Second Genesis

Grey threw it too hard.

The gate ripped right through the door and its frame along with much of the wall, but all that was left was a line of black as though a laser had cut through. However, the destruction on the inside was very real nonetheless.

And there was no way a lock was going to work properly in that state.

He walked right up to the door and yanked it open.

...

Down in a dungeon-like basement, Terran stood before a small bird bath. His face was stern, but somehow respectful, almost like he was trying his best to come off as stoic while failing miserably.

He stood there and waited, and waited. But whatever he was waiting for didn’t come. He had been standing in this same spot for over four hours already, waiting for a call to connect.

He knew the person on the other side knew he was calling, he knew they had gotten his message many hours ago, he knew this person didn’t need sleep or rest, and their mind was so powerful they could have split it a countless number of ways and completed an equally innumerable number of tasks at the same time.

The idea that they couldn’t find a sliver of time to speak to their own grandson...

It was utterly asinine. It was unacceptable in the worst of ways.

It filled Terran with more rage than he knew what to do with.

He roared, ripping the fountain up and throwing it against a wall, water and all. The fountain shattered to pieces and Terran almost instantly looked toward it like he regretted what he had done.

But then he gritted his teeth and spat at the ground, turning away.

He would just go train instead. He needed to reach the Vanguard Class as quickly as possible. Then he could give the trials another go and fix the mistakes he had made.

But he couldn’t rush it, otherwise he would just end up right back where he was already.

It had just become several times more difficult to take advantage of this city with the Bishop’s recent breakthrough, but it wasn’t impossible just yet. And...

Terran looked toward a familiar armor with a shining light in his eyes. If his grandfather didn’t want to hear about it, then he would just take it for himself. Unfortunately, he was too weak to wear it just yet.

’Patience.’

When the time came, it would be endlessly helpful in crossing that final barrier.

The dull sound of commotion reached Terran and he instantly frowned. Given how soundproof his basement was, for sound to reach him...

Terran’s eyes widened and he vanished in a blur of white and gold.

...

Grey stood in the middle of a grand hall. He sat on a big wooden box, ripping into a chicken leg three times the size of his head. He only looked up when Terran blurred into the room, but the Holy Knight still froze in place.

"You know, I’ve been waiting for this for a while." Grey said, ripping another huge chunk out of his meat. "I’ve dreamed about it actually, exactly how I’d kill you. I have a pretty foul mouth, but everything I thought of just didn’t quite seem like enough. I didn’t even kill someone else I really fucking hate properly because I couldn’t stop thinking about how I’d deal with you."

Grey had let Joaquin off easy considering what he had done, but Terran... Grey would rather die 10 times over himself than let him have an easy death.

"You..."

Terran’s pupils constricted. He didn’t recognize Grey, but there were very few people who would have this level of hatred for him, and even fewer that would dare to voice it even if they did.

But what ultimately sealed it was Grey’s aura... maybe if Grey hadn’t said anything, he wouldn’t put two and two together, but there was no mistaking it.

This was Grey Temolt.

He didn’t know what had happened to Grey, but this...

Terran burst into laughter. He laughed so wildly the windows of his property shattered, waves of white gold aura spilling out from him.

Maybe Grey’s hair would have been blown back... if he had any. But he just sat there, his eyes deathly cold.

He could remember Terran stomping his face. He could remember every strike that killed him, every slice against his flesh, every unruly, unlawful action the man had taken.

But what infuriated him even more than that was how he killed Globb for no reason at all. Memm for no fucking reason at all.

Other than because of him.

His own pain, his own deaths, he could handle.

The weight of someone else’s was a completely different thing.

He was going to make Terran pay for that.

BANG.

The wooden box shattered, splinters skating across the marble tiled floors, sliding by as though on oil.

Terran stopped laughing, his rage boiling over.

"You fat fuck. You think you have the right to stand before me now? I’m going to tear you limb from limb."

BANG.

Terran shot forward. For a moment, it looked like he was going to use his arm as a thrusting blade, but when the distance between them was cut to nearly nothing, Grey sensed it.

A fluctuation in the air, a shift in space.

His head tilted to one side on instinct and a spear suddenly appeared in Terran’s hand, ripping past Grey’s head and nearly taking his lobe with it.

A line of blood streaked through the air, but Grey’s expression hardly changed at all.

He took a step forward and his fist sank into Terran’s gut. His wrist twisted just the slightest bit, an eruption of strength spilling forth in splitting winds and shattering tiles beneath their feet.

BOOM.

One moment Terran and Grey were practically ear to ear. In the next, Terran’s body slammed into a tall pillar, half of it shattering to pieces on impact as the walls began to fall beneath it.

"Come on!" Grey roared. "Get up!"

His voice was so powerful it felt like the entire city could hear him.