Merged Core

Standing at the foot of a steep mountain located at the borders between the free city and the Regalia Clan’s territory, Cielo adjusted his camper’s bag before he looked down at the little boy beside him. “You sure you want to stick with that form?”

A pair of bright blue eyes rolled at Cielo. “And what? Give you an opportunity to ride on my back? Dream on, cheater.”

“I did not cheat. Simply hiring a cab is not cheating. It absolutely got nothing to do with merging my core.”

Rito scoffed. “I told you countless times, stamina will help you in this, or else you will suffer more than death itself.” He waved his chubby hand. “No more point crying over spilled milk. The moment we step into the moment, there will be an imbalance between our roles. I will be the boss until you can merge your core with mine. No matter what I say, you must abide by it. Understand?”

Jumping a meter away from Cielo, Rito faced the latter. “Meet me at the peak of the mountain within an hour. Failure to do so and I will send you back to the bottom until you accomplish this.”

Rito vanished before him, making Cielo click his tongue. Cielo tightened his hold on the backpack he was carrying before he took his first step. The moment his right foot hit the ground within the borders of the mountain, a force—akin to a triple-weight gravitational force—pulled his body down, making him stagger for a good moment. Balancing with his left foot, he caught his body from falling.

“Rito, you sick fucker…” Cielo gritted the guardian beast’s name. With clenched jaws, he took a couple of steps forward.

On every step he made, the force pulling him down doubled. He barely made his first one-kilometer distance when the sweat started to trickle down his chin.

The moment Cielo entered the lush forest, the once-bright sun was immediately covered by the towering sequoia trees. Barely a ray of sunlight could penetrate through the dense greenery as the temperature significantly dropped as he trudged deeper. Many times did he trip from the bones of the ones who were forgotten and it was his way of showing respect to them that he never dared to stop from his tracks nor did he look back.

There was silence. Amid his heavy breathing, there was only an abyss of silence that cloaked his unstoppable journey to the top of the mountain.

Cielo had lived enough to know that silence was never a good thing—it only meant death. It was as if the entire forest was like a visage of a predator’s den.

On instinct, Cielo doubled his vigilance. His eyes would often wander around the dark and dense forest, waiting, patiently waiting for the onslaught of attack.

Bang!

It was sudden. It was quick. It was forceful.

Cielo found himself being thrown out from his spot, flying directly to the nearest tree to his right, hitting his back which was protected by the presence of his backpack.

“Aaa…” A low groan escaped from Cielo’s lips as he fell to the ground with a thump.

Boom!

Cielo rolled his aching body to his left, barely dodging the onslaught of attack. The ground that took the hit shattered into smithereens.

“Shit!” Discarding his backpack that contains the essentials for camping, Cielo stood right in front of his attacker. He raised his hands. “I got no time for you, bud. I am sorry for trespassing on your territory, really.”

A roar replied to him.

“I’ll take that as a no.”

With a biting force of 1000 psi that could split his body into half, Cielo dashed to his left side upon the attack of the grizzly bear.

Roar!

Being chased by a roaring one-eyed grizzly bear, Cielo got no time to mind his sense of direction anymore. “I cannot continue like this or else that grizzly will outrun me after I lose my stamina!”

Cielo looked back. He saw the grizzly bear practically on his tails. He jumped into the nearest hole made of a large tree trunk. Crawling for his dear life, the roars of the grizzly bear grew nearer.

Having been trapped inside the tree hole, he was given a time to close his eyes tightly and catch his breath. The moment he opened his eyes once more, gone was the pair of frantic obsidian ones, replaced with a set of collected bright blue eyes.

The God’s Eyes activated as Cielo willed. The same time that the bear scratched the tree hole frantically, a series of semi-transparent notification bars appeared before him.

Ping!

[ENEMY: GRIZZLY BREAR]

Ping!

[SPEED: 100 YARDS/8 SECONDS]

Ping!

[HEIGHT: 9.9 FEET]

Ping!

[WEIGHT: 3,900 LBS]

Ping!

[BITE FORCE: 2,000 POUNDS PER SQUARE INCH]

Ping!

[WEAKNESS: NECK AND SCARRED EYE. POOR EYESIGHT]

Cielo remembered Rito’s words.

“Worry not, boy. You will learn how to use this in a perfect training ground.”

‘This is the perfect training ground,’ Cielo thought.

Rolling to the other side right before the bear crushed the tree hole into smithereens, Cielo leaped onto the nearest branch. In one swift motion, Cielo looked back, focusing his God’s Eyes onto the roaring one-eyed bear below him.

On cue, a myriad of noises bombarded his mind.

-Look! The view is amazing!

-Watch out for any rattle snakes.

-Oh, boy. You finally used the God’s Eyes.

-Give me your hand.

The sound of the bristling grass. The whistling of the humid breeze. The scorching sun hovering above him. The sound of the campers next to the mountain he was in. And the annoying voice of Rito who spotted him right away. They mingled inside his mind.

For a minute, it was a complete chaos.

Roar!

The grizzly bear attacked the tree he was on mindlessly. “Shit! Focus. Focus, Cielo!”

Cielo eyed the grizzly bear with the mantra in his mind repeating like a broken record. Cielo’s sister and mother flashed in his mind like a reminder.

Why was he here in the first place? He was here to become strong? Why? Because he had someone to protect—his family.

To protect and to get even—Cielo’s two reasons why he crawled back from hell.

Roar!

It was in this moment that the grizzly bear shattered the trunk of the tree. Cielo freefall from the branch he was in, eyes still fixated on the grizzly bear.

Time seemed to slow down for Cielo.

The one-eyed beast connected with his God’s Eyes. It was in this exact time that his blue eyes brighter than the previous moment. At that freezing point, Cielo saw a target mark right on the scarred eye of the grizzly bear.

“Die,” whispered Cielo before he landed behind the roaring grizzly bear which was about to cut him into half.

The roaring stopped abruptly.

Cielo turned around and found nothing but a lump of flesh scattered before him. Not even a bone was left from the once mighty one-eyed bear.

“This is… the true power of God’s Eyes,” Cielo muttered under his breath, his fingers grazing his eyes as realization finally dawned on him.

“Amazing, right?” Rito popped out from nowhere. Floating around the stupefied Cielo, he crossed his little arms together as he observed the teen. “It is called the God’s Eyes for a reason, boy. With it, the weakness of your opponent will be exposed by a mere glance. In a command, no one can dare to stand against you. The God’s Eye is omnipotent.” Rito whispered the last part into Cielo’s right ear.

Rito whispered the last part into Cielo’s right ear. Landing right next to Cielo, Rito continued. “But as you realized by now, it has a price.”

Looking down at his hand with his hazy narrowed vision, Cielo squeaked his words, fully knowing what Rito meant. “The malice will devour me.”

“You missed the point. By merging your core, you are surrendering your humanity to your bestial instinct—that is malice.”

Frowning, Cielo asked for clarification. “You mean… the more I use the God’s Eyes, the more I merge my core with yours?”

Rito shook his head. A cold predatory glint flashed beneath his electric blue eyes. “The more you kill, the more you become inhumane. Killing means losing your conscience—and conscience is the only thread between good and evil.”

The grinning Rito flicked his wrist.

On cue, the forest floor trembled. A large crack appeared between Cielo and Rito, making the former take a step back on instinct.

“Now, boy. The warm-up is done. It is time for the real course—”

A pagoda appeared right after the crack opened up.

“—kill and kill some more inside this dungeon. Prove it that you are worthy of my malice.”

Before Cielo was a towering pagoda with carvings of the great black serpent. Two golden doors opened for him, beckoning him to enter the depths of the dungeon.