Supreme Awakener

Chapter 1 I'll skin you alive!

When Edward Gold was in serious humour, he would walk by himself in his small yard and some time or other stare at the silvery orb that hung high up in the sky.

The orb, like a huge celestial lantern, cast its dazzling light over the yard, turning it mysteriously gloomy. And Edward’s pallid face took on an even icier hue beneath the lunar glow.

Suddenly, he heard someone coming towards him. He knew it must be his sister Yvonne Gold.

“What do you think of the moonlight, Yvonne?” Edward said in a deep voice, in which there was a kind of melancholy, or rather thoughtfulness, that was not quite agreeable.

The person behind him strode faster and more friskily until she was alongside him. She tilted her head and smiled at him, revealing her eight pearly white teeth,

“Hey, how do you know it’s me?”

Yet, Edward neither replied nor gave her a look. Instead, he just let out a sigh, with his eyes still fixed on the big lantern in the sky.

“Hey, my dear brother, why the long face? You look as if we were standing in a churchyard where the dead are buried!” the girl said in a sweet and gentle voice, her eyes twinkling. “I know your problem, but just be happy! Everything will be all right in the end! I promise you’ll be awakened sooner or later.”

Yet, Edward still gazed at the distant moon high in the sky as if he had lived there before.

“Are you okay, my brother?” Yvonne said, waving her hands in front of his eyes, trying to get his attention. “You have to believe me, you’ll...”

“I always believe you, my dear sister,” suddenly Edward turned to gaze into her beautiful eyes, ‘I know I will. I’m fine, and you don’t need to worry about me, Yvonne!”

And then Edward forced a smile on his face.

“So why did you have a long face then?” Yvonne pursed her lips, her little pink fists hammering on the arm of Edward gently, “You know, I just don’t like it. I hope you can smile every day.”

“Hey, I was born with a long face!” Edward gave her another smile, “Don’t you think it’s cool?”

“Not at all, it’s the ugliest face I’ve ever seen,” answered Yvonne, sticking her tongue out at him and then turning back to head off toward the little shabby house behind the yard.

“Hey, where are you going?” Edward frowned, turning to watch her retreating figure. “You haven’t answered my question yet!”

“I’m going for a bath!” replied Yvonne in a louder voice, “As for the moon, it’s bright as a star. It looks like you love the moon better than the Earth!”

With that, she went straight back towards the house, leaving Edward alone in the desolate yard. She could not wait to enjoy her bath in the hot tub.

“Yeah, you’re right because the moon was my home,” whispered Edward.

His sister had no sooner got into the house than he turned to look up at the moon again. Brushing his hair with his fingers, Edward then heaved a sigh, his thoughts drifting into the memory buried deeply at the bottom of his heart.

He remembered the days of his last life back on the moon, where he had been a top warrior enjoying tremendous popularity in the realm of Yanava.

While practicing the technique of Lightning Nirvana, he accidentally lost control of the thunder and the lightning, which immediately struck him down and turned him into a burned body.

“No,” he murmured, beads of perspiration standing out on his forehead. He bit his lower lip, his face twisted as if he had still been suffering from that mistake.  Even now it was hard for him to believe that his previous life had ended this way like the path of an arrow, which is instantly closed up and lost.

His charred remains later had been dumped into an unknown churchyard, where an old man with deep wrinkles all over his face, weird enough to live in one of the uninhabited monuments, had finally buried him six feet deep beneath.

His soul at that time had thought he would finally rest in peace there forever. Yet, when another bolt of lightning crackling in the sky suddenly struck down the ground where he had been buried, his soul had somehow floated in the cosmos and then finally entered the body of a guy In New Hook, Zago, here on Earth.

The original owner of the body was also called Edward Gold.  Despite the members of a prominent family, he and his younger sister Yvonne, orphaned at an early age, had to fend for themselves here in the shabby house.

“Well, the hand of fate is at play!” thought Edward, “I’m better off enjoying the grace of destiny. Now that I’ve come to live in this new world, I’ll have to make the best of it. Don’t worry, the previous owner of my body, believe in me, I won’t let you down!”

Just as he was lost in his musings, suddenly came a resounding crash.

“Bang!”

The yard door was kicked open and several men leaped into the yard in a second.  One of them had a fat ugly face and a large, rounded lump beside his right ear, giving the illusion that he had three ears

Though the other guys did not look any more pleasant, the sight of the guy with the lump was so revolting that Edward could not but frown.  He was no one else but Larry Bush, the butler from his prominent family.

Upon seeing Edward still alive, Larry was taken aback, his eyes widening in great surprise.

“What are you doing here, Larry?” Edward squawked. “You guys are not welcome here. See, you’ve even damaged my yard door.”

“Hmph!” Larry let out a cold harrumph. “I’ve heard you were attacked two days ago. I’ve come to see you...to see if you’re still alive. Ha-ha!”

With that, Larry and his men broke into a fit of laughter.

“It looks like I should thank you for your coming,” Edward sneered back. “See, I’m better than good, so all of you can go now!”

“Are you commanding us? How dare you give us an order, you little waste of space !” Larry snorted again with a cold edge in his voice. “Without a talent to awaken, you’re simply a piece of junk to me, and to the Gold family. To tell you the truth, I’ve come to inform you that you and your wretched sister have to move out of here now!”

“Why should we?” Edward spat back, his eyes as cold as ice. “This is my home. You guys have no right to do so!”

“Since you haven’t awakened even at the age of eighteen, you’re a good-for-nothing.” Larry barked, his lips curling in disdain. “The master of the Gold family has been more than generous in raising you and your cursed sister for so long and providing you two such a decent place to live.  Now, my master has said that you and your damned sister shall work as dishwashers at McCoy’s in the suburbs, one of the properties of the Gold family. This is the family rule, and you’d better toe the line.”

“Of course, he’ll toe the line, my big brother!” said the man with a small moustache beside Larry. “As a senior waste of space, I bet he has no guts to do anything against our master.”

With that, Larry and his men broke into guffaws once again.

Edward glared at them, his gaze burning with defiance, yet he decided not to resort to violence now.

“Do you kiss your mom with that bad mouth, Larry?” Edward talked back. “I have to warn you. You can insult me, but you’re never allowed to insult my sister, or I’ll get you to face the music!”

Larry and his men gave Edward a despised look and laughed again.

“Hey, do you hear that, bros? The little punk said he was going to get me to face the music. Well, I am eager to know what kind of music it’ll be. To Kiss my ass or to kick my ass?” Larry said to his men in a teasing tone.

“of course, it is to kiss your ass, my big brother!”

“Yeah, get him to kiss your ass, boss!”

This time, their laughter was loud enough to rock the earth. Edward saw red. He clenched his fists until his nails were almost stuck into his flesh.

Suddenly, Larry stopped laughing, raising his hand to make his men quiet. After that, he turned to Edward with a smile,

“Okay, I promise you, little punk. I promise I’ll stop insulting your sister, but I know she’s inside for a bath, so I decided to join her for a bath now. This is not an insult, isn’t it?”

“You are a total scumbag!” Edward finally hit the roof, his veins inside his body bulging with rage. “I’ll skin you alive!”