The End?

In a distant land, In an ethereal place, It almost seemed like it was a dreamland, An old man was sipping what seemed to be a spiritual wine?

He smiled looking at his own reflection in the lake and said "The three STARS will gather, The brightest to the darkest, The doom is inevitable. But the red STAR of fate shall born from the ashes and enter the blessed lands and finally be free"

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

'WHAT IS THIS BULLSHIT?' The young man screamed in his head.

Another boy sitting beside him asked hesitantly "Ohh, you.. woke up.?"

The young man got up albeit slowly minding his own injuries, but still excited "Bro, You won't believe it. I just had a weirdest dream of all time. A pervy old drunk dude was laughing after seeing his own reflection in Lake and said some weird ass shit, haha"

That old sage would cough up blood, if he knew what this insolent brat had said. But alas this naive brat just kept bullshiting.

The boy beside him sighed in relief and said "I am surprised you could still joke around in your condition. I see you are persistent as ever, Alnair"

The boy laughed and said "Obviously Elijah, I am still optimistic, because you are with me. With us brothers together, we can teach a good lesson to that bastard Richard and talk some sense in to Alia"

Elijah just smiled with a hint of pity, but didn't say anything. he knew Alnair was trying to cope with the betrayal by his lover and friend, In his own way.

Right now they both were in the forest resting for a while, Before starting their tiresome journey to the neighbouring kingdom.

Alnair was banished from his family after getting himself in some questionable matters. But who were they kidding, The family just wanted to get rid of him. He could be said to be a heir to the family, after patriarchs untimely death. The family still had power without the patriarch so they could've killed him but they chose otherwise.

After a while, a burly man's voice could be heard from little distance from the duo "Hey!! you brats, let's move on. We don't have whole day to rest. We are almost at Arhalm kingdom"

There duo stopped talking and started following the man in lead, There were total six people including the duo.

Except the man in lead, they all were gonna be sold as slaves after their talent test. Except the burly man in lead and the duo, the other three were two boys and a girl. Most of them hadn't entered the journey of ranker.

The power ranking in this world started from F, E, D, C ,B ,A and then came the legendary ranks, They were only talked about in legends. Some say in this legendary ranks only angel and demons can reach.

The man in lead was E rank hunter, So he was apt for this task. Even he alone could deal with the bandits at border. Anyway they were just slaves, So no one paid any attention even if they were to die.

As they moved forward, the man in lead spoke in heavy tone "This is our last obstacle before reaching the kingdom, The Red Valley Forest. So no rest until I order and keep moving without making a sound"

The expressions of the people following behind changed, One of the girl there spoke with pale face "Why did you choose this way, There are high casualty rate of traveler's from this path" she had petite body, One could notice she didn't had any rank. So she was scared for her safety, Even if they knew the man is in E rank, It wouldn't help much if there luck was not good.

_ _ _ _ _

Alnair had also heard about the forest. He remembered his 'foster' father telling him about this forest 'Nyu, Remember there are certain danger zones around our kingdom. Which also protect us from invaders. One of them is very close to us, the Red Valley Forest, which is yellow zone. It is said that there are mutated animals living there' little Alnair replied to that with a pout 'Uncle, don't call me nyu'

His father just gently stroked his head and gazed at him with regrets in his eye. he said 'Won't you call me father once?'

'Alnair let's go Alia is waiting for us by the lake' Elijah's voice came to the room.

Alnair just smiled and ran towards the exit while saying 'Don't call me nyu from next time...Father'

The man was stunned at first but then smiled, watching Alnair fleeing from the scene. he knew the kid was little shy, but a good kid at heart.

Just like her mother. Remembering her he had tears in his eyes, He looked out of the window and said in hushed voice "Are you fine out there? Do you know our son is already grown up? He still calls me uncle, can you believe it" His heart was bleeding but he didn't make a sound and left the room.

_ _ _ _ _

Anyway with little moist eyes, Alnair also voiced his opinion "Yes, we should've taken a safe route"

The man just snorted and didn't say anything. He thought inwardly 'Brats, even if you were to die. My task is already over when you left the city. Be grateful that I am delivering you safely' he smirked and made his way forward.

_ _ _ _ _

Night came and they prepared to sleep, it was almost outer region of forest so they didn't feel that scared. Although normal populace didn't dare to venture here they were assured to be safe. Because an E ranker was enough for the outer area Ranked Beasts.

In one of the tent where the duo slept, Elijah in his sleeping bag was really nervous for some reason and couldn't sleep. He got out of the sleeping bag and made his way out of the tent without waking Alnair.

He started walking towards a cliff, he had seen on their way here. it was not that far so he reached there easily. He was gazing at the stars in the sky. He gave special attention to a particular star, which was the most brightest one out of all. he looked at it with myriad of emotions. Two of which were jealousy and fondness, Indeed. he was having conflicting feelings about something. A fierce battle was going inside of him. But he remembered a voice 'Elijah, Don't you want to move ahead? Then crush whatever is in your way, even if it's your...'

He just stood there in a daze and had a tear falling from his right eye to his cheeks. He heard footstep coming from behind, so he quickly wiped the tears from his cheeks and eyes to look back, only to find Alnair. he was shocked and amused by seeing this sleepy head who could even walk this far out in the middle of night.

Alnair said "The Fuck are you looking at? Don't tell me you thought, how could a sleepy head like me found this place in middle of a night"

Elijah thought while laughing 'This bastard can read minds, better not think anything weird, hehe'

Elinar didn't say anything anymore and just came near the cliff to look at the view of forest below and the stars above, In contrast to Elijah, his focus was on the moon. then he looked at the forest, It was green but with shade of blood red color.

Elijah broke the silence by saying "I was really jealous of you back then you know, when we were kids. You always had this brightest spirit among us. Always with that determination to overcome anything, I envied that but soon it faded with time, haha" he gave a warm smile.

Alnair was annoyed by this self monologue and thought 'This bastard has the talent to become knight, And he's jealous of me? Give me a rest damn it, Don't you know what happen back at that place' but seeing his smile, he chose to remain silent.

Again, Elijah said "Hey!! you had that cool looking locket with you, can I check it out?"

Alnair didn't see anything wrong with it and just gave him after removing it from his neck.

Elijah was all smiles. Today, Alnair was really weird out by him, But suddenly he remembered something and started searching his back pocket of pants,

he said "Ahh, I forgot the rea-" he couldn't complete his sentence because a deep and shaky voice came from Elijah.

"Ahh, now that I remembered clearly, that my envy didn't fade with time but only increased" As he said this, he pushed Alnair from the cliff with a smile which turned cold, unlike the warm one before.

"Aaahhhhh" Alnair's screamed in disbelief, he could be seen falling from the cliff even in the dark, he just had that much brilliance.

Elijah laughed maniacally and screamed "ALNAIR, RICHARD SENDS HIS THANKS FOR THIS GIFT, HAHA"

As Alnair was falling from the cliff, he just had one passing thought from his head 'Only if I could survive this, I would chop this guys head and throw it in this very cliff, and that Richard and Alia, I would surely feed them to wild beasts for their betrayal'

But who could help him here, even at deaths door, he kept smiling while falling and felt little happy knowing that the locket with Elijah was a fake one, The real one was still in his back pocket. 'I want to see that shit's face when he opens it, hahaha' he sure did a number on the fake one.

But At the end of their life who didn't have any regrets, he thought just before making contact with the surface below 'Heavens, Is this... The End for me?'

****

[A/N: Hey guys, I would really appreciate if you could contribute some power stone for the WPC, Thank you for reading.

Also read my other work 'Joe Travels Infinitus']