The Earth After Rebirth

They arrived at the battlefield before anyone knew they were even gone. Kiro was envious a little bit towards his mount, his blink would take him a couple of steps, his reality warping wasn't quite strong enough either.

The hounds were busy covering up the dead as they were told to do. Some were making stretchers for the heavily wounded, Kiro looked around for a while.

He was looking for Achyls, the last he saw him was when he was almost at death's door. He hoped against all hopes that the kid didn't perish, he was too promising and too much of an asset for the future Hubris hopes to achieve.

"Oh by the way master, what can your new abilities do?" Hubris said breaking his master's concentration completely.

"Just simple things for now, I can change some properties on things. Like making liquid water ice or gas, I could temper with the temperature of this world and make it warmer or colder right now. I could make this ground a slippery mess of mud.

"In simple terms, I can only slightly tweak anything as long as its not complicated."

"Sounds cool enough, though I doubt it's as cool as gravity." He heartily said wagging his tail unconsciously.

"Oh, stop it Hubris, if you want to make it a competition, wait for when I unlock this many stages that restrict me from using the full power." Kiro shot back without missing a beat.

"Hahaha, there's only 3 restrictions for me." He happily said, he hadn't teased his master in a while and he was enjoying this more than he should've.

The hounds around them watched him, as he wagged his tail for Kiro, they were surprised. They'd never seen a royal hound doing something like this, even amongst regular hounds it was a rare sight.

This tail showed vulnerability, happiness. Something hounds shouldn't experience. It was survival of the fittest here, the slightest weakness would be your own downfall.

But here was their future King stronger than any of them. combined, showing his vulnerability, his happy place to everyone else. Looking at the person that made him this happy, even if they wanted to try something, he was just too strong.

It was then that they came to understand the bond between the two. It was a rare beautiful sight to watch.

"I could still beat you in a fight though." Kiro said seriously.

Hubris wasn't sure. But then something came to him, he thought back to when they dealt with gravity in the monkey King's tower and how his master used vibrations to almost nullify gravity.

"Ha-Ha." He laughed dryly. "Yes, yes you can." He gave up before he even tried.

"The monkey King claimed he couldn't get involved with the physical world, yet he gave us the crystal. He's too careless, letting such a power in the world." Hubris wondered.

"He didn't exactly give us did he, it was just in his tower, which we happened to stumble on, and we found it in one of his rooms." He shrugged, getting down from Hubris.

"That was really smart of him. He didn't strike me as a smart guy." He retorted mockingly. ϲн$α-рҭ#ея--Տσսя?¢ƹ*-#Ꮇ#√Լƹ#Мρ*Ⴘг

"I reckon he can hear that and will avenge himself soon."

Just then, a lot of hounds walked up to Kiro and Hubris. Kiro could sense that there were 60 of them. Some were limping, others had little no injuries, even with the sadness that borrowed their hearts, they all wore expressions of gratitude.

'So we've lost 8 huh.' He could feel his face hot but he held his emotions down, he hadn't spent a lot of time with them but he was fond of them nonetheless.

They were being lead by Achlys. It seems he had taken it upon himself to make himself the leader of the unit. Upon arriving they bowed to their King first, and then bowed to Kiro.

"Please, teach us more Sire." Achlys said, none of their faces had left the ground.

He didn't know the first thing about being a teacher, especially because this was also his first time using Kaos, he wasn't exactly an expert.

"Where are the rest of you?" He asked the supposed leader.

"U-unfortunately, they died in battle Sire." Achyls choked on his words, he had lost a friend.

"I'm not staying, but I'll do what I can while I figure out how to go back. Never let your men die again." Kiro certified his position with those words.

Suddenly an incredible sadness washed over Kiro, he then noticed it was from Hubris. They had never exactly talked about leaving, it was a hot topic that both of them avoided.

Since Hubris decided to take revenge it became a very complicated topic. Hubris would stay, Kiro would leave. They knew it but they still chose to ignore it.

Hearing it for the first time envoke feelings Hubris shouldn't be feeling since he had just liberated his people.

Kiro turned to Hubris with the most sincere smile he could muster, "don't worry buddy, if I can leave, I can return. I'll find a way, you know I will."

Hubris nodded, feeling a little, only a little bit better. The hounds that were putting the soil on the dead were done, they walked back. With higher spirits than when they came.

With new comrades, making their new numbers around a several hundreds. They had decreased by a lot in number, but this was much preferred. They sang all the way, to the City of Halo.

Nobody lost their lives at the lethe river as Kiro used his new power to freeze the waters. He would've preferred drying up the river but he was told no by more than one hound at the same time, so he obliged.

It was a different welcome than when he first entered the city walls. The guard was smiling like an idiot, he couldn't believe the person he had talked to was the rightful heir. He praised his instincts for making the right call.

"The rightful heir felled King Azazel. All hail Hubris Cerberuson, our rightful King. Our true King." Belial bellowed.