Yuri couldn’t sleep all night.

His conversation with Dream echoed in his head.

‘Hey,’ said the shadowy figures of L by his side. ‘Are you interest—’

“No,” Yuri said to the shadow that was invisible to everyone but him. “I’m not interested in your pitch, L.” He then asked his own question. “How is T? Still bruised in the ego.”

Ever since she got mercilessly manhandled by Dream, T had been silent. Most conversations he had after that night was with L. To his relief, both L and Dream confirmed that no one aside from him could see the shadow, but Yuri wasn’t about to take a risk and advertise his wondrous buddies to the world.

‘Don’t tell me you believe what he says,’ L said.

“You think it is a bunch of baloney,” Yuri said in contemplation.

‘Isn’t it?’ L said.

“It would, if you win,” Yuri argued. “He held the advantage of the entire conversation, remember?”

L couldn’t argue with that. Just thinking about that night scared her. At her lowest depth and her highest peak, she never confronted such an enemy. His words. His presence. They were invasive. An unstoppable virus that threatened her world-view. He was so human, yet he was beyond them. The gravity of his godlike power was only rivaled by his humanity. L would compare the confusion to seeing a titanic monster whose head scrapes the sky, bending down, and gently returning a balloon to the crying child who accidentally let it go. It defied nature. An earth breaking god shouldn’t be rescuing a cat from a tree. It was beneath them.

‘He makes no sense,’ L said. ‘People gain power for authority and status. Humility is inversely proportional to might.’

“Yeah, absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Yuri said. “But I don’t think it applies to him.”

‘Why? Don’t tell me you actually understand that weirdo?’ L said.

“I think Dream wants to be a superhero,” Yuri said.

‘A what?’ L never heard the concept of superhero before and was completely bamboozled by the new terminology.

“You know. Super-beings flying around in capes, rescuing people and defending the weak,” Yuri said. It was then he realized something. He should have known this age ago. “Don’t tell me you've never heard of superheroes?”

‘You mean a hero?’ L said. ‘Those who accomplish great feats, inspiring legends. War soldiers?’

Yuri looked at L strangely, “Did the thought of using your power for pure altruism ever occur to you?” Yuri dug deeper. “Did you ever do something good because you can? You used to be powerful, right? You must have that moment when you used your insurmountable power to defend what you think is right.”

‘I’m not the kind who picks a fight everywhere,’ L answered thoughtlessly. ‘Get real, we live in the world of cost and profit, not a charity.’

“Then that world should lose to Dream,” Yuri said without hesitation.

Dream’s words echoed in his mind.

‘A world where the cycle of ‘Might make Right’ is broken. Where kindness is the pride of the strong, and the weak can dare to dream. A day when the light of liberty and dignity shines free. A night sparkles with the wondrous cosmos for all men to grasp.’

‘Why are you taking his side?’ L said.

“Because I don’t want to live in a world where Dream lost,” Yuri said, and finally lost his patience. “Screw it. Dream is right. Orwell has a point. When will it end, L? What are you trying to accomplish with all those powers?”

L spoke with majesty, ‘I—’

“Tell me anything in your plan that will actually benefit everyone,” Yuri said. “A kind of thing that will make a man with terminal brain cancer feel hope, or something that inspires a kid to grow up to be a kinder adult.”

L stayed silent.

It was then T who appeared in her shadowy form and put her opinion to be roasted.

‘What is the point of doing all of that?’ T said.

Yuri glared at T, “Shut up, T.” He was angry. “I finally understand why Dream is so fed-up with you. He is right. Whatever it is you have done, you deserve this fate. Complain all you want, but it is true.”

T was taken aback by this vitriol. Even L was surprised.

‘Why are you so angry?’ L said in disbelief.

Yuri sneered at them, “All the power, and you still don’t get it.”

They wouldn’t understand. These two and those like them would never comprehend the feeling of despair. They lacked the vulnerability to see the beauty of those words. Even when fallen to this state, they didn’t reflect, instead continued on the same destructive paths, taking the light of hope for granted.

Once upon a time, Yuri was a prodigy; a child-musician winning awards after award in a lovely family. Then a raw freak-accident left him orphaned. His parents left him the insurance to last a lifetime, but it didn’t fix the void. To fill that hole, Yuri dove into the fantasy and shut himself in the room. His academics dropped, and soon he faded from memory.

It could have been different. Yuri knew his decline was solely his own fault, but if even one person reached their hand to pick him up, maybe his life would have been different. If people cared more about each other, he might have a happier life.

The vision Dream spoke of, purpose in fighting for that better world, sounded sappy and corny. However, for a person who lived his life in a shadow, it sparked something in him. It bought the memory of the first song he ever played on a piano — the theme of Twinkle Little Star. That moment inspired him to be a musician. Now Yuri felt a similar fire being kindled inside him.

Someone believed him once again; not as a worthless shut-in, but as someone who possessed a great potential.

Yuri turned outside to see the sun, asking for guidance, instead he found a bunch of men cordoning the house.

‘Shit,’ L said. ‘Isn’t those guys the Divine Fist?’

…

Inside the cozy cabin, the chilly meeting commenced.

Serenade and Shyme sat on the luxurious chair, mentally patting their back for hiding all their romance movie DVD and wide-screen plasma before Alpine’s arrival. They cleaned the room obsessively and burned some relaxing rosemary incense. The two prepare a rose-color carpet, a new pale-blue tablecloth that was Alpine’s favorite color.

But sadly, they forgot Sonovia was there.

“Those two have been obsessed with romance movies ever since the White Tower,” Sonovia snitched on the Elf and the Wolf-girl. “Then both of them fell for these weirdos from Earth.” She begged Alpine to do something about the love-sick duo. “Please do something about them.”

Shyme inwardly cursed. She didn’t think Sonovia would be that serious about snitching on them.

Meanwhile, Serenade sweetly smiled, trying to persuade herself that the reality couldn’t be that bad.

Alpine didn’t speak for a while. She drank her tea, enjoying the smooth aroma. She was dressed in the same white robe except for her blue scarf, which hung in the chair beside her.

Xerxes Enma and Red Blade Rubric also presented in the room, watching the eventual sermon by the corner. Burgundy Waiter, Shyme’s personal butler, was hanging with the terrified Charon Sol to maintain the room's semblance of professionalism.

“First, let me congratulate you two for getting stronger,” Alpine opened with a smile. It instantly transformed into a growl of outrage. “But what is this result!?”

Alpine screamed the result out.

“First, Venistalis fell, and now Frisnia is threatening to go under Orwell!” Alpine scolded the two with a voice loud enough to shake the room. “Worst, you both have the audacity to take it easy, after being saved by these law-breakers.” Alpine slammed her first, cracking the expensive wooden table. “Are you aware that you are obsessively swooning over those flaunting the authority of the Divine Fist and the Divine-race? You both should be in shame of your recent failures, not trying to appease me to avoid responsibility!”

Shyme and Serenade resisted the urge to bolt out of the room, while Sonovia gleefully celebrated her successful mission with a fist-pump.

Xerxes intervened on his daughter's behalf, “Look, both of them nearly died during the recent mission.”

“That’s the point!” Alpine yelled. “They shouldn’t be defeated that easily. If they had won, we wouldn’t be here! You should know that reputation is everything for the gods.” Alpine turned toward Burgundy and Charon. “And I see you get a new servant again.”

Shyme froze. Things would go south if Alpine attacked Charon. As someone who knew Charon’s past, Shyme didn’t dare to imagine the blow-out. Alpine might be terrifying, but she wasn’t ‘him’. If the worst occurred, ‘they’ would come down on her. That organization might be a defender of justice, but ‘Charon Sol’ proved they were anything but soft.

If Alpine accidentally caused that bitch to resurface, well, Shyme didn’t dare to imagine what would happen. Chronicler would be mad, but they won’t be answering only him. Sonovia would be folded by the Empress. That lightning Elf would beat Alpine to the brink of death, and every Divine Fist on this continent would be turned into a comatose vegetable and mailed back home as a warning. Rubric would also suffer the consequence by proxy. Those people might be a paragon, but they are equally ruthless if pissed.

Alpine glared at Charon, a weight of Mana pressed on her, but the maid stood firm. Heated air rose to repel the force of Alpine’s Mana.

Alpine begrudgingly receded her pressure, “Not bad.” She nodded. “Shyme, your new maid is adequate.”

Shyme breathed a sigh of relief.

It was when Yuri Ushakov came bursting into the meeting in a long-sleeve shirt and jeans.

He blurted out to the room, “Shyme, what is—”

Then he realized he was interrupting a meeting.

Yuri made an awkward greeting, “Er, am I—”

Clash!

Yuri didn’t know what happened, he only knew his body was racked with pain as he wanted through the window. The entire section of the cabin collapsed from the attack. Yuri heard Charon’s scream. Shyme and several men were yelling something. Yuri couldn’t respond with his body tossed outside among the rough ground and shocked bodyguards.

He came to rest, spitting out blood, seeing the splitting image of the cloudy sky. He grunted in pain. His trip through the window gave him cuts all over his body. Yuri didn’t know this, but he was lucky that he went through the window. If that was a hard wall behind him, he would have became a bloody smear.

Out of the hole in the house, his attacker, Alpine the Seventh of the Snow Maiden Sect, marched out with a wrathful expression.

“What an audacity,” Alpine’s lip quivered in rage. “A mortal gazing upon the gods with permission, daring to intrude upon this meeting. Who are you?”

Sonovia, sick off Yuri for several weeks, was gleefully shoving the boy down a cliff.

“He is a kid Shyme takes pity on and hire as a servant,” Sonovia said. “He is with us during the White Tower Expedition.”

“I see,” Alpine glared at the sprawled powerlessly on the ground. “So part of the reason the Expedition ended in such a disaster is because a useless baggage.”

Serenade inwardly cursed. She wasn’t smiling anymore. Sonovia was tossing Yuri up as a scapegoat. Meanwhile, the entourage of the Divine Fist turned to watch the eventual execution in smirking silence.

“Wait!” Shyme tried to halt the disaster, but a hand held her back by the shoulder.

Shyme watched as her father shook his head. Instead of letting his daughter risk offending the member of the Divine Dist, Xerxes Enma did what was required of him.

“That boy is my daughter's employee, Alpine,” Xerxes said coolly. “The right to discipline him solely belongs to the Enma Clan.”

“Enma Clan?” Alpine said. “You actually have the nerve to offend me over a disposable kid. I couldn’t believe Shyme was so blind to employ this joke of a mortal from a worthless, Mana-less mud ball. The fact we are playing diplomacy with the ants is embarrassing.”

Shyme stepped forward, but Xerxes pulled her back to safety.

Yuri voiced a complaint, “I hadn’t done any —”

“Silence,” Alpine commanded, and the field of pressure crushed Yuri into the dirt.

He gasped in agony, from the corner of his vision he saw Serenade finally moving, only to be stopped by Rubric. Meanwhile, Shyme’s father restrained the panicking Charon from doing anything to attract Alpines’s wrath. The crowd dressed in white robes and red armor watched without daring to say a word, but Yuri could see the smile of Schadenfreude and ridicule on their face.

Every inch of his lungs was on fire and his head felt like it was about to burst from the Mana, hammering him to the ground. Blood trickled his mouth as the disparaging words of Alpine snaked into his mind.

Yuri remembered the hero’s empathy.

‘We are children born out of dust from exploding stars. We saw the moon and somehow, after a thousand years, built a rocket to reach it, without the wings from gods. A sappy race who somehow amasses endless power of hope from a single page of comic book’

The divide couldn’t be more stark. Screwed the Divine Fist. If this oppression was an offer from reality, Yuri hoped with all his heart that Dream would beat reality to the ground.

Beside him, the shadowy mist was panicking as the pressure ground upon his bones.

‘Give in for now, Yuri,’ L said. ‘Try to appeal to her ego!’

‘Are you serious?’ T said.

Yuri knew his life was balanced on his next words, but his heart wouldn’t give in. What would Dream do?

‘Before the super is the man. Yes, putting our enemies six-feet under is part of the job, but before that we must be a pillar for the helpless. Someone worthy of the people to place their faith and emulate.’

It was then the blank canvas called Yuri Ushakov was painted. He refused to be like his oppressor. He was sick of his weakness. No, it wasn’t his lack of strength that sickened him. He glared at the crowd, mocking him, and then the hole in the cabin. He burned the image of two cowardly men, who wouldn’t stand for the weak despite their power; letting him suffer, so they wouldn’t.

These gods among humans were the image of cowardice. Yuri thought back to the man who believed in people's right to speak freely. A knight who defended the helpless, and guided the lost.

‘Uh oh,’ L said, realizing the worst-case scenario just occurred.

‘Oh shit,’ T looked at Alpine. ‘She is the final straw.’

The moment Yuri Ushakov plotted the course of his life, he was transformed. The cloudy sky broke as the imperceptible light of Center Force, sent by Symphony herself, shone upon him.

Yuri felt his power. He instantly knew the identity of the power lying within.

[Noblesse Type Origin — Divine Geass]

Yuri didn’t know how, but he broke Alpine’s pressure.

“Picking on the helpless, flaunting your power like you are wanking off in public,” Yuri rose, clamping down on his fear, emulating the hero in his mind to face the overwhelming number. “How old are you? Five? No wonder the Reverse Beast is kicking your collective ass. You are the very embodiment of weakness.”

Alpine couldn’t believe this half-dead boy dared insult her in her face. He bled like he was sweating. His muscles must be screaming in pain. His voice rasped. Despite all of those injuries, Yuri Ushakov found the strength to break Alpine’s hold and condemn them.

It wasn’t just Alpine. Everyone was frozen in dumb shock. Sonovia’s jaw dropped. Serenade and Shyme felt their heart halted at the act of blasphemy. Charon blinked in disbelief. Xerxes and Rubric looked at each other, unable to explain the acts that defied all laws of human’s limitation and survival instinct.

The members of Divine Fist didn’t know how to respond. They were used to people groveling, not being intimidated by a half-dead teenager.

Alpine realized she should get angry, “You dare…”

“A hag with horrible impulse should shut up,” Yuri let his frustration out. “I am done roasting you, not that you have much personality to roast anyway.” Yuri then pointed to the cabin. “This is your turn.” Yuri sneered at the two who were prepared to let him die. “For men who are part Lion and dresses like he is in a fucking movie, both of you are absolutely no help. No worries, I will remind myself not to rely on you guys. Wouldn’t want to fuck up when shit really hit the fan.” Yuri took one more parting shot. “Okay, Sonovia, no need to beg Shyme to fire me. I wouldn’t want to bother you any longer. There are much worthier people to save, adios morons.”

Xerxes and Rubric looked at each other. Did these puny living-things just insult them?

Serenade and Shyme blinked. What happened to Yuri? It was like someone pumped an ocean of courage into him.

As for Sonovia, she realized that she might have set off a landmine.

Yuri turned and left.

“You think you can leave after offending all of us?” Alpine finally put reality back in order and prepared to smite Yuri with all her Mana. “You are —”

She felt something penetrate her brain. A second shot turned her eye into a blood mist. Her legs separated from her torso. She saw herself falling into a ground, amputated, violated and annihilated by invisible force. Blood oozed from her body, forming a crimson pool, illustrating her pathetic destiny.

Alpine blinked and realized her gruesome death never happened.

What was that? Alpine’s body sweat. She was still alive, but the surreal image of her demise was burned into her mind.

And it wasn’t only Alpine who felt the killing intent. The entire zone was shrouded with invisible dread, penetrating them like a cruel sunshine. Xerxes tried to withstand the instinct to run. Rubric felt like an ant about to be squashed. The intent was transparent, like the world's sharpest blade. Several members of the Divine were on their knees. Sonovia collapsed as her heart’s misbeat.

The unspoken message was clear; touch the boy, and death would be the last thing you had to worry about.

Yuri also felt the massive power blanketing them, but he wasn’t afraid.

The boy turned to leave, staggered to the mook blocking his path and glared at them.

“Move,” said the future knight. “I’m done with you cowards.”

None of them dare to stop him. Face against the power greater than them, against attacks they couldn’t predict, the Divine Fist caved.

…

Yuri didn’t know how long he walked, but soon the Town of Baiyi faded from his eyes. He remembered ignoring the stares and murmured as he dragged himself out of the town. He must be an idiot. Now, he didn’t have anywhere to go.

‘Yes, you are a fool,’ L agreed, while T opted to remain quiet.

Yuri's legs couldn’t take him any longer, and he prepared to fall headfirst to the ground.

With the perfect timing, as always, someone caught him.

“I guess it must be you who stopped that bitch,” Yuri glanced at the massive sniper his hero was holding. “What took you so long?”

“I am planning for a major crisis, buddy,” said Dream. “I barely got into the sniping position in time, but you did great.” The knight was cheerful. “Maybe it is foolhardy, but your passion resonates with the boss. Your application is accepted. You are one of us now, Yuri,” Dream greeted his junior and mentee. “Welcome to the Order of Horizon Dawn.”

“Horizon Dawn, huh,” Yuri muttered. “Quite a romantic name, Dream.”

“Oh, please,” Dream said, reaching for his mask and taking it off. “We use code-name on duty. We are people before her, you know.” Dream offered his hand. “Remus Breaker. Just Rem for short. Nice to meet you. Now, let's get you some medical attention.”

Rem helped carry Yuri by the shoulder, and walked him to the horizon.

“Hey, do I get a code-name?” Yuri asked.

“Not yet,” Rem. “Any preference.”

“I want to say goodbye to myself,” Yuri stated. Finally, after years of being shut in, someone finally helped him move on. “What about Requiem?” He chuckled, "I never got to perform that song.”

“Mozart’s final piece?” Rem said, and Yuri nodded. “Very well, let's get you up to speed, Requiem.”

The two amongst the greatest heroes in the history of Phantasia walked to a sunset, preparing for the war wagering the entire Tengen Continent.