<>(Zack)<>

A gentle, chaotic warm surrounds me, something hard beneath me. Without opening my eyes, I know I'm lying on the Altar of Darkness. Carefully, I sit up, looking around. I'm alone in here, apart from Big Flame's presence.

The last thing I remember was Bryce dying, the Avatar attacking me. I reach behind myself and feel my back. My shirt's mended. I slip my hand under, feeling my skin. It doesn't feel damaged at all.

I slip off the altar and give it a bow.

"Thank you, Big Flame."

All I did was grant you energy, he responds. You did the rest on your own.

"What happened?"

You were afflicted by a powerful curse, he answers. That only Champions of Darkness can learn. Unfortunately, the only people able to cure it are Angels.

"Those exist?"

It's a Class, he tells me. It's locked to Ascension One and above, though, as it's a Rank 3 Class. It… wait, what?

"What?"

Zack?

"Big Flame?"

…

"Yes?" What's wrong. He sounds really confused. "Big Flame? Everything alright?"

I am so glad the others can't observe my sacred chambers.

"How come?"

Uh… you remember, don't you?

"Depends on what you're referring to."

The first time anyone in the Boundary has heard the term 'angel', shit. Was when I told Nik and them that it was the Class required to be able to cure you. You asked if they existed, yet couldn't have known. It's not one of those things that get an impression left behind. You know what angels are. You remember reality.

"Maybe a tad."

Big Flame sighs.

How are you feeling?

"Hungry."

Nik is sleeping for the first time in weeks, he tells me. Kulkul couldn't stay out. You have food in your inventory, and please, don't use my altar to cook. I meant how you feel from your injury.

"It's like it never happened," I say. "How did I heal it? You said it was all me, you just supplied me with the energy. Weren't you gone? Is everything fine there?"

No, he answers. Everything is not fine there. I had to abandon helping them in order to save you. As of two nights ago, there isn't a Dark Knight or Blood Priest left. Over the coming years, all knowledge of them will be altered or destroyed.

"You… why did you give up on them?" I ask, feeling my Rage boiling. "You could have saved them! Why'd you let me live instead?"

Knowledge can be restored, he says. And though their lives were lost, I judged you as being more valuable than them. They were my children, much like you, but you are more important. You are the one who changes the tides of war. Yes, your destiny from the prophecy is not to end the war, but to be what signals the change in it here, with the coming battle. Yes, prophecies can be ignored, as they aren't set in stone.

However, he continues. When you remove prophecies, when you remove destiny from the equation, you are far greater than a dozen Dark Knights and Blood Priests. You are an impossible being, Zack. There have only ever been two of your kind that we've been aware of, including yourself.

"Two of my kind?" I ask, and the flames on the altar compact, growing smaller, but denser. "Sir?"

Remember, when you were told about a Child of Existence?

"Yes."

In order for you to exist in the Boundary, he continues. You must have a Divine Heritage. Everyone has one. It affects the things you align with most. Most of the prodigious healers are descended of the Divine of healing and nurturing. Nathan Normar has attuned himself to his Divine Heritage quite heavily, waking up a large part of it. That is what makes him such a powerful healer, and so fast at is. Unlike most alive today, his father actually is a Divine. I can list twenty-seven names among the many worlds and all the people in the Boundary with a parent who is a Divine. Twenty-six.

"Twenty-six?"

Yes, he answers. One of them died recently within the Boundary. This Boundary.

"Oh," I look down. "There's a lot of that going around."

It was your half-brother.

My… what?

"Sir?" I look at his flames. "My half-brother?"

Indeed. Your 'father' is not the man you believe him to be. Genetically, you two have no connection. Your real father is existence itself. It is the cause of your violet magics, and your impossible growth rate. We are only aware of your existences after you die, we have learned. You were a shock to us, when we first sensed you, with you dying. Then your brother showed up, and we were stunned.

"My brother only joined the Boundary recently?" I ask. "After me?"

Indeed. Your brother, Zack, was Bryce.

Bryce was my half-brother? How, though? How come I didn't know about him? How come-

Do not ask questions, Big Flame interrupts my thoughts before I can voice them. Because I do not have them, myself. We are unsure if your father has had any other children. Normally, he simply spawns them into existence as Divine, but it's been… well… an eternity. Why he chose to mate with mortal women, we are unsure.

I'm still really confused.

"Wait," a question comes to mind. "Is that how you knew that I was the Adventurer from the prophecy?"

It is, indeed, he answers, his flames returning to normal. A part of the prophecy that has been lost to time was the mentioning of the Child of Existence. Until we detected you, we were completely unsure of how that would ever happen, as Existence never mated with mortals, and seemed to have no intention of doing so.

"You guys aren't Divine?" I ask.

We are not, he answers. We are something else entirely. You should be going, Zack – you need to eat.

And you need to rest, Big Flame. I give him a small bow, then turn and leave the chamber, making my way to the kitchens to prepare myself a meal. Once I'm stuffed, I leave the Dark Temple.

Bryce was my half-brother… and we didn't know. And now, he's dead. I wasn't strong enough to protect us, wasn't strong enough to prevent him from dying. Had I been stronger, I could have taken on that horde and not been chased away. Had I been stronger, we wouldn't have had to flee.

Had I been stronger, we could have made so many more memories together, become stronger together, and he'd still be alive, walking with me, here with me right now.

Here with me…

Here…

How did I get here? I remember reaching within myself, wanting to summon a meteor, but… I don't remember anything after that. I blacked-out. Big Flame mentioned that Nik hasn't slept in weeks, and it's a lot colder. The streams through the City are frozen, and there's a good layer of snow on the ground.

How did I return to Maelnor? How did I survive? Who could have possibly rescued me from a horde so large? How long will it be before it's safe for me to venture into the forest once more?

"ZACKYYYYYYY!" A high-pitched voice yells, and I turn to find Jesse charging at me down the street, his arms out, as if he wants to hug me.

Oh, shit!

I run as hard as I can, but I'm not fast enough, feeling myself scooped up into the air and squeezed tight against him, spun around.

"You're awake!" He squeals as I try to breathe. "Nik didn't let us know! Yay! How do you feel? Are you okay? Did you gain a Title from that? What all did you gain? How do you feel? Do you have a headache?"

"Can't… breathe!"

"Oh!" He relaxes a little, and I slip out of his grip and take several steps back, gasping for air. "Sorry, Zacky! I was just so worried, after seeing you suffering from Blood Scar after wiping out such a massive horde of Monsters! Surely you earned a Title from that, right!"

"How long was I out, Pervert?" I ask.

"Three and a half weeks!"

Shit. I lost three and a half weeks of time. That means the Turkey Patriarch should be here soon, and I'm not strong enough to handle it… not on my own…

I wish Bryce was still here. Together, by now, we'd be strong enough to handle it. Especially if we'd managed to train all this time. It'd be a breeze.

"Chin up, Zacky!" Jesse tells me.

"Bryce…"

"Get stronger for him!" He tells me. "You can't change the past, but you can forge the future!"

Forge…

Forge…

Forge…

I turn and start walking, Jesse following me and rapidly asking questions. After ten minutes, I find myself at Jackson's forge, stopping and staring at the door to it as words Jesse spoke come back to me.

He mentioned that I should have gotten something, and looking at the ever-present Health and Mana values in my view, I can tell that I definitely gained a couple of Levels to Dark Knight, though my Mana shot up insanely high. It more than doubled, and now sits at 1,610 Maximum Mana. It's more than double my Health.

I pull up my status.

Character Information Dark of Fire Name: Zack Primary Class: Dark Warrior Level: 20 Unavailable: Unavailable Title: None Unavailable: Unavailable Health: 700/700 Mana: 1,610/1,610 Strength: 48 Intellect: 27 Endurance: 42 Willpower: 21 Vitality: 70 Wisdom: 161 Agility: 48 Perception: 40

Holy shit. That's right, I also hit Level 20, which meant I received my every-five bonus, as well as the Adventurer bonus. Why did I gain so much Experience, though? Jesse mentioned something about a Title…

There it is, a new Title. Destroyer of Hordes, awarded for slaying more than ten thousand monsters by oneself in a single fight. For destroying a horde.

How, though? How did I manage such a feat? I'm nowhere near powerful enough, and even my new Skill, or spell, or whatever, Meteor, shouldn't have been powerful enough to kill everything there. I aimed it at the City, at the, the… the thing.

The Avatar of the Shadow of Life. I aimed it at that. Now, though, I know it was foolish. You can't attack through the City's border, even after the City Barrier is destroyed. City Barriers prevent Monsters from entering or inhabiting it, but it's something else, an inherent property of the place, that prevents magic and attacks from passing through.

It's still alive…

It's not like I could have killed it.

"Pervert," I say, and Jesse stops his barrage of questions. "You were there?"

"After!" He exclaims. "We realized that you and Bryce hadn't come back when the sun was down, and Travis noticed what appeared to be a horde, so he rushed back. The team gathered together and went to rescue you, only to find the mother of all Meteors in the sky! You used raw emotion and borrowed Mana from the future to wipe out the horde with a single attack, all while dying from the Blood Scar! It was amazing! We could feel it from miles away! They told us when they returned that they had seen the Meteor herein Maelnor and that the wind from the shockwave had even reached the walls of the City! You destroyed almost a full mile of the forest, too!"

Considering the forest is a couple dozen miles across, that's not much overall, but… damn. I did all of that?

"Your spell was even powerful enough," he continues, his voice growing higher-pitched. "That it completely overrode the inherent power that protects Cities and prevents attacks from passing through! You even wiped out a part of it! Not much, though, because the force absorbed much of it, but it was still impressive! And the crater – oh, the crater! That was massive, Zacky!"

I… actually destroyed part of Kaelmar with that spell? How, though? Even raw emotion shouldn't be powerful enough for that, right?

"Was it there?" I ask the important question.

"Was what there, Zacky?" He asks. "The Meteor? No, it faded away, as you weren't powerful enough to have formed it that quickly and given it a permanent form!"

"No," I say. "In the City. Was it there? The Avatar of the Shadow of Life."

Jesse doesn't answer for several long seconds.

"Yes," he answers, nearly-breaking character. "Yes, it was, Zacky! So was Bryce's body."

So… that didn't destroy it. If Bryce's corpse was still there… then it shielded itself. That might be part of why it didn't affect as much of the City as it could have.

It also means that I can find my brother's Fallen Adventurer form and purge it from this world, giving him peace. I wish my spell had done that already, had destroyed his corpse so he wouldn't return.

I need to get stronger. I will get stronger. When I do, I will return to Kaelmar, I will kill that bastard, and I will put my brother to rest.