POWER: A Tale of Greatness

CHAPTER 40

The Land of Fiouba, the most civilized and most populous country in the continent of Barbaria, is home to millions of people, natives and tourists. The land is also the safest country in the whole continent, according to the Although, I Could Travel Journal, and the country with the most tourist visits in Barbaria, according to an article written at the Broth Magazines. This country is undeniably a great place to visit for vacation, but for some scholars, this country has more to offer, something hidden beneath its history's core.

The old man clears his throat, sitting down on his rocking chair, "Our gorgeous country holds a deep, dark secret hidden for centuries, only known to several families and on ours, maybe I'm the last." He coughs hard before continuing, "After the Great World War ended, hundreds of greedy foreign adventurers fell victim to a story, the myth of a mysterious pearl, a powerful core. They wanted to possess its power and be the world's most powerful man. This made the foreigners raid its temple, buried under a cave, the place where Ezra, one of the Great War's heroes, was buried-which was their mistake. The cave was filled with traps, dangerous, fatal."

The children in front of him, sitting on the floor, fearfully hide their faces.

"One cold evening, the soldiers raided the cave for one reason, to obtain the core. One by one, the foreigners succumbed to the fangs of the tomb, fallen victim to its unrelenting traps, killing every single one of them, until one person ended up at the pedestal where the prize was situated. He snatched the core and successfully utilized it, overpowering the nations of Barbaria. The man became the most powerful man in the world, the one who inherited the power of the person who became one of the five greatest heroes of all time, they were once the users of five mythical emblems. However, for this power to be utilized one must pay a high cost-life. The man died shortly after reaching his limits. After he died, the core was placed back in its cave and after hundreds of years, no one ever tried to snatch it again. Peace came back after his reign supreme."

"Grandpa, who is this man who took the core?"

"He is someone you children must not yet know about." The old man warns, "Once you do, you will either, run back home in fear." The old man makes a scary look at the children. "Or take the same path as him and experience the same fate of perishing at the hands of your own self and power!"

The children cried loudly after the old man's last word except for one kid who gazed fascinated at the man who made his classmates burst into tears. The teacher came to the old man, "Sir, you don't have to tell the same story to these young minds on the same day, every start of the academic year, every single year!"

"Either we tell them and save their futures, or let them know about it on their own and begin another uprising but this time one of your students started it."

...

"That story etched into my mind," a man stood by a street signpost, outside the Port of Fiouba, wearing an officer's uniform. "Still onto it."

"The legend of the Pearl of Ezra was slowly forgotten by the people, only known by the elders of some families, passed through generations." The man picks up his lighter from his pocket and lights up a stick of cigarettes. "That makes looking for the core much more of almost an impossible challenge."

"Not if someone foolishly searches for it."

***

At present, a hot-headed man ambitiously made a promise, to become the world's strongest man, and to achieve that, he went to Ezra, the Port City of Fiouba to obtain and use the Power of the Pearl of Ezra. After a month of sailing through the raging waters of the Southern Ulterblue Ocean, Rocky reached his destination, the Port City of Ezra, in the Land of Fiouba.