In Pariel, The English state, In District 11 of Baine, many people gathered in a luxurious, spacious court. Murmurs spread about, all had one topic in common, the boss calling for a sudden summoning, amidst the crowd, a man in his thirties, dark red, unkept hair and eyes of similar colour color, stood out, he was the vice commander of the people who were summoned, however he himself did not know why the boss had summoned everyone, Whispers and rambling filled the building, mainly questioning what the boss had in mind this time, the red haired man overheard a certain conversation, "Ray ain't the same as he was.", "Yeah. He's been more aggressive lately. Like he's frustrated about something. The other day I saw him arguing with the secretary lady from division 8.", "You kidding, I saw him actually slap her just last week", "Jeez, he never would have done that last year, he'll he used to treat her with a lot of respect, calling her his elder and even bowing to her whenever they spoke.", "I wonder happened.", the two men kept speaking, but the topic slowly drifted away from 'Ray'. The red head sighed.
He knew Ray, Ray is their leader after all, most importantly, Ray was his brother. He knew him more than anyone else, yet these few days, he felt like he never knew Ray. He'd lost his usual smile and that shine in his eyes, it's like his life was ruined silently and he's keeping it all to himself. Rudolf, The red haired man, did try to speak to Ray on multiple occasions, but all he got were dismissive and emotionless replies from Ray. He knew something was off, but he couldn't put a finger on it.
Heavy steps could be heard coming from the main entrance, the murmurs quickly died, knowing that focus was now due, the people had all glued their eyes to the entrance, from it, a large man, 8"7 in height with a body that could be the next textbook definition of muscular had walked through, he wore pitch black steel tipped boots, sweat pants, a black tank top with an iron chest plate and shoulder guards. His eyes were wide, focused on the huge crowd, but after he scanned them for a few seconds, his eyes went calm, nearly closing. He walked past everyone, heading to the middle of the building, as he walked, he kept glancing around at the people, the more he did the more he gritted his teeth. Rudolf felt uneasy with his entrance, especially the glances he was giving everyone, he decided to head to the back of the crowd, just in case something were to happen, while the old Ray wouldn't mind being made fun of, Rudolf didn't know if this was the same Ray, knowing his strength, he wouldn't want to be the first to take the hit if someone were to make him angry.
Ray turned back to the crowd and took a long breath in before he spoke, his voice traveled across the building, reverberating off the walls, "A HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE BATTLES EACH! Yet. Only eight battles were won. Does anyone care to explain." His expression hardened, furious at the poor results. No one spoke, everyone knew they had lost, even the eight battles they had won were just out of luck. "I expected a lot more from you all. I trained you, fed you, nurtured you! Yet you fail me. Time and time again. Even though I have trained you, you still fail. Even though I went through the trouble of getting you all personal trainers, you failed! So tell me. What must I do, to make you all strong? Hm?" Everyone looked away, no one was willing to speak, or even look him in his eyes. "I know what I must do."
Rudolf felt something off about his last words, before he knew it, a splash sound was heard, and Ray was no longer where he stood, concerned, his eyes darted around the room before he heard a scream, looking towards the scream, he saw a sight he never thought possible, Ray had killed one of his students, blood was painted over his body as he stood in silence, the people started going crazy, others panicked while the rest screamed in horror, yet no one had the strength to move, be it from knowing his strength or from just witnessing it, the people felt like they were going to die no matter what they did. "I must prune the weeds to give way to healthy flowers." Rudolf was left frozen, that sentence was something he'd hear Ray say very often when they went to gardens, and every time Ray would spare no weed from growing in gardens, figuring that he's was going to kill everyone, he tried to make a move on Ray, but the second he took a step, he vanished, followed by a crunching sound, his shot to the sound, only to see a one of Ray's first students, now lifeless on the ground, when he looked to ray, he saw something even more frightening. He was smiling, not just smiling, his smile was much wider and filled with joy than any he had seen during the past 30 years he had spent with his brother.
People had already started running for any exit they could find, one woman reached the main entrance, but stopped moving all together, a person behind her noticed her sudden freeze and rushed to the door, once close to it, his eyes widened in fear, the handles were all missing he looked back to everyone else, only to see that people were struggling to open every other door and window, others had already resorted to trying to break their way out, but thanks to the building being built to withstand Rays power, they had not chance at breaking out. Ray dropped all the handles and broken keys to the ground, emptying out his pockets. "No one is leaving. Not without my acknowledgement." He said slowly, looking around at the carnage he had caused.
Rudolf gritted his teeth as he tried to make another move, this time he anticipated his next move, and guessed correctly, he had rushed In front of the next weakest person in the building, bracing for an impact, Ray appeared out of nowhere and struck his own brother with the intent to kill, the strike was too much for Rudolf, he grunted as he used a martial art to redirect the force of the blow away, "You can not do this! This is not you!", "Oh? And who are you to say who I am?", "I'm your brother god damnit!", "Ah. I forgot I had one. Guess you're just too weak to remember.", "Either way. You can't just kill innocent people. You taught everyone here that! To never put the innocent in harms way!", "Hahahaha! I did, did I? Well. Have you ever heard this quote? 'You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain'?", "So you're saying you're the villain now?", "Ha! That is the main part we all miss. The main part I missed. What truly is a villain. You see. I do what I do to ensure that a certain thing does not kill us all. Yet in that process, I have to take away the things that make people weak. Things like emotion. And doing that makes me the Villain.", "The hell are you on about.", "Forget it. That move you just used, it was not something you knew last week.", "I learned it yesterday.", "Hm . . ." One of the people from the crowd spoke up, their voice shaky, "W-we just need experience, boss, if we get that we can win more battles! I promise!" The crowd all agreed, adding to the person's comment, Ray sighed before grabbing Rudolfs hand, he had no time to react, in less than a second, Ray had grabbed the guy who spoke by the jaw, "And who told you to speak.", "He's not wrong, brother! They just need more experience!"
He sighed, dropping the guy who spoke, who gurgled in pain, his lower jaw skidded across the floor. "So be it. I GIVE YOU ALL EIGHT YEARS! EIGHT YEARS TO TRAIN AND MAKE YOURSELVES STRONG ENOUGH TO DEFEAT ME! STRONG ENOUGH TO DEFEAT IT! Until then. I must not see even a single one of you lot. After these eight years, if even one of you fails to meet my expectations, I will hunt and kill you all. And not a single word of what happened here must meet the ears of the public. UNDERSTAND!" The crowd of people bowed, fearing the worst, Ray let go of his brother's hand and simply walked to the entrance, he broke the doors open as he walked out.
A woman in the crowd spoke to Rudolf after Ray left, "What the hell is happening?! Does he really expect us to do all that!?! What has gotten into him!?!" With her words, the rest of the crowd started bombarding Rudolf with questions, mainly about what had happened to Ray and why he wanted strong people. He hated to admit it but even he did not know what this entity was that caused him to use such measures just to make people stronger, "You hear him. Go out and enhance your skills. Do whatever you must to be better. If not, pray he does not find you." After speaking he left the building as well, the crowd of people inside looked at each other in silence before leaving the building and going their separate ways. Rudolf hoped that his brother was doing this for a good cause.
A bit later on, Ray was kneeling to a large cage situated in a forgotten tunnel underground, deep in the old sewer system. "I will not let them fail us again. Not anymore . . "