Before Astra was knocked away, he had surrounded his body with wind, hoping that it could act as some form of armor. Astra sensed that he was still alive, so the armor had worked to an extent.

Astra struggled to open his eyes. Nothing appeared in his vision. Pitch black darkness all around. He didn’t even know if his eyes were open. There was no sensation in his body. No pain, no aches, nothing at all. Astra tried to shout. No sound came out, nothing was heard.

All of a sudden, a pair of electric blue eyes appeared in front of Astra.

Who…? Astra thought to himself.

Another pair of the same eyes appeared.

Then another one.

And one more.

In an instant, hundreds of electric blue eyes surrounded Astra. Gazing at him intensely.

“Survive…” A voice echoed.

“Grow strong…” another voice boomed.

“Avenge us…”

Hundreds of voices started repeating these same lines, slowly increasing in volume and intensity.

“SURVIVE. GROW STRONG. AVENGE US.”

These words penetrated Astra’s very soul.

The voices reverberated at a tempo, almost like a heartbeat.

Astra began to feel his heart thumping to the rhythm of the voices.

As the voices grew louder, Astra felt like his heart was going to explode.

Suddenly, everything turned white.

Astra opened his eyes.

THUD. THUD. THUD.

The ogre was slowly limping its way towards him.

Astra was laying on the ground. His right arm was broken. His left leg had a huge gash on it and streams of blood gushed out.

Astra felt an overwhelming desire to live. He felt like he had to do something important. The jade blue pendent glowed ever so slightly.

A scream filled with unknown energy came from Astra.

His hair turned azure, crackling with sparks of lightning. His eyes became electric-blue, bolts of light flickering in his pupils.

Astra felt reinvigorated with energy. He got up and stared at the ogre.

The ogre immediately swung his tree.

To Astra, the tree was moving slower than before, almost at a snail’s pace.

Astra took a step forward and transformed into a surge of light. He seemed to pass through the ogre’s body, appearing right behind it.

He clutched his hand. It was surrounded by blue sparks.

Astra stabbed his hand through the ogre.

BUZZZZZ. The ogre was being electrocuted.

“ARGHH!! GRRR!!....” The ogre growled and grunted.

The ogre slumped over and hit the ground. Its body became a mangled piece of burnt flesh.

Astra’s hair returned to black and his electric-blue eyes went reverted to onyx.

A spray of bloody mist came from Astra’s mouth as he slumped to the ground.

Roussel stopped chopping wood as he saw a silhouette coming towards him.

“You’re early today, Astra. What’s wrong?” asked Roussel.

“H-Help…me…” The silhouette came into view and revealed a man limping, blood dripping from his clothes. The man fainted as he took another step.

Roussel quickly ran over and held up the unconscious man. He took the man and carried him back to the house.

“Darcy! We have an emergency!” shouted Roussel as he kicked open the door.

“What’s wro-” Darcy ran up to the man and examined him.

“What happened? Quick, set him down on the bed.”

Roussel gently placed the man down on the straw bed.

“Where did you find this man?” asked Darcy.

Roussel replied, “He was limping out of the forest.”

“The forest? Isn’t Astra training in the forest...?” Darcy said out loud.

“Oh no…” Roussel immediately ran out in search of Astra.

If it weren’t for that incident, Darcy could have immediately healed the man and interrogated him for information. Darcy sighed. With her fragile body, she couldn’t search for Astra if she wanted to.

Two days passed.

Roussel would return with a dejected face every night.

The next morning, the injured man awakened and groaned in pain.