Chapter 23 – An Unforeseen Obstacle

WUHHHHH~~~ WUHHHHH~~~

Today happened to be a very windy day, with the noise of howling winds dominating the surrounding atmosphere. Marcus took shelter behind a small vertical rock, because the winds made it hard for him to page through the book he was currently reading.

“This is funny. I am a wind man, and yet I am forced to hide from the wind!” Marcus laughed at himself. He then brought out a watch that was hidden inside his cloths. “Hmm… a new month eh? 1st August already…” He smiled, turning his gaze towards a large rock, “You should be aware by now kid, it is useless to hide from my clone… I can easily sense you with my aura!”

Behind the large rock, Kane was resting, but his expression was one of full alert. His eyes were half red and completely dry, whilst his top half of his body was full of white bandages, covered with patches of dried blood. Kane took a deep breath and thought, “It`s attacking again…” He quickly jumped to dodge the incoming magnetic waves, rolling himself on the ground. The rock exploded into smithereens, but Kane had already safely distanced himself from it. He then rapidly stood up and ran towards the ball of energy.

Marcus smirked, “Going for a direct attack eh…?”

Marcus Junior instantly fired another magnetic wave, but to the surprise of Marcus, Kane didn’t try to dodge, but instead used his sword to take on the incoming attack. The two attacks fiercely collided, creating a powerful clashing sound.

Marcus instantly opened his eyes wide in surprise, “He actually managed to block my clone`s magnetic wave?!”

Kane twitched his eyes in pain, but stayed focus, at the same time running and reducing the distance between him and the clone. “Ugh… my arm feels numb… I can only directly take on another wave at best…” Kane thought to himself.

Meanwhile, Marcus Junior recharged and fired another magnetic wave, just to be blocked again by Kane, this time with much more effort.

Marcus was again surprised, “Incredible… his growing strength isn’t showing any signs of slowing down any time soon… In the last few weeks this kid has improved himself by leaps and bounds!”

Marcus then grinned, “Still charging ahead eh? Don’t be overconfident kid, your body will not be able to handle another…” Before Marcus could finish his sentence, Kane unexpectedly used his right hand to grab his sword from the middle, then threw it away with full force, similar to an arrow, straight towards Marcus Junior.

Marcus was caught off guard, and immediately tried to change direction of his clone. However, the sword slightly touched the ball of energy, slicing a part of it away, whilst a piece of the hat fell down. Marcus instantly put up an annoyed expression, “Hey! That hurt me…!” He quickly recovered though, and whispered, “I never expected him to act so random and use his sword as a projectile…!” He promptly retreated his clone away to think of a different strategy. Marcus Junior quickly reformed its spherical shape, but now it had lost some of its size.

“So close…!” Kane whispered disappointedly to himself, whilst stopping his movements to analyse the current situation, “The ball is retreating… this is a good opportunity for me to go and fetch back my sword!” He now made his final resolve, and irritatingly uttered, “This fight… it`s time to finish it off! I am totally sick of this ball now, and I don’t want to see it anymore in my life!!”

“Damnit… this kid! He keeps on surprising me…” Marcus whispered with a thoughtful expression. “I am now more and more convinced that my hypothesis is true… There is no doubt that the people that this kid recognise as his parents, aren’t really his actual parents after all… otherwise they wouldn’t have died that easily! But I still can’t figure out how and why they ended up fostering this kid, or how they had managed to obtain that amulet… could it be they were…”

BRING~~~~BRING~~~~

Marcus was suddenly interrupted by a ringing sound, originating from one of his communications devices. “Oh great… a call from the Imperial Palace?! I have a bad feeling about this…” Marcus frowned, then he grabbed the device and politely uttered, “Marcus Verde over here.”

A very low pitched voice echoed from the device, “Imperial Secretary Avito here. How are you Marcus?”

Marcus replied, “I`m fine… did something happened?”

“You have just been assigned a new high level mission. You are required to be back at the Imperial Palace by not later than 21st August. Failure to conform will result in a severe punishment. Clear enough?”

Marcus frowned and responded, “I am kind of busy with something right now? Can’t, you assign the mission to someone else?!”

“Is it something urgent?” Avito inquisitively asked.

“Not really, I just…” Marcus replied but was promptly interrupted.

“Not a valid excuse. See you until then. I`m out,” Avito replied before he terminated his connection.

Marcus’ expression instantly turned solemn, “Bleh… What a humourless and unreasonable person…” Marcus was lost hating on his newly assigned mission, but suddenly his expression changed into one of complete shock. “Shit! I distracted myself!”

Whilst Marcus was preoccupied with his thoughts, Kane had charged towards Marcus Junior, and with a very powerful slash, the clone was split vertically in half. The two half of the clones disappeared shortly after, leaving only a completely ruined hat and a portrait cut in half. Kane then moved victoriously towards the portrait, grabbing the two pieces together, giving them one final glance filled with disdain and hatred. For him, this stupid portrait was the symbol of all the suffering he had to endure for all this time. The pain, the sleepless days, the humiliation; his misery had finally come to an end. Veins of anger popped up all over his face and arms, and then, like a crazed devil, he teared the portrait into countless of pieces, then laughed out like a madman, “Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!” Then he jumped and stomped his feet on the pieces that fell on the floor, apparently in attempt to release his tension.

Marcus stood up, whilst he used the base of his right hand`s index figure to rub out the blood that leaked from his mouth. Then he slowly moved towards Kane.

“You know… that portrait was one of my favourites!” Marcus said with a gloomy tone.

Kane, who now was feeling much better, coolly replied, “Come on… that was one of the stupidest portraits I had ever seen in my entire life!” He then paused to catch up some breaths, and continued, “I have now killed your clone and passed your training! What do you think Master?”

Marcus kept his cool, then answered, “Good job. I am very satisfied by your current progress.” However, his voice turned serious shortly after, “Kid… there is something I have to tell you.”

“What is it Master?” Kane curiously asked.

“I was summoned by the Imperial Government for what it seems to be a very important mission. Unfortunately, this is something that I will have to do alone. Hence, I fear that our training sessions will have to come to an end earlier than anticipated. I am sorry kid,” Marcus replied apologetically.

Kane felt sad, but nodded in understanding, “We can always continue after you`re done with it right? Are you going to take me back to the Zafisi clan now?”

Marcus thought for a while, then suggested, “Actually I was thinking… it might be a good idea to use my imperial privileges to enlist you to an academy…”

“Enlist me to an academy?” Kane replied slightly dumbfounded.

Marcus explained, “On every planet, there is an academy, where anyone between 16 and 22 years old is eligible to attend. An academy usually last for just two years, first year is for learning several subjects, whilst the second year is strictly military training.”

“I feel that you would greatly benefit from such an experience. You would be able to learn various techniques, and make new friends of your own age.”

“What do you think kid?” Marcus asked, hoping for a positive reply.

Kane remained pondering for quite some time, but then he decided, “If Master believes it would benefit me, then I will trust Master`s judgement!”

Marcus smiled when he heard this, “This planet has a very good academy, I think it is the best option for you.”

Kane nodded without objecting, then asked, “When you will be leaving Master?”

“Hmm… I can stay here till the 20th August, then I have to teleport to the Imperial Palace…” Marcus responded.

“There is still 19 more days left Master…” Kane replied before excitedly proposing, “How about you teach me how to do that magnetic wave of yours?”

“That`s not possible kid,” Marcus instantly acknowledge. “Even though your cultivation base kept improving throughout the fight against my clone, it is still strangely confined to only your right hand. Unfortunately, to be able to use the repelling techniques, you require a magnetic core that covers your entire body.”

“And now that you`ve brought this up… I am finding all this entire affair really strange.” Marcus wondered before demanding, “Kid, remove your bandages, I want to inspect your body.”

Kane felt a little awkward, but he obeyed and removed his bandages. His body was full of scratches and injuries. Marcus then placed his left hand on Kane`s chest, apparently trying to sense the energy coming from Kane`s body.

“Nothing… I can’t even sense a hint of power from here…” Marcus then continued his examination by placing his hand on Kane`s right arm, slowly raising upwards. “Here I can feel the energy… and this is the point where it stops.”

Marcus’ hand was now resting just below Kane`s shoulder. “Weird… it looks like there is a blockage here…”

“Blockage?” Kane replied confused.

“Shusshh!! Don’t talk kid, let me focus,” Marcus uttered as he began performing tests, “No reaction from my magnetic energy… let`s try with the power of my elemental soul…”

Kane suddenly felt winds pressing on his body, whilst they leaked from below Marcus’ hand.

“Strange… strange… no reaction from my elemental soul either,” The puzzled Marcus thought aloud. “I wonder if there will be any reaction from my dimensional power…”

The air surrounding Marcus’ hand glowed with a distorting aura. “Hmm no reaction either… Urghhhh!! What the…!” Before he could finish the sentence, a powerful repelling force emerged from Kane`s body, blowing Marcus away with incredible force. Marcus instantly stabilised himself in mid-air, then he landed crawling on the ground, as he decelerated himself by using the friction between the ground and both of his legs and right hand, until coming to a halt circa 50 metres away from Kane.

Marcus spitted out blood, then rose to his feet, whilst he inspected the damage he suffered in his left hand. Luckily, it wasn’t anything serious.

In the meantime, Kane had fallen on his knees, his face filled with agony. His eyes were full of desperation, whilst he painfully uttered, “Arghhh… Not this pain again! My right hand, I can’t feel…!”

Marcus remained staring towards Kane with a totally dumbfounded expression. He was completely shaken from the inside by this unexpected force. He paused observing Kane for a while, then he enchanted, “3rd Major art of the soul, Teleportation!”

He instantly teleported before Kane. Then he grabbed one of his storage devices, and from it he took out a green pill, which he offered to Kane. “Eat this pill kid, it should heal your hand in just a couple of hours.”

Kane trusted him and instantly swallowed the pill, “Master, what is happening?!”

“Calm down, calm down, it`s over now. The remaining power of the dimensional protection technique has been exhausted against me.”

Kane asked, “What…?”

“Some very powerful expert had placed a 5th tier dimensional technique on your body, seemingly to protect you from harm. From what I can figure, most of the power of this technique was already unleashed some time ago, but some of its power still lingered inside your body. The leftover power reacted with my dimensional power, and burst out against me.”

Kane worriedly interrupted, “Are you fine Master?”

Marcus laughed out, “Shouldn’t you be worrying about yourself rather than myself kid?! Who could place such… no way!!!”

Kane appeared startled, “What else now!!?”

Marcus stared in disbelief, whilst his entire body shivered, and sweat covered his face. He slowly stuttered, “This is the first time in my entire life… the first time I am witnessing a 6th tier Dimensional technique!”

A small patch of black lines and diagrams, which were slowly moving around in circles, appeared just below Kane`s right shoulder. When Kane noticed this, he was instantly left petrified with fear.

Kane was now filled with desperation and cried out, “What is this thing on my arm?!!”

“Calm down Kane!” Marcus shouted, whilst grabbing Kane from both of his shoulders. “Don’t panic, it`s just a mark left over by a very powerful dimensional technique, it will not harm you!”

“A powerful… dimensional technique? How did something like this appear on my body in the first place! What have you done to my body?!” Kane screamed, at the same time pulling out from Marcus’ grasp and started moving backwards away from him.

“I haven’t done anything to you! It has always been on your body for all this time! It just wasn’t visible, because it was covered by another dimensional technique!” Marcus explained, then continued, “And it isn’t just an ordinary technique either! I wouldn’t have believed all this if I am not seeing it with my very eyes!!”

Kane felt his mind spinning, and was on a verge of a mental collapse, “What is thing doing on my body then?!!!”

Marcus face turned very solemn, “There is no easy way to say this… briefly, a very powerful immortal, and I mean a VERY powerful immortal, had used this technique to lock away the power of your cultivation base, by throwing it away into another dimension!

“I think this is the first time in the entire history of the human empire that someone has successfully managed to lock away the power of someone else!”

Kane was visibly shocked, and hurriedly questioned in concern, “Can this technique be undone?!!”

Marcus thought for a while, then stated, “I honestly don’t know. If there is anyone who can help you that would be someone who has a deep understanding of 6th tier dimensional techniques. However, the number of fighters that are capable of utilising 6th tier dimensional techniques can be counted on the fingers of my hand!”

“But... I do happen to know a person who might be able to help you with this matter...”

“Really?! Who?!” Kane replied in excitement.

Marcus kept serious whilst suggesting, “The only person in the Eastern Galactic Sector who is capable of high level dimensional techniques, is Pietro Verde, the Eastern Sectorial Patriarch!”