Secondary, Not Ordinary

"I won't go down with such a pathetic attack," a hoarse voice rang out firmly as those words reverberated throughout an area, "But still, I have to admit that you idiots are stronger than I expected."

A tall, handsome young man with a lean & slightly athletic build, who appeared to be around six feet tall, said aloud with pride. His general appearance and manner of dressing could definitely be described as bizarre and certainly a little gross, given the way the man carried himself.

With his pale Caucasian skin accompanied by his long and tousled, wavy black hair that flowed under his forehead and fell over his dark brown eyes — extremely elegant and deep enough to suck the soul out of anyone who looked at them for a certain period of time.

There was a reminiscent of a greenish-gray in parts of his eye iris, and another striking aspect about his face was that his eyes were surrounded by some sort of dark blue circles that constantly emitted a blinding black light, covering parts of his cheekbones and ears.

His outfit consisted of an ankle-length black tailcoat, a high-necked vest with gold detailing on the buttons and ends, along with tight black pants and pointy brown-black boots that highlighted his pair of bright red gloves.

By the way, there was nothing under his face other than the glowing, mysterious symbols that were scattered all over the boy's body structure.

Last but not least, his long eyelashes and eyebrows framed his thin face, making him even more menacing than he already was and giving him a sharp look of seriousness.

And despite his unkempt hair and relatively sloppy posture, he was wearing all his clothes correctly and properly, as he coldly glared at several people who pointed various weapons in his direction.

Before him, countless waves of people looked at him with genuine hatred on their faces as they clutched the weapons they carried — in that spacious place, without walls and any limitations of construction, just surrounded by the boundless green of the fog forest that encompassed them.

It was also clear that they controlled themselves so that they would not end up attacking him by mistake. Since attacking alone or in small numbers, would only lead them towards one thing:

Certain death.

''It doesn't have to end this way, Kailan'', a girl who was three steps ahead of the group opposite to the young man, spoke in a soft tone, ''We can just settle this with you surrendering. There is no need to continue this reign of terror when you clearly have no more chance of winning."

The young woman did not appear to be someone of noble origin, as her informal tone of voice to the way she dressed were extremely common, and could be found in almost any normal person in the enormous world of Aspasia.

"Angelica, don't waste your breath with that walking piece of trash", said a man with purple hair and engulfed by a silver armor that lit in the light of the various magic circles that surrounded him, ''This guy isn't going to surrender even if it's his last option... like now.''

''It's great news that the prince knows I'll never make that cowardly decision'', the man dressed in tails gesticulated with his arms and shrugged as if nothing was happening around him, ''It's not part of my personality nature, Miss Rocan.''

Angelica's small face was flooded with sadness at that answer Kailan had given.

"It's a pity... Really a pity that you won't choose to surrender," Angelica -- the girl with medium-length light brown hair, and blue-green eyes just like the late afternoon sky --, said with a tone of pity and unhappiness in her voice.

The commanders beside her looked anxiously at the young prince, who gripped the longsword he carried in his left hand.

''Start the attack!'', shouted the man engulfed by the silver armor he wore, starting the attack of the expedition composed of more than 200,000 powerful individuals that sought revenge against Kailan, the infamous ruined king.

The shaggy black-haired boy just watched as the troops moved towards him, his eyes wandered from side to side like the wind at an absurd speed, and even in the face of a life or death situation that would decide his future, all he could do was sigh and grunt in sadness and disinterest.

''In the end, it was no use for me to have subjugated the villain and taken his place, hum?''

He was silent for a second, but then resumed what he was doing, once again.

''That's really unfair'', he took a step forward as he said that, stretching his left arm forward, ''No matter which way or role I take, I'll always end up dead in the end, huh?''

His arm unnaturally bent with a loud snap, and at the same instant, grotesque black veins sprouted from the deepest part of his body and became visible as if they were a sewing thread. The symbols and circles on the young man's body -- which carried with them words of an unknown and long-forgotten language --, shone with a blinding light and made the late afternoon of the day seem like the brightest dawn the expedition members had ever seen in all their lives.

Once again Kailan looked in the direction of the expedition's front-line members and tried hard not to laugh like a lunatic (although his actions had already made him one).

There, in the place, were numerous illustrious and influential figures on the continent, such as Angelica Rocan, initially a commoner without relevance anywhere and who did not have talents that stood out from the others, besides, of course, her intellect that was sharper than other people of her age.

Despite all this, the girl rose to a position of supremacy among the hierarchical positions of the kingdom and the entire western continent, after awakening her saint powers from the goddess of supreme light, Ket.

On the other hand, other renowned heroes also accompanied her running towards Kailan while excitedly shouting their war cry, trying to boost the morale of that entire army composed of powerful people. Countless names came to the boy's head as his eyes took in the figures of every human, elven, and other race in the spot.

''Lucily, Julian, Tempest, Rachel, Rody'', recited aloud some of the most important names he could remember, ''How many times have we fought this same battle?''

And then...

''puHGAHGAHATHAT!'', he laughed like a complete madman, making everyone on the field shudder and freeze where they were, ''HAHATHAHT HAT!''

''What the hell?'', Julian, one of the knights who had taken the front line of the advance, questioned himself.

Everyone stopped a few meters from the devastated and dry ground where Kailan was, due to the quick order given to them by Tempest, the leader of the entire squad, and also the prince who was protected by the ridiculous silver armor.

''You're really imbeciles, aren't you?'' Kailan asked, regaining the upright posture he was trying to maintain.

His eyes were glued to the small figure of Angelica, who was watching him with a mixture of emotion written on her gorgeous face. Her light brown curls caught his attention, but the young man didn't seem to mind his outward appearance, as he had grown tired of witnessing her beauty so many times.

After all, it wasn't the first time he'd had that conversation with the woman and the expeditionary army that coveted his head.

And he figured it wouldn't be the last either.

'Well, do your special little trick, Miss Rocan'', he said, ''You once asked me what the point of everything I've done so far, right? And also where that would lead us in the end…''

He paused for a second, purposely to increase the dramatic impact of the speech. Soon after, twisted his neck unnaturally and opened the palm of his outstretched arm.

''Feel free to see it for yourself, I won't attack you during it. I give you my word.''

He smiled crookedly, as if he were the devil himself striking a deal with a poor & clumsy, lost soul. The sweet, light brown-haired girl watched him, analyzing the lad from head to toe in an instant, then looked in the direction of her closest allies and waved in their direction as if to say they should protect her if Kailan tried anything.

''Then let's do it your way'', Angelica said as she activated some sort of unknown skill that made her float, ''Goddess Intervention: Link!''

She screamed, as huge golden-colored mysterious symbols flashed like spotlights around the girl, spinning in the air nonstop like cogs in some kind of technological device. Kailan looked her in the eyes, he knew her very well, maybe even better than herself, something that probably not even the young woman herself was aware of. He continued to stare unblinkingly, knowing that was one of the requirements of the girl's Link skill, as he decided that would let her see his story.

But there was one thing he hadn't warned her about: that is, she would likely fall into complete shock or break like a mere doll when she received that massive influx of information that was Kailan's life.

Angelica's eyes glowed a yellow color as if lightning had flashed between them, making her small, well-built body quiver like a modern jackhammer. Her limbs stiffened as if they had suddenly turned to stone, and viscous sweat ran in copious amounts all over her body, dripping onto the ground and quickly forming a vast slimy, translucent pool.

All the main members of the group looked in her direction, wondering inside what had happened to the girl, after all, without her they were unlikely to defeat Kailan.

''A-Angelica, are you okay?''

''Angelica, get out of this!''

''We need you!''

She regained consciousness with a shriek, and the circles that had been hovering in the air simply disappeared, sending her crashing to the ground with a thud that reverberated across the battlefield.

They all looked in the direction of the young woman.

Angelica was about to turn to her teammates and declare that there was a big problem regarding Kailan and that they needed to get away from there, when a loud sound of electrical discharge echoed as if several lightning had struck at the same time in just one place.

Everyone was startled by that sudden event, and a second later, another electrical discharge sound resounded from the direction of Kailan, who had suddenly been engulfed by dark energy that pulsed similarly to a heart.

Thick lines that resembled the veins on his arm before, circulated some sort of strange energy throughout the black ball and gave it a bizarre and unique appearance.

''T-that maniac!'', Angelica screamed as she had never done before in her life, ''He's going to kill us all... He doesn't intend to live, because he doesn't fear death!''

The members of the expedition looked at the saint with emblematic and perplexed expressions, trying to understand what she meant by those desperate words.

But their thoughts were interrupted when the girl screamed with a high-pitched sound, "He will use the life force and all the mana in his body to cause an explosion and kill us! Death is nothing but a game for this guy!"

''What?'', Lucily asked, turning her gaze towards the growing black ball.

''We need to run as fas…''

Unfortunately, Angelica couldn't finish her sentence, as the black ball erupted with a huge bang, covering the entire region of the battlefield in a dark blue glow like the starry night of the night.

Bodies were tossed about like rag dolls, and the protruding bones with blood that were scattered everywhere could be seen throughout the region that continued to be devastated without interruption as if a nuclear bomb had been fired at that specific point.

Angelica and the others didn't have time to defend themselves, and even if they had, they doubted they would be able to withstand such an attack. In this way, they faced the same fate as the other members of the expedition and Kailan: absolute, cruel, and cold death.

It was the end of a journey for all those who walked the path of righteousness.

It was the end for all those who believed the heroes would triumph in the face of the threat Kailan posed.

But was that the end of Kailan?

𝐍𝐨.

It was just another beginning of a life of bad luck and misfortune for the boy.

But this time it would be different.

He had once sworn to 𝐡𝐞𝐫, and this time he would keep his promise.

𝐍𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭.