Nero opened his eyes. He was in a small room illuminated by torches. His hands were bound to a wooden beam behind him. He didn’t attempt to struggle, knowing that all precautions were made to ensure his captivity. He then heard a familiar voice from a corner of the room.

“Finally awake? Good. I’d feel bad if I never got a chance to apologize.

It was the lieutenant, David.

Nero looked at him with raging eyes. This man had arrested him, had him tortured, and had lied to him. Now he was certainly going to have him executed.

“Don’t give me that look, you shouldn’t have trusted me.” he said smugly.

“A small mistake, it won’t happen again.” Nero said.

“Yeah, it won’t. I’m assuming you understand the position you’re in? You are going to be executed at noon.” David said back.

“Don’t be too certain, I’m in no mood to mess around.” Nero replied with a cold face.

“Princess Eclissa must have hit you too hard in the head, you seem to be delusional. You are bound by Sun Steel, it’s quite unbreakable.” David said.

Nero felt no fear, something inside him told him everything would be fine. All he had to do was trust his instincts.

“How was long I out for anyways?” Nero asked.

“Four days, give or take. Many people thought you were in a coma. I knew better, you’re tougher than you look.” David said.

Nero was amazed he had slept that long, he just now noticed that his pain from his prior fight was gone. He was completely healed. On top of that, he felt stronger than ever. Could it be that each time he is broken down, he becomes stronger?

Nero said nothing more to the lieutenant. He sat in silence for a couple hours instead. Eventually, a major knight came in. He looked at the lieutenant and said it was time. He approached Nero with a smug face.

“Well kid, this is goodbye. Don’t think this is unwarranted. You killed my men after all.”

He then walked to a part of the room behind Nero, and seemingly pulled a lever. This caused the ground to move. The center part of the room Nero was on began to elevate, and the ceiling above him began to open.

He was almost deafened by the sound of cheering and applause, and the light above him burned his eyes. As the platform came to a halt, Nero realized he was in an arena. Had his previous dream been a premonition?

The arena was massive, and the crowd seemed larger. Every seat and every row were filled with citizens and knights alike. Nero had read about this place, it was the Valore. This is where knights would go to dual for sport, or to gain a higher rank.

As Nero looked around the crowd, he noticed something near the top. It was a large chamber. At the center of it was a man on a throne. It was the King of Hevaria. He was very tall and muscular, and he looked to be about 50 years old. He had long gold-white hair, with a short beard of the same color. He wore no crown, and no armor. Just a white robe. He was relaxed, his legs were outstretched and his head rested on his hand. He looked down on Nero with no interest. Beside him was Eclissa, she wore normal clothes but still had her red cape on. However, she did not have her gauntlets with her. Stella was also there, she sat in a chair with her head down. No doubt she was forced to come watch.

The crowd died down eventually, and a gate began to open on the far side of the arena. A man appeared from a dark chamber, and the crowd went wild. He was wearing black armor, and wore a gold cape. He was human, with braided brown hair and tan skin. There were many scars on his body. He was a golden knight. He walked across the condensed sand, and neared the center of the arena. He held out his hand, and the crowd died down again. He spoke.

“Ladies and Gentlemen! The show is about to begin! Grab a snack, drink some ale! Today I will slay this monster in the name of Hevaria, in the name of the king!”

The crowd cheered. At this point, Nero was more annoyed than concerned for the strange man about to perform an execution. He was clearly in his own world. His demeanor was grand, and his attitude was almost too fake.

Once the crowd died down, he unsheathed his sword and shield from his back. He then pointed his sword at Nero.

“This man, if you could even call him that, is charged with the murder of three major knights, and a hevarian citizen! He also plotted to kill Princess Stella Solare in her own chambers!”

The crowd went insane, and began booing and screaming. Some even threw rocks at Nero, but the ones that hit him just broke on impact.

“This dog deserves to die like the monster he is! But I am no coward, I will unchain him!”

Almost on cue, the chains that bound Nero became unshackled. He stood up, and just looked at the knight intently. Nero was itching for a fight.

The knight then pointed his sword at Nero once more.

“Dog! Behind you there are three weapons, I will allow you to choose one. Make a good choice, it will be your last one.”

Nero turned around, and saw a rack with three rusted old Iron weapons. A sword, a battle axe, and a dagger. Nero walked to it and chuckled. He picked up the dagger.

The crowd began laughing.

“He picked up the fucking dagger!” a man laughed from the stands.

Nero turned around and smirked, and pointed the dagger at the knight. Taunting him. It worked; his face had turned sour. The knight began to speak.

“I. Marcus the Blooded! Will slay this beast! Sound the horn!”

After a few seconds, a loud horn was heard near the top of the arena. The crowd grew still with anticipation. The fight was about to begin. Immediately after the horn ceased, Marcus sprinted towards Nero.

Nero was caught off guard by his lack of speed, so he took a more offensive stance. He switched to a reverse grip on his dagger and shifted his weight to the front of his body. Just then, Marcus became much faster. The golden knight had tricked Nero with his excellent body control.

Marcus was upon Nero, and raised his arm to slash down at him. Nero then raised his dagger up to block, and began shifting to the left to avoid the blow. However, Marcus bashed him in the face with his shield. He knew that Nero’s attention was focused on the sword. The crowd cheered at Marcus’s abilities.

Nero jumped backwards, and tried to think of a strategy while Marcus was distracted with the crowd.

“This guy isn’t as dumb as he looks, I’m going to need to outsmart him. I’m also going to have to gamble a bit.” Nero thought to himself.

Nero wasn’t sure what his maximum power was at the moment. He was only barely exerting himself. Perhaps if he went full power, he’d be able to defeat Marcus with ease. This was certainly a gamble. He then crouched down, and prepared to unleash all the speed he could. He dropped his dagger; he wouldn’t need it.

The sand and gravel around Nero began to float. The air around him was shifting. This caught Marcus’s attention, and he got into a defensive stance, raising his shield in front of him. Nero grunted as he began to run. He knew what he had to do.

His speed was faster than ever, easily running behind Marcus in less than a second. He then landed his fist into the ground, causing him to stop.

“You’re wide open!” Nero shouted.

Marcus was outmatched by this speed. Nero then used his momentum to spin around and land a kick onto his back.

The armor was harder than Nero expected, but it did not matter. Marcus was sent flying several meters, and then tumbled before being stopped by the wall. The crowd was in shock, completely silent. Marcus wasn’t getting up.

“Is that all you’ve got.” Nero said with a grin.

Nero’s lust for battle was growing, he wanted to challenge himself. There was no fun in beating a weak opponent. However, Marcus slowly got up. His proud look was replaced with anger.

“Now you’ve done it.” Marcus said.

Marcus raised up his hand, and yellow runes began circling his body. It was Mystic magic.

A second later, five clones of Marcus surrounded Nero. He had never seen this type of magic before.

“What is this?!” Nero asked.

“Multiply. It’s a class-A mystic spell. You should be grateful that I’m going to use it to kill you.” Marcus said with a look of anger.

The five clones began to run walk towards Nero with their shields raised, they were preparing to stab him in unison. However, Nero had other plans.

He crouched down, preparing to run at Marcus’s original body, but three clones got in the way. Nero began powering up his speed, and the other two clones were about to stab him. However, Nero jumped at incredible speeds. A shockwave was sent through the arena, knocking down Marcus and his clones.

Nero was almost higher than the arena itself, but felt himself starting to fall. He clinched his fist, and gathered all of his power into his right arm. He was going to punch the ground as hard as he could, in an attempt to take out all of the clones. As he was charging himself up, he realized he was falling faster and faster. Once near the ground, he released his punch. Marcus could only stare in fearful amazement.

“Bang.” Nero said softly.

When he punched the ground, The condensed sand behaved like liquid. A large wave was created along with the blast. The five clones were instantly obliterated by the force, and faded away. However, Marcus was launched at the wall. As he made impact, pieces of his armor flew off and cracks could be heard from his bones. He groaned in pain, and appeared to fall unconscious. Some people in the crowd were affected by the blast, they had fallen over or spilt their drinks. Some children were even crying.

Nero looked around the crowd with a proud look. He then looked back towards the king's chamber. The king’s expression had not changed, he looked unimpressed by the display unlike the crowd. Stella on the other hand, was leaning over the rail. She was in awe and smiled at Nero. He smiled back to her.

Suddenly, a loud thud was heard from behind Nero. It was Eclissa. Her hair was down now, but only going to her shoulders. Nero could see her bare hands now that she wasn’t wearing her gauntlets. They were scarred, especially her knuckles.

She stood in the crater Nero had left behind. Seemingly waiting. Nero obliged and slid his way down to her. They were now face to face. The crowd began murmuring amongst themselves. They seemed to be unsure what was about to happen.

“You just can’t seem to die.” Eclissa said.

“It appears fate has other plans for me.” Nero replied with a smirk.

The two stared each other down for a few moments, but a cough from the crowd seemed to start the fight. Eclissa threw a right hook, incredibly fast. This time, Nero was able to react to her movements. He was just as fast as she was, perhaps even faster.

Nero blocked her punch with his arms, but her strength was too much for him. He slid a few meters to the side, and noticed his arms were bleeding. He couldn’t let her have the offensive, it would surely mean defeat.

He launched himself at her at top speeds, she reacted fast. She jumped and began to bring her knee forward, aimed at Nero’s face. However, he crouched down at the last second and swept her lower leg with a kick.

Eclissa fell over. She was stunned. Nobody has outmatched her in a fight since she was a child. She looked up at Nero. He stood over her, and the sun was directly behind him. What she saw was a shadowed black figure, with burning violet eyes. She clenched her jaw in anger. But what happened next threw her into a rage.

Nero extended his hand to her, as if to help her up.

“Fuck you!” Eclissa yelled.

She was faster than ever, and grabbed Nero’s extended hand. She pulled him down and got on top of him. Her speed surprised Nero, all he could do now was try to defend himself. She began pounding his arms that were blocking his face.

The pain in Nero’s arms were almost unbearable.

“Do her hands weigh a ton?” He thought to himself.

He could feel his arms giving way, a little more of this and they would go limp. He was completely trapped by her mount. Suddenly, her punches stopped. Nero moved his left arm slightly to see what she was up to. Because of this, she hooked her right leg around his open arm and slammed it to the ground. She then put her left knee on his chest. He was now at her mercy.

She began punching his face now, his right arm wasn’t enough to block her blows. Each punch making the crater around them bigger. He felt like he was fading away. Blood and bruises began to form all over Nero’s head. He closed his eyes and saw the dark waters once more.

“I don’t want to sleep again.” He said to himself in the abyss.

“I want to live.”

“I want to fight.”

Suddenly, a glorious light surrounded Nero.

“Have I died?”

A voice was heard from inside his head.

“I will help you, just give me control.”

After a few moments, Nero obliged to the unknown voice.

“Open your eyes.”

Nero opened his eyes, and was in complete shock.

He was standing now, and was holding Eclissa by her neck, lifting her off the ground. Did he do this while he was unconscious?

Eclissa was bleeding from her mouth, and looked down at Nero with pleading eyes as she choked. She did not want to die either. The life was fading from her.

Nero loosened his grip, and let her go. He looked down at his hand, it was shaking. Eclissa was on all fours, gasping for air. She looked up at him with fearful eyes, but was surprised when Nero returned them with his own. The voice reappeared in his head.

“You fool, this is how you repay my help?”

“Who are you?” Nero asked in his mind.

“I’m the you that you forgot. In other words, I’m the real Nero.”

The voice was his own, but seemed darker. Perhaps this was real.

“Why did you help m-” Nero tried to say.

“Pay attention to the fight idiot.”

Nero looked at Eclissa, who was already on her feet. She began charging him. Nero tried to move, but his body was exhausted from the damage he received earlier. Nero began to panic, if she hit him one more time he’d probably die. The voice spoke again.

“Use magic.”

“Magic?”

Nero had never tried to use it; he did not know how.

“How embarrassing. For me of course. The new me is an actual weakling and I'm forced to watch. Give me control.”

“No. You’re going to kill her.” Nero replied in his head.

“She’s going to kill us, so how about you let me take care of this.”

“What will it take for you to show her mercy?” Nero said.

The voice was silent for a second.

“Well, you could eat a good meal for once, all you’ve had is bread. I feel everything you feel. I’m very hungry... Well, you’re very hungry.”

Nero tried to hold back a laugh. Eclissa was about to be upon him.

“Yes fine! I’ll eat a full course if you promise to spare her!” Nero pleaded in his head.

“Deal. Give me control.”

Nero didn’t have to say anything, it just happened when he willed it. Giving control to the voice inside him was like a 6th sense. It was an out of body experience. Although he couldn’t move his body willingly, he was still present.

Eclissa landed a punch square on Nero’s jaw, but he didn’t even budge. She was surprised by his new durability and jumped backwards. She looked perplexed. It seems she’s not used to opponents she can’t figure out.

The crowd was cheering her on. They were sympathetic to their princess’s struggle. It seemed some people in the crowd were ready to join in and give their life to her majesty.

“Are you watching Nero? Pay close attention to what I’m about to do.” The voice said to him.

A surge of strange energy gathered in his right hand. It was magic!

Black flames began erupting in his hand. It behaved like lightning, but had the texture of fire.

“This is night flame. Do not mistake it as normal fire. It does not burn; it simply inflicts physical damage on whatever it touches. Now that I've physically shown you, you can do this yourself.” The voice said to him.

“Remember. Don’t you dare kill her.” Nero said back sternly.

“The size of this flame is non-lethal; she will be fine.”

Eclissa was put on full guard, she had never seen a spell like this before. No one has.

Nero raised his hand, and shot a bolt of the flame at Eclissa. It was fast, faster than he’s ever physically moved. Eclissa couldn’t dodge something at that speed so she blocked instead. The flame was like a parasite, and spread to both her hands. It seems the ‘dark’ Nero was attempting to incapacitate her best weapons, her fists.

Eclissa fell to the ground in pain. She tried to extinguish the flames to no avail. The crowd was silent, and even the king was standing now. Suddenly, a faint glow appeared on Eclissa’s fists beneath the flames. Just like that time her gauntlet began to glow at the tower. It was sun magic.

The flames slowly died down, and her hands were revealed. They were completely bloody. She looked up at Nero with a pained look of anger.

“Not only did she manage to extinguish the flames, her hands should’ve been obliterated as well. She must’ve trained like crazy, I guess that’s why they were so scarred.” The voice said to Nero.

“You tried to obliterate her hands?! What the hell is wrong with you? Let me back in control!” Nero screamed back.

“What? You said not to kill her. So, I didn’t kill her.”

“Give me back my body. Now.” Nero ordered.

“Not so fast. The job isn’t done yet.”

Eclissa’s hands began to glow again, they were being healed by the sun. She stood up, and in a matter of seconds she was healed. The crowd roared at her perseverance.

Suddenly, her hands began to glow even brighter and she clenched her fists. The air around her began to swirl. She was going all out.

The flame shifted in Nero’s hand, and became an actual sword. The two prepared to clash.

“A sword? It was just flames just a moment ago!” Nero asked.

“This is my sword... our sword. Corvus. It means crow.”

The sword was beautiful. Its hilt was silver, and was wrapped with a beautiful indigo leather. The blade itself was skinny, but looked very firm. It was black, and there was no reflected light off the metal. It was pure darkness.

“This blade can be summoned from night magic, any other weapon, or even a shadow. You just have to will it so. It is made of pure, untouched dark energy.”

“That’s amazing. But please... don’t k-”

“Kill her? I won’t. You will. My power is fading. You will be back in control.”

Suddenly, Nero was able to move freely again. He felt even stronger, the magic in his body was in his control. Corvus felt right in his hand, it was perfectly balanced. He began to move on instinct, and swung the sword around in flashy way.

Eclissa sighed in impatience and dashed at Nero, becoming a flash of light. Nero did the same, but with a smile. He became a flash of darkness and charged her. He wasn’t going to try and kill her of course, but he at least wanted to test his new abilities.

The two clashed, but only for a fraction of a second. Nero missed a kick to her arm, but Eclissa grazed his leg with a punch. They ended up in each other's spots at opposite sides of the arena. In an instant, they did the same thing again. However, right as Nero began dashing, he felt a great pain in his leg. This caused him to tumble mid dash. The graze she had landed fractured his right leg, he just didn’t notice it because of the speed they were at. He was now stopped, on the ground. He was unable to stand. Had she hit his leg perfectly, he may have lost it.

Eclissa smirked, knowing she had won. She began to dash at him again, moving even faster. Nero was defenseless. As she drew closer, the unexpected happened.

Stella landed in-between the two. Right in the path of Eclissa’s punch. She was ready to throw her life away for Nero. Her arms were extended outwards, she was going to shield him.

“No!” Nero screamed as he got up.

He pushed through the pain, he wanted to save her life. His leg worsened, and he began using his sword as a crutch. He wasn’t going to make it in time.

Eclissa was unable to stop, or even change directions. Her finishing blow was too reckless, it had too much force.

Nero closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see the outcome of his and Eclissa’s mistake. A loud bang was heard and a shockwave sent Nero to the floor. He opened his eyes, and saw the King.

The King seemed to glow, like the sun had surrounded him with armor. He was in-between Eclissa and Stella. He had caught the punch with ease. The King turned around and made sure Stella was alright. Then he turned back to Eclissa, and looked down on her with anger.

“That was reckless Eclissa. You could’ve killed your little sister.” He said with absolute authority.

Eclissa fell to her knees in exhaustion, she nearly collapsed entirely but the king helped her up.

“I’m sorry Stell, I didn’t see you in time. You’re much faster than before.” Eclissa said with a panted laugh.

Stella wasn’t listening though; she ran to Nero’s aid. She rested his head on her knees.

“It’s over now, you can rest.” She said to him softly.

Nero was at his limit, if he exerted himself anymore, he would die.

“I don’t... want to sleep.” He replied, half awake.

“I know, but I’ll be with you while you do.” She replied.

“Don’t... trouble yourself with me.” He said back.

“It’s okay Nero, my father has exonerated you. That’s why I stepped in. Well... that’s one reason I guess.” She said with a blush.

Just as Nero was about to pass out, he heard the king's voice.

“You fought well, very... well.”

Nero had slipped into a dream. Was his struggle over? Could he finally have some peace?

He was in the dark waters once again. But this time... he slept peacefully.