Chapter 13: A Surge of Power

"It-It seems so sad," Howard stared up at the massive Authoritarian. "Do you know what happened to it?"

"It lost a battle to another Authoritarian," Blake patted Howard on the back and then walked over to a bench, sitting down on it while taking out a few strange devices. He began tinkering with them like a crazed scientist as the sound of the Authoritarian footsteps grew louder and louder.

"Are you him?" Howard heard from somewhere in the endless distance. "Are you-are you him?"

"No, I'm not," Howard took a deep breath and focused on the energy fluctuations around him, trying to mimic what happened when he fought the magician. When he fought the magician, it felt like a portal had opened up in the world around him, and an endless amount of energy surged into him. At that time, he felt this explosive force like another arm or leg.

Looking at the Authoritarian's shadow getting closer and closer to swallowing him whole, Howard closed his eyes, channeling the lessons Una taught him on the bus.

"Fire Path of the Nine Lords!" Howard's body began to glow before he missiled forward. The Authoritarian's hands reached forward, grabbing at Howard as he turned in the air and spun out of its reach.

Fire Paths of the Nine Lords only worked if one had a trinket with Origin Ki of the techniques creator inside of it. Long story short, Howard had found a trinket that contained a technique in it, and as long as he had the trinket with him, he could use the skill.

What did the skill do? Fire Paths of the Nine Lords contained nine different skills, each harder than the previous skill. The first path called the path of the Varnish Lord, allowed ones body to seem to bifurcate in two different directions using a burst of Ki. With enough skill, Howard would eventually be able split in nine different directions, and attack from three of them!

However, only beginning on the journey to mastery of the Fire Paths of the Nine Lords, he barely made it a few inches before a hand slammed down into his body, sending him flying into the distance!

Boom!

Howard crashed into a large mountain of sand, and screamed in pain. Blood came out of his mouth while the large Authoritarian ambled over in his direction. It seemed to contain a primitive nature that only desired death and destruction. With its six hands pointing outward, dozens of sharp blades began to appear, looking like little toothpicks when compared to its massive form. However, to little Howard, all he could see was glints of death.

'This Authoritarian is so strong. It reminds me of father," Howard wiped the tears off his eyes and forced himself to a stand. Howard couldn't help but seeing his father in the giant 100 meter tall figure with six arms and two sharp but mindless eyes. His father had been a prodigious figure in his life, piling up achievement after achievement in the business world. He acquired dozens of affluent, endless mansions with enough space to house thousands of people.

However, Howard only ever saw his head from behind, constantly chasing his dreams, he left little Howard to stay forever in the darkness. One day, something snapped in Howard, seeing his father leaving one last time, and two horns burst out of his head.

Looking up at the gigantic Authoritarian, Howard began to feel a sadness welling up inside of him that grew larger and lager. Holding out his hand, a gigantic fireball formed that grew three times the size of his body. Stepping forward, the fire ball burst upwards!

Boom!

Dozens of swords slashed through Howard's fireball like nothing and stabbed into his body, causing blood to flow out of his mouth. Seeing the Authoritarian turn away from him, looking dead at him like a dead carcass, Howard finally snapped, a white flame spinning around his body that turned into a serpent.

"You're not leaving me again! You're not leaving father!"

Howard, full of swords and wounds, burst into the air with a white shadow forming in front of him. Slashing with his bare hand, a massive light cut the Authorian's arm into pieces. Causing it to turn around and stare at Howard with its head tilted to the side. It's two eyes seemed to slightly awaken, its brows slightly moving up and down. The next moment, it's five remaining hands rose, formed dozens of more sharp spears that formed against the incoming white light from Howards' body.

"Father, you're not leaving again! I'm strong enough now to stop you."

"Idiot," Blake put on his glasses and shook his head before he said "stop."

Suddenly, the large Authoritarian and its yellow figure froze in space, causing the dozens of spears it made to fall like droplets from the sky. Howard seeing this, smiled before feeling a coldness sweep through his body. The next moment everything went black, with the last droplet of his blood flowing through his grievous, numerous wounds.

Crashing onto one of the many mounds of sands spread endlessly through the terrain, Howard's last sight was Blake pouring a tonic into his mouth.