Sunflower Village, 8 years ago The bright full moon lit up the night sky, the sun had just set an hour ago and young Verner was in trouble; "Mom is going to kill me!!" he cried and he ran home as fast as he could, sweating heavily. His mother had sent him to get some spices from a nearby market away from the village earlier, but he got carried away by street games and lost track of time. He was really late and had to run as fast as he could before the night got even lonelier. Bats whistled, crickets chirped, owls hooted, the young night was filled with sounds, but as Verner got closer to home, they disappeared slowly, making the journey even scarier "My legs hurt..." he muttered, he stopped to take a break and breathe, sweat dripping from his smooth little boy face. His legs were hurting terribly and so he had to start walking instead of running because he was too tired. All of a sudden, the quiet night became louder, a lot louder, not from bats and crickets, but people, people cry

The sun was shining very brightly on the green leaves in Willow valley which were looking even fresher with water droplets from the morning dew. Verner was back home after his horribly failed attempt to ambush master Rodric. He couldn't help but think about Rodric's challenge. It sounded very casual but there was a huge chance that he wasn't going to be alive by this time tomorrow. He sat in the dojo behind the house, staring at all the swords and weapons hung on the wall. Many of them were enchanted; weapons that have been laced with Qi or spells to give them special abilities. He had only ever used regular weapons during training, but if he was going to survive the night, he had to burrow some of them. "Rodric wouldn't mind if I took a thing or two". He took a bunch of pocket blades and fixed them inside his coat, then he glanced over the swords until he chose one that had a metallic blue coloured blade with a spell inscribed on it. "Thunder flash spear", he read out, slightly con

Rodric stood on a hill and looked over the tea plantation, he watched as a few locals picked leaves and put in the baskets hung on their backs, with straw hats to shield their faces from the sun. Rodric owned a large strip of the plantation, and made a lot of money from here. Being one of the Sentinels in the guardian society, Rodric had the luxury of never being sent on missions or to track devils, that was for scouts and majors, sentinels only watched over their home lands, run the business of their respective clans and only get summoned to fight in other lands if a black grade devil or higher emerges. "That kid, I don't even know why I agreed to train him", Rodric rubbed his little purple goatee, his long dark purple hair was covered by his straw hat. "I and Daegan have sold him a dream that will never come true, now he's gonna die young, for nothing" Rodric's face turned very sour, he was deep in thought. "Even if I drop the challenge and force him to shut up I can't protect him

The sun slowly faded away in the evening sky, the night drew nearer and nearer, with it's devils that dance under the moon and stars, and eat any human that they come across. Rodric walked back home, he walked through the same path he followed in the morning, the path he followed every day, he scoffed when he came across the traps Verner set earlier in the morning. "I wonder what he's up to" Rodric said as he continued to walk home, feeling a little uneasy, a little guilty. "It's part of the training...it's part of the training" he repeated, trying to make himself feel less guilty, even though he knew he wasn't supposed to be. He arrived at his house, it was very quiet, unusually quiet, "aren't the boys home?" he started feeling uneasy again, but then... "Honey...you're home" Amah came out of the door, combing her long black hair, she leaned for a kiss but he didn't respond. "Why are the boys so quiet?""The ate a little too much this afternoon, so they fell asleep early" "Where's

Pine grove valley, Current day; Pine grove valley was another settlement of people within the Green crest mountain range, the largest and longest mountain group of mountains in the Celestra Empire and the whole world as it spanned almost Ten thousand kilometers. The mountains in this range had valleys in between them filled with lush green forests and scattered human villages. Sun flower village, willow valley and pine grove valley were all in this mountain range, but Sunflower village was in the far east and willow valley and pine grove were far west. Rodric and Verner got to village in the pine grove valley at night. The sun had just set and the streets were gradually emptying. Lamp lights lined the roads to help people see, but they also made the streets look very pretty at night. Rodric and Verner stood on the roof of a building and watched the locals move around. Rodric seemed to be deep in thought, Verner just stared at him cluelessly. "So uhm...what do we do now?"Rodric ru