The night's cold winds came and passed.
With the sun rising high in the sky, the long-awaited warmth enveloped the land.
However, the short moment of tranquility came to a surprising end.
Flames, high as the buildings, engulfed the school in a blaze of destruction. The black smoke billowed upwards, casting a dark shadow over the once serene landscape.
Frightened students, who arrived early in the school for their morning clubs, ran out of the schoolyard and onto the streets.
A crowd had gathered outside Karuza High, looking at the flames with a look of horror on their faces.
"Karuza High is on fire!"
"What happened? How could this possibly happen?!"
From a distance, fire trucks came rolling in, their sirens blaring as they attempted to put out the flames.
However, the fire had already spread too much, and all they could ensure was that the fires wouldn't spread to nearby buildings.
One thing was sure, Karuza High had been destroyed!
On the other side of the street, at the rooftop, a masked man coldly looked at the high flames engulfing the school.
"Burn for what you did to me!"
Deep in the mountains of Irio, the pond's dark colors started to fade away. The Bath of Pain was finally ending!
Sabbath sat cross-legged, staring at the pond with a look of calmness and a slight smile at the corners of his lips.
He was making sure that Kiernan wasn't dead. He wasn't. It had been twelve hours since the creation of Bath of Pain, and Kiernan survived it all!
'I should've trusted my trusty pillar. It can tell when a person is special. It never fails me.'
Sabbath stood up from the ground, patted off the dirt from his butt, and whistled loud enough for nearby birds to fly out of the trees.
Some movement happened in the pond, and then Kiernan burst through the water, bloodied with bloodshot eyes and his teeth bared in a ferocious snarl.
The pond washed away some of his blood, but it was clear that his flesh was thoroughly torn and shredded.
Kiernan, full of agony, swam to the shore and slowly climbed out. He had lost his voice because of all the screaming.
He lay on his back, staring at the sun in the sky, feeling like his entire body was on fire.
Sabbath retrieved a flask of healing potion from his bag and poured it down Kiernan's throat.
With the warm liquid traversing through Kiernan's throat, it soon reached his stomach, and he could feel the healing effects start to take place.
The torn and shredded flesh began to knit back together. It was still painful. The bloodshot eyes slowly began to regain their focus. It was still painful. The broken bones began to mend, but the searing pain persisted.
Kiernan returned to his previous, handsome self. However, there was something different about him. He oozed strength and power, a quiet confidence that radiated from him in every breath he took.
"I can't do anything about that pain. Just grit your teeth and deal with it. It's the side effects of Bath of Pain, but you've already gone through the worst part."
Kiernan weakly nodded and sat back up, then noticed that he was still naked. If he had worn his clothes, they would've gotten shredded like his flesh.
He found his clothes, neatly folded on a nearby tree stump, and put them on.
"About eight in the morning."
"I'll have to go back to school…"
Sabbath said, retrieved some kind of contract paper from his bag, placed it on the tree stump, and laid a pen next to it.
"You're officially proven yourself, and you can become my disciple. Write your name down on this contract, and I shall start properly teaching you!"
Kiernan frowned at the sight of the contract.
"Why do I need to have a contract to have you train me? That doesn't make any lick of sense."
"There are some secrets that I don't want you to reveal. This is God's Contract, which works like God's Pact. If you break any of the clauses, a tribulation lightning will come down from the sky and kill everyone in the vicinity."
"I don't want to take any chances with that!"
Kiernan said firmly. He didn't want to have any chance that he might accidentally break one of the clauses and die.
"You may read the clauses if you'd like. It's all about a secret you must promise. I also signed a contract just one."
"Why would you also sign a contract?"
"I can't tell any more. I can tell you more once you've signed it."
With a furrowed brow, Kiernan sat on the ground and checked out the contract. It only had three clauses, but they were written in bold, black ink that made them feel ominous.
'First clause, you must protect the secret of 'Martial Order' at all costs. You aren't allowed to reveal it to anyone under any circumstances.
'Second clause, you can only speak about 'Martial Order' to other contracted disciples, masters, or grandmasters.
'Third clause, the contract shall last as long as you're part of 'Martial Order' and you aren't allowed to try to find ways of breaking the contract. If you're kicked out of 'Martial Order,' your memories of it shall be erased.'
"What is this Martial Order? It's mentioned in every clause."
"You've read the contract. You know I can't say anything about it."
'These clauses aren't that bad. All I have to do is make sure that I won't tell anyone about this Martial Order. Should be easy enough.'
Kiernan sighed, picked up the pen, and wrote his name down at the bottom of the contract.
When he wrote his full name, the ink started burning, blazed through the whole contract, and disappeared into thin air, leaving no trace behind.
"You're now my contracted disciple!"
Sabbath laughed heartily and reached out his hand.
"Give me your phone. I'll need to add something to your phone."
With a raised eyebrow, Kiernan took out his phone from his pocket and handed it over to him.