“I did it for you, Alhen. Why can you not see it? You are being ungrateful, and that is the reason why I had to do it in the first place,” Father Vincent said while looking at Alhen intently.

  Alhen could barely move his limbs; each movement felt like being stabbed all over his body.

  Looking at the father from the corner of his eye, there were many things he wanted to express but couldn’t.

  Due to the torture he had gone through in the past, he was able to resist it better than normal, but that didn’t take away the fact that he couldn’t move.

  Father Vincent had come in two minutes ago and had been talking about him becoming more obedient and understanding why he did those acts against his friend.

  He didn’t even listen to his words, doing everything in his power to move a single muscle so he could tear the father’s head off his body.

  ‘Come closer, I am going to rip you apart!’ Alhen exclaimed in his mind while trying to raise his hand towards the father.

  He noticed his pitiful and embarrassing attempts at doing so and could not help but shake his head lightly.

  He stood up from the chair and went to leave the room, but not before stopping halfway and turning around to communicate with Alhen.

  “The war is going to take place about a week from now. In the next few cycles, I will be training you so you can use your blessing’s second ability.”

  “If you manage to control it better, your chances of surviving this war will increase drastically. Do not even think about dying or giving your life away; you made a promise to kill me, did you not?”

  “It would be very disappointing of you not to keep your promise after all the big talk you have made.”

  Alhen looked at him with a side eye, but it was clear in his burning eyes that there was no way he would allow himself to die before killing him.

  The father smiled, clearly having liked his answer, before turning around and heading for the door.

  “That is all I wanted to tell you. Spend this cycle to reflect on your actions, and the next one, you will be healed and brought to my office so we can begin your training.”

  With those words, Father Vincent opened the door and left, leaving Alhen fuming in place.

  His whole body tensed, and he felt all the pain invading his body, but he didn’t fight it, taking it all in, allowing the father to have done what he did.

  After struggling and receiving all the pain for a few minutes, he finally grew tired, stopping and looking at the ceiling.

  Thoughts about what happened the cycle before flashed through his mind.

  Nothing that he did calmed down the guilt and anger that he felt, and it was even worse now that he couldn’t move and had no way to relieve his stress.

  The only thing he could do was replay in his mind over and over again killing the father in various ways to appease the burning flame within him.

  ‘Calm down, Alhen. There is nothing that you can do now. It is clear that the strength of a Sol-ranked human is no joke, and I am still far from it.’

  ‘But now that I have various opportunities to increase my strength, I still have a chance.’

  ‘If I remember correctly from my talk with Edith these past two months, the power progression system in this world is fairly simple for humans.’

  ‘There are normal people who are not blessed; they are just like any human being without special abilities. Then come the ones that have a Luna Signum.’

  'Those who were recently given a sign are initiated hunters. The level after that is the Hunter rank, which I am almost at the top of. Depending on how bright your Luna Signum gets, it shows mastery and more power; it also indicates when you are ready to break through.’

  ‘The levels after that are the Red hunter, then the Blood hunter, Demon hunter, Chaos hunter, and lastly, a Sol hunter.’

  ‘Wiht are stronger than humans in their respective ranks, which start from the lesser wiht, the lesser blessed wiht, the evolved wiht, the blood wiht, the blood demon, the sleeping chaos, and waking chaos.’

  ‘I am starting to regret not asking for more information about these types of wihts and the general power progression. I was so obsessed with my own growth that I basically discarded everything that didn’t have to do with me.’

  Alhen sighed, thinking how the lack of information was a problem he had to fix, and promised that when he met Alaran again, he would ask him more about everything.

  For now, he would have to deal with uncertainty, because there was no way he was asking Father Vincent or anyone in the church; he didn’t trust them.

  His mind wandered and eventually landed on his last train of thought. He thought about the churches and how they used their followers to gain money and influence.

  That is all they cared about, and he felt disgusted just thinking about it, knowing that this church was the same.

  ‘Humans and hunters with a Luna Signum are normally associated with a church to which they pledge loyalty and worship a Lord. Churches then deploy these people as hunters to gain money for the church or place them in other positions.’

  ‘The thing is, most hunters have sold their souls to their respective churches, and if they try to flee or go against their orders, they can be killed for disobeying.’

  He clicked his tongue, cursing his luck for being born in such an environment, but there was nothing he could do; this was the set of cards he was handed.

  ‘There is no law enforcement here, only in the pig district, which I learned from Edith was called the royal district.’

  ‘I also learned that the district where this church is is called the middle district, a common name with no discernible qualities whatsoever.’

  ‘Apparently, all the districts are pretty big, and I have yet to see the most dangerous part of this one, a killer's hangout spot, a place so dangerous that no one apart from the worst kind of scum dares to set foot in.’

  Alhen frowned, thinking about this place and its location.

  ‘It’s the complete opposite way from where I always go with Alaran. Should I…’ A dangerous thought started filling his mind.

  ‘These areas are full of criminals and powerful people, which probably means that most of them should have a sign. If I can kill them and absorb their energy…’ A wide, painful smile manifested on his face.

  ‘Yes, that is the move. When I finish the war, I will be stronger, and then I can go to these dangerous places and start taking people out.’

  ‘The problem is that to go ahead and make that plan possible, we needed to win the war; otherwise, the kingdom would be lost.’

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  ‘If the king isn’t able to win the war, then Father Vincent should step up; he doesn’t want to see me dead or lose his church after all.’

  ‘I doubt he will step in, however, because the king is very powerful himself, unless the king from the other kingdom is even more powerful; then I see that we have chances of winning.’

  ‘Also, another thing I am thinking is, why would they attack if they knew that there is a Sol-ranked human in here?’

  ‘A theory I have is that the father is only known here, and they don’t know about his existence.’

  ‘The other one suggests that they have a Sol-ranked human of their own; maybe their king is one, and that’s why they dare attack.’

  Alhen sighed lightly, not to cause a lot of pain, and decided not to think about it anymore. He had already been using his mind a lot, and he was starting to feel tired and hungry.

  Looking around, he knew that nobody was going to bring him food anytime soon, so he closed his eyes.

  As he was drifting to sleep, his mind naturally wandered to the things he still had unfinished in the kingdom.

  ‘Sloan and Sierra, those bastards, don’t think I have forgotten about y’all. I have to find the time when they are alone and strike them when they least expect it.’

  ‘I’m not going to try to play fair with these people; the way they stabbed me in the back like rats still haunts me to this day. Don’t let me find you,’ he warned in his mind.

  Without thinking twice, he stopped with those thoughts and forced himself to sleep.

  If the father thought that he would use this cycle to reflect on his supposed lack of disrespect, then he was wrong; he wouldn’t do that, even if he was threatened with death.

  Alhen fell asleep in a flash and opened his eyes to the sound of the door opening.

  His body felt stiff from the lack of movement and also numb; he could barely feel his fingers or legs. A nun came inside the room, and this time, he recognized her.

  It was the same nun who had given him the Luna Ius for the first time. Her golden hair dropped behind her, and her blindfold swayed with each step she took.

  Alhen looked at her, revealing nothing about his feelings in her presence.

  She walked with a tray in hand, containing what he suspected to be the Luna Ius, and indeed it was.

  After closing in on him, she brought the tray closer to him and placed it on his legs. Alhen couldn’t feel the weight of the tray, or anything really, making him frown slightly.

  “It has been a while since I saw you. I am glad that you are well,” she said.

  It was a short sentence, but it left him flabbergasted.

  ‘Since when did she start conversations on her own? Has this ever happened before?’ Alhen asked himself.

  The situation was strange in his opinion, and after giving it much thought, his attention landed on Father Vincent.

  ‘He must have definitely told her to try act friendly around me so he could use her to manipulate me. What a bastard; it will not work.’

  ‘Even if the father hasn’t said anything to her, she is definitely doing this to gain his favor. I don’t know why these women become nuns in the first place, but it definitely has to do with something about loyalty.’

  ‘I have my theories, but nothing is confirmed yet, so I’m going to abstain from coming to any hurried conclusions.’

  The nun, unaware of his internal thought, didn’t say anything else. She took the vial from the tray and opened it.

  The scent of vanilla wafted through the air and reached his nose; his facial and bodily muscles began relaxing, and it was at that time that he thought it was dangerous.

  ‘Someone who doesn’t know better will be attracted by the smell and end up drinking more than they can hold, eventually turning into wihts.’

  ‘It makes sense for vials of these things to be kept in secret and out of reach of normal hunters so they can’t abuse them and become wihts due to either negligence or ignorance.’

  The nun brought the vial closer to his mouth and helped him drink it. Alhen’s throat was sore and numb.

  It was only when the liquid entered his mouth that he realized just how much he needed to drink some water.

  He was dehydrated, and his stomach also growled from hunger.

  The nun didn’t miss this, and when she helped him down, she took all the contents of the vial, placed them back in the tray, and lifted it.

  Before she left the room, she said, “I will go fetch some food and water for you; wait here in the meantime.”

  With those words, she left the room, leaving behind Alhen, who felt sensitivity returning to his body.

  ‘Good, I can finally move,’ he thought before lifting himself off the bed and walking around the place.

  He did that to lose the stiffness in his body due to the lack of movement, and also to stretch his muscles. Just by standing up from the bed, he heard all of his joints cracking and felt way better after the fact.

  After a while of moving around and waiting for the nun, she finally arrived with a bowl of soup in her hand.

  Alhen looked at this with a disgusted expression, wondering if it had the same contents as Catherine’s soup, but to keep himself sane, he didn’t think about it.

  His stomach growled incessantly, urging him to grab whatever he could and eat it.

  With a reluctant heart, he took the bowl from the nurse’s hand and downed it in under a minute.

  When he finished, he handed the bowl back to the nurse, who told him that the father was waiting for him in his office.

  Without thinking twice, his body moved directly to meet the father.

  He didn’t even remember walking through the hallways, and when he placed his hand on the doorknob, he saw blood staining it.

  The strange thing was that it wasn’t his blood, but someone else’s.

  ‘Huh? Since when do I have this on my fists? Could something have happened while I was going here?’

  The curiosity was such that he backtracked through the hallway, but he didn’t see anything weird.

  Looking at his hand once more, he wondered whether he was just overthinking. Looking beside him, he saw the door leading to the infirmary and decided to check it out.

  He placed his hand on the doorhandle and looked inside, and his eyes widened once he saw the scene in front of him. The nurse, who had seen him off, was beaten and left half dead on the floor.

  She was barely breathing, and her head was bleeding lightly.

  Alhen looked at his fists again, and doubt filled his mind; everything pointed at him doing this, but he didn’t remember.

  He looked at her, agonizing on the floor, and didn’t feel anything for her.

  His gaze lingered for only a few seconds before closing the door and leaving the scene, leaving her to fight for life herself.

  He walked past various nuns and wondered whether he should tell them about the almost dead nun in the nursery room, but he shook his head.

  “I can’t be bothered,” he said lightly.

  Before arriving at Father Vincent’s office, he made sure to clean his hands before coming in.

  He was sure that he would definitely ask for more information, and he didn’t feel like answering any questions.

  Placing his hand back on the doorknob, he saw his clean hand and nodded to himself, opening the door and looking inside.

  Just as he thought, the father was there signing some papers.

  “Alhen, you have finally arrived. I started to wonder if you had lost the courage to face me once again since you left a couple of minutes ago. But it seems that I was wrong; take a seat,” the father ordered.

  Alhen didn’t fight him; it still wasn’t the moment, not yet.

  The sooner he started training and raising his strength, the sooner he would be able to kill him.

  It didn’t matter if it took many years; he would still do it, but he had to do it soon, because the father was old, and he didn’t know how much time he had left to live.

  Considering that he was a powerhouse, he guessed many, but he wanted to do it when he was still at the peak of his power, so the father could feel true despair just before losing his life.

  Taking a seat, he waited patiently until the father finished signing some of the papers in silence.

  When he was completely done, he stood without saying a word and gestured for him to follow him with a serious expression.

  Alhen stood and followed him outside the office and outside into the training arena. He looked around and found it weird not to find Alaran inside, as he always trained him in here.

  Father Vincent went ahead and made Alhen follow him to the middle of the arena, where he turned around and said, “Very well, to activate your second ability, you have to experience death.”

  Alhen waited for the father to explain himself, but he didn’t speak anymore. Alhen frowned and looked at him with irritation.

  “What do you mean by that?” Alhen asked.

  “Figure it out,” was the only response the father gave him before walking towards Alhen with killing intent. It was such that he had terrible goosebumps, which spread all over his body in a flash.

  Alhen got into a fighting position and took a deep breath.

  As he let the air out, he focused on the father and his movements, and before he could even blink, the father was already in front of him, hitting him in the forehead.

  His head was sent backwards, and he took a few steps back, shocked at what happened.

  “Get serious, Alhen; use your blessing,” the father said.

  Alhen clicked his tongue, realizing that he was right, and he activated his blessing with hesitation.

  As soon as he did, he realized the father was already in front of him, having sent him lurching back and his body ragdolling in the air.

  His eyes widened as he barely dodged the attack, and the worst part of it all was that the father didn’t even look like he was exerting more than a percentage of his power.

  His posture was casual, and he appeared almost bored.

  With those vague words that Father Vincent told him, he would have to figure out what to do to activate his blessing’s second ability, with the problem being that the father didn’t leave space for him to think.

  Since sending the first attack, the father hadn’t stopped attacking. He gritted his teeth and dodged his moves the best he could.

  Father Vincent was only flicking with his index finger and nothing else.

  He wasn’t sending out fancy punches or anything that seemed remotely dangerous, but once he flicked in his direction, the gush of air left a trail beside him that made him think that if it hit him, he would be gone.

  The next second, the father stopped attacking and shook his head.

  ‘Just as I thought, this is not working,’ he said.

  Before Alhen could process his words, the father took him by the neck, and he wondered how he didn’t manage to see it with his blessing.

  He gasped for air and heard, “If it does not work in the good means, then I will force it out of you, even if it takes away your life.”