Eclipse Hunter Vol 2 Chapter 1
First Hunt – Rise of the DemonAngelic demon, pure and corrupt,Take wing and fly towards the black sun,That barren black orb, chained to the sky.
In 2105, following the decline of nations, the world was split into hundreds of trading organisations. Motivated by the benefits, these organisations merged to form trade cartels, the largest of which was the Solaris group, controlling over 30% of the world's economy. The group was also acknowledged to have the most proficient leader in the world.The Solaris group was never among the top five trade cartels until the leadership went to Devon Solaris, whose insatiable thirst for power lead him to continually expand his influence...It wasn't that the growth of the Solaris group went unchallenged. The Solaris Emperor would always be one step ahead of the opposition. He was able to stop their threats before they were ever acted upon. It was as if he was able to foresee danger. Those who attempted to plot against him would find themselves easily outwitted. Everyone would lament how they got so close to defeating him, only to be defeated at the last moment.It wasn't just once or twice; it was the same for every attempt. Everyone knew it wasn't just a coincidence, nor was it G.o.d's will. It was because the Solaris Emperor had complete control.Every opponent who crossed his path swore to never do it again.Everyone admitted that he had complete control over everything. No schemes nor conspiracy could escape him.His very existence was likened to G.o.d.He was invincible.People called this legendary existence the 'Solaris Emperor'.******
Not long ago, there was an act of terrorism against the Solaris Emperor. The terrorists set up explosives in one of the five headquarters of the Solaris Federation, where the Solaris Emperor had been at the time. They had hoped to force the Solaris Emperor out in the open in order to capture him, by holding thousands of employees hostage.Surprisingly, the infamously cold-blooded Solaris Emperor remarkably complied. The subsequent release of the thousands of hostages was proof enough that the Solaris Emperor had truly fallen into the hands of the terrorists.Though the headquarters had ultimately been blown up, there had been no casualties as the hostages already evacuated by then.Initially, the public had been at a loss. They had expected an inevitable economic melt down the following day, with talks of stock market crashing, global financial crisis and similar events being all over the news. However, the next morning, under the protection of his numerous bodyguards, the Solaris Emperor himself was seen strolling around the ruins. Naturally, the rumours of an economic crisis vanished into thin air. That the Solaris emperor had dauntingly managed to survive such an ordeal unscathed, further awed the general public.Several days later, the press, which proved to be more pervasive than the police, broadcast a short video clip. It showed a strange shadow flying up to the roof of the building where the Solaris Emperor had been captured and then flying away just as the building exploded.Some people said that the shadow looked like a big black bird, while others seemed certain that it was a new flying vehicle invented by the Solaris Federation."It's a demon! I personally heard him say h-he's a demon!" a waiter of a restaurant shouted crazily.The public generally regarded the waiter with pity. Surely there could be no demons in this world. For if a demon did indeed save the Solaris Emperor, the man who controls the world, what would that say about society in general?Fortunately, only a select few elites could come up with enough conspiracy theories to fill a book, meaning that the lives of the general public were still considered peaceful.At least, the city streets were peaceful. That morning two ordinary-looking youths strolled along these streets. The only thing that seemed out of ordinary was their unique hair colour - one had orange hair while the other had silver hair.The silver-haired boy looked especially tidy, with his neatly-parted hair and perfectly-ironed uniform. In this era, even if all elite schools were to be searched thoroughly, it would still be nearly impossible to find one such cla.s.sic student.In stark contrast, the orange-haired youth seemed rather laid-back. Even so, his intimidating height and the muscular arms peeking out of his short sleeves were warning enough that he was definitely not a person to mess with. Other than his muscles, his orange hair was impossibly spiked up towards the sky, like an angry porcupine. Furthermore, his uniform was both wrinkled and tattered. Such a cla.s.sic delinquent was also near impossible to find.Even though the sight of a nerd and a delinquent walking together was a little eye-catching, it could still be considered a part and parcel of everyday life, nothing that odd. At least, not until now…"Ezart, Ezart… Ezart… ""What?! Ezart, Ezart, Ezart, are you trying to call my soul back from the dead!?" Ezart snapped.Turning back, Ezart found the nerdy youth stuck onto a polished shop window. Luckily, it was still very early so the sales clerk napping inside had not noticed. Otherwise, he would most likely have barged out of the shop to shout at them.The dense youth gawking at the shop's display had recently become Ezart's cla.s.smate. In fact, the boy was so dense - enough to be oblivious to the dangers of this muscular cla.s.smate with spiked orange hair - that he repeatedly stuck to Ezart. Consequently, the two boys ended up with a peculiar bond. They were neither as indifferent as normal cla.s.smates nor friendly enough to be buddies.Ezart insisted that he had became friends with Daren Avery solely due to basic human compa.s.sion. For example, if he saw a dumb dog lying in the middle of a busy road, he would be compelled to kick it out of the road to avoid it being flattened. Without him, the obedient Daren would have been beaten or extorted by their schoolmates countless times already."Look!" Daren turned his head. Pointing excitedly at the object in the showcase, he asked urgently, "What's that? What's that?"Ezart frowned and turned to the showcase. Inside lay a popular handheld virtual lover game console. The package was heart-shaped and the console had a girlish pink colour. Come on, hasn't this been popular for ages? Even a three-year-old kid knows this game!"What's that?" asked Daren again, waiting for his reply anxiously.Ezart regarded him curiously, Did this guy come out of a mountain valley?"That's a toy, for dating.""Toy…" Daren turned back to look at the pink heart-shaped device, thinking of his childhood, of the toys gege had bought for him to play with; there had been a small ball, storybooks…Ezart pulled him impatiently, "Let's go. Or else, you'll be late for cla.s.ses!"Having said that, he turned to leave. But then, Daren pointed to the showcase and said stubbornly, "I want that!"
Faint..."That's for kids!" Ezart turned around and roared angrily, even though that was not entirely true since quite a few adults were addicted to such things. Nevertheless, for Ezart that device was equivalent to a kid's toy.Daren immediately turned to look at Ezart. His disappointed eyes seemed to silently ask, I can't buy? I really can't buy? But I really want to buy, please let me buy! Almost like a spoiled puppy throwing a tantrum for a chew toy. Ezart face-palmed and sighed helplessly, "Whatever!"Next, he watched indifferently as Daren eagerly entered the shop. Under the inquisitive gaze of the clerk, he rejected other suggested items and instead chose the pink heart-shaped console in the showcase. After that, he looked over at Ezart with shining, expectant eyes."Ezart, you take one too. We can play together," Daren decided happily. From his point of view, toys were more fun when played together with others.Ezart snorted, "I have no interest in that kind of stuff."Daren was a little disappointed. Just when he thought to play with his new toy, the store clerk coldly reminded, "Excuse me. Please make the payment first. The total bill is $25,000.""What? $25,000?" Hearing the price, Ezart immediately shouted, "That's a rip-off!"At first, the clerk felt a little intimidated due to Ezart's mountain-like muscles. Then, he remembered that the security on this street was excellent. Once he pressed the alarm, the police would arrive within three minutes and so his courage returned to him once again. However, if he had known that Ezart was the G.o.d of Disaster from the renowned YeLan Academy, and did not even need thirty seconds to send him to the hospital, the clerk would have had a much different reactionThe obliviously courageous clerk stuck out his hand shamelessly, "It's really $25,000. If you're not paying, please leave or I'm calling the cops." The clerk had already poised his hand over the alarm. These two could never pay $25,000.Ezart gave a sneer and was about to pull Daren out of the overpriced shop when Daren spoke up."Can I use this?" Daren asked, pulling out a credit card and pa.s.sing it to the clerk.The clerk glanced coldly at the credit card and took the card slowly while saying, "Are you sure this card will have enough credit…"Daren replied honestly, "I don't know really. This was given to me by gege. He said to use this to buy things. Can't I?"Before Daren could finish, the clerk abruptly revealed what could be called the world's brightest smile. His initially cold demeanor changed abruptly as though he had just met the love of his life; his eyes turned so pa.s.sionately warm that they could have melted a mountain of ice. The man nodded eagerly, "Of course! Please wait a moment while I process your payment. Would you care to look at our other products? Or perhaps you would like to peruse the latest game consoles?"Ezart looked at the salesclerk dubiously. Is there something wrong with this guy?Daren shook his head. Hugging the pink, heart shaped game console tightly to his chest, he repeated, "I just want this!""Alright. Thank you for your purchase. Please visit us again." The clerk held out Daren's card, smiling like a pimp entertaining his customers.Daren happily fiddled with the heart shaped device - Enter name, Create a name for your lover, Set appearance - while he played, he asked, "Ezart, what name do you think would be good for my lover?""Xiao Ai," Ezart replied, simply using the word that meant love."Oh, good. Xiao Ai…" Daren keyed in the name seriously."What about the hair colour?""Pink," Ezart continued irresponsibly."Eyes?""Pink.""Face shape?""Round…"Daren continued inputting the lover's settings. All of a sudden, the microchip in his brain gave him a warning which made him lift his head and shout, "Oh no! We're late!"Ezart cast him a brief look and said, "Now you realise? I never thought a birdbrain as serious as you would forget about cla.s.ses because of a game."Daren glanced at his watch. Cla.s.ses would begin in ten minutes but the walk to school would require at least twenty. Being late seemed inevitable.Seeing how panicked Daren looked, Ezart rolled his eyes, "Come on, it's only being late. What's there to worry about? Everyone in the academy have been late before…"Daren cut him off saying, "Sorry Ezart, I need to go first." He left as soon as he finished, as though he was swept away by the wind."Oi!"This kid's speed is not bad at all, Ezart thought, scratching his head. Seems like he really doesn't wanna be late. But, it's already rush hour. Even if he took a cab, he would still be late."If you don't wanna be late, you'd better fly," Ezart joked, and continued to walk lazily.Daren was already well aware of this. He would have to fly to reach school on time. But, it was impossible for average human beings to fly on their own. Of course, this had nothing to do with him since Daren was not an average human being in the first place. Accurately speaking, half of his body was no longer human.After leaving Ezart's line of sight, Daren hid in the nearest alley. There, he quickly ruffled up his hair and took off his uniform to revealing a red shirt underneath. Lastly, he put on a silver visor that he had kept in his bag.Wings of Steel, activate!The non-human portion of Daren's body consisted of a large quant.i.ty of semi-solid metal, which was both highly malleable and st.u.r.dy. This was the main reason for him weighing 93 kilograms.These artificial features were controlled by a similarly artificial microchip, which had been implanted in his brain. It was now emitting a warning signal reminding Daren that he was going to be late.This microchip had perfect control over the liquid metal in his body. It drained the metal from his limbs and quickly redirected it to the pores on his back. Soon the metal began to take the form of perfectly symmetrical feathery wings. These only differed from real wings in that Daren's steel wings were hard and indestructible.Like a movie on fast forward, more and more feathers continued to form and attach to the wing frame in layers, before finally taking shape of an enormous set of wings.The winged Daren had planned to soar towards the sky when he suddenly remembered, "Oh right, my expression..."He lightly slapped his cheeks and as he withdrew his hands, the eternally-curious and nerdy expression disappeared. With this change the once obedient Daren was replaced by an emotionless and cold cyborg, whose only priority was his master. He would not hesitate to transform into a demon in order to complete his missions.His current name, was – Dark Sun!All that the cyborg needed to do was obey his master's current orders to attend school with a serious att.i.tude and not be late.Even though Dark Sun's ability to fly could be used to obey this order, he had to consider another of his master's orders which specified that he must not expose his unnatural abilities to the public.If he flew in front of Ezart, he would violate this order. However, the microchip in his brain had only calculated the time required for him to fly to school and timed the warning accordingly, forcing Daren to resort to flying anyway. If he did not fly, he would never reach school on time, but if he did fly he might expose his non-human abilities.Since he had other means to reach school on time without flying, he had to find some way to avoid exposing his abilities.Fortunately, his master had only wished for "Daren Solaris" to avoid exposing his non-human abilities. But for "Dark Sun"... this was a loophole that could satisfy both parties.Daren fanned his wings slowly a few times to test them since they had not been used for quite some time. Once he confirmed that they were in good condition, Daren took a deep breath and launched his slender body into the light blue sky.Dark Sun soared high above the earth, surrounded only by white clouds. The buildings and vehicles below seemed like tiny ants. Though he had disguised himself enough that no one would recognise him as Daren Solaris, any normal human being would be shocked to see a winged person flying about in the sky. And so he sailed even higher so that he could stay out of sight. Not to mention, Daren truly relished the feeling of flying in the midst of the blue sky. Dark Sun did not mind indulging his other self while obeying his master's orders.He landed lightly in an alley near the school. Luckily, there weren't many pedestrians on the streets this early, or Dark Sun would have had to land further away and be late.He took off his visor, withdrew his wings and put on his uniform. Dark Sun was impa.s.sively straightening his uniform when he felt someone approach!Another one of Dark Sun's abilities abruptly activated causing the fingernails on his right hand to extend three whole centimetres. Even in the dim light of the alley, it was obvious that these were no human's fingernails - normal fingernails would not glint with such a deadly metallic sheen.A student dressed in Chinese attire caught sight of him and paused. "Oh, it's only you, Ezart's servant," he remarked with disgust.Shain Baylian, Daren Solaris' schoolmate, thought Dark Sun as he withdrew his fingernails Switching to Daren's nerdy expression, he timidly said, "Shain Baylian? Yes, it's me. What's the matter?""Nothing," Shain replied, he seemed almost too lazy to pay any attention to him. He peered further down the alley and after seeing no one else, he reluctantly turned to the nerd in front of him, "Did you see a winged… a person?" Halfway through, he abruptly changed what he was going to say. Although, he was sure he had seen a seemingly winged person land, he had no intention of being branded a nutcase by mentioning it.
Daren gave him a dumb look as he said, "I haven't seen any birds.""Not birds!" Shain retorted impatiently."Young master!""Young master, where are you?!"The few cries of "young master" were accompanied by frantic footsteps. Shortly, three people appeared in the alley; two men and a woman, and they were no strangers. Dark Sun knew they were Shain's bodyguards, who had enrolled in YeLan Academy in order to attend to and protect him."I'm fine," Shain said, waving them off.Just now, when he barged into the alley, had he seen that coward's face with a somewhat… sinister expression? He gazed at Daren suspiciously. Was it just an illusion caused by the alley's darkness? Or was it because a normal person is usually expressionless when alone..."Hmph!" Shain snorted derisively. How could that a.s.s-kisser be menacing?With his typical arrogance, Shain looked down his nose at Daren and said, "Tell Ezart I'll be waiting to hand him his defeat in today's practical.""Oh, okay. I will tell him." Dark Sun nodded, not at all unhappy about being looked down uponDark Sun had never taken things like feelings and emotions into consideration. Even as Daren, he had not learnt to be angry when he was being looked down upon; the expression was too complex for him.As Shain left the alley he was unable to shake off the odd feeling. Was that shadow really just a bird? he wondered. If he were anyone else, he probably would not have put much thought into it. But he knew, that there really was someone who had wings and could actually fly.He narrowed his eyes dangerously, That guy who saved the Solaris Emperor…He had never doubted his eyes. He must have seen a winged silhouette. But is this shadow and the guy who saved the Solaris Emperor related? Nevertheless…While he was deep in thought, a gust of wind blew past him. Startled, Shain looked up and saw Ezart's servant running furiously towards the school gates and stepping through just a second before the bell rang.So fast! Shain was stunned. The speed in which Daren ran… even for someone as agile as Shain, running that fast was impossible.The mystery man who saved the Solaris Emperor, the winged shadow who landed in the alley, Ezart's nerdy servant… could they all be related?Shain Baylian secretly swore to uncover whatever connection bound these three - he would definitely find the truth.
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Note:Ai: means love. Ezart simply took the word love and stuck the word "Xiao" onto it. So Xiao Ai means Little Love. We kept the Chinese because Little Love sounds like a western cowgirl. -