Hikari: Rise Of The Weapons Master

"Welcome to my residence," The young duke smiled. "I, Hark Hethburn, am pleased to have you at my house."

"You can drop with the formalities and I have a lower title and rank than you anyways," Zack replied while rolling his eyebrows as he looked around the Hethburn residence.

The entire place oozed the luxurious life people expected a duke to live in.

But he decided to not say anything about the decor and instead get right to business.

"The king told you of my arrival?" Zack asked as the black-haired duke nodded and gestured for Zack to sit on the chairs beside the table they were in.

After both of them had settled down, the maids started bringing food for them to eat. The white-haired boy however didn't eat the food and just stared at Hark with narrowed eyes.

"I know that you were there to check on me but why didn't you hide yourself. The people who were there to buy the jewels were most probably there because of someone else and those someone else will soon know that you have captured their subordinates."

Hark calmly drank the wine in his hand while eating his lunch.

"I will eat now and talk business later. You can either enjoy the meal or talk to yourself." He replied and continued eating his stuff.

Zack sighed and decided to eat too since there was nothing else for him to do. After both of them were done eating, the duke decided to answer Zack's earlier question.

"The only reason I captured all of those people was that I think it was the perfect time to do that. Something is going on behind the scenes with the nobles of this place."

"So you want me, a mere viscount, to help you?"

"A mere viscount who has the spear made from the remains of the world tree. Now, what will you say to that?" The duke then stood up and moved towards Zack. "The only thing I care about is the lives of my people. I don't care about a teenager on mood swings."

"Damn, never knew you loved talking about yourself this much," Zack replied with a smile as he stood up and glared into the duke's eyes. "You said it yourself, I am no normal viscount."

Both of the nobles locked eyes with each other before the white-haired boy decided that there was no point in arguing with the duke.

Though he had pure intentions, he was doing a lot of wrong things that Zack couldn't handle. So for the time being, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

"I hope that you achieve what you want duke." He said and walked towards the entrance when the duke snapped his fingers.

Guards suddenly appeared in front of the white-haired boy and all of them were holding spears in his direction.

"I don't like being disobeyed when it comes to such things," Hark said in a threatening voice as Zack snorted.

"Wow, you are completely different from the man I had met half an hour ago. You must be going through that time of the month so I can't really blame you." After provoking the duke, he turned to look at the guards holding the spears.

Their spears were going to fall in front of one of the mightiest spears in the entirety of Hikari.

"Chastiefol." The golden spear immediately appeared in front of the guards in its full glory and charged towards them.

They quickly raised their shields in order to block the spear out but they were thrown back by the spear.

Zack on the other hand turned his head towards the duke who had his eyes closed and was chanting a few words that sounded familiar to the teenager.

'He is chanting a dark arts spell.' Zack narrowed his eyes at the duke as he wondered how he was able to chant such a spell.

Though people allied with the light side could use dark element moves, they could not use spells since they directly borrowed the powers from higher beings.

To test his theory, Zack brought out Eirias and pointed it towards the duke.

[ Hostility detected from the opponent. ]

[ The opponent has been identified to be from the dark side ]

[ Special property of Eirias is in effect. ]

But before he could think of anything else, another notification appeared in front of him.

[ Conflict detected! ]

[ The opponent has been identified to be from the light side ]

[ All effects have been canceled. ]

Zack could have never thought that he would see someone allied with the light and dark side at the same time and still not have internal conflict.

He could now understand the sudden change in the mood the duke had in a few minutes. It was surprising to see that he was still sane.

"Prison of Darkness!" The duke suddenly finished his spell as Zack put his sword back inside his inventory and summoned Chastiefol in front of him.

He knew what prison of darkness was and how effective it was.

If the chant was completed, there was a 99% success rate that the person who the spell had been used upon would get trapped inside the prison.

But Zack was instead looking at the 1% chance.

"Spirit Spear Chastiefol, seventh form, Guardian!" He shouted and jumped back as a few seconds later, a flaming orange Phoenix burst through the top of the mansion before reaching the first floor.

'You called kiddo?' The Phoenix asked while observing his feathers. There was a little dust on the bottom of his right-wing so he flapped twice and rose in the air with his wings outstretched.

But that's when the prison of darkness spell hit him.

The Phoenix's eyes turned pure black in color as he looked at Zack with a killing look.

'And you expected me to be trapped by that puny spell?' The Phoenix's eyes immediately turned to normal as he turned to stare at Hark.

The young duke's jaw was hanging down when he saw the orange feathered bird in his mansion. And even more strange thing was that the prison of darkness had failed miserably.

'Don't look at me like that, you one-trick pony. You know what, you don't even deserve to look at me.' The Phoenix then raised both off his wings. 'Zack, close your eyes.'

Zack did as instructed as the orange feathered bird released a cry and his entire body caught fire.

"Switch."

The bright burning Phoenix's body sent out a flash of light which Zack, who had his eyes covered, could still see. After opening his eyes, he wasn't able to see for a few minutes but when he regained the ability, his gaze immediately went towards Hark.

The young duke's black hair had been burned down to nothing and he was bald now. His eyes however looked fine but it was clear as day that he couldn't see anything.

Zack then gave the Phoenix a nod as he vanished and Chastiefol returned to its original form.

"Duke Hark, I will be watching you from the shadows of the noble houses and I promise that we will meet soon. And at that time, I would pierce your heart with this very spear."

With a last glance at the Duke, Zack left the room and started making his way to the dungeon beneath the mansion.

***

"Fortunately, I switched before any serious damage could be dealt to our body. We could have lost our eyesight you know."

A few minutes after Zack had vanished, the young stood up from the ground and waved his hand over his bald head.

A few seconds later, his black hair reappeared.

"Well, I thought he would be oppressed."

"But he wasn't."

"And now he most probably looks at us as an enemy."

"I will try to change the relationship myself."

To someone seeing and hearing the conversation, he or she would think that Hark had gone crazy and was talking to himself in such a manner.

But no one was present there and the duke was alone, or at least that's what it looked like.

"Do you think he knows that there are two of us?"

"No, I don't think so. But he probably knows that we are allied with both the sides and that is going to be a problem."

The duke then stared out of the hole that had been created in his roof. Guards and other people would soon be coming to ask him what had happened and he needed a story to tell them.

"Leave that on me."

"As if that went well last time." He suddenly fell quiet before snorting. "I thought so. Anyways, do you remember how he said that he will be watching us from the shadows of the noble houses?"

"Yes, I do and I think that he was telling the truth. We need to be careful."

"And that is something I agree upon with you." After talking to himself one last time, the young duke left the room.