"What the fuck is this shit!? Am I Sulyvhan or Kaiser!?" he shouted. His voice echoed through the clearing, and a flock of nocturnal birds rose from the surrounding trees, flapping their wings in a panicked rustle.

"Shut the fuck up! Do you want to attract monsters? Your thoughts are confused right now, but it will pass," replied Diavolo.

He sat down on a flat stone he had placed near the fire, crossed his legs, and pulled a metal flask from his coat. He took a long swig before holding it out toward Kaiser. "Want some?"

A heavy silence settled then, broken only by the crackling of the dry wood and Kaiser’s panting breath as he struggled to regain control of himself. He refused the flask with an almost imperceptible shake of his head, then began staring at the distant stars.

"Your schemes have failed... The Key of Solomon is in Spectrum’s hands and Pandora has already used it."

Kaiser let out a long sigh. "Yeah... I failed... anyway, I really needed a break. I’m sick of all this shit."

Diavolo’s face suddenly lost its mocking expression.

"We already failed in the Millennial War. We can’t hand over the mortals to those dogs of Superior Beings. As long as we’re alive, we have to keep going."

"We?" Kaiser repeated, quite confused.

"Anyway, even if I’m alive, my body is so broken that I might never be able to use the Aura of my life again." The backlash from using the Sundering Eclipse had left his body in tatters. He knew it because he could feel the energy fluctuating violently in his vessels.

Diavolo then stood up. He brushed off his pants with a casual gesture, removing the dust and twigs that had stuck to them, then put his hat back on his head. "For now, sure, but how about you follow me across the world!?"

Kaiser looked at him. "What, are you going to teach me how to use Mana??"

"Nahh, you’re way too mediocre! Nyo-hoo!" He laughed.

"Bastard!" Kaiser protested.

Despite their atypical personalities... This was the beginning of a long adventure story...

***

The cabin stood at the heart of the mysterious forest that separated Yggdrasil from Babylon, an area where demonic mana was quite high even though there was no rift in the zone.

This construction, made of logs blackened by time and reinforced with runes carved into the wood, had been built by Diavolo decades earlier, a refuge from the gaze of the Constellations who wanted him dead.

Inside, there was a bed made of animal skins, a stone table covered with parchments annotated in red ink, and shelves stacked with vials containing liquids of improbable colors. Kaiser had been lying on this bed for three days, his bandages changed morning and evening by Diavolo, and he was only just beginning to be able to move his limbs without triggering unbearable pain.

His usual abilities, those that made him a formidable warrior, were still out of reach.

The backlash from the Sundering Eclipse had left his vessels in such a critical state that any attempt to mobilize his Aura resulted in an electric shock running through his nerves.

"Your body is a field of ruins, Baby boy. If you try to use Aura to strengthen your body and maximize your healing right now, you’ll explode like shit."

Diavolo burst into the cabin with an energy that the early morning hour did not justify.

"Why are you so energetic in the morning, you fucking cowboy?"

"Get up, mediocre! This goat has been waiting for you for an hour and he doesn’t have all day!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands.

Kaiser opened his eyes with difficulty, his eyelids still heavy with sleep and fatigue. "You could at least let me sleep. The sun hasn’t even risen yet."

"Nyo-ho-ho!" Diavolo burst out laughing.

"Rest is for the weak. What you lack isn’t rest, it’s understanding. Get up, I’m taking you outside."

Kaiser obeyed, not out of enthusiasm, but because after three days he had understood that arguing with this man was like talking to a wall; he was an eccentric who was not going to change his mind.

"As if I had a choice, you were just going to throw me outside the second I refused."

He got up slowly, leaning on the bedpost so as not to sway, then followed Diavolo outside the cabin.

The forest surrounding their refuge was oppressively dense. The trees, century-old oaks whose branches intertwined several meters above the ground, formed a canopy that filtered the sunlight until it resembled a permanent twilight.

The air was saturated with demonic mana to the point that Kaiser felt a slight resistance with every breath.

"Where exactly are we?"

"In the forest that separates Yggdrasil from Babylon."

Diavolo led him to a cleared clearing, a perfect circle where the grass was strangely short and where no trees grew. In the center stood a two-meter-high rock covered with symbols that Kaiser did not recognize.

"Sit down," Diavolo ordered.

Kaiser complied, being careful not to reopen his wounds.

"Why did you bring me here?"

Diavolo positioned himself behind the stone. "Because this is where you are going to learn what warriors who use Aura have never been able to teach you."

"The way you used aura through Sulyvhan’s Sundering Eclipse Art is raw energy. It is extremely sharp, capable of even cutting energy at its peak. It’s effective, but it’s limited."

"Limited?" Kaiser repeated with a raised eyebrow. "I killed Archdemons with my Sundering Eclipse," he said, not even noticing that he had spoken of Sulyvhan in the first person.

"And look where you are now." Diavolo struck the stone with his palm.

"The Sundering Eclipse is the power that comes from you and therefore has a great influence on your physical body. The Mystic Arts, the ones I’m going to teach you, are those that influence the universe." He raised a finger toward the sky, invisible behind the cover of the trees.

"If the Sundering Eclipse Art allowed you to hit the doors, the Mystic Arts allow you to know which one to open."

Kaiser remained silent, absorbing these words. He thought back to the battles he had fought, to the way he had always favored brute force over finesse. Maybe, indeed, that approach had led him to his current state.

"So how do we do it?" he asked.

Diavolo crouched in front of him, his heterochromatic eyes shining in the dim light of the clearing. "Observe."