I've been searching the mountain for hours now, and there is no sign of anyone being here. I come down from the mountain until I come across a rugged dirt trail, and on that, a man in a suit wheeling a cart covered in a white drape. I slide down towards the trail and get in front of him, I confront him.

"Hey, what are you doing ki~"

"I'm sorry, but I need to~"

"You have the Third Eye. You must have gone through intensive training in order to obtain it. We have never had a monk join the arena. Would you like to join the official tournament of ascension?"

Tournament of ascension? I've never heard of this. He probably wants me to join because I'd be a spectacle for the crowd.

"I need to find the men who killed my master. Do you know of any bandit camps nearby?"

"Uh... sorry buddy, afraid I can't help you. But please do reconsider joining the tournament, the prize is eternal power."

He hands me a flyer. It shows a man pointing a sword, saying "Join the Tournament. The prize is eternal power. A representative will visit your organization to take you to the place. I'm not sure what he means by "eternal power." The poster doesn't give a whole lot of information.

"What's inside the cart?"

"Oh, just some gear and equipment for the upcoming tournament. Swords, axes, shields and helmets for the contenders. Anything is allowed as weaponry, as long as you can beat your opponent."

It seems like a brutal arena. Anything goes? I'm not even sure of what the prize could be. No matter, I need to focus on finding the attackers.

Just as soon as I finished my thought, two men completely dressed in black and sporting some sort of masks on their face, came out of a bush nearby. They jumped high into the air and landed in front of us. One of the men had a bandaged up face.

"Who are you?" I said.

"A cart full of expensive weaponry and armour?"

"And we found a young-looking monk? This is our lucky day."

"WHO ARE YOU?"

"Your master did this to me!"

The man uncovered his bandaged face to reveal that he has red slashing brushing everywhere on his face and a huge knuckle mark on his right fist. His jaw was disfigured, and most of his upper teeth were missing.

"Typically we wouldn't want to fight a monk, your master didn't have the eye and nearly killed both of us, but luckily..."

"Your just a kid."

I winded back a punch and dashed towards the injured one. Before they could react I punched him right in his vulgar face, sending him flying towards a tree. When he hits the tree, I'm already right in front of him. I grab his head and flip him over into the ground so hard it leaves a crater under his body. His body isn't moving, his eyes look lifeless. I start walking towards his partner.

He looks horrified as I walk towards him. The expression on his face is priceless, it's pure horror. "But how..."

He turns the other way in an attempt to run, but before he can turn his head forwards I'm right in front of him. He bumps into me and steps back.

"I'll tell you whatever you want to know. Please, just let us go."

I grabbed his collar and swung him towards the cart. It nearly fell over from the impact. As he is trying to collect himself from the impact I grab him by his neck and hold him upwards.

"WHY DID YOU ATTACK THE TEMPLE?"

"We..."

I smash him into the cart again.

"Our group wanted to find a scroll that contains many.... deadly techniques. It also supposedly contains the secret as to how to unlock the third eye..."

"What's your group called?"

"I.. I can't say..."

I let go of my grip on him and punched him in the stomach.

"What is your group's name?!?!"

"It's called..."

I deliver another punch to his stomach.

And another.

And another.

And another.

I felt something on my cheek, I wipe it off of my skin. It was blood. I look at the attacker, and he is coughing out blood. More blood starts decorating my face. I stop punching and I ask him one more time~

"What. are. you. guys. called?"

"The lost souls... we want to learn the secrets of the third eye so we can..."

He nearly falls over but manages to stay conscious long enough to keep talking.

"we... want power... to.."

I grab his shoulders and start shaking him, slamming him into the cart. As soon as I hit him into the cart thunder hits, and it starts pouring on the mountains immensely.

"to.. RID THIS WORLD OF ALL CULTURE AND RELIGION. CREATE A UNIFIED IDENTITY WHERE EVERYONE WILL BE HAPPY AND SAFE!"

He succumbs to the accumulated damage and falls over.

The man in the suit looks astonished. "Wow! You completely moped the floor with them. I'm telling you, you would place very high in the battles if you competed in the tournament! Don't worry about those lunatics, I'm sure you killed them already. Nice job!"

I look around. The entire dirt road looks completely demolished. I walk over to the man whom I smashed into a tree. I try shaking his unresponsive body. He isn't moving. I shake him harder and harder, yet he is not moving. I step back and fall backwards. I'm feeling heavy and dizzy, and I start sweating profusely. I notice that I'm breathing a lot more and heavier now. I look at my blood stained hands, my hands start shaking. I really killed someone. Suddenly, I feel a rush of air just escape me. I feel much weaker and a whole lot more sluggish. I slowly walk back towards the man whom I just knocked down. He is leaning against the cart.

"Hey kid, be careful. You look exhausted.. uh, where is your third eye?"

"Shut up..."

I grab him by his shoulders once again. I throw him into the cart.

"Wake up...."

I pull him back and push him into the cart again.

"Wake up... please... you're not dead."

Finally, with all my wading strength I push his lifeless body into the cart, tipping it over to its side and the cloth flying off. His body drops into a pool of bodies. Blood from the mountain of bodies starts seeping into the mud, creating an unforgettable stench.

"It's not what you think..."

"I... thought this was just equipment..."

These must be dead competitors from the arena. Everything is so hazy now, I can barely see. I've become a murderer, and I am now atop a pile of bodies. I... I'm finding it hard too...

thud

It stopped raining. I got up and looked around at my surroundings. The man is missing, and the bodies from the crate are left there to rot. Now that the rain is gone, I'm immediately met with a horrid stench of blood. I walk towards the fallen over a pile of dead bodies, some of them have armour or sheathed swords on their backs, confirming my beliefs that they were contestants of the tournament. Maybe if I enter the tournament, I could find more information on my master's attackers... I need to get back to the temple and tell the monks what had just happened.

I found it much harder to scale the mountains now that my third eye was gone. It was an egregious journey towards the top of the mountain, filled with obstacles I haven't faced for a very long time. I rarely left the temple before my master's death. My legs were straining with each step towards the mountain, but I eventually made it to the temple.

The chief saw me and looked surprised at my appearance. "What has happened to you, Yasu?"

"I found Li-Ying's attackers, and killed them."

I heard a sudden burst of murmur occur within the temple. Some monks looked surprised, and others stayed completely still, leering at me intently.

"You killed them?!?"

"That's not all. Apparently those attackers are called the lost souls and they want the power of the third eye in order to rid the world of all religion and culture and I also lost my third eye and I feel powerless right now and there is also this tournament going on that I think we should attend so we can find more info~"

The chief interjects in the middle of my rambling. "Slow down. You don't have your third eye anymore, you are tired and you are injured. We will let you rest here for a while, then you can tell us everything you know."

Thank you, chief. I felt my body falling towards the hard, golden floor of the temple.

"Stop it, please!"

A burst of blood blasted through his stomach, covering me in mere seconds. I kept punching, and with each hit, more blood covered my unsuspecting body.

"Stop.... it..."

I kept brutalizing his body with each punch until all that remained of him was a pile of flesh. I felt stronger, unstoppable. A red aura filled my entire body, and the man in the suit watched the entire thing.

"Your eye... it's completely red..."

I dashed towards his face and stared him down. He kneeled down on to his knees, hands clasped in a praying position.

"Please... spare me..."

I raised up a punch and as it was descending down on to his face~

I woke up.