Jordan followed Gregory towards the forest.

It'll be quick.

Jordan took a deep breath. Despite his broken arms, he took a breath of the fresh air. It was the silver lining of the horrible situation he was in.

He won't feel any pain... I'll make sure of it.

Gregory internally sighed as he thought of the sudden change of situation he has had to face in the past few days. While he appreciated his new physique and the attention of the ladies in his village, Gregory also gained the burden of being his master's servant. Gregory was not as powerful as Sanria but his master placed more faith in him than her.

Why was that?

It was simple. Gregory was more in control of his emotions and thoughts. His master appreciated that more than the rampant use of power. If his master did appreciate him more, he needed to show the appropriate amount of action.

Hmmm...

Gregory's thoughts of quickly murdering Jordan turned to his desire to serve his master.

Why... do I want to follow my master's orders.

"So, are you going to tell me what happened? We're pretty far from the village."

Gregory's thoughts were dashed away by Jordan's words. It quickly returns to the thoughts of a quick and clean murder.

"Yes."

All of Gregory's anxiety and fear were suddenly swept away as his mind became focused on the task at hand. He didn't know why but Gregory's emotions were suddenly calmed and he felt like his once strong river of a mind became as peaceful as an empty lake. Gregory thought of the powerful skill he heard when he was a young child. It came from a wandering warrior.

Was it Lake Heart?

Gregory pushed that thought away as he slowly turned around. Jordan's face changes as he sees the calm look on Gregory's visage.

"Hey, is there a problem?"

"No, nothing at all."

Gregory's body tenses as he infuses it with internal energy. Then he moves forward.

Jordan barely sees Gregory move as he is assaulted with a powerful strike. Gregory hid a knife in the recesses of his sleeves and when he dashed forward, the knife moved seemly towards his hand and onto Jordan's chest, where his heart was located.

Oh, I guess that's a warrior for you.

Gregory muses to himself.

Jordan managed to react at the last second and use a skill that toughened his body. It wasn't that he saw Gregory's attack but mostly due to instinct and his experience as a warrior.

"Gregory!"

Jordan screamed angrily but it was mostly to hide the fear in his heart. He only had a scant amount of internal energy. He had to stop the regeneration his arms were doing to use Bastion to defend himself. In addition to using Bastion, Jordan had to increase his defense by using his internal energy.

What?! He's so strong!

Panting from the use of his limited energy, Jordan looked at Gregory. He didn't seem like he was panicking or angry. In fact, Gregory did not look like he felt anything at all.

"What are you doing?!"

Gregory did not deign to answer Jordan's panicked answer. Instead, he raised the dagger once more and infused it with more internal energy.

Just like what I did with my master earlier. Just enough.

Gregory was about to move. Jordan was anxious. He only had enough energy for one more use of Bastion and this time he couldn't add to its defensive value with internal energy.

Nothing to do now but run!

Before Jordan could run, Gregory moves forward with speed unbefitting an old man. Same as before, Gregory pushes his hand forward, delivering a simple but deadly dagger strike towards Jordan's chest.

Jordan moves backward but he quickly uses Bastion which reinforces his body.

The dagger strikes his chest which leaves a small nick instead of being fully blocked like earlier. Jordan holds back a wince of pain as he backs away. Instead of following, Gregory backs away as well. Jordan looks down and finds that Gregory left the dagger embedded in his chest.

Wha-

Before Jordan could question why Gregory suddenly backed away, the dagger suddenly heats up and explodes, releasing shrapnel all over Jordan's body.

Agony spreads all over Jordan's body as the heated metal melts into his skin.

Gregory frowned.

This isn't as painless as I thought it would be.

"GREGORY YOU BASTARD!!!"

The pain made Jordan panic and lose all sorts of control. He used the last bits of his internal energy to protect himself from Gregory's 2nd strike. He didn't expect an explosion and left none for that possibility. Now, he couldn't use internal energy to push out the shrapnel embedded in his body.

Gregory ignores the screams of pain and summons another knife in his hand, hidden in his sleeves.

"Sorry Jordan, this isn't personal."

Jordan watches in terror as Gregory slowly makes his way towards him.

Shit shit shit...

While Gregory was committing murder, Magnus was walking in the forest.

What, in the 42381 hells, is Gregory doing?

Magnus felt the pulses of Gregory's usage of internal energy.

At least, he's not wasting as much energy as he did earlier. He learns quickly.

"Humilem, let's go and fetch Gregory before he does something he'll regret."

Humilem, who has been picking flowers with his new fingers, stands up when he hears his name.

Magnus nods approvingly. Humilem follows with small flowers in his hands.

Gregory walks forward without any emotion on his face. Despite Jordan's pleas, Gregory does not stop.

Jordan moves away by crawling backward.

God, I can't die here! Zack and Elisha are gonna die if I'm not there to take care of their asses!

Gregory wasn't aware of Jordan's thoughts but he didn't care. His mind was calm and was entirely focused on his task. Looking at the weakened Jordan, Gregory knew that his task was about to be finished. Raising the hand wielding a dagger, Gregory leans forward. With infused internal energy, Gregory dashes forward with his dagger in a stabbing position.

"What is this?"

Gregory stops mid-dash. Jordan's eyes are glued to Gregory but he starts to move his head, looking for the voice.

Careful not to remove Gregory from his sight, Jordan looks for the source of the voice. Finding no one, Jordan starts to panic but he notices that Gregory stopped moving. He didn't enter a defensive stance which would be a normal murder's course of action if someone unknown appeared. Instead, Gregory looked nervous. His calm look was replaced with a slightly scrunched eyebrow and twitching lip.

"Who goes there?!"

Jordan shouts.

"Jordan, don't panic."

Jordan panics. The poor man tries to stand but he finds himself pinned to the ground by an invisible force.

Internal energy?!

Jordan moves his eyes towards Gregory.

Even now!

Gregory held Jordan down with a massive amount of internal energy.

Ho-how?! He had this much energy?

"Master, you didn't need to come down yourself. I was handling it."

Jordan did his best to find this "master" but he couldn't find him.

"Gregory... remember earlier?"

"Yes, you told me to handle him, him being Jordan."

Jordan hatefully looks for the master who ordered his death.

Magnus sighs.

Gregory... might not be the sharpest tool in the shed...

Magnus thinks about his daughter, Sanria, and realizes that they're not too different.

"Do you remember the time the bear attacked us?"

Gregory replies in the affirmative.

"Now, remember why I wanted Jordan, Zack, and Elisha to live?"

Gregory's face crunches in confusion. What could his master mean? Then it dawned on him. His confused face suddenly turns pale. Gregory turns his eyes towards Jordan. He sees Jordan's angry face and he swallows a large lump of saliva.

"Uh... ma... master... I..."

"Enough."

Gregory found himself unable to speak. Magnus didn't do anything but Gregory's fear of his master and guilt in almost killing Jordan silenced him.

Jordan feels the pressure disappear from his body.

"Jordan, I know that you want to release and vent some of your anger. I give you the opportunity."

Magnus spoke the words of creation once more, filling Jordan with the primordial essence of life. Almost immediately, Jordan feels refreshed and rejuvenated as if he was birthed once more by his mother. Jordan would be hard-pressed to find a more euphoric feeling than what he just experienced.

Jordan stands up. He looks around but he cannot find Magnus. Looking at Gregory, Jordan noticed that the old man was also rejuvenated by the same power. They were both 100%.

"Gregory!"

Not even waiting for a second, Jordan rushes forward.

"AHHHHHHH!!!"

Jordan, with renewed energy, cloaks his right arm with internal energy. It wasn't a technique or skill, it was a simple empowered punch. Gregory reacts by raising his infused hand to block the attack.

Instead of continuing his strike, Jordan quickly turns around and strikes Gregory with an infused back fist. Not expecting the sudden change in attack, Gregory suffers a back fist strike on the cheek.

"Urgh!"

Not letting off, Jordan raises his feet and kicks Gregory. Gregory manages to grab the incoming leg strike and pulls Jordan in with his stronger body and internal energy. Jordan is forcefully yanked off his feet and Gregory delivers a gut-wrenching blow towards Jordan's stomach.

"Agh!"

Jordan is slammed to the ground by Gregory's powerful attack. Jordan knew that Gregory was stronger than him but he was a better fighter. Knowing the disadvantage in pure physical ability, Jordan strikes Gregory's knee. It buckles and the old man starts to fall. Jordan kicks up, hitting Gregory's chest with his leg.

Gregory groans and is about to strike Jordan but the younger man rolls away.

Once a bit of space is present, the two fighters start to size each other up.

Gregory knew that Jordan was a better fighter so he had to make sure that he would last longer.

The two prepared for a fight. Then they moved.

Magnus was hidden in the treelines when he infused Gregory and Jordan with energy. He was thankful he was hidden because he was almost on the verge of hyperventilating. His skin was pale and his vision was blurry.

Humilem is panicking at the sight of his master weak. He didn't know what to do and was flailing his childish hands.

Okay... No more true magic... this is horrible.

Magnus's vision was fading to black. He felt incredibly weak. A spell that would have been easier, had he have been stronger, drained a lot of energy and strength from his body. This stress compounded on the use of true magic to imbue the shield earlier.

Okay... no true magic until I get stronger... This weakness... is too much.

Slowly standing up, Magnus returns his view to the fight. Jordan and Gregory were both in dire straits. Gregory has taken more hits but Jordan's face is equally bruised. Jordan can hit Gregory more but each of Gregory's strikes is far more powerful.

Huh? They're pretty equal... In the future, Gregory will outclass him though.

Despite the almost equal fight, Gregory was slowly winning. His higher amount of internal energy was slowly defeating Jordan through attrition.

This was supposed to be the case until Jordan decided to risk an attack. Making a wide attack, Gregory is baited into attacking Jordan's opening. Purposefully leaving an opening, Jordan waits for Gregory to take it.

Gregory creates a powerful strike. Smiling internally, Jordan dodges the blow. With all his remaining internal energy, he deals a powerful strike towards Gregory's chest. Gregory pukes blood as he feels the powerful blow release a shockwave within his lungs.

Gregory slowly backs away in extreme pain. Jordan doesn't let Gregory go for a breather and he moves forward. While weakened, Gregory takes a flurry of blows and strikes that deal heavy damage.

Each of Jordan's strikes was fueled by his anger and the fear of dying. Eventually, Gregory is unconscious on the floor breathing weakly. Jordan's fists were bloody and his anger was quenched.

Seeing the old man battered and beaten, Jordan seems to feel guilty. He quickly quashes these feelings and reminds himself that he almost died before he was able to repay what he owed. He needed to make sure Gregory couldn't take his revenge. Taking Gregory's disarmed dagger, Jordan prepares to stab the unconscious old man.

Pushing downward, Jordan's hand is stopped, with the tip of the dagger just a few centimeters away from Gregory's weakly breathing chest. Looking at the hand that stopped him, Jordan turns to see that Magnus has caught his hand.

"Pr-Prince?!"

Jordan was so surprised to see Gregory's "son", that he forgot that he was holding a dagger.

"That's enough Jordan."

Despite being held by a child, Jordan's shouted.

"Enough?! He almost killed me!"

"And leave it in the fact that you almost killed him."

Jordan looked at Gregory. For Jordan, Magnus was right.

While Gregory did attempt to kill him, he failed due to intervention. This time, Jordan failed as well due to intervention. Despite not fully making sense in Jordan's head, Magnus seemingly managed to convince him. This isn't a fluke either, Magnus's words have power in them, and dominating or controlling the weak is one of them.

"Bu-..."

Jordan feels weakness and he accidentally drops the knife. At this height, it wouldn't damage Gregory but Magnus caught it anyway.

"Jordan, now that you've settled some of your grievances, I have a proposition."

A bit more in control of his senses, Jordan looks at Magnus, who seemed far too mature for his looks and age.

"What?"

"I need someone to guide me to the city of Kerak."

"Isn't Gregory able?"

Magnus gives Jordan a rather deprecating smile.

"As you can see, he misinterprets my commands a lot. While he is a good servant, I cannot have him kill people just because I said something remotely close to killing. Do you understand?"

Jordan knew what Magnus meant and in truth, the young man was afraid of this young child in front of him. He knew that Magnus's innocence was only skin-deep and if he rejected Magnus's proposition, he feared he would get slain.

"Don't reject me yet Jordan. I am not aware of your purpose or goal in life but I promise you that by being by my side, you would not want anything. I can give you anything."

Jordan swallows audibly. In his short life, Jordan has seen nobles and wealthy people but no one of them felt as persuasive as Magnus.

"A-anything?"

Magnus thinks.

"Yes, anything."

"... Power?"

Magnus brandishes the dagger. Magnus was still exhausted from his constant usage of his power but he needed to show Jordan he could do anything.

Summoning the remaining dregs of his power, Magnus whispers the words of creation to infuse the dagger with great power.

The dagger floats above Magnus's hand and invisible threads of energy surround it. Its iron blade slowly becomes crimson in color as the power of creation is infusing its power based on the intentions it originally had. The dagger was used to almost kill both Gregory and Jordan so it took a bloody image.

Its crimson blade was unbelievably sharp. Grabbing the crimson dagger's hilt, Magnus swings it with intention, which releases a burst of red energy. It cuts down a large boulder, leaving a scar on the boulder and the land beside it.

Jordan's mouth was agape. He has never seen magic items before but he felt that this dagger was stronger than most.

Magnus puts the dagger in Jordan's hand.

"This is yours now."

"Wh-what?"

"Consider it as advanced payment for your loyalty."

Jordan looked at the magical item in his hand. For a moment, Jordan's dream of revenge seemed possible and he smiled.

"When do I begin?"

Magnus smiles back.