After the destruction of Yorde, Feng took Dry back to the castle and left him in the royal garden. There, Safira was waiting.
When Dry saw Safira, he ran to his mother with a smile on his face. Safira held Dry in her arms and asked:
— How were things at the hotel, my dear?
— They went really well, I made new friends — Dry answered, overjoyed.
Safira felt relieved hearing that. She had been a little worried about her three-year-old son taking the rite of passage so early.
In the AHIA clan, when a child turns ten, instead of a party, a test is prepared — with no real protection at all.
Several children of AHIA had already died in this test. Even though the clan had the rule of exterminating anyone involved in the child's death, for Safira that was never enough. After all, even if the culprit was killed, her child would still remain dead.
If resurrection were allowed, it would be normal, but the clan forbade resurrecting its members.
— I shall take my leave, madam — said Feng to Safira, as he prepared to step away from the garden.
Safira just looked at him without saying a word. Dry, on the other hand, smiled and waved goodbye.
Feng walked through the castle and stopped in front of a brown door marked with the symbol of AHIA: "a very small tree with many branches and strong roots, its trunk looking as solid as steel." It was Jun's office door.
— Come in! — a toneless voice called from the other side of the door.
Feng entered and sat in an available chair, near the desk.
AHIA Jun was reading a book. Without looking at Feng, he asked:
— How did he do?
— Much better than the two of us back then. He even added Jay to the list. What do you think he wants with that boy? — Feng asked with a smile.
Jun closed his book and, with a faint smile on his lips, replied:
— He has his own plans. How should I know? I think he inherited his father's calmness.
— According to what Dry's grandfather told me, you weren't calm at all during your rite. I even heard a dog almost bit you to death — Feng mocked Jun.
— That dog is now one of the most powerful beings in the universe. I heard he destroyed a planet and is now considered a criminal by the Universal Alliance — Jun answered, a little irritated.
— Aren't the elders worried about a clan member causing trouble out there? — Feng asked, jaw dropping in astonishment.
— Do you think the elders care? He still has a hundred years before he can return to this planet. Otherwise, he'd rush back to the clan for protection — Jun said, now seated, staring at Feng.
— I'd really like to meet the only one of your generation who managed to beat you — Feng said mockingly to Jun.
Furious, Jun grabbed a book and threw it at Feng's face with absurd speed. But before the book could hit him, Feng vanished from the office like a ghost, smiling provocatively.
The book smashed against the chair with the same force, but a few centimeters away it stopped instantly and flew back into Jun's hand.
Jun, standing in his office, looked at the book and remembered when he was still a 10-year-old child.
During his rite of passage, he had faced a group of bandits — a 10-year-old against more than a hundred bandits with evolution levels between 1 and 1.3.
After two exhausting days of battle, the last one finally died, and Jun thought he was free. He rested for half a day. After resting, he searched the bandits' hideout.
There, he found a dog tied up. It was brown, skin and bones, looking like it hadn't eaten in years. He made the foolish mistake of untying the dog.
As soon as he did, the dog, who moments before looked close to death, attacked him. No matter how Jun fought back, the dog never let go of his arms. Jun fainted in pain and agony.
When he woke up two days later, he was already back at the clan, lying in bed. Right beside him was that damned dog.
That dog became his best friend and companion, but also his greatest adversary. It was stubborn even before awakening sentience. And once it began to think and speak like a sentient being, it became even worse.
It was the first and only case of someone acquiring the AHIA surname without a direct bloodline connection.
But twenty years ago, the dog wanted to see the world. The elders told him he could — as long as he followed two rules:
1. He could not stay on this planet.
2. He had to survive in the universe for 120 years without the clan's help.
After drifting in memories for a while, Jun tossed the book onto the desk and went to the garden, where his wife and son were.
---
Somewhere in the Multiverse. Milky Way Galaxy, more precisely in the Solar System. Planet Earth, year 5025 (Earth calendar).
Angola, capital city
A man who looked about forty stood on top of a building, gazing at the sky. Flying cars moved not too far from the 20-story building he was standing on.
"It's been ten years since Geremi died. Everyone lives their lives as if my only family never even existed!" — thought the melancholy man, staring at the blue sky.
When he got the call, ten years ago, saying his brother was dead, his first thought was that it was a lie. It couldn't be true. His brother, who had always protected him, was gone!
He was on Mars and used a teleporter to reach Earth as fast as possible. When he saw his brother's body, his world nearly collapsed!
But at that very moment, he heard a voice inside his head:
Host has suffered a great loss. Parameters met to awaken the Supremacy Reincarnation System.
That voice said Geremi still existed somewhere in the Multiverse, and that if he became powerful enough, he could bring him back.
I first met Geremi when I was ten, and he was twelve. We were both street orphans. Some boys were picking on me, and he saved me. But we truly became brothers when I was kidnapped by human traffickers.
They wanted to sell me to a galactic civilization that collected humans for various purposes.
At the time, I thought that was my fate: to be treated as trash by non-humans. Until, locked inside a filthy room, I heard screams outside, getting closer.
I shut my eyes in fear, as the noises seemed to approach the room where I was. Then I heard the door creak open. Terrified, I just prayed... until I heard:
— Finally, I found you!
I looked up at the voice and saw Geremi, his clothes soaked in blood, tears in his eyes but a smile on his face.
When I stepped out of that room, I saw corpses everywhere, slaughtered horribly. Some looked interrogated and tortured.
Later I learned what had happened. I had been missing for three months, and Geremi never stopped searching, until by chance he saw another street kid being kidnapped and followed the trafficker alone.
If someone had told this story, no one would believe that a twelve-year-old boy had killed more than twenty grown men in such a brutal way. But what the newspapers called "horrific" was, to me, the most beautiful act.
Because from that day on, I knew I was no longer alone.
My name was Antônio, and his was Geremi — with no surname.
He gave me the name "Antônio Pereira Spark," and for himself, "Geremi Pereira Spark." According to him, having the same name showed we were family.
Once, I asked him: why Pereira and Spark, and not something else?
He said: "Pereira is just because I liked it. And Spark is an ancient word — it means that which emanates and shines."