1 The clash of two worlds

"This is where everything ends... you damned Noes. You've been nothing but a nuisance since you and your little posse appeared."

"...Fuck you."

The boy didn't change his expression even a little. His courageous yet nervous smirk seemed as if it was carved into stone while his head was hanging low. If his hands would've been free instead of chained against the wall, then there would've been a specific hand sign he would have shown the man for sure.

The two males stood across each other, one with chains wrapped around his arms while the other one was standing upright, arrogantly, with a pissed-off face while looking down at the boy.

"Suddenly, when your friends can't support you anymore, you lose your smart comebacks... you disgust me."

A low voice escaped the man's lips, immediately followed by a kick in the young boy's stomach without changing the expression that very well fit what he just said. This simple kick made the entire storage hall quake and be filled with the loud ringing of the chains hanging from the ceiling, followed by the coughed-up blood splatter on the deep dark black ice that was nearly fully covering the floor. The hall was cold enough to see one's breath, which was made even clearer after the boy's heavy gasps for air.

"Tell me... who exactly are you? A Noes not only in the known about Espers... but also being able to see them..."

"The name's Fudo...and...I'm not gonna tell you shit, old man... let go... of my people!"

This was the only thing the boy could say while looking onto slight bumps in the ice. The floor below the black ice was plastered in corpses, and the man was just walking over them a few seconds ago. The boy's weak gaze wasn't focused on the several lifeless bodies, though. Instead, it was directed on the eye-catcher in all this mayhem. There was a head sticking out of the bumps of ice. It was a young girl's head with short bright blue hair, and she was probably not older than twelve. Above the small head was a kind of orb that matched the girl's hair color, just floating, not showing any other kind of action.

"You may talk about 'your people'... but actually... you just mean that kid there, am I wrong? All the time, you look out for her, but the others you won't even look after."

The man smirked provocatively and took slow steps towards the boy, grabbing his chin as he took a step to the side so the boy could have a clear view of the hall.

"Take a look... these... these are all sacrifices that come because of your incompetence as a Noes... seriously... how did these people take you as their leader?"

The stone-carved-like smirk from the boy was suddenly not as solid as it was before, seeing everything that occurred, from the previously loudly ringing chains were also hanging humans. Two women that had their heads hanging down and their eyes closed, frozen onto the chains by the same black ice that was covering the floor. On one of the containers, undeviatingly the boy's field of view was a man impaled by an icicle as dark as night. The same icicle had a sword with an eye between the handle and blade stabbed into it.

"I'll... FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU BASTARD!"

The boy screamed at the top of his lungs, with all he still could get out as with every word he yelled, the pain just grew. His face was warped in anger and pain altogether.

"You're still... nothing but a disgusting Noes, nothing but rubbish in a world filled with trash... how in god's name did you survive this long?!"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP-"

The man didn't let the boy talk for long, and now both their faces had an obvious single emotion. The man was grinding his teeth, with widened eyes that very clearly showed the veins in them as he delivered a punch to the boy's side with the dark ice covering his fist. The boy's eyes were the same, directed a the ice on the floor slowly growing towards him, yet his eyes didn't come from anger but from sole pain. His eyes and mouth were both ripped wide open as the punch hit his rips, letting out a heavy scream followed by a mix of blood and saliva coming up.

"Finish your sentence!"

The man declared with another punch to the boy's rips.

"People that don't finish what they wanted to say disgust me!"

The grinding of his teeth turned into a wide smile, obviously enjoying the boy's pain. The smile was growing by the second, and the ends of his mouths nearly reached his ears. The boy responded with not a single word, but instead, his tired and worn-out-looking face reaching up as much as he could and coughing the blood that came up directly into the man's face.

"You damn...You bastard!"

His hands started to freeze even more until his fists were like brass knuckles made out of ice that he didn't hesitate to ram into the boy's side once again, yet this time the boy didn't move an inch. The boy kept looking at the floor. He didn't flinch. He didn't even move his mouth, as the blood was just dripping out. After a few seconds, the only thing that came out from the boy was blood and a deafening scream full of rage.

"YOU... AND YOUR GOD FUCKING ICE ARE A PLAGUE FOR ALL OF THIS DAMN WORLD, MASANORI!"

"And what do you want to do against it?! You're just a Noes! A normal human without ability! All of your friends are down! Nothing you'll do will work against 'Niflheim's freezer' "

Suddenly the boy kept quiet, again not knowing what to say, until his eyes suddenly had a sparkling in them. Since his deafening scream, more and more corpses that were buried below the ice started to shine, as small orbs of light emerged, from either the chest or heads.

"...The...the Elysium!"

"The what?"

As Masanori turned around and saw the orbs that came from the dead that he covered with ice, his eyes widened from surprise.

"...Those are...remainders of espers!"

The light's one after another, started moving towards them with great speed, not even stopped by the wall of ice Masanori put up to keep them away. The lights stopped as quickly as they came, and the previously so bright red lights suddenly turned white as they all met and started merging into each other. The light didn't grow in size, yet it changed the shape from an orb to what seemed to be a dagger.

"Is this... a weapon?! Do I finally... get my Esper now?!"

With as much power as he had left, the boy looked up to the dagger that formed from the light. By the second, the energy emerging from the dagger got more powerful and even more powerful, until it even blinded Masanori, who tried to interfere with what was occurring in front of them, though, before he could reach out for the dagger the whole procedure finished, and the Esper weapon was completed.

"I'm... no longer a Noes-"

As he watched the dagger, the boy was about to yell out his last energy in celebration of the gift... which was flying at him with rapid speed. Without being able to follow the dagger with his eyes, it stabbed itself into the boy's head and started to shine in a bright white light once more.