayed as a small pool of black on the boy's chest.
"This is the second to last idea I had. Sho will take any attacks that hit me into his world, and then afterward, I'll-"
"Shitty idea, rodent. Scrap it," Jose shot him down instantly, watching as the rodent furrowed his brows in disagreement. He was about to open his mouth to argue before Jose flicked a finger, and a stray tree branch shot towards the 'shadow shield.' The brat's eyes narrowed in concentration, probably ready to take the projectile to prove his new idea, only for it to swerve upward at the last second and smack his chin, the exact moment Jose uttered a cold word.
"Dead."
A word that instantly made Vera realize the folly of his idea.
"Do I need to explain more?" Jose asked with a raised eyebrow as Vera shook his head, and his shadow went back to its natural place, as Vera admitted with an almost bummed yet resigned expression, "No, no, I got it."
The idea was good in theory; if you didn't consider that he couldn't use other spells during it since Sho would be on his body, and if he missed, it was pretty much a death sentence.
"I won't use it unless I know for certain where they'll aim for," Vera compromised, watching as Jose shrugged. "Your funeral. Now, what's the last thing you need to show me? I'd like to leave soon."
The brat had made some pretty average spells. Not excellent, not even good in some cases, but not bad. That was all Jose looked for; the brat could make up ground with his shitty magic ability in other areas.
"Well, that's the thing, I actually can't do it."
Correction: his incredibly shitty magic ability.
"Why, if I may ask, not," Jose asked blandly, his face laced with low expectations as he watched the kid huff and glare at his shadow, "Sho can't get the timing right. He's still too late."
The shadow seemed profoundly offended by that and nearly smacked the boy upon the head until Jose intervened, "What timing?"
He didn't have time for their petty arguments.
"Here, I'll show you," Vera offered resignedly as he stood up and walked to a nearby tree. Meanwhile, his shadow crawled up his arm, and when Vera reared back his fist, his shadow pooled beneath his knuckles before he punched the tree with a meager hit. The boy's fist mildly broke the bark, before half a second later, the shadow jabbed out in a delayed hit that eradicated it.
"We can't get the timing right."
It seemed like the runt was trying to eliminate that half-second delay.
"Any time we do, it's all luck," Vera admitted with a frown as he and Sho turned to Jose, who looked at his impact with a frown. The gears in his head turned as Jose spoke, "I assume you're doing this because your power is..."
Pitiful was a good word.
"Lacking."
Jose chose to be a little nice this time.
"Would I be correct?" Jose asked as he watched Vera and Sho nod in unison. Vera pointed to the tree with a splintered fist imprint in its base, "At the moment, it's like I'm hitting it with a little."
If the boy had a power of five.
"Sho's hitting it with a lot."
His shadow had about ten.
"I figured if we got the timing perfect, it would be like we were hitting with a single bigger punch."
It seemed like the rodent was struggling to make it a consistent fifteen.
"I was hoping for advice," Vera admitted with a plain expression, watching as Jose scratched his chin before glancing at his shadow and asking with a raised eyebrow, "Have you tried takeover magic yet?"
"I can't use takeover magic."
"Wow, rodent, I didn't notice," Jose replied, rolling his eyes as he poured his tea away and leaned on his palm. "You know what I mean."
The boy's magic was somewhat similar to takeover magic, even if he couldn't use it verbatim.
"How is your version of takeover magic coming along."
He should be able to replicate it with his shadow.
"Not well," Vera admitted with a sigh as he pointed at Sho, who crossed his arms and looked away as if he wasn't the one slowing things down, "I need Sho to give me complete control over him, but he isn't a fan of the idea. Doesn't like being controlled."
"What a useful thing for your magic to feel," Jose replied sarcastically as he watched the rodent shrug and his shadow stick up the middle finger. The display was almost laughable if it wasn't stalling the rodent's progress and wasting his time.
"Well then, rodent, since your shadow's paranoid and you're a pushover, here's what we'll do."
Jose took a little too much delight in the offended looks he got from both student and shadow as he floated a little higher in the air to get a good view.
"I'll be here to ensure the rodent doesn't get too greedy. In return, you two will try it at least once to get these useless doubts out of your system," Jose ordered with a smile, holding up a finger as he saw Vera open his mouth and the shadow get ready to run away. If you don't, I'll personally make your lives hell for the next month and a half."
Jose wasn't one to make empty promises.
"Feel free to waste more of my time while you decide."
The two troublemakers came to a compromise reasonably quickly after that.
30 Minutes Later*
Jose almost wished the pest hadn't convinced his shadow to lend him control over its body.
"WOOHOO!"
It made him insufferably loud.
"This is awesome!" Vera laughed as he dashed through the treetops in shadowed grieves that gave him a speed he'd never been capable of. A gleeful expression was present as he vaulted towards a nearby trunk and used its bark as a springboard. The wood shattered underneath his feet as he sprung across the trees like a squirrel on a high.
"Thanks, Jose!"
Vera loved his magic, but there came a feeling of emptiness when it consisted entirely of Sho and nothing of himself. It felt like Sho had the magic and he was just the container, but now Sho's legs were directly under his control, and when he used them, it basically felt like he had the power.
"I owe you one!"
He'd be lying if he said he wasn't getting addicted to it.
"I'm going to see how long it takes me to get to the river and back. See you!" Vera yelled with a gleeful expression as he shot through the woods. He was leaving Jose behind in the dead field where the exhausted guild master pinched his nose, disposing of the notion of chasing the brat and forcing him back. He was too tired for that.
"Shitty brat..."
Plus, it wouldn't hurt to let the kid celebrate his victory now and again.
"I'm glad to be of service," Jose mumbled with a sigh as he tilted his head to the sky and gave a yawn. It had been a long day, and once he made sure the brat didn't drown himself, he would rest well. "What a funny set of spells."
Jose had to deal with ghosts, but even he wasn't as chained to their whims as the boy. He could only imagine how long it would take to develop as a mage if he had to ask for permission whenever he wanted to use a spell. It would be exhausting.
Well, I suppose those weren't really spells.
Thankfully, he had already come to an understanding with most of his shades, barring the oldest one.
He's just asking the shadow to do shit for him.
That one would always be a thorn in his side.
Maybe I could get my shades to learn how to run the guild hall? That would save me so much time.
Jose sighed wistfully at the near-impossible task, his grievances momentarily forgotten as he saw a meteor cross the sky. It was the brightest one he'd ever seen, lighting up the horizon and painting a brilliant line in the sky for all to see.
Huh...
Even Jose had to admit it was admirable.
What a peculiar sight.
Jose chuckled as he floated away from the dead field, shooting to the sky for a clearer view. His efforts were rewarded as he ascended to the clouds and saw the meteor split into five directions.
I've never seen that-
"AHHHH!"
An agonized scream cut through Jose's thoughts as he whipped his head away from the canvas above. His eyes narrowed on the forest below as he descended altitude to get a better listen until his blood ran cold. He heard the voice call out again and could connect it to someone.
"WHAT ARE YOU!? LET ME GO!"
It was his student.
"RODENT!" Jose yelled as he shot through the sky, tracking loud screams and pained gasps. His eyes scanned the forests as shades burst from his side and covered the forest in a blanket, providing a thousand extra eyes in case he missed it.
"I CAN'T BREATH-"
Or couldn't find the runt in time.
Shit!
Jose clenched his jaw as he rocketed towards the last place he heard the runt's screams. His eyes were wide and searching as he listened for any noise.
Come on...
There was only silence.
Where are you...
Jose bit his lip hard enough to draw blood as he scanned the forest, a task made exceedingly difficult in the darkness. A few seconds passed before one of his shadows caught his attention, and he soared to the ground, flying like a bullet until he made it to a spot hidden a ways away from the dead field as if the rodent had been attacked on his way back.
"Rodent! Where..."
Except there wasn't a monster in sight, and there wasn't the rodent either. There was only a large red sphere in the middle of the forest. It was big enough to hide a person inside it.
The hell...
It was also a giant bubble of blood that felt like his student's magic.
"Rodent?" Jose asked as he floated towards the orb unperturbed, dismissing his shades as he touched it and watched it shift. Jose's eyes went wide as a spike of blood shot out like porcupine spikes from the sphere, and he had to back out of range so as not to get skewered by the trap.
Shit...
Although he did get a minor nick of blood on his sleeve from the surprising encounter,
I liked this uniform.
Jose frowned at the thought before he sighed and shook his sleeve, his eyes tilted back at the orb as he opened a palm to it and built up a ball of dead magic. He was a second from destroying the orb to free his student from whatever had trapped it inside before something happened.
The orb splintered and cracked, crumbling like glass as a crimson monster was released inside.
Dammit, rodent...
It was a bloody thing that howled like a dying animal for all of Oak Town to hear. This phenomenon persisted only because Jose had to test its durability so as not to disintegrate it accidentally.
Why must you give me more work?
Disintegrate it or the rodent that lay beneath it.
Clover: July 17, x778
Jose groaned as he was woken from a shitty dream of events a year prior. His eyes blearily opened as he heard the bustle of the conference hall, idly noting that he hadn't slept through the dreadful meeting like he'd planned and was instead woken up early. A notion that irritated him immensely, enough for him to hiss under his breath, "What?"
Jose was trying to get some sleep while these ingrates were blabbing on about guild politics.
"What could you possibly want, Makarov?"
Jose glared at the old mage sitting beside him, watching as the old fool chuckled sheepishly and rubbed his neck. "Oh, come on, Jose. Don't be so mad. I just wanted to discuss some things."
The fact that the old idiot had woken him up was worthy of death.
"I thought about your boy's scenario since we last talked. I have some ideas."
The fact that he was trying to talk about the brat was barely enough for Jose to spare his life.
"Couldn't this wait until the bar?" Jose grumbled as he sat back in his chair, stretching his muscles and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. His gaze flickered back to Makarov, who gave a cheeky grin, "Come on, Jose. Drinking is for fun. Let's use this time for business."
"You just don't want to listen to the conference."
"Possibly; now I have three ideas," Makarov said without a hint of shame as he scratched his chin, closed his eyes, tilted his head, and asked, "First, though, I want to ask if the kid knows what happened. Did you tell him about the 7th?"
"Of course not. What good would it do?" Jose clicked his tongue as he leaned his chin on his palm and muttered annoyedly, "That kid didn't recognize that thing the day of, and he doesn't recall any of it. He's as clueless as we are."
Jose had wanted to figure out what had even happened that day before he brought the kid into it.
"The worst thing would be if that kid learned about it and started messing around with something he has no reason to be upsetting. It could kill him."
He also didn't think it was a stretch to assume that the thing from before wasn't a fan of his pupil, much less anything with a pulse.
"That thing hasn't shown itself before or since that day. Only that specific spell seems to trigger it for some reason, so as long as he doesn't use that spell, it'll be a nonissue, especially since his shadow is adamant about following the rules. For once."
The last thing he wanted was to have the kid piss it off and send Oak Town into another frenzy.
"I don't plan on telling him until he's in S class." Jose finished with a bland shrug, and Makarov hummed in response, willing to see the benefits of such a decision. "That's a fair assessment, I suppose."
Those with experience best handled delicate matters like these and not those without it.
"You said the kid only has one magic, right?" Makarov asked for confirmation, watching Jose nod blandly. Yeah, the kid's body is weird: it doesn't mesh well with magic. That's why he can only use the one most compatible with his body: his innate magic."
That brat really was a headache.
"He should only be able to use shadow magic to summon his weird ass shadow for help."
A living enigma on every rule of magic theory.
"That thing he summoned proved otherwise."
Almost more trouble than it was worth.
"That complicates things then," Makarov agreed with a pensive expression. His brows scrunched in thought before he scratched his chin, "Well, in that case, I only have three guesses."
Makarov held up three fingers, lowering one each time he got to a hypothetical scenario as Jose silently judged the validity of each one.
"One: he has two innate magics."
Practically impossible. There had never been a recorded case in history. The kid was likelier to have fallen out of the sky than that option.
"Two: his innate magic isn't shadow magic, and it's something else that accounts for both creatures he seems to have. We just don't know what it is, and since the boy has amnesia, neither does he."
That was... far more likely but still a stretch. The rodent had tried every magic in the library, and considering his old master was a hoarder as much as he was a historian, that was a lot. Pretty much any basic magic spell in Fiore, or at least some mention of it, could be found in Phantom Lord's library. The only magic that wasn't mentioned at all was black magic or lost magic, and since finding information on either was about as likely as winning the lottery, there was no point researching that dead end.
"Three."
That left one option.
"Someone else gave him blood magic."
This is the most likely scenario, in Jose's opinion.
"Does the kid have any scars suggesting a magic lacrimal was implanted in him?" Makarov asked with a bitter frown, pushing aside the ugly reminder as he watched Jose shake his head, "No, he has scars, but not from surgery. At least not that I can tell."
Those wounds on the runt's arms were self-inflicted.
"The kid could have been in surgery before, but I wouldn't know. He hasn't told me what happened before he got to Oak Town, and you already know he lost his memory a few years ago." Jose explained with a tired expression as he leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling, "If it happened before that and the scars healed, it would be almost impossible to tell. Not unless we rip him open."
"Yeah, let's not do that," Makarov murmured in response, not pushing the topic as he sighed and tilted his head back in defeat, "Well, that's a very unfortunate dilemma. The only way to give someone else magic is to use lacrimal or be strong enough to give it to them directly, but that isn't likely."
Not even Makarov could pull off such a feat.
"Only the gods could-"
A loud clattering of a chair echoed through the meeting, Makarov's eyes going wide as he turned to Jose, who had stood up so quickly he had knocked over his chair in the process. The usual calm and composed exterior trades for one of understanding, as if he'd pieced together a puzzle.
"Jose?"
He didn't look happy with the results.
I've never seen him this angry.
Makarov watched with slight interest and concern as Jose's eyes furrowed and his jaw clenched so hard it looked like his teeth would shatter from the force. A vein bulged in his forehead, his eyes burned violet, and his fists were clenched white. His magic started slipping, startling the nearby masters as he turned and left the room.
Strange...
It wasn't like Jose to lose his cool like that.
I'll have to ask him about it at the bar.
At the very least, Makarov seemed to have helped him figure out what was happening with his student.
A row of panicked staff members split away as a man with purple eyes and malicious intent walked out of the courtroom. Jose ignored them, keeping his barely restrained magic in check as he got to a nearby conference room. He slammed the door open so violently that the handle nearly shattered, and the occupants froze. He looked at them with wide eyes and tilted his head at the present occupants.
"Get the fuck out."
Jose was an inch from killing someone.
"Now."
Luckily, the bimbos using the room seemed to realize that, so they left hastily, and Jose got the room. His hands trembled with a seething rage as he took out a small communication lacrimal and called an old mentor, one he hadn't bothered with in years.
I can't believe it took me this long to realize...
Jose hadn't considered it because it was such a brief meeting, but it was possible. No, that snobbish prick would have loved to plant that thing in his student without such a warning or threat.
That fucking bastard!
It was just that aristocratic prick's style.
I'll kill him.
Jose ground his teeth to the bone as the room was flooded with dead energy. The creaking of the wooden table and crackle of the air coincided with the constant ring of the orb until eventually it picked up, one ring before its last.
"Oh? Do my eyes deceive me?"
It had been so long since Jose heard that voice.
"Is the great lord of Oak Town calling me?"
It was still as arrogant and uninvested as ever. This contrasts the noble and collected image he showed everyone else. It was a fucking joke.
"I must say I enjoyed your Halloween Festival."
How people thought this prick was a saint.
"Although next time, I'd tone it down on the theatrics and invest more in the wine. I was dreadfully disappointed in the selection-"
"What did you do," Jose mumbled lowly as his eyes glowed a purple hue. His fists clenched white as he was his orb flickered, and a laugh came from the other end of it, "Oh. Are you angry with me, Jose? Is that why you called me? How quaint."
Jose's breath became shaky as he struggled to reign in his magic. Veins in his forehead bulged as he watched the orb flicker like it was trying to get in on the joke, "Now, now, Jose. If you called me for that, a simple call won't do."
Jose clenched his fists as he watched the asshole on the other end hang up and an image flicker in the corner of the room. Jose let his magic loose as the orb shattered, and he glared at the thought projection that entered the back corner of the room, "Isn't this better?"
Jose must have lost his mind. Otherwise, he'd never have such ridiculous thoughts. Certainly not about a beloved God of Ishgar, one of the few mages he could confidently call stronger than himself, and by a wide margin at that. The comparison wasn't close.
"Now tell me, what have you been so angry about this time..."
Jose wasn't in his right mind, though; the more he thought about it, the more it became clear. It fueled his anger as he watched a man with a delicate blue and purple suit walk out with his eyes closed. A Red Cross on his forehead and slick back blue hair as he tilted his head and spoke with a thick accent.
"Oh, foolish apprentice of mine."
Jose had never wanted to kill Hyberion more.
"What did you do," Jose repeated through clenched teeth, his eyes burning with fury as he watched Hyberion tilt his head and float slightly upwards. A swift wave of his hand before a glass of wine dropped in it, and he swished it around with a slight shrug, "I have no idea what you speak of."
"Don't play coy, Hyberion! That thing has your name written all over it!" Jose growled as he watched Hyberion put the wine glass to his nose before taking a sip that hid the tiniest twitch of his lips. "I must say I've missed your brazenness. It's so rare to find anyone raising their voice to me these days. It's almost refreshing in a sense."
"Hyberion, I swear-"
"Then again," Hyberion taunted as Jose's rage was stifled under a wave of bloodlust. Jose's jaw clenched as he struggled to stand under the immense pressure of a thought projection. All the while, Hyberion watched with a single red eye open and a cold tone, "I usually only tolerate it from Serena or Wolfheim when he's drunk."
Jose felt his ghosts squirm under pressure, their cries muted by the mountain of bloodlust from Hyberion's harsh and scathing words, "You know, mages I consider to be on my level."
Jose's legs gave out from under him as he collapsed to one knee. His muscles strained to keep the other one from falling. Sweat dripped down his cheek, and he glared at Hyberion. His eyes burned a futile violet as he tilted his head slightly.
"You've made your point..."
Jose didn't have time for this game of chicken.
"You false vampire."
He had more important things to discuss.
"Now let's talk, you decrepit old man."
The seconds passed in silence as Jose watched Hyberion raise an eyebrow as if amused before closing his open eye and letting the pressure fade from the room. His cheek rested on his knuckles as he sat on an invisible throne and sloshed his wine in the other hand. "Glad to see the domestic life hasn't completely neutered you."
Jose could only let out a shaky breath as he stood up. Hyberion sipped his wine and spoke dryly: "Well, now that you've remembered where you stand, is there a reason for the sudden call? I haven't heard from you since you came to me for a Wizard Saint's recommendation all those years ago."
"You know why I called you."
"Yes, but humor me," Hyberion said with a mystical swish of his hand as his wine glass faded and an old novel appeared in his hand, "It has been so long since someone's told me a good story."
"Yeah, living in that relic of a castle will do that," Jose griped as he watched his recluse of a master shrug. His original master before he got handed off to Mikhail II since he also practiced Shade Magic, and Jose was never any good at Hyberion's blood magic. It had been ages since Jose had seen the man.
"No one wants to brave a haunted castle just to tell you stories, Hyberion."
He wished it could have been longer.
"I suppose that's fair, but you know I've never been one for change," Hyberion said with a bland shrug, inwardly smirking as Jose scoffed, "Hypocrite."
"Looks like you didn't forget all my lessons."
"How could I," Jose said with a scowl as he walked over to the table's edge and sat in an actual chair. His eyes laced with loathing as he glared at the floating Hyberion with a vengeful snark, "You practically branded them into me."
"Don't be so harsh, Jose. You survived, didn't you?"
"You threw me into a demonic forest. Twice."
"Since I knew you could survive it, see, helpful," Hyberion dismissed with a wave as he took a book from his requip space and read it through closed eyelids. Eventually, he sighed as he tossed his book away and spoke with a hint of boredom, "Now, hurry up."
Hyberion did get bored sometimes.
"I don't have all day."
Guess two centuries of life would do that to you.
"Like you have anything better to do," Jose growled before he fell under the immense pressure of his master and stiffened, but this time, he didn't back down. He released his own magic power in response and rose from his seat, floating to eye level with Hyberion as he spoke through gritted teeth, "Fine since you're so busy,let's make this quick."
Jose had to keep his magic at a maximum outburst to keep up with Hyberion's casual display of power. It kept his muscles strained and jaw clenched continuously to stay conscious, but he succeeded in voicing his bitter grievances.
"What the fuck did you do to my student, Hyberion."
Oh, and how bitter they were.
"I know you met him at the Halloween Festival."
Jose had never been so utterly enraged. He bet his ghosts were having a blast.
"What blood magic did you give him."
Yet through all the rage, Jose had to offer...
"You're the only blood mage capable of such a feat."
Hyberion only smiled softly, as if he was watching a pet do a nice trick, "I suppose that's correct, I would be the only blood mage capable of such a feat."
Hyberion really had gotten bored lately.
"I also would have been in the position to do it. I stumbled upon the boy at your Halloween festival. Surprised me with how impressive his body was."
He had lived for 270 years because of his magic. It didn't make him immortal; the wounds of battle would still kill him, but aging wouldn't come to take his life for at least another couple of centuries. That meant he had all the time in the world to live amongst humans and watch them grow. Protect them and symbolize their safety and laws as one of the Gods of Ishgar. He had done it, and he would continue to do it, but through all of it, he came to a realization.
"All your accusations have a solid basis, Jose. There's a good chance I was the one who shoved that thing into the boy, but let me ask you this..."
He was bored.
"Why should I tell you anything?"
Humans were so dull.
"Well?" Hyberion said blandly as Jose gnashed his teeth and dead magic slipped from his fingers. Hyberion ignored such a flimsy show of strength as he leaned in and whispered into Jose's ears, "Go ahead. Why don't you make me tell you?"
There was popping in the air, a crackling of magical pressure, yet even through all of it, Hyberion never moved, and Jose never attacked, which was just so...
"That's right, Jose, you can't. Not the way you are now."
Disappointing.
"The old you would have fought me tooth and nail, whether I broke your limbs or shattered your bones," Hyberion grumbled with a tangible disappointment as he watched Jose flinch, his fists clenched white as Hyberion floated around him and whispered painful words in his ears, "What happened to you Jose? Why didn't you confront me back at the festival? Why did you only watch from a distance, and what? Hope I didn't feel like ending a life. How pathetic."
Hyberion had fought in plenty of wars in the first hundred years of his life. He had done it until his blood magic became infamous. Until his power became so great that he couldn't consider himself to be of the same species as the one he was born into. It was like an ant growing up to be a lion. He knew that, on some level, all the other gods felt the same.
"You've changed, Jose."
Yet even they couldn't understand his boredom.
"You're pitifully boring now."
Wolfheim was old but not past a century yet, and Warrod was too enamored by nature to notice if a few humans became dull. Serena was the only one who seemed to share Hyberion's distaste for the uninteresting state of affairs, but he was young and hungry—it wasn't the same. Serena hadn't lived long enough to tire of even war, Hyberion had, and since an era of war hadn't caught his attention, he had decided the opposite approach was worth a try.
"What happened to the child I found back on the battlefields of the Eastern Continent."
When he accepted his position as God of Ishgar, he figured it was a chance to see if a peaceful era would interest him.
"What happened to the child I found covered in the blood of his slain comrades and buried enemies."
So far, he had been somewhat disappointed, but he couldn't say he was devastated. Sure, humans had gotten less interesting without the constant threat of war to keep the general populace on their toes, but in return, diamonds in the rough were easier to come across. They weren't being buried under the mountains and mountains of corpses that used to haunt Ishgar.
"What happened to the child that tried to stab me the second he laid eyes on me."
At one point, Hyberion had thought he had found one that suited his tastes.
"What happened to Jose Porla, the child soldier."
When Hyberion found Jose standing atop a mountain of slain comrades and enemies, a boy with two daggers screaming at the top of his lungs and drenched in the blood of fellow warriors, Hyberion had thought he had found a rare diamond. A human that could keep his attention for a while, but sadly, he was mistaken. He should have never sent Jose to that damn historian, Mikhail II. It ruined everything.
"I don't see him anymore."
The leisurely atmosphere of Oak Town had snuffed out any fire his pupil used to have.
"All I see is a Shepherd content with calling his herd of sheep a kingdom and himself a king," Hyberion said with a ring of disgust as he watched Jose glare bloody murder at him. Hyberion was unfazed as he hovered right in front of Jose's nose, meeting his purple-hued glare with a dry tone.
"Leadership has made you soft, Jose."
Hyberion honestly thought humans were boring. They lived and died similarly, and no matter how grievous one might think their life is, Hyberion had always met one with a fate ten times worse. The old tale of every mortal being unique was nonsense.
"You should've been at my level by now, but you stagnated when you decided to surround yourself with those weaker than you. I thought giving you a recommendation for Wizard Saint would fix that, but I was obviously mistaken."
Most could be put into a box no matter a human's uniqueness.
"You can't even defeat Makarov as you are now, so the fact that you think you have the right to order me around is beyond insulting."
He would hate to let his pupil be one of the humans who got complacent and never reached their full potential. One of the lazy prodigies.
"I should kill you for being so disrespectful, but since I'm so generous, I'll make you an offer."
It would be a shame for his little blood diamond to become dull old coal.
"Why don't you try to come to my castle for one of our old sessions? If you can make me take you seriously, I'll tell you everything I know," Hyberion taunted with a chuckle as he turned from Jose's vengeful eyes and returned to his spot at the head of the table. His wine glass in his hand as he spoke with the air of an aristocrat of a long distant past, "I'll wait as long as it takes you to catch up. Whether next year or in ten, it's up to you."
Hyberion's image flickered out as he watched Jose grind his teeth with silent fury. The crackles of air shattered the nearby windows and broke the lacquer wood table. Hyberion knew better than anyone that his old pupil loved to hold a grudge, but even he could admit he was surprised at Jose's expression of pure, unfiltered rage.
"Although I wouldn't dilly dally if I were you."
It almost brought a smile to Hyberion's face.
"That thing is a pit of bottomless rage. It will destroy everything indiscriminately, without fail."
There it was...
"Including your cute little apprentice."
That was the look of a human that was interesting.
Forests of Southern Fiore
Erigor didn't know what he was looking at.
What the fuck is going on...
Something was off.
What the fuck is with this kid...
The wind smelled of blood.
Why'd he stop?
Erigor scowled in confusion and disappointment as she saw the boy scream and curl into a ball. The blood beneath the boy's skin burned, and his arms lit up like they had been burned by red-hot lightning. The red glow beneath his skin was etched to match the boy's myriad scars.
What the fuck is with him...
Erigor had never been more confused in his life.
I thought he was finally going to show me-
"FUCK!"
Erigor froze as he heard the boy scream in utter agony and watched as a crimson-red magic circle appeared above the boy and sank. It spun clockwise before dissipating just as blood burst from the boy's arms. Spilling out of one of the boy's scars, but instead of tumbling to the ground, it floated and coagulated into a torso and head. It was hovering inches from the boy's nose before it spilled apart into streams of crimson water and began encircling the boy.
Is it...
It was as if a starving red monsoon had swarmed the boy.
Eating him?
Erigor watched in utter silence as the boy screamed, and the blood began smothering him. He grabbed at the writhing blood as he stumbled around and left red stains on the ground. Flailing like a drowning lion, the waves of crimson red encircled the boy and formed a ball. The last Erigor saw of the boy was his scared red eye before he was enclosed in a red sphere that hardened instantly.
What the hell...
The muffled screams and panicked cries came from inside the orb, but they stopped suddenly without warning.
Is going on...
Then there was silence.
Is he dead?
The seconds went by in silence as Erigor refused to move; he was too stunned to do so as he watched the red orb. Only to stiffen as it cracked.
He watched it crack and splinter, the orb spiderwebbing like a broken marble, as Erigor held his scythe in an iron grip. His eyes narrowed as he watched the orb crack, splinter, and strain until finally it shattered, and a creature of thick red blood was revealed standing inside it.
What freaky blood magic is that...
Its head was low to the ground, and its body unmoving, nothing except the slow and agonizing up and down of his chest. Its physique was reminiscent of the boy's shadow, except it was made of blood, and its hair was floating, like the blood staining it was trying to fight against gravity and was winning.
He's still alive, but...
The boy's body was underneath all that blood. Erigor could hear human lungs breathing. He just wasn't conscious. It was like the blood monster took over.
Something's wrong.
Erigor's instincts had never told him so clearly to flee from this boy, whose own blood had turned into a monster and taken over the body it came from.
I have to-
"Kyaaa..."
Erigor froze as the creature released a small gasp to test its ability to breathe. The beast's gasp turned into a groan, then a yell, as it reared its head and revealed its blank face, which lacked any noticeable facial features. It might as well have been a mask, except for the bloody floating hair atop its head and mouth, which split open with shark-like teeth before it released a mighty howl that shook the forest to its core.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
A roaring cry that resembled a dying animal.