Chapter Three
Rein stood there looking at me, completely serious. I looked at him as if he were a mad man.
"How? How can they possibly be the ones that cause all of the evil in this world?" I asked, incredulously.
"Because, they are the world’s top assassins, they will do any job for hire as long as they are paid well and therefore they are willing to do work for criminals and demon worshipping cults. It is too dangerous for them to be in business, if they were hired to do a job that would involve the murder of hundreds, then they would do it" at this Rein got a sad, far off look and he didn't finish his sentence.
I just looked at Rein and Zzyzk, wondering what they were planning to do with me. I felt like asking for training but I did not know if I could trust them, they did kidnap me after all. It was so weird, he seemed so believable and yet I felt like there was something more that he was not telling me. I watched him and Zzyzk, working up the courage to ask for training. It was odd though, I have never seen this man fight, yet Rein seemed to have an aura about him that threw me into a state that told me that if I were to fight him, we would easily kill me. Who exactly was this man who smelled of the rain?
"R...Rein...uhhh...could I ask you to train me!" I said swiftly, bowing to him seeing if it would help.
I heard Rein laugh and it seemed to be filled with mirth and I relaxed slightly. "Yes, I will train you, and you will still be free to go back to the Bone Collector Squad after it, but if you are going to train here then you are not allowed to leave until you complete your training. Is that understood?" said Rein, sounding serious.
"Yes, I promise to complete my training before I leave. So, when do we start?" I said, looking at Rein with awe.
"Right now, if you will follow me, I'll take you to the training field for my guild and we shall start," said Rein with a smile, heading for the door.
I got up and followed Rein, with Zzyzk behind me. We made a right in the corridor, and it actually was shabby. The whole length of the wall there were holes and the paint was falling apart. The floorboards were amazingly creaky and the lights flickered on and off. The rooms we passed were run-down and crappy; they looked like a tornado had run through all of them. Most of the windows were broken and the wind came in easily. Outside, a large rain cloud loomed overhead, pouring down rain. It was interesting because the sky past the cloud was just overcast and I could see far off a bright sun shining down, and the storm itself seemed to be odd in nature.
"You're probably wondering about the condition of this mansion and the storm outside aren't you?" asked Rein, looking down at me from the door he was standing at. He opened it and it lead to a staircase leading down that looked amazingly well finished compared to the rest of the mansion. "The first one is easy, if we leave this mansion in poor condition on the outside, it will keep us hidden on the inside. The second question is a little more difficult to answer" Rein looked down at me with a look in his eye that told me there was a long story behind this.
I did not ask further, and I just walked silently behind Rein. I had a feeling he would tell me in good time. The staircase winded down and down and it felt like we were descending into hell, but it did have an end. It was a tall grey door was the same color as Rein's hair. Rein opened the door and lead the way into a large underground cavern. It was extremely well lit and there was a small forest down here. There was a river and a waterfall, a lake and a few mountainous looking hills. It was amazing. There was even a bright blue sky above and clouds.
"How did you do this?" I asked in amazed shock.
"It was easy; actually, we just used a few spells of containment and a few terra-forming spells. It sounds a lot harder than it is, but you will learn soon enough. All five of us will teach you how to fight, all five of the highest ranking members in my guild, the Stromhearte Guild" and just as Rein said this, three people instantly appeared behind him.
There was the tall slender insane man, without the top hat he would have been several inches shorter than Rein, and now that I had a better look at him, I could see that his entire body was bandaged except for his left eye, which was red and reminded me of electricity. Next to the crazy man was a small girl that looked tiny compared to the rest, she wore a pink dress and knee high socks with buckled black shoes, she had a large teddy bear strapped to her back. Next to her stood a kid, about my age and height wearing a black gunner jacket open with a pair of dark jeans underneath and a stormy gray T-shirt underneath, on his hip was strapped a large revolver.
"The guy in all black is Fate, the girl is Amelia and the kid next to her is Verge. They are all the strongest members of my guild, and together we as a family shall overthrow the Bone Collector Squad," said Rein, looking at me with a serious look again.
"So you are a guild that acts like a family?" I asked, interested.
"No, we were all abandoned once; we did not have family so I created one for them. We are a family and we all care for one another," said Rein, being completely serious. He seemed to be a very serious man.
"Okay, so how will I train?" I asked, looking oddly down at the mini jungle in the cavern.
"You are just a mere human and will need to train hard. You are immortal, humans from your world gain strength and speed fast here, for some reason they have the ability to increase their skills exponentially here. You will be able to lift boulders and stop avalanches, you are able to run faster than a bullet and move at a speed that rivals lightning, but you will only be able to move this fast through training and endurance. The road of training I offer has killed humans, they died from too little nourishment and too much training. Though the ways of training I offer will make you powerful, if you wish to proceed I will let you, but heed my warning, this is not for the faint of heart" said Rein looking out over the cavern.
"I wish to proceed," I said, calmly.
"Good, so our training shall begin. For your first lesson, you will learn to draw on the energy that flows through us the entire world around us. It exists as many things and manifests itself in many forms. Fire, water, earth, and wind are the most common of them. Each has a balance and flow, and they all possess another level of mastery. These four elements made up the world and universe around you and through you shall be a great and powerful weapon and tool. You must remember the elements are never under your control; they are too wild and already have their masters. No, you will only be able to guide and channel the energy through you to do as you are trying to will it to do. First, though, before you can draw on an element you must gain control of the energy that is what you are made of. It is a neutral energy that is not governed by anyone or anything. It is tamed and can be fully controlled by you and me and everyone, this is because it is our life force, our reason we exist in the first place. This energy can be used in numerous ways. For instance, it can be used to augment muscle strength and movement for things like punching through rock and moving vast distances in seconds. Unlike the elements, you do not have to undergo a ritual to figure out what or where yours is, it is always with you. To draw on and control this energy you must first find your center," said Rein, pausing to wave everyone away and then sitting down, gesturing me to follow suit. "In order to find one's center, one must first obtain a dream-like state that will bring you to the fringes of your mind. To do this you must close your eyes and focus on one thing, it can be anything, but you must focus on just this thing. Simple is better, the best thing is blank white room, it must be devoid of anything and you must not let any thought pass through your mind other than the thought of focusing on this one solid object. Now, once you have reached here, you will feel a tug somewhere deep in your chest, let it pull you and then you will have to take care of the rest."
I did just as Rein said and I started to feel the tug in my chest. It was odd, I felt like my soul was being pulled out of my body, but I did as Rein said; and, just as I let it tug, it felt like everything disappeared. I opened my eyes to find myself in a huge and empty grass field. The sky seemed to be and upside down city, extending for forever into the distance. The sun, though not seen, radiated down and a breeze flowed across the field. I looked around and I could see a small band of sky right above the horizon as though it were the end of the city. There was a large yellow moon slowly moving across the band. I looked all around me, amazed and awed at what I was looking at. I had never thought of such a sight and never expected this to be so weird.
Just as I was about to take a step forward I could hear a loud voice that came at me from all directions. It yelled one phrase over and over and I felt like my head was going to burst from just three seconds of it. All the voice said was "The world around us is as complicated as we make it out to be." I could not, for the life of me, figure out what that meant. Finally, after a while, for what seemed like hours and days, the voice stopped and I sat down. It was curious, Rein said that I was trying to find my center, but I had no idea how to do that and I had no idea what that meant. 'What is my center?' was all I could ask myself. It made no sense to me, and the odd scene around me made everything even weirder. How was I supposed to find my center in a huge open grass field with a city for a sky? 'Unless...' a thought just hit me 'what if my center is in the city?' I thought to myself curiously. "But that wouldn't work, how would I get up there?"
I sighed and sat down, laying back. It was all really confusing, it was tiring me out, so I laid back and tried to get some sleep; and for what seemed like a few hours, I did sleep. It was odd though, I saw pictures of a pickaxe and a patch of dirt in the grass field but I had no idea what they meant. Suddenly I awoke with a jump, looking around. The field was the same as before, and I stood up. I felt like the patch of dirt I saw was somewhere nearby so I picked a direction and trekked off into the distance. Oddly enough, it was not long before I came up on a small patch of dirt with a pickaxe stuck in the ground.
"Huh, that is interesting" I picked up the pick and weighed it.
It felt like a normal pickaxe, so why did I see it in my dream? I got bored of looking at it so I swung it down hard; slamming into the ground and a small splash of water came out. As soon as a drop hit my face, I realized that I was a little thirsty so I started to hit the ground repeatedly with the pick, with more and more water coming out each time. Finally, after a few hundred swings, water started to gush out like a spring. It flooded the field around me and as I bent down to take a drink, the world around me seemed to get darker, the city in the sky above disappeared, replaced with the bright sky of the cavern Rein, and I sat in. I slowly began to come back to the world around me, but I felt different. I felt as though I had just unlocked a huge power well that had been locked inside me. It felt like I could get shot and not feel a thing.
"Well, it seems you have succeeded. Congratulations, you have found your center, now that you have seen it you can visit subconsciously when you want to draw on your energy" said Rein, looking at me with a serene look as though he had just woken from a good dream; it made him look a little eerie.
"My center was an underground water vein?" I looked at Rein with a questioning look.
"I don't know. Is that what you saw? Each person has a center that manifests itself in the way that best helps the owner understand and comprehend it. If what you say is true then you have enormous amounts of untapped energy. The size and scope of one’s center determines how much energy one has. If yours is an underground water vein then it will eventually connect to a larger ocean of power. I have seen a person with this same vision of what their center was. Now, if you know what your center is you will be able to draw on your energy, it is like breathing and takes little focus, you must direct it with your mind though. I find that imagining it as a color that travels along your body helps you to channel your energy. I want you to start by adding energy to your arm muscles," said Rein. "You see, when you become skilled enough in your energy control, you will gain the ability to add strength to your muscles subconsciously, like breathing. It will just happen, and you can exert it by pushing harder for more power, it will be like another set of muscles that you can't see or feel physically."
"Okay and how do I train my energy control?" I asked, looking at Rein.
"It is simple, actually, energy can be used to control objects outside your body. This can only be done with absolute concentration, so don't go thinking you can pull it off in a fight. Not even the gods can do that. Anyway, the more things you can pick up and move and the farther they are from you the more fine-tuned your energy control must be. So in order to train your energy control, you just have to assert your energy on objects around you and move them in a direction that leads away from you, you will become tired swiftly, but energy control is like exercising or weight lifting, you have to keep doing it repeatedly before you can get results. Luckily, with energy control, you only get mentally exhausted so all you have to do is take a little break and, in most cases, some painkillers for the migraine you'll get. Now, I have talked enough, get to work. Figure out how far you can levitate a rock at first and then try to get another object past the farthest point every time. Good luck" Rein smiled and waved a hand as he disappeared.
He did not tell me how to move objects or how long I was supposed to train but I just shrugged and closed my eyes, imagining a green light extending from my body and picking up a rock that was nearby. It was about twice my size and as I figured out the hard way, hard to pick up. Apparently, the weight of an object also needed to be taken into consideration when moving it with my mind. I found a rock of an appropriate sized, picked it up and imagined it flying slowly away from me. It was surprisingly easy to do, for some reason I could see the world around me perfectly but my eyes were closed at the same time. It was odd, like I knew where everything was, but I didn't need to see it to know where it was. The rock seemed to disappear from my view along with everything else about fifty yards out. 'Okay, that is the point I need to get past right now' I thought to myself. I picked up another rock and went faster this time, barely reaching the same spot. I kept going for another few hours, reaching several yards past the first point when Rein came in to see how I was doing.
"Wow, you are moving a little slow. Having trouble?" he asked, standing next to me.
"No, I am just moving as fast as I can" I said, looking up at him without opening my eyes.
"No, you are working as fast as you think you can work, but all humans can push themselves to their limit. Try picking up as many objects as you think possible and move them past your point, then pick up one more every time. If you don't pick up as least one more every time, I'll electrocute you with every worsening shocks. Now start" Rein looked down on me with his serious look.
I sighed, knowing I had no choice, and I picked up two rocks with my mind, levitating them past the point I had set and once they fell, I picked up three rocks. As the amount of the objects I picked up progressed, so did for some reason my ability to see around me and I got progressively tired. It was an odd feeling, being able to see in every direction at once, it was like a sphere of vision that seemed to get clearer as though a fog was being lifted from my eyes. After about fourteen rocks or so, I saw perfectly as if I had my eyes open. Then, after the seventeenth rock, I could not do it anymore, I had gotten them over a hundred yards past the fifty-yard mark, and I was totally exhausted.
"Hey, Rein, I'm going to get something to eat and take a break really quick, okay?" I said, cautiously, seeing if he would shock me as he had done a few times.
"That is fine, but after you get back..." I had just opened my eyes and looked at Rein when his sentence just ended. "You really are powerful...your eyes, their Speed Eye as the slang name is. Here look" Rein produced a mirror from his jacket and he showed me my eyes.
I gasped. They were completely black except for a white spiraling vortex in the center of each eye. They spun slowly and they seemed to replace my pupils. I just looked at them, shocked. I could see in every direction like before, but for a strange reason everything seemed to as if it moved slower than I did. I could comprehend everything around me as if everything moved at the same speed.
"What exactly is this...?” I let my words trail off, staring into my eyes.
"It is a visual magic that works on the eyes. Few are born with it; there has only ever been one other with the eye in recorded history. The eyes will always be active and if you turn the magic off you could fall into a coma for the rest of your life in the best-case scenario, death in the worst case. There are ways of concealing it and constricting its power so you don't waste as much energy, but the most amazing part about the eyes is that they give the user a full, flawless three hundred and sixty degree view around them and everything they see will be comprehended. Basically, no matter what speed an object moves at you will be able to see it, but unfortunately, you must move just as fast or faster than the object to stop it or intercept it. The eyes don't give you increased speed" Rein looked at me and then helped me up.
"So you're saying I can see everything that comes at me, but I have to be able to move just as fast to stop it?" I asked looking around.
"Yes, so just be sure to get out of the way of things for now. The useful things is that you can still see objects at the same speed they move, but you will know what it is when others won’t. Basically the eyes kind of speed up your brains processing speed, so be careful for now. After you eat we will give you weapons training and then we will move onto your fighting training and then after that we will see how powerful you have become, but from now on, every morning I want you to practice punching a dummy, but imagining your arm filled with your energy, and I want you to run six miles with your energy in your legs, this way you will be able to slowly build your energy channeling ability while increasing your strength and speed" Rein took a breathe and looked at me, gesturing for me to head for the door.
I grudgingly got up and headed for the door, the new training regimen seemed a little overboard but I was not going to argue. I would rather do something then feel like I have done nothing. I had to get stronger; I had to find out how I was going to get back to my world. I followed Rein to the cafeteria and he sat me down in a rather cushioned seat. It was a large warehouse like room with cushioned seats and a well-lit area for food preparation. I smiled as a large steak was brought before me along with a large helping of fruit and vegetables.
"You better eat it all, you need your health to keep up with this training," said Rein with a smile as Zzyzk and Fate sat down at my table.
"So, this place is huge, do you guys usually have more people here?" I asked as I pulled apart the food and gulped it down.
"Generally we do, but recently we have had to be on the move a lot so we haven't had very many people pass through here," said Zzyzk in a cool voice.
"I take it you guys have raised an army for the destruction the Bone Collector Squad?" I said with a tiny smile, hiding it right away. Somehow, I doubted that Leader and the rest of them would be so easily defeated.
"Heh, yes, but we use them for other things" Zzyzk said, cutting up his own meal. It was an entire chicken, this completely amazed me, but I figured I'd be eating that much too when I started up with the more intense part of the training.
I smiled and realized that I was actually having a good time. As the conversation with Zzyzk lengthened, I became more comfortable hanging out with them. After a while, even Fate started talking to me. Fate had a very melodic voice almost; he was an interesting person to say the least. It was around an hour before I finished my meal and Rein came to get me. He carried a large wooden mannequin that had red markings, like runes, all over it. In the other hand, he had a backpack that looked very full and it seemed to have several scrolls attached to the outside. He walked up to me and plopped the backpack onto my lap.
"The bag is full of supplies and books on what you'll need to learn about. Follow me" Rein walked back out the door and without question, I followed.
We walked back to the underground cavern and when we got there, the forest had a blue aura around it and it seemed to expand around the entire expanse of the forest. Rein set the mannequin down and looked at me.
"This is a Soul Projection Doll. It takes a part of our minds and souls and projects it in human form. This is how we train our bodies and minds for battle. I am going to take your will to fight out of your brain and soul and use the mannequin to amplify it so that you will have your opponent. Once this happens, it will be placed in the forest and you will fight it with whatever weapon you can find. This brings me to the next subject. There are weapons laying all over the forest, they are all hidden each one has a small force field around it, only the weapons you are subconsciously connected to will allow you to bypass the force field and pick it up. You must be fast, and you have to think faster. The point of this exercise is to defeat the mannequin without your will to fight and to gain your spiritual weapon. You have an unlimited amount of time to complete the exercise and you will not be given any help. If you can defeat your opponent then you will be advanced to the next level training. Any questions?" Rein seemed to not have to breathe whenever he gave long lectures.
"Yes, what exactly is a spiritual weapon? Why is it so important?" I looked at Rein, curiously looking at the mannequin.
"A spiritual weapon is the weapon we as a being can best use. It all depends on your energy and you as a person. They give us our abilities and when we use them, they can be used to take out armies. Only ninja and assassins of our level are even aware of a spiritual connection to weapons like the one we have. It is an important element to our life style" Rein looked at me, and when he was satisfied that I wasn't going to ask another question, he made a hand sign and I felt a slight pulling sensation and the mannequin seemed to glow. Then suddenly flesh grew on it and then clothes, and after a few more additions, the mannequin stood before more a person. A seemingly living thing. It had armor on and a very large sword on its back.
"You are ready, yes?" it said.
Suddenly, I did not feel ready; it was as if I had lost any desire to do anything here. I wanted to just go do something else. I stood up and realized why this training would be so hard, I would have to fight even if I did not want to, I would have to learn to regain my will to fight so that I could fight against all odds and learn what I was fighting for. I sighed and nodded, I could tell this was going to take a while. Rein lead me to the blue aura around the forest and he placed his hand flat against it, the aura seemed to shimmer and a small opening appeared as passage into the forest. I ran in, hoping to get a head start on my opponent, but he was right behind me.
"GOOD LUCK! And DON'T DIE!" yelled Rein at me as I sped off, looking for a weapon.
There, I had just spotted a small dagger not too far to my left, I ran up to it and reached for it, and just as I was about to grab it I received a small shock. 'That wasn't my weapon' I thought, but I had no time to think anymore as the mannequin had caught up. It raised its fist and slammed down, I barely side stepped the strike, falling to the ground as I did. It quickly shifted its weight to its hand as it kicked me square in the chest. 'Dammit' I thought as I flew. 'I need my weapon' was all I thought as I hit the ground.
