Marcus...
As he crawled out of bed so that he could sit up and rubbed his eyes as he tried to make sense of what happened.
During their fight, Ruvick said that he knew things about him, about his time as Enderman back on Terra, but that was nonsense, right? Despite Ruvick claiming he knew everything, it was probably just a provocation and not literally true.
He stood up, and walked out of the guest bedroom that Ruvick had put him in and found the man himself, drinking coffee, and reading a book while lounging on a couch. He wasn't dressed in his usual black trench coat, but rather he was wearing a plain white t-shirt and sweat pants.
It was surreal for Marcus to see such an absurdly powerful man to be dressed like a regular person getting his morning coffee and newspaper.
Ruvick's eyes lazily glanced up at Marcus before returning his attention to his book.
"Welcome back," he said as he struggled to turn the page of his book as they were stuck together which caused his eyebrows to furrow in irritation.
"Trying to turn pages that are stuck together is frustrating, especially since I can't secrete saliva from my mouth to use to grip the pages better," he said as he had to insert his fingernail into the sliver of space in between the two pages and relief washed over his face, only to be replaced with further irritation as his finger slipped and he lost his grip again.
Marcus, who was extremely confused over the fact that Ruvick would be annoyed over something so mundane, walked over, licked one of his fingers, and turned the page for him.
"Ah, thank you. That was extremely aggravating," Ruvick said, genuinely grateful.
Marcus shook his head as he said, "I doubt that anyone would ever find you intimidating if they saw you like this."
Ruvick chuckled.
"I uh..., I'm not sure how to ask this but, what happened to me?"
"What do you mean, specifically?" he replied as he took a sip of coffee.
"Well, I remember meeting you as you woke up and then...we went to another planet which you called Drahmin. Before we fought...you mentioned something that set me off into a blind rage, after which we fought, and I was stabbed. Then I woke up and I thought I had died. Was any of that real?"
Without even bothering to look up, Ruvick said, "Yes, all of it was real, especially the part when I mentioned Enderman."
Marcus's eyes narrowed in anger as he asked, "I also remember you saying a few days ago that you 'know everything'. Were you being literal, referring to who I was, or what was it?"
Ruvick's eyes rose from his book as he paused to think about what he asked.
"That's...actually a really good question. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but I don't literally know everything. If I were to put it to words, in my mind I contain all the knowledge of humanity, however I do not know everyone's personal memories. Also, in regards to you being the persona of Enderman, I don't know all that much about it. I only used what little I was able to gain from a dream I had that happened to be about you."
"Why did you bring it up before we fought? Was it really just to antagonize me as a way to bring out my anger?" Marcus asked with less anger in his tone but still wary of Ruvick.
"It was just to antagonize you, yes, and do not worry, I have no intention of mentioning any of it to your little sister Thalia. I apologize for having said that," he said with true remorse in his voice and in his expression.
"What was the whole point of putting me through all of that, of making me so enraged?"
"Do you really not understand it? When you lost all control of yourself with your rage, your lightning turned from blue to red. Did you forget about all that?" Ruvick asked as he placed a bookmark in the page he was reading before setting it down.
"I...remember that, yes, but why does that matter?"
"It matters for a number of reasons. For one of them, with that power you were able to break the dimensional barrier of the shadow realm and attack me. To do that, you would have to be a fifth dimensional being as you would need to be able to break through the spatial barrier that I put up by stacking the shadow realm on top of itself. With your power, you didn't simply tear through the fabric of the reflected universe made within the shadow realm to attack me, but rather you simply reached through it as if you could exist on multiple planes at once, and you were only able to do that because I made you angry enough to manifest your ego into reality."
"That red lightning..., that was the manifestation of my ego?"
"I think so, yes. I believe that by focusing on your anger and controlling it, you can manifest that red lightning again. Now, I don't fully understand all of the limitations or all of the benefits of what this manifested ego will give you, but the more you train to control that power, the easier it should be. Now as for the second reason why this matters, do you know the importance of the kingdom of Forrosa?"
"No, I don't. I haven't had the time to study on the all of this world's history yet."
"I suggest that you start because there is a lot about this world you will need to learn if you want to benefit from it. Now, Forrosa is important for a number of reasons because it is not only the most powerful kingdom on the planet in terms of military might, it is also the most technologically advanced, though not as much as Terra's world is. This kingdom was the first to discover and implement electric current during the Amaskian war. Would you like to know how they discovered it?"
"Tell me."
"A champion by the name of Isaiah Riddick, the founder and king of Forrosa, was a man who fought in the Amaskian War with a power that was not his own. I did not know the man myself, but from what I heard, he was a rather ordinary man living an ordinary and mundane life as a guard in a small town south of the fallen kingdom of Verglas. The fall of Verglas was rather swift as it happened when Dagon gifted the allies of his kingdom, before it was called Amaskia, with powerful weapons that he had crafted. Verglas was one of those kingdoms that received a powerful weapon right as they were about to collapse from the conflict of a war that they had instigated and were losing terribly. Even with a powerful warrior serving their kingdom with the gifted weapon in hand, they were no match for the enemy they had recklessly challenged and since they were low on soldiers, they tried to force the men in Isaiah's town to fight. When they refused...well, the soldiers of Verglas killed one child per family and proceeded to rape the wives of the men who had been asked to fight, before imprisoning the women and children that were left and only promising to release them if they fought in their war. Isaiah's own wife had fought back against her attackers as she struggled to avoid being raped and his son was beaten to death while Isaiah was forced to watch all of this. Witnessing this with his own eyes enraged the man and suddenly, he was struck by a bolt of red lightning. This lightning, fueled by his rage, allowed him to slaughter every soldier that invaded his home with his bare hands. His strength was rather ordinary before the lightning struck him but afterward, it allowed him to rip apart fully armored soldiers like they were made of construction paper. The blades that struck his body, although they were able to cut him, the electricity that was emitted from his body killed everyone that struck him instantly and his wounds closed almost instantly. He was a force of nature born from a truly horrific situation. After he had finished killing every soldier, he took command of every able bodied man in the town, and with them he marched to Verglas and destroyed it in a single night. The men that followed Isaiah into battle, with their rage, they were also able to use the red lightning but it did not come from their souls. Only Isaiah was permanently changed by the red bolt. It was as if all of their combined rage allowed them to borrow the power of their leader and that power was extended through their weapons."
"So Isaiah's rage manifested a bolt of lightning and that it gave him and his men the strength to destroy an entire kingdom?" Marcus asked as he tried to process what he had heard.
"Yes, but here in lies the difference between him and yourself. Isaiah was struck by the bolt of lightning when his rage called upon it but with you, the red lightning was manifested by you. Now, I can't say I fully understand all of the connections between you, and him, and why he was able to use your power, but I ask that you look into it," he said.
"How do you suggest I learn to control this power?" Marcus asked.
Ruvick shrugged as he said, "You could continue sparring with me until you figure out how to fully manifest the lightning without losing control of yourself, or, in case you don't want to fight constantly, you could try meditation. Keep in mind that the red lightning isn't fueled by rage alone, but rage is the most powerful emotion that gives it the greatest power."
"Alright...," he said as his voice trailed off as his mind was still somewhat fixated on the fact that Ruvick knew who he had been as Enderman.
"What exactly did you see in your dream of me as Enderman?"
Ruvick met his eyes and was silent for a moment before he said, "I saw a man named Lucas lure a large group of men to be slaughtered by you and watched as you chased three other men in an SUV before killing all three of them."
Marcus had the urge to take a step back and had a sharp intake of breath. The hairs on his neck stood up in horror at the accuracy of Ruvick's description of the events.
"Did you see anything else?"
"No. The last thing I saw was you stabbing a man who tried to crawl away while your body was on fire. Now, I can't pretend to know what the reasons were behind luring all those men to their deaths or the apparent attacks that they spoke of within the dream and I doubt I'll ever have a reason to ask you why, but don't think that I care too much about it. There are people in this world who have suffered similarly to you and have had to do many terrible things to survive. I will not judge you based on that, nor am I fit to judge you."
"If you have any more dreams about my past, tell me," Marcus said in a cold tone and Ruvick simply nodded.
"I think I've kept you for longer than I should have. Its probably time for you to head back now," Ruvick said as he lifted his hand as if to snap his fingers.
"Hold on! Before you send me back, I need to ask. What was the reason for you wanting to teach me about manifestation?"
"To help you grow stronger in preparation for the contest. There are other people in the world who can manifest the power of gods in battle, or even those who can manifest their own ego into reality. Moyako is one of them and among the most powerful people in the world for it. If you were to fight her without learning how to manifest your own ego into reality, you would lose soundly. Now, you have a little less than a month left to train yourself on how to control it so use that time wisely," he said with such certainty that Marcus had to believe him.
"I'll keep that in mind," Marcus said with a frown.
"Go away now," Ruvick said as he snapped his fingers and Marcus reappeared in the living room of his home and came face to face with Selene Kiser.
"Ah...," Marcus tried to speak but wasn't sure how to react to her being in his home. As he looked around, he realized that Thalia was also there as well as a few other knights.
"Where the hell have you been Marcus?" Selene demanded.
"Before I answer that, can you get all of these random people out of my house and explain why you're here too?"
After the knights that were in his home had left, Thalia stood up from the couch that she was sitting on, and started pacing around the room, looking at whatever she could find.
"When did you come to my house?" he asked.
"Only a few minutes before you appeared out of thin air. We actually didn't know where your house was so we spent the last few days tracking it down."
"And why exactly were you trying to track me or my home down?" he asked in annoyance.
"Why? I wouldn't suppose it would have to do with the fact that you suddenly appeared out of an explosion of lighting and decapitated a man in front of a group of civilians?"
Thalia's head slowly turned to look at the two of them in shock but it wasn't as extreme as the time she had first seen him kill people. Still, he wasn't comfortable with her overhearing all of that.
"Oh...That. Right."
"What the hell were you doing?" she demanded to know.
Marcus took another look towards Thalia and tried to give her an expression that would tell her to calm down and that it was not as serious as it sounded. He then tried to usher Selene away from her so they could talk about it away from her.
"Come on, I don't want to talk about this in front of her," he said quietly and she relented as they moved to the other side of the room.
"Okay, now tell me. What happened?"
"I was training with Ruvick and cut his head off which caused us to appear in the Duranell's town plaza," he said honestly and her eyes widened.
"You managed to kill him?" she asked with a whisper.
"No. He's not dead. He walked it off."
"Well...were you a match for him? Were you at least able to put up a good fight against him?" she asked hopefully.
"He beat the dogshit out of me," he said with a hint of embarrassment in his voice and the way he said it caused Selene to chuckle.
Marcus frowned at her reaction and she tried to straighten herself so that she didn't look like she was making fun of him.
"Either way, the fight between the two of you caused a public disturbance so great that people were fleeing in terror of you. That's why we were trying to track you down. By the way, where did you go after that fight?"
"Ruvick took me to Forrosa and then to another planet so that we could spar without causing a repeat of what happened in the plaza," he said.
When she heard him mention the fact that they went to a different planet, her expression was of doubt as she frowned, raised her eyebrows, and folded her arms.
"Oh, you're serious...? He took you to a different planet to avoid collateral damage?"
"Yes."
"Well that's... interesting. I didn't think there were other planets out there in the universe," she said and he laughed.
"Oh, you have no idea how many there are out there," he said with a grin.
"Either way, I'll have to write a report about this but I don't think I'll be able to disclose Ruvick's identity so...I'll put it under a training accident I guess.
"What about you, what else have you been up to while I was gone?" he asked.
"Oh...uh, well I've been trying to find an alternative to my old set of armor. When my moonlight magic was released for the first time I destroyed the armor completely, rendering it useless on the process and Samael can't replace it. There's no other type of armor aside from Adamantine armor that can serve as a replacement and armor like that could take me years to save up for. It would take me four jobs of the same pay and risk as the one in Lunaas did to pay for it all."
"Why is the armor that important to you?"
"Because I can't control my magic to keep it from hurting those around me without the armor to contain it. I can't even take on any new jobs without it to try and pay it off and Samael won't make one for me to be paid off over time since its too costly and difficult to make," she said with her voice getting more emotional and agitated as she talked about it.
"And without your armor, you can't do your duties as the Vice-Captain, am I right?" he asked.
"Yes... Without my armor to contain my magic, I'm a danger to everyone around me. I...I don't know what to do about this."
Marcus took a step back to allow himself to think for a moment.
"Give me a few days to think this over and I'll try to work on something to help you with that. Will that be alright with you?" he asked.
"I don't think there is anything you can do unless you constantly picked up new jobs for months on end just to pay for it," she said with a disheartened tone. The fact that the armor was so important to her that it determined her ability to be able to go about her daily life and do her job made him feel obligated to help her especially after she went out of her way to help him and his sister when they came to this world.
"I'll find a way to make sure that your armor is replaced. I'm a very resourceful man," he said in an attempt to reassure her.
"But-"
"Selene?" he said as he looked her in the eyes.
"Yes...?"
"Trust me."