Ritual

Fifteen Months Later…

"Sebastian?! Where are you?!" The man shouted.

The realm changed completely since the start of Sebastian's training. Every week, the man added something new to the realm and made it more difficult to complete. After a few months he stopped adding new stuff since he figured Sebastian would be completely broken but he proved him wrong ever now and then.

Swoosh!

Bang!

Swoosh!

Bang!

"What the hell is that?" The man questioned.

The man walked toward the noise and saw multiple large trees on the ground. Beside those trees, he noticed six corpses of different beasts. Each corpses held a strong presence, even in death.

'He actually killed them! Even if they were just small manifestations of the real things, they aren't meant to be underestimated.' The man thought, surprised.

Splash!

The man then walked toward the lake and sensed a strong presence. He slowly walked back and fell on the ground in disbelief.

'Impossible! Every week the water's speed would increase by one mile-per-hour. I told him it was optional after the fifth week… even Ragnar said he couldn't swim in the lake after the fifth week… the lake's speed currently is… seventy-five mile-per-hour…'

It was until now that Sebastian revealed himself as he launched out of the lake with a fish in his mouth. The man then noticed his body was full of scars and some were still bleeding.

Screech!

Suddenly a massive creature with seven heads appeared out of the water and fired a massive wave of fire. Sebastian turned around and dodged the wave of fire before he flash-stepped in front of the creature.

"Flawless Style: Roundhouse Kick!" Sebastian shouted.

A large force of wind and energy shot through the air and two heads were fell from the monster's body. The monster screeched out in pain and noticed a strange phenomenon with his regeneration capabilities. 

'The hydra… its insane regeneration speed and powerful attacks…' The man thought.

Black and red daggers were formed in Sebastian's hands and with one swing, a massive aura was released and cut off four heads.

Slash!

'Wait… Why aren't its heads growing back? Is his auras preventing them from regenerating.'

Walking toward the man, Sebastian had his eyes set on him and nothing else. The man then sensed a high amount of aggressive energy around him and pointed at the hydra.

"Behind!" The man warned Sebastian.

Behind Sebastian, the hydra's remaining head had its mouth opened and was ready to bite down on Sebastian but that didn't happen. 

Thump!

Slowly, the hydra began to collapse until its mouth surrounded Sebastian. Poisonous gas slowly started to come out of the hydra's mouth and covered Sebastian's body.

Unfazed by the gas, Sebastian continued to walk until he was a few inches away from the man. Surprised, the man inspected his body and was confused by it.

"The gas isn't affecting you?" The man questioned

"Mithridatism." Sebastian replied.

"Dangerous way of doing since it's a hydra's poison but let's go. Your training is completed and now you're ready to accept a mission."

A portal opened up and Ragnar was standing on the other side. Walking through, Sebastian felt his strength coming back and suddenly felt another surge of power overcome his body.

Bang!

The surrounding ground around Sebastian broke under the pressure of his presence. Everyone around him was surprising and felt threatened by him but ignored it.

"Congratulations, I'm finally able to give you a mission." Ragnar said.

"A mission? What kind of mission will it be?" Sebastian asked, stretching his limbs out.

"Slow down. You haven't even gotten rest or proper food."

"Just give me the mission and I will do it."

"Get some rest and I'll debrief on your mission tomorrow."

"Fine."

With one step, Sebastian disappeared and surprised Ragnar with his speed as he didn't even use 'Flash Step'.

…

"Slow down, Sebastian" Spoke a man.

Stopping, Sebastian turned around and looked around his surroundings, and found no one behind him. 

"You're quite easy to sneak up on." The man revealed himself as his knife was against Sebastian's neck.

"Who are you?" Sebastian inquired.

"Me? I'm the Dark Guild's best blacksmith and the best intel-gatherer. I've come to find you since I heard you use the legendary armor from the Demon continent."

"So what? You wanna steal it from me?"

"Steal? I just want to see the armor."

Slowly, Sebastian's body was getting covered in a black suit of armor until it fully enveloped his body. The knife against Sebastian's throat shattered and an immense presence appeared behind the blacksmith.

Shing!

A large sword appeared beside the blacksmith's head and a large amount of killing intent was released in the surrounding area.

"What do you think you're doing?" Bastian asked, menacingly.

The blacksmith's heart stopped beating and a single drop of sweat fell to the ground. He then let go of Sebastian and stepped back.

"That's enough, Bastian." Sebastian spoke.

"You've gotten quicker." Bastian turned around. "Does the old man want you to rest?"

"Yep. He told me to rest before he can give me my mission."

"Follow me. I'll take you somewhere."

…

Fifteen Minutes Later…

"This location is where the founder used to rest at. He always meditated inside the center of the lake."

"It feels… peaceful."

Small stones appeared from the lake and led to a rock in the center of the lake. Walking on the path, Sebastian arrived at the stone and a bright figure appeared from thin air. He was surprised by its appearance and looked at the figure with curiosity.

He looked at the bright figure closely and noticed how devoid his eyes were of emotions. Sebastian then lost himself in the figure's red eyes as the figure looked deeper into his soul. The figure tried to say something but no words were heard or at least to Bastian.

"That's the founder. He appears when he deems someone worthy of meditating and recovering on his rock."

Sitting down, Sebastian felt comfortable until a strange energy entered his body and paralyzed it. He tried his best to stay awake but the strange energy was too strong. It didn't take long before he slowly drifted off to sleep.

…

Ten Hours Later…

Opening his eyes, Sebastian felt refreshed and energized, and ready to go when he noticed something wrong.

"What's the meaning of this!?" Sebastian shouted, angrily.

Sebastian currently was suspended in the air and a large rune glowed on the ground. He looked at his body and noticed an even bigger rune was on it.

"We're performing the heart transplant and blood transplant into your body."

"What?! Are you crazy!? I'll die!?"

"Relax, only one percent of people pass this transplant and Ragnar was the only one." Bastian said, smiling.

Gulp!

Sebastian's heart skipped a beat, upon hearing Bastion's words. He then started to move around frantically in hopes of breaking the binds that held him in place.

"W-wait! I thought I was too weak for the transplant?"

"Did we say that? I must've forgotten about that… Haha!" Ragnar laughed.

In the background, chanting could be heard and hundreds of people could be seen in rows. Before Sebastian could object, his body became paralyzed and his mind became fuzzy.

As Sebastian was about to pass out, he saw a massive heart and a massive barrel of blood. Fear gripped his heart for what was gonna happen next.

'T-that won't fit in my body…'

Passing out, the transplant continued as Ragnar began to move the heart closer to Sebastian's body. The heart got smaller as it got closer to Sebastian and before long, the heart was the size of a human heart. 

"I, the apostle of slaughter, hereby ask our 'god' to grant our newest member the survival to pass the ritual." Ragnar spoke.

The ground started to tremble and cracked open. Red lights started to come out of the ground until they lit up the sky. 

The heart and the barrel of blood began to float into the air and flew above Sebastian's body. His chest opened and the heart flew into the inside until it resided onto the right side of his chest.

Sebastian's body began to shake violently and his mouth began to foam. Slowly, the founder's blood flew into Sebastian's body and his vein began to glow and show through his skin.

His skin began to rip until blood began to spew out. His regeneration ability constantly repaired his body as it was being destroyed and ripped open.

Thump!

Thump!

Sebastian's heartbeat could be heard throughout the founder's dimension. The force behind his heartbeat broke the surrounding ground and made the air become denser.

The red lights from the ground disappeared and the runes lost their glow. Sebastian's body fell from the sky and landed roughly on the ground.

Walking toward Sebastian, Ragnar kneeled and put his head on Sebastian's chest. Ragnar was attempting to hear his heartbeat but nothing could be heard.

"He's… dead. What a waste of a heart!" Ragnar showed his disappointment.

"Dead? He's just sleeping. Your vibration magic should be able to wake him up." Bastian said.

Putting a finger on Sebastian's chest, Ragnar activated his vibration magic and shook his entire body. Blood spewed out of Sebastian's mouth and his heart began to beat again. 

Opening his eyes, Sebastian immediately stood up and looked around frantically. He then glared at Ragnar and Bastian in a fit of rage.

"You almost killed me!" Sebastian shouted.

"Be prepared for the lightning strikes." Ragnar said, walking away.

"Lightning?" Sebastian looked up.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Each lightning strike was stronger than the last and left Sebastian's body sizzling. His skin looked to be burned off until his regeneration abilities kicked in and repaired his body.

"I'll debrief you on your mission when you arrive at the headquarters. Have a look around and see if you want anything before arriving." Ragnar spoke as he stepped through a portal.

After everyone left, Sebastian stood there and started to process what happened not too long ago. He then disappeared from the ritual area and reappeared on the streets. When arriving on the streets, Sebastian was surprised to see that the streets were clean and well taken care of.

Further down the street, Sebastian found the weapon's store and entered inside. A random person, presumed to the speaker, walked up to him and spoke.

"Welcome! What kind of weapon are you looking for? A katana? Shield? Dagger? We have it all!"

Ignoring the speaker, Sebastian inspected the weapon aligned along the wall and noticed a few of them were highly priced and something he couldn't hope to buy with his current money.

'What are these prices? Two thousand gold coins just for a small dagger! What a rip-off!'

The prices for the weapons discouraged Sebastian so much that he decided to leave. He had expected the weapons to be low priced but the prices were out of his price range by a long mile.

Walking outside the shop, Sebastian jumped to the rooftops and jumped roof to roof until he arrived at the headquarters. Opening the doors, Sebastian saw Ragnar and Bastian talking while three people were kneeled on the ground.

"You finally arrived." Ragnar said.

Walking closer Sebastian saw a huge wall full of names and half of them were crossed. He then noticed some of the names crossed off were some people he knew. He also noticed that Lycaon's name was on the list but was a question mark.

"I picked an assassination mission for your first mission. You are to assassinate the baron of a city.

He resides in his mansion all the time so it should be easy to locate him but his guard will be the problem. He's guarded by multiple D-Ranked individuals and one C-Ranked individual."

"Assassination? I ain't the best person for assassination missions but I'll try to keep it stealthy." Sebastian replied.

"Off you go then."

Before Sebastian could say or do anything, he was teleported in a random forest in the middle of nowhere.