Requiem Of A Failed Hero

"What do you mean I'm going to squat. How is squatting supposed to be training?"

Raith voiced with a disheveled tone. His gaze looking down on the asura - though it was for a second.

But Thard - Harl did not seem to care. He caressed his barren chin and brought his hand behind his back a moment later.

"You don't really have a choice. What I ask you to do is what you will do." He intoned.

The two stared at each other competitively… no, Raith seemed to be the one with all the competitive stare. Thard - Harl just smirked at his foolish gut.

Then he continued after a half minute:

"I want you to stretch your two hands forward, make a ninety degree with your knees like you are sitting on an invisible chair…"

He was demonstrating it to Raith as he spoke, showing him what exactly he needed to do.

"...then you rise back straight. Go down to the same stance and rise again."

He smiled at Raith, looking excited as he concluded 5he demonstration.

Raith grumbly lowered his legs, following the instructions of the asura. The first attempt, unexpectedly slammed him to the ground making a loud thud thanks to the weight of the manacles.

Of course, it wasn't going to be easy, he had to continually stand and squat while dealing with four thousand pounds. Not to say squatting tasked his leg muscles which were already being restrained by having to bear another four thousand thousand pounds.

Plus he fell. It was going to be so hard standing up.

While he struggled to his feet. The asura's voice reached his ears.

"I will be counting for you."

He turned to leave but paused as Raith yelled his reply.

"Wait! Counting what? How many squats do I have to do? A hundred?"

The asura shook his head with a mischievous smile.

"No, no. What I'm counting is not the squats."

Raith titled his head with a slight frown.

"Then?"

"I will be counting the time. In around five hours I should be back."

"Hell! You want me to keep squatting for five hours? That is logically impossible man!"

Raith shouted, falling with another 'thud!' to the ground.

"Since when did you begin to follow logic? Even your very existence is not logical…"

Raith frowned.

"What the hell do you mean by that!"

The asura disappeared before he could get an answer.

"Speak to me! What the hell do you mean by that. You pale purple piece of crap!"

Raith's voice resounded in the desolate expanse and its echoes returned to him. Afterwards absolute silence fell upon the atmosphere.

The only thing left to do was to actually start the squat. And he so after struggling to get up, Raith finally began to squat. As expected it wasn't easy.

For the first few seconds of trying, he was unsteady, and fell quite a number of times which made it harder than it should have been - because he had to pick himself back up.

But eventually his pace began to pick up, Raith was not able to keep tabs on the time but after the fourth fall, he stopped falling for a long time and only continued to squat as the asura had instructed him to.

While he was doing so, a lot of things roamed his idle mind. In order to not have to deal with the harrowing pain of his muscles Raith had to constantly think about other things. Most especially he filled his mind with the people he had met in the past one year.

All that had happened to him.

He was just a nobody, sent away from his family… who would have thought that twenty-one-years-old clueless, dumb guy would do so many things.

Honestly, he hadn't really given much thought to it. In fact when he thought about his achievement, he was sure to inform himself not to be pompous. He still had a long way to go. Especially when he thought about the things he was yet to meet. The other rulers?

His journey suddenly felt like a child's play when he thought about the big things.

'Maybe it is time I start concentrating on the things I have done and being grateful for them.'

At the same time he had to be careful of not getting consumed in past achievements that he would be surpassed by others. Of course, he would never get comfortable by achievements.

'But it really has been one hell of an arduous journey ugh?'

He had met friends, a lot of them and made enemies most of which he killed or turned friends. Except this one…

Raith grinned at the thought of meeting him again. God will so help the knighty bastard, he would have absorbed all the asura's teaching and grown significantly in combat. It was fun to visualize the both of them fighting again.

But the chances that they were ever going to meet again was a little over 0.1%. So, Raith was not quite expectant.

What he truly wanted was what the abyss took away from him His gold… and his army. Those were the reasons why he wanted to get stronger. He didn't know how but he will get what is his back from the abyss.

Maybe the soldiers were made by the power of the abyss' darkness, trying to get them back was probably too greedy of him but he had too much use for the gold than to let it go.

'Nah… I will hunt down the primordial bastard and take what is mine!'

Also since he was free from the abyss, the celestial code didn't work. Raith could now talk or hear about higher beings as much as he wanted to, anyhow he wanted to.

Maybe the celestial code was just a scam that the abyss used to keep him from knowing too much in the first place.

"Damn Abyss"

Raith spat more curses.

At this point, he had lost count of how many squat he was doing. Also, his mind was drawn away from the thoughts that filled them - by the harrowing pain that only grew intensely, cramping every area of his legs.

Raith gritted his teeth as it became unbearably hard to straighten himself from the current squat. He clenched his fist so tight that his veins were almost popping out. And pushed himself up again.

The rest of the squats were nothing short of struggle and few minutes of complaints - almost giving up in fact.