Chapter 43 - A Few Seconds More

With the aid of Gavin's cooking, the group's wavering strength came back to normal.

The toll that the trip from the Outer Gates back towards the hideout definitely exhausted them, everyone slept with a bellyful of freshly roasted chicken that night.

Zachary Lancaster could not help but crack a smile.

"The Six Blades, huh? Their prestigious ranking being a top five Slayer Organization might intimidate other people, but everyone here is surprisingly normal."

He said to himself as he fell asleep that night.

The fledgling Six Blades member was given his own room in the second floor of the hideout.

Yin fell fast asleep with no delay whatsoever.

But his dreams, no, his nightmares, rather, still continued to bother him in his slumber.

The faint melody of a piano.

Notes arranged with such a beautiful yet melancholic tone.

A familiar voice he could not pinpoint when or how he knew such an angelic voice called out.

But it did not call out to Yin, rather, it called out for someone else.

"Thanatos, where are you?"

The girl was singing a song.

"I'm not Thanatos! I do not even know who that is! My name's Yin Sohaya!"

But his voice fell on deaf ears.

Yin touched his cheeks.

Tears were rolling down.

His dreamlike nightmare was interrupted by his sudden jolt of waking up.

Yin was surprised.

He had his arms up.

His palms were wide open, as if holding someone's hand and never wanting to let go.

And the tears, the tears were real as well.

"What's happening to me?"

He placed his hands covering his eyes.

[ Daily Quest : 15-kilometer sprint ]

"Ugh, seriously? Isn't that a bit much?"

Until suddenly, five knocks.

It was probably Suna, it would have only been two knocks if it were Gavin by the door.

"Yin! It's time to eat!"

After chow time, Luken instructed them that they have to begin training as soon as possible.

None out of the three of the young members complained, they all knew their strengths were still lacking.

Luken helped Zachary pick out the scythe he was most comfortable with from the armory, he thought about it long and hard last night, after Yin showed him the weapons.

"You sure about that, Zach?"

Gavin asked him.

"Yeah, I am."

The Six Blades were now outside, in the green grassy open fields.

"You've had your first glimpse of combat, Yin. Tell me, are your powers and skills enough? Is it enough to save your allies from certain death? From the perils of monsters looming outside the gates?"

Luken asked him with a straight face.

"No, sir."

Yin had flashbacks of what happened when they fought that Angel.

The bodies of his comrades piled up and decapitated by the winged holy creature.

His powerlessness to protect most of them.

Every single memory struck his hurt like a wooden stick impaled through it.

"I have to be stronger, I need to be stronger, sir!"

Yin shouted from the top of his lungs.

"To be honest, if Suna and Cosette had not been there, you would have died. That is the harsh truth, Yin."

Luken looked down as he said that.

"Everyone had to cover for your lack of stamina, you are unable to maintain your decay for long, and that will be the difference between life and death for you and your comrades one of these days."

Zach's eyes sharpened, his eyebrows met each other in a frowning reaction.

"Decay? Neither Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, nor Lightning can 'decay' an opponent. What did they mean by this? Is this just a slang or shortcut for something else?"

He asked himself.

"Now, I would like you to do it for as long as you are able to. Start with that tree over there."

Luken instructed him.

Gavin noticed Zachary was perplexed, this was his first time hearing a Slayer who could 'decay' things.

Yin began by removing the safety gloves that Luken gave him long ago, and equipping the Red Gauntlets the system bestowed him with.

After clapping his palms one time, he placed both of it on the body of a tree.

He closed his eyes and showed immense focus.

"Longer. I have to do it longer than five seconds. Come on, longer!"

Yin screamed internally.

The tree began to wither and decay as if a couple of decades had been fast forwarded into its lifetime.

All the while Luken was counting.

"One, two, three..."

Zachary's eyes began to widen as if he had seen a ghost or an apparition.

"H-How the heck?!"

He asked Suna.

Suna basically just shrugged her shoulders.

This was the best response she could have given, as none of them knew how or why Yin got his powers from.

"You know, Yin was not a Slayer until he was eighteen."

She said.

"Big deal, I am not a Slayer also, well technically."

Zachary responded.

"No, you did not get what I mean. His Anima cells had just awoken recently. I am not going to bore you with the details, but some weeks after he turned eighteen, Yin was attacked by an Angel right here in Niflheim."

Zach was at a loss for words.

This was far too much to take in, even for him.

"Hold on, are you saying that a person who has not even had slight glimpses of possessing Anima cells when he was a mere child suddenly turned into a Slayer? Also what is with that about an Angel attacking Niflheim? How did they even get past the barrier?"

Zach asked.

Gavin approached the two of them.

"You're right about that first part, Yin is the only documented case of a 'late-bloomer' of a Slayer, as you know, Anima cells normally develop before children turn twelve. As for the Angel, it is still classified, everyone who was there at the incident were given warnings by the Emperor himself to keep everything under wraps."

Gavin answered Zach's nagging questions.

"Twelve, thirteen, fourteen-"

Yin had reached his limit.

He was breathing rapidly now.

Despite his struggles, Yin managed to crack a smug smile.

"How's that for a simpleton, Zach?"