TBATE - The Help of a Certain Being

The First Move

Kuro.

I turned around just in time to see the air rip open and form
a rift.

What in the world..?

"Long time no see," a deep, familiar voice echoed from the other side.

As expected, Kuro walked through the rift.

"A new ability, I assume?"

He walked through. "You already know the answer. What about you? Some crazy power boost or something?"

"You didn't even bother sorting through the elixirs you gave me, did you?

Even after turning beast cores into power boosters, S-Class is still S-Class. My Beast Will 'ate' the other beasts' Wills.

I've got better control over Phases One and Two, at least, so I'll let it go since it benefits me."

The beast core elixirs Kuro gave me over two years ago was more than of use to me.

With that aiding me in furthering my core level, I managed to break through and reach the Initial Silver stage in just two years.

I'd never seen such a boost in power before. Just using one of his elixirs brought me to the Solid Orange stage.

"I could've sworn I only gave you AA-Class and below," he murmured as he grabbed his chin in thought, trying to remember.

I suddenly felt another suffocating and overwhelming presence enter through the rift.

I moved on instinct, dashing toward the person with Dawn's Ballad in hand, and slashed toward him.

He caught my blade with a claw-like hand.

"Ah, this energy... So he really did inherit it," he said as he released his grasp on Dawn's Ballad.

"Yeah, but he's not strong enough to utilize its true capabilities. I don't think he ever will without my help, to be honest."

"Kuro, tell me why you're going around with someone this powerful and who he is," I demanded. I was way too confused to care about manners.

"His name's Ren. Put simply, he's an ally. Trust him, because I do," he replied as he leaned against a nearby wall.

"Right, because I'm supposed to believe that I can trust some crazy powerful... whatever he is, by your words.

I bet he's suppressing his mana signature even now and is still this powerful."

I just couldn't believe that I could trust something this strong.

"You're saying that like I don't suppress my mana daily either. I'm literally at least 20 times weaker right now, and I'm low-balling this estimation."

He walked up to Ren and stood next to him.

"Ren here is, as you've probably sensed by now, not exactly human nor mana beast, but a combination.

He and his kind are a race of warrior beasts called the Kanshin.

The Kanshin have a score to settle with the Vritra Asura clan of Epheotus. They know enough."

Enough, huh. Looks like there's no point in hiding it anymore.

"So what do these guys and us have in common, or at least what is our common goal here?

Because there's no way Sylvia isn't involved in this."

Just saying her name made my heart ache.

"Sylvia. So it was her who passed on her abilities. We'd only known as much as an Asura passing on her abilities and child to a boy, but who knew it would've been her."