Crimson Requiem

"Heroes are our savior! They will always come to save us!" Like hell they would.

I sacrificed my entire life for everyone and all I received was the greed of my own kind.

Cowardice and envy. The perfect combination for chaos for a person to overthrow someone they figured as a threat.

Do you ever wonder why insults far exceeds compliments? Because you can find every possible way to destroy someone than to rebuild them.

Destroying takes shorter span than making something from a scratch.

"You bastards." I grasped my sword while trying to stand up as my blood drips through my stomach.

This situation isn't the worse. It's the entire story.

"I hate you all." I spat the blood left in my mouth as I curse them one by one.

In the end? Once death comes knocking, even the mightiest hero or the maleficent villain would fall to doom.

All I could do is face the ceiling and swallow the bitter truth, that I, whom faced countless tragedies and fought impossible opponents would die in the hand of my very own people.

"Look at this pathetic ruler. You're nothing but a tool for us." Says my ex companion.

Ruthless bastards. That's what they are. But what can a dead man do to those kind of people?

If second chance exist, I'll take it on any day. If redemption exist somewhere, I'll grab it so hard it won't escape. If vengeance shall be delivered, I shall be the one to send them to it.

So god. Tell me! Why are these bastards having the last laugh instead of me?!

My unwavering desire blasted my ex companions away from me.

A warm energy resonates in my body, fueling my life force for a short time.

"How the hell is he still standing?" One couldn't believe what he is seeing.

"You should've been dead!" I should have. But, it's not the time yet.

If i'm gonna die, i'll take one with me!

I grit my teeth so hard it would destroy each other as I manifest all the energy left in my left arm.

"As long as I, Nero, exist somewhere. Even in the purgatory, hell or heaven. I will chase you all!" I blasted all the energy accumulated in my left arm towards them.

They all scattered away from the blast but it was travelling too fast for them to dodge.

They suffered quite a lot from that hit.

However, one person who's hair was tied from the back lounged themselves amidst the smoke.

"Otto..." I could see my vice captain whose eyes were showing no sense of remorse and all his action aims was to kill me.

"Forgive me, captain." His face twitched gathering all of his might to slash his sword towards me.

I stopped the sword midway by my hand which cuts a little too deep.

However, it didn't went through completely.

"How is this possible?" He was in utter shock as I break his sword into pieces.

My eyes lit up and punched him in the stomach blasting him towards his companion.

"Otto!" Screamed by his companions.

"You annoying ruler! Why don't you die already?" Says the guy who pulled the string in his bow hard while aiming to me.

Projectile incoming.

"Take this, you bastard!" He fires his arrow which turns into a flaming projectile that travels towards me.

I cannot help but to smile.

"You learned so much, Wendel." As I walked towards the incoming arrow.

I grabbed the arrow that's travelling mid-air having my hand to suffer from burn.

But the pain isn't there anymore, it's just pure numbness.

I lowered myself to have enough momentum to dash towards Wendel who was very shocked by my speed.

"What the hell?!" He said before I grabbed his face and smashed it to the ground.

I'm slowly losing my sanity, as well as my vision.

Everything is going hazy.

But my desire is burning brighter like the sun.

"I hope you packed enough arrows." I smashed his face again to the ground before letting go.

"Now is the time!" Someone screamed in the smoke.

Two people appeared on both of my side.

"Sorry, master. We have to stop you!" Ah... It was Xi and Lian.

The twins who specialize in coordinated attacks.

Xi tried a front flip kick while Lian was holding a dagger that's aiming to stab me in my waist.

I grabbed Xi's legs using my left hand and punched Lian's face on my right.

The stab still went through which made me feel immense pain.

"Now!" Otto blasted through the front smoke and appears to be charging up his fist.

"This is the end, Nero!" He punched my stomach directly which blasted me away from them.

I was rolling violently alongside my head who hit a lot of rubble.

My mana was slowly depleting and my breathing is now erratic.

I coughed a huge sum of blood.

What went wrong in my journey?

I guided Otto to become someone who's reliable to follow my steps.

I trained Wendel to become like his previous master.

I nourished Xi and Lian up to become the best duo.

But what has caused them to betray me?

Is it really my fault?

Despite my physique that's about to break, I find my hollow body tearing up.

Otto and everyone else was shocked.

Guilt was the biggest slap in their face.

"I thought those heartfelt words would make you weak. I was wrong." Otto, carrying as the leader walked towards me.

While holding up another sword, each of his steps grows louder and louder.

"Is this what you call a hero? You're more vile than a villain or even... A demon." Says Otto.

"You no longer look like the master we once knew." He threw a glass shard which slides near me.

I can see my reflection on the glass.

No longer who I used to be?

Then who am I really?

I picked up the glass to see the exact same person I was years ago.

But them.

"You got it all wrong." I coughed up another blood before speaking.

"It's not me who has lost my humanity all these years. It's you, arrogant bastards." I pan the glass shard to Otto's face.

Handsome yet, two faced bastard.

He clicked his tongue and kicked me in the face.

His mere reflection irritated him.

"Can't accept the truth, Otto?" I laughed.

"Shut your mouth." He stabbed my leg which caused me to scream in pain.

"Don't worry, once you're dead. No one will remember you as a hero but a traitor and everyone will taint your name." Otto added.

I could hear an annoyance in his voice.

"Nero, you were such a useful tool." Another voice lingers through my ears.

But it wasn't the most pleasant one.

A beautiful voice, who is i'm very familiar with.

"Leah." I slowly opened my busted eye.

"Have you seen yourself? Just seeing you makes me vomit." Says the woman whom I loved very dearly.

The same woman who said I'm her eternity, the same woman who said that I'm all that she ever needs.

"Otto is way more dependable than you anyway." She wrapped her hands around Otto's hand.

"What a bunch of hypocrites." I couldn't help to let that out.

"What did you say?" Leah was very irritated from hearing that but Otto stopped her

"So everyone really has betrayed me." I chuckled.

"Oh no, you rememeber Jerry?" A familiar name rings in my head.

"Jerry? Jerry the loser?" I uttered.

"Yeah. That guy. We killed him, but you know what's funny?" I could feel a sinister in his voice.

"Jerry defended you. He was very loyal to you till the very end." Jerry whom I discarded in exchange for these people?

"You should've seen his pathetic smile." Leah added.

"I'll forever believe in Nero, he is the world's savior." Otto mocked what Jerry said which sends everyone laughing.

"Jerry said all that?" I asked.

"He did. Before I made him meet his end." And that was during the time I discarded Jerry from the team.

I'm no different than them.

"What a twisted world." I couldn't help but to laugh despite bleeding so much.

"What's so funny?" Otto looked at me annoyed.

"If I can ever go back in time, I'll pick Jerry up and make sure everyone here will suffer what he had to go through." I smiled while facing the ceiling.

Everyone goes back to laughing again.

"Yeah, right." Leah walked away as she gave Otto a tap on his shoulder.

"Any last words?" Otto's eyes were cold.

As he aimed his sword towards my chest, I closed my eyes.

One last tear dropped in my eyes.

"Destruction." Otto felt immense fear as I uttered those words which made him stab my heart almost a hundred times.

"Die!" He screamed.

Everyone was surprised by Otto's sudden behavior.

Why? Because he knows what that word can do.

The sword in which that is stabbed in my heart slowly melts magically.

It vanished.

"Everybody! Run towards the exit!" He looked back as fast as he could and sprinted away from me.

Destruction

A magical resonance which sacrifice everything in the user's possesion to self destruct. The higher the density, the stronger the damage.

Everyone scrambled towards the exit as my body blasted a huge energy everywhere.

They all manage to get out, but as Otto reached the exit.

He looked back.

"This is now my story, Nero." He said.

But as soon as he looked back, a shivering moment almost made him pass out.

He saw Nero's ghost grabbing his shoulder for a very short moment.

That was the tragedy that sent the entire world uproar.

Hence it was named as the Devil's Last Tear

And all of that was ten years ago.

After the incident, Otto became the grand hero which is worshipped by everyone.

Wendel, Liah, Lian and Xi as well as the others made their own respective name to establish guilds that will trascend through generations.

The place where incident happens also had a change.

A giant tower now lies there, no one knows how it appeared.

Because of that even the great families aims to conquer it.

This sudden event caused people to awaken their sleeping power and challenge the tower to make a name for themselves.

"Come on, newbie. We'll be late, hurry up will ya?" Says the captain that has a very weird bandana placement in his head.

"I, Diego will conquer this tower!" He laughed loudly.

Suddenly he was smacked in the head by a woman who's in her twenties.

"Shut your mouth, do you want to get blacklisted?" She wears a white cape alongside her obnoxious staff.

"I know you want me, Vanessa." Diego smirked.

"Ew, you almost made me vomit." Vanessa replied.

"Well you two should pipe it down now." An old woman who's wearing a gauntlet spoke.

"Old lady Fen, let us youngins have fun." Another person comes forward, having a greatsword in his back.

He also is very handsome.

"Here comes our prodigy, Noah." This man emits an immense aura and is very capable.

"Still you know, i'm more handsome than Noah." Diego brags.

"As if!" Vanessa swings her staff to Diego but he dodged it.

However it hit the boy in cloak.

"You're scaring the newbie. No need to fight, okay?" Noah helped to pick the boy up by offering his hand.

"Are you okay? You're not hurt?" Noah's smile is charming.

"I am... Thank you." The boy's eyes resonance like a crimson moon.

"Oh yeah, now that I've thought about it. What's your name?" Noah smiled at the boy.

He grabbed Noah's hand and stood up.

"I'm Nero."