Part 1

It lasted only for a second. That darkness. As if I had shut my eyes too strongly. It only took a moment for the devastated clearing to reappear in front of my eyes. Gallher was still there, together with his goons, looking at me with that expression full of superiority that pissed me off.

Instinctively I tried to move. My legs, my arms, my neck, my hands, my fingers. But nothing seemed to answer to my calls. All I could do was move my eyes around. It was frustrating, as if I was being bound by chains all over and no matter how hard I struggled, not even the slightest change occurred to my situation.

“Why the heavy expression, Bluescale?” Asked Gallher with his usual pompous tone as he stepped out of the last row of trees.

“You really are an idiot. As expected of a peasant!-” Continued the blonde boy “- Not only did you fought all of us together but you also had the bright idea of doing so after fighting your own allies!... I knew you were stupid when you didn’t accept my proposal, but to this extent? It feels like I’m bickering against a child! HAHAHA!”

“Yet..you have to…gang up on a…child!” I replied as every word and every breath filled my chest with needling pain.

“Tch, your mere existence pisses me off!-” A disrespectful spit followed his words. The distance between us was too big for it to reach me but just the action made me fume in rage “- All of this happened because you had to stand up to me on that day! And for what? That little bitch, Sora Evergard…or should I say your fianceè?”

“What!?...How do…you”

“Oh please! Do you really believe anyone wouldn’t notice? You really are blind when it comes to women, uh? It was so painful watching you guys trying to hide it hahaha! It only took a little digging on my part and some connections to find out that your families signed you up for marriage. How chivalrous of you, Bluescale, to stand up for your girlfriend! If I think about it my heart almost melts!... Almost”

“YOU BASTARD!” I shouted as I once again desperately tried to move my limbs.

“Hey, hey, no need to get soo worked up after just hearing her name. Did you miss her that much?-” Replied Gallher with a grin on his face that made me nauseous “- Well, lucky you, I have a gift here! BRING HER HERE!”

[Her? What is he trying to…wait, no! don’t tell me-]

I couldn’t even finish my train of thoughts that one of Gallher’s subordinates made his appearance from within the woods. He was slow on his steps and seemed to struggle as he tried to drag something. It was only when he was about to cross the border that I figured out what was he dragging. Silver hair full of dust and blood. A face carved with gentle elegance, marked with cuts and bruises and blood. One eye tiredly closed while the other forcibly so because of how swollen it was. The academy’s clothes dirtied with blood, dirt and burn marks. What that guy was drugging…no, who that guy was dragging was none other than Sora.

“YOU BASTARD, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?” I shouted with all the power my lungs were capable of. The strong taste of my own blood filled my mouth as the words I wanted to say choked in it. Yet the sensation of having my mouth full of liquid was absent.

“Calm down, calm down. She is mostly fine, isn’t she?-” Gallher’s hands grabbed the poor girl’s cheeks and squished as if one would do with a dog “- You know, I’ve had a thing for elves in general. High elves, elves, dark elves, half-elves. Whatever the case, they all look way better than human females! Don’t you think so too? Your fianceè is one so I’m sure you do understand me. I had a couple of elven slaves at home so when I first saw this girl, it reminded me of them and the urge to play with her made me act. Ever since the first time I saw her, way before you even came and interrupted me, I wanted to possess her. And surprise surprise, it turns out she’s in possession of my enemy-” The grin on his face was soo revolting that I wanted to rip his lips off his face just so that he could never do an expression like that ever again.

“- I’ll tell you something. Your brother, Hannes and the other Evergard boy, I have already dealt with all of them. Oh, and before you ask, no, they haven’t surrendered. If you catch my drift! About this beautiful young lady, I think I’ll take my sweet time breaking her, maybe even right before your eyes so you too can enjo-”

“DON’T YOU DARE LAY A HAND ON HER YOU MOTHERFUCKER! I’LL KILL YOU!”

“Tch, tch, tch, you really don’t understand the situation my dear peasant. You have already lost!... Oh, you know what would be really funny?-” Said Gallher as he ripped off the shirt from Sora’s chest and eagerly played whit what was underneath “- If she ends up falling in love with me after all this… just like Kei did!”

My blood instantly froze. Every fiber of my body seemed to have stop functioning. Even my heart slowed his rush. All after hearing a single name. I looked at him dead in the eye, hoping to see some kind of reaction, something that would deny what I just heard. But my feelings betrayed me and must have shown themselves on my face because Gallher now carried a victorious grin.

“W-what d-did you just say?” I asked. My voice almost inaudible and trembling.

“You heard him right, Tsukasa Keichiro!” Said a voice coming from where Gallher was supposed to be.

[M-my name?]

It was different. Different from any voice I had ever heard. As if distorted, that man’s voice sounded like it came from a badly oiled machine. A low pitch screech. Even though it was soo inhumane, I recognized that voice almost instantly. How could I not? It never left my mind. That accent. That manner of speech. It was always there, haunting me in my nightmares now and in the past. It was:

“...Josh Delrick?” I asked more to myself than to the voice unable to come to terms with my own thoughts.

“Woooo! I relieved you remember me-” Said the shapeless face now forming over Gallher’s shoulder “-It’s been a long time, hasn’t it, Tsukasa? I thought you’d forget about me but let’s be honest…how could you ever forget me? How could someone forget the one who ruined their life, uh? But I’m glad though! I finally get to say this to your ugly mug: You fucking lost! HAHAHAHA!”

“....Delrick….”

The previously shapeless figure had now stabilized into a more representation of the man possessing that voice. He stood there, the seethrough appearance of Josh Delrick with his face lowered over Gallher’s shoulder and his hands in his pockets as he always did. He was looking at me with victory printed in his sharp brown eyes. That expensive tanned skin. The spiky blonde hair. The sharply trimmed eyebrows. The wild goatee and that wide jaw. The more I looked the more I convinced myself. That man was Josh Delrick, there was no mistake.

“What? Are you not happy to see me? I’m on cloud nine for this long-awaited reunion, dude! Show some emotion will you?! But it’s ok, I understand you. You have just lost everything you achieved in this life just like you did in the past, and by the same hand! It must’ve been painful, right? Losing the dream of a life, the trust of your country, the relationship with your family, all your friends, your health, your sanity and finally, the one girl that you so dearly loved HAHAHA!”

What I was feeling after hearing him saying those words could not be classified as anger anymore. I felt my body temperature rising, not like a fever, but much worse. It was more like jumping in a tub of boiling water. My mind felt heavy yet extremely calm. There were a multitude of things going through my head: feelings, memories, worries. But all of them led to only one word: “Kill”. And that word felt natural as if it was the most obvious solution. It wasn’t even worth thinking about it. I just had to kill everything that caused me annoyance.

I could feel the shackles on my flesh coming undone as the specter-like Delric kept talking. Though his words weren’t able to reach my ears, the sole action of him speaking kept stirring up something inside me. Eventually, like a chain finally snapping, a little something connecting two sides of my brain broke. The sound of that breaking thread reverberated throughout my body, searching for a wall to crash on. That wall turned out to be a spot on my left side, roughly where the black mark was. Instantly, a wave of pain erupted from that spot. Like a centipede crawling under my skin, so did that pain, leaving a trail of fire in it’s wake. From the spleen, it went up and around the abdomen making a full round and coming back to the front right where the abdomina muscles make contact with the pectorals. From there it crossed over my heart and hid under the armpit only to show itself on my right shoulder for a brief moment. That burning pain then traveled from shoulder to shoulder, wrapped itself around the left one and then descended in a spiral around the arm. When it finally stopped it’s march I felt as if my skin had been branded with fire and, of course, it didn’t have any wish to wane.

[...Wake up!-] Shouted the same deep voice I heard the time I was facing the fiend. This time it was clearer, as if I got closer to it [- Those fools dared to trample my pride. OUR pride!... Do you not wish to wake up?]

“...Delrick…”

[...Your enemy…is nothing but a pebble. Stand up….let yourself go to this feeling…bathe in your rage…tell me, what do you feel?]

“DELRIIIICKKK!” I shouted with the full power of my lungs as I swung the air with my fists.

The chains holding me came completely undone and so did the forest around me. Not only that but Delrick, Gallher and everything else too. It all shattered in the instant that powerful wave of air exited my lungs. What was the one scene in front of my eyes became a multitude as cracks in it began to form and multiply. Until, like shattered mirrors, uneven chunks of the scenery split and crumbled into fine silver sand revealing what truly had transpired.

Nothing had happened. All was still as if no time at all had passed. Gallher was still standing at the edge of the woods accompanied by a couple of his goons. In his hand, the previously shattered purple jewel not had turned into dark brown ash that sipped through the gaps between his fingers. His expression was dumbfounded as his eyes darted from me to his hands and to me back again. I didn’t know what I did. I didn’t know what that jewel was. But it was clear from his reaction that I did something unexpected. Yet all I could think was the last question of that mysterious voice:

[...what do you feel?]

I took a deep breath and filled my lungs with the sharp taste of smoke and dust. It was an instinct. It wasn’t like I had difficulties breathing, still, I felt like it was needed. The next moment, the same instincts became fiercer but there was no resistance on my part. Better yet, I welcomed them since they carried the same wish I held. I tilted my head slightly backward and widened my arms a bit on my sides. From my throat rose a scream. No, rather something between a war cry and the roar of a beast. Whatever came out of my mouth definitely wasn’t a sound a human being should be able to do.

The faces of those who were looking at me were priceless. Shock and fear filled their eyes. Some even covered their ears. But that wasn’t all. There was something else enjoyable about that situation other than their expressions. It was the smell. The smell of blood and flesh, the smell of fear and fire.

I felt my eyes glow with a raging fire and my stomach grumble in expectancy.

[...I feel…hunger!]

Part 2

- ???’S POV -

A pungent aroma filled the small shop’s air. It was strong yet delectable to the nose, inviting to say the very least. Small round tables that could host up to three people maximum filled both stories with the exception of the white marble counter and the area reserved for the workers.

“Are you ready to order, sir?” Asked a gentle-looking girl with pointy ears in her twenties as she stopped by the table in the corner where I was sitting.

“Mhh, yes. I would like to try that thing…umhhh, what’s it called?”

“Coffee, sir?” Replied the girl, unbothered by my lack of knowledge.

“Yes, yes, cofi indeed!”

“Alright, one cup of coffee. I’ll be back shortly, sir”

When the girl came back, she carried on a tray a white ceramic cup, a little larger than one used for tea, containing that dark brown liquid I had been seeing rather frequently in my stay there. I was curious. I wanted to try that beverage everyone was soo fond of as soon as the waitress placed it in front of me but I had to restrain myself. First came the ritual that humans always did. First I had to thank them, then make an offering in the specified amount, then whoever I gave my offering to thanked me back and finally I could enjoy what was in front of me.

I wanted to savor the moment. The dark brown texture of the beverage paired well with the inviting aroma raising from it and the cozy atmosphere of the little shop. I took a deep breath. With no clear reason, more out of instincts than of need. I wanted to take it all in, make those moments mine. But as I did, something mixed within them. First came the smells. Trees, leaves and burned wood followed by the scent of smoke and the famishing ferrous scent of fresh blood. The scent of blood was especially strong as if my keen nose wanted to especially pick up that.

I looked around, searching for the source of those smells, but all looked the same as before. Normal elves, some dwarves and a couple of humans enjoying their food and drinks in the cozy atmosphere of the shop. [It must’ve come from outside then!] I thought. Hence I tried to expand my senses through mana but I picked up naught. There was no trace of those scents, not in the slightest. But it wasn’t strange, I was in a port city where the smell of salt and fish predominated over everything else.

[If so…then what were those sm-]

My thoughts got interrupted by a sudden stream of emotions. As if a snake rising from my tailbone and spiraling around my spine, so those feelings did, leaving me with warm shivers. Anger, rage, fury, shock, fear, killer instincts and finally hunger. I could feel all of that clearly as if I was feeling them in person. I could feel my mouth beginning to drool as I experienced all of those emotions all at once. The one leading to hunger was especially strong, so much that the others dwarfed in comparison.

I had to throw my head back and cover my twitching eyes as, right after the emotions, images came flooding into my head. They were followed by a sudden piercing pain on my left side, right where I still had that scar. As I helplessly succumbed to that mixture of feelings, smells and images, I finally realized what was happening to me. There were enemies in front of me, some still standing some not. I had yet to kill anyone but I did injure some quite severely, though I now welcomed the act of killing just to satiate that hunger raging deep within. I was hurting. Both physically and mentally but it mattered little to me whether I was about to lose an arm or both legs. They had touched something mine, something I held dear and trampled over my pride and code. They couldn’t be forgiven, those enemies. No…they were even something less than enemies. They were…

“I see-” I said to myself as I bathed in the enjoyment coming from the realization “- It is quite ahead of time. I believed you’d wake up sooner than what the old books spoke of, but this is most unexpected…. It seems like my time with the elves is coming to an end. I can’t wait to see you, Raphael!”

Part 3

- RAPHAEL BLUESCALE’S POV -

“H-h-h-how ca-a-an this b-be?-” Stammered Gallher as he tried to back away, eventually hitting his back on a tree “- T-That was O-oneiro’s heart. ONEIRO’S HEART FOR FUCKS SAKE! No no, this can’t be happening! Ha Ha Ha, I get it. It’s just an illusion! JUST AN ILLUSION!”

Those still standing had the same kind of reaction yet none of them showed their backs. A primordial instinct perhaps? Not that it really mattered to me. I was slowly getting consumed by the hunger burning deep within my stomach. Rather, I was letting myself be consumed by it. It was pleasurable. And as I did, my view of those standing in front of me changed. Gallher and all his followers, in my eyes, had already turned from enemies to simple preys. I was stronger, faster, my instincts were keener than theirs, my magic more profound…so why had I always accepted their harassment? I couldn’t think of an answer and I wouldn’t even come up with one. Thus, all that filled my mind was the pure, primordial drive to satiate myself. Those weaker than me had no saying in such matters.

[...A prey’s only role is to be hunted…]

Driven by that feeling, I threw my left arm towards the sky and, pleading to the countless times I watched and rewatched, viewed and reviewed the same spell in my head, I started casting. My mana was the signal, the catalyst. The hard work was left in the hand of the abundant natural mana surrounding me. I didn’t know what was the reason behind it but calling upon natural mana had suddenly become more fluent, easier even.

I created winds, high where the top of the trees down reach and where a sea of white hills form a different world. My winds blew towards a hypothetic center placed over my hand, and as they did that white sea moved. It let itself be swept as if it had no will of it’s own. It only took a handful of seconds to transform the hills into a full-fledged mountain, all of it as the bewildered audience below that sea tilted their necks upward. Then, from white to grey and grey to black, I prompted the mana to fill the cluster of clouds with water. I filled and filled as those below me watched in shock and Gallher kept screaming his lungs out without being able to raise a finger or move a leg. The wind moved and the water filled as the cluster of clouds shrank and gathered in a heavy mass that descended closer to the ground than it’s previous form.

The first tear fell over the clearing. A heavy one. And after the first came the second, and third, fourth and so on. Before long, a fast and weighty rain washed away the fires spreading through the clearing and my bleeding figure. The spell only needed the final touch.

“S-someone do something!-” Shouted the cowering blonde noble “- Shoot him! Attack him! JUST PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SOMEONE KILL HIM!”

[I’ve had enough of your voice, you fucking waste of oxygen!]

“Thunderstorm…-” I coldly said in a tone soo menacing that it felt unbecoming of a fourteen tears old student. My blue eyes were fixed on my target. That one pesky noble who forced me to this. I was ready to kill Delvin Gallher.

The last piece fell into place. Lighting-type magic was finally added to the cluster of clouds. It needed a single spark, the spell, to finally come to it’s completion. Once I added that spark, the sound of countless thunders forming and crackling inside the clouds filled the whole forest. The darkness that was created by the towering cloud was finally being lit up.

“-...Fall!” I said as I lowered my index finger so that it would point where Gallher was currently standing.

The mountain of black clouds answered to my orders and all the forming thunders gathered in one single place. The next moment, a waterfall of blinding light fell over the clearing.

- CONSTANTINE GILDOR’S POV -

I had just jumped over the wall around the forest when a sudden beastly roar shook the trees. Flocks of birds fleed in fear, covering the sky with the sound of their wings flapping. The hair on my arms stiffened as my heart tasted the vague scent of fear after years. It had been ever since I tried to hunt a dragon that I hadn’t felt fear as I faced both humans and monsters alike.

“Did a monster just get inside the forest?!-” I asked myself as I fastened my stride “- No, no, no, there are adventurers all around the area, it’s impossible that one could come in!... Then what the fuck was that?”

Instinctively I tried to reach for the back of my waist where I usually kept my sword sheathed but of curse finding naught. It was still stored inside the chest in my room. There was nothing I could do about it. I clicked my tongue and kept running towards the source of that beastly roar. Something was telling me that I would find the remaining students where that monster was.

Suddenly, the air changed. The wind that was previously blowing against me completely changed it’s course and now aided me in my run. It was too strange to be ruled out as a natural event. In all my days as an adventurer, the wind had never changed direction so drastically, of course with the exception of magic. Hence I raised my eyes to the sky only to see streams of clouds gathering over one spot. As if to follow predestined roads, those clouds moved at a speed faster than mine and formed a cluster that towered over everything else, forcing the cloak of darkness to descend while the sun was still up. It didn’t help the fact that from their peaceful and warm white color they turned into a black one full of rain.

Then, the worst happened. I was still a couple of hundreds of meters away from where the roar came from and the clouds gathered when I heard the familiar crackling noise that announced the coming of thunders. An ugly feeling told me something outrageous was about to fall on the students, on Raphael. I didn’t know what kind of tricks did Gallher used to summon such a thing but I had to stop it somehow. All I was surrounded by were trees and I didn’t have the leisure to think of something complicated.

I moved mana to my arms and begged my body to summon all the strength it was capable of. With that, I grabbed the closest tree and snapped it’s trunk close to the base, then put my hand on the freshly cut edge and threw it as one would do with a javelin. With speed far surpassing that of a spell, the tree flew all the way over a clearing and directly under the cluster. That day I had to thank the gods for my good luck since the tree ended up flying directly under the trajectory of a falling mass of thunders rushing down from the black clouds. My jaw dropped, just for a brief moment, as I watched the tree catch fire and crumble into ash at the exact same time. It was struck so fiercely and so repeatedly that even the falling ash had caught fire.

The once again crackling sound warned me that another thunder was about to fall. I sprinted and jumped with all my might as I reached the border between the forest and the clearing. There, in front of a burned tree surrounded by the signs of a fight and either unconscious or injured students, stood Raphael with his finger pointed towards a trembling Gallher. My fears had completely been unfounded. He indeed looked injured, with only half of his clothes still remaining and the body covered in dust and blood, but he wasn’t him the one in danger but Gallher. The one who was controlling those thunders was none other than him, and I felt the pure and clear intent to kill in his every breath.

I was behind him as I first came into view of the clearing. I didn’t know precisely what transpired in there but I had to stop him before crossing the line. I had to stop him before he could sully himself with blood. Not only that but it was given that Duke Gallher would have done his utmost best to have Raphael executed for the crime of killing his only son. I had to act before that.

Thanks to the jump I was now midair, roughly over Raphael’s head. I readied my hands in a hammer-like position and, once I was a couple of meters away from him, I shifted my weight downwards and smashed my fists into the ground. The impact not only created chaos and clouds of dust but it also threw around chunks of stone and soil that Raphael was forced to dodge.

“I’m sorry about this” I said in his ear as I plunged my fist into his stomach following another full-strengthened dash.

His eyes were filled with such beastly rage that it gave me shivers as those ice pupils met mine behind the glasses. For a moment I thought I heard him growl like an injured wolf, that is right before his eyes turned white and his consciousness faded as his body fell flat over my shoulder. Silence finally filled the forest and the cluster of dark clouds faded away, letting the sun finally bless the broken land.

“Ha…HahahaHAHAHA! I knew I wouldn’t end like that! SUITS YOU WELL FUCKER! Now even the teachers know about your attempts on my life!-” Half-crazily shouted the noble in a pathetic state. His face was covered in snot and tears as his whole body smelled like piss and sweat. I loathed him and his kind “- You saw that, right, professor Gildor? If you hadn’t come to save me I might’ve really died today. All because of that shitty peasant! Oh but don’t worry professor, I’ll be sure to tell your valiant actions when I’ll speak to my fat-”

I couldn’t hold it any longer. I grabbed his face with my hand, wide enough to seal his mouth and jaw shut. The pride and cockyness that previously shone in his eyes turned into the epitome of shock. [If only I wasn’t a teacher!] I thought as the idea of beating that disgusting kid half to death tickled mi mind.

“I didn’t come here to save you-” I said as raised the kicking kid high to my face level “- I came here to save him. But I now wish I hadn’t come. If I didn’t you’d be now a puddle of blood and ash…Do you think I didn’t know what you planned? UH? You pathetic excuse of a human! You and all those around here, both me and the headmaster know what you had planned and now I have clear proof of it. Ganging up on a single student with more than twenty on your side it seems, bringing in knives and daggers, using a magic item and worst of all, planning an assassination of a fellow student…Do you think your dear daddy will save your sorry ass!? I swear it on my fucking name, you piece of trash, I’ll make your life a fucking misery!”

The look in his eyes and the growing dark stain over his crotch as I finished those words and threw him on the side were worth all the trouble I was about to face. I walked back to where I left Raphael, completely ignoring the pleading and crying students. I didn’t have much with me but the habit of always carrying the bare minimum in terms of first aid grew on me, hence I rapidly tended to his wounds.