1. The day everything changed.

The roar came in waves; shock waves tore leaves from their branches and shook the ground beneath as all creatures fled from the forest. The dragon's cry pierced through the mountains, trampling its way down toward the nearby villages far away from the scene.

A group of five boys sitting on a hill away from their village simultaneously flinched in fright after being struck by the sounds of ear-splitting roaring.

They were shocked to such a point that they did not even dare to look at the source of the echoing sound.

But unfortunately for them, the dragon's roar was just the beginning and was quickly replaced by the bone-chilling wails of burning villagers.

Hearing these screams, the younger siblings tightly hugged their older brothers in fright.

In a fit of desperation, the young ones clawed as deep as they could into the arms of their seniors as if being close to their older brothers would keep them safe.

It took a few moments for the oldest brother of the group, called Luz, to shakily stand up.

On his part, it was a courageous move as expected of the oldest child, but it was also something he regretted doing. A glance around his surroundings was enough for Luz to lose any hope of surviving through this horrifying moment as he saw what horrors awaited their family members.

Far away, an enormous black dragon landed right in the middle of their village, setting everything ablaze before roaring again. Its soul-curdling bellows were, without fail, always followed by the mournful cries of the tormented villagers who tried to escape the horrific fate that awaited them.

Unfortunately, their struggles were futile as black smoke billowed over the village, making it challenging to breathe through their tears and the ashy soot.

On that fateful day, a band of mercenaries planned to besiege the dragon dwelling in the forest since any large creature near a human civilization was a security risk to the empire.

But instead of moving the villagers to safety, as required by safety protocol, the overconfident local official decided to withhold this information from his superiors. Ultimately, he rushed in with his own band of mercenaries in hopes of slaying the dragon, which led to his death before he could even realize it.

Unfortunately, their death wasn't enough to calm the enraged dragon, who took his fury out on the local village.

Upon seeing what happened to everyone, Luz dropped in shiver to his knees, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

The nightmarish scene shocked Luz to the point that he could not utter a word; it felt like a knot had formed in his throat, restraining his vocals in a mess. He was so afraid that he couldn't control the twitchy movements on his face. Tears streamed down his fearful face like a pair of never-ending rivers.

"That…That cannot be," Luz stuttered when the knot in his throat finally unraveled. He wasn't willing to accept the reality of their situation before moving shakily to the village like a puppet.

"No!" Gab, one of his brothers, yelled loudly in desperation before he and Raph grabbed Luz's arms to stop his march towards the village. Luz struggled as he wanted to continue his dead-man walk to his burning home.

As the two tried stopping their oldest brother from committing suicide, the sky grew darker as dense carbon smog covered the atmosphere. The sight compelled the group to look up in unison while an ashy shower began to fall. But their attention was quickly seized by the trembling earth, which laid the foundation for death and suffering as even the purest souls were denied escape.

The boys witnessed hell on earth as they watched terrified creatures trying to flee from the scene as the dragon set the forest ablaze while the ashen rain grew even more intense. It didn't take long before the flurry resembled a gray blizzard, and its intensity increased with each passing creature.

As the agonizing screams of the villagers slowly grew more subdued, the cries of monsters grew louder by the second. Herds of animals formed, and any animal slower than the rest got trampled to death. It did not take long to realize that the herded animals were heading in Luz's direction. But none of the siblings moved as they still couldn't accept nor comprehend their new reality.

Raph looked toward his older brother Luz in hopes of finding a light within the darkness. Unfortunately, the only thing he saw was a broken man who had lost all hope.

He remained still, not daring to say another word as his eyes were glued to the horrors around them. His own face was stained black with dark ash, veins left behind by wet tears littered his cheeks. There was only a hint of his skin peeking through the gushing rivers streaming from his eyes.

Raph choked, and it took him quite a bit of strength to whisper in a hoarse voice: "It's already too late, brother. We need to leave now. Lead us…please," as he grabbed Luz's arm.

But the latter remained silent, for his weeping eyes were still fixated on what had been their thriving home mere moments ago. Anger and hatred filled his heart as he shifted his eyes from the burning houses to the dragon.

Gritting his teeth, he rasped in a rough voice, not minding the tears that silently slid down his ashy cheeks: "You… You better wait. You took everything from me… One day… One day… I swear I'll come back and take my revenge for all the misery you caused today."

His breathing became increasingly sporadic with each word spoken. Furious, the crying visage turned even more twisted as Luz wailed: "Not only will I kill you, but I'll also be taking everything dear to you, so… just you wait and see!"

Gab, the second oldest of all the siblings, grabbed his ax before patting the shoulder of the oldest one. In contrast to Luz, he wasn't on the best terms with the other villagers. But thinking about his parents made his heartache.

"We…We'll be leaving now," Luz uttered as he grabbed the hand of one of his siblings named Michael, squeezing it tightly.

His younger twins, Az and Michael, stood up in worry.

Upon seeing his second oldest brother weeping, the young Az slowly hugged Gab and anxiously asked: "Why are you crying? What happened to mum and dad?"

"I'm fine," he replied, wiping away tears before continuing with steeled determination, "First, we need to get to safety before worrying about their situation. As for our parents,… they're probably alright."

It took him a lot of effort to say the last part, and as he lied to his younger brother, Gab gently grabbed Az's hand with a bitter smile. A desolate feeling settled in Gab's heart when Az gently squeezed the other's hand for reassurance and safety.

The group ran deeper into the woods, hoping the foliage of the trees would provide them cover from the dragon's sight. As the group made their way deeper into the forest, herds of animals overtook them, forcing them to change paths to not be the next victims of the stampede.

On their way deeper into the forest, their path grew steeper, and Az took a slight peak at the village from afar. The sight of burned carcasses and piles of ashes on the ground made Az cry, blurring his vision.

When he whipped his head around to look away from his burnt home, he pointed at Luz and shouted angrily: "You… You lied to me."

Filled with the feeling of betrayal, the young lad raised his voice. He ignored how his voice wobbled and hitched with every word he spat out with venom and how his throat tightened, and his nose tingled, "They...They aren't safe. They...They are all dead!"

"Yeah, they are all dead. The last thing our parents would want is us also being dead, right? So shut the f*ck up and follow us," Luz replied coldly, even when his heart stung at Az's ruthless words.

Seeing how Az's words affected Michael, Luz clutched his hand tightly before dragging him alongside him. The latter also began to cry as Luz harshly tugged him.

At this point, the youngest one had lost all his will to live, and Luz had to coax the little one by whispering some sweet words: "We all are going to make it, and I'll do anything to protect you guys." In an effort to look strong, Luz quickly wiped away his own freshly-fallen tears before continuing to lead the path.

But even these words weren't reassuring to Michael, who expected the worst.

As they ran deeper into the forest, the ground began to tremble less and less, and Luz's hopes of surviving with his siblings grew.

By now, his mind was filled with one question. 'Where should we go? There is no city or any other village anywhere near us.'

To their misfortune, the dragon's sense of smell was pretty good. In its rage, the dragon wanted nothing more than the total annihilation of the villagers, including the innocents who had not joined the hunt. And so it didn't take long for the siblings to end up under the shadow of its majestic wings.

"Shit, shit, shit," cursed Luz with a frightened face as he saw the fear-inducing dragon descending upon the group.

The flapping of its wings was so great that the siblings fell onto their knees with a single flap of the dragon's wings.

A mighty black dragon with a body about hundred meters high and a wingspan just as large stood before them.

Each of its scales was the size of an adult man's skull, and they rattled with every movement the dragon made. His eyes were crimson red, much like the blood that simmered under the boys shivering skin, and the breath leaving the dragon's snout was hot enough to leave some burn marks on Luz.

What followed next was a thunderous roar that burst their eardrums, and blood began dripping out of their ears. Even after the dragon had snapped its jaws shut, smoke continued drifting out of its nostrils.

Luz, whose ears were ringing, mumbled with grinding teeth as he fearlessly stared into the dragon's eyes: "Sorry, village elder, but I have to use this spell… I know I promised not to, but I have no choice…."

He didn't know where his sudden courage came from; perhaps it was because of his younger brothers, whom he swore to protect no matter the price, or maybe because he was so close to death that he had no other choice.

Luz continued thinking as he took his next step, with a face resembling that of a madman. 'The situation right now… It's way too dangerous….'

Gab asked in shock, "Luz, are you really planning on using that spell?"

But Luz remained quiet as he had already made up his mind. Instead, he bit his finger to calm his mind before attempting something far beyond his league.

With the blood dripping from his fingertip, he hastily drew some mysterious runes onto his palm. The dragon, however, stared with condescension and amusement down at him, letting the human boy finish whatever he was trying to accomplish.

It was as if the dragon was toying with Luz, giving him hope of survival before inevitably killing the boy and his brothers.

But Luz deemed the runes complete; he pressed his bleeding thumb against the middle of his palm, chanting something in an alien language.

The dragon understood some of the words of Luz's chanting, and its crimson eyes immediately narrowed while his nonchalant mood immediately vanished.

Instead, the dragon opened its gigantic jaw, adorned with jagged teeth the size of Luz's forearm, and black flames slowly began forming into the size of a ball that grew with each passing second bigger.

"Gab, what is Luz trying to do?" stuttered Raph, who at this point gave up on entertaining the idea of running away. As young as Raph was, he was very realistic and knew that no matter what they were about to do, their death was inevitable.

Gritting his teeth, Gab replied, "He's trying to teleport us. But he's using his life as fuel for that spell."

Hearing Gab's word, Az involuntarily shouted in shock, "Luz, no, don't do it! Brother, I… I'd rather die with you than live without you!"

Tears streamed down everyone's faces as the dragon shot a volley of black flames shot in the direction of the siblings. Luz merely heard a loud crack coming from his mana core as the volley flew towards them with an unfathomable speed.

The pain was so unbearable that Luz opened his eyes, hoping to get burned to ashes by the dragon so that he didn't have to bear the pain anymore.

Unfortunately for him, he succeeded and fell from the sky, screaming for his dear life, with the pain still running rampant in his body and his veins filled with adrenaline.