4/12/2019

  1 PM

  South Col Bar, Colemond, TX

  Daniel, Alan, and Terrance were about to settle a deal after reviewing the twenty private donors' financial portfolios. The three sat at a table on the front porch of the bar, accompanied by the wonderful breeze and traffic. Alan, who was Daniel's former math and calculus professor, reviewed the findings yesterday. He even did the entire investigation of all the financial portfolios. Comparing Daniel's and his, the margin of error and differences were about four percent, leading to a recheck. Alan lost some sleep to get it done, but the effort wasn't wasted. The four percent was reduced to point three.

  Alan sighed. "Twenty-three billion dollars in cash. Five hundred billion in bonds and three trillion in stocks. Christ…they took advantage of 2005 and the Second Cold War."

  "Like I said, they try to access these runes and dungeons for the damn money," Daniel said while wiping off the sweat on his face.

  "Daniel…you are turning blue," Terrance muttered.

  "It happens a few times a year. These things in my mind never go away…No matter how I try."

  Terrance called for a water refill. The waitress came out with a large jug of ice water, pouring water into everyone's glass.

  Daniel took a gulp of water, cooling his body down. The waitress, who hadn't left the table, filled his cup again. She asked if he wanted another cup or the large jug. He politely asked for the latter, to which the waitress put it on the table and handed him a stack of napkins. Terrance gave her a thirty-dollar tip before she departed back inside the bar.

  Alan and Terrance knew about his combat history, so they didn't ask him anything about it. They resumed focus on the financial portfolios. The deal was to establish a conglomerate to utilize the funds, stocks, and bonds. Most of the bonds were active and lasting for another decade, and Daniel offered Alan to be his Chief Financial Officer and Terrance as the COO. A fragment of cash will be their salary, and each has a half percent share of the three trillion dollar stock. And Daniel takes eighteen percent.

  The three had their pens pulled out, starting with Daniel. He signed his signature on the last page's first of the three spaces. Afterward, he slid the packet to Alan, and the latter gave it to Terrance.

  Mother Elaine, who was inside the bar, came out to the front porch. She checked for the signatures and the packet. Empress Cai was summoned to the scene, and Mother Elaine handed her the packet. The former disappeared in a flash, taking Mother Elaine with her.

  "Did she make herself disappear?" Terrance asked. He was stuck in a trance briefly.

  Daniel noticed an upbeat surge in Terrance's soul. "Feels unreal, doesn't it? Yeah, she did."

  "I can say goodbye to my degree…I'm not in a dream, am I?"

  "No, you're not. Which brings me to this. I was going—"

  Kaboom!

  Daniel's vision was blurred from the flash of the explosion. He rolled to the side and unleashed a shockwave from his body, clearing all the smoke and debris. He found himself inside the bar, lying on shards of glass.

  "I got you!" Lian exclaimed, lifting him from the floor.

  "I…need to…get to…Terrance and—"

  "No, you just got a major wound. We need to get you out of this place."

  A scream erupted outside, causing Daniel to let go of Lian's arm. He almost tumbled as he ran out of the wrecked bar. The front porch was decimated. That was when Daniel saw Alan lying in the middle of the street. He teleported to him, lifting him onto his shoulders. Hilde and Gertrud arrived at the bar's mess. They grimaced when they saw Daniel, making the latter confused.

  "Take him back to my residence," Daniel said to Gertud. "I have one mor—"

  "I'll get him out of here," Gertrud said, jumping five hundred feet in the air. She flew supersonic back to Daniel's residence.

  Bad news for Daniel, shocking him and Hilde. Lian dashed out of the bar and immediately noticed the problem. She tried to stop it only to be knocked off the lot, landing right on the street.

  What Lian tried to stop was Terrance. He appeared out of the pile of rubble. His face grimaced as his eyes were wide open. Orange light flashed out of his pupils. The button shirt shredded as his body grew bigger. Both of Terrance's fists slammed the ground, causing the street and the city block to rumble.

  As he was about to head on to stop his madness, Daniel, Lian, and Hilde dodged from an upcoming fireball. They turned to the sky.

  "Damn rebels!" Lian exclaimed.

  "Rebels? You mean…the ones who despise…Moon Mother?"

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  "Xavier is an example, too, but let's stop talking and focus on the hordes. They'll destroy your planet."

  That was enough to sour the mood. Daniel threw a wave of qi, starting the conflict. The wave struck a row of floating magic wielders. One zoomed out of it, flying at inhuman speed. The two came out with a strike, clashing right on.

  Daniel couldn't see who was in the cloak. As he tried to find out, he was struck in the abdomen, blasting him into a building nearby on a different street. His back crashed into the table and shelves, lying on top of a pile of mess. Food, cans, and liquid items spilled everywhere. Despite the superhuman strength, it felt like stabbing his back.

  No time to recognize pain as he saw the cloaked figure drop right at the front of the local market. It dashed right inside, and the two clashed again. The brief stinging effect on his forearm blocked the individual's sword from doing its job. However, its blade started to cut his skin.

  By this point, he has two choices. Either he would lose a part of his arm and be a little miserable with horrific episodes, or he could begin caring less about the environment and get his shit together.

  Like a crazy man, he went with both. Daniel jerked upward, letting the sword tear off half of his right arm. With his qi, he boosted his body, standing up from the pile. He lunged right towards the individual, grabbing them with his left arm. The two tore the facade of the market, leading to its entire collapse.

  They crashed right to the street, tearing through the concrete. Daniel remained on top of the individual, and as he was about to punch right through the individual's dark void in the hoodie, Daniel received a jab to the face, knocking him a few hundred feet away. He crashed headfirst into the hot, smooth concrete, scraping his nose and cheeks.

  When he got up, a sharp pain punched both edges of his jaw near his ears. Touching it, he realized it was dislocated and broken. A wide dodge as electric rays fired from behind like bullets. By coincidence, it struck right to the individual. Daniel half turned to see who did it. He pulled out his Glock 19 and fired right at them with bullets. No magic, as the pistol wasn't optimized. Blood spat out of the cloak, causing that individual's cloak to be rendered useless. The dark void faded, revealing the face of a man with his mouth leaking purple blood. His eyes were covered in purple as blood sprinkled on the road. He finally collapsed from gunshots.

  Daniel obviously didn't count how many bullets were left, so he tried it on his opponent. He flashed away, standing right behind his cloaked opponent.

  Bang! Bang! Bang!

  The magazine surrendered after three bullets. Green blood fired out of the cloak. But, unlike the one he just caused to collapse, his opponent didn't budge from the three bullets. Not much blood spat out.

  Daniel dodged a heavy jab and a thrusting sword; both were aiming towards his chest. He put his empty pistol back into his tactical belt and summoned his sword, Valence. Sky-blue qi violently gushed out of the blade like an open faucet. The entire street's remaining structure cracked as a result of his summoning. Like an earthquake, the street split into two with wide cracks and openings.

  The two had to play like hopscotch for a few seconds to avoid tripping into the depths. Valence was going nuts, so Daniel raised his blade, pointing at his opponent. The violent gush of qi fired right at them. He amped it with more control to turn it into a proper beam rather than a free-willed blast. It struck very hard, unleashing a heavy shockwave on impact.

  Daniel's right arm was restored at high heat since leaving the market. The steam faded away as he could articulate his right hand again. He switched grip from left to right and cut off the beam with a thrusting left arm. Disrupting the beam caused a smoke bomb, covering the spot.

  Clearing the smoke, he saw his opponent lying head flat on the ground. A puddle of green blood nearby, but not much. However, the cloak was gone. Dark energy gushed out of the individual, shooting up to the sky. It sounded sinister and disturbing as it exited the body. Daniel watched the darkness's demise by the sunbeam. The individual surprised him by getting up from a decent crater.

  His opponent got up, revealing herself to be a lady in her thirties. Her brunette hair flung under the cowboy hat as the hot winds rose. She looked confused. Daniel saw her eyes staring left and right, appearing not knowing where she was. "What happened?" she asked in a smooth, mature tone.

  "Are you a rebel?" Daniel asked.

  The cowgirl gave a strong reaction. "No! I'm not!"

  "We were fighting for a few minutes!!" Daniel yelled. "Don't you remember?"

  "I'm not a rebel! I don't know what to tell you!"

  Daniel watched her, looking down at the crater she stood in as the loud thumping noise erupted blocks away. He sensed her qi to be unstable. It was when he fought her in the cloak. The darkness had to disrupt so much because Daniel felt the discomfort inside of her that he got out of the sensory. He didn't want to yell at all after that. "What's your name?"

  "I'm Qiang Zhao, and you?"

  "Daniel."

  Colemond's surroundings were piling up in smoke and debris in all directions. The situation has gone south, and both knew they couldn't stay here for too long.

  "Where the hell am I? What is this place?" Qiang Zhao asked while looking up. "At least the sky is blue."

  Daniel unleashed a qi attack, causing an explosion a few hundred feet above and behind him. "I don’t know what the hell happened to you, but this isn't Raal. You're in Ear—"

  "This isn't Raal?!"

  "No," Daniel said, shaking his head. He realized that Qiang didn't even know about coming to Earth at all. That could mean only one thing. "Raal is gone. You're now on Earth. Perfect for refugees like you. But that's not important right now. We have to deal with the rebels at this moment and stop my friend from destroying the damn city."

  Loud rumbling as the sounds of an angry but pleading beast echoed around the epic center of downtown. There wasn't that much time.

  "If there are other rebels, our side should be here too, right?"

  Daniel nodded, feeling impatient. "Yeah. You'll get to meet up with Empress Cai, Lian, and more. Some are in battle right now."

  "Then let's go help them. And please don't look at me like that. I'm not a freaking rebel! I swear!"

  "I know. Your qi is already telling," Daniel muttered before jumping right into the sky. Only for him to get into an aerial rebel trap. He unsupressed his body, increasing his body temperature tenfold. Getting pounded by the magical trap was the fuel he needed. To the misfortune of the twelve cloaked rebels, their demise was imminent, and in the next second, all were decapitated at their stomachs.

  Daniel coughed after using his boiled mouth beam. Too hot, but his tolerance came through. Every drop of blood, including the decapitated bodies, evaporated, leaving no rain.

  "HEY! Be careful!" Qiang Zhao yelled after almost getting hit by the beam. She leaped into the air and witnessed the travesty of the city being torn and burned. "My yinhai. What have we done?"

  "The only thing that matters is to end this conquest," Daniel said, turning to Qiang Zhao. "Do what you have to do and don't worry about the damage."

  "If you insist…"