Backstory (continuation) (Aoi’s point of view) _______________________ After what happened inside the living room, I couldn’t help but check Hina upstairs. I knew that she had changed and became cold hearted while talking to me. But Hina was still my sister. And despite what had happened between the two of us, Hina will always be my little step sister. There was not a thing I wished to change that reality. As I climbed the steps of the narrowed living room, the squeaks from the wooden floor announced my appearance. My sweat drenched my clothes as I crept closer and closer to Hina’s room. A weeping sound echoed at the other side of the staircase, belonging to the girl who was the only one present upstairs. After a few moments, which felt like a decade, I finally arrived on top of the place and came face to face with Hina’s door… It was Hina’s room. The crying sounds of a girl continued reverberating throughout the upper floor. And since this house was not large enough as it sounded
Bonus Chapter Icarus’ Perspective Ten years before joining the Elite team of the Crimson Guild ____________________ Icarus. My mum named me that after the famous story about Icarus and Daedalus who tried reaching the sun with their make-shift wings. Dad died when I served in the military. The terrorists killed him, but my dad and his team won the battle. But even that information wasn't disclosed from the public and from us. A representative of the Queen's government and the United Nation's Defence agency went into our house and disseminated that data to my mum and me. Mum told me that I had to believe what the man with high ranking status mentioned about dad until I could reveal the truth. And since I was still young and dumb, I didn't mind it and still believed dad's death was caused by the terrorists. When my old man died when I was six years old, he left a letter, telling me to become a man that was willing to protect the people in need. But despite what he wished for me, I ne
Bonus Chapter (part 2)Icarus’ PerspectiveTen years before joining the Elite team of the Crimson Guild____________________When dad died, every information about his death and moments afterward was classified. The man who visited our house told us that, but mum didn’t believe him. My mum told me that dad had himself caught up with a mission so confidential not even the civilians were informed about it. Only the queen - The United Kingdom - and the United Nations were aware of the matter.Maybe it wasn’t the terrorist behind this plot… Even though it was clear as day those dangerous organisations could’ve done it, my guts told me otherwise. But even so, I still went with the flow and thought that the terrorist was behind it, while keeping the situation mind that something might be pulling the strings. And the death of my dad was related to this event happening in the academy.A known terrorist must be behind this. There was no doubt behind it. If it wasn’t that, I didn’t know how to
Bonus Chapter (part 3) Icarus’ Perspective Ten years before joining the Elite team of the Crimson Guild ____________________ [You have entered a Class-B Portal] [Congratulations, Icarus! You have become an adventurer and earned the ability of Phoenix!] [Note: Phoenix, the adventurer, who has acquired these skills is not a player but an adventurer. System cannot be obtained] [Hot Body (Passive Skill)- Hot Body allows the adventurer to negate any extreme temperature, regardless if it is tundra or lava. This skill also applies on the adventurer’s current equipped weapon and clothing, unless the adventurer relieves or toggles this ability off momentarily.] [Fire Manipulation (Passive Skill) - Any fire that has 600 Celsius can be controlled by the adventurer. By controlling and maintaining the blazing element, this skill will also feed on the adventurer’s own mana to sustain it. If the spell depletes the adventurer's mana/stamina, the ability will be deactivated until the adventure
Bonus Chapter (part 4)Icarus’ PerspectiveTen years before joining the Elite team of the Crimson Guild____________________When the students found me, who was covered with flames and fire coming out from my hands, they rushed in my direction, hoping I could save them. I didn’t want to, especially after what they did to me. However, because of the old man’s words, my moral compass forced me to help others. If dad wasn’t a soldier or a police officer, maybe I would’ve neglected all of this and cuddled by myself inside the shelter. But where was the fun in that?Even though the four students were well aware of me, they sprinted behind my back and begged for any assistance from me. After saying my powers, they swallowed their pride and pleaded for mercy for the monster and me. I heaved out an exhausted sigh, knowing that this wouldn’t turn out well. I had to defeat the gryphon in front of me while defending these students behind my back. As luck would have it, the gryphon also had eyes
Bonus Chapter (part 5) Icarus’ Perspective Ten years before joining the Elite team of the Crimson Guild _______________________________ When I stretched both of my arms to attack each gryphon, which was akin to a nuke, the sphere collided and dealt considerable damage against the mythical creatures. The towering gryphon behind me who was the first enemy I targetted received considerable damage as it flapped its wings and tried smashing its body and head against the nearby mountains. Time healed the burning wings of the gigantic gryphon, but the wounds it had received were considerable enough to slow down its movement. As that happened, that colossal gryphon looked like it had a weakness against fire attributes. Fortunately, I could generate flames out of my hands as if it was second nature. The smaller gryphon tried attacking us by using its body and beak as its means to deal damage against our group, compared to the larger gryphon who used its magic and conjured a spell out of it
Bonus Chapter (part 6) Icarus’ Perspective Ten years before joining the Elite team of the Crimson Guild _______________________________ Since, logically speaking, I didn’t have to precast my phoenix spell, which was the Icarus ability that was derived from my name, I let it act as my passive ability and activate it if my body felt like I was going to die. The skill was broken, but I still had to keep in mind the usage of my spell and the chance I could use it. If I activated [Phoenix] too soon or without doing anything, that would mean having a lesser chance of me defeating the gryphon in front of me. Lava manipulation was useless for now, since the terrain of this place was filled with rocks, sands, and mud without fire. And I doubted that the smaller gryphon could cast magic, especially when that monster only attacked me using physical moves. But I could get the gigantic gryphon to use its spells against me, considering that monster could cast skills just like my fire attribute
Bonus Chapter (part 7)Icarus’ PerspectiveTen years before joining the Elite team of the Crimson Guild__________________________________________Nevertheless, the statue-like girl didn’t stop me from fending off the smaller gryphon and buying some time for the magic circle to complete. Since it had come to this, I used a wall of fire around the girl and blocked the gryphon’s vision. It would not be enough to use the pillar of flames to attack the gryphon, but it was enough to distract the gryphon from coming closer in our direction. I just had to buy time for the magic circle to appear cast by the towering gryphon. And even though there was a scarlet wall of flames in front of me, I knew exactly where the gryphon was. It was because I was the one who cast the spell.So I grabbed the girl out of the place and took her away from the fight. The other student who had already made a huge lead bypassed the gryphon and went behind the rock, leaving the two of us behind. But since she had