Chains Of Pride

Kia's breathing had turned from being hurried and rough to stabilised and deep. When Ayuki saw this, though he still appeared greatly damaged, she couldn't help but release a sigh of relief.

Kia's wounds had started to stitch together. Long tears within the muscle sinews had begun to merge. The jaw that clenched shut showed signs of loosening.

Before long, his flesh had completely healed with only skin left to wrap his frame. So said so done, as tender, creamy-white skin blanketed the striking red flesh that lay exposed not long ago.

Though the skin was new, and as a result quite frail. It gave one the feeling that it could stand the buffet of the storm of the world.

Soon enough, Kia was now healed in full, and the Awakening Dragon Art now began to circulate automatically, no longer through any effort of Kia.

Oddly enough, Kia didn't wake up as one would expect. Instead, he simply fell back, eyes still closed and breathing fully regular.

"I-Is he not gonna wake up?" Ayuki weakly asked, the exertion from before showing now.

"He won't be waking up for now. We'll take him to my mansion in the meantime," said Takeshi.

He looked at the young pink-haired beauty in his arms and asked, albeit a bit coldly, "Can you walk?"

She slowly nodded yes, and attempted to stand, and though she staggered at first. She soon collected herself and followed after Takeshi, who already dispelled the barrier.

Takeshi levitated Kia for the first part to carry him back to the mansion. After walking for some time, Takeshi's eyes slid over to Ayuki walking alongside him who stole a glance at Kia every now again.

"Do you like him?"

Blunt as ever, the stoic Shepherd asked Ayuki a question that immediately caused a flush in her cheeks.

She swiftly her head to indicate that she didn't, "N-No, well, I find him interesting. He doesn't look at me like others usually do. His personality is worth discovering for the most part, so I just like talking to him."

Takeshi simply shook his head once to show that he understood, and to him, this was not a subject he would be touching upon anytime soon.

After some time, and taking a route where nobody could see him levitating Kia whose clothes were still covered in blood, he finally arrived at the front of his mansion.

The whole ordeal took quite some time, the better part of the day actually. Especially the part where they wanted to wait for Kia to heal.

When Takeshi entered the house with Kia still suspended horizontally in mid-air, he met upon Gero and Lanzo who were discussing something in their little meeting room.

Lanzo and Gero stopped talking instantly when they took in the sight of Kia floating. His clothes were completely stiff from the dried blood, and they (Takeshi and co) were now just coming in after the day was all but done.

They then turned their heads to the Shepherd, and the odd thing was, there were no changes to their expression, they just waited for the other group to say something.

Takeshi just looked at them, and to widen their eyes he stated, "You two are gonna train next."

Gero pointed to the Shepherd and then to the 'dead' Kia and then back to the Shepherd in the order of his accusations.

"The fudge we are!! He's dead!! Explain!!!"

"Pretty sure you said we won't die, and I'm not a professional or anything, but Kia's looking pretty deadish over there." Lanzo said, nodding his head.

"Enough! He's not dead you idiots, his c.h.e.s.t still rises and falls."

As Takeshi said this, Lanzo and Gero took a look and indeed the ebb and flow of his c.h.e.s.t.

They felt relieved seeing this, deep down they knew that the shitty Shepherd wouldn't let Kia die, it's just that the scene was just a bit too shocking.

"So what happened to him anyway? What kind of training did you put him through?" Lanzo was a bit curious as it was a bit peculiar, there was so much blood yet no visible wound.

"There's no time for me to explain, and it's best if he told you instead of me. As far as I'm concerned, you're qualified to know, but the secret isn't mine to tell." Takeshi replied.

He didn't wish to linger on the subject so he told them both, "Wait for a minute while I settle Kia in, and then we'll start your training."

Takeshi said nothing after this, only heading upstairs with Kia in tow followed by Ayuki.

"Gero, we're gonna die, that Shepherd keeps on saying that we won't die, but look at Kia. I'm pretty sure in some countries, that's still considered unalive" said Lanzo, panic lacing his voice.

"You're not inaccurate, but it's two against one, surely we have a pretty good chance against him," though Gero said this, it sounded less convincing to him than it was for Lanzo.

After they waited for some time, Takeshi came back down, Ayuki left upstairs to monitor Kia's condition.

"Come with me," was all he said before he left the mansion with Lanzo and Gero. Both dreading what was to come.

He took them both to the same desert location, since it was night time the temperature here dropped to the extreme. If one was not aware of Cendo on a whole, one might believe they were truly in the desert.

Shu!

Takeshi took them to the centre and erected a huge energy barrier, he would have to make sure he didn't go too far so he doesn't break the barrier himself.

"Well? You two should be able to summon your constructs without causing too much of a commotion right? Go ahead," Takeshi said with a provocative calm.

Zwwishh...Clank!! Clink…Fwoosh!!

At the same time, both Lanzo and Gero called out their constructs. The chains materialized upon their bodies, they crisscrossed across Gero's torso, while Lanzo's own ran diagonally from both his shoulders to his hip in an X design.

"Perfect! Now get ready I'm coming."

"Wait!" Called out Lanzo.

"What, what is it!?!" Takeshi asked impatiently.

"What are the chains for?" He asked.

Takeshi couldn't believe what he was hearing, "You're asking that now?"

"Well, I always wanted to ask, but between the superpowers and not dying, I haven't had a chance to." He explained.

"Ugh!" Rubbing his nose bridge, Takeshi decided to answer his question and just get this out of the way, knowing this wouldn't damage his foundation anyway.

"First of all we don't call them chains, they're referred to as links, quite frankly we have yet to learn of their-." Takeshi corrected.

"Wait, they look like chains, sound like chains, feel like chains, most likely smell and taste like chains, but they're not chains?" Lanzo asked.

Takeshi answered, fully annoyed, "That's right."

"Seems counterproductive if you ask me," Gero chimed in.

"No one asked you," Takeshi answered.

"I don't know about this, I'm feeling more of a chains vibe," Lanzo stated.

"They're called links you insolent little-"

"I get that, but I'll stick with chains, I think everyone will start calling them that too," Lanzo stated.

"Ha! You? We might not have delved deep enough into our Blood Origin to learn too much about them, but links have already been designated the name for centuries. You think you can come in and change it because you're feeling a chains vibe? You live to fail don't you?"

Lanzo simply shrugged his shoulders, but Takeshi just didn't just how wrong he was going to be.

"Enough of this foolishness, now remember that the goal here is to stabilise your current realm. You come at me full tilt and long story short, I'll beat the omnipresent shit out of you until your realm's properly established." Takeshi explained.

"You suck so hard!! I'm calling them chains from now on too ya shitty Shepherd!" shouted Gero.

"Y-Yeah! And, ya damn ugly!!" Lanzo said at the last minute.

Gero gave him a look that asked the question of 'why are you trying to help?'

Takeshi's eye twitched as he looked at his two very valid reasons for suicide standing across from him.

The shepherd stretched out his right hand as a light began to flash, "I've changed my mind, no testing you out, and no helping you build up to it, I'll materialise Asunder right now and make both you very unalive."

The large tyrannical handgun made its second appearance. Takeshi aimed at the spot between them, and in front of their widened eyes, pulled the trigger.