(Amelia)

I gasped for air as the shadows around me slowly dispersed. I wasn’t sure if it was the unfamiliar feeling of sinking through the darkness beneath me or finally being freed from the presence of that aura which only promised a bloody death. Whatever it was, it felt like my first time breathing fresh air in a long time.

‘Who- no. What was he?’ I tried to process while I strained to breathe. There was no way that thing could ever be human. It was more powerful and sinister than anything I’d felt before. The aura had felt like a solid blanket of razor sharp blades pressing down upon me.

The sudden sound of cloth tearing pulled me back to reality.

Ryla was kneeling over Eve’s shivering form with her back to me, trying her best to wrap bandages around her ever bleeding wounds with pieces of clothing she tore off her cloak, her tears raining off of her face.

My heart caught for a beat and scrambled over towards her. My body could barely stumble as I kept slipping and falling through the sand, still weak from my own blood loss.

As I got nearer, Eve’s body came into- Blood. Blood was everywhere.

‘I don’t think she’s breathing.’ I thought, tears blurring my vision.

‘Damn it, get up you useless…’

I crawled towards my first friend, ignoring the coarse sand of the Borderlands scraping painfully into my own wounds. When I finally found myself kneeling next to Eve, I could actually take in the condition of her body, and the severity of her injuries sunk in. The shallow rise and fall of her chest was the only positive I could latch onto. But it was all too much too fast..

“You d-dummy…,” I struggled to get out between sobs. “Didn’t you just finish getting healed.”

‘No, I have to help. I have to be strong for her like she always was for me.’

“Hey… Ryla what do w-” I stopped myself mid sentence as I looked up, and got a look at Ryla’s face.

I knew she had been crying before, but the look on her face was something I never thought I’d see.

Ryla, the woman who always seemed so calm, so strong, and reliable. Now all semblance of that confidence was gone, replaced by a look of despair and lifelessness.

I couldn’t blame her. We’d all been set up by someone we were supposed to trust, and now she didn’t even know if Kalan, the person she had been with for many years, was even alive. Not to mention Eve, who was barely holding on to her life.

An icy cold rage ignited in my heart.

‘Archbishop Edwards.’

He caused all of this. He knew what had been happening with Kalan, and yet he-

“What is it, Mayla?” I heard her respond with a voice that came out barely more than a croak which made her sound even weaker than she looked.

“Wh-what do we do now?” I answered, clenching my fists and barely holding back tears as our situation became even more apparent in my hazy mind.

I watched Ryla for what felt like hours for any response, but I only ended up getting a one arm shrug after she finished tying another knot.

“Ryla, can Kalan…?” I let the question trail off.

“I don’t know.” She responded almost immediately.

I was surprised I got an answer, but hearing it made me wish she hadn’t.

Before I could ask or think anything else, I heard the crunch of sand behind us.

Adrenaline immediately joined the ice pumping through my veins, momentarily causing me to forget all the pain and fatigue I had just been feeling. I knew we were in no position to fight, but it wasn’t like we could run either.

Even if we tried, what would we do with Eve? There’s no way I’d ever just leave her here and as Ryla stood up next to me I could tell she was thinking the same thing.

Ryla and I both nodded to each other, accepting whatever fate may await us as we both turned towards the sand down the sound came from.

We froze. Like a wheel getting stuck in a rut, my mind just stopped. I couldn’t budge, even when Ryla expanded her weakened senses in search of people around us, I remained still trying to process through this.

“I can’t sense anyone..” Ryla mumbled to herself after a few minutes.

I didn’t care about the how or the who, I ran.

Ran towards the dozen or so rolls of bandages and an open tin that held glass bottles that were just sitting there in the middle of the desert a handful of meters away from us.

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

(Kalan)

All the emotions I had been suppressing for so long surged through me. The betrayal from Edwards, the man standing in front of me, the same one who had taken everything from me once, and was now trying his hand at it again. It made my blood boil as much as it had that day.

I could feel my aura responding to my growing anger, as it embraced me, the light warming me.

“Who do you think…”

“Shut up. I’m not here to humor you, I’m here to kill you..” I said as my aura exploded causing the sand around me to get blown away from the shock waves.

I watched as an evil toothy smile crept across his face, before he beckoned me. “Oh, is that so? Ohh should I be scared then, Paladin?”

He laughed psychotically, the sound disconcerting as nails on stone. He shrugged his shoulders. “Well, here I am Paladin, what are you waiting-”

Mana overflowed through my veins as I quickly blitzed towards him, cutting him off.

Within a second I was almost a foot away from him, slightly crouched down, and bringing my weapon in a direction to do an upwards slash. To an outside viewer I must have been no more than a golden streak of light.

I met his eyes, and saw him follow my every movement. He brought one of his axes down to counter my opening strike and struck from the side with the other, intending to chop off my head.

Right before my sword rose completely above the sand, I stabbed into it and released a burst of golden light from my right leg to transfer my full momentum into a spinning kick. I took in his momentary surprised expression before my mana reinforced boot sunk deep into his gut, sending him flying backwards through a nearby stone well.

Retaining my momentum, I dissipated my blade and reformed it in my opposite hand supercharging the body of the blade with mana so that as I slashed the air I launched a crescent of pure gold right for him.

The screaming slash of mana tore into the ground as it flew at him. He appeared in its path and for a blink the sky turned bloody crimson, a red streak of light followed his axe as he cleaved my golden crescent down the middle. The remnants sunk deep into the ground to his sides, releasing explosions of light and sand.

“Haha, you got better, old man!” He laughed.

“Who would have expected that pathetic boy from back then to come as far as you. Especially with that unique mana you have.” He pointed towards the blazing sword of golden light in my left hand. I retracted my mana back into my body, the sword slowly dissipating as I did.

“Your arrogance will be your ultimate downfall. You’ve given me too much time to prepare for this This fight will be nothing like the last.”

“I compliment you a little and you think you’ve won?” He sighed. “That Demi-god won’t be saving you this time, and if that kick showed anything, it’s that you’re only slightly stronger than back then..”

“You’ll wish it were the Demi-god this time, and you’re still just as grotesque as you were back then.”

I expected to get a rise with my words, that might cause him to dash in and provide me an opening, but he only responded with a face palm before sighing.

“Stick to the death threats, Paladin. Your insults are as bad as your moves. Besides, you humans are all the same. You hold onto all these mundane things, whether it be looks, wealth, religion or whatever you weaklings try to pride your pathetic existences on.”

He paused, only to meet my eyes with his own lifeless ones before continuing. “However, all of that fades away in the face of power.”

I was about to open my mouth, before his body exploded with his sickly crimson aura. He dashed in front of me with a speed I was barely able to react to.

I watched both axes come down towards me in two different angles from overhead and quickly stepped back while releasing a full body flash of light to temporarily blind him.

Taking advantage, I quickly swung my blade at him, but he was already backpedaling and my sword barely cut across his face.

As soon as the blood left his face, I saw a small blood spear form.

The barely noticeable spear quickly shot towards me, and I quickly conjured a golden shield on my arm, bringing it up just in time to block but I felt it crack upon impact and I still got forced back several feet.

I quickly got my footing, and looked all around but I couldn’t see or detect him anywhere.

Suddenly his presence appeared behind me and I twisted my body backwards, bringing my sword along with it.

My sword sparked against the blade of his axes only a few inches away from my neck. The impact from our clash sent shockwaves out into the surrounding areas destroying a few of the remaining buildings around us.

“I told you Paladin, you’re going to have to do better than this.”

His voice suddenly sounded serious as he released the force on his blades.

He vanished and I launched forward where he had just been a moment before. Before I could locate him again his knee was digging into my solar plexus and I found myself on my knees.

Knowing what would come next, my body reacted on instinct just as his foot was about to reach my ribs. Mana cloaked my forearms and intercepted his kick.

A dull pain shot up my arms, and an all too familiar pain in my ribs that brought back all the unwanted memories I had wanted to keep buried.

Skidding to a halt a few feet away, I quickly got back to my feet, my arms feeling numb as I held my ribs.

“I’ll give you credit. You’re the first person to land a strike on me in decades, but I must ask, is that really all your training has amounted to? Or are you finally done teasing me?” He said, holding both axes over his shoulders.

Memories flashed through my brain, memories of my family, their smiling faces, all the happy times we had, and then seeing my wife’s body as my daughter was cut in half by this monster. Then images of Eve, Ryla, and Mayla before my mind twisted their images to where they met the same outcome as my family.

‘No I won’t let this happen again. I have to make sure they live, and I have to get revenge for them.’

“You know Shezmu.” I said, slowly bringing my head up to meet his eyes. “You took everything from me once, and I felt that despair for years. I lived in fear for years.”

“Ugh, this speech again.”

“...”

“Alright, fine. I’ll let you finish. These’ll probably be your last words anyway.”

“... My life felt meaningless, like my purpose no longer existed in this world, but after meeting Ryla, Eve, and Mayla and seeing what you did to them, I’ve been reminded of what my purpose is.”

“Oh yeah? And what’s that?” That ever present, disgusting smirk never leaving his face.

“To kill you, so no one will suffer at your hands again.” My voice hollowed out more and more as the sentence carried on.

“So you finally plan to take this seriously then!” His laugh returned before he continued. “Good, wallow in despair until your last breath, make this game worth my time!”

“As you wish.”

‘I hope they are far enough away now.’

From deep inside my heart a ball of stored mana that I had been accumulating and condensing for decades cracked. Pure white light leaked through the cracks and quickly filled my body. Every fiber of muscle, inch of vein, and segment of bone were saturated in the pure power.

Shockwaves pulsed all the way around me, turning the town that was our battle site into rubble in a matter of seconds, and with it Shezmu’s smile widened.

My skin began to fracture and flake off, letting out the golden-white light from within. It was unable to withstand the forces of the energy contained with my body, but it was alright. I didn’t need it anymore.

Through the pain of my transformation, I watched his facial expressions. All so I wouldn’t miss it as he scowled and his smile slowly turned into a frown.

‘He’s afraid.’

The fear in his eyes confirmed that he was human and like any man, if he can bleed he can die.

I felt as everything, my body, my blood, all of my being became the same light that was my mana, before I became truly radiant I uttered three words.

“Light of Indarus.”