Chapter 134 - "Is That A Challenge?"

"Dying here like this? Isn't that unfair?"

"What do you want?"

"I want you to simply do what I tell you to do." Red offers.

Dominic is so offended by this; he cannot even feel angry about it.

After getting over it, "Do what you tell me to do? I'd rather die.", he scoffs in disdain.

"Oh. Alright. Then poor little Little family." Red returns with a sadistic grin. He also flares his bloody aura for added effect.

"You…" Dominic grits his teeth. "You gave me your word."

"You gave me the idea. What can I say?" Red shrugs.

"And… You expect honor and fairness from me? Can you honestly tell me that you have been honorable and fair to the weaker ones?" He asks.

"…" Dominic is forced to be reminded of the things he has done and the things his family is still doing.

"That's right. You should not feel so indignant. This is simply how the world works, doesn't it?" Red hums, knowing Dominic's internal conflict.

"What kind of things do you me to do?" Dominic can only ask.

"I'm not as merciless as you are. I will not ask anything that will cause you and your family destruction or even harm. Nothing will change in your wealth and influence. Your family will still hold half of Australia." Red says, surprising Dominic.

"On the contrary." Red continues.

"You and your family might even benefit from this, as long as you do my bidding."

"…" Dominic is skeptical, but he has no choice in the matter anyway.

"Fine." He swallows his pride and sighs in bitter acceptance.

He promises to himself however, that if or when he gets out of this bind alive, he will think of ways to take revenge.

"I'm being honest, you know?" Red shakes his head.

There are no openings in Dominic's soul yet for him to exploit.

"I will even be the hidden protector of your family in case they are attacked." He offers.

Dominic's eyes widen, unsure if he heard correctly. He is pulled out from his surprise when he sees Red pull out a wood chip once again.

"These things." Red says as he activates it.

Dominic's jaw drops in shock as a portal appears beside him and Red.

"I am probably at the forefront of research on these things in this world. Even the Brotherhood of Adam will kill for what I know." Red continues to say as he expands and contracts the size of the portal.

Dominic's breathing gets heavier in excitement and awe at what he is witnessing.

"I may be strong but I am quite poor compared to you. I am reaching an important stage in my research, and I need your resources." Red continues to lie.

"And if I succeed, you and your family will be the only beneficiaries of my knowledge aside from myself."

"…" Dominic cannot take his eyes off the portal as he processes Red's words.

"So… What do you say?" Red asks.

"I-I…" Dominic looks at Red, in hidden excitement.

"Why me?" He asks.

Red deactivates the portal and pulls out the treasure fragment that Dominic once possessed.

"Simply because of this." He says as he joins his and Dominic's former treasure fragment.

Dominic seeing the two treasure fragments perfectly fuse into one, understands. He does not know whether to feel hostility at Red, or feel lucky that he met the man and receive the man's offer.

"This is the benefit you were talking about?" He finally gets his word out.

"That's right." Red nods.

"… Then… I'll provide you whatever you need." Dominic says.

Red feels an opening to Dominic's soul with his spirit sense, and he assaults it immediately with a sliver of his soul.

"…" Dominic immediately feels something weird, as if something inside him is being swallowed by a whirlpool.

At first, he figures that it is because of his injuries, but he is starting to feel that what he is feeling is much deeper than just his flesh.

The next moment, the feeling disappears.

He does not know what changed, but he feels with his instincts that something definitely has. He then looks at Red, and notices that Red has suddenly transformed into a young racially ambiguous man.

Before he can ask or wonder what had just happened, Red suddenly drops to his knees. He also sees that Red is now severely sweating.

He tilts his head, immediately realizing something strange. In the past, he would have immediately gone in for the kill, but now, at least to Red, he does not feel even the slightest intention to kill. Instead, he is worried for Red.

"Are you okay?" He asks.

"I'll be fine…" Red replies in a trembling voice.

"A-…" Before Dominic can ask more, *whoosh* a young man, which he recognizes as the same young man he saw briefly speaking with Red earlier, suddenly appears out of nowhere beside Red.

"B-Boss? You okay?" Fumio asks.

While he is confused as to why Red switched to another disguise, he is more worried of Red's state.

"I'll be fine." Red says as he struggles to stand back up.

"You sure?" Fumio asks.

"Yeah." Red nods.

"Carry us to another island, please." He asks.

Fumio immediately acts on the order.

"Excuse me." Fumio holds Red and Dominic at each arm and controls his flying sword. He feels disgusted feeling Dominic's blood, but he toughens his gut, seeing the man's state.

"What's going on?" Dominic, who just happened to learn Japanese at some point in his long life, asks in Japanese while they are zipping through the sky.

"You're not the only one who's injured." Red chuckles, his words making Fumio worry more.

As soon as the trio land on another deserted island, "Activate your trinket for me." Red orders Fumio.

Fumio is confused by the order but pulls out the metallic orb that Red gave him a day ago, and activates the treasure fragment given to him by Red.

A portal soon appears, mystifying Dominic once again.

"You try and slow down this guy's bleeding." Red orders Fumio.

"O-okay." Fumio immediately attends to Dominic, making the man lie on the ground.

"Good. I'm entering to recover. Close the portal, and open it back up in an hour." Red adds to his orders as he enters the portal.

"…alright..." Fumio utters in worry as he closes the portal.

This is the first time he is seeing Red look so weak and he did not even get the chance to ask Red if there is anything he can do to help. He can only follow Red's orders for now.

"Excuse me." Fumio says as he rips Dominic's shirt off, before laying his spiritual energy-infused palms on the man's wound.

While he cannot cover the entire length of the wound, his two palms are enough to attend to the damaged organs.

"Phew…" Dominic sighs in relief, the pain from his wound feeling better.

Fumio then focuses inside himself and increases the spiritual energy flow in specific meridians in specific order, and in specific intensity, until 'Ice Palm Technique', activates a spiritual energy technique.

He cannot help but chuckle as the basic spiritual energy technique he learned just to chill his drinks, he is now using on something gory. To use it to constrict the blood vessels in Dominic's wounds with the cold temperature to try and slow down the bleeding until Red is back.

"…" Dominic, feeling that he is safe for the next hour until Red returns, relaxes and looks up at the sky.

Fumio, looking at the dazed Dominic, gets worried.

"So… uh… I'm guessing you two talked things over…" He tries to strike up a conversation to keep Dominic awake.

"…Heh." Dominic chuckles.

"If only it's like that."

"What do you mean?" Fumio asks.

"…" Dominic tries to tell Fumio the truth, but he cannot. This confirms his suspicion.

"Only the S-Class have the right to know." He can only have fun with his new situation.

Fumio is taken aback by Dominic's words, making him replay what he has seen earlier in his mind.

He still cannot believe that he witnessed the fight of two S-Class superiori. Dominic's titanic water turtle that looks like some godly beast of the ocean. Red's giant phantom sword tip that managed to cut through the invincible looking colossal turtle.

"You know. If I witnessed your fight with boss as my past self, I would have felt like an ant watching two gods fight. I would have felt lucky to witness something larger than life before I died." Fumio's preface takes Dominic's interest.

"What are you saying?" Dominic asks.

"Nothing. I just think that while I cannot survive a fight against an S-Class superioris right now, I feel like I'll become someone strong enough to do just that in the future." Fumio says in determination.

"Oh?" Dominic is surprised by how sure Fumio seems to be in himself.

"What makes you so sure?" He asks in amusement.

"How old do you think I am?" Fumio asks.

He figures that something happened between Red and Dominic that made Red comfortable exposing the real function of the treasure fragments to Dominic, so he feels that he can trust Dominic too.

"I can only tell that you're very young." Dominic decides to humor Fumio. After all, he has nothing else to do.

"I am. I just turned 24 two months ago." Fumio nods.

"What's your point?" Dominic asks.

"I'm just 24 and I think I could have given that guy Darcy a good fight. Maybe even to a draw." Fumio estimates.

Dominic's eyebrows jump at this. He is not as strong as Fumio when he was at Fumio's age.

"And you feel that you're still growing stronger?" He asks.

"Yes." Fumio confirms.

"Huh…" While Dominic is not showing it, he is more than impressed by Fumio's strength. He knows however how hard it is to ascend to an S-Class Superioris. He even felt in the past that he became one in accident.

"Give me two decades. I'll only be 44 by then. I think I can give you a fight." Fumio looks at Dominic in the eyes.

"Is that a challenge?" Dominic is amused.

"I guess it is?" Fumio returns.

"Would you have the balls to say the same thing if I wasn't in this state?" Dominic chuckles.

"Probably not." Fumio shrugs. "But now that I've said it, I wouldn't want to disappointment myself if I fail to live up to it."

"Alright. Because this is rare, I'll remember this. I will be waiting.." Dominic does not know why, but Fumio's challenge gives him a strong feeling of anticipation.