“Haha!” Hearing how irritated King Mortimer had become, Darwin could only laugh. He knew if he stayed any longer, he really might lose his neck. He turned around and walked away in giant strides towards an empty corner of the room. Just when it looked like he was about to walk into the wall, a shadow seemed to come to life and engulf him, slowly pulling him in. Before disappearing into the shadows, he left a few words for King Mortimer.

“I’m off to the battlefield, little Hilde. Keep that fella on a tight leash, haha!” he said with a burst of laughter.

Darwin was a descendant of a hero known as the Shadow King. He could go in and out of shadows as he pleased. The Shadow King was a nightmare to deal with on the battlefield. Once when the Shadow King had become truly enraged, he pulled an entire beast village into the shadows, taking only an hour to slaughter the village.

“I’ll be on my way too,” Edwin said as he bowed before King Mortimer.

“Very well, I hope to hear good news from you soon.”

“I hope I can deliver good news to you.” A beautiful blue hued light wrapped around him, and within seconds, he was gone.

Edwin was the decadent of a hero with the ability to teleport himself and others to places he had seen before. Even though his talent was not the strongest, it was still one to be feared. Once when an assassin almost killed his son, he spent weeks tracking down the attempted killer, and when he found him, he did not immediately take action but followed him back to the assassin den, and in the dead of night, he dropped an entire mountain on top of the cave.

With both Edwin and Darwin gone, he gathered his things and smiled bitterly.

“Flashy bastards.” he said in a small voice.

Unlike those two who both had flashy exits, he could only use his two feet to walk to the door and make his way to his bedroom.

***

In an isolated area, some distance away from the castle, a man was punching a boulder the size of a small mountain. His hair was completely disheveled, his eyes were bloodshot, and the clothing that he wore was covered in blood. His fists were drenched in his blood. As the man wildly hit, blood flew everywhere, covering himself and the surrounding area around him. His injured fists kept getting worse with each strike to the boulder, but the man did not seem to care as he continued to punch the rock.

Eerie laughter could be heard coming from the man from time to time, along with small mutters.

The area around the boulder was usually gorgeous during the day. Some children from a nearby village had discovered the spot and chosen it to make their meeting spot, so they had made the area look very beautiful. It was the middle of the night, and with a fog so dense, the man could barely see three feet in front of him. The moonlight flickered between the trees, penetrating through the thick fog. The blood that was scattered everywhere glinted in the moonlight while the ill-minded man talked and laughed with himself, looking like a scene straight out of a horror movie.

After a while, the man stopped punching the boulder and just stood there, tilting his head back as if admiring the sky. If one were to look closer, they would have realized that the man standing there was Aalot, who had remained mainly out of sight since his plan to get Avelina failed.

While Aalot was standing there, something strange happened to the blood that was scattered everywhere. It slowly began to move towards Aalot, floating up and circling him. Even the blood that had dried on his clothing liquified and floated around him.

Within the next moment, the blood started moving towards his injured fist, reentering his body through his wounds.

Aalot was the descendant of a hero with the power to control blood, his family could make their blood hard enough to cut most magical equipment. Still, the scariest thing about this hero was that he also could control the blood of other people terrifying both enemies and allies. It was also well known that something was off about that hero, who was renowned for becoming out of control for no reason at any given time and injuring himself and others. When the hero mysteriously died, many people from both sides were glad, but it seemed that the same wild behavior was passed down to some of his descendants every now and then. This caused many of the other noble family to scorn and ridicule the Vaughan family for being a family that produces crazy people.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

After a while, Aalot once again began punching the boulder. But this time, he used his mana to reinforce his fists, now cracking the stone with each hit.

“How dare they treat me this way! How am I not good enough for her? Even if she were to become a cripple, I still wouldn’t be worthy of her.” A crude smile appeared on Aalot’s face.

“Haha, I’ll show you who is not worthy of who!” The intensity in which he hit the boulder increased.

“Stupid King, the only achievement of yours is the crown on your head. Idiots like you should realize that kings do not remain kings once their head leaves their shoulders. Haha!”

And with that outburst, the boulder the once resembled a small mountain was leveled to the ground.

“And Ave, you slut. Just you wait, one day you will be mine. Haha!” All that could be heard for the entire night was manic laughter coming from Aalot.