Hours passed and things remained peaceful, Tokkou was done with his training and Becka was done with her cleaning, Teras on the other hand was still meditating on top of Tokkou's king-sized bed
"What are you doing here?" Tokkou asked confused as he entered his room
"Since you occupied the backyard Becka told me the most silent room would be this!"
"I see! So? Do you like it? Did you find anything interesting?"
When Teras asked this question he immediately thought of the paper he saw
"Uhm... The sword surprised me..." Teras said unconvincingly
"Oh, this? It was a gift from my now dead father, someone he knew in the past gave him this hoping to be a charm on his adventures and it surely was for me at least, I don't know about him, my father didn't use it much, once he died I took it for myself"
'That's harsh...' Teras thought hearing that
"Want to give it a try?" Tokkou said as he took it off the display case, he then threw it at Teras
"Whoa! This is premium quality!" Teras said knowing nothing about swords
"You have a good eye! This is a mana-enhanced sword crafted by a dwarf in the High King's era, It's a legendary weapon called "God's Fang". The king is middle-aged, like in his late fifties, making this weapon quite old too. He is the first and only Grand king, and is said that people raised in his generation were complete monsters, the "Blue Death" was also a kid back then, he grew up to be the king's left hand since I'm his right. I and another annoying individual are the youngest card possessors, I mean I'm 26 and fought for the king at 14, just about the age you are now!" Tokkou bragged with a cocky smile on his face
"Really? At my age, you were strong enough to fight at the king's side?" Teras asked shocked
"Correct! This is the charm that gave me the luck to do that!" Tokkou said as he pointed at the sword in Teras's hands
"By mana enhanced do you mean it's stronger?" Teras asked confused
"No, mana-enhanced weapons have abilities that are triggered once the holder pours mana inside the sword, this particular allows you to hit HARD, so hard that it creates a big wave of air! I advise you to try it out but not now! If you do it now this room will become a mess!" Tokkou said as he slowly pushed Teras out of his room, Tokkou then quickly checked his desk
'I forgot to lock my drawer, if Teras saw what was inside then I could be in big trouble...' Tokkou thought, he then used mana vision to check any mana traces that Teras might have left behind
But to his surprise there were no mana traces
'Thank god he doesn't have too much curiosity' Tokkou said before locking the door to his room. He then walked to the backyard and saw Teras trying to use the ability of the blade, for some reason Teras wasn't able to do it
"Come on kid! You learned everything quickly but you can't do that? You literally have to simply pour mana inside of the sword's core, nothing more, nothing less" Tokkou said disappointed
"It's not like I can't do it... I just feel like a dagger-like sword like this is a weapon familiar to me, so familiar that I don't even feel anything by holding it" Teras said as he charged the sword with mana
A slash of the sword then created a strong wave of air that refreshed Tokkou's garden
'Phenomenal...' Tokkou thought as he saw Teras swing his sword like this 'I was never able to produce such destructive power with this sword...' He thought as he watched with a grin
Suddenly Becka came into the backyard with exciting news
"I'm sorry to disturb but many villagers reported sights of Clair, she still hasn't caused any death but she has been marking houses with her lighting power, she forms words by burning the sides of houses!" Becka said as she appeared to be breathing heavily, as if she had ran
Tokkou turned his look at Teras and smiled "I thought this would be another boring day of patrolling but it seems I was wrong. Want to try your new powers?" He asked Teras
Teras gulped before answering "I can't fight her..."
Tokkou laughed a bit before answering "Of course you can't! Now follow me!"
The two of them exited the mansion and walked calmly around the town, many worried villagers came to Tokkou asking him if they would be safe, Tokkou with a smile that showed confidence assured them that they were safe
"Are you sure she won't go on a killing spree again?" Teras asked after recalling the conversation he had with her
"She won't dare, if she lays a single hand on them, I will stop toying with her and kill her on sight" Tokkou said as a familiar fearsome aura came out of him
'He can toy with her, like she did with me? If he can really do that then what's the limit a human can reach? Will I ever reach such a level?' Teras wondered as he stared at his hands
Suddenly a piercing sound was heard from behind them. It was like something was slicing the air, and then in a flash, a sword landed right into Tokkou's extended hand. He used his power to bring a legendary weapon all the way to himself
"Take this, you will need it so you can help me!" Tokkou said as he threw the sword at Teras
Teras barely managed to catch it because of the surprise it was, he could never expect a sword to come flying at them
"Y-You mean I will fight too? I told you, the last time I survived was because I was lucky!" Teras said scared of Clair
"Remember?" Tokkou said with a smile "That's my lucky charm so luck will be on your side once again, I will be here too so rest at ease"
Without asking a question Teras followed Tokkou who was now walking into every alley with, seemingly, no direction so Teras asked him "Why are we searching for her here?"
"Searching? I know where she is, she didn't exactly hide her presence, she previously was my student so I can tell what her mana samples look like, and by what I can tell she is intentionally guiding us here" Tokkou said as his eyes were glowing
'He is using mana vision... Why didn't I notice earlier' Teras thought as he too used mana vision, to his surprise he too saw the mana samples on the ground
"You are right! They are so clear!" Teras said cheerfully
"Clear? Your mana vision must be very good!" Tokkou said as he laughed
'Isn't this supposed to be normal?' Teras thought confused as he kept walking
Eventually, Tokkou and Teras reached a broken-down house
"Here we are! Reveal yourself, and don't try any fancy trick, after all, I taught you all of them so it will be futile!" Tokkou said as he yawned
Teras kept using mana vision and followed the now visible string, surprisingly he saw Clair standing on top of a support log, staring into his eyes
In a flash, Clair charged at Teras but Tokkou caught her hand stopping her on the spot
"I said don't try any tricks, didn't I?" Tokkou asked her before letting go of her hand
Clair quickly leaped back creating space between them
"You brought the little snitch, huh? Is he your new student? Give me a break, are you trying to redeem yourself because of how I turned out by adopting another little weak and clueless kid, and turning him good?" Clair asked as she glared Teras down
"Him? He is an interesting kid, wouldn't call him my student though, that's Becka's title, for he is nothing but a kid with a weird background!" Tokkou said as he stared at Teras
As soon as Tokkou took his glance off Clair she started to hop around the building at an incredible speed, unable for Teras to conceive. Tokkou reaction was way different, first he took Teras' hand and came to the middle of the building, he then simply moved his eyes around while he spun around slowly
"Old tricks again?" Tokkou asked as he looked unamused
Suddenly Clair charged at him from behind, she could not miss this opportunity. Little did she know that was simply a bait Tokkou set. As soon as she closed behind him, Tokkou turned around grabbed her dagger, and kicked her in the face, disarming her
He then used his power to pull her closer, hitting her once again and sending her flying. This action repeated many times, Tokkou attacked her sending her away and then pulling her close to hit her again. Clair was unable to react, Tokkou's attacks varied from kicks to punches or simple elbow blows
Clair managed to get away from the combo only after completely falling under one of Tokkou's kicks, she then kicked the one leg Tokkou used to stand after the kick, throwing him off balance, and then punched him sending him into the wall of the building
Clair quickly channeled a powerful beam of electricity which she sent directly at Tokkou, creating an explosion and burning wooden stuff around it
Immediately after that Clair charged at Teras, but something odd happened, when Clair was about to pierce Teras she felt a force stopping her dagger, no matter how hard she tried she couldn't touch Teras
While this happened Teras didn't stay idle, he poured mana into the sword Tokkou gave him and tried to slash Clair from the side. Still not having processed what happened Clair simply used her hand to shield herself but the attacks launched her into a wall penetrating the house, this hole connected the house with the outside
Tokkou walked out of the wall and dust without a scratch on him
"Good hit kid, she probably tanked it without taking any damage but it was nice that you got over your fear of her!" Tokkou said as he thumbs upped Teras
"Her dagger... It didn't-"
"It didn't pierce your skull? Yeah, that was all me, don't worry about it!" Tokkou said as he tapped Teras' shoulder
"How strong do you really are?" Teras asked as he refused to believe his eyes
"Who do you think I am? I'm the strongest in this kingdom and the Grand Jack!" Tokkou said as the blinding light of the outside only showed his silhouette to Teras
Teras smiled before quickly running after Tokkou, who started going after Clair at an arguably fast pace. Of course, Teras wasn't able to catch up but by enhancing himself with mana he could at least keep Tokkou in his sight, making him able to follow the chaos
'Judging by the path I'm taking she is leading me there...' Tokkou thought
But something kept bothering him 'If she really plans to take it there has she accepted defeat?'
Suddenly a silent yell from behind Tokkou made him turn around, it was Teras
"WAIT FOR ME!!!" Teras yelled
'He is keeping up? Hah, this kid might be a little more crazy than him' Tokkou thought as he reminisced about an old face
Teras kept running with all his might while barely keeping Tokkou in his sight, he thought that if this kept up he would probably have to throw up but thankfully as trees started to get less and less dense he saw Tokkou simply stop in an open field
That field was close to the mountain towering over the village and was filled with countless various-sized rocks lying around, they looked like they had been previously moved
"About time you caught up!" Tokkou said jokingly at Teras
"WHAT? I was right behind you jackass!" Teras said as he breathed heavily
"Your technique, you can implement it on others now?" Clair asked Tokkou, she was referring to the time her dagger didn't pierce Teras
"Surprised, huh? I didn't know I could do it either!" Tokkou replied with a cocky smile
Clair got so mad after seeing that smile that her first reaction was to kick a big rock next to her into Tokkou, but it was futile, Tokkou used his powers to simply place the rock next to him
"I hate you and everything you stand for! You are just a dog of the king, you do as he says without questioning anything, he told you to break the gathering and you did. He said to act only on certain days instead of patrolling the world every day and you listened, if he told you to kill everyone in this village would you do it?" Clair said as she glared at Tokkou's eyes
"If he had a VERY good reason certainly, what about you? You already did it once for no reason so that must not be such a hard question, is it?" Tokkou said as he chuckled
Silence followed as Clair kept glaring into Tokkou's eyes "This place, does it ring any bell?" She asked suddenly
"It does, when you were my student I took you here all the time, I used to make all these rocks lying around fly and you would practice hopping around, you did the same thing in the run-down house" Tokkou said with a smile, a genuine one
"That's right, back then I was too stupid, like the kid next to you" Clair said as she pointed at Teras with her dagger "Can't you see that this world is odd kid? Look at the people around you, doesn't it all seem artificial?" She asked Teras directly this time
"What?" Teras mumbled but Tokkou calmed him down as he did a hand sign to signal that she was crazy
"Instead of seeing psycho things let's have a duel like we used to, no. Let's make it a bit grand since the brat is spectating!" Tokkou said loudly as he activated his impressive mana flow
Then something crazy happened, the ground started shaking and every rock around the field started to fly, Clair jumped on a rock, and so did Teras. Tokkou with his power raised the rocks high up, about the height of the small mountain near the village
Teras was staring at the ground which was meters away in awe "Crazy isn't it?" Tokkou asked Teras with a smile, Tokkou sees this view almost every day so it was nice to see someone else's reaction to it
Tokkou's aura then shifted, he seemed way more serious than before and the look on his face confirmed that was the case
"I'm tired Clair, I'm tired of having people follow in my footsteps, because only ill-minded people like you do it. I'm putting an end to it today, my last student, are you ready to die?"