Chapter 303 - Quinn Holstice

In a secluded island off the coast of Midgard near the Machina Reggio Empire, where there were families of warriors that worshipped the strong.

Unlike the normal inhabitants of Alterna, the families on this island advocated the use of Ki or in their terms, physical body enhancement rather than mana. It wasn't like the families on the island have anything against mana, but it was because their physical constitutions didn't allow them to wield mana.

It was a natural disadvantage and another problem was that not many on the island could awaken their Ki. There were no cultivation manuals on Ki cultivation except for the logs of their predecessors who had been able to awaken their Ki.

The elders would have all the children on the island train according to their predecessors' experience, which was grueling and cruel. The children would all have to experience excessive training that was sometimes borderline torture and absurd death trials that would increase the chances of them unlocking the 'hidden potential' or Ki that was slumbering deep within their bodies.

One of the families on the island was the Holstice family and this was Quinn's family. He wasn't the successor of the family, but he was one of the most talented children in the family and he was able to naturally awaken his Ki. However, he was a little bit stiff and unsociable. He adhered to the family rules a little too much.

Before their family moved onto the island with the other families, the Holstice family was once a noble family of assassins under the guise of being butlers and maids that served other higher-ranked nobles of the Machina Reggio Empire.

They fell from grace and duty ever since the Empire had gotten ahold of the ancient sky fortress and their community turned into one more centralized on artificers and mages. Body enhancers or Ki refiners no longer had a place in the Empire and the need for assassins slowly began to dwindle so they were slowly isolated and ostracized. The Holstice Family ultimately left the Empire and found another place that they could call home.

However, Quinn's mindset was still fixated on finding someone to serve, as per their family's long-time ancient tradition. This was more of a front on Quinn's part because his actual objective was to explore the mainland and get away from the secluded life his family had on the island. He would rather not be stuck on the island for the rest of his life.

For a long time, Quinn had always questioned himself. For what reason did he have his strength and talent if he couldn't use it for something...bigger, and grander? If all his life's work amounted to him just living a secluded life on the island then that would be too dull and wasteful.

He wanted to put his skills to use for something more glorious and purposeful. He just didn't know what it was yet, so he wanted to search for that purpose on the mainland. Staying on the island to live a life of seclusion would only slowly rot his mind and his abilities.

So, after completing his training and learning all of his family's techniques, Quinn set off on a journey to the mainland. At the time, Quinn had grown to be the most talented person of his generation, defeating those from the main branch of the family and every other person of his generation that lived on the island.

He would have been the youngest person to have a seat on the Holstice family's elder council, but despite of all the protests his family and the elders had about his decision, Quinn decisively relinquished all of that for his grand ambition of exploring the mainland to find his purpose in life.

This was how he was able to meet up with Cecil and the rest. It was only about half a year after he had begun exploring Midgard and had stumbled on his family's ancestral lands, the Machina Reggio Empire.

While roaming around the districts of Machina Reggio, an absurd event had suddenly befallen the Empire at the time. A couple of foolhardy people had come to cause trouble in one of the Empire's districts.

Although the Empire was once the home of his family's ancestors, Quinn didn't have much respect for it because his family was forced to move away from this place due to the shift in the ruling family's preferences.

It was a stupid reason for his family to be ostracized from the rest of the community just because they didn't have mana and the nobles at the time no longer needed assassins and had instead begun fearing them.

Quinn was naturally curious as to who was trying to incite problems in the Empire's districts so he went forward to observe. It was then that Quinn witnessed the absurd scene of a teenager laying waste to an entire district just because of one woman, who at that time wasn't even his wife!

Quinn was astounded because the young man who was attacking everything in sight was not only using Mana, but Ki as well. He was mesmerized by how ingenious the teenaged boy used both his Ki and Mana together. He didn't think that it was possible.

Quinn had the long time belief that if you cultivated mana, then that means you couldn't cultivate Ki and vice-versa. It was his first time seeing anyone using both Ki and Mana in tandem so his interest was piqued and he followed after the boy. After many twists and turns, he was finally able to pledge loyalty to the boy named, Cecil Silvaria.

Quinn was able to find someone who he could happily serve wholeheartedly. Although that was but an excuse he gave to his family when he first set off from the island, Quinn felt that this was his purpose. His family was once assassins who were under the guise of butlers and maids that served other powerful noble families of the Empire so serving this boy who had grown up to become a splendid young man, Quinn felt like he was just following after his ancestors' footsteps.

Quinn felt that he wouldn't mind serving this man's family for the rest of his days and once he had his own family, he wouldn't hesitate to bring them up to become future subordinates of the Silvaria family.

He only felt that it was regrettable that the time he served his Master was a little too short.

After being blasted by a multitude of Mag-cannons, Quinn was able to narrowly escape because he had forcefully materialize all his Ki outside his body to form a barrier around him just before the cannons' attacks impacted his body.

He was thrown far away from his initial location. Quinn was thankful that his Madam was able to escape and that he was able to live for a while more, but after expending all of his Ki, his body started deteriorating due to Mana Poisoning and the injuries incurred on his body due to the initial impact of the cannons' blasts.

Mana Poisoning was only something that people with Quinn's bodily constitution could contract if they were exposed to an excessive amount of mana.

"M-Master...Madams...I'm sorry...this unskilled butler will have to leave now..."

"QUINN!!!"

"Uhurk... now... I'm hearing things... I guess this is the end..."

Quinn was feeling numb all over and he had lost feeling in all his body. He only felt his life slowly slipping away before something warm suddenly enveloped him.

"Wake up! OI!!"

'Master?'

Quinn struggled with all his might to open his eyelids. It was a little blurry, but he wouldn't mistake his Master even if his vision was impaired.

"Ah...M-Master Cecil..."

After squeezing out those few words, Quinn immediately fainted.

******

"He's fainted Master, but at least he's still alive..." Silver said.

"..." Cecil nodded silently yet his eyes grew a few degrees colder.

Upon remembering all those hideous wounds that were on Quinn's body, he clenched his fist in anger.

Quinn was always around his two wives. Cecil himself already knows how skilled this butler of his was, so if he was injured to such a degree, that meant Quinn had taken these attacks voluntarily to protect Lucia or Serilla.

If they had fallen into such dire straits where Quinn had to be left behind in such a state...then something must have gone wrong and one of his wives might have gotten hurt.

Cecil gritted his teeth in anger at this thought. He immediately spread his senses into the area around him. He focused his senses on the area where the sounds of battle were originating from and saw the Merkruz army pushing back another army and were currently bombarding the walls of what he assumed to be the Silvaria Kingdom's walls.

"Silv... you bring Yuna, Ren, and Quinn to the backlines... there's a pathway on the mountainside that leads to a valley which is most likely our family's lands. Some enemy soldiers are also up there so I want you to take care of them."

"Alright Master, but what about you?"

"...I'll get rid of the pests trying to bring down the walls..."

Silver wasn't sure of what kind of walls his master was referring to, but he immediately picked up Quinn and darted up the mountainside leaving Cecil behind.

Cecil dropped down from the ledge and slowly walked to the rear of the Merkruz army. Some soldiers noticed him and turned their weapons on him.

They only knew that anyone who suddenly appeared was to be categorized as enemies and swiftly taken care of.

The soldiers charged at him and Cecil slowly pulled out his gunblade. He flashed forwards and swiftly killed everyone in front of him. He then pulled out the World Tree's Four Thorns, Corruption, Providence, Perseverance, and Serenity out along with his spear. He used his Intent and had them levitating around him.

With every step, Cecil took, the more he felt his mind being slowly corroded by Corruption and the overwhelming murderous intent he had kept bottling up inside him. He quickly took Perseverance into his other hand and immediately began activating the runes on it.

"I'm sorry Lulu, Seri. But I'm really angry right now..."

Once the Perseverance's runes fully activated, Cecil surrendered his body to the Perseverance's control with only one command in his mind.

"Kill them all."