Prologue – Battleground

The rain fell lightly, unable to diminish the flames and smoke that filled a land that not long ago should have glowed green. The earth trembled with the sound of explosions and heavy footsteps running across its expanse.

A man in red robes raised his hands and made smooth gestures, while saying in a calm voice, "You who provide heat to men, I ask that you lend me your strength to burn those in my way." Quickly, blue lines began to materialize in the air as if fed by an invisible force.

These lines intertwined to form a circle with complex patterns. From this circle, a large fireball emerged and rapidly advanced towards a group of soldiers in gray clothing and light metal armor covering their chest area, who were running towards it.

Some soldiers were able to react quickly to the appearance of the magic circle and pulled the trigger of their rifles in the hope that one of the bullets could hit the man. Others broke formation and desperately tried to flee from the scorching hell that was approaching.

The man in red looked apathetically at the fireball that he launched explode among the group of soldiers, while the few bullets that managed to reach him were blocked by a light white barrier that appeared around him.

A cloud of flames arose, and some soldiers could be seen running from the large explosion radius with their bodies on fire before falling carbonized and lifeless.

With his mantle fluttering lightly, the man looked to the left and gave a nod to a man in plate armor by his side.

But in the next moment, a sense of danger made the skin on his neck tingle.

From within the cloud of flames, a group of eleven men managed to break out apparently unscathed.

"Maxine, increase my speed. The rest of you have my back," said the man who ran in front of the group.

"Oh, wind that provides direction to man, guide my companion to his destination with your unrestricted speed," Maxine said, a circular array forming in her hand and pointing at the man in front of him.

"You don't need to worry about anything other than the mage, Vince. We'll take care of the rest of them," a robust man said as he held a large hammer with both hands and headed towards some soldiers in black armor who were running to block them.

The mage in the red mantle frowned as he saw the man advancing towards him with inhuman speed, getting closer every second.

"Protect me, my shield---," he didn't have time to finish, as the man was now so close that he could see his features clearly.

His eyes were a deep purple, like a beautiful gem, a color he had never seen before in another person. His light brown hair reached his neck, and a beauty mark hovered over his left eye.

The wizard didn't have time to think about the young man's features when he saw him squeezing the trigger of his rifle and shooting with an unnatural accuracy for someone on the go.

If it weren't for the armored knight beside him stepping in front and blocking the bullets with his large shield, he might have died.

"Tsk, damn knights" Vince complained, watching the bullets unable to penetrate the black knight's shield.

"You folks from Perlenoa seem to not understand that even with better weapons, mundane humans are still just humans", the knight retorted fiercely as he unsheathed his sword.

"I challenge you to say that again when I put a bullet in your head," Vince said with a challenging smile as he circled the knight, repeatedly firing and always trying to shoot near the wizard so that the knight's abrupt movements to defend him would disrupt his concentration on the spell.

"Annoying! But your time is up," the wizard declared, finally managing to finish his protection spell, a light white barrier surrounding him, "You can focus on killing him. I have only three spells left, and I'll use them to get rid of their wizard."

The knight said nothing and ran quickly towards Vince, who stopped shooting and changed the position of his weapon, using the bayonet hanging from it as a parry against the knight's blade.

The sword and bayonet clashed, and Vince quickly gave up the confrontation, knowing he couldn't compete with a knight's strength, using his weapon and body in a way that the impact of the blow threw him slightly back to create some distance between them.

His rifle was now unusable due to the previous impact. With the distance opened between them, he used his advantage in speed as much as he could, removing the pin from a grenade and throwing it towards the knight.

"Useless," the knight said, concentrating what seemed to be a green aura around his large shield and preparing for the explosion.

However, the grenade didn't explode as the knight expected, instead turning into a source of light that blinded him.

And to make matters worse for the man, for some reason, Vince didn't seem affected by the burst of light besides the fact that your eyes water intensely.

He took advantage of this moment and ran towards him, drawing a long-barreled revolver from the holster under his armpits.

How could the knight expect the man in front of him to throw a flash grenade? he didn't even cover his vision, and he kept his eyes open.

The wizard realized that something was wrong when he felt the source of light, but when he turned his head, he saw the knight blindly attacking in all directions with his sword.

"YOU IDIOT, REINFORCE YOUR BODY WITH AURA!" the wizard shouted, but it was too late.

Vince didn't waste a second; he ran to have a straight line through the gaps between the knight's shield and armor, and with extreme precision, he squeezed the trigger. The bullet went off with a bang, and its recoil made Vince take a few steps back, even though he used his whole body to hold it.

"Damn, I should have reloaded this before, it was my last shot," he released the gun and drew a sword that hung from the sheath on his uniform.

Even blind, the knight tried to react to the noise, moving his aura from his shield to his head, but it was too late. Even his helmet couldn't hold the piercing power of the bullet, his head opening up like a watermelon, brains filling the mage's vision, now desperate.

"AUGUSTUS," the mage shouted before looking at Vince with his eyes burning in fury. "YOU BASTARD." Then a spell matrix appeared in his hands, and he said with extreme coldness, "Symbol of destruction, the lightning that causes fear in men, destroy my enemies."

Vince was already running towards him when he saw the matrix forming, but without his previous speed, as the spell that empowered him had already ended.

Seeing the lightning crackling in front of the mage's spell matrix, he felt his neck tingle. "Damn, I don't get paid enough for this," a smile appeared on his face before his eyes shone intensely.

Time seemed to slow down, and suddenly the spell in the mage's hands, even the barrier around him disappeared.

"But what the hell, my spell!" the mage exclaimed, a growing despair in his heart. He looked at Vince, now just a few steps away from him, his eyes shining purple, now full of blood. "Magic eyes," the mage said, as if accepting his fate.

This was the unpredictability of the battlefield, where anyone could die from an unknown factor.

With the mage now within his range, Vince deeply cut into his chest, and the mage fell to the ground without offering resistance.

He spat blood and tried to stand up, but it was in vain, his blue eyes quickly losing their shine. Vince released the air he had been holding, breathed quickly, looked at the battlefield, now mostly controlled by soldiers in gray robes, and shouted,

"I KILLED THE ARMADIEM MAGE, ADVANCE WITHOUT WORRYING ABOUT SPELLS!"

"What?" a soldier followed the sound of the voice and came across a man on top of the hill where the mage and the black knight should be.

"Sir Augustus, Mage Thomas..." Another soldier tried to run towards the hill, but was stopped by another who shouted,

"RETREAT, FALL BACK TO THE SECOND DEFENSE LINE!"

"But captain...!" a soldier tried to protest.

"Retreat is an order! Their mage is still alive, and they have high ground. Do you have a death wish in such a disadvantageous fight?"

The brigade of 60 black-armored knights, despite their numerical advantage, began to retreat rapidly, while about 15 soldiers with armor that differed from the other soldiers stayed slightly behind with their shields raised, surrounded by auras of various colors, blocking the hail of bullets.

Vince, from the top of the hill, observed the scene and when he saw that Armadien's soldiers were already at a certain distance, he fell heavily to the ground, while wiping his blood-blurred eyes.

"Damn, I thought I was going to die, thank God these damn eyes worked this time," he exclaimed. On top of a small hill, he looked out over the plain ahead of him, air rushing through his hair, a thought crossing his mind.

'I wanna go home' a few seconds after that small reflection a voice sounded from behind his back.

"Damn Vince, you really did it," a loud voice came from behind.

"You did a good job too, Antony. Thank God your excessively large body serves as a good flesh shield filled with aura," Vince replied.

"I agree, captain, definitely one of the best shields in the battalion," the mage Maxine said as he also approached.

"Flesh shield... You guys are cruel," Antony said with a sour face.

"We all get a little," Vince said, laughing. "But then, give me a little count, how many of us came out alive this time?"

"Few, that guy noticing us and releasing a fireball evaporated more than half the battalion," Maxine said with a heavy look, "I couldn't react in time," he clenched his fists.

"No one could," Vince didn't comment, knowing it was best not to delve too deep into regrets on the battlefield.

"Well, at least it's over for now, let's collect the bodies and make sure---"

Then the sound of screams filled the air, and Vince and the rest of his men quickly looked to the source, to see the gray soldiers who were chasing the black soldiers now dying like flies.

A single man walked through the battlefield, his silver plate armor looked like a piece of art made by the best craftsman, the sword in his hands emanating a supernatural golden light, even at a distance, he struck with his sword and soldiers died, bullets fired at him disintegrating before they could touch the steel of his armor.

"Damn it, damn it! It's the damn champion of Elouan, they sent a saint here! Retreat---" one of the soldiers shouted before dying.

Looking at the situation, Vince shouted to his men, "MAXINE PROTECTION, RETREAT!!"

"Oh, invisible power, pr---" before Maxine could finish his enchantment, a white light reached his neck and cut it off.

Vince looked in shock at Maxine's head falling to the ground, then looked at Antony and two more soldiers now holding weapons in their hands covered in aura.

"I'll buy you some time, run!" Antony said, taking the lead.

"NO, YOU IDIO---" Vince didn't even have time to speak when Antony's head also fell.

And then, all the soldiers around him followed suit, in the blink of an eye, several heads now rolled on the ground, separated by an extremely clean cut, the once-distant saint was now a few steps away from him.

Vince caught a glimpse of the apparently young man's appearance, now just a few meters away from him, an overwhelming pressure emanating from him, his blonde hair shining intensely in the sun that opened up with his arrival, eyes blue as the sky and a long, well-groomed beard.

"The champion of the God of Light Elouan, David Fiona Castermilio, and to think I would die at the hands of such a prominent figure," Vince said with an ironic smile, his whole body trembling, all his hairs standing on end. "Well, it seems I can only accept death."

The man who was preparing his strike stopped and looked at the soldier with peculiar purple eyes, his indifferent gaze, then said pointing to the firm grip of the sword in Vince's hands, "You don't seem very willing to accept death."

"Well, what can I say, to die without even attempting to land a blow, even my sacred lady would break the silence of her lands laughing at me."

"A pity, I saw you from afar, talented for someone without aura or mana," the man said with a disappointed look. "I only came to this battlefield as a favor to the Duke, but I never thought I would draw my sword in this place, especially in a war with such petty motives."

"Then why did your holiness suddenly decide to kill these humble ants? The cloud formations were not to your liking? Boredom?" Vince mocked, realizing that the man in front of him was determined to kill him.

"Higher orders actually, orders that I cannot ignore. Something in you caused my lord to issue an order, something that hasn't happened in a long time," Gavid said, not caring about the mocking.

"Your lord? The emperor? No, Eloaun, the God of Light? What could a God want with my death? What crime have I committed to attract the wrath of a God?" Vince was stunned.

"Who knows?" Gavid lifted his sword as it began to glow. "I just felt like telling you this... well, I got a little carried away and went out of the ordinary, but in the end it was good, I have to thank you for that."

"Damn psycho!" Vince charged in his direction, but it was useless. The sword descended, the light shone, and his vision faded.

The last thing he saw was the indifferent look of the man in front of him, brandishing the shining sword as if killing an insect.

Then everything turned red.

///////////////

Somewhere, perhaps at an infinite distance, perhaps so close it could be reached in one step, three unlit candles hovered above an obidian altar engraved with intricate runes.

Then a completely black hand extended its fingers towards one of the candles.

And one of the candles was now lit.

With a deep, raspy voice, as if it were the first time he had spoken in years, someone said deeply, the words traveling across the vast void

"Open your eyes, marked."

///////////////

In a place surrounded by seemingly endless darkness, bright white lights emanated from a large number of flowers that filled a plain that could not be seen to its end.

In the middle of this plain was a human, his body trembling for a moment as if hit by a cold wind, a faint sound echoing in his ear.

"Open your eyes, marked."

Then, purple eyes opened and stared into the vast darkness.