"Your older brother Temiente was one wild kid." Jonakai stated with a firm smile on his face. He was looking into Tero's eyes with a warm expression.

"He was always trying new things whenever he could. Building stuff, running long distances fast, acrobatics..."

Jonakai then chuckled a bit. "But the one thing he didn't like was training, or training to fight."

Tero's expression remained the same, but most of the change was going on in his head. He tried to piece every story that he heard from his father together, like puzzle pieces. He was imagining his older brother doing these acts that his father described, although he had only seen tiny glimpses of his brother in his memories as an extremely young child.

"With Tyde, I had almost exclusively trained him since the age of four. I told him stories before this age about battles and warriors and how his grandfather was the King, and he was almost instantly convinced to become a fighter himself."

"But not Temiente?" Tero barged in.

Jonakai looked at the ground. "No, not in the slightest bit."

"I told him the same things I told Tyde, and I even told him more. I made it a daily routine to tell him stories about fighting, our legacy as Tazakanis, and how great it is to be a warrior, and yet, he was completely disinterested."

This statement perplexed Tero is several ways. His first thought wasn't about why his brother would feel this way, or what exactly caused this, but instead about why his father never gave him these types of lessons or speeches about fighting and warriors.

In fact, the entire reason he was never told in detail about how his family members had passed on was because they had to do with fighting and war within the world. This day was so special to Tero because of this. It was almost as if his father had prohibited him from learning too much about the things he injected into his previous children with ease.

He had been begging his father to teach him about these things for most of his life. He had idolized his father and his grandfather and all those around him since he grew up with the former troop members of his father's army. He wanted to learn more about the world and become just like these people, but he noticed that his father dismissed a lot of his requests and interests in such things.

Tero did not let these thoughts phase him for too long and returned to listening attentively.

"That's not to say Temiente wasn't strong or that he didn't dip his toes into strength training." Jonakai resumed. "I found out pretty early on that he was training alone behind my back. I didn't know why or what prompted him to hide this from me."

Tero took on a confused expression.

"I allowed him to do this for years and never really confronted him about it. At the end of the day, I always wanted him to be strong. If this was the way he would train then so be it. Bringing it up could potentially complicate things and get him to stop training overall."

Jonakai then sighed. Tero took this as a sign that the story was about to take a turn.

"But one day, when he was seven, I decided to intervene. I wanted to explain to him that if his intention was to get stronger, that he should at least have a power strain."

Tero eyes widened at the words "power strain." He was obsessed with power strains, which are innate powers that can be awakened and used by everyone. They derive from the four elements of the world: fire, ice, air, and earth. After centuries, these powers started to become unique and didn't align with these elements anymore, and people's powers could now be most things that they put their mind to.

You can awaken your power strain in one of two ways: Intentionally or unintentionally. In intentional awakenings, power can be taught to you, or, you can harness any power you want; as long as you are mentally and physically capable of harnessing it. In unintentional awakenings, experiences, things you've been around, or other factors of your life can determine the power that you receive. You cannot change your power strain, but you can grow and mature your power in several ways.

"Temiente was extremely upset. I couldn't tell if it was because I had found out he was secretly training, or because he thought I was inserting myself back into his training. He told me that he didn't want a power strain because he wanted to be as strong in his own way." Jonakai produced a light exhale.

"I tried to tell him that he could do that even more with a power strain, but he didn't listen. At the end of the day, I think he just wanted me to stay out of anything that had to do with his training. Everything I suggested him, he did the opposite, and anytime I brought it up, he'd quickly dismiss it and his mood would change."

"But why?" Tero asked.

Jonakai's eyes finally met with Tero's again, and they were full of sincerity. "I don't really know...it could have been the over abundance of war stories I told him, or the " Jonakai's voice quivered upon delivering this response.

"What I do know is that, when he was around seven years old, he had had enough of my advice. I told him that if he was to continue training, he needed a power strain, and if he hadn't awakened his power by eight years old, I would prohibit him from continuing to train no matter what."

Tero's eyes widened.

"I thought it was the best course of action at the time. I awakened mine at six years old, and had been much stronger than me at that age at just four or five. However, it was the worst thing I ever said to my son. My intentions were to make him obey me and just go ahead and get it without question. But it just made things worse. I knew that saying that demanding him to do this had its risks but...I never imagined that..."

Jonakai's voice got progressively more shaky as he talked.

"I told him this in the morning, and later that afternoon, he had packed a bunch of belongings in a big bag that was strapped to his back. He told me that he would be running away, and he was serious."

Jonakai let out a huge sigh as he continued to tell the story.

"We argued some more, about why he was doing this, and how I was sorry but I really wanted him to flourish with a power strain, and we exchanged some pretty harsh words..."

"At the end of the day, I allowed him to run away and venture off. I wanted him to clear his head and think about what he was doing, and hopefully make him realize that everything happening was foolish. I told one of my most powerful serviceman to watch over him secretly and make sure he wasn't getting in any trouble but..."

Jonakai's eyes started to water, and Tero's face grew more and more distressed as the story progressed.

"It had been a few hours hours since he was gone, and I hadn't received any feedback or reports from my serviceman...so I went searching myself. I looked all over the kingdom, north, south, east, west, secret places, and then...in the middle of a grass field, I saw my serviceman."

Tero braced for the next part of the story, for he knew it was going to be sad. Jonakai now had streaks of tears running down his face as he told the story in an extremely shaky voice.

"He was slumped over on the ground. I flipped him over. He was dead."

Tero's eyes started watering along with Jonakai.

"Then I looked for Temiente and...he was...he..."

Jonakai broke down in a fit of tears.

"I REGRET EVERYTHING SO MUCH! I THOUGHT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT BUT...EVERYTHING WAS THE SAME! I THOUGHT IT MAY HAVE BEEN FATE, AND REGARDLESS OF WHATEVER HAPPENED IT STILL WOULD HAVE-"

Tero ran up to his father and hugged him tightly as both of their tears fell at blazing speeds.

"You have me, Dad." Tero said to his father.

They hugged tightly for several minutes, and not a single word was said.

Once Tero and his father were finished hugging, Tero returned to his seat.

"Those were the stories of our family. It's tragic, huh?" Jonakai said with a half-smile.

Tero nodded. "There doesn't have to be anymore tragedies."

Jonakai's half smiled now fully formed.

"There won't be anymore because starting today, I'm going to train super hard! I want to be strong so that there won't be anymore death or things like that!" Tero exclaimed.

"Well...that's great Tero-"

"Could you help me train or help me get my power strain? I think that would be the best way for me to get started on this advanced training." Tero said.

"Um...Sure. I can help you get that part down sure. However, I won't be holding your hand for this. I think a lot of good, powerful people did a lot of individual training. Being independent is one of the best strengths."

Unfortunately, in Tero's emotional, triumphant moment, he still noticed his father's uneasiness when it came to the topic of training him, and yet he never understood why.

Tero's new type of training would commence in the upcoming days. However, in the same days leading up to this, the massive event that King Jonah had declared to take place in his speech was occurring. The Warlords were fighting the Evil Warlords, and after a few weeks, there had been no winner. Five Warlords and five Evil Warlords had died, and it was up to just one battle to settle things.

This battle was the fight between the Lord of Light, Sasoyama (Warlord Rank #1), and the Dark Overlord, Morzi (Evil Warlord Rank #1). This battle was so prominent because these two were the strongest warlords, and both represented their side with great dignity. If one fell, that would destabilize one side enough to finally destroy the other. No progress occurred though. This battle was a tie, as both had been critically injured and could not fight anymore. Their near dead bodies were recovered by warlords on both sides, and were presumably taken somewhere for rehabilitation.

After this battle, Jonah decided to call off the war effort and keep things the same that they were before the war. He replaced the regular & evil warlords as quick as he could, and the war was seen as a failure.

Tero's training began a few days after the stories of his family.

He stood in a tall training room with a blue-green color scheme, white tiles in checkered patterns covering the ground below, and a massive, solid black mat in the middle.

Jonakai stood across from Tero. The door behind them creaked, and a tall, skinny man with a purple robe and long yellow boots entered. His hair was orange with a bit of grey from aging.

The man's name was Techni, and he was the Jonakai's senior advisor. He was pretty much Jonkai's right hand man, and he served him and Tero with whatever they needed.

Techni walked over to Jonakai's right side as Tero awaited anxiously for someone to speak.

Jonakai had told Tero right after the family stories to start figuring out a power strain. He asked him to plan out what type of power it would be, how he would use it, and it's longevity. Jonakai would check if the power was good, and if it was, he'd allow Tero to develop it.

Jonakai stared at his son. "So. Have you decided yet?"

Tero nodded confidently with a grin.

"Pure energy. It comes out of my hands, I can shoot it towards people like a beam, build it up in places to add impact with hits, and create things with it."

Jonakai and Techni looked at each other with interested expressions.

"I'll call it 'Will of Power. '"

Jonakai looked into Tero's eyes. Tero stared back with a confident smile, awaiting his response.

Jonakai then cracked a smile. "I like it."

Tero's grin of confidence immediately morphed into a joyous expression of happiness.

"There's a lot of powers out there like this though. What makes yours special?"

Tero thought hard for a second. What made his power special? He couldn't think of an answer in regards to the power itself. Everyone had energy, aura, and powers that could be awakened. His handling of that energy itself as a power was really common. But another answer had been generated almost as soon as the question was asked, and he resorted to using it.

"I really don't know," Tero started, "But I'll make it special."

Jonakai burst into a fit of laughter. "Yeah?" In the wake of this laugh, a massive grin had earned a permanent stay on Jonakai's face. "That's usually how it goes. Go ahead and manifest it."

Tero now had the widest smile he had ever had on his face before.

He remembered what his father told him to do to manifest his power strain. Close your eyes, think about and imagine your power, take deep breaths, and imagine that all the built up energy and power inside of you is flowing to your brain to your heart.

Tero closed his eyes. He breathed deeply. In and out, in and out. He saw colors flashing. At first, it was every hue in the light spectrum flashing, gathering up in massive chunks in front of his eyes. Soon enough, colors with withering out of this buildup with every flash, until a massive chunk with a blue-ish green pattern and mixture was all he could see in his vision.

He thought of his power; this blue-ish green energy covering his hand, flowing all throughout his body, sending this energy flying with slight exertion of power, dishing out punches, kicks, and jabs to enemies with this energy.

And the energy flowed, he saw it flowing through his body through his vision, he saw it flowing from his brain, through his arms, through his legs, and eventually coming together at the heart.

He saw a flash; a flicker of blue and green and then a massive white flash which left him stunned for a few seconds; and then he opened his eyes to see the world again.

He looked at his father and senior advisor and then down at his hands with a stunned expression.

He balled his fists and concentrated heavily.

A very small blue and green aura formed around his balled fists.

Before he could look up at them to show Jonakai and Techni, he had already heard the thunderous claps and cheering from them both.

A grand smile immediately formed on Tero, and he became the happiest he had ever been as he threw punches throughout the air with his newly acquired power.

He threw these punches around for ten seconds, and then, the aura went away, and he fell to the ground.

Tero had nearly passed out from using up all his stamina.

Jonakai and Techni ran over to him and asked if he was okay. Then bent over and kept asking and flipped him around to see his expression.

And he was smiling.

"Oops..." he said with a slight chuckle. "I think I did a little too much."

Jonakai and Techni started chuckling too.

"This is where your training's gonna come in." Jonakai said. "I have high hopes for you, son."

Tero was so happy to hear that. He wished that these moments in which his father was proud of him for his strength would last forever.

Tero had finally gotten the praise that he wanted his entire life. He was fully convinced that his father was now fully supportive of his plans to become a strong warrior.

In this moment, he truly smiled the hardest.

And he would never smile that hard again until nine years later.