Chains Of Pride

The three boys were walking in a group, on their way to the teleportation hub. They had taken a small detour so that Gero and Kia could take God's Code back to the novre room and place it under lock and key, much to Lanzo's chagrin.

Even though it was pretty late and the sun had nearly vanished from view, the Academy was still abuzz with activity. Most of the people here were the A-Rank and higher-level B-Rank Digiums who had a dorm room on Anctum.

Of course, just because they had dorm rooms didn't mean they had to stay there. They could still return to their own mainlands if they so choose.

All other Digiums, however, had to return to their respective mainlands when the time came. This level of treatment was to none other than to push the lower Class Digiums to ascend to new levels.

A method that proved useful because the ranks would regularly change as new rising stars came about. This brought new and innovative research to the forefront that would shock not just the Academy, but the world.

However, these geniuses were all discussing in a heated fervour the biggest event of that day, Engage. The sequence was so exciting that they all resembled fanboys and fangirls, gone were the look of esteem these Digiums usually exuded.

"Hey, i-isn't that Lanzo over there?"

"Sweet mother molasses it is him!!"

"Do you think he'll give me an autograph?!"

"He'll definitely win us the championship!!!"

When the Digiums noticed Kia and Lanzo who was passing by, they couldn't help shouting out in surprise, some even wanted to run up to him to congratulate. However, when they looked at him, they got that same unapproachable feeling from before, jolting them back to their senses.

"Haha, I uh I guess he's still a little indifferent as before."

"Can't help it, I mean, being the Ace of Proelius comes with a lot of stress I guess. We probably can't even begin to fathom what he has to go regularly."

That's how most people were, even though they got the same feeling from Lanzo that they attributed to Kia and Gero. Because Lanzo's status as an Ace of the Engage team placed him in a higher position while detached from the standard hierarchy of the Digiums, they would justify his less favourable aspects of their own accord or even look past it.

"Wait a minute, who are the two he's walking with? I-Is that Red Creep and Cloud King Gero? Why is he with them?"

Cloud King Gero was the sarcastic or satire based nickname they gave to Gero since he always appeared to look down on everyone. They used this nickname to make fun of him as a kind of ironic play.

"Yeah it is them, what's going on here? Even people like us rarely get the chance to see the members of Proelius regularly, yet these two are walking with him as if it's the most natural thing in the world."

"Tch, look at Gero, he hasn't even made a breakthrough in his whatever research and yet he still dares to call himself an A-Rank Digium, what a disgrace!"

Still, both Gero and Kia always kept their heads straight and didn't even bother to give these people the time of day.

When the crowd saw that they were being ignored, their expressions soured as they continued with their slander.

"Red Creep is still as weird as ever, not much people even know his background. I bet he's trying to hide it as much as he can because he's embarrassed, hahaha! Maybe the son of a whore even!! No amount of money can wash that away, hahahaha."

"You're probably right, haha, I mean he can't eve- ugh! What the-!"

"Hey are you alright?! What's wro…urkh! Wha…I-I can't move!"

Boom, boom!

A formless pressure came out of nowhere and hammered down on the Digiums who were speaking much earlier.

The remaining ones who saw this and were planning to join in suddenly shut their mouths. They looked at the two accompanying Lanzo with expressions of horror, these two were freaks.

However, no one dared to say anything. After all, they didn't want to cause whatever the hell that was to them.

When the three boys walked some distance away, the pressure that crashed down upon them slowly faded away until they could move once more. This incident would be whispered among the Digiums to become the stuff of myths for years to come.

"Hmph, Takeshi, lions we may be, the sheep cannot be allowed to slander a lion's pride." Vizio had fully retreated her pressure from acting upon the Digiums any longer as she wordlessly followed her little charges.

"Do you know what the hell happened back there?" Kia expressionlessly asked.

"Not a clue, but fools always did have a way to slap their own faces. I'll attribute it to that." Said Gero, who wasn't even remotely interested in that little episode.

Based on what they saw today, not much was capable of shaking their mindsets.

"There's the teleportation hub, we've finally arrived." After around 20 minutes of walking and chatting about their own circ.u.mstances. Lanzo finally announced that they reached their destination.

All three had provided the necessary identification and received the authorisation to fire up the hub.

"Then I guess this is goodbye, for now, see you guys in two days." Kia waved a farewell before heading to the tunnel that would send him off.

"See ya guys later." Lanzo headed off in his own direction as well.

Gero just wordlessly waved at the two of them before heading off too.

Shu!

"Well this is a pickle, they split up. Oh yeah, I still have that little number on me." Vizio suddenly appeared out of nowhere, landing at the spot the three of them departed from.

She took out three stealth drones and had them fly off to follow them. She would remain in the hub and through use of the drones, monitor them all the way to their homes.

She didn't think that Azure Sky would act this fast, but better safe than sorry.

Of course, there was also the reward from Takeshi, the factors involved didn't allow her to permit the possibility of failure.

"Hmm, two of these kids don't have simple backgrounds. This might be troublesome, oh well, my job is to simply keep an eye on em." When Vizio saw where the coordinates for two of them specifically, she was momentarily shocked; however, it quickly passed.

When the boys all stepped into the teleportation array, a white flash of light enveloped them. Their bodies elongated before exploding into countless particles as it travelled through time and space at speeds faster than could be comprehended.

They felt the odd feeling of their bodies being reconstructed and the white light fading away. They all landed in their own destinations, heading to their own abodes, to ready themselves for the inevitable journey? Adventure? What do you even call this?

…

As the rising population became an issue, mankind had brought forth many remedies to the situation, not excluding space exploration.

One of the most popular, however, was to do that which gave rise to Anctum. This was artificial island creation and expansion.

As a result of this, many new islands and small island-continents now existed that didn't before. To move to these islands was not easy, a massive amount of wealth was necessary, so the backgrounds of people who lived within them were…not simple, to say the least.

After he arrived on the mainland, Kia took a terra-metro to get home, to the artificial island-continent Sanctum.

'Sighs.'

"It's been quite a while, I've been putting off returning home for so long. My mind's a mess…" Kia was contemplating the situation when he arrived back home.

Truthfully speaking, apart from his honourable grandfather, his little brother was the only one he really considered family.

His parents didn't really feel like parents to him most of the time, so there was always this cold and detached feeling he got from them.

He exited the terra-metro station and headed to the taxi station and input the route to take him home.

As the robotic vehicle took him, he dissolved the window so the cool night air could blow through his crimson hair, the trademark of the Hokori family, not that much people knew anyway.

The breeze tickled his skin somewhat, sending a soft smile across his face. He closed his eyes to sink in the feeling, a dash of pink hair flashed in his mind before it disappeared.

He shook his head to clear as if to clear his head of unnecessary thoughts as the shadow of his house became more distinct.

"What am I thinking about? I have no time for things like that, way too much on my plate right now." Kia inwardly thought to himself.

Sometime after the taxi finally arrived at his gate, he deposited his payment, as it sped off back to the station.

"Well, here goes nothing."

He inputted the passcode to the family grounds at the gate and walked along the well-kept path. The plain of grass faintly reflecting the soft glow of the moonlight looked incomparably beautiful.

The branches of the trees rustled gently in the wind. A melody of nature started to play out as Kia strode along the way.

A monster of a mansion lay before him, imposing, imperial and impressive. These were the words that described it.

He walked up the steps and arrived in front of the door, but before he could open it. An elderly man opened the door, when he saw Kia with his own eyes, shock, then warmth filled his eyes.

With a smile of his own, Kia greeted the elderly man "Hello Silenai, how have you been?"

The old man executed a slight bow as he extended an inviting gesture, and with a gentle smile, he wholeheartedly replied.

"Young Master Kia, welcome home."