Arc III: “Return of Darkness”
Chapter III: “Fading Darkness / Tales Untold”
Episode VI: “Field Trip! Training at the UFA!”
Leo and Kyte flew to New Woodberry City.
“When do you think they’ll show?” Leo asked.
“Apocalypse and the others? I’m not sure. I’m positive that others were revived, but the Dark Heart was exhausted. Without it, Apocalypse isn’t much of a threat… and neither are the others who might’ve been revived. My real concern is simple: someone else might be pulling their strings.”
Kyte’s eyes narrowed. “Cataline didn’t move like a lone fanatic. She moved like someone with backing.”
“Someone else?”
“Back when I was working for Ronin, that sick bastard, I heard rumors of someone that he took orders from. He was also frequently receiving large shipments of those slave collars. Whoever they are, this means they had a lot of pull and connections around the universe. I’m not entirely sure, but there is probably someone backing Cataline—and they helped her get the Dark Heart so she could revive Ronin.”
“You’re convinced that Ronin was revived,” Leo chuckled. “I hope we never see that guy again.”
“Same here…” But what else could they have been doing on Earth that delayed them from reviving Apocalypse? According to the initial reports of the attacks by Dystopians, it took them a few days to revive him. Unless they just weren’t able to find him until that point…
[New Woodberry]
At the Lyte residence, Asuka and her children, along with Reito, finished enjoying a nice meal and were conversing at the dining table.
“What’s taking Akira so long to get home!?” Asuka said in frustration, “We finally get to spend some time as a family, and he goes running off again!”
“Maybe sealing the Dark Heart is more complex than we thought,” Kyoto said.
“Why’s he gotta seal it? I thought it was out of power.” Kazuma asked.
“It’s still dangerous, dummy. We don’t know anything about it at all,” Akaza said.
“Hey, don’t call your brother a dummy!” Asuka scolded, pulling his cheek.
Reito’s fingers tapped the table once—barely noticeable—like he was counting a rhythm only he could hear.
At that moment, there was a knock on the door.
“Who isss it?” Kazuma asked as he got up and swung open the door.
“Oh, Leo, Kyte! You guys are back already!” Asuka said as she stood up to start cleaning the table.
“Hey there,” Leo waved as the two of them walked in. “You guys ready to head to the UFA?”
“Yeah, let’s go already!” Kyoto jumped out of his chair.
“Oh, that reminds me. You guys won’t believe who we met today. Not only is Lian still alive and stronger than ever, but there’s a kid even younger than Kyoto who’s as strong as me!”
“What!? No way, he can’t be stronger than you!” Kazuma cried.
“Yeah, we’d have to see that in person to believe it!” Akaza nagged.
“Younger than me?” And he’s that strong… looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me. Kyoto’s eyebrows raised, his lips curving into a smirk.
“Hey, Reito, you hear that?” Kyoto looked towards the table where Reito was still seated.
Everyone was up and getting ready to leave, while Reito was still sitting at the dining table, lost in thought.
“Hey, Earth to Reito?” Kyoto waved his hand in Reito’s face.
“H-huh?” Reito was brought back to his surroundings.
“You alright? You’ve been acting weird ever since that fight was over.”
“Y-yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking about some ways I can optimize my ability usage.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Reito’s gaze flicked away. “I just… don’t like not understanding what happened back there,” he muttered.
“Save that for when we get to the UFA. C’mon, get up and let’s go!” Kyoto pulled Reito up as everyone headed outside.
The large group flew together to the UFA.
[Back on the UFA Mainland]
“Oh, Sikira! You’re gonna train too?” Asuka asked as she and everyone else arrived at the training facility.
“Yeah, I wanted to get a little sparring in so I don’t get rusty.”
“Oh? I guess I’ll take you up on that later. But first, there are some things I wanted to teach our sons. Oh, right, where’s Rikito?”
“Rikito… I’m not sure. He said something about training, but I have no idea where he went. I’m pretty sure he’s still on Earth, but if there’s a better place to train than here, then that’s news to me. Where’s Akira?”
Asuka sighed, “I’m not sure. You’d think he’d be done sealing the Dark Heart by now, but he never came back home. He’s probably off somewhere goofing off now that I let him out of my sight. Dammit, I’ll have to lecture him later.” She cracked her knuckles, blood vessels in her temple bulging.
Elsewhere in the training room…
“Wow, this place is huge!” Kazuma said.
“I didn’t know they had a training facility this big!” Akaza chirped, eyes wide.
The two of them ran around the room, tagging and play-fighting with each other like the children they were.
“Alright!” Kyoto said. “Mr. Rayon said that this place is reinforced by a barrier that’s powered by this huge energy reactor. So, what’d you say we get a nice spar in, Reito?”
“Hmm? O-oh, sure.”
“Up, ep, ep! Hold it right there! Before you guys do that,” Asuka said as she Aether-Skipped—twice—snatching Akaza and Kazuma into a playful choke-hold, “You guys are gonna have to get through my lessons!” The corners of her mouth curved deviously.
At the same time, Leo and Kyte were engaged in a fierce sparring match in a separate training facility. Shiki was currently meditating in another facility as Darc and Rayon supervised him.
“Okay, let’s get started.” She dusted her hands off after finally getting the four of them to sit and stay still. “I’ll start by saying that I’m impressed with all of you; you guys have reached incredible levels of strength at such a young age. But that doesn’t mean that you should get ahead of yourselves. As Leo told us earlier, there is always someone stronger than you. And the four of you have a lot of areas to improve on if you want to catch up to them.”
“Ugh…” the four boys moaned in dread.
“Reito, you’ve actually made a lot of progress with your Demon Forms.”
“Uh, thanks?”
“The rest of you need to be more like Reito. Akaza and Kazuma, if the two of you train hard enough, you could probably master the True Demon Forms. Although that may be a bit more difficult for the two of you, since you would need a lot of control over your Utopian aether. But I still think you two can do it. Now, Kyoto,” she turned to face him directly.
Here it comes! Kyoto braced himself.
“I’m honestly disappointed that you’ve completely neglected your Dystopian abilities! Sure, I’m proud that you’ve created your own Utopic Arts and you’ve made progress with not only your Kaelithian transformations, but also learning how to manipulate Divine aether. However, you’re wasting your talent, especially now that you can control Divine aether. Your main goal should be to learn the Perfect Demon Form by implementing Divine aether into your True Demon Form.”
“You mean the technique that Uncle Rikito uses? There’s no way I’d be able to learn all that in such a short time.”
“HA!” Asuka transformed. Her skin didn’t darken, but two black-inked markings appeared on her face.
“I-is that!?” Reito exclaimed.
“Perfect Demon Form Level Two!” she said.
“Wow, mommy!” Kazuma shouted.
“Have you been able to do that this entire time?” Kyoto asked.
“Well, I just got the hang of it recently, but I was familiar with it the last time that Rikito and I were both on Earth about six months ago. Your father helped me master my Divine aether during our last trip, and as a result, I was able to learn Perfect Demon Form.”
“I didn’t know there were multiple levels…” Reito said.
“Your limits are set by your imagination! Especially as a Utopian.”
She shifted her head again. “Okay, that just leaves Reito. Your first step is similar to Kyoto’s: learn how to use Perfect Demon Form. While that may seem simple for you since you’re so skilled with Dystopian abilities already, the real hurdle in this will be learning how to resonate with Divine aether.”
“Divine aether, huh.” Reito thought to himself.
He closed his eyes and pictured nothing but darkness in his mind. The whispers from the Dark Heart began to creep into his psyche, but suddenly, a pink light appeared in the center of his visualization. As the light expanded, the whispers faded. Once he reopened his eyes, Reito was emitting a strong pressure.
“Whoa, you can already release a Divine Pressure? If you can already circulate Divine aether through your meridians, then maybe this won’t be hard for you after all!”
“Shit, I can’t fall behind!” Kyoto got flustered. “Hey, Reito! Teach me how to use those Demon Form thingies!”
Reito looked down at his right hand, blocking out the noise around him.
It must be that! That small spark of power that I accidentally absorbed from the Dark Heart! I remember this feeling… It’s the same power that Kyoto brought into our Convergence while we were fighting against Head and Cataline.
He opened and closed his hand a few times.
So, this is Divine Pressure, he thought as he smiled. So, if I incorporate this with True Demon Form…
Suddenly, a dark aura overtook Reito’s body as he ascended into his new form.
“Whoa…” Asuka had her mouth open in shock as sweat ran down her face. I wasn’t expecting him to master it so quickly… he’s definitely big brother’s son! He might be even more proficient with the Demon Forms than our father!
Three black marks appeared on Reito’s face as he finished his transformation.
“This is… Perfect Demon Form.”
His first time, and he’s already using Level Three! I bet Rikito would be proud… even if he’s too prideful to admit it. Asuka chuckled.
“Damn you, Reito! Teach me how to use Demon form already~!” Kyoto cried out.
“Oh, right,” Asuka started. “Here’s a trick that your fathers told me about Utopic Convergence,” Asuka said with her finger pointed up. “In order to carry out the Convergence, you have to completely mix your Utopic aethers together, right?”
“Yeah?” Kyoto and Reito said.
“But that only stabilizes your base Utopic aether. You have to mix your other aether pools too, if you want your Convergence to be more stable. That’s why it’s so important that your Convergence partner is someone who has the same types of aether as you. It’s even better if the two of you have similar Flow reserves. Now that you can both use Divine aether, I’m sure your Convergence will be even more stable when you merge your Utopic, Divine, and Natural aethers into it!” Asuka’s smile went all the way up to her eyes.
[Over the next few days]
Asuka and Sikira sparred with each other nonstop. Same with Leo and Kyte, Kyoto and Reito, and Akaza and Kazuma. Sometimes they swapped, having one person fight against multiple opponents or cycling through different opponents.
Everyone continued improving all their techniques and abilities until they were interrupted on the third day.
“Hey, everyone!” Akira said after using Dragon Shift to teleport into the facility.
“Whoa, when’d you get here!?” Kyoto said, startled.
“Akira! Where have you been!?” Asuka was getting ready to pummel him.
“Well~” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “It turns out that I wasn’t able to seal the Dark Heart. For some reason, every time I put up a barrier around it, it would just melt away—like the Dark Heart drank the barrier. Even layered, it kept eating through.”
“Hm. Maybe it absorbs ambient aether,” Reito said.
“Ohhh… that would make sense, huh. Whoopsie! Ha-ha!”
The room fell quiet for half a breath—because “feeds” meant the Dark Heart wasn’t dormant at all.
“Well, if we can’t seal it, then what should we do with it?” Sikira asked.
“I guess we should just take it to Riella. I’d love to do it myself, but I haven’t gotten to start training yet.”
“Wait a minute…” Asuka said. “Your clothes are in even worse shape than before that last fight! Are you telling me you never went home to take a shower and change?!” She held her nose after getting close. “You stink! What have you been doing this whole time? There’s no reason you should have gotten more beaten up while making barriers!”
“Actually, there’s a really good story for that!” Akira said.
Everyone in the room gathered around to hear his story.
[Next Time on Lyte of Utopia]: “Sun and Moon”
[Yield Levels]:
Leo: 10 – 5z
Kyte: 7z
Asuka: 50 – 4z
- Perfect Demon Form (Level 2): 50 – 6z
Kyoto: 500 – 4z
Reito: 400 – 4z
- Divine Pressure: 400 – 5z
- DP + Perfect Demon Form (Level 3): 400 – 8z
Akaza: 30 – 4z
Kazuma: 20 – 4z
Sikira: 6z
Rayon: 800 – 4z
Darc: 600 – 4z
Shiki: 10z
Akira: 6z