Watching the blonde finally collapse to the ground in exhaustion, Sun Wukong descended from the skies and finally landed next to the blonde.


    “Haha! Such a good seedling must not be captured by those factions!”


    He could already feel numerous people rushing towards the scene. So grabbing the blonde by the scruff of his coat, he vanished.


    .


    |DxD|


    .


    1996/08/23 - August 24^th, 1996, Flower-Fruit Mountain, Himalayan Mountain Range, India


    In a small room with simple furniture, Igor was lying on a straw mat while there was a small blue orb of energy freely hovering below the ceiling that lit up the room. The room was relatively simple in appearance. Apart from the straw mat, there was…barely anything else. There was a desk and chair as well as a shelf full of books. Beyond that, there was nothing.


    With a day having passed since his relative success in finally accessing the 30x Kaioken, the blonde was rightfully exhausted.


    It was only after a proper rest did he finally manage to wake up. Pushing away the thin excuse of a blanket, Igor yawned for a full minute or so. He then slowly got up and walked straight towards the door. He appeared seemingly uncaring or oblivious to the new change of surroundings. Rather, he pulled open the door and the sight he was introduced to was majestic.


    There were several other buildings similar to the one Igor had just walked out of. Each of them was arranged in a rectangular formation with equal distance between each other. The entire courtyard these rooms were built on was paved and there in the centre was an abnormally large plum blossom tree. Several humans and monkey yokai in simple grey robes could be seen walking through the courtyard surrounding the tree. None of them seemed to notice the half-naked blonde who was idly scratching his stomach.


    But while none of them paid attention, the blonde only had a simple question in his mind.


    [Since this isn’t a dream, what the hell did I get myself into?]


    Slowly rising into the air, Igor continued to extend his senses outward. As he rose higher and higher into the sky, a sudden yell from below reached his ears.


    “SIR! SIR!”


    “Hmm?”


    Looking down, Igor was met with the panicked gaze of a talking monkey.


    “Sir! It’s forbidden to fly here! Please land quickly!”


    Common sense dictated that since the blonde is in an unknown place where there are unknown entities that reside with unknown power-levels, he should obediently land on the ground and observe the situation.


    But something about the word “forbidden” made the blonde smile before looking away.


    “It’s forbidden huh? I wonder what the punishment is.”


    Igor calmly floated in place while the relentless warnings from the monkey below finally stopped. Already, several people were attracted by the spectacle and judging by the expression on their faces, they were waiting to watch a good show.


    It didn’t take long however before a tyrannical aura descended on the vicinity. In an instant, a large human towering over two-metres in height appeared beside the blonde with his fist cocked back.


    Igor instinctively activated his Kaioken x4 on the spot and curled up his body to block the abnormally large fist with both his arms and shins.


    BOOM


    A shockwave spread throughout the vicinity, shaking the trees as well as other things not bolted to the ground.


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    The man widened his eyes in shock. It was also then in that brief moment that Igor was able to fully take in his appearance. He seemed like a barbarian warrior with his massive muscles and the animal fur draped over his shoulders like a cape. Along with his baggy pants were massive black boots that had a steel toe on the front. He had long glistening hair that appeared to be wet and a massive beard that reached right down to his chest.


    Having assessed his target, Igor offered a grin before suddenly appearing behind the man, ready to deliver a powerful elbow strike to his upper back.


    “Hoppa!”


    GU!


    Yet, his attack was blocked by an owner-less staph that suddenly appeared between him and his target.


    “Haaa?”


    This gave the towering mountain of a man enough time to turn around and open up some space between them. Yet as soon as he saw the staff, the man’s ferocious expression was immediately replaced by a respectful one.


    He lowered his head while cupping his hands.


    “Disciple Ragnar greets Master Sun.”


    Feeling particularly mischievous, Igor grinned.


    “It’s Master Dimori. And I don’t remember taking in an unfilial disciple like you-ACK!”


    “I think he means me, brat.”


    Behind Igor stood Sun Wukong and the elderly sage was pulling the blonde’s ear. As for Ragnar, only the barest faint of a smile at the blonde’s misfortune graced his lips. As for down below in the courtyard, everyone immediately knelt on the ground and bowed their heads.


    Even with their heads lowered, the reverence behind their voices was passionately displayed.


    “““DISCIPLE GREETS THE VENERABLE SAGE!!!”””


    The yell of a few hundred people reverberated throughout the mountain. This caused Sun Wukong to grin mischievously.


    Leaning close to the blonde’s ears, he spoke.


    “Have something else to say?”


    “...”


    .


    |DxD|


    High up at the topmost peak of Flower-Fruit Mountain, Igor and Sun Wukong were sitting under a gazebo. Even though this location was very high up, there was no trace of frigidness at all. Various trees and vegetation could be seen growing on the peaks and even insects like butterflies could be seen flying around. Under the shade of the gazebo, the blonde and the sage looked at each other.


    While there were numerous questions Igor wanted to ask, there was only one prevalent one in his mind.


    “Are you blind?”


    There was no hint of tact or caution in his words. Like ripping off a band-aid, he went straight to the point. From the beginning, he was curious about this blindfold-like thing that the old sage wore around his eyes.


    Hearing his question, the monkey was taken aback.


    “Pfft!”


    Sun Wukong who was downing his tea immediately choked on it due to complete surprise and the absurdity at the blonde’s irrelevant question. He expected Igor to ask who he was or what he was doing here. Not once did he expect the blonde to wonder about his sight. It was completely irrelevant to the current scenario.


    Eventually, the old sage managed to recover his wits and glared at the snickering blonde. He instantly extended his staph and slammed it over the blonde’s head.


    Gu!


    “Ow! Shit, that hurt ya old bastard-ack!”


    Igor furiously rubbed the top of his head with an aggrieved expression while Sun Wukong retracted his staph with a sigh.


    “Of all the things you could ask, you concern yourself with the state of my eyes.”


    Faced with the monkey’s gaze, Igor mumbled out.


    “I was just curious…idio-I’M JOKING!”


    Seeing the staph extend over to him again, Igor was traumatised. Igor was no stranger to pain. He had fallen head first into buildings and had hundreds of kilograms of weights fall on top of him in over twenty-times gravity. His head could be said to be harder than a diamond on steroids. But a simple love-tap from Sun Wukong’s staph really hurt him so much that even after the seconds pressed on, he could feel the buzzing pain on the top of his head.


    The old sage retracted his staph again and spoke.


    “First of all, you’re the idiot. Every action so far I’ve seen from you reeks of idiocy. Kid, do you have rotten banana for brains?”


    Igor scowled at the old sage.


    “At least I have one.”


    “...”


    There was complete silence between the both of them. Then in an instant, both of them extended their respective weapons towards the other.


    Sun Wukong extended his staph while Igor extended a white aura sword.


    Clang!


    The old sage blocked the tip of Igor’s sword with his finger while simultaneously bringing his staph atop the blonde’s head.


    Gruu!


    Erupting with a Kaioken x10, Igor blocked the staph with one hand. But as Sun Wukong increased the pressure, the blonde was forced to cancel his aura sabre and block with both hands.


    Crack!


    The stone chair beneath him started to crack under the crushing weight of Sun Wukong’s staph. The old sage was leisurely using one hand and yet to the blonde, it felt like hundreds of tons were being pressed upon him.


    But he wouldn’t yield.


    GRUUU!


    Boosting himself to times-twenty in one go, Igor started pushing the staph up. He even managed to get onto his feet as well. His muscles were bulging while grunts of exertion escaped through his gritted teeth.


    He looked at Sun Wukong provocatively, as if he was saying “It won’t be that easy.”. The old sage didn’t speak. With a simple downward movement of his wrist, all of Igor’s momentum was crushed in that instant.


    CRASH!


    The chair turned into rubble and the blonde lay groaning on top of it. All the tea was spilt on the table due to the sudden vibrations that caused the table to shake.


    Sun Wukong watched the blonde’s red aura fade with a tired gaze.


    [Was I like this as well?]


    .


    AN


    .


    Unfortunately, I cannot accomplish my promise on two chapters today. I had an unexpected trip to the farm nearly the entirety of yesterday so I had no chance to write. I hope I have your understanding.


    Also, today is Friday…