Looking at the map given to him by Kira, Daelos looked at the large area circled in red.

“Are you really going to train at a beast-men tribe?”

“Yeah, Kira said that if I want to strengthen my body, then training with beast-men would be my best bet.”

“Hopefully they don’t kill you on sight.”

“Things are different from mage Lyla’s time. Beast-men are now practically civilised. Heck they may even be more bearable than humans and elves.”

“You have problems with humans and elves?”

“I wouldn’t say problems. It just that humans see everything based on ones social standing whereas elves see everything based on race.”

“I get how you’d see humans like that but didn’t the elves at the academy treat you well.”

“Seriously? Most of them look at me like I’m a lower class lifeform.”

For the next three weeks Daelos and Lyla journeyed on through dense forests and grassy plains. After encountering wolves, abnormal bears, and giant gorillas, Daelos decided that before he reached his destination he would only train his mental energy and use it during combat.

…

In a dense forest on the outskirts of the Beast-men territory.

A young man carrying a leather backpack could be seen treading along a muddy path.

“How long till you get there?” Inside the Agnos Requiem Lyla sat while playing with her hair.

“We should be in the area by tomorrow night.” Looking down at his map he confirmed their current position.

“Urgh this is taking too long!”

“Your one to talk, aren’t you just relaxing inside the Agnos Requiem?”

“Tsk” Kissing her teeth, she kept herself quiet.

“Did you just kiss your teeth at me?”

Before he could get an answer a voice sounded from above. “Oh a human! It’s been a while since I last tasted one.”

Hearing the coquettish tone in the mysterious voice, Daelos felt the hairs on his body stand up. Raising his guard to critical he desperately looked around trying to spot the origin of the voice. Seeing the human desperately search for its position, the owner of the bashful voice dropped down from a tree and landed on the ground behind him with little to no sound.

Feeling that something wasn’t right, Daelos cautiously looked around him until he caught sight of a figure standing behind him hidden by the shadow of a tree. “Who are you?”

“Me? I’m just someone passing by. But I must say your quite fortunate to run into me.”

Not lowering his guard for an instance Daelos quietly prepared an earth spike under the mysterious figure. “Why am I fortunate?”

“Daelos be careful he’s dangerous!” Hearing the seriousness in Lyla’s voice, he couldn’t help but feel solemn while facing the mysterious figure.

“Lyla if I start fighting will my mental state be affected?” Thinking back to his training with Kira, he couldn’t help but remember the words that caused a crack in his mind space.

…

*3 months ago*

After another hard day of spartan-like training from Kira, Daelos felt his body once again ache all over as he lay silently on the library roof. After every training session finished, he’d head up here and look out into the distance and remember that he wasn’t going home. This strange feeling caused him to recall all the pain and sorrow caused to him by his people. The oppressive feeling of being lorded over and looked down upon pressured him to point of wanting to commit suicide. The only thing that kept him going was the love and care shown to him by his parents. But even then that was barely enough. Because of his below average intelligence not only was he publicly shamed but so were his parents. Friends and family stopped speaking to them, the neighbours gossiped behind their backs and their employers indirectly made their lives harder. Not long after this, his parents planned to split up.His father ended up going off world leaving him behind with his mother. Unable to deal with the stress caused by her job, she eventually took out her anger on a young Daelos. At first he resented her, but whenever he heard his mother crying herself to sleep all he could feel was rage towards himself for causing his mother such distress.

Everyday he’d sit up here alone and recall these memories. Everyday he’d wonder if his mother and father ever got back together and were now living a better life now that he was gone.

“So this is where you go after training.”

Looking over his shoulder the sight of Kira standing behind him filled his eyes. “What’s with that mopey look on your face?” Seeing his remorseful appearance she couldn’t help but ask.

“Why did you take me with you when you left Breamore?” Ignoring her question, he decided to ask one of his own.

“Because you landed a hit on Egon.”

“Hehe…After training with you I know the display I showed back then was less than enough for you to view me as someone with potential.”

Hearing the mocking tone in his voice she couldn’t help but look at him seriously before replying. “Truthfully what you said isn’t wrong. What you showed that day wasn’t nearly enough to impress me. If anything I guess you could say I was embarrassed to see you fight. But as I saw you struggle against the overwhelming odds I felt that we were similar?”

“Similar? I don’t think you understand how different we are. Your someone who’s unrestrained, free, you can go anywhere, do anything and at the end of the day no matter what you do, people will respect you because your powerful.”

*Sigh* “Power comes with a cost.” Sitting down next to him she looked off into the distance before continuing. “When I was little I lived in a small village far from the kingdom of Alswin. It was an ordinary village, nothing special about it. my family owned a farm and every once in a while I’d help out. One day a travelling mage came to my village and tested everyone’s comprehension abilities. When it was my turn it was said that my comprehension ability was the worst in the entire village.” Smiling to herself a forlorn expression appeared on her face. “Back then that mage disregarded me and focused on the other children. One day while he was touring the village he saw me use a wind blade to chop a piece of fire wood. After that he questioned my parents and discovered that one of my ancestors was an elf with something called the elf king bloodline. Apparently although my blood and body was that of a human, the power that stemmed from the elf king bloodline managed to remerge within my body despite the fact that there was no trace of any elvish qualities since my ancestors time. Because of this my aptitude for being a mage was quite high and once I understood more about laws my future would be limitless.” Up to this point Daelos realised that her voice was emotionless and that her face suddenly hardened.

“Deciding that he’d take me in as an apprentice he forced my parents to give me up. Refusing his offer, he looked towards me and asked me the same question. At the time I was just child, I didn’t want to be separated from my parents or leave the village which was my whole world. The mage must have realised this because after refusing him, he burned my parents alive and caused an earthquake that swallowed my village. I sat there and watched as my parents flesh was charred and blackened. I listened to the screams of my friends as they were slowly being crushed and buried alive. After he finished destroying my world the mage forcibly took me to the Breamore academy and he and his colleagues of old men experimented on me trying to extract the elvish power residing in my body… They cut me up numerous times, injected me with all sorts of drugs and whenever they were free they’d toy around with my body.”

Listening to this point Daelos could hear the hatred permeating from her voice.

“When I was 12, I managed to escape. I ran and ran as far as I could, never looking back. Eventually I found a small town east of Breamore and lived there for the next two years. The people were nice and extremely welcoming. I even made a friend called Maria. Sadly those days were short lived. It turned out that I had a rather large bounty on my head from the Breamore academy. Once a villager found out, he informed the mage academy and had them send over some people to retrieve me. At first the villagers were reluctant to let them take me but after hearing how much they’d be paid for their service, they handed me over without a second thought. Even my only friend Maria who I considered as someone who was trustworthy only thought of thought of her own benefits as she and the other beat me until I could no longer resist before tossing me out of the house.”

“What happened?”

“After I saw the greedy look in their eyes I remembered how the mages at the academy had the same look as they experimented on me. Just remembering caused something to snap in me…I killed them all. I lost control and tore them to shreds! I cut off their legs and arms, then I used a rocks I found on the floor to repeatedly bash their heads in until my face was covered in their blood. The mages sent by the academy couldn’t do anything except watch. I trapped their heads in a ball of condensed air and stopped them breathing. Of course they tried to free themselves but whenever they got close I’d stab them in the gut with one of the knives I found inside the houses. Eventually only Maria was left... I still remember the look in her eyes. She looked at me as if I was a monster. She screamed and begged for her life. She even went as far as pissing herself while trying to crawl away. Seeing how powerless she was before me, I was reminded of the day the mage destroyed my village. Just like Maria I sat and watched as my whole world was torn apart. I watched my family and friends get crushed, heard their pitiful wails and screams, and finally silence. But unlike me Maria wouldn’t survive… Humans are funny creatures. They sing songs of honour and friendship but won’t hesitate to betray you. They’ll stab you in the back and then ask you why your bleeding. They’re untrustworthy greedy demons that need to be exterminated!”

Her words were practically dripping with rage as her eyes harden when she stared out at the horizon.

“Daelos… when I was a child I was scared that a monster lived under my bed. But every night before I fell asleep, my father would check and confirm there wasn’t anything there. But as I grew up, I realised that humans were far scarier than any kind of monster… What I’m trying to say is when I saw you fight against Egon I felt the same kind of hatred emanating from you. I felt that like me, you endured pain that most people will never understand. Because of my latent power I was taken from my home and outcasted. I don’t know what happened in your past, but I want you to know that ‘Time doesn’t heal anything, all it does is teach us how to live with the pain.’ But its because of that same pain that we’re able to get stronger, because of that fear we’re able to be braver and its because of living through our betrayals that we become wiser.”

Standing up from roof, Kira left him with those final words.

Pain makes us stronger, Fear makes us braver and Betrayal makes us wiser. Repeating these words over and over again Daelos thought back to the beatings he endured from his mother, the fear he felt when the bullies cut his skin with knives and the sadness he felt when his father left him. Amidst all these thoughts he didn’t realise that he’d started to cultivate his mental energy. As if reacting to his emotions the silver ring on his finger let out a light hum before covering his body in purple light. Inside his mind space a purple crack could be seen floating in the air. From within that crack creatures with twisted expressions crawled out and spread their influence.

Within the Agnos Requiem Lyla wanted to speak out but knew that if she did the situation could worsen.

From that day forth whenever Daelos sparred with Kira, there was always a thought in the back of his mind reminding him of his darkest moments. This small but clear voice slowly warped his personality trying to fill him with darkness.

Lyla called this voice The Seed of Corruption.