Turan's journey had not exactly gone according to plan since leaving home.

Due to a lot of reasons, but most prominently the pressure from his father and his quest to save his mother, Turan decided to leave home to seek power since he no longer saw great prospects in seeking power in Obedin City.

Obedin City may seem big and developed in the King Resistance Shelter, but the King Resistance Shelter was one of the lowest ranked small shelters.

In the greater scheme of things, Obedin City was one of the weakest and less-developed cities of current humanity so Turan's decision was not exactly wrong.

He wanted power, and he wanted to get it fast.

Having decided to go to the Gundam Shelter also, the most chaotic of all the small shelters, Turan unlike Rex took one of the conventional routes there.

This was the safest way to get to the Gundam Shelter but it was still dangerous since he still had to pass through the wild territory filled with beasts.

Unlike Rex, he made his decision abruptly after news came that Rex already became an Intermediate Mystic Warrior. Ne never once planned to leave Obedin City, actually, it was better to say he never had the courage to contemplate it.

Once he finally got the courage and motivation to make this decision, he went into the wild searching for power naively and unprepared.

Entering the wild was a great deal for Turan. He may be a powerful mystic swordsman, an extremely talented one at that but if you did not know the rules of the wild, you were bound to suffer in the wild.

For a journey that was supposed to take just 2 weeks, due to his inexperience, he spent a full month in the wild where he almost died 15 times!

Turan emerged from the wild like a mad barbarian, battered, wired, and ironed to shape. He became experienced after but not nearly enough.

After getting to the next shelter did the real problems start.

It was 3 months now since Turan left home but he was nowhere close to getting to the Gundam Shelter. Unlike Rex who had such OP treasures, a system, and a love necklace to help him, he was all alone, stranded.

In these 3 months, Turan learned that it required more than talent to survive in the wild. For the first time, he understood what underprivileged students like Rex and the others experienced while he lavished in luxury.

In this shelter, he had no help, he had to get food himself, fend for himself, and he also needed to protect himself from the greedy eyes of robbers.

Turan's mystic treasures, most especially his Triple Kill Sword were worth a fortune to most and naturally, he became the target of many.

Alone, this 18-year-old navigated the toxic environment of this shelter but Turan could not cope. No matter how much willpower he had, no matter how talented he was, without the right means to channel it, it was all useless.

Turan was drowned completely by the toxicity that he almost gave up until he met him, the hooded swordsman in purple that called himself the Sword God.

The Sword God intervened when he was almost killed by a local gang in the community, Turan was left incapacitated in a pool of his blood.

"I have been watching you for the past 2 months, you have a lot of talent with the sword, and you have a pretty firm and strong willpower also".

"What you need to flourish is the right resources and a master".

"What do you seek?" The hooded man turned to face Turan as from his purple hood, his yellow eyes like a Big Cat glowed.

"I seek power.." Turan muttered amid gasps for breath.

"I seek power to be better than Rex.."

"I seek power to rescue my mother.."

"I seek power to be the greatest Swordsman ever!" He roared.

"Good!" The hooded swordsman nodded. "I can mold you to become all that you seek for, I can make you powerful, I can make you the strongest".

"All I need from you in return is your unflinching loyalty and service".

"Join the cult of the Sword God!"

"Swear to always answer to me for I am the Sword God!"

"I swear!" Turan roared amid his gasps.

The swordsman's yellow eyes dimmed. "It is done!"

..

Obedin City post the Spider Swamp beast invasion never remained the same.

After the great invasion from the beasts of the Spider Swamp, and the subsequent great battle that leveled Bowling Town, Obedin City seemed to enter an era where they kept on encountering disasters.

It was already over 4 months since the beast invasion, but the city never got to recover as they kept on encountering one problem after the other.

Economical problems, political problems, inter-border problems, and even more beast invasion problems, they kept on stacking, adding to the troubles of this city that was already suffering a lot.

Though the citizens never knew the reason, powerful figures like Principal Dominic knew. By now, he was already pretty sure that Scorpion and the 2 youngsters that almost assassinated Rex were behind all that happened.

Perhaps, feeling angered at their failure to pull off the assassination attempt, they vented their anger on the city instead to feel better.

Principal Dominic felt sad but he also heaved a sigh of relief since this meant that Rex was still alive. "Lenor, I did the best that I can to help him, what matters is that he is alive and the hope for your family lives".

"I'm sorry for not doing more".

Principal Dominic felt sad about Rex but he had hopes that he would survive, his father was a survivor, he believed the son would be nothing less.

As the Principal of Obedin Mystic Academy though, his worries were more on the city. For the first time, Principal Dominic finally decided to abuse the powers that were invested on his seat as he extended his authority to the army.

He believed that for the city to survive and grow from this terrible period, they needed to rely more on their youths of the golden generation.

Rex and Turan may be gone, but a lot of other geniuses were born from the students that graduated from academic session 508 A.M.

He believed that with these geniuses, Obedin City would thrive.

..

"Today is your big day Morgana, I can't believe you made it".

Perfume Freak Jessica was the one speaking as she gushed excitedly over her roommate's achievements after 6 months in the Obedin City Army.

During their academy days, these 2 girls were fierce rivals but after Turan dumped her and ran away from home, Jessica learned a bitter lesson that all men were scum. Devastated, Morgana was the only one who helped her.

From there, they became best friends. They were colleagues in the army and were also roommates, now it was 6 months since they joined the army and every 6 months in the army was evaluation time.

Yesterday, the anticipated evaluation was made as a lot of soldiers were dropped out of the army while few were promoted to higher positions.

After 6 months of growth, Morgana and some other mystic warriors of the golden generation already became Intermediate Mystic Warriors.

Yesterday, Jessica made the cut to stay in the army but Morgana and 3 others went even further. Yesterday, Morgana, Reginald, Roland, and John Naga all received multiple promotions that took them to the rank of Sergeant.

Today was their oath-taking ceremony.

After both girls were ready, they left for the army.

The ceremony was not big, it was reserved the normal army style. Alongside the other soldiers that were promoted, Morgana and the others climbed the stage.historical

The few civilians that were allowed to attend cheered at the top of their voices as they welcomed the future protectors of their city to the stage.

Rex and Turan were gone, Obedin City may have experienced a great talent drain in the past few months due to the disaster but they were not down yet.

Morgana and the others were proof that they were still fighting.

Once it came to her turn, Morgana took centerstage and made her oath. As she spoke, her eyes never left the audience who were at this moment solemnly silent as they gave their respects to her new military rank.

This sight reaffirmed her motive for being in the army as she declared loudly with unrestrained confidence.

"I, Morgana Jones, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of Obedin City and the King Resistance Shelter against all enemies, foreign and domestic".

"That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and that I will obey the orders of the Principal of Obedin City and the Mayor of the King Resistance Shelter".

"And the orders of the officers appointed over me according to the regulations and the Uniform Code of Shelter Justice".

"So help me God!" Morgana saluted.