Chapter 300 - Inside Kretos's memories

After listening to Kretos's story Tsukiko now had a basic understanding of how strong Kretos was. If he was this strong then how come he had difficulty fighting the other demon lords? 

'Was he holding back each time he fights...' Tsukiko looked at the exhausted Kretos and thought about his battle loving personality. 'If it's this guy that could be a possibility.' While she was thinking, a very scary notion came to her. 'Could it be this guy is improving while battling?!' That would mean every time he battles he gets significantly stronger, which would also explain his love for battle. 

When Tsukiko thought of this a lot of her questions finally had answers, but she also felt like she was missing some crucial information. 

...

Kretos and Tsukiko talked for a few hours until Kretos finally felt a bit sleepy. Seeing as he still couldn't sleep, Tsukiko offered to help. 

'I could use a sleeping spell on you.' 

'Now why would I allow you to do that?' 

'You need to rest to recover faster. If you continue to stay awake, the recovery time might slow down.' 

When Kretos heard what Tsukiko said, it did sound logical. Also even if he's asleep or awake if Tsukiko wanted to do something to him, she could do it no matter if he's awake or not. Kretos started to think that he did owe the fox a bit. So maybe it was okay to trust her, and even if she did anything it shouldn't be fatal to him. If not for her he would've died back there, he should have been eaten or killed mercilessly. 

'Fine do whatever you want.' When she heard Kretos's approval, Tsukiko didn't waste any time and used a sleeping spell on him. It took only a couple of seconds before Kretos was fully asleep. 

Once Kretos was asleep Tsukiko smiled mischievously. Now that she got to know Kretos a bit more, she wasn't as afraid as before. Besides she was just curious, she wasn't going to do anything bad. 

'Yup, it's not like I'm going to hurt him or anything. I just want to know the secret of his strength. How can a horned demon be this strong, and at such a young age.'

After convincing herself that she wasn't doing anything bad, the mischievous fox started looking at kretos's memories. Since he was only around twenty years of age his memories shouldn't be vast. Tsukiko had already used this spell on an older demon with a millennium of memories and she was done scanning them within an hour. 

Tsukiko then placed her hands and scanned Kretos's memories. She saw each and every battle he had and as she expected Kretos was indeed growing strong through battle. Was that a special trait of his or is that the trait of all horned demons that no one never noticed, since the horned demons except for those of the Shadow Clan are a rather peaceful bunch. 

...

Tsukiko had scoured Kretos's memories from his training at a young age to the graduation exam of the shadow clan, to his journey up to this point. Yet there was no indication that the other horned demons were like him, nor were there any clues as to why he was so strong. It was like simply living was enhancing his powers. 

Tsukiko kept on looking at Kretos's memories over and over again, trying to see if she missed an important detail. The human heroes of old powered up because of revenge or some strong emotion, sometimes they were even blessed by Gods. There doesn't seem to be any record of any demon being blessed by Gods and based on what she saw, Kretos doesn't seem to have any strong emotion aside from when he battles, oh, and that one time with the werewolf girl. 

...

Despite the setback, Tsukiko didn't give up and that was when she noticed that there was a memory that went beyond Kretos's time of birth. This was a whole set of memories that was linked to Kretos's soul. When Tsukiko saw this she became quite curious, this was the first time she has seen such a thing while scouring one's memories. 

'Is this perhaps memories of a past life?... It is true that many believe that once you're dead the soul would continue living and move onto another plane, or perhaps reincarnate into another body' 

Tsukiko followed the string of memories and then she saw a whole different person. This person was a human and a very powerful human at that. She already thought Kretos was an unbelievable existence of power, yet this human in these memories was someone that could fight hordes of dragons with nothing but a single sword at hand. 

This person was also a battle maniac with a similar vicious smile as Kretos. He overwhelmed his opponents with only the pressure his mana emitted. She looked deeper into this person's memory as she was truly interested to see more. 

...

Tsukiko found a memory of the man when he was younger. The boy that had a similar personality with Kretos was called Rei Kuraki, and he was currently going to do some sort of test.

He was back in the gymnasium, Tsukiyomi, went to sit among the students. Rei saw Rina sitting there as well; and of course, glaring ferociously at him was Niel.

There were fewer students witnessing this than expected, around forty students. Rei took some weapons from the table. Two short swords, one longsword, and a sword belt.

The examiners looked at him warily. That was when the silver ranked examiner approached him, the examiner looked like he was in a good mood.

"So you use a longsword as well... So are you ready to begin the test?"

"No, not yet... You see this choker and bracelet, they're seals I use to hold back my power. I need to remove them first."

"I see... So the bracelet really was something special. Still, why are you sealing your power? Well, it doesn't matter, how about you remove those now, so we can begin the test."

"Sure, but before I do that, can you tell everyone to brace themselves, and tell the students to use [mana barrier]." 

"Sure, everyone on the stands over there please cast a [mana barrier] and brace yourselves." Everyone present did as they were told without question. "There is that all?" The examiner asked.

"One last thing, call the other six to fight me. If it's just you four, I don't think you'll be able to gauge my strength. I don't mean to offend any of you but that is the truth." Rei was looking at the examiner seriously. Looking at Rei's expression the examiner sighed.

"Very well, I'll call them now."

†

After waiting for a while, the other examiners arrived, they looked extremely irritated.

'Well what I said was the truth, no use hiding my power anymore.'

"So is that all you need, are you going to do it now?" Even the silver rank examiner was getting impatient. I nodded my head. "Alright then after you undo the seal, take a stance, once we see you take a stance, we will attack without delay."

I removed the choker and bracelet.

Rei finally removed his so called seals, and upon removal, a tremendous amount of mana poured out. This was totally different from the last time when he just removed one seal. Not only did the pressure he emits triple, the mana he released was unbelievable. He really wasn't kidding when he said, that the others should brace themselves. This amount of mana was suffocating. 

The last time the examiner was trembling in fear, but now he can't even do that. The examiner's body couldn't move at all, he even felt light-headed. The silver rank examiner's fellow hunters looked the same. Test him? Were they even allowed to stand before him?

That was when we heard his voice across the raging storm of mana. 

"Hey, are you sure, you want to test me?" The examiner saw Rei, he was holding the hilt of his longsword. This was his stance; The silver ranked examiner threw all of his fear and anxiety aside, and move onward, his fellow hunters did the same.

Once they got a little closer, the silver ranked examiner felt like he got hit. Rei did not move from his spot, the examiner didn't even see Rei unsheathe the longsword from the scabbard. Yet the examiner and his fellow hunters were blown away and were now losing consciousness. They couldn't do a single thing.

...

Tsukiko who watched everything happening in the memory was amazed by how strong this person called Rei was. Even though she couldn't feel his mana since this was nothing but a memory, she could still guess how strong it was. She wasn't even able to see the sword swing that defeated the examiners. She even slowed down the memory to see but it was still too fast, she then slowed it down to the slowest possible speed and she could finally see how fast Rei sword swing was.

The sword swing was faster than light itself. Knowing how fast it was Tsukiko couldn't think of anyone that can survive the first strike, not even the current Kretos had the ability to dodge that. 

Tsukiko was getting excited as she wanted to look deeper into this person's memories when she suddenly felt a massive force pulling her. Tsukiko was frightened as she wanted to cancel the spell she used, but the invisible force had a firm grasp of her and nullified her actions. 

'What do we have here, a visitor?' A voice sounded in her head, and it wasn't Kretos's voice. Tsukiko was panicking as someone had easily pierced through her mental barriers. The view Tsukiko was seeing changed and she was now in an empty space and in front of her was a person who had the same kind of aura as Kretos. 

"Little fox, peeking into someone's else memories is already bad, but you actually peeked into my soul."

When Tsukiko heard what the man said she was surprised. She was simply mentally linked to Kretos, she thought that the spell was a simple one that could only look into memories, she didn't know that it could actually see through one's soul. 

She was truly scared now, as the person in front of her was someone so much stronger than her. She couldn't help but shiver in fear as she spoke. 

"I'm sorry about that, I didn't mean to do it. I was just curious about Kretos..." Tsukiko then gathered every last bit of her courage and asked, "If I may ask, who are you, and how come you're in Kretos's soul?" 

The man looked at the frightened fox and smiled the same vicious smile as Kretos and answered. 

"I'm called Leonard Tranor, you can say Kretos and I are the same person. Now enough of the introductions it's time for a little punishment. So guys who gets to fight her first?" 

When Leo asked that question Tsukiko finally noticed the thousand of others that were concealed before suddenly appearing before her. Each one of them had a frightening aura and to make it worse they all had the same smile that Kretos shows when he wants to battle, or gets excited in battle. 

Tsukiko then remembered what Leo said that he was also Kretos, he then looked at the thousands of smiling faces and she finally came to a frightening conclusion. These people were all past reincarnations of Kretos. 

When Tsukiko finally comprehended what was happening she wanted to flee immediately. Yet Leo had a tight grip on her shoulder as he continued to smile at her. 

"Don't worry little fox, we just want to play a little bit. You won't die here, so once we have our fun we will let you go, alright? Also, the moment you leave all the things you saw while scanning Kretos's memories will disappear from your own memories, even the action of you doing so will be gone from your memories. So let's have lots of fun, while we can."

Tsukiko couldn't even scream as she was about to face the most dreadful moment in her life. A moment she would never remember but one that will stay with her until her dying breath.