Earth's Core Book 4 – Conflict, Chapter 12 – Zax Is Back

Book 4 – Conflict

Chapter 12 – Zax Is Back

When Dureil did not receive confirmation of his second son’s nightly operation at the time he agreed to contact him, an ominous feeling filled his heart.

Early morning, before leaving to the family head’s estate, he first contacted his second son’s operative in the Basement Floor only to discover that no one of the hired assassins returned to confirm the deaths of any of the targets.

Worried that his fears might have realized, Dureil immediately summoned his eldest and fourth sons and left to the family head’s estate.

Two hours later. The estate of the Derneldar’s family head.

A council of seventeen individuals converged in the gathering hall. The most important members of the Derneldar family that were on sight, sat, contemplating how to deal with Dureil, his sixth and unbridled son and the trouble he caused. Among them, on the seat with the highest position, sat a man with well built frame, blood red hair and dark eyes, the family head of the Derneldar family, Dinar Derneldar.

After a long hour of discussions, the members of the Derneldar family made their decisions of how to deal with the situation.

The council knew from Mejar’s operative that the targets Mejar sent to the Basement Floor were the six names Dureil’s third son gave him. The two remaining names that Binjo added were possibly the ones Mejar targeted himself. However, the council did not have time to investigate the background of Anet and the other girl, or rather, were more occupied with the question of how to deal with two capable Core Masters that seems to even have connection in the Basement Floor – otherwise, how could they have ruined the nightly operation? The two girls and the other six names were not the council’s concern at the moment.

To deal with two Core Masters who might be at the Advanced phase of the first level, the first decision the council made was to involve the family founder. While the council dispatched someone to inform the founder they made their second decision, transferring the sum and Mist Essence Amplifier to Eden Formation to maintain their critical relationship. The council believed that the assassination failed because they were left to outsiders to carry out. By dealing with the eight names personally, Eden Formation’s school principal will not be able to claim that Binjo’s victim was a student, thus, she would have to return the Mist Essence Amplifier. As for the money… there was a way to earn it back, fast and with interest, but that course of action the council left for the founder to decide, along with what to do with Dureil and his sixth son.

Lastly the council decided to lay a trap to the two Core Masters. To the outside the family will act as if it scattered its forces to look for the two Core Master, while in actuality it will assemble their most skilled men, hopefully along with the help of the founder, in the large family head’s estate and wait for the two Core Masters to have no choice but come to them if they want to kill Binjo.

…

WHOOSH!

A young, vigorous figure cut through the air like a strong whirlwind.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Every single time a fist or kick were thrown an explosive sound accompanied them.

WHOOSH!

The figure ascended thirty, fifty, ninety, one hundred and thirty meters above the ground.

BOOM!

The figure nudged its foot and the explosive force sent it like an arrow tens of meters to the west.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

Constant explosions resonated in the first Savage Cave as Zax traversed it through the air.

Three days, in just three days Zax had managed to grow back his left arm completely. In truth, the process of accelerating one’s growth of a limb was more arduous than Zax gave it credit before he recklessly started eating the staggering amount of unripe Blood Red Grapes for their energy. The abundant vitality was not a sentient being and so Zax was responsible on where it goes, otherwise it would simply spread inside his body. By directing all his body’s functions into healing, his grasp on the vitality tightened and most of it was properly put to use. But the rest, thirty to forty percent of the revitalizing energy, slipped beyond his control and created an imbalance in his vitals that felt like a superior expert bombarding his insides. That was one obstacle Zax encountered when he rushed the healing of his left arm.

The second obstacle was nearly making the mistake of counting on his body alone to be in charge of the healing process. Since Zax pushed his body to heal in a speed greater than what it was currently able to endure, a lot of stress was put on his body. The results were a distorted growth of Zax’s left arm. Luckily, Zax noticed it early and cut off the deformed piece of his arm that was still in its initial stage of growth. Afterwards, along with his body’s functions, Zax concentrated all of his mental attention on the healing process and this, to some degree, alleviated a significant portion of the stress.

The instant he felt the comfortable sensation of the complete again missing limb, Zax ceased sitting on his bottom and right away began to experiment with the Kinetic Force according to his newfound understanding of it.

Half a day later, Zax felt immense power surge in his body as kinetic energy converged, became Kinetic Force and exploded out of his body. Zax was enthusiastic with his achievements. The Kinetic Force he released was on par with the one he mustered to break Don’s defensive formation and the feedback, in comparison, was negligible.

With a day and a half before the five days limit he set for himself, Zax decided that his current control of the Kinetic Force is not satisfying. He could utilize it to fight, but it still forced him to expend a lot of energy. Thus, Zax made his mind to spend the next day and a half practicing the bodily maneuvers. Eating the unripe Blood Red Grape, this was his best opportunity to attempt a breakthrough for the Intermediate phase of the Intermediate phase of the bodily maneuvers.

The next day and a half Zax flashed across the grove as if he was possessed. He no longer dispersed the Kinetic Force when it converged from the kinetic energy during his execution of the six sequences. Zax attempted to release the Kinetic Force in each of the six hundred and fifty bodily maneuvers. That aggressive way of practice was very laborious and demanding, but eventually it paid off.

With just a few hours before the end of the fifth day, Zax broken through the Intermediate phase of the Intermediate phase of the bodily maneuvers and even nearly completed the third sequences.

With the remaining hours Zax pushed himself to find out the changes in his utilization for the Kinetic Force now that he made a breakthrough. His biggest surprise was that he now could mellow the explosiveness of the Kinetic Force in his body and released it from his outermost layer of skin, a feat which enabled to create a short instance of repealing force that could push his body to any direction and immensely increase his speed. On the other hand, it was extremely difficult to maneuver. By releasing the repealing force from his feet, Zax found that he could constantly stay above ground in a manner which looked more like air walking than flying.

By the time the last hour was nearing its end, Zax jumped to the sky of the first Savage Cave and headed back to Kingdom Earth.

“Awesome! Too awesome! Hahaha!” Zax was overjoys for his accomplishments.

BOOM!

He massively landed near the entrance of the tunnel to the first Savage Cave. With his feet touching the ground, his body was better balanced, a sensation which made him feel that he could move even faster.

“Anet…” He murmured her name.

CRACK!

The sound reverberated in his sea of consciousness. The dam that kept his rage, hatred, killing intent and vengeful spirit at bay for him to concentrate on his training, began to crack.

A vicious light flickered in Zax eyes.

“Derneldar…!”

…

‘Eden Formation’. After getting back to Kingdom Earth, Zax continued heading to the number one Martial school in El-Eden. Other than Eden Formation, he did not know where he could find Binjo. As for his big brother… he will beat his whereabouts from Binjo before killing him.

The two golden harps that made the school gate were closed like in his previous visit, but the students on watch were a different bunch.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! What do you think that you are doing, kid! No entry in these hours…!” A tall girl with long ponytail intended to rebuke Zax as he came close to touching and opening the gate, yet when he directed his frosting glare at her, the tall girl felt as if her whole body was being pierced by needles.

“Move awa-” Zax restricted his killing intent and opened to say when he felt someone’s Soul Sense probing him. Snorting at the week presence that dared to invade his body, Zax countered with his Soul Sense, dispelling the other party.

“Tsk!” Zax frowned. When his Soul Sense spread out, the school gate’s formation obstructed his Soul Sense from passing through and outside of the school he did not locate the owner of the Soul Sense.

“Marvelous!” A complimentary voice sounded from the other side of the gate as a young man in white and golden uniform and a black ribbon on his left arm with the words “Student Council Class – Secretary” embedded to it in white letters, approached the students in duty.

“Senior Uri!”

Five of the six students called unanimously.

The blond hair, blue eyes senior Uri nodded toward the bunch and tapped the back of the tall girl.

“Eh!” The tall girl felt the noxious feeling fading and turned to look at the man by her side. “Senior Uri!” She responded in the same manner of the other five.

“Everyone, you all seem to be doing well in your cultivation. Let this senior help you a little. Go spend the remaining time of your shift cultivating in the Mist Agitation room. Say that I sent you. Senior will stay here until the next shift would arrive”. Uri smiled.

“Mist Agitation room!” The six students began to shake in excitement. “Thank you senior Uri!” Unwilling to lose a millisecond or argue against the kindness of their senior, the six students bowed and left in a hurry.

As the six vanished in beams of white and silvery lights, Uri turned his gaze to Zax and surveyed him.

“Would you mind telling me how old are you?” He asked Zax.

“The Soul Sense from before was yours”. Zax ignored the question and raised his hand to the golden gate.

“Wait!” Uri called aloud. “No need to ruin the school gate a second time, Zax”.

“You know me?” Zax halted and his gaze turned deadly.

“Haha, you think that you can just barge into the number one Martial school and your identity will not be revealed”. Uri laughed, but he did not sound like he was patronizing Zax. “Don’t worry. Don Mor… Principal Ram instructed to keep your identity a secret”. Seeing the threatening gaze Zax gave him, Uri hastened to reassure him.

‘Good’. Zax released a pent up breath. For a moment he was worried that the school principal changed her mind and while he was away, sided with the Derneldars. “Are you going to open the gate for me?” He asked impatiently.

“There is no need”, Uri shook his head. He stepped closer to the gate. Taking out a piece of paper and a tiny picture from a pocket in his uniforms, he held them up and presented them to Zax.

“Cave two to cave six” was the title on the squared piece of paper that was not bigger than a child’s palm. Beneath the title was a map from Eden Formation to a specific location marked on the area of cave six. This detailed map, which only cultivators with unusually sharp vision could read, shamelessly revealed to Zax the location of the main branch of the Derneldar family.

The picture was of a young man with white skin and orange hair. It did not have a name written on it, but Zax understood. ‘Binjo!’

“Memorized?” Uri asked Zax after about three seconds.

“Yes”. Zax replied.

“Godspeed”. Uri wished and golden mist energy burnt the discriminating evidences to nothingness.

…

“That’s the place…”

Zax stared at the large gates and surrounding walls that enclosed an area of over five thousand square meters.

The main branch of the Derneldar family was like a private small luxurious Olympus.

Unlike Eden Formation, the main branch did not have a formation that could obstruct his Soul Sense, and so Zax was able to survey far into the Derneldar family’s territory by staying not so far from the gates. Unfortunately, there were many people behind the walls but no Binjo and the territory was too big to survey from the outside.

BOOM!

Zax expeditiously lunched to the air as a deafening sound started the alarms of close by vehicles.

His movement was too fast for the Core Breaker guards to perceive his figure going up fifty meters and then crossing in a flash the large walls, as he entered the Derneldar family’s territory.

Past the lavish, dreamlike gardens that welcomed guests of the Derneldar family, at the core of their territory, was the residential area of the family members and their aides. In total, there were twelve villas that could be the potential hideout of Binjo in this vast residential area.

Trying to probe them with his Soul Sense from above, Zax’s face convulsed with anger. Each of the twelve villas had a formation that prevented his Soul Sense from seeing inside.

“Hmph!” Zax snorted. ‘If that’s how it gonna be…’

BOOM!

He crushed landed at the central part of the residential area.

Maids, servants and other attendants, who were in the open area and witnessed Zax’s decent, screamed in stupefaction as the one amidst the dust and cracked open earth appeared to be a teenage boy.

“DERNELDAR RESIDENTS, EITHER SEND OUT BINJO OR EVERYTHING WILL BE DESTORYED!” Zax roared.

Though Zax experienced a deja vu, he disinclined to let his barging to the Derneldar’s territory to end up the same way it ended in Eden Formation.

RUMBLE!

From different location, from all over the residential area, footsteps and groans rushed to where Zax eagerly waited.

Over three hundred men and women, most in black suits and holding firearms, encircled Zax. Spreading his Soul Sense, Zax discovered that not one of the three hundred plus was below the Core Breaker level and the firearms they aimed at him had small formations embedded to them. The huge number of cultivators was divided frighteningly to two hundred and fifty seven Mist Users at the Peak of the Core Breaker level. Thirty five ranged between the Beginner phase and Peak phase of the Mist Master Level. Eighteen ranged between the Beginner phase and Advanced phase of the Mist Lord Level. And seven were actually ranging between the Beginner phase and Intermediate phase of the first level of the Core Master realm!

‘Was I expected?’ Zax looked around him and could not help but wonder. Not that it mattered to him.

From the mix of hostile stares, as the workers, which were not related to this small army of expert beyond their reach, cleared away, a middle age looking man with blood red hair and dark eyes, Dinar Derneldar, stepped out.

“Impudent man, do you know on whose territory you are intruding?” Dinar spoke with hoarse but heavy voice as a baleful azure aura burst from him.

In the past few days he mourned, what everyone in his family speculated, the death of his second nephew and hate instigated his thirst for blood of whoever killed him.

Finally, when he heard the youthful voice calling out for his nephew, Dinar felt like the chance to avenge his second nephew arrived, but he also had doubts about the intruder. Only after remembering the description his brother received from Don of one of the two Core Masters, he gave the word to move out, believing that just like the incident in school, the Core Masters that pursued Binjo decided to repeat the same approach.

Then, when he, and the other Derneldar’s Core Masters, followed the men and women who were on standby for the past couple of days without knowing when they could return to their regular duties, Dinar tried to get a sense of the young man, which imperiously stood inside a small crater. But as it so happened, he could not gather a single thing and was blocked by the seemingly young man’s Soul Sense.

“Whoever you are, I have no quarrel with you”, Zax collected himself and said. “Bring out Binjo and his brother and my issues with this family will be concluded”.

“Hahaha… You, lowlife bastard, want more of my kin?! Hahaha!” Dinar laughed as he leered at Zax. “One of my nephews was not enough? Well… Well... who I am really doesn’t matter. The fact you were brazen enough to mess with my Derneldar family and, furthermore, barged to the lions’ den on your own initiative, already signed off your lease on life”.

Hearing the arrogant tone in Dinar’s voice, Zax raised his chin and let loose his killing intent. “You are not willing to give them to me?”

“Ah!” Dinar snarled. The crowd of expert was too big and unknowingly their collective air of disdain and boastfulness confronted Zax’s killing intent.

“We are not willing to let you leave alive”. Dinar said decisively. Surrounding him hundreds of auras flared up.

“Then you all might as well die!”

Chapter end