Martial Arts Worlds

The night turned deep, and Kiernan was just lying on the sofa, looking at the video that had lasted over an hour already.

At that moment.

"In 287th place, Kiernan Hunter of New Rakuya. A winner of somewhat controversial nationals, where he happened to defeat Power Drug abuser in the final round!

"A truly deserved spot at the Junior Martial Arts Championship, and then we move to 288th place."

Kiernan looked at the screen and then slammed it shut as he was getting too tired to stay awake.

"287th… Quite far."

He thought, then closed his eyes, and without turning the lights off, he drifted to sleep.

…

Buzz~ Buzz~

A phone buzzed on the table beside him, and Kiernan jolted awake, looking annoyed as he turned to the phone.

"Who in the world…"

Kiernan took the phone and wondered whether it was his father and that he had forgotten the time zone difference, but then he remembered that the world operates in the same time zone.

World Clock time zone.

At that moment, he saw that Sabbath was calling him.

"Why is he calling me so late…"

Kiernan accepted the call, pressed the phone against his ear, and said.

"Yes… Sabbath?"

He sounded very sleepy, as if he was about to fall asleep at any moment.

"Hello, Kiernan. I hope I didn't wake you up."

A voice came from the other side of the phone, but it wasn't Sabbath's voice—it wasn't a familiar voice.

Kiernan's sleepiness started to disappear at a quick rate, and he deepened his voice, asking.

"Who is this?"

"Old friend of yours, of course. I am sure my 'new' voice doesn't sound all too familiar, but what about this… hello."

It started with the normal voice, but at the final 'hello,' the voice sounded completely different, and this time around, it was a more familiar one.

"…Alabaster."

Kiernan's eyes turned cold, and his grip on the phone hardened.

"Why do you have Sabbath's phone with you?"

"You may call me Sacrael—this foolish master of yours came to find me in Bulwark. A big mistake on his part."

Sacrael said giddily.

"…Sabbath is dead?"

Kiernan asked coldly.

"Dead? No, he is hanging there. Barely. Rotting in our cell, and I borrowed this phone from him to call you.

"I am asking a favor from you. You must do the favor, or this master of yours will die, as his only use for me is to force you to do my bidding."

Sacrael said.

"And what the hell is this favor?"

Kiernan asked and sat up on the sofa, his eyes so cold that one would think that they were freezing.

"I need you to do the Teleportation Ceremony for me. It's a type of ceremony that allows me to come straight to you in an instant.

"I'll teach you how to do it, and that's all you have to do."

Sacrael said.

"And why would you need to come for me?"

Kiernan asked with a scoff.

There was no way in hell he was going to do that, as he believed that Sacrael would just kill him where he was standing.

"You're at God Island, correct? I need to get there with my associates. If you do that for me, and I leave God Island for what I came there for, I'll let Sabbath walk free."

Sacrael said.

'If I do that, he will definitely kill for me. There is no way that he comes here just to visit. He wants to come here for a reason, and since he needs the Teleportation Ceremony for it, it must be something very illegal.

'Even if he doesn't kill me, if someone finds out what I've done, I'll be rotting in some God Island prison till my hair turns gray, and my martial soul withers.'

Kiernan breathed heavily, looked at the phone, and then said.

"I need a moment to think. I'll call you back."

"You have one hour. If you don't call me back by then, I'll kill this master of yours."

Sacrael said coldly, and then ended the phone call first.

'I am not really close to Sabbath. Sure, he calls himself my master, but am I his student, really? I haven't learned much from him, and I definitely won't die for him, no matter how harsh that sounds.'

Kiernan pressed the phone against his forehead, then gritted his teeth, and opened the 'Martial Order' app on his phone.

He opened the chat app.

With a deep breath, he wrote a message.

[Revenant: Old King. I need help, but for that, I need to break some rules. Am I allowed to do so?]

Once he sent that message, the chat app came back to life.

[Detective: Break rules? Martial Order rules? What the hell are you playing, kid?]

[Craze: What rules? You aren't planning to tell others about us, right?!]

Kiernan looked at the messages and wrote again.

[Revenant: No. I need help, but that requires me to meet one of you in person]

[Fish Who Drowns: Why would any of us want to meet you in person in the first place? We all treasure our privacy, and we barely know you]

[Hero Among Rulers: Yo, Rockstar, shouldn't you stop your disciple from saying such crazy things? He'll get himself in trouble!]

[Cold Shade: What help do you need?]

Kiernan looked at Cold Shade's message and breathed a sigh of relief as someone finally asked that question.

He wasn't surprised that it came from Cold Shade, as he has a solid relationship with her—sort of because of the lottery.

[Revenant: My master, Rockstar, has been captured, and I cannot say more about that unless I receive permission from Old King]

[Imperio: Haha, that stupid bastard got captured? He's always been a fool, that Rockstar!]

[Cold Shade: Come on, Imperio… That's not nice. Rockstar is one of us and one of the Masters. We need to take this situation seriously]

[Hero Among Rulers: Yes, but it sounds like Rockstar problem. He ended up in that situation, and he should solve it by himself]

Kiernan frowned and shook his head—he thought that there was a small chance that anyone would help, but at least he tried.

At that moment, a gold name appeared on the chat.

[Old King: Tell me more]