TBATE - The Help of a Certain Being

Choices; The Nomad's Origin

"Now, why don't you get out of here and work on that new weapon, huh?"

With a renewed smile, she bowed respectfully before excusing herself.

The silence that filled the room after her footfalls died down gave me the chance to properly feel the sudden surge of mana I was detecting somewhere in the city.

Looks like things might be moving faster than expected...

**

Ten minutes ago...

Nine

This is certainly an interesting development.

From the shadows which I stood, a boy with blonde hair and pointy ears held in his hands a vial of red liquid.

"So this is it? My way to more power?" He spat arrogantly with a crazed look in his eyes.

"Sure is! Just drink it all up, give it a few minutes and boom! Even a Silver core mage would be hard pressed to fight you head on!

Well, that's only if you survive what happens. Kekeke."

A masked man I'd come to know as 'Draneeve' laughed crazily.

Someone as powerful as him should've detected me by now, but it seemed the warrior had been true to his word.

Master had been truly fortunate to obtain such a powerful ally. Or at the very least, an enemy of an enemy.

The boy—Kuro, he called himself—was a powerful warrior, despite being human.

What I wanted to know was whether that was truly it. He seemed anything but human to me.

Our first interaction was as if I had been in the presence of the elders. I felt the aura of an all-powerful warrior forged from endless battle or bottomless knowledge.

The battlesuits he provided my battalion, the communication devices he gave away like candy, even the strange medallion he gave my master...

It was nearly like looking at an insurmountable wall, one where my knowledge and his knowledge were worlds apart.

And maybe so, but—

"Well, then. Down the hatch."

Brought out of my thoughts, I saw the elf-like human down the vial without a single drop left to spare.

The moment it left the vial and he swallowed, I saw him keel over in pain.

The mana in his body suddenly surged and I could instinctually feel the near bottomless expansion of his power. And yet...

This boy... What he does changes nothing. That warrior is still far superior, by several leaps and bounds. A pointless sacrifice.

It didn't matter if he expanded his reserves or sacrificed humanity for a bit more power. All was naught in the face of true unbridled power.

A dark aura wreathed the boy and his veins pulsed visibly as the red energy enveloping his body gravitated toward the center of his torso.

"Puhahaha! Look at you! It's working! It's really working! I didn't think you had it in you!" The masked ringleader laughed evilly, keeling over in laughter.

In just a few moments, the boy rose, his former pale complexion overruled by ashen gray skin, a litter of pulsing red veins across his arms and face.

Along his spine, I could see the same red symbols from the other victims of the elixir pulsating with short, inconsistent rounds of sparks shooting off of them.