Chapter 8

At first, Rebecca didn't know what was going on. Before she noticed it, she was looking up to the night sky. She had collapsed onto the floor of the rooftop.

"What happened? Why am I on the floor?" Thinking so, she tried to stand up but realized she couldn't. Why couldn't she stand up, she soon found her answer.

A weight was pressing onto her. Rather, someone was lying on top of her. She looked. He was a 5"9" ft young boy with unkempt black hair and had sky blue eyes but his eyes were closed.

"Marco...?" The boy didn't respond to Rebecca's dumbfounded mumbling. He didn't move. Therefore she tried calling out to him and placed her hands on his back. She felt a strange liquid on his back.

It was Blood

Her consciousness fully awakened and she remembered the moment like a flashback.

Apparently, a shadow type demon had appeared behind her and Marco protected her from its attack using his back. By doing so, he ended up being cut on the back.

"So this is the son of the War God. Aren't you Surprisingly fragile." She hear the disappointed voice of the masked man.

"Hey.. Wake up, Marco wake up." Rebecca raised an aggrieved scream as she tried to wake him up. Then something moved at the corner of her vision, right next to her.

It was Yuki, she had killed the shadow that cut Marco. Then she dashed towards the masked man. she drew her sword and swung it at the masked man, aiming for his neck. However, she cut through air.

"Hahaha, How feisty." While saying so with a playful voice, the masked man easily jumped aside and dodged it. But Yuki was already waiting for him there.

As she predicted his evasion, she rushed ahead in anticipation of his movements at the same time as she released her attack. While in a Iaidō stance, she unleashed a sideways s slash with her katana.

It cut through, but only through air. The masked man dodged to the top--- into midair.

"As much as I want to play with you, I'm running out of time so let's save it for another occasion, Okay." The masked man said without a sign of shame.

The masked man shifted his gaze away from Yuki, who bit down onto her lips frustrated, to Rebecca. Rebecca, who stood up while holding the wounded Marco. And then he declared with a cold voice.

"Get it now? This is the result of the power you possess."

"My power." In front of Rebecca, who became

dumbfounded from the result of the power that she possessed, the masked man erased his appearance like melting with the air. The night wind carried only his voice over.

"I'll will redraw for now. I know you're smart girl so give it some thought. As long as you host that power, those close to you will suffer. Your parents were the first victims, this boy is second. How many more will suffer because of you." And lastly, Rebecca heard him add this.

"But--- Depending on your choice, you can end all of this at once."

***

Six years ago, some close to the mountain range in Los Angeles stood the territory of the hunters. It housed many high ranking hunters, future generations and the home of the War god, Jin Oslov and Marco Oslov.

Marco already had a bright future at a young age. He was the only son of Jin Oslov, one of the four great powers and was said to possess potential surpassing that of Jin's. He was far stronger than the boys and girls his age. Some even compared him to veteran hunters.

Moreover, the reason a lot of people had set their hopes on him was that Marco possessed a unique skill no one including jin could imitate.

<Vanishing Shift>. A skill which could only be unleashed as a counter of an opponent's attack, could nullify or disperse any kind of attack, physical or magical.

Moreover--- When he could feel out one's "Source of Existence", and cut it, he could erase the existence - the matter of the opponent's attack itself is reduced to nothingness.

Thus Marco was raised with the other kids his age, as the hope for the next generation. At the time, Marco was quite happy with his life, he enjoyed playing with his childhood friends especially Yuto, who possesses talents that rivaled Marco.

But, those happy days suddenly came to an end. A certain young man was dissatisfied with his stagnant growth and sort to gain more power. He hunted many demons and even resorted to demonic rituals in other to gain more power, but it wasn't enough.

Greed took over him, leading him to remove the seals placed the powerful demonic sword Brynjar that contained the soul of one of the great demon kings that once ruled the world of darkness, in the recesses of the mountains close to where the hunters dwell.

Needless to say, the young man was confident in his own power. Everyone else acknowledged it too. So he intended to defeat the demon within the magic sword Brynjar. But the young man greatly overestimated his strength.

The Demon consumed the man's soul and took over his body. Then, it attacked the detested existence that as sealed it --- the hunters.

To make matters worse, the incident happened when the four great powers weren't around. Still, there were some powerful S ranks that could fight. But, the power of the great demon kings resided in the body of someone that was nearly unrivaled.

The tragedy couldn't be stopped and many lost. Father, mothers, the elderly, not even the children were spared. And then the was defeated by Marco. But it happened by Basara losing his mind on the sight of his friends getting killed before him and thus, letting <Vanishing Shift> go berserk.

When he woke up, Marco was lying in a hospital bed. And he was told that the crisis was over. By the hands of none other than himself. Proof for that was that the demon sword Brynjar, who didn't even allow the great powers to use it, chose Marco as its master. Thanks to Marco, the demon was slain. However, not without consequences.

Marco's <Vanishing Shift> mercilessly annihilated the surrounding area to oblivion.

The possessed young man, the demon, the deceased, the S rank hunters, the children, the mountain nearby and even the sky. All of it was erased.

It didn't take long for the people who couldn't bury their loved ones to voice out their complains. It was discussed in no time that <Vanishing Shift> was too dangerous and Marco should be sealed along with Brynjar to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

Regardless of the fact that Marco no longer could use <Vanishing Shift> due to his trauma. But Marco didn't really care. Masara himself couldn't bear the burden of having erased his friends and became like an empty shell. However, Jin returned and stood up for Marco. some others too stood for him.

And then a conclusion was made. Marco was stripped of his hunter qualifications and exiled along with his utilized demon sword Brynjar. And Jin should go with him to oversee that his ability wouldn't go out of control again.

Marco obeyed that decision. But Jin gave a straightforward objection.

"If being a hunter prevents me from protecting Marco--- Then I'll quit being a hunter as well."

Saying so, he left together with Marco. And then--- six years had passed since then.

The memory of that tragedy was still haunted Marco in his dreams even now. He couldn't discover an atonement for his sin, nor how to face it. As proof of this, he still couldn't use <Vanishing Shift>.

While his consciousness was clouded in darkness, Marco thought back to when he met a certain redhead. On that fateful day, he saw her feeding a stray cat in the alley. At first, he ignored her, but at the next day, he saw her again at the same alley and the day after. This went on for a week.

Out of curiosity, he decided to approach her and ask her about it. "Why do you keep feeding the stray cats" he asked. Hearing his words, the girl replied "These strays have lost their house and have no one to take care of them, so how I leave them alone?"

On her words, Marco asked "But you don't have to, so why bother."

"Because I want to." She said so with a smile. but the result was grave. Her words pierced through his fragile heart and tears formed in his eyes. Her nice and cheerful personality reminded him of one of his childhood friends.

He didn't know if it was fate or not but they attended the same middle school together and they got along really well. He began to break out from his shell. He started to admire her.

The girl he considered a close friend actually possessed great power. But, she didn't ask for that. Yet, her life was in danger and her parents who protected her are now dead.

In the past, Jin gave up being a hunter to protect him. Marco already lost his qualification as a Hunter. But right now, there was a girl that obviously wasn't protected by the hunters and she was all alone.

So the one to protect her -- to protect Rebecca must be himself. Even though he considered himself a pitiful existence, even though he no longer had his previous power. Still, Brynjar reacted to him. His arms and legs moved. And he had will.

"Therefore…"

He opened his Eyes.