{Alex's POV}

"Now now, Alex. You will never overcome what you fear if you just run away,"

"But Sensei, the gap is huge!" I cried out, "What if I fall down?"

"Don't worry. I'm sure you can do it. All you need to do is jump from stilt to stilt until you get to the other side," he explained, "This will be your final lesson. After this, you can enhance your skills to become even more stronger."

I was breathing heavily, but I built up my confidence. "Okay, Sensei. I'm ready now," I pleaded. Then, I managed to jump until halfway. I looked back to my Sensei to check if he was proud of me, but something happened terribly.

"G-G-G-Great job, Alex. K-Keep moving on. Don't give-" he died as he spouted out his last words. A menacing looking man appeared behind him.

"Well well well, the student is here too. Get 'em boys!" he threatened me. However, I had an advantage. They didn't know how to leap on stilts, so they failed miserably and fell into the bottomless hole. I quickly got to the other side without a doubt and ran away from the mysterious people.

     "God dammit! You pathetic weaklings!" he groaned, "I'll get you soon, kid."

I made it into a cave. It was very dark, but safe from harm. They killed Sensei. Blood covered knives in their bare hands. That was all I could remember. I held my tears in even though I was at the edge of crying.

     My Sensei was the only one I could trust back then. He adopted me while I was seven at that time. He told me that I was destined to be strong enough to annihilate anyone that blocks my way to victory. He trained me to become the greatest until I was eleven. Then, that thing earlier happened. Maybe he knew he was going to be killed there. Probably why he said that will be my last lesson taught by him.

"Don't worry, Sensei. I'll avenge your death. Just watch and see."

I woke up, seeing myself tied to some kind of torture machine. I tried to break free, but it didn't budge.

"Don't even bother to," he mocked me, "The handcuffs are made of pure steel. No human can escape from that. Well, maybe Superman can, but obviously not you."

"What are you trying to do with me?!" I asked furiously.

"Now now, use your indoor voices," he nagged, "I'm only here because of an unfinished matter."

"Unfinished matter? What are you talking about?" I questioned him again. Suddenly, he took off his mask that was covering his face.

     "Remember me?" he smiled creepily, "It's been how long now? Ten years?"

     "You! You killed Sensei! I'm gonna get you for this!" I raged, trying to break the handcuffs.

     "Oh please. You can't even escape my handcu-" he was interrupted when a crack was heard. The handcuffs were broken, dropped to the floor. "Wait! Let me explain!" he whined.

     "It's payback time, bastard," I cussed, releasing my inner anger.

{Senia's POV}

I absorbed the eternity out of Melphid's body. Every last bit of eternity. Although I endured such pain, it was getting more painful than ever before.

"Ugh.. What happened?" Melphid questioned herself with confusion.

All of a sudden, a weird portal bursted out of my body. It was probably eternity, trying to possess my whole self. I tried to endure it, but it was far stronger than what I expected. Melphid then regained her consciousness and saw what I was going through. She immediately casted a spell on me, specifically to weaken the eternity.

"T-Thank you," I gratefully thanked her. Chris and Rose came out of the bush they were hiding in. There were twigs and leaves stuck onto their heads.

"Senia! Are you okay?" Chris worried about me.

"Of course she is," Rose answered the question, "The Queen used a spell on her. You blind or somethin'?"

"Hey! I was double checking on her," he snapped, "Have you heard about caring for others?"

"Maybe you should buy some glasses next time," she argued back, "They're pretty cheap anyways."

"Why you little-"

"Cut it out, you guys!" I stopped their fight, "The Queen is right in front of you, so behave properly."

"Senia is your name, correct?" Melphid asked politely.

"Yes, it's Senia," I replied back, "What is it, Your Majesty?"

"Hmm.. I can sense two unusual powers within you," she stated, "One of them being a curse."

"So that's what it was," I talked to myself.

"A curse?!" Chris was shocked.

"Shut up and let her finish, dummy!" Rose hit him at the back.

"However, I was able to weaken the curse," she told.

"But Your Majesty, your powers are weak according to your current condition," Rose mentioned, "You shouldn't use too much of it."

"It's the least I can do for her," she said, "Strangely enough, you do not seem bothered by this curse, do you Senia?"

"Not really," I answered, after being silent for a couple of minutes.

"Wait, you told us that there were two powers, right? So, what's the other one?" Chris questioned.

"The power to absorb eternity," she answered. Everyone was surprised, including myself. "I don't know how you managed to obtain this power," she continued, "but you must beware about the dangerous consequences when using eternity itself."

"Okay, I'll take note of that," I stated, "By the way, have you seen anyone passing by? Wearing a red priest uniform?"

"I saw someone in red, not sure about the priest uniform though," she replied, "If I'm not mistaken, she was on her way to the upper levels, seeking for eternity as well."

"That must be Sis!" I concluded, "How to get to the upper levels?"

"I can teleport you all to the upper levels,"

"Then teleport us out of this place! Atlas here is getting creeped out by the weird plants nearby him," Chris complained.

"Do you have any other unreasonable stuffs to say?" Rose jumped in.

"Wait a minute guys, we're missing someone," I pointed out, "Where's Alex? He's been gone for a while now."

     "Boo!" Alex jumped out from a nearby bush. He startled all three of us.

"Dude, don't do that!" Chris complained, "You almost made me have a heart attack."

     "Where have ya been? We've been sick worried for ya," Rose stated. Alex just kept silent, ignoring her question.

     "Are you okay, Alex?" I questioned.

     A tear came out of his eye. "I killed him," he suddenly said.

     "Killed who? What? How? Why?" Chris jumbled up his questions.

     "My Sensei," he admitted, "He was disguised as an enemy I once feared back then. And I killed him." Everyone was very shocked when we heard his explanation.

     "I'm truly sorry to hear that, Alex," I told him, "I also lost someone I dearly cared for."

     "You will never overcome anything if you fear it," he mumbled in his voice, "Sensei always say that to me. I will never forget his advice."

     "Anyways, we should be going now," Rose insisted.

     "Right. Melphid, can you teleport us to the upper levels?" I requested.

     "The Demon Frontier will be there. Are you certain you want to go there?" Melphid asked again for determination.

     "Take us there! I'm sure we can handle it," Chris agreed.

     "We came this far, we can't back down now," I told, "Let's do this!"

     "As you wish," Melphid granted our requests and teleported us. We had to go through the trippy time dimension thing again. Hopefully we'll get to the other side safely.