Corpses. Blood. Carnage.

That was all the boy who was called a “Defect” could see.

Inside this world of endless darkness, only red made itself visible to him.

He heard the voices of those whose lives were being used to contribute to this painting of madness.

They rang in his ears, refusing to leave him.

They screamed at him.

“Kill them! Kill them all! Kill those bastards who did this to us! Kill them, who treated us as nothing but defective products! Kill them! Kill them! KILL THEM!”

The voices ate at the boy’s heart until there was nothing left.

No love. No compassion. No affection.

The only thing that remained in his heart, was MADNESS.

The boy, whose soul had now become that of a demon, was left alone without a purpose or a role to carry out.

He lived a life of solitude, with no one to share his pain with.

The boy died alone in a dark place, with no one to cry for him. With no one to curse him. With no one to say that they were glad to know him.

The boy just died in silence as his long dead heart finally stop beating.

“……..”

Miko opened his eyes, and stared at the ceiling of his room.

His face lacked any emotion, but the color of madness swirled in his eyes. However, that was only for a moment.

He spoke as he sat up with an annoyed look on his face.

“…What a boring dream.”

He got out of bed and left the room.

As he walked down the halls of the apartment, the voice of Tiamat echoed in his mind.

(It's already been 3 months since you've lived here. So now that you gotten to know them a bit better, what do you think?)

“They're pretty interesting. Sora’s [Sound Magic] goes along well with his dream to become a famous musician.”

[Sound Magic] is magic that allows the user to manipulate sound waves at will. If used correctly it could be used to create beautiful music.

However, that's just the most common use. [Sound Magic] can also be used to kill countless people at a time undetected. It's very useful for assassinations.

“And there's Ace. The magic that he uses is something that I doubt I could ever thought of in a lifetime.”

(Yeah. It's a strange ability even to me who lived thousands of years. What's it called, [Boost Player]?)

[Boost Player], an extremely new magic that hasn't existed for more than a century. Because it's still relatively new, it's still has a lot of risks and restrictions. Thus not many can use it.

“The ability to boost not only his physical but also his magical ability, like a game character. And he apparently has other sub-abilities that are also like a game character’s.”

From Miko's perspective, Ace probably has the most interesting ability of all of them.

“Other than those two, I now have a better understanding of Hina's power.”

After seeing her use it several times, Miko discovered that Hina’s [Manifestation] has a big draw back.

It doesn't only use up a lot of magic power, it also exhaust her physically and mentally.

“She can't continuously use her power, otherwise she'll get sluggish and full of openings. That's why she trained herself not rely on it too much in a fight.”

Over the last three months, Miko and the other fought against Darius men on several occasions. Because of that, he learned about the abilities of the trio and their personalities.

But that wasn't the only thing he learned. He also became familiar with the state that the country was in.

“This country is going to crumble.”

(I agree. The current King is too illogical. He constantly raised the taxes of the lower class, and have the nobles pay a yearly fee to keep their titles.

He cut off all relations with foreign countries, and banned everyone from leaving the country.

And on top of that, he banish the rest of Dragna Clan to furthest ends of the kingdom, because he’s afraid that they will riot and replace him with a more suitable King.

Truly a sad excuse of a king.)

Tiamat spoke with a tired tone.

“And I will take the throne and save the country for you? Is that one of the reasons you chose me to be your Proxy?”

(Yes. You who was educated on running a country, should be able to save this kingdom from further decline.)

“Well, I don't mind. But, I'll immediately leave after I stabilize the country.”

(Of course.)

Miko had already finished all of his morning routines, like washing up and straightening up his room, by the time he finished talking with Tiamat.

He was now heading to the entertainment room where the others were.

“Good Morning, Mikky!”

Upon opening the door he was greeted by Hinami with a hug.

“You're as cute ever I see.”

Hinami, who was taller than Miko, was rubbing his head as she said so. This annoyed him, but he didn't let it show on his face.

“Yo, Gamiko.”

“Good timing.”

Sora and Ace also called out to him upon seeing him entering the room.

“Today, is you and Hinami's turn to go shopping.”

“Yup. So, let's go Mikky!”

Without waiting for him to respond, Hina dragged Miko away from the entertainment room, and didn't stop until they left the house.

After being dragged around the city by Hina, a partially annoyed Miko was sitting in the town square waiting for her.

He looked at the people passing by.

“No matter how many years pass, I just can't get use to this mixture of medieval and modern settings.”

In this city, it was easy to tell who was poor and who was rich. All you needed to do was to look at their clothing.

The rich dressed modernly, while the poor dressed like they were from the Middle Ages.

It was social discrimination at its best.

“Hm?”

While those thoughts ran through his mind, Miko spotted Hina running towards him.

He thought that she was just fooling around like usual, until he looked at her facial expression.

She was scared.

Hina was running for her life to escape something.

When he saw that, Miko quickly got up to his feet.

It happened as he took the first step towards her.

*Flash* *Boom*

Half of the square was devoured by a blue light, followed by a sea of flames.

Miko stood in shock as the scene unfolded before his eyes.

The screams of people running away reached his ears.

“H-Hina!”

Miko run towards the flames and searched for Hina with his eyes.

“What just happened?! What the hell was that light?!”

Miko was extremely confused. Everything happened too fast.

The square that was lively just moments ago, now looked like a scene out of hell.

Burning corpses were everywhere. You couldn't even know the gender of some of them.

It was truly terrible.

Watching this, made something burn intensely in Miko's soul.

It was anger. It was anger at the fact that all of his efforts in the last three months might have been wasted, with that one blast.

“Who?! Which bastard did this?!”

He roared.

As if to answer him, Miko saw the blue light heading towards him.

It was a moment of carelessness. His anger clouded his judgement, and created a huge hole in his defenses. And now he was going to be devoured by the light.

“Mikky!”

But before it could, Miko felt his body being picked up off the ground.

In an instant, the scenery in front of his eyes changed from the demonic blue light to the blue sky.

“Huh? I'm floating?”

When Miko looked up, he saw Hinami with dove like wings on her back.

“Mikky, are you ok?!”

Miko who had a lot questions, looked down and saw that the entire town square had transformed into a sea of flames.

He asked the question that he believe was the most urgent.

“What the hell is going on?”

“When I left to buy something, I ran into the last person I wanted to meet!”

“Is it one of Darius’ men?”

“No, it was Darius himself!”

Hearing that, Miko quickly searched the sea of flames again. It didn't take long for him to spot a man dressed in a tuxedo, sitting at the same spot where Miko sat a few minutes ago.

The man was staring into the hell he created, with a satisfied look on his intimidating face.

He had black hair that he swept back with gel. Emerald eyes, and a scar under his right eye.

“So that's Darius. How did you run into him?”

“I'll tell you later! So let's get out of here!”

Hinami who continuously flapped the wings on her back to keep both she and Miko in the air, made a quick turn and flew in the opposition direction of Darius.

But she didn't get far.

“That's quite rude of you, Hinami. Trying to run away from a man, after he invited you to dance.”

Darius who was sitting in the sea of flames just a second ago, was now floating in front of them.

“Hina dodge!”

Miko's warning came too late.

Before Hina could react, Darius did a front flip in the air, and slam his heel in the center of her head.

Both Hina and Miko was sent crashing into the ground.

“Argh!”

Unbelievable pain ran through their bodies. It made them wonder why weren't they dead.

“You should've known better. A low-class brat isn't allowed to reject an invitation from a high-born noble like myself.”

As if he was a feather, Darius lightly returned to the ground.

He walked over to Hina and stepped on her stomach.

“It's been a while, Hinami. Is Klick doing a well?”

“….Y-You…killed him, you bastard….!”

Hinami tried her best to ignored the pain and roared at Darius.

“Oh, yeah. I missed him. He was an interesting old man.”

“You son of-- guh?!”

Darius sank his foot in Hinami's stomach, forcing out all the air in her lungs.

“That's no good, a lady shouldn't be so vulgar.”

He put force in his leg and twist his foot in her stomach.

“Aaaaaaaaahhh!”

“Good. Really good. A worm should stay under my feet, and not try to fly above me with that disgusting power of yours.”

Darius put more strength in his leg, and started to crush Hina's organs.

“Aaaaaaaahhhhh!”

He looked at the screaming Hinami and smirked.

And then-

*Crush*

The sound of bones crushing reached his ears.

But the sound didn’t come from Hinami.

“Oi, tuxedo bastard.”

It came from his leg.

A small hand wrapped in a violent purple aura, was crushing his ankle.

Darius calmly looked at who the hand belong to.

“Just who do you think you're stepping on?!”

It belong to an azure-haired child, with beast like purple eyes.

“You either remove your feet, or I’ll cut it off and force it down your throat.”

Anyone could tell that Miko was furious with just one look.

Darius looked at such a Miko, and started to think while ignoring his ankle.

‘This kid is from the Dragna Clan. He's weak, so it wouldn't take much to kill him. But that depends on which branch he belongs to. If he belongs to the King’s branch, then I could get away with killing him. I'll only need to pay extra for destroying the square. But if he belongs to the other branch…’

“Before I decided if I'll remove my foot or not, I'll need you to answer my question.”

“What?”

Miko responded while increasing the grip on Darius ankle. But Darius didn't pay it any mind.

“What's your name, Kid?”

Miko hesitated to answer for a bit, before deciding to take a gamble and state his name.

“Gamiko Dragna.”

“?!”

When he heard the name, the blood drained from Darius’ face.

‘Gamiko?! Then he's…..No, he's obviously too weak to be that one. He can't be the second either. Then he's the third? But I’ve never heard of a third. A fake?.....No, he looks exactly like them.’

Countless thoughts ran through Darius mind.

‘Well, this is a problem. I can't kill him here. If I do, I'll only die shortly after. If word of this reaches their ears, a civil war between the two branches would erupt. And then, the King would surely execute me, who caused it. Well, that's only if he isn't killed first.

But what about Hinami? If I let her go here, it will be hard to catch her again. Thanks to that spell Klick used on her, I can only approach her every three full moons. So if I don't kill her now, I won't be able to for another 3 months.

But this kid doesn't look like he would just watch me kill her. I would probably have to kill him to get to her…..What should I do?’

And then Darius made his decision.

He lift his foot off Hina's stomach. Seeing that, Miko released his grip.

Darius then turned around and started to walk away.

Because a lot of his bones were broken, Miko could only watch as Darius nonchalantly walked through the carnage he created.

Darius then stopped and spoke loud enough for Miko to hear.

“Kid, you should thank your grandfather the next time you see him. Since he's the reason you're still alive. However, this is an one time thing. There won't be a second time.”

With those words, Darius disappeared into the flames. Leaving a battered, Miko and Hina surrounded by in the sea of fire.

Later that day, in the high class district where the nobles lived.

Darius was walking down the street by himself. There was no one around except him.

That was how it was supposed to be.

“Yo, Darius.”

But suddenly, there was a shadowy figure standing in front of him.

Even though it was still daytime, Darius couldn't see any physical features.

He couldn't see the face, or any other parts of the body.

He could only see the silhouette of a man standing before him.

“Marco, huh. What do I owe the pleasure of having the King’s Guard Dog paying me a visit?”

“King’s Guard Dog....I never liked that name. Well, whatever. More importantly, I heard you went a bit wild in the town square. Do you know how many people you killed?”

“53, I think.”

“81. There were some who turned into ash.”

“Is that so? Then, are you here for payment for those 81 people?”

“No. Someone else will collect the money. I'm just here out of curiosity. What caused you to snap all of a sudden?”

“….I met Hinami. It was pure coincidence, but I took my chances. Although, I still couldn't kill her in the end.”

“Hinami? Ah. That girl who caused the deaths of over 100 people, when her power went of control.”

“Yup. I was trying to collect the debt her grandmother owed me, but she immediately ran away when she saw my face.”

“That must've pissed you off. Especially, considering the past the both of you share.”

“Yeah….Oh, why didn't you tell me that there was a third Gamiko?”

“Huh? What are you talking about? There's only two Gamikos. The original and his son.”

“I met a Dragna kid that called himself Gamiko Dragna. Other than the hair color, he looked just like them. Well, that and the fact that it was hard to tell if he was a boy or a girl.”

The silhouette that belonged to Marco placed his hand on his chin, as if to gesture that he was in deep thought.

“…..Hmmm….I did hear that the original’s daughter discarded her title, and ran off with my nephew. You know, the one who was kicked out, because he was too dangerous to have around.”

“So you're saying he could be their kid? Don't you think he could become a real monster in the future, considering his bloodline?”

“If you think so, you should've just killed him.”

“And then give that monster a reason to start war? No way. I don't want to see thousands of my clan members getting swallowed up in your war.”

“Smart decision….Hmm, it seems that King Dario is calling for me.”

“I see. Then later.”

“Try not to kill so much people next time. It's a pain to sooth the people's anger….Oh, hurry up and get rid of that girl if you know what's good for you. Otherwise your lingering feelings towards her, will cause you to self destruct.”

Saying that, the silhouette disappeared without a trace, leaving Darius alone in the streets.

“....Hinami won't caused me to self destruct. I can kill her whenever I want.”

With a frown,Darius continued to walk through the high class district.

“ But still, Gamiko Dragna the third, huh. First it was that old man Klick, and now him. Hinami sure knows how to find some strange bodyguards. Well, whatever. I'll just kill him too.”

Darius started whistling and continued to do so until he reached his home.