Vassel’s POV & Story

Is there an upper bound of how strong can one be?

This question always comes back and haunts me.

When I was little I thought I was the strongest. I could easily beat up all the other children.

I was scolded for my behaviour, they called me a Halfling and a monster. I never cared.

I ran away from the orphanage and then truly learnt how big the world is.

Since I was good at fighting, I wanted to join a mercenary group. But no mercenary group wants to keep children.

I struggled and struggled, no matter how many times I pleaded or begged, no mercenary group hired me.

I challenged them to duels only to be mercilessly beaten into the ground. It was unimaginable. I was the strongest in the neighbourhood, then how did it come to this. I can’t even defeat girls of these guilds.

My pride took a hammering but I learnt the wrong lesson; I was weak because I was young.

As time passed by, it became difficult to survive. I had no job and no money. I had to beg for food.

I was so hungry as I roamed the streets, I did not believe stealing was right but I don’t want to die. I would steal from food stalls and run for my life. Soon store owners called me the little bandit.

I was happy with my title and they didn’t seem to mind me.

But nothing good comes being bad. I became bolder and bolder, took more than what I needed.

After food, it became clothes and then money.

I am now a young adult. I am as strong as any adult.

I am invited to many mercenary guilds but I like being a bandit. I am my own boss…no boss of the world. I abide no rules and make my own. People fear the strong and people fear me because I am strong.

But I learnt even a town is a small place to be king of.

A warrior visited the town and I challenged him to a duel.

He was only human but there was something about him I hated; his calm demeanour? He looked rich?

He beat me mercilessly into the ground. He was faster and stronger than anything I had fought before. His beating reminded me of the time I was a child but I am no longer a child. I did not understand how could he beat me.

I left town that day. I want to grow stronger. I want to be the strongest. This hunger for strength is driving me crazy.

I roamed the continent for another ten years, I fought every warrior I could challenge strong ones and weak ones. There were many defeats but there were many victories too. With time, when I ran out off warriors, I turned to the wastelands. I joined mercenary guilds which hunted in wastelands.

I fought countless monsters…I fought and fought till I became the strongest in the guild.

I was offered many senior positions but I turned them down. None of those positions made me stronger, instead they took me away from my to become strong.

I fought more and more, till I became the strongest in all the guilds.

I was offered to be the leader of the mercenary guild association but I was hungry….still so hungry. If I am the strongest in the continent, then why not become Emperor? Surely, I will get to fight many more strong opponents that way...even those in the Alliance?

I have also grown wiser, I know I can’t become Emperor on my own. I need friends and comrades. I need to take over one city at a time.

My close friend Sliver advised me to get more money. If we need help, we need more than comrades we need soldiers and mercenaries.

I became a bandit once more. It is funny how things take a full circle.

I became the most notorious bandit ever.

Then, one day in my greed I attacked a royal caravan. That is when I met him.

He had silver hair and silver eyes. He wore a blood shot coloured red tailcoat and white full sleeve shirt even though it was summer. He radiated of brilliance….and a cold cold malice. I didn’t have to be strong to know how strong that man was. I was like an ant compared to that man’s existence.

That is when I realized the world is truly a large place.

I was recognized for my skills by the one I now know as the Cardinal.

He was one of the hundred familiars of the Old Emperor. All of them just as strong as him…I shivered not one but one hundred.

Could I ever be that strong?

The Cardinal taught me many things; not just how to fight but reading and writing.

The Cardinal educated me. He told me about the world and how many strong people are out there.

I am truly wiser now.

I am now the leader of the group known as the ‘Purple Shadows’ and we are answerable only to his Imperial Majesty – Third King of Feladonia and great grandson of the Old Emperor.

I am no longer hungry for strength.

No.

I have just given on up on it.

In this crazy world, there are some people whose strength no matter how much we train can never attain.

Is this what is called becoming wiser? After having learnt everything, I can conclude that the Cardinal is the strongest being in this world.

Or at least that is what I thought.

Right now, this very moment…I am seeing a man. He looks a lot like the Cardinal because he wears similar black clothes…but he is very different.

I can tell by just looking, the difference between him and me is that of heaven and the earth.

The Cardinal would be no more than an ant to him and me no more than a speck of dust.

I might be the only one amongst the Purple Shadows who recognizes him.

This man never ever comes down here….he never leaves the side of the Emperor of the Old.

He is the Regent of Cardinals - Sebastian D’ Etaif and someone has pissed him of.

May God watch over that miserable fool’s soul.