“Are you sure you want me to do it? We’ve researched it, and there are no talks of success. If anything, all the information discourages trying it out.”

I looked at her. Valgrathan was so afraid he couldn’t even comprehend our talk. “Aurora. If we don’t do this now, we’re going to lose a lot more than The Capital.”

Aurora sighed, nodding. She stepped in front of me, placing hands on my shoulders, focusing. Nothing happened. "Fuck."

"So?" I murmured. She shook her head. "Well, let's try the other way."

She stared at me, fighting against instincts. “Alright. But please, never tell Loid of this.”

“If I survive,” I said, nodding. Something told me that he would understand, but it wasn't time to argue.

Aurora’s lips got closer to mine, and she kissed me.

Now, before getting to the point — I have now kissed many women. It's ridiculous what title can give you. But there was a reason for it. When it comes to manipulating essence within other people's bodies, touch is not always enough. Sometimes it requires a more intimate approach. And let me tell you; the kiss isn't the strongest method.

Time almost stopped. I could feel her magical essence entering my body, going through my veins, searching for something. It was nothing like with her touch. My every muscle reacted for a moment when essence went through them.

And then I felt it. There was a closed gate with a large lock, deep within me. Behind the gate was darkness, filled with burning candles. We could both probably feel or even see it. Aurora’s pushed her lips against mine harder. I could feel an enormous amount of her essence coming in, going straight towards that lock. And yes, I am aware it sounds so dirty. And then the essence transformed into a key, entering inside that lock.

Click.

She pulled her lips away, blushing like crazy. Her fingers moving over her lips. She began to breathe heavily. Keeping up two magic at once wasn't that easy.

Valgrathan's terrified expression changed. He was confused, not entirely understanding what happened.

Fear magic can be pretty terrific. But if we had attacked, the demon would've still defended, resulting in no progress.

“Huh? What was that? And what's with you and kissing women in front of me, in the middle of the battle?” he said, looking at me. That demon had a point, making me chuckle.

“Thank you,” I said to Aurora. “You won’t tell Alice and Aldrynte, and I won’t tell Loid. This is a promise!”

She nodded, turning around and running away.

“And what’s with people running away all the time?” The shadow demon moaned, leaning down. “That’s it. I'm tired of this battle. I’m now going to destroy you, Hero.”

I sighed. “You’ve told me that too many times now. I can't take you seriously anymore.”

Two large hands, full of razor-sharp knives moved towards me and Aurora. I touched my sword's handle.

“This is crazy,” I mumbled, a wide smile appearing on my face. I began to laugh, unsheathing my sword with a flash. Never-seen-before light spread throughout the night. It was even brighter than that evening with Alwine. Valgrathan hissed, surprised by the light. It was probably even more intense than daylight. With one sharp movement and wide swing, a broad light flashed through Valgrathan's hand and upper body. The sword turned immediately colorless, as I had used it all up, making me unsheathe the sword once more.

Every single Valgrathan’s undead soldiers stopped moving, including Qildor. All the soldiers, the king — who was now injured — and Alwine looked at me.

“What the fuck?” Valgrathan screamed. Half of his upper body turned into the shadow, but his remaining shadow replaced his upper body immediately. His size decreased by half immediately. “Damn you, Hero. It hurts!” he screamed.

I laughed, feeling the power within me. Valgrathan threw a sharp look at me. For the first time, the demon climbed out of the hole, revealing an even bigger massive shadow body that was underground. His body began to grow back to his previous size. He had been hiding most of his reserve under the sewers. “I’m going to fucking kill you! I'm going to butcher you! I’ll turn you into a lump of meat and feed you to lesser demons!”

I personally couldn't see it, but according to later stories, my eyes had turned golden, spreading light in front of me and towards the demon. And all I had was that large grin. I began to run, my body feeling light. I had insanely fast speed, and I had no problems controlling it.

Hundreds of hands flew out Valgrathan’s body, flying towards me like needles. But like a flash, I dodged most of them, while unsheathing my sword once more, cutting down the others. It was weird, almost as time had slowed down. I could see light’s movement normally, while the shadow demon moved in slow-motion.

“Hero!” Valgrathan screamed. More needles came out, chasing me. All I did was run away, letting the needles chase me. I could feel the light whirling around my body, helping me out and destroying some of the needles that managed to catch up. But most importantly, I was laughing like crazy. It was an adrenaline rush. I could get addicted to this feeling. I had forgotten everything. I had forgotten about Aldrynte and Alice. I had forgotten about those who were watching me, shocked. All I cared about was destroying that demon in front of me. And I even wasn't sure why. I just had to.

“Valgerian,” I screamed, stopping, and sliding to below the needles, cutting then like a weed. The sword began to glow even brighter. It turned so bright that the needles alone couldn't handle the light, turning into mist. Valgrathan was terrified. For the first time, he felt the instinct to run, escape. But my sword began to turn brighter, twice as bright than before.

“It's Valgrathan! Damn. Damn you all!” Valgrathan screamed, starting to run towards the sewer hole to hide.

“Where… are… you… going?” I said slowly, gathering even more energy around my legs, sprinting next to the demon. “Didn’t you want to play?” I asked.

“You’re insane!”

“Am I really now? That’s… rude,” I said, almost tears running down. I could feel every emotion a lot more intensely. “But it’s time to really end this game. You hurt my most precious things. All those things I care about; you hurt them. And nobody… fucking… touches… something that I care about.” I shouted as my eyes began to spread as much light as my sword.

Valgrathan screamed as I flashed in front of Valgrathan and pushed the sword into his body. And the night turned dark once more. But the sword inside Valgrathan's body began to spread it's light inside - like veins lighting up. And then the whole body spread light like the sword itself.

Valgrathan was screaming, shouting, cursing every moment of it. He knew very well what was going to happen next.

But the light coming out of the demon got even more intense. Every stone that was close to us began to heat up, turning red. Some of the nearby wood caught fire. Every surviving fighter on the battlefield hid behind the debris.

“Impossible!” he shrieked, his whole body turning into mist. Some of his body still tried to generate needles and penetrate me, since I was next to him. But they all just broke immediately.

“It was going to be my reign!” he spat his last words, looking at me. There was an explosion of his body, blasting me far away as well. I could feel my body hitting someone else's body. And then we flew together even further away. But whoever had arms around me was in control. “Hang in there, Hero!” a whisper reached me. Alwine was not letting me take any damage. We stopped, and then there was silence. I could feel her cold water creating endless steam around me. She was trying to cool down my body. And it felt wonderful.

I opened my eyes, barely, looking at the location where the demon had been not that long time ago. There was no shadow demon left. The army of the dead was unmoving, like dead bodies. Those who had been hiding around began to move out, clap, shout.

“You did it, Hero,” Alwine whispered, letting me go and stand by myself. She took a step back.

I looked at the massive hole that was created by the shadow demon’s explosion, panting heavily. "We won. We really-"

Everything began to turn black. I could feel Alwine catching me once more, laying me gently down. Aurora ran towards us, crying. “Hiro!” she shouted, kneeling down next to me.

Others began to surround me. The time began to speed up — very opposite of what had just happened moments ago. And then I could hear Aldrynte’s and Alice’s voice. I remembered them. I knew them very well. I loved them, after all.

“What?” instinct Aldrynte's shout reached me. “You did what?”

Ah. I knew what was happening. Aurora was explaining what she had done. I could feel their hands, holding mine. But the feeling began to go away. I couldn’t feel my body anymore. And the vision was long gone. I could only hear, and even that became harder and harder.

More time passed. “Is he going to be alright?” I could hear Aldrynte’s crying voice. Her sweet voice. It was sweet even if she was crying.

"Is there anything we can do?" Alice's voice reached me.

“No. He’s on his last breath. Nobody has ever come out from complete depletion of magical essence.”

I knew the risks. We had secretly talked about it with Aurora. We had theorized. After all, her power was very intriguing. And before coming here, I had told her that we were going to try it out if nothing else worked.

But it was a very small price to pay. My life wasn't worth more than the capital, the country, and humanity. And it was the most heroic thing I could do. I wanted to give them a future. I wanted to give a future to Alice and Aldrynte. I wanted to give future tho all those students.

It was my time to go. As a shut-in boy, I had done more than I could. Or so I believed. It was time to end the story of the nameless hero.

I could feel my body turning cold. I could still hear them, but their voices had turned into mumbles. And then shivers arrived. And then I stopped hearing anything.

And then I died.