Journey Of A Legend

"Core Territory!? He is on Calamity rank or even worse he is above!"

Seeing as the whole building got covered with pitch black darkness, making the interior look like a dark room, Greg stopped moving and turned around to look at the man.

"What will you do now? If I want, I can easily trap you here for an eternity, making you plea for my forgiveness. However I can give you one more chance. So... Do. As. I. Say!"

Hearing this, Greg didn't react at all, but just stood in one place, while looking into the man's eyes expressionlessly.

Seeing his gaze, the man sucked into the cigarette in his hand and after blowing the smoke out into the air, he looked at him and asked,"So? What is your answer kid?"

Instead of answering, Greg looked around and noticed that each and every corner of the restaurant was covered with solid darkness, making him unable to escape.

However, when he turned his gaze below his feet, he saw that somehow even in this darkness, his own shadow could be faintly seen. It was only visible for a tiny bit, but it was there for sure.

Thinking of something, Greg eye's brightened slightly and thought,"So even with his Core Territory, he needs to leave a portion of other's shadow, if he wants to control them, just as he did with me before. This could be a very dangerous, but this is my only escape route."

Knowing that using his darkness ability in front of an expert, who is specialized in controlling shadows, was a very foolish act, but he didn't have another option.

Maybe if he tried to use his mask's power, he could get rid of his power for a moment and escape, but if he does that, he would be busted in an instant.

"Well, if I don't try it, I won't know if it could work or not."

With that in mind, Greg switched to his darkness element, making the flow inside his body to change from a half transparent state into an ink black color, while it's fast speed crawled to an almost stop.

"Let's see what my darkness element can do after my breakthrough."

In an instant as he said that, a small black pit appearing below his feet and suddenly his body sunk into his own shadow, leaving the man behind with a suprised face.

After realizing that Greg was about to escape in front of his eyes, the man's look suddenly turned angry and pointed at the shadow, where Greg just disappeared a second ago.

The moment he raised his hand, shadows from all around the place representing different looking and shaped hands started to emerge from the pitch black walls one by one.

When the number reached almost a thousand, the man clenched his teeth and hissed quietly,"Go!"

Like soilders following their commander's order, each and every shadows around the man, started to fly toward the hole where Greg vanished into.

The hand, which was the closest was able to sunk into the shadow and a second later with a pulling motion it started pull something out of the shadow.

The man's expression seeing this softened a bit, but still with an angry tone he said quietly,"Just get into my hands you little prick, I will show you what real hell is!"

However the moment he said that, suddenly the hand which was about to pull Greg out, suddenly tightened and stopped moving.

Seeing this, the man squinted his eyes and said,"I don't know what you are doing now, but if one is not enough then here's a few more."

And just like that, a few hundred more hands went inside the shadow and a moment later they started to pull again slowly.

Watching as this happened, the man smiled and was about to suck a mouthful into the cigarette in his hand, however in the next second, suddenly his body foze up.

Like cutting a rope with a knife, one hand after another started to get severed by an unknown force, making the number of the hands to decrease with a rapid pace.

Wothout hesitation, the man was about to send a few more shadows to help, but just as he was about to that, suddenly all the hand got cut, while the dark hole where Greg disappeared to, vanished in an instant.

Seeing this happening, the man just looked at the ground with an expressionless face, but after a few seconds, suddenly a huge vein appeared on his hand, while the cigarette in his hand turned to dust under a second.

"YOU LITTLE-!!!

*BOOOOM!*

*TREMBLE!!*

***

Inside the same luxurious room, where all the experts were talking amongst each other with drinks in their hands, Cloud and the old man were playing chess.

However it couldn't be said that it was a calm 'match' for Cloud at all.

It was because, on his face fat sweat drops could be seen rolling down on the side of his face, while the old man was just looking at the chess pieces on the table with a calm expression.

Cloud looked at his remaining three pieces before him, which were a single knight, the queen and his king.

Seeing his mere three chess pieces, everyone knew with a single glance that the old man was visibly on the advantage. Except of a few pawn and a single bishop, he had all the pieces on the chess table.

As Cloud was thinking about what his next move should be, suddenly his eyes brightened and with a sudden move he put the queen in the same row as the Saint's king.

"Check."

The old man looked at Cloud's move with a calm smile and said,"Even though you know that leaving the king all alone without the only piece that could save you, you went and attacked my king instead. Brave choice, but unfortunately not the best."

With that said, the Saint raised his hand and put his remaining last bishop before his king, obstrucing Cloud's queen in it's attack.

Seeing this Cloud wanted to make the queen to retreat, but just as he was about to touch the chess pieces, suddenly the shadow behind his feet grew in size.

"?"

Looking down with a confused look, Cloud wanted to say something, when suddenly a body climbed out of the shadow hurriedly, making not just Cloud's, but even the Saint's eyes to grow in size.

When the body was fully out, Cloud saw that it was no other than Greg, whose face was a bit sweaty.

Climbing out of the shadow fully, Greg patted his clothes and with a sigh he said, calmly,"That was close. I don't know who that freak was, but he sure is strong. I... was.... lucky..."

As he said his last words, he suddenly started to talk slowly, because the moment he raised his head up to look around, he saw that a ton of sharp glares were watching at him quietly.

Amongst the curious, but sharp looking faces, there were even a few he recognised in an instant.

"Cloud, The Saint, Mistress of Fortune and... Sh*t! Even the other experts are here! Where did I come?", thought Greg with a kind of pale face as he realized that just how what position he got himself into right at that moment.

After seeing that all the experts were looking at him without talking, Greg scratched his neck and with a wry smile he said,"Um... Sorry to disturb your free time. I just accidentally used my power and it seems that the place I was transferred to was here. I promise it won't happen again."

After he said that, he was about to use his darkness power, when suddenly a shadow appeared in the middle of the hall with a scary presence coming out of it slowly.

"Kid..."

Hearing the familiar voice, Greg knew instantly who it was, so without any further hesitation he wanted to use his ability again, but before he could, suddenly a tons of shadowy arms appeared around his body, making his body to be trapped in one place.

As all the experts saw this happening, a muscular figure emerged from the shadow with a dragon tattoo on his shoulder and a black katana hanging on his back.

"Now I'm done for!", thought Greg the moment he saw the man's ice cold expression, while his eyes felt like they wanted to look deep inside his soul and tried to tear it apart from the inside.

Just as the man was about to step toward Greg, The Saint clapped his hand and with a smile he said,"Kuragari, my dear friend! How long has it been that we saw each other! You look as young as ever."

Hearing the somewhat familiar voice, the man called Kuragari turned his head to the side.

The moment he saw the old man's smile however he looked suprised and said,"Old wreck, you are still alive?"

Listening to what Kuragari said, everyone in the room froze up in an instant. 

Greg too looked at this sight with a shocked expression and thought,"He... He just said 'old wreck' to one of the strongest experts on earth like it was nothing?  Did I hear it wrong or am I going crazy?