Preparations (56)

Agaki and Frost stood face to face in the wastelands with the rest watching from a safe distance.

Agaki's signature pattern appeared on his glowing yellow eyes.

Frost exhaled the cold. The ground started turning icy.

Agaki's body glowed with light.

The two started fighting with their fists, exchanging blows back and forth.

"I don't understand why they have to do this!" Maki said.

Kuro closed his eyes. "Agaki feels like Frost has betrayed his friendship. Frost believes he is simply following his heart. It's something they can only express with a fight."

Maki still looked worried.

Agaki jumped back.

Frost threw a large iceberg his way.

Agaki flew towards it. A hole opened up in the middle as he flew through. He shot a beam of light at Frost, who reflected it with ice covering his arms and legs.

Agaki looked at the ground while he was midair. The rocks started breaking apart, and fast.

Frost started flying to avoid falling.

Agaki tilted his head up, which sent thousands of small rocks and pebbles shooting at Frost.

Frost spun around in the air, creating a typhoon of water to stop the momentum of the rocks. He froze the water and then broke it down into sharp shards and frozen rocks, which he sent Agaki's way.

Agaki had no need to dodge.

He simply broke down the ice and rocks that were only coming his way using his gaze.

Frost created black rocks in his hands. He threw them.

Agaki started breaking down the rocks when his eyes widened. "This molecular structure..."

Frost smirked. "Carbon Bomb."

All of the rock pieces exploded.

When the dust cleared, Agaki had himself shielded with a black mass of energy.

Frost narrowed his eyes at the sight.

"Agaki can use dark energy?" Kyo asked.

Tenma nodded. "I've seen him training it. He's only had it for the last two or three years now."

Ako laughed. "That's OP."

Frost stood up straight. "So you can use dark energy too, huh." He placed his hands on the ground. "That's cute!"

The ground broke apart as large ice shards came out, striking upwards.

Agaki swung a multitude of dark energy arms, breaking up the ice.

Meanwhile Frost was making something in his hand. It was a shiny sphere made out of what looked like diamond. He flew up to Agaki in an instant and extended his arm.

Agaki noticed him but Frost attacked behind his energy arms, and he couldn't break down what he couldn't see.

"Diamond Storm."

Agaki shielded himself with dark energy as the attack hit.

First it was an explosion of energy and wind, then a swirling surge of lightning, and finally, a crystallized dome of diamond and ice with the explosions continuing inside.

Afterwards the dome shattered.

Agaki was on one knee, breathing hard.

Frost stood a few meters away.

Kyo and the others were speechless.

"What... was that?" Agaki asked.

Frost held a hand up. "My Diamond Storm is a technique that uses a diamond sphere to hold a mass of lightning, water, ice, wind, and tiny carbon bombs."

Ako's jaw dropped. "That's possible?! Wouldn't it break from the pressure?"

Kyo shook his head. "Frost held it together with diamond, which is a very hard gem. If he uses his cold to freeze the diamond to an insanely low temperature, I'm sure it'd be hard enough to withstand whatever goes on inside. But that still takes a crazy amount of concentration and focus."

Agaki stood back up. "If I'm being honest, I'm more of a strategist than a fighter, but I can't just ignore you leaving us like this. I just can't!"

Frost looked like he actually felt bad. "I don't expect you to understand, but I have to. It's the only reason I became a Knight in the first place, so I could get stronger to conquer the Northern Territories."

Agaki charged at him again. "But *why* do you have to conquer it?!! You're just leaving us! You never mentioned anything about this before!!"

Frost exhaled as Agaki got closer. Agaki started moving slower and slower as the temperature dropped.

Frost's eyes and hair were glowing brightly now, and Agaki couldn't breathe anymore. He shot out a beam of light, but it was moving in slow motion. He was struggling to move. "It's... too, cold."

Frost let the temperature rise again, and Agaki started breathing. "Even light can't move at a perfect zero."

Agaki just sat on one knee. He knew that Frost couldn't be beaten.

Frost held out his hand.

Agaki looked up at him.

"Even if I'm considered a traitor, I'll succeed my mission and become king. And you all will still be here, I know one god isn't enough to stop all of you guys together."

Agaki took his hand and gave Frost a hug. "I love you man. We've been with each other since before joining the Knights. I don't want you to throw everything away."

Frost didn't hug back, mainly because of his lack of affectionate emotion, but he understood. "I'm not throwing anything away. I'm going to reform the Northern Territories. One day it might even be Arbok's ally."

Agaki stepped away and nodded.

Frost walked towards the rest of the group. Maki ran up to him and hugged him for a short while. "Come back safe okay?"

Frost nodded.

"Don't die out there." Ako said.

Kuro said nothing.

Kyo held a hand up as Frost walked past.

Frost gave him a high five as he walked back to the city, on his way to the Northern country.

"You get it all out?" Kyo asked when Agaki caught up with them.

He wiped the tears from his eyes. "Yeah."

Kyo smashed his fist into his hand and regained an upbeat attitude. "Alright!! We gotta start training for this god coming here!!"

"Yeah!" everyone said in unison.

The squad went up to the Royal Palace. They were let through on their way to the training facility.

Mugen and a few others were getting a workout in when they came inside. "Well well well! Look who's here!"

He and Kyo exchanged a manly handshake.

"Here to use the Simulator?" Mugen asked.

Kyo smiled. "You know it!"

Mugen waved his hand. "It's all yours then, I'm done here! Come on men!"

The other guards that were training followed him on his way out.

Since Kyo and his friends started training here, Narumi had three brand new Simulators installed so that they all could train together.

Kyo was usually on a single Simulator himself while the girls shared one, and Kuro, Tenma, and Agaki used the same one too.

"Hey Kyo, why don't you come over with us this time?" Tenma asked.

Kyo started stretching. "Sorry, maybe another time, I've gotta get serious again. Simulator, start my custom setting!"

The computer spoke. "Confirmed. Beginning Kyo's custom training setting."

The simulator background again emulated a barren wasteland. It spoke again. "Generating five thousand enemies. Setting gravity level to times 1,500."

Tenma laughed nervously. "He never quits does he?"

Kuro got annoyed. "Forget what he's doing. He's all strength and nothing else. You two focus on trying to beat me this time. Voltage!"

Kagami walked to the door of the house. Fujitora was there. "Huh? Who are you?" she asked.

"Fujitora. Omega Squadron. Give this to Akasan."

Kagami was handed a large satin bag. "Um, okay. Thank you." She closed the door.

"Akasan! Where are you?" She looked around the house but couldn't find him.

She went outside to the backyard where Akasan was trying to control his energy from spilling out. "Are you still working on that same skill?" she asked.

Akasan's concentration broke. He stood straight up and turned around. "Yeah, Tenma said it's the best thing I could ever learn. I have to keep training during this war so I don't slack off!"

Kagami rolled her eyes and smiled. She handed him the bag. "A man named Fujitora dropped this off for you."

"What is it?"

"I don't know, open it up and see." she said as she walked back inside.

Akasan told her thank you and opened the bag.

Inside was a blue badge, a slip of paper and a pair of boots. He read the paper.

<*"Due to the oncoming war, a few select members of the Gamma Squadron were chosen to become Betas. As one of the talented few, you have a new duty to protect your country on the front lines. Along with this note are a pair of super high durability black boots, made to endure any terrain or environment, worn by all Knights Beta and above, and the signature blue badge worn by members of the Beta Squadron. After reading this note, you should make your way to the Royal Palace where Kyo will personally oversee your progress."* >

Akasan was overcome with excitement.

Kagami overheard his squeals of joy from the other side of the door. She smiled to herself as she went to her room. *"I'm glad you found something to be excited about."* she thought.

Akasan tried on his new boots. "Woah!! These feel great! I can feel the power of a Beta flowing inside me!" he said while punching and kicking the air.

Kagami watched him from out her room window eating an apple. "If you just got ranked up then why are you still acting like a kid?" she teased.

Akasan straightened up, laughing nervously. "I'll be back!" he called out as he ran off.

--

Fujitora walked off thinking back to when Narumi gave him the sheet.

<*Before he walked off, he'd taken a look at the paper and noticed that Akasan was the only name on the list. He turned around to ask Narumi if there was a mistake.*

*She chuckled. "No there's no mistake. Akasan, as unpolished as he is, is still head and shoulders above everyone else in the Delta and Gamma Squadrons. I wouldn't feel safe letting anyone else rank up just yet. And Kyo informed me that he intended to overlook his training if he ever were to become a Beta. So no time like the now right?"*

*Fujitora looked at the page once more. "While I agree with his talent, with the times we're in, don't you think this is a little rushed? I mean these are gods we're up against right now."*

*Narumi sat down in her sister's throne. "Akasan is a user of the crimson flame. I recently read a book about it. It's a power that hasn't been seen since before the Sorcerer Amun was even born. The crimson flame appears when the bloodlines of an angel, a human, an archangel, and a god intersect. That kid is special. I know it. He needs experience the most right now. This is the perfect time for him to learn."* >

--

Akasan told the guards his name and they easily let him in, following Narumi's instructions.

Mugen noticed him following the escort as he came down the hall. He told the escort he'd show Akasan around.

"So, you're the famous Akasan I've been hearing about?"

Akasan nodded.

"Great! My name's Mugen, head of the Royal Guard. I've gotta admit, I thought you'd be more, uh, spunky. Anyways, you're here for the training facility correct?"

Akasan nodded again. "Yup, sure am!"

Mugen motioned for him to follow. They came to the double doors leading to the room. "Well, as I tell everyone, to use the facility, you gotta be able to open this door. Of course you can come back anytime you feel like you're able to."

Akasan pushed on the door just a little. He felt no budge. He focused his crimson fire energy. The markings on his right arm started glowing.

"Huh?" Mugen said.

Akasan pushed. The two doors flew open, all the way in.

Kyo immediately looked his way.

Mugen's jaw was dropped. He was speechless.

Akasan turned around laughing. "Sorry, looks like I used too much juice."

Mugen quietly turned to the side and walked off. He muttered under his breath in a shocked manner. "Kids these days... little monsters they are."

Kyo walked up to him. "You're here, so that must mean you made Beta."

Akasan nodded. "Sure did! Aren't I awesome?!"

"Well, follow me." Kyo led Akasan onto one of the Simulator platforms. "We won't do anything too intense right now, but show me how well you can contain your fire."

Akasan released his crimson fire. He had cut his energy leakage by about 80% so far.

"Good. Have you tested your strength with it yet?"

"No. I just work on my stamina and speed most of the time."

Kyo left the stage and motioned for Akasan to follow him.

Akasan walked off the stage towards the wall. There was a machine. It had a hard rubber cushion and a screen above it.

"This is the Power Counter. You punch it as hard as you can and it'll tell you how strong you are. The rank goes from F to Z, Z being the highest."

The Power Counter had a dent in the middle of it from being hit so often.

The number system tiers started at 1F. Then it goes up to 999F.

After 1-999F, the tiers are as follows:

1-999E

1-999D

1-999C

1-999B

1-999A

1-999S

1-999V

1-999X

1-999Z

Any power that scales beyond 999Z would be considered Universal or higher, meaning a person's strength at this tier could destroy the universe. This ranking of power was invented by none other than the Sorcerer Amun himself.

Kyo turned the machine on. "I'm told that a Beta should be able to produce a rank of 700D at the minimum. Hit the pad just using physical strength alone."

Akasan wound himself up, then punched the pad as hard as he could. He watched the numbers fly up until they stopped at 950D.

Kyo nodded at the number. "That's a good start. Now for reference, hit the pad powered up."

Akasan took a deep breath. His markings glowed crimson as the fire enveloped his body. He hit the pad with much more force than the last time.

The numbers shot up to 500C.

"Wow." Kyo said. "You're way stronger with the fire than without."

Akasan smiled. "I wanna see you hit it."

Kyo had a smile on his face. "Really? Okay, watch me."

Kyo prepared a punch, then hit the pad.

The number stopped at 540C.

"Woah, that's without energy?" Akasan asked.

Kyo nodded. "With my full energy I'm somewhere in the 100B range."

Akasan looked confused. "So does that mean we're not too far in strength?"

Kyo laughed. "Not exactly. The machine's rankings work on a dial. So imagine a circle with a bar going all the way around like a clock." He explained the system to Akasan.

--

The Power Scale.

The tiers of the Power Scale rank from 1-999F to 1-999Z.

Each individual number inside of a tier is a hundred times larger than the previous number.

For example, 2F is a hundred times 1F.

1F in numerical form could be 0.00000001.

2F would then be 0.0000001

3F = 0.00001

4F = 0.001

5F = 0.1

6F = 10

This pattern continues until 999F.

Now for the big numbers.

The numbers used in the above examples are not to be taken literally, for they are placeholders for incredibly small numbers.

As a whole, the entire F tier has an absolute power level of 10.

The Power Scale increases by the power of 5 between tiers.

So for example.

1E = 10

1D = 100,000

1C = 1e+25

1B = 1e+125

You can see how far the numbers go.

So for a person to have a power level beyond 999Z, they would be nearing infinite power.

--

Akasan was amazed of how high the scale went. "So what would happen if someone was stronger than 999Z?"

Kyo laughed. "I doubt that's even possible, but Mugen says that any higher would be considered infinite strength. A regular human being with no training at all would sit anywhere inside the F rank. So anyone Z tier or higher would likely be stronger than a god. Now."

Kyo walked back to the Simulator platform, Akasan followed him. "For the first few days let's just work on containing that energy of yours okay? The more you contain, the stronger you'll be. You want the margin of error to be less than or equal to 5%. That means at least 95% of your energy should be contained. I'll be outside on the roof doing my own training exercise. I'll be back to check up on you."

"Right!" Akasan exclaimed. He immediately got to work.

Kyo left the building and hopped on the rooftop of the palace.

Narumi was watching him instruct Akasan and ran outside. She looked up to find Kyo meditating. "What are you doing on the roof?" she called to him.

Kyo looked down. "I'm working on containing my Mystic energy."

She looked at him suspiciously. "Oh? So you're telling Akasan that he needs to contain his energy, and you're still working on it?"

Kyo was insulted. "No! I know how to contain my own energy when I have to. But Mystic energy feeds off of the energy in nature, the kind that naturally occurs. My hair is colored white because I'm constantly taking in and releasing Mystic energy. I have two energies to worry about. Akasan only has one. Completely different."

Narumi folded her arms. "Uh huh." She jumped on the roof and watched Kyo meditate for a few minutes. His hair started to turn black. "Woah! You weren't lying, it really is black!"

Kyo's face twitched. "Yeah, but I'd appreciate some quiet."

Narumi poked him in the head. "That's not how you talk to a princess."

Kyo laughed. "You're absolutely right princess. What was I thinking!" he said sarcastically.

Kyo gave up meditating and looked up at the sky. "You know I remember when I first talked to Akasan when he was in the hospital. He told me that he wanted to save everyone. Like in the entire world. It really sounded like a child's dream."

Narumi smiled. "After the tournament word spread quickly about his rare power. Everyone knows who he is. I found out that he came from Zetsubo. I always wanted to change that ugly part of the city but it's too far gone."

"Before I joined the Knights, fighting was just something I enjoyed. A pastime. When it became my job, my purpose, a lot of things became clearer to me. How serious the world really is. I can no longer say that I enjoy fighting, because to say that would mean that I also enjoy war, conflict, and violence. Three things I'm fighting against." he chuckled.

"Ironic huh?" Narumi said.

"Really." Kyo's hair turned white again.

"Ah. Your hair is white."

Kyo sighed. "I lost concentration. I'll meditate some other time, probably tonight."

He jumped down from the roof and went back inside the palace.

Narumi followed.

They went back to the Training Facility to check up on Akasan. When Kyo opened the doors, Akasan had already managed to bring his crimson fire energy leak to almost a mere glow.

"No way.." Kyo said.

Akasan had his teeth clenched, grunting, focusing as hard as possible to contain his energy. He stopped holding his breath and the fire leaked right back out, in a big flare. He fell on his back from exhaustion.

Narumi's face brightened up as she ran over to him.

Kyo went as well.

Narumi bent over him. "Hey, you okay?"

Akasan sat up. "Yeah, just a little tired."

She pointed at his right arm. "Mind if I take a look?"

Akasan looked at his arm and held it up. "Sure, I guess."

The markings on Akasan's arm started at the shoulder with a crescent moon shape around a solid black circle. Down the arm it looked like tribal tattoos that stopped right before his wrist.

Something bothered her though. A white double ring marking was sitting on top of the black markings right above Akasan's bicep and below his shoulder. "What's this?"

"Oh that? It's just another one of my marks. It squeezes my arm whenever the black ones glow."

Narumi got down on her knees had held her hands out. "Kodak Circle." A golden circle formed in front of her hands.

"Woah... what's that?" Akasan asked.

"Magic. It's passed down throughout my family. I'm trying to remove the white marks. I think it's acting as a limiter."

The tiers on the gold wheel started spinning, and the white rings on Akasan's arm started glowing gold as well.

After a few seconds they snapped and disappeared.

Narumi got up. "There! You should feel much better."

Akasan stood up. He flexed his arms. "Hey, my energy feels like it's flowing smoother now!"

"Try doing what you were doing earlier again."

"Um... okay." Akasan's markings glowed crimson as he brought out his crimson flame. This time the energy was easily contained, with a total percent contained rate of 97%. "Hey! Sensei! I think I did it! This is it!"

He started jumping and floating around. "I feel so light and airy, like a weight dropped off my back! Wooooo!!! This feels great!!"

Kyo was surprised at how fast that happened.

"Hey sensei! I'm gonna punch the machine again!" He went up to the machine and hit it as hard as he could with his controlled energy.

520C. Several times stronger than last time.

Akasan let out a hoot of excitement.

As Akasan celebrated Kyo put his hand on his head and laughed. "This kid's a monster."