Pieces Everywhere

Hiss~

"Mmm"

His-Hiis~

"Just a little more"

Hiissssss~

"Ugh let me sleep a few more seconds!"

Yu growls at the white snake Hissing at him from the side, but a few seconds later he springs out with a grown

"Where, where are they coming from"

Hiss-Hiisss

The snake pointed at the mansion's ruins, its heat-sensors range was pretty good, thus alerting him when someone got into the mansion was possible, any further was impossible though or he would be out of range

'I could use it for reckoning when I'm not asleep though' Thought Yu as he looked at the lovable snake

"How many?"

Hiss-Hiss

Yu nodded, two hisses, two creatures

"You did a great job, now on to the main show"

The snake swayed happily as it started making its way into the woods, preparing for the its instructed role

Once the snake was out of sight Yu turned his eyes to the ruins, he took a deep breath and pulled his new hood up, then took slow and steady steps to meet his new visitor

********************

"This…. Why is this place in such shambles?"

A fat man asked himself as he looked at the burned-down mansion in front of him, the place was levelled with the ground, if not for the sole room standing in the centre of this mess one wouldn't be able to tell if a mansion had existed here

"What in the world is going on with this Dimension, weird disasters keep popping up one after the other"

The fatty was called Bonzo Gongon, part of the lower nobility, Gongon had been running from place to place for the past four days, his Castles starting area was actually not listed in any map and was hard to find, thus armed with a hidden Castle he set about to find some Units for his Core without fear of his base being declared war against if push comes to shove he was willing to ride his trusty buffalo to run away at a moment's notice

"Hah that ought to teach them not to judge by looks, Feifei may look large, but she's just fluffy, if she sets her mind on it she can outrun any enemy at the Bronze Rank humph humph"

The fatty puffed his chest out arrogantly while patting his trusty mount

"Wanna give it a try fatso?"

A voice was suddenly heard among the debris, a figure walked out shortly after, each step heavier than the next, the figures face was kept hidden by a hood, but the fatty's face paled none the less, as he could tell by that coat, and the two arrows dangling off the back, who this figure really was

"H-H-H-Houk M-Mo-Mous!"

"Ahahaha it seems introductions are not needed"

"W-What d-d-do you w-want!?"

The stuttering fatty called out his grimoire in a hurry

Seeing as the Grimoire is Silver the figure's eyes suddenly widen, a gleam then flashes through them as he sinks into thought, but fearing the delay may ruin his disguise he quickly focuses back on the fatty, forgoing the his earlier planned scenario they

"Just a little chat is all, and try not to play any tricks, I don't think your "fluffy" baby could run through the woods just as well as my doggy"

A shuffling sound was suddenly heard from the woods, it sounded like many beasts were running about, but those who knew about Mous would definitely know this sound belonged to none other than his Ruinous Blood Hound, and since the fatty knew that he also got his restrictions lifted he knew whatever Soul Beast he summoned would pose no challenge for the hunter's own Soul Beasts thus he could only swallow hard and force out the widest smile he could as he buttered up his words

"W-What would Young Master Mous want of little me, please give your order and I would sail the seas and scour the skies if that's what you need!"

The figure smiled contentedly at the response, which sent more than a few shivers down Gongon's spine, he prayed to his ancestor's ancestors to get out of this devils clutches in one piece

'Oww my tummy's turning'

********************

'Hook, line, and sinker'

The figure was naturally Yu who had borrowed the deceased Mous's extra garbs, once he saw the visitor was the fatso the previous owner had bullied to tears he knew he could hoodwink the gullible fellow, and sure enough he was already in complete control of the situation

'Still, it seems something major has happened, I must get as much information as possible'

Yu narrowed his eyes as he looked at the Silver Grimoire the fatty was holding

'But how do I go about this without him having suspicions toward me'

Yu thought hard before he decided to probe riskily

"Why are you Also able to ignore the restrictions"

He empathized 'Also' to show that he too had the restrictions lifted, if the fatty had actually used an unknown method to achieve this then Yu would be screwed but he was willing to bet on the chance that this was a widespread phenomenon, at least he didn't think it was this fatso's doing, he had always shown incompetence. Of course Yu would not think it was impossible, in that case he was already preparing an excuse

The fatties face panicked a bit, then he hurriedly explained, stuttering as he did

"I d-don't know what h-happened I just regained my power suddenly an hour ago, I r-really don't know what happened"

Yu knit his eyebrows at the response, that was close to not knowing information at all, but at least now he knew that everyone could have had their power regained, he also reaffirmed his belief in that his Grimoire went back to Bronze

"Oh Oh" The fatty suddenly exclaimed "I think I know what caused this"

"Spill it" Yu responded with a forceful tone

"Ye-Yes! I-it's just a speculation but I th-think it was the darkness, when it swallowed up that cloud the Elar's summoned I saw some sort of dark thunder streak through the sky, after some time I regained my power!"

The fatty gulped, he didn't want to throw in uncertain information but that was better than saying nothing at all

'Darkness? The Elar's cloud? What the heck is this guy talking about'

"Hmm I was playing in the South all along, tell me what happened in the other regions"

As Yu was talking he shifted his body so the fatty could look into the room, he didn't want to cause any doubts that gave Gongon any funny ideas

Gongon's sight fell behind Yu as he peered into the room he didn't pay much heed, once his eyes adjusted to the dim light they suddenly delated as he saw bodies sprawled in the ruins, a sour taste found its way to his mouth before he pushed it down and calmed himself, people couldn't die here but it seems the devil before him found a way around that, now he had to play his cards right or he might end up just like them

"Alright, I will explain everything from the beginning, when I first started I was-"

"Keep it short!"

Gulp!

The fatty lost all his cool as he stuttered trying to summarize as much as he could

"W-w-when I was looking for someone I can defeat I found out the West was already united by the Elar family y-young masters and they even invited me, bu-but when I heard that I had to sacrifice my beast for a ritual I r-refuse and ran, after that when the war was waged between them and the Shenai's in the East I saw darkness approaching from the North, th-then…"

The fatty continued to explain for a whole minute, although his story lacked many details but its continent shocked Yu to the core for it was enough for him to piece together the puzzle, the Elar Family's cloud, the removal of restrictions, and lastly his own dilemma, the Life Negation Lock

"Argh! Get out of here fatso! Go to the woods if you want to hide! Don't show yourself in front of me"

"Y-y-y-yesss!"

Even though he didn't know why "Mous" was suddenly so angry he decided to run while he had the chance, so he urged his mount to pump everything it ad into its feet as it he headed to the woods at the back

A few seconds after the buffalo's figure couldn't be seen anymore Yu called out into the woods. A white snake then made it way to his side, he patted its head before it climbed to his shoulder and started flipping its tongue probing the surroundings, it would do its best to alert him when anyone came

Yu on the other hand sunk into deep thought, he started thinking about the newly uncovered conspiracy, he was sure his siblings hadn't managed to uncover it as well, for they were missing an important piece of information, the Life Negation Lock!

The reason he thought this was a conspiracy was because the restrictions put in this Dimension could only collapse if a Rune as powerful as the one in effect was introduced into it, for even if a powerful entity entered the Dimension then it would only trigger self-destruction while the everyone inside would be booted out, the fact that he and Gongon were still here and that the Life Negation Lock was in fact just an advanced Rune meant that it was the former explanation

'Of course they wouldn't tell Zuku and the rest about it or else they would rush here to protect me, we are, after all, family'

The management had used the Rune directly on him, while they gave it to the Elar's to conspire against his siblings, it seemed like the management had it in for the Shenai family

'Runes… I need to recall everything about them'

He focused his mind on the memories the former owner, if he wanted to get out of this tricky situation then he needed information, and what better source than the heap of knowledge forced onto the young Yu, while one would be hard-pressed to recall everything he learned from childhood the former owner's memories were actually like an open vault of record to Yu, all he had to do was know what he was looking for, so it only took him a fast minute to gather everything he needed about the situation

Runes, as a representation of the world's laws, were divided into 9 Sets: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Yin, Yang, Void, Chaos, Order. Each set contained the basic Runes that corresponded to the set's law, the number of Runes yet to be unidentified for it is said no one can learn all the Runes of even one set in a whole lifetime. The people who use Runes are called Runeists, they are divided into three categories: Basic Runeist, Intermediate Runeist, Advanced Runeist

A Basic Runeist is one who know how to conjure a Rune from the nine sets, thus they are divided into nine ranks, each rank representing the mastery of a Rune from a different set

An Intermediate Runeist is one who knows how to "Use" the Runes together to achieve a magnified effect, why his teacher emphasized the word, use, Yu didn't know, in any case, Intermediate Runeists are further divided into nine ranks, each rank represents how many Runes he can use together, thus they use up to nine Runes together

An Advanced Runeist is one that can use from ten to ninety-nine Runes together, an unfathomable existence even in the Southern Paradise

'Hmmm, so how did you come to be'

Said Yu as he looked at the Castle Core

'An advanced Rune like the Life Negation Lock couldn't have been made by the Elar family, if they were that capable then they wouldn't have settled with their current position as the third strongest, they must have someone helping them, but why?'

Yu racked his brains but couldn't recall anything important, to begin with the Elar family were very secretive, thus not much information was known about their strength, the only thing he knew was that even as nobles they never fought head-on and always resorted to tricks, they were despised even though they were the third strongest

'But can I really only wait for the darkness to devour me?'

Such a thought didn't sit right with Yu, but his siblings knew even less than him, and it appeared as though the disaster from the North had nothing to do with the Elar family, as Gongon told him he saw with his own eyes how the second young master, Elar Vracdous, get swallowed up by the darkness. So with none of the people coming having a better idea of the situation the only thing they would accomplish would be prolonging their demise

'Maybe the management wanted to erase all evidence?'

Yu thought, but soon he shook the thought away

'Why would they go through all this trouble, if they wanted to do so that much they had no need to put the Life Negation lock in my Core, nor help the Elar family'

Sigh

Yu breathed out in frustration, he didn't understand why they would employ such a multi-step…. multi-step?

"Ah!"

Everything suddenly fell into place in Yu's mind

"Hehehe, what a smart plan, if I didn't have all the pieces together I would have never figured it out"

A wild cackle escaped Yu's mouth, with the hood covering his head and the snake hissing at his side he seemed like a true devil

'Hissing?'

Hissss-

"They came already? How many"

Hissssssss!

"Oh a lot I see, well then I guess we gotta move it, but before that…"

Yu looks toward the Core room with a playful gaze

"We can't welcome our guests like this now can we."

He then walks into the room with a spring in his step, even though it's still painful to walk that fast