Chapter 6
The grassland style area stood silent as the swift wind blew down the cold streaks of blue earth. A temple like home stood sturdy in a hushed and quiet woodland area. Master Shin flashed inside the house and found himself in small garden area. A plethora of trees just enough to fit inside were scattered about through the confined space. Different decorations and flowers were dispersed about through the garden and the air stood warm as Master Shin walked toward an underpass. He placed Sean’s body over top a bedlike pedestal protruding out the ground. Sean laid there as peaceful as Master Shin looked over him with a stoic facial expression. He grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his body up to his head exposing his stomach into view. He shook his hands around and placed both hands on the boy’s chest area and blue energy began resonating around his hands as he closed his eyes while placing his hands hard and firm on his chest. The energy resonated stronger while Sean’s face clasped in and started sweating a storm as spasms of pain and rage blasted across his face throughout.
Sean began shifting his body back and forth while Master Shin held his ground and held him down as hard as he could. The blue energy kept traveling onto his body and the area beneath his hands lit up several times before he lifted it revealing a blue pentagram symbol flashing back and forth across his chest. Sean kept shifting his body back and forth in vigorous motions, he clasped his chest in as he took in deep breaths and then opened his eyes in a sudden moment looking at Master Shin while barely keeping hold of one eye open.
“You, damn old man,” Sean said wheezing with rage while clasping his chest. “What the hell did you do to me? This shit hurts like hell!”
“I’m sealing you up, at least not permanently anyway. Your bad form needs to be put under control in order for the trial to commence, so that’s what I’m doing,” Master Shin said.
“What the hell does that even mean? God dammit old man if you fuck with me anymore like this I swear I’ll fuck you u—” Sean said, as his body grew weak and his eyesight grew dimmer until he lost vision and passed back out.
“Alright now, It’ll be another minute or so before you revert back,” Master Shin said while lifting up his arms. He took a minor step back and looked over at a nearby clock and waited awhile until about a minute’s worth of time passed over. Sean’s body shifted around a few times as he began to open his eyes slow and lift his body upward while scratching head. He looked around a few times and then looked over at Master Shin with a perplexed look on his face. “Man…where am I exactly? Who…are…you? I thought I was fighting in the tournament last time I checked…” Sean said confused.
“You’re in my safe haven. My own home, my quarters. I brought you here because I had too. I couldn’t let you participate any longer before it was too late or something bad happened,” Master Shin said.
Sean scratched the back of his head in. “What do you mean?”
“I mean if I hadn’t done anything your bad side might of took over. Anything could have happened if I didn’t intervene.”
“Well now you lost me, argh…” Sean brought his hands to his chest area. “What is this? Why do I feel pain on my chest?”
“That’s was my doing. I had to seal your bad form up like I mentioned before, but it seems like you didn’t hear me then. Looks like you can’t always retain memories when you’re in one form, that’s interesting to know.”
“I see…well what happens now?” Sean said adjusting his neck sitting upright.
Well first off you can get up, follow me let’s talk in an open space in the garden,” Master Shin said.
“Alright”
Sean hopped off the pedestal bed and followed him several feet until they entered into a wide open space with vivid green grass. Master Shin turned around toward Sean with his arms behind his back and looked at him with a stern face.
“Alright so let’s begin,” Master shin said. “I am the Spirit Master named Master Shin. Spirit Master is a title I obtained long ago on this planet by many reasons in the past. The title means that I am the master of all spirit energy and strongest man on Other Earth. I am also the planet’s protector more or less, I’m the main planet’s protector from an extraterrestrial level. I protect and do things that are out of the power of the people. Therefore, it is a pleasure to meet you, I take it your name goes by Sean,” Master Shin.
“Uhh…yeah it is. Thanks, for having me here I guess. I still don’t know know why you brought me here.”
“Yes I was getting to that part. I would like to also mention that I am the master of all spirit energy. More or less I have complete control over it without needing a weapon. I will go more in depth with this later, but you see spirit energy is a mysterious resource and energy that is only found in this world and universe and humans here can use it to fight in combat and as a sort of renewable energy resource to fuel as technology and infrastructure for electricity and everything else of the sort. There are different types of spirit energy in this world but the main usage that you can me use is the form of spirit energy in its most basic form, so I will explain to you what that means in terms of why you’re here on this planet and why I brought you here to home.”
“Ok that sounds cool.”
“Now basically, your predestined to do certain tasks on this planet. I noticed this back at the tournament area. I guess a stereotype in fiction generally is that you’re a sort of chosen one of sorts”
“Chosen one, what is this some kind fantasy novel. What would someone like me who’s just some kid who grew up on the streets be chosen to do?”
“Well we don’t have to call you that and use that generic term if you don’t want too. But basically you are predestined to be my disciple. I have to train you in order for to be ready for a trial and the tournament events.”
“Ok? What exactly are you training me for then?”
“Well this goes into a lot of complicated system of events and history of this land but I’ll make this make it much shorter and simpler to you to process and understand easier.”
“Alright.”
“So, basically again I am called the Spirit Master and what your new title you will be called is going to be referred by as is Spirit Disciple. You will be my pupil in training from here on to train and develop for something called the Trial of Virtue. You see, along me as Spirit Master there are two others that have the same or debatably higher positions of power like me and these people are named the Sacred Guardians. The Sacred Guardians are the three entities the rule over special realms called the Sacred Realms and all of the universe in general in terms of this universe and the universe you came from.
My name is Master Shin and I rule over Other Earth and that’s it more or less of this realm, you can call this universe and realm we live in currently simply the Spirit World. That’s a decent name for things in general to better keep tabs on what you should refer to the universe like plane we reside in right now.
Now there are two other sort of dimensions here in this universe we’re in. They have very religious style names with the first one being referred to as the Promised Land and the second being named the Underworld. These lands are being ruled over currently by two men with very religious names named after two very religious figures in religious history. The ruler of the Promised Land has the religious name of Abraham or Abram for short and the ruler of the Underworld has the religious name that goes by Lucifer. These two rulers govern over the separate two Sacred Realms that are not a part of this dimension and they have utter and complete control over those lands entirely.”
“I see, that’s pretty cool. They sound like they’re really important people”
“Indeed they are. They rule over the universe simultaneously more or less, Abram rules over most of the universe since he represent the goodness of all the universe and good always suppresses evil as everybody knows.”
“Yeah that’s right.”
“Although even though this is seen as a sort of golden rule, this concept is in turn not very fair at least from the standpoint of the the king of the Underworld. I forgot to mention their titles for each position are named Guardian of the Promised Land and Demon King of the Underworld. So as I was saying the Demon King Lucifer loses out on his chance to rule majority of the universe and is stuck being confined to ruling only his territory the Underworld if things stayed this way. Therefore, a system of competition based on prophecy was created that centers around the tournament as well for training exists to make things more fair in terms allowing the Demon King to have a chance to rule the universe for some time.” Sean nodded his head as he continued listening to his next word.
“With that all being said, this prophecy is named The Legend of Good and Evil. This legend is a prophecy of two heirs coming to Other Earth every several one thousand years when they die relatively the same time and this special time is named a Special Year that occurs every Millennial Tournament time period. The Millennial Tournament happens every one thousand years but only certain millenniums are a Special Year. When a Special Year comes around two heirs come to Other Earth to succeed the Guardian of the Promised Land and the Demon King of the Underworld and they do this by coming here to train and hone their skills before the heirs finally come together to challenge each other to a sacred and legendary fight in which the winner of this fight is decreed the ruler of the universe.”
“Ok, I see…I think I know where this is going, it sounds very interesting definitely.”
“The legendary battle that both of these heirs commence in is called the Battle of Destiny and the names both of these heirs are referred to as are the Spirit Disciple and the Demon Heir, with the Spirit Disciple being you like I mentioned.”
“Ok cool but wait you lost me a little bit somewhere. Where did the Spirit Disciple part come from, this Promised Land place sounds like some kind of heaven like area so I don’t get where the name came from there exactly? The Demon Heir title makes sense and fits perfectly more,” Sean asked.
“I’m glad you asked that question, I was about to explain in detail. Basically the position for these titles are very important but believe it or not they’re also optional as well.”
“Optional? Wait so your saying I don’t even need to become this Guardian thing if I don’t want?”
“That’s right. It would be recommended and advised for you too but you don’t actually have to accept the offer and become Guardian if you do not wish too.”
“Then what the heck is even the point of telling me all this?” Sean replied confused.
“Well I was getting to that. So if you choose or the other heir chose to resign from the Legend of Good and Evil prophecy and chose to not partake in the legendary battle for good and evil. Then what would happen the angel or demon with the highest qualifications and power in either realm would be chosen to take the place of the position until the next Special Year, it is not advised to do things this way since a summoned heir would be much more qualified for these positions rather than a regular angel or demon. By that also is a detail I left out, angels and demons all live in the Promised Land or Underworld, anyone that lives on this planet is seen as Earthlings still.”
“Oh yeah what’s up with that how come a lot of people come here rather than straight to those places.”
“More or less it’s a space issue and the flaw of the balance of goodness and sin and badness in most of the human soul of every human being on the planet Earth. Because so many humans make mistakes and do wrongdoing and have a fair amount of evil in their hearts along with good, they usually go to Other Earth instead of straight to the other realms because they are seen as flawed humans still and cannot not enter into those realms yet at the moment, only maximized humans who were very good or very evil based on their time on Earth go straight toward the other realms upon their deaths immediately. Although space is also major a detail as well since only so many of a population can exist in those other realms. I’ll get more on that later but there are multiple ways you can get to the Promised Land or Underworld even if you didn’t make it to them right after your death occurred.”
“Ok I see.”
“So like I said I’ll explain more on that later but back on to the subject beforehand. You can choose to resign or not from taking the sacred positions even if its recommended you take it but for my position as Spirit Master the Spirit Disciple is mandated to succeed after me and take my place when I pass. And yes I did mention that you can pass away again in this universe.”
“Really, how does that work.”
“There’s a lot to go into but more or less every human being in the Spirit World is basically immortal, all human beings except some that have special exceptions for why they have to die. Only special conditions can cause death for regular immortal people like extreme and severe damage to the body and immense pain. Our bodies are much more durable in this world compared to the regular human beings back in the Real World. And with the Sacred Guardians we are all destined to die at a certain point, it’s just the way it is when accepting the position.”
“What! Really? That sounds awful? Why would anyone want to take them then if they knew they were gonna die?”
“Well simply because of the honor of doing it or the power that comes with the trade, anyone would do anything for that amount of control over such sacred amounts of land and space. Therefore, having qualities like that make this very appealing for most angels, demons, and people regardless even if it means sacrificing your life.”
“So wait I have no choice but to succeed you and I also can’t back out of it and will have to die anyway against my will. That really sucks man, I was getting really excited too after hearing all of this, now I’m having second thoughts and not so sure how excited I am…”
“Well there is a way for the Spirit Disciple destined to be Spirit Master to opt out as well once he already becomes the next master.”
“Really, how is that?”
“Once you become Spirit Master, your next task will be training to master spirit energy at your own pace. On your journey to fulfilling that you will have a chance to resign being Spirit Master once the next Spirit Disciple rolls around and at that point you would have to train him yourself. But after you’ve trained him thoroughly for their following succession of your position you could relinquish ownership of your title of Spirit Master and disown the ability of the usage of the Spirit Shot technique.”
“Ok, that sounds reassuring…but wait…what’s this Spirit Shot technique you’re talking about.”
“It’s what differentiates you from other people. You see you’re not like other people, the reason you have to be Spirit Master is because this world needs to have a Spirit Master to protect the Earth at all times. And because the position is only temporary since I keep stay the same master after the next Special Year then that means I have to pass the next role for the title on to a new student. And in this case that new student and pupil is you.
Now like how I mentioned earlier I said I was going to go more in depth with spirit energy at a another time but basically there a several different types of spirit that exists in this world and you can use the various types to fight with different attributes and abilities toward them depending on what it is. You generally are only born here with one attribute and that’s if you’re a spirit user, as in if you are able to use and control spirit energy in your body.”
“Ok,” Sean said as he kept listening on.
“Now in this world regular people can’t use spirit energy. And for the ones that do have the ability to do so can’t use them unless they are equipped with something called a spirit weapon. Spirit Weapons can’t be used unless the user has somewhat decent control over spirit energy in his body, after the user gets that down they can channel their energy through a weapon of choice that fits them. Afterwards they can use the weapon freely and summon the weapon at will to use to fight in combat.”
“Wow, that sounds amazing! I wanna get one now, do you have any?”
“Yes I can give you them now actually.” Master Shin held out his hand and a pair of gloves materialized fast in front of his hands. “These are called Spirit Gloves, you can use them to fight and emit spirit energy better through your hands to attack.” He handed them over to Sean and Sean’s face lit up with excitement and joy like no other.
“Man, this is so cool my very own spirit weapon!” Sean took the gloves and glared at them with a big open smile. “Because I couldn’t keep the preliminary rounds ones right? I don’t seem to have them with me anymore.”
“Yes, I took them off of you when we were in the ring and handed them to your announcer friend.”
“Oh, and what happened with the tournament then? Did I win? I almost forgot to ask about that! Did I lose?”
It ended with a draw, I requested it from the announcer boy. He was a nice young lad, I explained to him what was going on and he understood just fine. Don’t worry, you both won the fight. That’s the way I wanted it to end.”
“Ok, that’s a relief…” Sean said releasing a calm breath in relief. “Thank goodness, because as soon as I heard about the tournament I was anxious to keep going for sure, I mean it sounds so much fun to participate in this, y’know?”
“Anyways, as I was saying,” Master Shin grunted.
“Oh, my mistake. Alright, you can continue, sorry.”
“I was explaining all that first leading up to the technique. So basically you need those gloves in order to fight. You need them in order to use your spirit energy.”
“Yeah, like you said before,” Sean said.
“Now, you look like a fist fighter so these should work perfectly for you as well,” Master Shin said.
“Yeah, these should work just perfectly!”
“Now, onto the technique. You need to learn an attack and technique named the Spirit Shot from me that you and solely you can use once learned. This technique distinguishes you from other fighters and people on this planet and it distinguishes you as the Spirit Disciple coming up to be Spirit Master.”
“Alright, that sounds cool. What else about it is so special though?” Sean asked.
“I’m getting to that…so basically this technique is a move only a person of pure spirit energy can use, and can only use and fully innovate and change and manifest into other techniques. You remember how I said there’s multiple different types of spirit energy?”
“Yeah.”
“The case with most people is most human beings can have varied forms of spirit energy of different elements out there in general if we talk about the basics. Things like fire energy or water energy are some of the types that exist out there that multiple people could end up using and fitting for their personal energy type. But with the Spirit Disciple, he is the only one that is able to use pure spirit energy, which is the universal form of all spirit energy everywhere. Pure spirit energy is great because it almost has no weaknesses and is very universal overall and can have an edge over any energy type out there and resistance to many too.”
“Wow, that sounds awesome, tell me more.”
“Like I said the Spirit Disciple can only use pure spirit energy. The only other person that can use pure spirit energy is yours truly being the previous or current Spirit Master themselves. We are the only ones that can use basic pure spirit energy on the planet.”
“Wow, that’s really cool. I feel like super unique and everything now. That’s pretty awesome.”
“Yes, it is very cool I would say. Now onto the technique again. The Spirit Shot is a technique that only the Spirit Disciple and Spirit Master can use and master. And it is required for every Spirit Disciple to learn and develop skills to use this technique under the teachings and supervision of the Spirit Master currently at the time themselves. It’s simply an attack that you must know to carry onto this path.
“Ok, I see…I think I’m getting this a bit more now…It’s starting to make a bit more sense to me.”
“This technique is very powerful if used correctly and with accurate precision. It is very hard to learn and is not an easy task to overcome in say overnight. It could take several months to learn this technique in terms of the training regimen.”
“Wow, geez. Several months…that’s a lot of time. But it still sounds interesting regardless to me.”
“Yes so I’d advise you not to take this lightly when hearing it, it’s very serious business when learning this technique. If you don’t pay attention and focus yourself, you could find yourself being very hurt and injured upon trying to learn it for yourself.”
“Ok, got it. I’ll be careful then.”
“Now I have to mention this again. Your ability for regular and pure spirit energy usage is unique, It’s one of a kind like mine. And the Spirit Disciple is summoned here only several few thousand years along with the Demon Heir. With this ritual being set in stone for how often the heirs are brought to this planet for the legendary battle and you the Spirit Disciple being the only one being able to use pure spirit energy, this highlights the importance on why you can’t opt out of the Spirit Master role. This planet must always have a Spirit Master in place at all times and because I’m not immortal in this position unless I resign, which I am not because it is my personal choice not to do so, you have to succeed my simply for those reasons of scarcity for users of pure spirit energy and the planet’s constant need for a protector.
“Well, wait what about that Guardian guy? Isn’t he the ruler of the universe? Why can’t he simply protect and everything himself?”
“The reasoning for that is complicated but in simple terms I was assigned this role because the planet Other Earth needed its people to be able to protect their own planet on their own and anything out of the hands of the normal citizens and residents of Neo-Pangea would be put in my hands ideally. I would assume a task an Earthling could fix on his own shouldn’t be tampered with by the Guardian of the Promised Land, in which I am as well considered an Earthling being the strongest one here currently. Therefore, that is my best answer to give you about that subject.”
“I see, that makes sense. People need to handle their own problems that is in their own power. That sounds legit to me.”
“So yes its not a simple as you would make it out to be like that but that is indeed a generalized simplistic answer that I could give. Anyways you must follow me under my teaching no matter what, I am sorry if you do not wish to do so but that’s the way it is under these strict conditions.”
“No, it’s perfectly cool. I’m all on board for doing this. I just wanted to know the details is all, I’m fine with becoming the Spirit Master,” Sean said.
“Are you fine with succeeding the Guardian as well,” Master Shin asked.
“Yeah, sure at least I think so…maybe. You mentioned it’s optional right? What periods of time can I opt and cancel out?”
“Well, you get three chances. You can opt out when you enter in right now, you can before the legendary fight and right after the fight depending and based on the outcome of the battle.”
“Now, I see. So I got multiple tries then throughout the tournament.”
“More or less, yes. Yes, you do. You can opt out and completely quit the trial at any of those points I mentioned but not during the actual tournament, that’s when you cannot do it.”
“So, um tell me more about these trials then because I don’t think you went into them too deeply enough or at all I think?”
“Yes, yes. I almost forgot. Now if you haven’t guessed your opponent you had before. He should have given off an eerie air to him while you’re fighting, did you notice it?”
“Yeah, he was a spooky dude. Very moody, and not very happy person in the least.”
“Yes, very true. I brought him up because if you hadn’t guessed he’s your rival in all this, he’s the Demon Heir we talked about before.”
“For real? That’s pretty crazy but understandable too nonetheless.”
“Yes, he’s your rival in training and during the tournament. The Demon Heir destined to fight the Spirit Disciple over the title of ruler of the universe and then decide whether good of evil wins overall in the end.”
“Yes, I understand now. He’s the one I’m supposed to fight and challenge in that legendary fight or whatever.”
“Indeed, now back on subject. I mentioned you undertaking trials earlier, did I not?”
“You did.”
“Now what I meant by that was. There are two trials, that each of you have to take in terms of you each taking only one. These trials are named the Trial of Virtue and the Trial of Vice.”
“Ok, cool stuff.”
“You have to undergo the Trial of Virtue obviously if it wasn’t that obvious already. And in terms that Vladimir fellow he has to take the Trial of Vice naturally. You represent the side of good and he represents the side of evil. You two are like two opposite ends of a spectrum ready to collide over to see who’s better than the other one.”
“I see, so we represent like polar opposites of each other. That’s pretty cool.” Sean said laughing.
“Yes, indeed. Now in terms of what these trials mean and what has to be carried out. When I captured you and took you off to my home where we are now, I laid you down and applied what is called a Blue Star Seal onto your chest. It has a pentagram like shape and symbol to it and its color is obviously blue like mentioned in the title. This seal was meant to seal away your demon form. I don’t know if you retain any memories about that and that which had happened at the tournament grounds, you weren’t yourself at the time so I’m not sure if you remember yourself clearly,” Master Shin said.
“Umm…” Sean clasped his head in with his eyes closed for a moment. “I’m not to sure I do, I think I just remember this huge ray of light coming down from the sky hitting me and feeling a massive shock hitting me from it until I passed out and woke up here,” Sean said.
“Yes, I was sure you wouldn’t really remember. That ray of light was spell titled Judgment. It was sent from the heavens by the Guardian of the Promised Land to test and initiate your body to activate the trial for you. I think he realized early on the Spirit Disciple was coming and discovered it was you during the tournament grounds. I was advised to watch the tournament to be on the lookout for the technique’s usage to discover which person you were so I could bring you back here like this.”
“Ok, I see…so it all was planned then.”
“More or less, it was rather just lucky timing and careful guessing and predictions of events all organized into one. But the point is that I found you just fine and managed to bring you here to seal your soul and other form before he completely took over you.”
“Why, what’s up with all that. What is this other form anyway that you’re talking about?”
“The other form is a demon form that was activated by Judgment in order for you to overcome and become a full-fledged angel at the end of the trial. If you do not wish to use the term demon colloquially like that then you can simply say bad form as a euphemism instead.”
“Yeah, that’s fine, saying demon all the time would be a pain to say over and over. So what’s up again? Is it like some kind of second personality?”
“You are really the light hearted, air headed type aren’t you. I just said there’s a demon inside you and your acting like nothing’s happened and everything’s just fine.”
Sean laughed. “Well, I’m not the worrisome type really. I’m sure it’s no big deal in the end.”
“It is very much important. You should take it very seriously. If you do not, you will not get the opportunity to become an angel and partake in the legendary battle.”
“Ok, ok. I got it, you can continue.”
“Alright, then,” Master Shin sighed. “Basically, you have an alter ego inside you right now. Judgment took all the evil in your heart and tested you and brought it out into a more or less physical form. You passed in terms of how the spell works for you. It brought out your evil which seemed to be very little to say the least and maximized into a wholesome personality. The technique works a bit differently when used on regular people that aren’t the Spirit Disciple.”
“Ok cool.”
“This personality is what we’ll now call your bad form. We can refer to him as bad Sean to make it easier on ourselves. Now bad Sean is evil and completely bad to the bone and core right now. He’s mean, offensive, and curses a lot and uses plenty of foul language to get his point across in his speaking and dialect.”
“I see,” Sean said smirking.
“Now this bad form of yours is a test more or less. You have to live your life with that alter ego of yours in your daily life and basically overcome him and make him become more good overtime.”
“Ok,”
“You don’t have to think about it to much to accomplish this. Just be yourself and try your best to stay out more often than he does. You’ll switch personalities randomly throughout your journey through the tournament. So let people know about this while your partaking in it.”
“Alright.”
“I’m serious because your other form is the complete opposite of you. I’m sure you curse because you’re an up and coming teenager going into adulthood, but your other form