6 months ago, I got a short holiday for about a week. So, I decided to go back to Dragonstal. The place where most of my old friend lived. It was also my old home until I moved to Silveria which was next to Dragonstal. I felt like I wanted to surprise my friend by showing up at my old school but boy I was wrong. I was the one who was being surprised. I ended up getting caught inside this magic wall that traps a lot of people within the 7 kilometer radius from the center point which was the big apartment I lived in next to the school.

I was planning to make my way to the school just because but then I was stop by a cry of help. Monsters upon monster started to appear. It was a woman who cried for help. I, being the gentleman. Had to help her out. With the assistance, I ended up befriending and protecting her for the last 6 months to the point that I forgot about my original plan. I guess I really need help. Especially when at the end of the story, the woman was killed off by a monster when I wasn’t looking at all. Yeah, I did felt some rage when it happened until I realize how futile my attempt to bring her back. She’s long gone and that’s it.

That’s when I finally decided to make my way to the school only to found out that most of the students seemed to be relaxed. The Magic Duel was still going even during this time. But most importantly, I’m not sure if these people are monsters in disguise or not. Especially after what happened with the woman I saved. I trusted some guy over her and found out that guy was a monster. Darn it…

In any case, I decided to go to the mall area to see what’s going on over there until I notice a quick flash of light moving about in my field of vision. I was as curious as a cat and decided to follow the flashing light and what I found out was two damsels in distress was being choked by two other boy, probably around my age.

I went in and captured their photo and waited for the photo to come out of my magic camera. I ripped one of their hand apart in the picture that I’ve taken. In other words, I just chopped off two hands. I sound like a serial murderer who loves this kind of thing.

“What the?!”

I knew they were surprised. Both of them fell onto their knees trying to endure the pain with blood spilling out of their now chopped off hand. It was a gruesome situation to be honest. Not safe for work or for kids. Rated M for mature. And yet, I nonchalantly chop their hands off just like that without feeling any single remorse. Was I really that heartless? Not really, this only happens when a female in distress was involved. I guess they call me a womanizer of sorts but I’m not always the one to be hanging out with the girls. I have my own taste and I know my preference full well when I see it.

I looked across the other side and notice a short boy who just now was desperately trying to crawl his way to the girls. He was being cautious of me until he realizes who was I. I looked at him for a second time and found out it was non other than little old, Cyclone White.

“Cyclone White…how long has it been since you’ve got the guts to fight people? I guess you already got your own magic, then. Good for you.”

“Kirin…what are you doing here?”

“What am I doing here? Saving a damsel in distress of course. You know me.”

I bragged about myself. Not even thinking much about what was actually going on.

“K…Kirin?”

That voice…I think that was Blax Tank. Another one of my friends. But why was he choking the girls just now? Now that seemed sinister to me. So I asked him,

“Blax? Out of all people, it has to be you? Why are you trying kill someone? Especially a girl?”

“No, Kirin.”

White grab my shoulder as he slowly stood up with all his remaining strength.

“Their Chaorrupted.”

“Chao- what now?”

“Chaorrupted. Long story short, they are under control of some sort of illusion spell.”

“Under control, huh? So their still themselves, right?”

“Yes and no. Like you said, under control. We have to find a way to destroy the Chaorruption if we want them to return to their former self.”

“I see. Is there any way, you know of?”

“Hmm…thank goodness you’re here. Break the sword in half.”

“Okay then! Sounds easy enough!”

“What is that…?”

The other guy, who I bet was Sonozaki Wakana since he was wearing some sort of cape asked me.

“This thing is a magic camera. I forgot what it’s official name that was written in the book that I read several years ago. But that's not really important now, is it?”

I took a picture of Blax’s sword and of course waited for the picture to come out. Once that was finished, I ripped the picture in half. The sword then cracked and split into two parts, leaving behind a ghostly dark smoke that slowly consumes Blax.

“What the…”

As the smoke slowly consumes Blax, I tried to help him out but White stopped me saying,

“It’s alright. He’ll be fine. The Black Berserker will take over him.”

“The Black Berserker? Is it finally time for it to come out in its full glory? I’ve been waiting for years since he got the curse, you know.”

“I guess it’s a good thing, then.”

“But why didn’t we just break the sword way back then?”

“That sword was made by Blax himself to prevent The Black Berserker that reside within his body from consuming him. But right now, he is not himself. It’s like there’s two other soul inside Blax.”

“So you believe that this Black Berserker will be strong enough to take over the chaorruption?”

“Let’s hope so, Kirin.”

“I’ll prepare my camera for this moment. I think this deserve a commemorative photo.”

I’m always like this. Always having the time to take a photo of a memorable moment in life. The rush of capturing the moment was burning inside me. I guess I’m that passionate about taking pictures. Who says I’m just a womanizer, right?

“Kirin…can you put their hands back?”

“Oh sure. Sorry about that. I like making my entrance showy.”

White laughed a little,

“You sure do.”

I put back their chopped off hands by putting back the torn picture of them and safely kept it inside my dimensional bag.

“Is that where you always kept all the fixed photo?”

“Yeah. I got no other place except that.”

“Well of course.”

White nodded.

As soon as their hands has been healed, Sonozaki immediately flashes away after he nodded at me. Why did he nodded at me anyway? Was that a sign of gratitude I see coming from a person that was under control? Something was fishy and it was not the lake nearby.

In any case, the chaorrupted Blax was struggling trying to make sense of the situation as the black smoke continues to engulf him. The black smoke has finally consumed Blax’s body. The whole smoke covers the entirety of our vision of Blax.

A few seconds has passed and suddenly a black gauntlet appeared out of the smoke. It was continued by as the gauntlet tries to flail away all the smoke to reveal it’s full armor. Every single body part was covered by the armor that was all in black. Even the head was covered by a helmet along with a sleek looking visor. Other than the armor, there were also a worn out pale red scarf that was stuck on the neck of the armor.

To top it all off, A huge sword was seen placed at the back of the armor. There wasn’t any scabbard to hide the sword. It was really big. Probably thicker than White’s body and the same length as White’s height. What kind of friend am I comparing a sword with his own friend?

But in any case, I pulled out my real camera. Not the magic one, and captured this epic moment. The armor wasn’t standing tall proudly. But instead, its left leg was on its knee as the right arm was holding the sword’s hilt while the helmet was looking down in grieve. That, was The Black Berserker.

“I…have returned…I thank you…for freeing me.”

The Black Berserker looked at us and bowed its head in gratitude.

“Pray tell…how long has it been since I was in the dark realm?”

I told to the Black Berserker, “I don’t know.”

White then helped me out,

“It has been centuries. All of the war that you have fought for has been long and gone. Everything has changed.

“Then I was too late apparently. I no longer have the purpose to be living here. Especially using someone’s body.”

“You guys can perhaps share the body. In return, you get to see how much the world has changed.”

“I guess that’s one way of being positive in my current situation. I would like to see how much has changed since the time after my death. Deal. I’ll be helping out the boy whenever he needs me. He no longer need to fight me back…”

And with that, The Black Berserker fades away. Probably residing deep inside Blax who was now lying on the ground. We carried him and woke up the girls. We headed back to the school and that was when things started to get even fishy…

TO BE CONTINUED