The captains started settling down and the others handled the prisoners.
In the meanwhile, Ning escaped to the side. He had the system give him information about this Taskar person, and soon he learned everything.
He had a sea of information put into his mind, but he cared for none of it. He learned that Taskar enjoyed killing innocent people and hurting others for fun.
That was all Ning needed to know.
After getting Taskar's location, he vanished.
When Ning reappeared, he arrived in the countryside close to the outskirts of the Republic of Ergor.
Not very far from a desolate village was a forest that was currently fully dark. During the nighttime, there was not a shred of light. Not even the stars were visible on this cloudy night.
Ning looked directly into the forest. He knew Taskar had appeared here and was hiding in there somewhere.
With a single thought, Ning poured Aether into his ear, exponentially expanding every single sound while enforcing his own eardrums.
Sounds rang around him like explosions. The soft breeze sounded like a storm. His breathing sounded like a tornado sucking in everything.
His heartbeats sounded like drums. The trees sounded like they were moving.
And Taskar, he sounded like he was just in front of Ning. Ning looked in the direction of the sound and opened his Aether sight.
A purple haze filled his vision and soon the world became a shade of purple as well. And in that shade, he saw a bright, glowing purple figure trying to hide inside a massive tree.
Ning dashed forward.
He made some noise, but he was too far for Taskar to know anyone was there.
Ning waved his hand when he got close enough and a massive gravitational pull appeared on the tree itself, ripping barks and branches from the tree to it.
"What the hell?!" a man shouted from inside the tree and jumped out. He had enforced his body, so while he tumbled through the ground, he wasn't hurt at all.
He looked around him, but it was too dark to see anything. With a single thought, the broken-down tree started burning, giving light to the area, and finally, he saw Ning's face.
And Ning saw his.
The man was taller than Ning by at least a head and his shoulders were very wide as well. He looked like what Merasi would look if she was a male, but his body didn't seem to have as many muscles.
His fair skin was also different from Merasi. His scraggly beard was long and unkempt.
When Ning saw the mole on top of his lips, left to his nose, he was sure this was Taskar.
For a man who was an Aether Saint, he looked like a homeless person. His clothes too looked like rags sewn together.
The old man narrowed his eyes at Ning, wondering who he was. Due to Ning not wearing his Battle Force outfit, he couldn't be sure at all.
"Who are you, kid?" he asked. He was going to get angry but realized that the person in front of him was likely as strong as him for being able to destroy the tree he was in like that.
"Your death," Ning said and smirked. "How does that sound?"
Taskar smirked too. "Sounds like you're looking to die," he said.
"It does, doesn't it?" Ning asked, keeping his smirk. "Unfortunately for you, I can't die. Meaning, only you will have to die today."
"Who are you really kid?" Taskar asked. "I don't remember meeting you."
"You did miss me by a bit. If the squad captains had caught you, then you would have met me," Ning said. "But I guess those captains wouldn't keep you alive, so we might have never met. Shame, you even managed to escape, only to now die by my hand."
Taskar's right hand trembled a bit, and Ning saw that he was hiding it in his rag of a sleeve. 'So he did get hurt. He didn't manage to leave so easily,' Ning thought.
"I take it you're from the tower then," Taskar's face changed and he finally looked angry.
"You're looking at the next lord of the tow—"
Before Ning could finish speaking, the fire spread from Taskar's left hand, targeting Ning's body.
Ning created a vacuum around his body, protecting himself from the attack. When the fire when away and Ning could see again, Taskar was missing.
Ning looked around for a few moments and realized that he had run away to some other place.
"Follow him," Ning ordered his system, and he disappeared.
When Ning reappeared, he was standing inside a barricaded room somewhere. It looked like an old school building, destroyed in a battle between two armies.
There were chunks missing on the wall which were covered with desks and benches.
Taskar was gasping for air where the teacher would stand, and when he turned left he saw Ning.
He startled and tried to move away, slamming his back to the wall.
"Aaah! How are you here?" Taskar shouted.
"I told you, you will die today," Ning said and slowly walked forward. He didn't immediately attack Taskar as that was not his plan here.
Taskar was known to enjoy torture, so Ning would show him what real torture felt like.
One of the desks close to the walls moved and with a swing of Taskar's hands, it came flinging towards Ning.
However, when it was about to touch him, a layer of reverse gravity stopped it, and instead flung it back towards the wall.
At the same time, Taskar started creating another portal. Ning could stop the creation of the portal, but he let it be.
Instead, he put his hands in front of him, and suddenly Taskar started choking.
Ning was filling his lungs with water, while he tried to create the portal. Taskar now had to choose between whether using Aether to protect himself or using Aether to create the portal and running away.
