Mandla looked me up and down without saying a single word; his face was stony as he observed me. A smile broke out on his lips before stating. "You claim to be ready; of that, we will have to see. But fret not, young lion, I will make you dangerous yet." The smile faded from his lips, transforming into a very serious expression. Without realizing it, I had started to hold my breath before he continued to speak. "You are aware of the requirements involved, yes? What am I even asking for? Of course you do. For the coming weeks, your home will be here, and I will work you to the bone. Until you feel like you can do no more, and only then will the true training begin."
The once jovial man's presence had shifted into the bearing of a true warrior king, his aura sending shivers down my spine. For a second, I could have sworn that I saw an entire retinue of ghastly Zulu warriors stand behind my uncle, similar to the apparition that was my brother. "And now, if you would excuse me, I still have a lot of work to do. Find Sipho; he will get you situated." With that, my uncle sat down once more, returning to the documents he had been busy with, his aura retracted once his focus was back on his work.
The cold sweat that ran down my back was a testament to the sheer power my uncle wielded, the same man who would be training me for the foreseeable future. Leaving the office, my thoughts wandered back to the main reason why I had never received the training in the past, no matter how my mother had insisted. My father would simply not allow it. I was a disgrace in his eyes; he could not allow me to overshadow my brother and become a contender for the position as heir to the house, so he limited my knowledge to purely that of cultivation. Leaving me to experiment endlessly with my gift to try and discover its secrets, but a few years back, I ran into a wall. I could no longer improve without the meager knowledge I had at my disposal, causing me to stagnate.
I found Sipho watching the warriors training in the courtyard, clearly bored, as visible from his facial expression. He noticed me approach as I was not trying to hide my presence, not that I could have hidden from him. He was far too powerful to fall for any of the simple tricks that I could do. "I assume you are going to head off again?" He asked while lazily looking towards me.
"No, not this time. It seems you are gonna have to look at my ugly muck for a while longer." I replied to him with a grin. This was one of the reasons I loved the tribe; there was no need for me to save face, as they were a far more lax group than the aristocracy I was used to.
"What do you mean?" he asked while raising a brow in surprise.
"Oh, nothing. Just that I am going to be staying here for a few weeks. I will probably only go out every now and then to check up on my business." I said while waving him off.
"You still have not answered my question." He sighed irritably; he was not a fan of these vague responses. But I did that only to tease him.
"I am going to be training under Uncle for a while." I finally responded to him, seeing a notable grimace when he heard the news.
"Good luck, father might as well be a slave driver the way he whips people into shape. I do not envy you, cousin, I do not envy you at all." He said while shaking his head in mock empathy, before his face split open in a grin. "That means we are gonna hang out more? It has truly been too long since I have been stuck here in the middle of nowhere." I could feel the frustration with which he spoke. Even though Sipho was the current heir of the family, he had no interest in the Zulu way of life; he wanted to explore, to live his life without being shackled to the expectations of his title. An idea formed in my head, but it would have to wait. Now was not the time to mention my idea to form a guild. No, I would sus him out first before making the offer. It is not like Mandla would mind; my uncle had many heirs who would be more than willing to take his place.
"Speaking of, you should definitely come with me next time I go to the city. We can go grab a drink and talk to some girls. In general, just have a fun night out." Sipho's whole mood shifted when he heard my proposal. After all, he had a specific taste in women that could not be found within the village; I believe the slang term for them was snow bunnies.
"You're not pulling my leg, right? Cause if you are, I will make you regret it." The hope was clear in his eyes, even when he made the threat.
"No, no, I am being dead serious," I reassured him before looking out at the training warriors, my thoughts wandering to all the things I still had to accomplish. A tired sigh escaped my lips before looking back at Sipho. "You're father told me you would help me get sorted. Like with a room and stuff like that." Finally, bringing up the main reason I had sought him out.
He just waved me off, taking out his phone, and he called one of the servants to help me out with the promise of seeking me out later. He left to return to his post at the gate. Now alone once more, I had time to organize my thoughts. Not for long, though, as a young servant girl stopped next to me, she gave a short bow before leading me to my new room for the coming weeks. It was located within the main manor, close to the kitchen, if he ever got hungry, as well as showing him around the manor. He already knew most of what she showed him, but the manor had expanded in the six years since his last visit. The final place she showed me was a door that led to stairs leading down to the basement. Following her, he reached a strange room, which looked more like a cave with various totems found within. A large ritual circle was found in the center of the room. I call it a room, but it was more of a cave with a glowing stream running through it.
"This is the ancestral cave. A select few warriors have been given access to this room. It amplifies the power of our gifts and strengthens our access to our ancestors. The king commanded me to bring you here with a message that states you will know what to do." With those words, the servant left, leaving me alone within the ancestral cave. I could feel the mana flowing within, responding to my own gift.
I felt like the mana was drawing me towards the ritual circle; I crossed some invisible boundary, and the totems of various creatures began to glow. Their eyes lit up with a cyan intensity as they all turned to stare at me. Once I reached the centre of the circle, the runes beneath me began to glow. I sat down in a lotus position, as if moving in a trance. My mind felt like it was in a haze. The mana in my body reacted to my gift as it was absorbed into the ritual circle. The glow in the totem's eyes began to rise in intensity until they reached some unknown limit.
Silhouettes began to appear in the circle around him, growing more tangible by the second. They were split into two sides, one representing his father's line and the other, his Zulu family. He saw the spectre of his brother growing more tangible as he stood next to the spectre of my father, the ever-present sneer clear on both of their faces. While on the other side, he saw the visages of various Zulu kings and Queens as they stood there with pride in their eyes while looking towards me. Just as the apparitions started to become fully formed, I ran out of mana, and the glow of the room began to dull. The ritual stopped in its tracks as the ghosts began to disappear, and the totems lost their energy as they returned to their impassive stances. I don't know what happened thereafter, as my vision blurred and I lost consciousness from overstraining my mana.
I found myself in a strange place; the world around me was there yet not. The entire place was hard to describe. I got the feeling that I was not supposed to be here. The world was colored in a light blue hue, tinting everything around me. I saw vast mountains and hills, as far as the eye could see. Strange creatures walked the land, beings that should not exist in reality, were scattered around the peculiar land. Looking down at my body, I froze. I was transparent. The mana in the air had an unfamiliar feel as I started walking further; it reminded me of my own soul mana, yet slightly different. It was something more; the very air spoke of an ancientness that I felt within my very bones. This new reality was ever shifting; nothing stayed truly the same. One second, the mountains in the distance looked very far away. But after taking a few steps forward, I was suddenly at the foot of the mountain. In the back of my mind, my instincts were screaming at me to turn around and leave. I felt the unmistakable feeling of being watched, and that feeling sent shivers down my back.
But no matter how I tried to turn away, I would always find myself at the same mountain path leading to the mountain's summit. I would turn my body and get hit with a wave of vertigo, only to find myself staring at the path once more. As if this very place demanded that I ascend. With no other destination than up, I began the long march to the peak. I have the feeling that this is some kind of test, so I might as well give it my all. With my mind made up, I strengthened my resolve as I took the first step. If someone had seen Zeon in that moment, they would have noticed the fire burning in his eyes, like a blazing sun demanding release. Promising pain and anguish to any who dared stand in his way.
—
At the same time, in a storage closet at Imperial Metal and Resources, Friedrich's former assistant took out a secure phone and dialed the only contact inside.
"Hello?" Baron Liam Xu's voice spoke from the other line. "You'd better have something important to say, you know how I detest those who waste my time." Liam's voice was cold as he spoke; gone was his pretense of being a sleezy noble, and in its place, the conniving snake reared its ugly head.
"Friedrich is dead." The assistant spoke in an emotionless tone. She was a saboteur raised from an early age to serve the Xu family.
"What?! How did this happen?" The coldness in his voice was only amplified by his rising tone.
"Zeon played him for the fool that he was. We always knew that Friedrich was an impulsive wastrel. Besides, he has already served his purpose; the Whither family's assets have already been compromised." Every word was spoken with deliberate slowness.
"So the brat has finally bared his fangs," Liam stated with a laugh that sent shivers down Angelica's spine. She knew full well what kind of man Liam was, and she had no intention of ending up on his bad side, not again. The thought brought a haunted look to her face before she corrected herself. "No matter, there is nothing he can do but wait and die."
"It's not that simple, my lord. I have sent a recording of the encounter with the young scion. There is something very wrong with him, I just can't place it." It was rare for Angelica to ever speak her mind openly, so Liam took her words seriously.
The silence stretched for a while before he answered her. "For now, continue to observe him, and if possible, try and get closer to him. He is young for someone with your 'assets' should not have to try too hard. But I want to know everything he does, no matter how minor it might seem." With that, Liam ended the call and took a sip of his bourbon while leaning back on his leather chair, looking out at the city lights through his window. "Our little game has just become a lot more interesting." He mused, feeling the subtle burn of expensive bourbon travel down his throat.
—
The trek up the mountain was anything but easy. I felt no true tiredness as I had no true physical body in this strange place. But every step I took, energy pressure grew, in the unmistakable feeling of a powerful aura. The energy pushed my astral body down, deeper into the ground. It was only through sheer force of will that I was able to keep ascending, but I could feel that I was reaching my limit.