"I will fight you old man!" Nero finally roared, completely unable to hold back his embarrassment and anger any longer. He opened his possessions box, took out his trusty dagger, and turned to fight his father.
Yet for all the growth he had experienced, for the strength he had gained, fighting against his father he was no different from when he hadn't synchronised at all. There was no substantial difference in their roles at all. The most frustrating thing was that his innate ability, which had actually upgraded once, may as well have not existed in front of his old man.
It would disappear from Nero's control as if it weren't his ability to begin with.
"You unfilial brat! If you absolutely had to get a tattoo, then you should have tattooed my face onto your back to thank me for bringing you into this world!"
"Old man, you won't always be stronger than me! Watch out for the day I throw you in a disabled elderly home!"
As the father and son fought in public, as they had done countless times throughout Nero's life, a small crowd gathered to watch, though no one came close, which frustrated Nero even more. This was a goddamned prison! What kind of security did they have to allow a fight right outside their doors?
Yet at the same time, he was not surprised. His father always got away with everything he did.
"You stupid brat, I'm going to kick your ass, then take you to get a tattoo of my face on your forehead."
The fact that, with a father like this, Nero had managed to maintain somewhat of a reputation was quite incredible.
The fight continued, with Nero unleashing every bit of power he had recently gained, searching for even a hint of an advantage. But no matter how he pressed, it was always out of reach.
He remained focused on the battle, completely unaware that in reality, he was actually standing still right outside the processing centre, his gaze unfocused. The guards, the prisoners, the visitors and all the surrounding staff, too, stood in a daze, bathed in the golden light of the flame in Edward's hands.
Unlike in the illusion that Nero was experiencing, Edward was not laughing and smiling as he kicked his son's butt. Instead, his expression was deathly grave.
Edward looked to the depths of the prison, from where an invisible force rushed towards him, and attacked him. The golden flame in Edward's hand flickered, and for a brief moment, his appearance changed from being mundane and unimpressive to a towering man with a presence that could not be ignored.
But just as his flames recovered, enduring the invisible attack, his appearance returned to the one Nero was used to seeing.
"How dare you show off your power here?" a voice reached Edward from within the prison. "The laws of Kolar cannot be ignored, even by the Sages! You will be exiled to the depths of hell!"
"What is the conviction of the corrupt judge?" Edward asked, completely ignoring the voice's threat.
"The matters of the tribunal are classified. You have no authority to know, and no authority to intervene. Your attempts to interfere are akin to mutiny. You will never recover from this."
"Authority?" Edward repeated, a hint of disdain evident in his voice. "In Neire, where there is earth below and sky above, I have authority. If by tomorrow, I don't learn of his public execution, then I will visit you again."
"You-" the voice began to roar in anger, but was suddenly cut off. Deep within the prison, a judge looked down in horror as a blade stuck out of his heart.
Assassin!
He tried to scream, but his voice failed him, and his body fell limp. But as he hit the ground, he was not welcomed into the cold, dark embrace of death. Instead, he woke up from a dream with a start, and discovered that he was still sitting in his chair, completely unharmed. There was no wound on his chest, no blood in his clothes. He had imagined it all… or rather, it had all been an illusion.
He looked forward and noticed that the only real difference between reality and the illusion he had been a part of was the undrawn curtains of his window, which revealed the golden horizon. The sun was shining, particularly bright that morning, painting the sky in a resplendent yellow.
Anger and a trace of horror flashed in the man's eyes. He had already heard. How could he not have? News of the latest mad dog unleashed by the Whisper Guard was already spreading within many circles. But how could he be so strong?
The judge looked down at the documents on his table and jumped up with a start. A single drop of blood had tainted the very document discussing the case of the judge who had been caught for corruption.
This was a very serious case, especially because it invalidated every decision that judge had ever made, and had automatically initiated an investigation into every single case he had ever been a part of.
There was a lot of invisible pressure to make this case disappear, alongside the judge himself. Yet as the man looked at that drop of blood, and recalled the pain he had felt in his heart when he felt himself stabbed, he knew this was no longer a matter that could be handled silently.
If the Whisper Guard had taken notice, then there was no telling what those crazy maniacs would do.
Outside the prison, Edward pulled along Nero's collapsed body using one of his legs.
"You went to prison, you got tattoos. Don't tell me you're even planning on becoming a father before turning sixteen? I raised good, solid boys, not a pair of delinquents," Edward said with a tone of dissatisfaction, yet at the same time he looked at Nero with a faint hint of expectation.
"Don't be ridiculous! I'm not becoming a father, I don't even have a girlfriend!" Nero exclaimed as he recovered his breath. For some unexpected reason, he was not as tired as he should have been after such a strenuous fight, but he wasn't one to complain.
"Why are you saying that with so much pride?" Edward questioned, severe disappointment apparent on his face. "When I was your age, I was already considering marriage, and you don't even have a girlfriend yet. What did you even do during the war? Don't you know the battlefield is the perfect place to pick up girls? Just save their lives…"
"...and they'll fall in love with you, yeah I know," Nero said as he completed one of his father's favourite lines. "I was a little busy fighting for my life to think about picking up girls."
"Tsk, weakling," Edward said as he looked at his son with complete disdain.
The father and son continued to bicker with each other, as if they weren't meeting each other after the longest separation in their lives.
"I'll have you know, now that your mother has recovered, I already plan on expanding the Grant family. I can't rely on you failures to spread the Grant name."
"As if," Nero snorted, ignoring the shamelessness of the man discussing the topic of having more kids with his own son! "Mom's in the MIA now. Until she moves to another department, you can't do anything that affects her performance."
"Brat, what do you know? I can do what I want!"
Before their conversation could continue, Edward lifted the limp Nero and threw his body inside the side door of a van, before getting into the driver's seat himself.
The moment both of them were inside, the atmosphere between them changed. Edward continued to berate his son out loud, while at the same time lifting his left hand and showing Nero a golden flame in his open palm.
The next thing Nero knew, he was in the same familiar environment he found himself in every time he used Luminalink.
"How have you been, kid? You alright?" his father asked within the illusionscape, allowing a hint of concern to appear on his face. "How'd your first deployment treat you?"
"It was about exactly as I expected," Nero confessed, his voice a little sombre. "I was taken into custody as soon as I returned, so I actually don't know the condition of my team. Almost all of them were seriously injured. I'm pretty sure I had a spy or something on my team, although I do not know what her agenda was. How are you guys doing? What happened during the war?"
Edward sighed as he leaned back.
"The war went pretty much as expected. The preparations for something like this have been going on for longer than you know. It's other, unexpected problems that have caused a really big problem. You've heard of Clear Path, right?"
"Yeah, I've heard of them," Nero answered, and recalled the Initiate who had come for him.
"Well, they've become a really big problem. They used the war as a distraction, and managed to strike when no one was expecting it. They've kidnapped a lot of people from all over the world, and nobody knows why."
Edward paused for the briefest of moments before continuing.
"They also kidnapped Irene. From what we've gathered, they took her to Saint Codale, though we lost the trail there."