The Legendary Master looked at Takashi's confused, innocent face. He perfectly understood the storm of questions raging inside the six-year-old boy's mind.
"Do not worry, my child," the Master said gently, his ancient eyes softening. "Slowly, you will understand everything."
Then, the Master revealed a secret that defied human logic.
"I am over six hundred years old, Takashi," he confessed.
For a human to live that long was biologically impossible. The Master explained that his prolonged life was solely due to the divine power of the Legendary Divine Spirit Golden Lion. If the Lion had ever abandoned him, his body would have crumbled to dust centuries ago. But to stall the apocalyptic threat of the Black Dragon, they had been forced to stay together.
"But my vessel is failing," the Master sighed heavily. "My body is too old to handle the Lion's true power for long. Suppressing an X-Rank aura constantly is a soul-crushing burden. That is why I keep the Lion sealed. I only bring him out when absolutely necessary."
Takashi listened quietly. He didn't ask about the Lion's strange parting words. His mind was already overloaded. Instead, he looked down at the tiny, ordinary-looking pocket dagger in his hand.
"Grandpa," Takashi asked, his voice sounding entirely too mature for his age. "Why did you make this? If I have to fight evil people and save innocent lives so they don't suffer like I did... shouldn't you have made me a great sword? Or a katana?"
The Legendary Master stared at the boy. Sometimes, the sheer depth and maturity of Takashi's words startled him. Was this truly just a six-year-old child? But considering the hell the boy had survived, it made sense. In his six hundred years of life, the Master had never seen a child with such unbreakable resolve, immense courage, and profound intelligence.
The Master chuckled softly, lowering his head. "Who do you think I am, boy?"
"You are my Grandpa," Takashi replied instantly.
A single tear of joy slipped from the Master's eye. He smiled at the boy's pure innocence. "I have lived for six centuries. Do you really think I would forge a useless weapon for my own grandson? Put the dagger on the floor."
Takashi hesitated, then gently placed the tiny blade on the wooden floorboards.
RUMBLE! KRA-KOOM!
The floor violently shook, groaning under an impossible pressure. Takashi stumbled back, his blue eyes wide with shock.
"Forging this was no easy task," the Master explained proudly. "This is not normal steel. It is the raw Core of a Divine Legendary Spirit. I forged it so that it will shift and transform into any weapon you desire. You only need to learn how to wield it, inject a drop of your Shin-Noa, and visualize the shape. It will bend to your absolute will."
The Master's expression turned deadly serious. "Furthermore, no one else in this world can even lift it. It possesses the weight of a mountain. Because I forged it with your blood, it is bound to your soul. If an enemy tries to force their Shin-Noa into it, the blade will instantly devour all of their energy. However... if you ever wish to grant an ally the right to wield it, you can mix your blood with theirs and drop it onto the blade."
He patted Takashi's shoulder. "Keep it sealed safely in its Black Box. Only draw it when you face a true disaster."
"But Grandpa," Takashi panicked slightly. "I don't know any Shiritsu! How will I seal and unseal it?"
The Master smiled warmly, ruffling Takashi's white hair. "I am here, aren't I? Have patience. I will pour every single drop of my knowledge into your soul. Now go to sleep. Tomorrow, your school begins."
The village they lived in was beautiful and quiet, located safely near a local branch of the Supreme Council.
It was a functional hub. Shin-Warriors frequently visited the branch to accept missions. The local market was bustling, supplied entirely by warriors who hunted in the dangerous nearby monster forests. They brought back monster meat, wild vegetables, and rare herbs to sell to the merchants.
In this era, true Healers were incredibly rare. Using Shin-Noa to heal even a minor flesh wound drained a massive amount of energy, so the world relied heavily on medicinal herbs mixed with modern science. The ancient, god-like Shiritsu that could instantly regenerate destroyed flesh in a single second had been buried and lost 600 years ago. No modern warrior possessed the energy type required to cast it.
But for the Legendary Master, it was child's play. He had used that exact lost art to save Hayato's life. And soon, he would teach every single one of these forgotten, god-tier techniques to Takashi.
The next morning, the Master dropped Takashi off at the local academy.
It was Takashi's first day. The moment he stepped into the classroom, silence fell. Then, the whispers erupted.
The boy was ethereally beautiful. His glowing white hair, his piercingly clear blue eyes, and the intricate, radiant white pattern on his face drew everyone's attention. The children swarmed him, mesmerized. They begged to be his friend, complimenting his looks.
But Takashi felt only suffocation.
He had learned a brutal lesson in the abyss: trust brings nothing but pain. He refused to open his heart again. He ignored their praises, sitting silently in the corner. When the teachers asked for introductions, he stood up and gave a cold, empty answer.
"My name is Takashi. That is all."
TWO YEARS LATER...
Time flowed relentlessly. Takashi was now eight years old.
Aira Shizukami was also eight. The new generation Takashi's baby brother Arashi, Aira's brother Kenshi, and little Iyashi were now two years old and learning to speak.
For Takashi, the past two years had been a brutal, unforgiving hell of physical conditioning.
The Master had forced him to wear incredibly heavy weighted armor. But it didn't stop there. Every single item in the house was altered. His drinking glass, his eating plates, his utensils each one weighed no less than 40 kilograms (one maund).
His body was violently forced to adapt. His muscles grew dense, his bones hardened like titanium. His tiny fists were now like sledgehammers.
BAM! If he punched the ground, the earth would crater.
Because of this intense physical hardening, his body could finally handle the Wolf's passively leaking energy. The beast's power was slowly restoring inside the seal.
With such monstrous training came a monstrous appetite. Takashi ate like a starving beast. He would devour towering piles of meat in a single sitting. The intense sparring with his Grandpa left him covered in deep wounds, but the Wolf's absolute regeneration healed him in less than a second, leaving him starving once again.
To feed him, the Master had opened an open-tab account at a small local restaurant. The owner loved the boy, and the owner's young daughter who was Takashi's age always eagerly helped serve him, harboring a deep, innocent crush on the white-haired boy.
Takashi was changing. The suffocating darkness in his heart was lifting. He was learning to read, write, and understand the modern world. He finally started to smile again, often pulling mischievous pranks on his Grandpa. The villagers knew him, and they loved him.
But Takashi had no idea what awaited him.
The Master was merely waiting for the boy to officially graduate from basic school next year. Once Takashi was free from the academy, the true training would begin a training so horrific it would make the last two years look like a vacation. The Master was meticulously forging the ultimate Supreme Chancellor, a leader unlike anything the universe had ever seen.
In the East Land, the fire of determination burned bright.
Aira Shizukami had dominated her academy. At just eight years old, she had officially graduated and was preparing to enter the prestigious Dominion University, taking her second major step toward ultimate power.
She showered the two-year-old toddlers with endless love, ensuring they never felt the absence of their parents. Even the cold-hearted Kazumi melted whenever she saw the children.
But behind Aira's loving smile was a demon of absolute focus. Her daily training pushed the boundaries of human survival. People whispered and gossiped about the crazed Shizukami girl, but she ignored them. She was forging herself into an indestructible shield.
When Takashi returns, she swore to herself daily, I will kill anyone who dares to look at him wrong. Her parents and Ema had long accepted that Takashi was dead, but Aira's terrifying, unwavering conviction sometimes sparked a tiny, painful ember of hope in their broken hearts.
Meanwhile, in the West Land, a dark storm was brewing.
The Shinsei Organization had officially stepped into the light. Hiding behind the guise of government-sanctioned welfare institutions, they were secretly laying the groundwork for a catastrophic agenda.
At the center of it all was Kazuki Mizushi.
Drunk on his stolen authority, Kazuki relentlessly pressured the Shinsei Organization to fulfill their promise: sealing the Legendary Divine Spirit Sea Serpent into his twin children.
Kazuki had completely forgotten the tragic lesson of Hayato Shizukami. Hayato had possessed ultimate power but chose to restrain it, terrified of the destruction it could cause. Kazuki, however, had misinterpreted that restraint as weakness. He was now fully blinded by greed.
He viewed the East Land as a threat that needed to be eradicated. He wanted to devour everything.
The Shinsei Organization smiled from the shadows, happily assuring Kazuki that he would get his power. But Kazuki, blinded by his own arrogance, was completely unaware that he was nothing more than a pawn in a much darker, world-ending conspiracy.
The world was growing. The pieces were moving. And the true battle for the future was only just beginning.