First Death

As the vision fade, he shook his head to clear his mind and looked around him to see hundreds of eyes on him.

"Ace!" he heard a very familiar voice and turned to see Ajax running to him as one of the guards slammed him with the back of the sword handle.

Heart still beating a hundred miles a minute, he ran to Ajax as fast as he could but the guards turned on him instead.

There were murmurings all around the place as Ace paused. His eyes fell on Ajax couching on the ground and summoned a gust of wind to shove the guards away.

The magic he used was much stronger than he intended to use and he accidentally ended up tearing the man into pieces. Blood splattered all over his body.

What? He thought, looking at his hands. That wasn't what I was trying to do.

His eyes fell on the thing on his arm and he frowned slightly.

"See? I told you he was dangerous." He heard Zachery say as he turned to look at her and the others standing beside their father, shrouded in darkness as he sits on the highest elevated throne in the room.

"We cannot have someone like him here." He saw Diem saying, frowning at him with a disappointed look on her face.

"What did you expect from someone so powerful?" Ina said, leaning back against his chair. "He is bound to lose control of his magic any time soon. Especially if it comes to Ajax."

There was an empty throne in the front, which was most likely to be his.

His father looked at him and Ace could feel the sheer terror spreading through his body once his eyes glowed a bright red.

"I sent you on a very important mission because I thought you would be able to handle it." His father's voice boomed through the room as the people continued to look at him.

"But I did as you s- Ack." Ace felt his throat close up as words refused to escape his lips no matter how hard he tried.

"Are you saying that I asked you to destroy that kingdom?" The king asked, standing up.

Ace looked at him dead in the eyes, only gasps escaping his lips as he tried to breathe.

Yes. You did. You told me to kill and level the town. He wanted to shout. Why are you acting like I did something you didn't tell me to.

His eyes fell on Zoe sitting to the left of Zachery, smiling innocently at him.

He quickly looked at the thing on his arm again as it slowly faded away and disappeared from view.

No.

"You." The king said and Ace looked up to see the man right in front of him, his breath hitched and he tried to crawl back.

His legs trembled and he felt himself lose balance as he fell to the ground, tears running down his face.

This … this is how I will die? Like this? Why?

"Stop!" A figure came in front of him, holding his hands out to protect the boy.

Ajax!

"What is this?" The king asked, Ace could hear the sneer and slight amusement in his voice and that alone made him want to throw up even more.

"Don't kill him. He is still a kid." Ajax begged.

"He was also a kid when he levelled that entire kingdom," Ina said, grinning. "Do you know how many people died that night?"

"More than seventy thousand." Diem said, "That is just the rough estimate too. You are saying that he should be held responsible for what he did?"

"I-. He must have lost control of his magic-"

"The people to sit on this throne are those specifically chosen by father," Zoe said, smiling. "They may be the future rulers of this kingdom. Do you want the people of this kingdom to have a king that cannot control his magic like Ace?"

"Now that we know his magic level, we cannot just leave him unsupervised," Diem remarked. "He could be a danger to everyone here if there is a chance he can lose control like that."

"The only reason he lost control of his magic was because of me," Ajax said as Ace's eyes widened.

No. You did nothing. What are you saying?

"Explain." His father said, appearing back in his seat.

"I … I may have gotten into an argument with him the day he lost control," Ajax said as Ace ran to his side, shaking his head vigorously and trying to speak but he couldn't.

"I have noticed that Ace loses his magic whenever it involves Ajax," Zoe said sneakily as Ace quickly turned to him frowning.

"I have noticed that as well, father," Diem said turning to the man in the middle of them. "Ajax seems to be the main cause of problems here."

"Is that so?" The king said, thinking. "It would be such a shame to lose someone who would be such a wonderful asset."

No. NO! You will not touch him!

Ace tried to summon his magic but he was thrown back with someone stepping on his face, holding him down as something appeared around his neck.

He could not feel his mana anymore as he looked up to see Zachary stepping over him with a smile on her face.

"You are not doing anything." She said, pulling at his arms to keep him from struggling out. She accidentally pulled too hard and he felt his shoulder bone pulled out of its socket.

He could only grunt in pain as his eyes never left Ajax as the king walked up to him, whispering something in his ears.

Ace tried to struggle out of her hold as Ajax turned to look at him and smiled sadly as something pierced through Ajax's stomach and crystals began to cover his entire body until he was completely covered in them.

It was only then that Zachery let go of the boy and he stumbled as he rushed to the crystal. Hitting it as much as he could, nothing happened.

His knuckles only turned out bloody as tears continued to stream down his eyes.

The man leaned over him and whispered in his ears, "Isn't it wonderful just how disposable the people that care about you are?"

Ace glared up at the man, chuckling, "If you want to free him, just do everything I tell you to. You are dismissed."

The guards grabbed Ace and pulled him out of the castle room as some others walked to the crystal and he noticed, very quickly, his father saying something to his siblings.

Their eyes glowed the colour they were gifted and they rushed to the crystal as the doors closed.

He was transported back to his home. There he was finally able to talk but they did not remove the collar from his neck. Even though he told them to.

"The king specifically told us not to." The guards said, placing a spell on the castle and walked out of the place.

Try as he might, he couldn't break the collar or even open the door to go outside.

I need to get to him. They are GOING to KILL Ajax.

As he continued to claw at the collar, blood dripping down to his clothes, he felt tears roll down his face as he struggled. His face burnt, his body burnt and his hands hurt.

He tried to summon his magic over and over again but he couldn't. In all this, something struck him as strange.

If this was a collar to make sure he could not use his magic … why did he feel a little bit of his magic appear before it disappeared, almost like it was absorbed away.

Getting up from his seat on the ground, he walked to the first reflective thing he could see, which was an armour that Ajax would polish relentlessly.

He never knew the reason for that but he looked happy when he polished this armour.

Taking the shield as the adrenaline wore off and the pain on his arms, as well as his hands, came back.

He looked at the collar and saw that it was, indeed, collecting his mana. At the corner is an indicator that was almost full.

What is this? He thought, fiddling with the collar. What if I …

He summoned as many mana as he could and it was quickly sucked out of his body as he felt himself fall limp.

He gasped and groaned as he laid on the hard floor, hands trembling as his body felt heavy.

Just then, he heard a beeping sound and forced himself to sit up and looked at the shield again and saw the collar was completely filled and blinking red.

What is this f-?

He didn't have to wait anymore as he felt the entire place began to shake as something escaped the collar. The force was strong enough to create cracks in the building as everything began to crumble.

Ace did not have enough strength to move as he looked up at the chandelier hanging above his head, shaking like a leaf in the wind.

The collar broke off and fell on his lap.

So that was what it was for. He thought, chuckling slightly as he stared at the chandelier, closing his eyes as it broke off and fell.

Everything hurt before the pain slowly faded away to nothingness.