Prologue: Future's Failing

Mana Year 572

The final battle was here.

The Mana Knight - destined to fight and protect their kingdom - stood before the 30ft tall, 4-armed, red skinned Archdevil. His clothes torn and blood.

Around them were the ruins of a once grand capital of the Kingdom of Entia, now nothing but a wasteland of mud, blood and rubble.

Bodies of civilians and other Mana Knights lay lifeless, scattered about the once lively streets. The sky was an ominous purple, lighting up as flashes of lightning came crashing down around the capital.

With a heavy, worn out expression, the knight looked up to the archdevil, clutching the trident that he wielded in his right hand tightly. His red bandana swaying behind his head, it firmly tied around his forehead.

"I won't give up, not now - not now that we're so close!"

With a shout the man lunged forward into a sprint towards the Archdevil. Its horns glowed a deep purple, lightning crashing down from the skies and spiralling down towards the man - who dodged left and right with ease.

The Mana Knight closed upon the devil, jumping up towards it's midsection and swinging the trident down in an arc motion.

"Take this!" He yelled out in frustration.

The Archdevil raised two of its arms over its middle to shield itself from the attack, the trident not even scratching the skin. It then used the other two arms to punch the man - sending him full force and crashing into the rubble of a house below. The 4-armed archdevil bellowed out in laughter.

"Is this all the Mana Knights have to offer? Pathetic!"

Crawling out of the rubble, trident in his right hand, the knight stared up at the archdevil with rage.

His right eye was closed, blood dripping down the bandana and down his eye. The knight's attention was drawn to the area around him. Bodies upon bodies of civilians and those he once called comrades littered the streets.

He would never see their smiles again.

Their voices as they admonish him for making mistakes.

Their laughs as they celebrated victory.

Never.

Again.

The Mana Knight slowly stood, wobbling left and right and digging the trident into the ground to stay upright. He lethargically walked on the bloodied cobblestone road, his body swaying left and right from utter exhaustion - the trident being used like a cane.

His friends...

An image of a male red haired Mana Knight and a female blue haired Mana Knight, who lay lifeless side by side, hands touching as if reaching for their last moments of life appeared in the man's mind.

His comrades...

An image of multiple Mana Knights whose bodies were scattered around the streets, lying in different positions with some of them losing limbs, appeared in the man's mind.

His...

An image of a blonde haired female Mana Knight lay face down on the cracked ceramic ground of the castle floor. A hole pierced through her chest and blood pooled around her, soaking her platinum blonde hair and left side of her face - her right side covered by her hair - appeared in his mind.

He closed his left eye as tears welled up, rolling down his cheeks. The blood and tears mixing together with his right eye. His face scrunched tightly and body trembled as he came to a halt in his steps, head tilted down to the ground.

"Everyone..." His voice whispered in the wind.

He grit his teeth in anger.

Why did this have to happen?

Why am I the only one left?!

He opened his left eye and glared back up at the Archdevil, who was busy mowing down the buildings a fair distance away.

Would things have gone differently...

He glanced down to the trident clutched in his right hand.

If I'd used this power from the beginning?

The trident glowed a faint orange. The man closed his left eye and focused his mind.

"Mana Sight."

Mana glowed all around him, the different colours running up and down over the buildings, the floors and...the bodies. Mana was everywhere. It was everything in this world.

He opened his eye and let out a puff of air. There was only one thing he could do. He only wished that they would forgive him.

"One last time. Give me your strength everyone."

The Mana Knight thrust the end of the trident into the ground before him. Mana began glowing from the ground, the buildings and the bodies that lay all around. The trident's orange glow intensified.

He lifted the trident off the ground and held it like a javelin, ready to throw at the unsuspecting Archdevil.

Mana began to absorb into the trident, its glow and form enlarging dramatically until it was levitating above his hand. The ground began to wither, the buildings crumbling and the bodies going grey, a sign that the Mana had been sucked out of them.

"Forgive me for using this cursed power, but it's my only option."

The trident stood five times the man's size, its glow a bright orange.

This was his last chance, he knew.

With everything he had, he aimed the trident at the 4-armed Archdevil.

"This is the power of everything and everyone - die!!" He yelled out with fury.

The oversized trident blazed in a straight line, creating a blast and a blowback which propelled the man backwards - dust covering the ground below.

The devil saw the trident and sent lightning crashing down from the skies to stop it - but the trident was too fast. Raising all its arms in a defensive position, the 4-armed devil formed a mana barrier in front of it.

The tip of the trident hit the barrier - sparks flying left and right.

"Ha! You really thought that would be enough to stop me bra-" The devil's laugh was halted as cracks began to appear in the barrier.

Bit by bit the cracks stretched all over the barrier before it shattered - the trident impaling through its arms like a knife through butter.

"Impossible!!" Is all the Archdevil could shout as the trident pierced right through its chest.

The dark sky began to fade to grey - alongside the devil whose body was slowly disintegrating into dust.

"No! This can't be! A mere human-!" The Archdevil faded out of existence.

Laying on the blood soaked cobblestone, the Mana Knight looked up to the grey sky. He reached out his arm to the sky.

Rain began to lightly fall down over the desolated kingdom capital.

Droplets of rain roll down his fingers and down his arm, hitting his bruised and bloodied cheeks.

"We won..?" His voice trembled out, echoing through the silent rain. His other hand clenched into a fist and thumped the ground next to him over and over. His outstretched arm moved to cover his eyes.

"What's the point of victory if I'm the only survivor?!" The knight cries out in anguish.

Rain cascaded heavily over the ruins of the kingdom capital.

Mana Year 572. Hours Later...

Sometime later, as the rain stops, the man trudges along the cobblestone ground - thoroughly soaked from head to toe, the rain having washed the blood away, to soaked into the mud.

His bangs covered his face as he held the trident loosely in his grasp, the hilt of it scraping along the ground.

To the left and right of him lay countless bodies of his comrades and civilians. Children's toys broken and tattered on the streets, just like corpses that littered the place.

The Mana Knight keeps on walking down the rubble of the silent streets and towards the ruins of what used to be the castle. Step by step his body grows heavier, but he won't let his body fail him.

Not till he reaches his destination.

"...Almost there..." He murmurs out, looking up at the crumbled steps leading to the castle, his voice as lifeless as his eyes.

He climbs the stairs, the trident thumping along each step all the way to the top. The doors that held the castle open were no more, a hole pierced the wall to the right.

Inside it was pitch black except for a small light which peered through the hole at the top of the torn ceiling.

This light shone down upon a body that lay still on the ceramic flooring, blonde hair and tattered military uniform stained with blood. 

Rain droplets drip from the ceiling and onto their body.

The knight hobbles over to the body, his own giving out on him and falling to his knees in front of the still body.

"Natale..."

His hands pushed some hair out of the body's face revealing soft feminine features that are bloody and bruised, eyes closed. He slowly traces his fingertips over her dried, blood smeared face, fingers trembling as much as his lips quivered. His dim eye runs down her face and to the gaping hole in her chest.

"You were supposed to be the strongest..."

He ducks his head down, his fingers slipping down her cheek and onto the bloody soaked ground.

"It should've been me! Me! You were supposed to live Natale! Everyone was supposed to survive!!"

The Mana Knight shakes his head in anger, fists pounding the ceramic tiles over and over. He was

angry. He was sad. He was in pain.

He'd lost everything!

Everyone.

And for what?

For victory? What a joke...

"What a shame, truly, to have survived when no-one else did!" A sarcastic voice called out from the shadows as a devil emerges from the back corner of the room. Its horns curved as wide as the smirk plastered on its face.

The Mana Knight's head snaps to look at the devil. He grips his knees with his hands, attempting to stand up at an agonisingly slow pace to his feet.

"Devil?! How did you survive?!"

He grips the trident in his hand, ready to strike.

"Woah, woah now - I didn't show myself so we'd fight to the death." The devil held its hand in surrender, the smirk never leaving its face as it continued, "I have a proposition for you, my dear Mana Knight."

Everyone knew that making a deal with the devil was the biggest mistake one can make. The knight knew this, yet his mentality was so frail that he wasn't thinking straight. He said nothing as the devil strode towards him with purpose.

"What if.." The devil stops in front of him, "I could send your consciousness back to before this all happened?"

Its long red finger touched his forehead. The man's left eye looks up at the finger, trailing down its arm and to its smirking face.

I can...change things?

"What do you say?"

The man wasn't sure how to reply. All he could think about was the chance of being able to save everyone. His eye darts down to the body of Natale on the ground. He grips the trident tightly in his hand.

"What do you want in return? My soul?"

The knight stares at the devil, his left eye narrowed and biting his lip to the point that it bleeds. It was common knowledge that devils always ask for souls in return for something, but this devil was no ordinary devil.

It was different.

It laughed, trailing its finger down the man's closed right eye.

"Your sight."

That was it.

That was the deal.

He didn't need to think twice. If there was a chance to change the future, to save everyone, he would journey to hell and back if he had to.

This deal was his last hope - his salvation.

But also his demise.

"Do it. Take me back."

The devil's smile widens and its eyes glow a deep red.

"As you wish."

The Mana Knight's vision goes black and his consciousness fades.