[Xavier's POV, 10 years ago]

"Xavier, wait up!" A beautiful blonde girl said as she tried her hardest to catch up to me. I was running towards the Academy, as summer break had ended and I had no carriage, so I had to walk to the academy after the summer break. I didn't enjoy summer break, as I had nothing to do during that time, being an orphan without too many friends. The only friend I had was the girl running behind me. I slowed down to match her pace, and she caught up to me as I watched her beet-red face turn towards me, most likely red from exhaustion. She had run with me to school every single morning since I met her on the way to school one day. This girl was named Ariel.

I had run past her golden carriage when she was looking out of the window, and for whatever reason, she had decided that it was a good idea to follow my lead every single morning for 2 whole years, the year when I started going to the Academy of Solus, at the age of 10. 10 was a normal age for people hoping to enter the academy, since at that time you'd normally be good at control and such. However, the only reason I had joined them was that just a few weeks before that, a friend had told me about this place, and, I started training when the Headmaster saw me doing so. For a strange reason I didn't comprehend at the time, he had invited me to go to this Academy. Deciding I had nothing better to do, I had obliged his wishes and went with him. He gave me a home, and he gave me money to live with.

Happy that I had a place that I felt like I belonged, I went to this school and studied diligently under the Headmaster himself, where I was taught a lot of things that normal students wouldn't be. Apparently, being invited by the Headmaster was something in itself, but being taught by him directly? It was another level entirely, which I found out not long after coming to that Academy.

We headed into the Academy, her scolding me on being faster than her. With just a laugh, we entered the school and continued our usual schedules, me being taught by the Headmaster, and her being taught by the professors. I loved my life, really.

But, fate didn't want this to last. After the next summer break had ended and we were entering our third year, I noticed that for once, Ariel had not shown up to the academy. More than that, she was missing. It took them a while to find her, but when they did, she was dead.

Out of grief, I had left the school and my emotions turned dark. I engaged in robbery, murder, assassinations because of her death, my only friend that I ever had, with the knowledge that the Headmaster, a rank SS individual, and me at that time, a rank A. With just a few years, I had entered the Hero ranks and then the SS rank, my name spread around the world.

Then, I was careless one day. I had left traces and evidence of my, at the time, most recent crime. With this, the Kingdom of Fos sent out its best knights, a whopping 1,000 S rank individuals, to follow the tracks I had left behind. Within mere weeks, they had found me and I was in jail.

After 9 whole years in prison in the Magical Correctional Facility in a very strong dungeon that someone had claimed for themselves, I heard noises of explosions, yelling, and screams within the dungeon. I was scared, frankly. My mana was constantly being pulled out by the Anti-Magic Barrier which had Mana Drain on it as well, making me lose mana and become weaker and weaker by the minute. I had been able to bear it for 10 years, but I was very close to running out, so I had accepted it.

Within an hour, the screams and explosions ceased, and I heard a door open with several footsteps accompanying the open door. With a gasp, I spotted several masked people looking at me.

"Xavier, you look pitiful," the one at the front, who I guessed at the time was the leader, said condescendingly.

"H-how do you know my name?" I croaked. My voice was raspy, and I was weak.

"Don't sweat the details. We are the Shadow Swords, a group that strives for fairness and justice in the world. We heard a couple of years ago that you were locked away, and, having heard of your talent beforehand, we had planned and planned to get you out and back to your peak. What do you say?"

I had no other option at the time, either dying or helping them, so I accepted their offer.

"Okay. But, how are you going to get me out? This barrier is strong and I couldn't even get out because of it."

"Oh, Xavier, how much you've forgotten. You can't get out because they focused all the power they had into defending the inside, and very little on the outside. Watch," with a flick, he shot a wave of darkness at the cell, and it encased the entire cell. Within seconds, the entire barrier shattered with a pop. Xavier's jaw dropped slightly.

"Thank you, uh-"

Before he had time to try to think of something to say, the man answered for him.

"You can call me Brother X, or just X," he said with a visible smile forming on his mask. Xavier only nodded, "Brother Xavier, please, drink and eat. You must be hungry and thirsty after what these villains did to you."

Accepting his kindness, he took the two loaves of bread and the water and feasted with pleasure. He had found yet another person he could call his ally, and so, he went with them willingly and happily, leaving any other prisoners in there to die by their hands, unknown to Xavier at this time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1 Year Later

Xavier's POV

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a series of successful missions, mostly stealing money from the rich and then giving it to the poor, he grew closer to the group and felt like he belonged. He still held Ariel in his heart, and always felt like killing every human he saw, but he resisted his urges and did the missions successfully without any failures.

News spread fast about his escape, however, and people began to question how safe they really were, and questioned the royals and nobles too, which was going all to plan, in order to sneak into the Academy unnoticed, and try to convince the Academy of the nobles' wrongdoings, and get more support. Now, they ventured into the Academy as the guards and knights were busy dealing with riots, most of the academy's guards being forced to help them.

He was told to attempt to break into the inevitable evacuation to the gymnasium, as they planned, and so he did, while the rest covered the Academy and 'saving' the other stragglers.

With his heart beating fast, they started the mission. Everyone went through different entrances and had no trouble getting them to evacuate to the gymnasium as they thought they would. Within minutes, Xavier would begin his portion of the mission. He waited until finally, the signal was given by Brother X, their leader, whom he got closer to over the past year. He broke the door down with his raw strength, and since the barrier was only a Rank A barrier, he broke it easily.

With the door off, his heart beating fast, and doubts flowing through his head, he silently paralyzed the students or most of them as it would turn out, and he confronted Pyrilis, the Headmaster, quickly. Since the last time he was here, he was fed lies, like how the Academy is evil, and the country is only using you, things along those lines. So, he thought everyone in there was evil, to which he would find out soon, was not the case.

"Hello, Headmaster, or should I say Pyrilis?" Xavier said, a smile growing onto his face. He walked slowly towards the Headmaster, and he got up the stage with Pyrilis on the other side, and the other professors protecting the students, which was silently commanded to them via a telepathic link. "I have no intention of hurting the other students or your professors. Not even you, Pyrilis. However, what I really want is the SSS potential boy named Kas!"

The main goal at the start was to make them weaken the kingdom and make the king take action, up until a boy named 'Kas' showed up with potential not seen since the Hero Age. How Brother X found out about this boy, he didn't know or question.

"Well done, Xavier, you found out. Well, I'm sorry, but he's not coming with you," the Headmaster stated with eyes almost piercing his soul. Recovering from this accusing look of his, Xavier summoned his dark sword which he had received from Brother X, and then they fought.

After a while, he started summoning a new instance of his sword above the Headmaster, without its presence being detected by Pyrilis. WIth major effort, it was completed, and he forced the Headmaster into a situation in which he couldn't move without dying. Grinning, he made the sword move downwards towards the Headmaster and silently said his goodbye, with the Headmaster trying to stop it.

To his surprise, he found out that someone could still move their arms, and then, the next thing he knew, the sword was gone, and he was looking up at nothing. He blamed the only person that could do this to him that he knew of, Kas, and he looked at him before he was thrown to the ground by the Headmaster.

"What did they do to you, Xavier? You were such a talented and kind boy, but then, you changed. It was only after that girl died, I believe her name was Ariel? Grief is a troubling thing, and with only friends or family can you be relieved of it. But you had none of that, did you? In your rage, you killed by the thousands and turned to the side I would have never expected you to, the one side we were all trying to fight: the side of demons, and then you got caught."

"I'm not a demon! I was taken in by people who care about me after my arrest, and they broke me out and saved me from the hell you call a prison! They let me see the truth; that this kingdom, this world, is flawed, and only we can save it!" Xavier yelled in denial.

"Then tell me, Xavier, what's good about massacring an entire prison of inmates? We found their bodies with a pool of blood around them! What's even close to good about killing anyone who was not in this damn theatre! Tell me that, Xavier! They killed the stragglers that were left outside of the gym, slaughtered them! I saw them do it, and you can't tell me that it's justice because they're all just kids!" The Headmaster raged, getting redder and redder with pure anger by the second. Xavier, on the other hand, was purely flabberghasted. He was not told about any of this, he was told they wouldn't murder anyone unless necessary. This isn't what he wanted. The inmates, sure, but these kids? Even on his rampage, he would never dare to kill mere children.

"You're lying! They would nev...er..." Realizing that the group he called a family never told him anything but the mission, and just told him to do it with masks on, he realized; he wasn't a part of the family, he was a tool to be used and discarded when they were done with him. He stopped resisting the blade the Headmaster had on him and sobbed like he did when he found out about Ariel's death.

"You get it now, don't you? They're using you, Xavier. You're better than this. Come back to us, Xavier. Come back to the light," the Headmaster said while smiling genuinely.

Within minutes, he felt the barrier come back online, the one protecting the Academy, and then he felt people leave the area. He knew that without Xavier, they could not fight the Academy of Solus.

With that, Xavier fell asleep from crying, and he was sent to the infirmary alongside several other students, including Kas.