Within the planet Aeon, mana is an infection.
Yet, humans didn't view it this way.
And daemons cultivated it and converted it to their own.
Essence.
They fed it to beasts, and the stray beasts found ways to use both essence and mana.
The humans curated their infection of mana, and it focused into infusions.
A filter for the magic to flow through their veins, and convert to what their genetics and will wants most.
…
Hale had come from a regular family.
Just a peasant family within the royal domain, who, due to his father being on the run, relocated to Tenna, just outside of the royal domain on the southwest edge of the human continent.
His father took his grandfather and grandmother to Tenna, and he met a woman there.
Some time passes, and Hale was born, a child with golden blonde hair and sharp, dark blue eyes.
His father held none of those qualities, and his mother only had blue eyes.
So, the man believed she cheated on him and had someone else's baby.
But instead of acting out, he just vanished.
The grief made Hale's mother also vanish, possibly ending her own life from losing her lover for a false accusation.
That's what Hale's grandfather always told him about his parents, at least.
He had a birthmark on his back, and it was quite large.
He figured it would end up being his infusion, his filter of mana.
But he never would've guessed what his filter would allow him.
Nor would he have guessed that his infusion would take up two of the three known classes of them.
"So… I just need to activate it?"
Hale looks at Lynel, who was stepping aside.
Lynel nods back, "Just activate it, and perhaps even land a hit, too." He turns his head to the recovering Chaotic, "I can guarantee you live, but you of course may receive some injuries, so…"
He sighs, "...just do your best."
Fault looks around, and focuses on the Chaotic.
"...Kh! Can you at least give me something to fend myself with!?" He shouts at the duke.
Lynel smiles and removes one of his gauntlets, and tosses it to Fault.
His right arm's hand was glowing the same silver color that's on his armor. His infusion was certainly an accelerator class, due to it being on his hand.
Hale watched Fault pick up the gauntlet and apply it to his own right hand.
'Crazy… he can pick that up?'
He wasn't sure how Fault had gotten that much stronger in just a couple of days, perhaps it was the reward Trinity gave him.
'Ugh, no time to think…'
Hale then turns to the Chaotic, who already began clawing at the wall it crashed against.
Lynel walked further out of the way.
"Goodluck, to the both of you. One more so than the other."
It made Hale a bit upset that he openly disliked Fault, but he had a much, much bigger problem to focus on for now.
The Chaotic banged his hands into the ground and whipped around.
His cracked stomach and broken claw had already reshaped to their original form. His wing seemed to whip around his side, like a blade.
"Huu… okay…" Fault talked to himself.
Fault put his hands up, preparing for the worst.
"Here it-!"
The Chaotic appeared before him, its claws outstretched for a grab.
"Shi-!"
It grabbed Fault's face during its momentum, and they both flew into a building behind Hale.
"...FAULT!"
He wanted to run, but he needed to think first! He needed to find out how to activate his mark!
'Think! THINK!'
Hale grit his teeth as he heard a clang of metal where the daemon and Fault crashed.
Soon, Fault dashed out of the rubble to the side, his face already bruised from the grab, but no other serious injuries.
Hale began searching for a sense of mana, he began to focus all of his nerves and muscles into his back, where his infusion was located.
Fault skid across the ground, regaining his footing as the daemon was already sprinting at him.
Fault looked at the gauntlet he was provided, all he could fight with was his fists currently.
Until-
'...!'
The dagger on his waist!
He quickly unsheathes the tanto, holding it as a secondary within his left hand.
'Here it comes!'
The Chaotic made a fist with its hand and threw it to Fault's head, he ducked under it and attempted to stab its gut with the knife in his left hand.
Too slow, before Fault could fully register it, the daemon's leg was already raising for a kick. His hand immediately moves to the side to block it with the knife, cutting it close.
"Kh-!"
The two engaged in close quarters combat.
Fault was clearly the losing side. He was constantly on the defensive and hardly managed to react to any of the Chaotic's attacks.
'Stomach! Leg! Face!'
He kept blocking, barely avoiding the flurry.
It was nerve racking for him.
'I can't last like this-!'
He blocked a blow to his face with the gauntlet.
Almost everything the Chaotic threw at him was definitely fatal. Especially attacks toward his head.
His brain would splatter everywhere if he let a single attack slip through.
Every fatal attack he noticed, he focused every ounce of his body on dodging. But he was too slow sometimes. Gaining a new cut on his face or stomach, or a bruise to his wrist, even through the gauntlet.
Though, the worst part of it all wasn't the injuries stacking on his neck or face, nor was it the bruises he felt swelling on his hand or stomach.
It was his left eye being gone.
Fault's brain was working overtime to figure out how close or far something was while it was heading toward him.
It made his reaction time milliseconds behind what it should be.
A new cut under his right eye, he barely avoided losing his sight. He tilted his head to the side as he felt the wind from the claw blow past him.
'How can…!'
'...it keep…!'
'...going!?'
He was as confused as he was focused.
The attacks were relentless!
Sure, he could see some sweat forming on the daemon's humanoid, snarling face, but it just kept going!
"RRRRARHGHG!"
It roared as it sped up.
Fault couldn't keep up with its hands this time.
"Fu-!"
A claw was headed straight toward his head. In between his eyes.
The red claw held some luster in the scales. The points of the nails on its hand was stained with droplets of his blood.
CLANG!
His dagger made it in time, his head ducked under it as he stumbled backward from the force of parrying the attack.
The chaotic's arm shot upward with the force of the parry, leaving it snarling as it slowly resumed its stance.
"Hh… hah…"
It was panting. It was starting to get tired.
Fault took the opportunity and stomped his foot into the ground, making one of the stone bricks rise up with the force.
He grunts loudly as he punches the brick with the gauntlet, sending it toward the Chaotic.
The winded daemon looked up and the brick made a direct hit on its face.
"Hah… haah…" Fault panted a bit, pained after all that effort…
…and it looked nearly unfazed.
"Gghhh ghrr…"
The daemon wipes his mouth with the back of one of his claws.
Step. Step.
It took a couple of steps toward Fault, who was still catching his breath.
"Oh come on…"
He steps backward, matching its slow pace.
His eye looked around frantically, his gaze landing on Hale, whose eyes were widened. It looked as if he figured something out.
A golden shine was behind him, as if a light were spreading from his back.
'Just a little more… okay…'
A little more time. Just a minute, probably not even that.
He felt his energy rebuilding at the thought of him near the finish line of this.
His adrenaline and blood was pumping through his ears. He felt his brain practically fry at having to pay attention to so much…
…but…
…Fault began to smile.
A little grin crept on his face, even to his surprise.
Did he find this fun? Being close to the brink of death?
Every single attack that was thrown toward his head was another death he narrowly avoided. But, he still smiled.
'I must be fucking crazy…'
After everything he'd been through? Who wouldn't call him crazy.
His arms regained strength. His feet planted themselves once more. His eye narrowed with new determination.
He felt every cut and blunt wound on his body. It felt like his ribs were about to crack under his own body weight, his face was bloodied and riddled with cuts of different sizes.
This was his first fight, real fight. He sparred a bit with Terrick, and learned a decent amount of combat.
But this provided experience like nothing else. His movements got the tiniest bit sharper, the tiniest bit quicker.
It was as if his body was growing the tiniest bit stronger with each bit of effort he put out.
'Trinity…'
It was most definitely due to the new body Trinity gave him.
"Okay…"
He takes another breath and takes a step forward, to the daemon in front of him.
"Just a little more time, right Hale?"