"This means I was in that flesh cocoon, hatching, for a whole seven years." Theo sat on the bed to reorganize himself. "I wonder how Father and the others are doing." He silently lay on the bed, engrossed in his thoughts, before finally falling asleep.
The sun shone through the window, illuminating a young, handsome face. The surroundings seemed to be in an era of peace until something stirred this peace. There were suddenly noisy shouts all around. Theo groggily opened his eyes to extreme banging on the door.
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*
"Urgh, what's going on this morning?" Theo managed to sit up and complained to himself before the door was suddenly blasted apart.
"Who dares to keep us waiting?" A brawny man dressed in red and black attire, with a saber in hand, blasted through the door, accompanied by other colleagues of his. They all wore the same uniform because they were the city guards of this city.
"You, over there. You are under arrest!" He bellowed.
"On what grounds are you here? Leave quickly and do not annoy me!" Anyone who showed weakness was likely to be eaten in this world, so whether or not you were strong enough, you at least had to have some bragging material, but the only exception was going overboard.
"On what grounds? For the sole fact that a mere thief dares to stay as though he owns the place is already enough, but the main reason is that you are weak!" The man with the saber immediately moved forward to strike. There were no mana fluctuations coming off Theo, so obviously everyone would think he was crippled because at seven everyone already started drawing mana into their bodies; the only exception to this were cripples. For someone who looked far older than seven, it was only natural they assumed Theo was crippled.
Theo immediately saw that he couldn't dodge this; the saber was too fast, so he focused on trying to compress space in front of the saber and redirect the saber. Luckily for him, the rest of the guards restrained themselves; in their eyes, there was nothing a cripple could do. If he was lucky enough to escape one saber slash, then what about the second or the third? He couldn't be lucky forever, and he couldn't possibly run away from everyone here; he was too weak.
At the last minute, the blade missed Theo by a hair, directly taking along a few strands of his red hair. Theo felt his heart beat out of his chest. 'Have I been caught? But how? I made sure to completely erase all of my traces. I need to get out of here, and fast!'
He immediately tried to sense a mark he was lucky he didn't remove before. However, after trying for three seconds, the saber blade was back in his face, directly above his head. He rolled and directly avoided the blade this time. 'I can't keep doing this; I'm barely making it past his blade. I need an out, fast!'
Theo suddenly sensed the mark he had been looking for, but they were in a... strange predicament? There was no time to think too much about it. A saber hungry for blood descended to where a boy was once standing, but all it met was air. The young man they were expecting was nowhere to be seen.
After being dumbfounded for a while, the few men who were there began to conduct a carpet search, but in fact everything here was the same way Theo met them; there was nothing of his left behind. They walked out of the room and to the main hall of the inn. There was already a crowd gathered at the entrance.
They walked out, but not before reminding the inn owner to call for them as soon as Theo returned. As a lowly commoner, she couldn't stand up to these guards for several reasons. First, she was too weak to take on even their weakest, and second, they were backed by the city lord, an existence no one in the city could afford to offend. These few armed men were then seen heading towards the center of the city before entering a huge building.
A man was seen pacing around a large room with a desk and a huge shelf on the wall. On the desk were scattered papers, and there were pieces of what were once chairs strewn all over the floor. On the shelf, there was a space where a small metal door was open and empty. This was the cause of this nervousness.
"Where is it?" A brawny man enters the room, and he asks. This pacing man was naturally the city lord, and the brawny man was the head of his guards, who was sent to procure the most important thing that went missing. "He escaped, city lord. We don't know how; he just disappeared into thin air."
"Disappeared into thin air? People don't just disappear into thin air! Find him!" The brawny man nodded and left the room.
"Wait, wait." The city lord called him back. "What was his element? I want to know how he broke this safe."
"Umm... I think he... may be a cripple."
"Are you toying with me right now?"
"No no, of course not. It's just that he didn't have any mana fluctuations coming off him. It's like he has never used mañana a day in his life."
"Hmm... I didn't want to bring this out, but it seems it may be imperative." The city lord walked behind the desk and cleared it of the paper. He pressed his hand on the center for a while, and it began to emit a faint light. A circular disk appeared in his hand, and he cut his palm and dropped a drop of blood on it.
"This treasure can track anyone just from a drop of blood. It should be able to show you the location of that map. You better bring it back."
"Without fail, my lord." Sometime later, the five guards could be seen leaving the city. Of course not all the city guards went to find Theo beforehand, just a small fraction. This was also a fraction of that small fraction.
----------
Meanwhile, in a somewhat conspicuous valley.
Five people were engaged in a heated fight for survival when a rather stunning figure appeared out of nowhere and immediately disrupted the flow of the battle.
"Hi guys."