Phoenix Flight [Lite LitRPG - Dungeon Diving - FFM Romance]

The most sacred of places?

What in Haru's name did that mean? Olivia was confused as Rosco said the name. "I don't know what that means."

Rosco gave a lazy shrug. "Me neither."

"Dad didn't say anything else?"

Rosco shook his head. "Nope. That's literally what he told me to tell you. Find him in the most sacred of places."

"Most sacred of places?" Olivia frowned and folded her arms. "I don't get it."

Her father hadn't been a religious man. Though perhaps he was, and she just forgot? He did, after all, alter her memories. She didn't think he was the type to care about that sort of stuff, though, so sacred likely had no connection to religion, like a church or something.

Maybe it was connected to Haru? Most people considered anywhere Haru went as being sacred, but there were two above all that stood out.

The place where Haru first appeared and the place where she vanished. Neither were locations she could just go to.

The place where Haru appeared was in the Gallenth kingdom. Some say she was born there; others say she literally came from the skies above and was born when a star touched down.

The place where Haru vanished was on the moon.

Yes.

The fucking moon.

Luna, named by the first person to ever step foot upon it, a member of the Lunar branch, it is said that after their battle with the Ebony Knight, Haru ascended beyond the skies, and she resided at a castle forged of light that is hidden in the center of the moon. Some claim she died there, and the moon is her final resting place. Others say Haru ascended and went past heaven itself, reaching a realm above the cosmos where she still fights to keep this world safe.

Without doubt, both locations were the most sacred places Olivia could think of. They were also places she'd have no hope of reaching.

It was also possible her father meant somewhere else. There was no way for her to know. Anytime she tried to remember him, she could only recall the most basic of things, and none of those memories had to do with a sacred place.

It was such a weird thing for her father to say because of how little meaning it had to her. Where had he gone? What sacred place? Was he expecting her to spend the rest of her life looking for him? Was he even still alive? She had hoped she'd discover something, but it seemed like she would just be left with more questions than answers.

"Olivia!" She snapped out of her thoughts as Nev walked toward her, followed by Davi. He was covered in sweat and gripped an old claymore tightly. He had a large, beaming smile on his face. Davi, meanwhile, was still stone-faced and didn't look tired yet. "I heard you got the kill on the monster that showed up?"

Olivia gave the boy a hesitant look and nodded slowly. "That's correct."

"Wicked!" Nev let out a laugh and placed the claymore over his shoulder. "It's crazy seeing how much has changed." His smile almost seemed to turn somber for a moment. "Sometimes it feels like I'm the only one who failed."

"Huh?"

Nev shook his head. "Nothing. Never mind." He let out a forced laugh. "By the way, do you have a moment? I wanted to show you something."

"Sure, I guess?" Olivia gave him an odd look. This was one of the people who bullied her most of her life, after all. "What do you want to show me?"

"It's not here." Nev shook his head and turned, pointing to the gate. "It's in Lotus. I'm off duty right now, so if you have time, we can head over there."

Olivia felt her suspicion grow. She didn't think Nev was going to attack her, but wanting her to go off with him alone was kind of a red flag. He could use the chance to belittle her or something else.

At the same time, she had grown a lot, and she was confident she could take care of herself if Nev tried anything. "Okay." Olivia gave a nod. "Lead the way."

Nev gave a nervous look to Rosco, expecting the overly protective man to object, but Rosco gave a stiff nod. He looked conflicted but also didn't say anything as Nev and Olivia headed out. As they left, Davi and Rosco remained behind, watching the two leave through the gates.

Silence filled the air between the two men.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"...I'm going to get back to training," Davi stated, and he was about to step away, but Rosco grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Wait." Davi turned back and raised an eyebrow at the other man. Rosco silently stared at Davi, studying him. "You were the Knight that took her, weren't you?"

"That's right." Davi gave a lazy shrug. "She asked to leave, and I didn't want to be alone on my adventure, so I took her away. I'm guessing you're not happy about that."

"I'm not." Rosco shook his head, and his lips thinned into a tight smile. "I wanted to ask you something, though."

"Okay?"

"You helped her become a Knight, didn't you?"

"...As best as I could. I wouldn't say I did much, but I helped her learn how to use her mana a bit more effectively and taught her some basic fighting techniques. She did most of the work. I just gave her the push that anyone else could have done but didn't."

Rosco let out a bitter laugh at that. "A push?" He bowed his head down and sighed. "Yeah. Maybe that was all she needed. Maybe if anyone else had given her a push, I wouldn't have had to watch her fail. Maybe I could have done more."

"Probably."

Rosco grew even more bummed at the way Davi spoke to him in such a blunt manner. "I get it. I wasn't a good father."

"Most people aren't good parents," Davi said quietly. "Some people try, some don't. Some succeed, most fail." He rubbed his scar for a moment and let out a sigh. "Some parents leave their mark behind and change their kid. Those kids usually don't end up with good headspaces. You tried your best, and she ended up happy. I'd say you did a good job. Maybe not perfect. But good."

Rosco glanced at Davi and was a little shocked to see some emotion in the blank man's expression. It faded quickly, and the robot took its place again, showing no signs of life. It was creepy and downright unnatural, the way Davi would stand still and not react to anything happening around him.

Rosco wondered if the man was even a human. He shook those thoughts away just as quickly as they appeared. After all, this was one of the heroes who saved the village.

"Why did you help Olivia become a Knight?" Rosco asked.

"Because it was the right thing to do," Davi said simply.

"I see. And why did you help the village out so much?"

"Because it was the right thing to do."

"Is that really how you feel?" Rosco questioned with a frown. "Not many people go out of their way to help the way you do. You even showed a few weapon tricks to our guards to teach them more and gave us all those weapons for free. You did it all out of the kindness of your own heart."

"It has nothing to do with having a kind heart or not. It is just the right thing to do."

He really was like a robot…

Rosco's frown grew, and the man shook his head. "I see. I was told you do stuff like this a lot."

"I guess."

Rosco sighed. "I'm starting to get why Olivia said what she did about you. Dammit, why couldn't you be a selfish dick? It'd be a lot easier to hate you then."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, now I feel like I need to do something," Rosco grunted. He pulled his wand out and began to walk into the center of the village. "Come this way. I have something I want to give you."

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"You don't have to—"

"Come on." Silently, Davi followed and stopped when Rosco did. The two of them stood fifteen feet apart, and Rosco turned to face him. "You're a swordsman, right?"

Davi glanced down at the longsword he clutched. His fingers grew tighter around the handle, and he raised the sword up. "I guess. I wouldn't say I'm the best, though."

Rosco let out a chuckle. "Likely better than I am. I saw your skill when you fought that spirit. That downward slash you did was a technique. Like spells, a technique involves weaving your mana with a type of martial arts move in order to create something otherworldly." Rosco gripped his wand tightly and raised it. "Row Ice Fang." Ice began to sprout from the tip of his wand, forming into a crystal-like surface as it jutted out into a curved blade that looked like a jagged tooth. The man gave his new ice sword a few experimental swings before he pointed it at Davi. "It's not much, but I'll give it to you."

"Give what to me?"

"The only thing I have of value. A sword style passed down through the Moore family." Rosco announced. "I taught this to my son, and it has allowed him to quickly raise his power. Olivia was never any good with a sword, and the backlash never settled well with her, but you're a sturdy guy, so I'm sure for you it'll be good."

"Okay?"

Rosco let out a chuckle. "Not excited? Let's see if that changes." He steadied his breathing, and his mana formed around him like a bubble. It began to flow into his arms and his sword. Not just a little bit either. Rosco put everything into it.

Every drop of energy he had. Such a thing was possible, but most mages would never do it because pouring all your mana into one attack would leave you totally exhausted and unable to fight back. Rosco did anyway, though, and when it was all filtered into his sword, he took a step forward and unleashed a powerful strike.

A loud crack filled the air, and his mana erupted out of the blade. By forcing all his mana into his arms and his sword, he was able to swing his weapon far harder than he usually would have been able to. The strike itself was nothing special, just a basic swing, but one with the user's full power put behind it. The light around Rosco died out instantly as the man's mana was entirely used up.

Davi felt confused as he watched the swing. The strike was basic, and putting all his mana into it wasn't anything special either. He could do that right now. In fact, the Way of the Sky Splitting Sword was a similar method. He would focus most of his mana into his arms and run it along the blade, then swing it down in a downward slash. The only difference is that with the Sky Splitting Sword style, he would pull his mana back and not pour it all into one single strike, unlike Rosco, who had used every drop of his energy in a basic swing.

The swing was strong, but only because Rosco's full power had been put into it. It wasn't special or unique at all. At least, that's what Davi thought, but then Rosco did something that shocked him.

Instead of collapsing, like he expected, Rosco inhaled, and his grip grew even tighter around his sword handle. Then, to Davi's shock, Rosco's body erupted in mana again. The man took another step and unleashed a full-power strike with all of his mana once more. It erupted out just as strongly as the last attack!

Once again, Rosco was totally out of mana, but then he shifted, and all his mana was back. He took a third step and swung his weapon, unleashing another full-power strike. As soon as his aura faded, it exploded around him again at full strength.

Davi was speechless. Mana was used in martial arts by many people in Rossum and Mordheim, often in conjunction with spells. There were so many unique techniques that existed, but just like spells, they used up mana.

Whenever a mage would put any sort of energy into their strike, that energy would be used up, even if it was just a bit. Because of this, the longer a fight would go on, the slower and weaker a person would hit. A master martial artist couldn't throw strike after strike out at full power. Every strike would have to be a bit weaker than the other, through the process of burning up energy.

This was why most martial artists would only put a tiny portion of their mana into their usual strikes and would then pour a ton of energy into a technique that was used to finish the fight quickly or deal a significant amount of damage. Some techniques could be spammed like spells, but they'd grow weaker, so most techniques were like the Sky Splitting Sword, which was created to unleash a single devastating strike that could end the fight in one blow.

What Rosco was doing was breaking all the rules of combat. He would pour his absolute all into a strike, getting a single remarkably powerful blow, but then, instead of collapsing like how he should have, all his energy would return to him.

It defied all logic.

Just seeing it made Davi understand why Bruno had become so strong. Being able to unleash even two full-power strikes back-to-back was insane.

Rosco stopped suddenly and panted. The man stabbed his sword into the ground and groaned, spitting up a mouthful of blood. He looked to be in a lot of pain but now had a large smile on his face when he saw the dazlement that was in Davi's eyes. Rosco's legs gave out, but Davi surged forward and caught him.

Rosco chuckled as he looked up at Davi. "I take it you recognize what I was doing?" He spat out more blood. "Good. That's good."

Another thing about martial arts and techniques was that some people couldn't learn certain ones or any at all. Just as a person had a type of magic and a bunch of schools of magic they could use, so too was a person sometimes not suited to a particular kind of technique.

It was easy to tell when someone was or wasn't suited for something based on the way they reacted to a technique when they saw it.

If it was a technique they weren't suited for, that person's mind wouldn't be able to grasp or decipher what they were seeing. They could understand that it was impressive. After all, a person swinging their sword down and splitting the skies apart would awe anyone, but to them, that's all it would be. They would just see a single strike that was full of brute force.

To someone who could understand, though, they'd see years of dedication, a lifetime woven together into the blade, as the mana sung and flowed. It wasn't just a powerful strike. It was a blueprint of the person's soul. A glimpse at the life they lived and who they were.

When Rosco showed this technique off to Olivia, she didn't know what she was looking at and wasn't able to grasp it at all. She could tell it was something advanced since he was using his full power repeatedly, but that was all. When he showed it to Bruno for his eighteenth birthday, his son cried.

The same was true for Davi when he would show off his own techniques. The Way of Self Iron was simple, yet he had never met someone who could understand what he was doing. They couldn't fathom him absorbing the kinetic force and shoving it out of his body to bolster his strike. That was until he fought Falco. That man had been able to understand it and even mimicked it.

Perhaps because of the way Self Iron worked, Davi was able to grasp the secrets of Rosco's technique and understand it as well. "What was that?" Davi asked.

"I'm glad you're interested." Rosco winced in pain. "Sadly, I've gotten too old for this. My body isn't able to handle the backlash anymore."

"The backlash?"

"Old Bird's Flapping Wings," Rosco explained. "It's a powerful technique passed down through my family since before this kingdom even existed. The method is straightforward. When a bird becomes old, they must put all their strength into the flapping of their wings just to stay in the air. For that old bird, the mere act of flapping its wings becomes a struggle, but they do so. Rapidly, they will unleash all their effort, and then spurred on to keep going, they pull that effort back in. That is the principle of this technique. A basic form of strikes, each firing out every last drop of your power. You throw away all concerns of energy and your life and strike as hard as you can, just as an old bird flaps its wings. Then, when your Core has run dry and you've run out of mana, you pull it all back in."

"You pull it all back in?"

"Yes. That's what the old bird did after all. By unleashing your full power, you let out every drop of your mana, but where does that energy go? It's simple. It fills the air. All around us, scattered in the particles we can't see. Old Bird's Flapping Wings isn't a sword technique. It is a lung technique. Through our body, we inhale, and we open all our pores, drawing in every drop we let out, and in an instant, we refill the tank of energy we have emptied. You go from one hundred to zero and then back to one hundred in a single breath."

"That's incredible." Davi breathed out, and just the idea of drawing all that power back into his body seemed ridiculous.

"It's not perfect, though," Rosco warned. "That old bird is at the end of its life. Just the act of flying uses everything it has left. The day its wings stop flapping is the day that it dies. The same can happen to us. Drawing in that much energy isn't safe for the body. Every time you do it, you strain your Core and your physical health. The moment you stop performing Old Bird's Flapping Wings, your body will be hit with a wave of backlash, and all the energy you used up will be drained, unable to be regained through the method, forcing you to rest. Each use of it in rapid succession strains us, and so you should only do it a maximum of three times." Rosco spat up more blood. "Use it only as a last resort, and don't go beyond three, or you'd risk death."

Something that risked his very life?

That was nothing new for him.

Rosco finally forced himself up and shook his head. He let out a groan and stood up. "Alright." He forced the pain away and pointed his sword at Davi. "Until Olivia gets back, we'll practice it. I'll teach you how to use the Old Bird's Flapping Wings."

Davi nodded, and his hand tightly gripped the handle of his sword. "Got it."

"By the way." Rosco rubbed his chin. "I meant to ask earlier, where exactly did you learn how to use a sword like that?"

"From my father and..."

"And?"

"Nothing." Davi shook his head. "My father. Just my father."

That was a lie. His dad had died. Orion Hawker hadn't passed on much to him. There was someone else who was responsible for properly teaching him how to use a sword. That person was Sieg Hawker.

His older brother.

"Do it again!"

A younger Davi cried out as Sieg's wooden sword slammed hard across his shoulder. Sieg huffed, breathing heavily as he stared down at his injured brother.

"Get back up."

"I-I can't-"

Sieg kicked out with his leg, ramming it into Davi's stomach and blowing the thirteen-year-old boy back. Jagged scales began to grow across Sieg's face, and his knuckles gripped the wooden sword hard enough to dent it. "I said, get back up. Mom and Dad are dead. That means I'm going to be the one who teaches you how to use a sword."

"I-I don't want to use a sword, though-"

"Well, too bad!" Sieg yelled. "I hate to break it to you, but you don't get a choice!" Sieg marched over and stared down into those damned purple eyes. He wanted to rip them out so badly. His teeth were nearly sharpened and mutated, but something held him back. "Father wanted to pass on his skills to you. Mother wanted to make you a sturdy vessel. Now that they're gone, it's up to me." He raised his sword and pressed it to Davi's chin. "So get up. We're going to do this again, and again, and again, and again, and-"

"I don't want to!" Davi cried out.

"And I didn't want to lose everyone I cared about." Sieg hissed through clenched teeth. "But it was all taken from us. Everything. Our home. Our family. Our very lives. So get up Davi. Get up and grow stronger so we can get revenge!"

Revenge...

Why did it always come to that?

Why did his mom, his father, and now even Sieg want revenge? Davi sniffled and picked himself up, and once more began to get beaten into the ground. Sieg wasn't like Orion. Sieg was brutal. Punishing. He hit to break bones. All because the wrath he felt for what happened had to be taken out on a single person.

A full year would pass under this brutal regimen, and at the age of fourteen, Davi would run away in the dead of night, eager to escape the wrath of his brother. And thus, their game of cat and mouse would begin, with Sieg Hawker trying to find his little brother.

Back in the present, Davi shook his head and snapped himself out of it. He glanced back at Rosco. Truth be told, he'd gladly like to have Sieg back. His training is just what he needed.

He had to grow.

"Teach me." Davi declared. "Until my body shatters and I can no longer work. Treat me like a robot and work me till I break." And for a moment, the blue in his eyes seemed to grow a bit brighter.