The start of a journey. (2) (Updated)

Toru was taking his mid-day nap whilst waiting for Eli to come back. Ai was beside him knitting, it was peaceful at the time.

Till they were paid a visit by people on horseback. Some of the guys in the group were dressed in armour. Toru at this point had awoken from his nap thanks to Ai, who at this point had gone to grab her magic staff. He was immediately alarmed at the sight of this. He stood up ready to bid them welcome, in truth he was really uncomfortable, almost scared to say the least.

Toru hoped that the group approaching his home wasn't a pack of outlaws as he heard news that a pack of outlaws had recently made camp a few miles away hoping to hit travelers using the road.

As the group of people drew closer he recognised a familiar face. Ren a noble from one of the great houses. At the sight of him Toru relaxed a little, though he would have felt better if he had his two swords with him. The small party arrived and got off their horses.

"Toru you are a hard man to find, its been so long why did u never tell me you left the military." Ren smiled warmly hiding his true intentions.

"Ah i didn't want to bother you over a small matter" The reason Toru didn't tell him he had left was because 'he' was one of the reasons he left.

See after he had saved a Lord he gained the Lord's favour. Naturally this gained him alot of attention both good and bad. Some people thought he was unworthy to deserve it since he wasn't skilled enough, others thought that he would abuse it. Ren was one of these people, Ren had initially acted friendly towards him at the time, but Toru sensed from his gut that the friendship was masking his ill intent.

He then found this to be true, from there, as a result the relationship between the two worsened as Toru tried to create distance from Ren. Ren at the time had wanted to `reclaim` the swords from him peacefully, but Toru appeared to wise up to his advances, so he had planned to acquire it by simply killing him, however the opportunity never came as he later found out he had left (He had thrown a small tantrum when he found this out).

Whilst Toru could leave, he couldn't, if he could he would have pursued him to whatever rock he was hiding his worthless ass under. Unfortunately his position demanded he stay in the capital due to court affairs. When the opportunity finally presented itself, he searched for Toru.

However, after a time Ren gave up in his little search for Toru, it disgusted him that Toru was able to get away with two swords undeserving of his position, he had no title nor position of prestige you couldn't be anymore undeserving than that. However Toru at the time had managed to slip from his gaze.

He had long forgotten about Toru, when news came to light about his location. He was actually surprised by the news at first since he had long forgotten about the issue, he was told that Toru was living in comfort near a small village with both a wife and a son. He was angered in particular by this information the fact that this nobody managed to stay hidden for so long, father a child and live happily with a wife, he cursed the luck that this man had. The fact that Toru managed to get away from his reach, live in peace and have a family was a stain to his position. He remembered how years back when had failed to find him then, the failure had gnawed on him, whilst he was in torture, this guy had the audacity to settle down.

But now he was granted another opportunity, his luck had finally run out. His anger turned into delight when he pictured Toru's demise, the sensation that he felt when pictured he Toru's death was of ecstasy. He quickly assembled a small force that he went with to witness Toru's end in person. His hostility towards Toru was no longer just about the swords, no, that was just apart of it.

Ren looked over and saw Ai. "Wow, how lucky to capture such a beauty Toru." She acknowledged his compliment with a smile. Ren returned his gaze towards Toru and looked to where his swords would normally be, one of the many reasons he had come, "perhaps he had sold them?" he wouldn't be surprised if he did after all that's just how did simple minded people operate, or perhaps `they were in the house` though he did doubt it.

"It looks like your luck has finally come to an end."

"I can give you the swords" Toru quickly replied as he knew what may have brought Ren here.

"Too late for that now Toru. Why should I ask for them from you, when I can just as simply take them. Plus, giving me the swords isn't going to surfeit my hatred. Only your death and the rest of your family will." Ren stepped back to give a small nod.

At once six guys who were next to Ren drew their swords. Toru had nothing to counter with, but Ai instantly started casting her magic and used elemental ice magic on the closest aggressor. It had no effect to her horror, these guys were well trained and were good quality warriors Ren had brought with him. He had with him six sword warriors as well as four mages. They had enchanted their armour with tier 2 suppressive magic using their own mana so that it would suppress weak spells such as hers.

Ai mostly specialised in support magic and healing magic so she wasn't that powerful in using attack spells. But for them to completely suppress her magic like they did meant these were powerful opponents. She tried gaining distance but it wasn't enough since the mages had cast 'quick step' magic on the swordsmen, allowing the swordsmen to close the distance between her and them at incredible speed. In seconds it was all over as a sword met her throat.

Whilst all this had been going on Toru had tried and failed at attacking Ren. Initially his thought process had been clouded with rage and he had run at Ren, only to be instantly downed by one of the swordsmen who managed to get a clean cut into his thigh. He promptly fell to the ground when he was unable to move himself under his injured foot, severely injured Ren walked over to him with a smile of satisfaction. Toru turned his head whilst on the ground to see his beloved Ai dead on the ground.

"Hahaha... I never thought it would be this satisfying to exact a punishment, but it is, it truly is. Thank you for reminding me of this feeling, I hope your son can amplify it enough to soothe my anger." Ren spoke as a swordsman ended Toru's life.

After Toru's death the house was ransacked in search for the two swords but they found nothing, so the house was lit on fire. Ren ordered his men to wait for the return of the boy and kill him as well, as he headed for his horse.

Before he could climb onto his horse he was startled by the appearance of a young male. Was it Toru's son he was told about? He quickly noticed the swords that he had came for were on his hips, confirming his suspicions.

Eli had dropped what he was carrying and run after he had seen the direction of the smoke trial in the sky, but he arrived too late. This was to be a second time he had lost someone close to him, seeing his two dead parents he was saddened by the sight.

"Ah you must be Toru's son. Give me the swords and you may just be able to walk away with your life." He still planned on killing him, he just found it a bit distasteful that he would die with the swords being on him.

Upon hearing this, he found it hard to believe this stranger's extension of goodwill, Eli knew that he most likely would die even if he was to give away the two swords, since this was the situation the only way out of it was simply killing him before he ends up being a corpse.

"Hahaha, you expect me to trust your words? How stupid do you think I am?" His response took Ren by surprise.

Eli then called on the shard to lend its power to him as his eyes turned to a crimson red. He had already moved and summoned one of the spells `Flash ice tier 3` Heidi had taught him. This was a more powerful spell and the suppressing magic the swordsmen had cast on themselves had no effect on Eli's spell. In an instant they were frozen in place.

He turned his attention to the mages before they could cast their magic at him, they had momentarily been a bit slow in acting due to being caught off guard by this young man's retaliation. One of the mages decided to use an area of effect spell. He used a fire type bombardment spell on Eli but he easily dodged them, they were poorly aimed so it was not hard feat to do so.

Eli then decided to used `flauder` a tier 3 spell against them it was just one projectile. The four mages moved to dodge, but it split up into four smaller projectiles, hitting all of four of them before they realised their mistake.

Only Ren was left as Eli walked towards him.

"You can't kill me, do you know who I am?" Ren screamed at Eli, hoping that what he uttered would save him from death.

Eli simply ignored what Ren stated as he continued advancing towards him.

"I can forget this matter if you let me go, you can even keep the swords." But Eli kept advancing on him, so Ren retaliated both in anger and fear. Ren drew his sword and charged at him. But his desperate attack was expected and countered. Eli winded Ren with a kick into his gut and brought the hilt down on Ren's head. As Ren was disoriented Eli pressed the sword into him.

So Ren ended up getting at-least one of the swords, though it was impaled in him. As Eli walked over to his two dead parents as their blood coated the ground. Whilst he stared at their lifeless bodies he found no tears to comfort him, though his heart did ache from the loss. He made the decision to burn the two bodies, afraid the bodies would fall victim to a scavenger. With a quick summoning of a fire spell he made sure to burn them well.

He made sure to take with him the two swords he was given. After all, if you weren't going to die today, you may die tomorrow or the day after that; a person's possessions will remain long after death this is why he cherished the two swords Toru had given him. They would serve to remind him of his failure.