Chapter 130 - Confronting My Past
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Fernand Firebrand seemed to have managed to calm down his brother about this little incident for the moment.
Well, "little" would not really be the name of such incident, as it involved an SSS-Rank item that he had foolishly brought to school to flex it on his friends before even using it on himself.
The sad part is that his S-Rank Brother was just as much of an idiot as him.
Any other sane person would have never given such a valuable item to a young man with barely any sense of responsibility.
Fernand's entire mind has been warped since he was a child, born in luxury, given everything he wanted.
Anything he wished for, anything he wanted was given to him.
His parents were one of the first people to awaken Skills within the Apocalypse and survived the first years by using their powerful Skills and their quick adaptability.
While taking care of the young brother of Fernand as well… which was rather shocking.
Fernand's brother was born from the union of two awakened and had awakened with an ability that he kept using up until this point, which gave name to his title of Living Flame.
Such Skill let his brother completely cover himself in flames, literally becoming a man of flames and fire. He was even able to turn his cells partially into plasma.
Such ability was immediately classified as A-Rank when he was born, and when he kept using it and fighting, it ultimately awakened into an S-Rank Ability, and then into an SS-Rank Ability.
With such talent, he and his parents paved a way for the future with the many Hunters of the past, while Fernand was still growing and developing.
However, his brother, although blessed by amazing powers, was not the brightest.
He was also temperamental and selfish.
And due to the lack of proper parentage from his parents Fernand kind of borrowed a lot of such traits from his brother, becoming just as idiotic.
Now that their parents had retired from being Hunters and left the Guild to be handled by Fernand's brother, they expected great things of him…
Fernand, however, was not born with especially outstanding ability, at least not as insane as his brother… and although he could get new ones through Ability Cores, due to the randomness of such items, it was never guaranteed for him to get anything as comparable as his brother.
In the end, he became greatly overshadowed and had decided to enter a Military School for a change, perhaps to show off his powers and finally get some recognition from these poor folk.
In such a place is where he finally found people even more pathetic than him, which quickly uplifted his mood and made him thought of himself as blessed and superior.
In the end, he targeted the weakest of them all, Noah, who did not even have an ability.
Many times he wondered why such a weakling even entered Military School, he always thought that Noah would one day get himself killed or something…
He kept using Noah as his punching bag, making him suffer and always reminding him of how pathetic he was, just so he could feel better with himself, so he could feel fulfilled.
However, unexpectedly, his brother finished a dangerous Raid where he participated.
Turned out his powers were very effective against an SSS-Rank Boss that seemed to be a terrifying blood-controlling Vampire.
His cells turning into literal plasma made it impossible for the Blood Progenitor Boss to control his blood, and his scorching, never-ending flames were incredibly good at burning the Vampire into ashes.
Even with his outstanding regenerating, when everyone ganged on him in the last moment, he ended up being grilled alive and finally dying.
He heard from his brother that the death of an SSS-Rank Boss brought an enormous pile of dropped items, all of them being SSS-Rank.
Amongst the pile of items, which were almost one hundred, he picked up a red jewel which was named Blood Core alongside other items and equipment.
Deciding to give the shiny jewel that was said to bring some kind of new power to anyone that consumed it to his little brother so he could finally catch up to him, his brother gifted him an SSS-Rank Blood Core as if it were nothing at all…
Fernand was lost for words after such an event.
Only for the next day to take it for granted and bring the jewel around like a fool, until he left it for a single second… and it was stolen.
He tried to look everywhere, but anywhere he went, he was not able to find it.
And after days after days, he was still hoping to find who stole it, and was planning on using his money to pay some track-based Hunters…
But because he was lazy, conceited, and irresponsible, he was taking way longer than he should have taken originally.
He had already considered simply tell his brother that he lost it and that was it.
There was no point in hiding it anymore, as his brother was not going to kill him or anything.
Perhaps get very angry and come to beat some sense on him, but nothing much after that…
But his brother was also just as much of an idiot, so perhaps he had already forgotten about this whole thing…
Fernand considered a few things through all of this, as he lazily scrolled through the phone.
However, he suddenly felt a strange, chilly wind slowly caress his skin, as the hair above his arms began to become stiff…
"Did it got cold out of the sudden? I am sure that it's clear outside…" said Fernand, thinking that there perhaps cold air entered the room, although now that he thought about it, there was a bright sun shining up in the sky…
Suddenly, Fernand slipped his phone off his hands, as he sat down on the bed and moved down to grab it.
The mist that he could barely perceive as a "chilly wind" suddenly disappeared.
As a figure of a tall young man emerged in front of Fernand.
Fernand felt an enormous presence appearing out of nowhere, showering him with a tremendous pressure that made his entire body shiver and aches!
His heart skipped a beat as he felt the air around him suddenly turn incredibly dry and cold.
His lungs were barely able to breathe enough air.
An aura of crimson red essence silently stood before him.
Fernand was paralyzed, he could not even scream.
"I am here to meet you for the last time, yet you don't even look at my eyes. Do you need to be so rude, Fernand?" asked the figure of the young man, as Fernand suddenly recognized the voice!
It was… the voice of the pathetic wimp he beat every single day back then…
But now… it was so serious… and it was so… strange!
Fernand clenched his teeth, as he slowly glanced upwards, finally seeing the figure of the young man in front of him, who was wearing black and red clothes which seemed highly refined.
His skin was completely pale white as if he were sick, his eyes crimson red, glowing with an eerie and bright light, his hair was short and silvery white, covering a bit of his left eye, and his ears were pointy.
This man in front of him, although hard to recognize, was Noah, the one he bullied so much a few days ago before he began to act weirder than usual.
"Y-You… Nnggh… W-What is this… pressure? You are… Noah! How can… it be? Am I… dreaming?" muttered Fernand, trembling while trying to muster words.
"Dream? Well, if you put it like that, it would be more like a nightmare," said Noah.
"N-Nightmare…?! Nnghkh… W-What happened to you?! Ungh… How did you get in here without… me noticing?!" asked Fernand, as he was trying to unleash his Abilities, but Noah's pressure was enough to suppress his will.
He had him completely before his mercy without even moving an inch.
"Oh, how easy it would be to crush your neck with my bare hands right now…" sighed Noah.
"W-What?!"
"Ah, do not fear. I am not here to hurt you, I have come here to become friends with you! I have turned on a new leaf, Fernand, and it was all thanks to you! So, to be honest, I should actually be thankful that you brought such an opportunity to change my entire life," said Noah with a mischievous smile.
Fernand was paralyzed in fear and confusion… he could not understand anything that was going on right now…
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