System's POV

Chapter 797  You Will Thank Me In The Future

After a long and sleepless night, Clark forced himself to get out of bed.

He was scheduled to head to Zion’s Family Residence to meet the young man, as well as Char and Vincent, who were going to the same place as him.

Zion called the place where they were going the “ultimate training grounds,” which was enough for Clark and his new friends to feel very anxious.

So, after preparing himself physically, emotionally, and mentally, he rode his motorcycle and zoomed his way to his destination within twenty minutes.

He wasn’t surprised to see Vincent and Char already in the residence, each of them respectively sparring with Mikhail and Shasha on the training grounds.

As if only waiting for his arrival, Zion appeared and chatted a bit with Clark to ask how he was faring.

“I’m just feeling stressed because I had this dream… no, a Nightmare, about you sending me to fight that Death Bat, Camazotz, holding only a tree branch,” Clark said with all the seriousness that he could muster. “You won’t do anything like that, right?”

“Don’t worry,” Thirteen said. “That was just a dream—err, a nightmare. How can I possibly let you fight Camazotz with a tree branch? That is absurd,” Thirteen replied.

However, just as Clark was about to sigh in relief, the teenage boy’s next words made his face turn pale.

“How can I let you fight Camazotz with a tree branch? You have to fight him with your sword,” Thirteen stated. “I mean, let’s be real. What can a tree branch do to him?”

At that exact moment, Clark felt as if his entire world had lost all of its colors.

He even momentarily lost the ability to hear as if his brain had shut down for a brief moment.

Fortunately or unfortunately, his short-term hearing loss only lasted for a minute.

“If you survive Camazotz’s training, you’ll be training with Paimon next,” Thirteen smirked. “I heard she likes to raise Wanderers as her emergency food.”

Clark wished that his loss of hearing had lasted for one more minute, so he would’ve been spared from this second piece of news, so tragic that his eyes lost their light.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that he looked like a dead fish.

Ten minutes later, the sparring matches between Mikhail, Shasha, Vincent, and Char ended.

“Okay. You guys take a quick shower before we have breakfast together,” Thirteen said to the four teenagers, who had all become sweaty.

Once the four teenagers disappeared from their sight, Thirteen gave Clark a strong and hard look before lightly patting his shoulder.

“Don’t think too hard and just throw caution to the wind,” Thirteen said as he patted Clark’s shoulder. “It will hurt at first, but you will thank me in the future. “Two years later, you can show your cousins, as well as those who are currently looking down on you, the reason why you are hailed as one of the strongest Wanderers of your generation.”

Clark was just a Third-Rate Villain like Anwir, who was Taiga’s brother. After Thirteen took the latter under his wing and made him the leader of his underground organization in Solterra, he improved by leaps and bounds.

Currently, Anwir was starting to spread his influence within the Order of Raziel with the help of the Drow, Adira, who wanted to form a strong connection with Thirteen.

It would still take a few years for this hidden organization to mature and become a force to reckon with.

But with Thirteen’s assistance and the information network of the Order of Raziel, Anwir was starting to hone his qualities as a villain, making him one of Thirteen’s hidden blades.

As for his brother, Taiga, who was also a Hero, Thirteen made sure to give him missions that let him gain more strength as he journeyed Solterra.

In fact, Taiga was currently training with the Templars of Eae, where Roland was headed as well.

He wanted the two Heroes to become Rivals and further increase each other’s growth, greatly increasing their strength in a short period of time.

Thirteen always had a reason behind everything he did, and letting Taiga and Roland meet was part of his plan.

While waiting for the others to return, Thirteen took Clark to the dining area.

Although it couldn’t compare to the great Dining Hall of the Ashford Clan, it had a more homey feel to it, and it was also spacious enough to seat twenty-two people at the same time.

Remi and Rhia were already seated at the table when they arrived, while Erica was helping Zion’s mother, Alessia, place the food on the table.

Gerald, on the other hand, was in the head of the family seat, reading a newspaper while sipping his coffee.

Seeing his son’s and Clark’s arrival, Gerald smiled and put the newspaper away, greeting Clark in a very friendly manner.

“Zion already told me everything,” Gerald said, feeling pity for the prodigy of the Ashford Clan who was kicked out from his family.

Gerald could empathize. After all, the same thing happened to him long ago.

Clark was well aware that Zion’s father was on the same boat as well, making him feel as if he had found a kindred spirit.

“Don’t worry, a time will come when your family will be begging you to return to their fold,” Gerald chuckled. “My father has been pestering me to return to the Main Residence to become part of their ‘Main Family’ again. “However, no matter how much he begs me, I’m not budging. Main Family? What nonsense. In my eyes, they are the Branch Family of the Leventis Family. Isn’t that right, Zion?”

“That’s right, Pops.” Thirteen nodded. “We are the true Main Branch of the Leventis Family.”

Gerald chuckled happily.

After everything he had seen and experienced, he now believed that their family would soon be the recognized Main Branch of the Leventis Family.

If not for the fact that Zion didn’t want him to announce to the entire world that he had managed to craft a Mythical Armor, Gerald’s name would have already gone down in the history books.

But at the same time, if he really did such a thing, his peaceful days would be over. Every family in Pangea would certainly either want him to work for them or want to kill him because of the threat that he posed to the status quo.

Clark, on the other hand, couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

“I also believe that this family will become the Main Branch of the Leventis Family,” Clark said.

“Zion, I really like this kid,” Gerald, who gained recognition from Clark, raised his impression of Clark in his heart.

Half an hour later, everyone gathered at the dining table and started eating together.

Friendly chat and banter were shared by everyone, making the dining experience very lively.

When breakfast ended, Thirteen took Clark, Char, and Vincent to the private teleportation Gate of the Leventis Family.

However, they didn’t enter the Teleportation Gate.

They only went there to give the impression that they were using the Teleportation Gate to go to Solterra.

Zion snapped his finger, and a portal appeared in front of him.

“Are the three of you ready?” Thirteen asked.

Clark, Vincent, and Char all nodded their heads at the same time.

Whether they were ready or not, they would still need to go as they were now part of a secret organization that called themselves the Knight of the Apocalypse.

When they entered the portal, they arrived at Zion’s personal quarters, which Metatron had prepared for him.

However, instead of meeting the others, the teenage boy opened another portal and asked everyone to cross it.

The three teenagers obeyed, and when the last of them entered the portal, Thirteen followed behind them as well.

When Clark regained his senses, he found himself staring in front of several statues that were formed beside each other.

There, he saw a younger version of Zion, standing tall and proud.

Several monster statues were right beside him, and all of them seemed to be surrounding the young men, with poses as if they were about to fight a great battle.

The tallest among them was a statue of a Honey Badger, who had his arms spread wide as if he were about to hug his enemy to death.

But after looking at the statue, Clark’s, Vincent’s, and Char’s gazes landed on the giant creature that was sleeping beside the statue, dwarfing the latter completely.

“Oi, Cranky! How many times should I tell you to not sleep so close to the statue?” Thirteen asked in exasperation. “Look at how big you are. If you roll over in your dream, wouldn’t you crush this sacred monument?”

The Savage Colossal Honey Badger opened one of his eyes to look at Thirteen.

A moment later, its body shrank until it was only ten meters long. After reducing its size, Cranky grabbed Zion and hugged him like a pillow before going back to sleep, snoring loudly.

Since the Monument of Heroes was sacred to the people of the Valbarra Archipelago, it always had pilgrims visiting and worshipping the Heroes who had saved their land.

Cranky had already been recognized as their deity and was now benefiting from the power of Faith.

This power that could be tapped through the beliefs of countless people, gave Cranky the ability to fight against Majin Princes and Princesses as long as they were fighting on his home turf.

After taking the Tribulation Lightning from Camazotz’s Trial, Cranky was now a Pseudo-Archon, which was the rough equivalent of a Pseudo-Majin Princes and Princesses.

Ordinary Majin Princes and Princesses were not a match to him, allowing him to fight against adversaries above his rank.

The people paying homage to the Monument all looked at the teenage boy, whom they recognized as one of the saviors of their land.

However, they didn’t dare approach him, fearing that the Savage Colossal Honey Badger would stomp them to death. Clark, Vincent, and Char couldn’t stop themselves from smiling as they watched Zion squirm as he tried to escape from the sleeping Honey Badger’s grasp.

In their eyes, Zion was bigger than life and stronger than anyone that they had met.

But the sight before them showed otherwise, reminding them that, although the young man had a scary organization backing him up and had a monster army under his control, he was still a teenager, currently captured by a monster who was very happy to see him again.