A major let down

Now that Leo was calm, the glow in his eyes finally died down and his gate deactivated.

The emotional roller coaster that the Chief experienced was enough to cause a heart attack to a normal human. He now understood what the gate point meant when it said that the gate was unique.

"This was definitely unexpected."

The time he had spent on Inobiru was enough for him to know that it was possible for him to find out more information about a gate from the gate point.

"Gate point. How powerful is the Gate of the Insect?"

The Gate point that stood at the middle of the council and the Gate point in the jungle both simultaneously replied.

{By comparison with all other existing Gates, the Gate of the Insect is the weakest.}

Almost all the members of the council immediately began laughing. When they were done, the only member that did not laugh and kept a serious face stood up to address the others.

"We don't need to bother ourselves with weak gates. This information is nothing but a distraction and should be attended to immediately."

Everyone became composed and nodded their heads.

The Lady continued.

"Gate point. Where is this Leo at now?"

{He is currently in the village of Yowai; a village located in the far east, deep within the Eastern jungle.}

One of the men spoke up.

"I've heard about that village; it's a village full of weaklings, and anyone that appears around there is always weak."

He had a gleeful look. He must have loved the idea that a weak village kept having weak individuals pop up around it.

The man sitting next to him wearing a pair of glasses spoke up.

"Correction. I believe that lord Joffrey came from that village."

"Oh. Is that so? Well, he made the right choice; who would want to be surrounded by that many weaklings. And now they've added a unique weakling to their ranks."

Everyone seemed to be delighted by this comment.

They discarded the information concerning Leo and continued with their meeting.

"How can there be a gate that's weaker than the Gate of the rodents?"

The Chief was in disbelief. He refused to believe that Leo was that weak.

"Then tell us how it's possible for him not to belong to a subgate or have a stage.

{The subgates and stages exist to differentiate between the power levels that exist within a gate. Leo Rivera has neither a subgate nor a stage because the size of his gate is minute and hence impossible to measure.}

And there it was, the confirmation that Leo was indeed weak.

Kiva fell down on her knees.

"But why? I was so sure. How can he be the weakest?"

It was clear from her reaction to finding out that Leo was weak that she really believed that he was powerful.

The Chief asked Kiva to control her emotions and not falter.

"It's not the end of the world; we just have to keep looking. Do not lose hope no matter what happens and always stay strong."

This was when Leo had realized that Kiva was really the Chief's daughter. He felt like he let them down and this made him feel bad. He wondered how the rest of the villagers were going to take the news and that scared him.

Lucius kept mute and studied Leo. Leo could feel Lucius' glare and turned to look at him.

"You're mad at me, right?"

"No, I'm not angry with you, I'm surprised. How can someone with a Gate that's weaker than the weakest subgate of the Gate of the rodent, be able to last as long as you did with that Laoshe?"

Leo was now clearly doubting himself and his ability.

"Maybe it was luck."

The Chief eyes widened.

"Or maybe it was magic."

The Chief turned to face the gate point.

"What about his magic?"

The gate point took a long pause before answering the question. It was as though it was analyzing the answer.

{The amount of energy passing through the gate is not sufficient to be used for magic.}

The boy who had been listening was now fed up with the continuous confirmation of Leo's weakness. He was hoping that Leo would really turn out to be strong. He began developing a hatred for Leo, even though he was aware that it wasn't Leo's fault.

"Come on Racky, let's go back to the village."

He turned around with a sad look on his face and as soon as he turned around he spotted a Laoshe in the bushes stalking him. He froze, or so it appeared to be. After a while he crouched down and picked up a branch, pulled a small knife from his back, and began carving the branch, turning it into an irregular spear. He stood up and gave Racky a signal to run up the tree and as he did so, the Laoshe's eyes followed. The boy had succeeded in distracting the animal and proceeded to launch the spear in its direction with all his might.

"We can't stay here anymore; my magic won't last long. We could be ambushed by Laoshes any moment from now."

They all headed back to the village to announce the bad news to everyone.

"Go ahead, I have to do something."

"Ok sir."

The Chief stayed back while the others went ahead.

He closed his eyes and bent his head.

"I know you're there. You can come out now, Councilman Zolomon."

Just then, Leaves began spiraling in the air and collapsed to reveal a man who looked like he was in his forties.

"I see your senses are as sharp as ever, Chief Mbaku. It's nice to see you again, my old friend."

The Chief's face dawned a disgusted look.

"I wouldn't say it feels nice to see you, and don't ever call me a friend. You lost the privilege to do that when you betrayed the village."

"Are you still mad about that? That was ages ago. Don't you know it's unhealthy to hold a grudge?"

The Chief was clearly growing furious. His voice was now loud and aggressive and his eyes were starting to glow.

"You are the reason that the village is the way it is. If only I had seen through your deception back then, we would have had our own Menzhu right now."