Chapter 0: Prologue
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On a chaotic and beautiful night, the moon hung in the sky like the Blessing of the Goddess.
A magnificent castle was filled with the cries and groans of numerous soldiers. The beautiful castle decorations were littered with blood of the fallen and injured guards.
A young man wearing a magnificent armor that shone in the light of the moon. A bright red cape fluttered on his back as he held a sword in his right hand that was stained with the blood of his slain enemies. his hair also had blood stains and his face held an expression of fierceness and anger with eyes that could send chills down the bones of anyone gazing at them.
He walked through bloodied castle hallway where many cut corpses of this Empire whose ruler has committed a forbidden act. The warrior attacked the imperial castle of this empire only to eliminate the ruler, The Emperor who's also know as the Tyrant who used his Tyrannical will to ascend to Supremacy within just a Thousand Years. As he walked with calm steps, knowing the Tyrant would not flee for his life, and even if he did, the warrior was confident he could easily subdue him. As for the source of confidence, it was because the warrior was the very person the Tyrant would face head on without any thought of escaping. After all, They had clashed many times throughout the Thousand years after their first meeting.
After a few moments of walking, the armor clad figure stepped into a vast and grand space where only at a high platform, a black throne that looked like it was made of the abyss itself stood with the air of arrogance filling the entire Throne room. In the Chamber, silence stretched for a few while before a voice full of disdain and mockery entered the ears of the armor-clad warrior. Which brought an involuntary smile to the warrior as his brows furrowed and his eyes narrowed with barely concealed anger as the voice said
"Hey, Old Friend? Been a while since we last met, hasn't it?" As soon the voice echoed in the chamber, the shadows in the entire castle stirred and began to manifest as if they were alive.
One by one, the shadows attacked the enemies that were hunting the soldier and knights of this kingdom. With gruesome ruthlessness, the shadows began to slaughter every enemy force one by one. Soon enough, the cries of the enemy forces drowned the previous echoes of soldiers of the Empire. The armor-clad warrior could hear the cries of his soldiers but he remained indifferent. His current goal outweighed the sacrifice of his subordinates.
He was ready to take all responsibility for their lives. After all, he was the reason this sinner was born to the world. If he was successful in killing the tyrant a thousand years ago, this day wouldn't have come to be seen. Not killing the Nameless Slave all those years ago, which he viewed as an insignificant matter has now come to bite him for his mistake. And Today, today is the day he clears his mistake and makes it right.
After a while, the cries of his subordinates subside which indicates that all the ascendent and transcendent subordinates he brought with him are now dead. Closing his eyes for a brief moment, his lips tightens into a thin line as he apologizes to their souls in his heart. Then he opened his eyes and looked towards the abyssal throne.
After slaughtering all of the warriors subordinates, all the shadows around the entire Imperial Castle flowed inside the Throne room and gathered in front of abyssal throne. The Castle sized shadows condense to the mere size of a single person. With it, it slowly begins to bend the space and a portal appeared within the shadow connected to some unknown place. From within the black spacial portal, a foot of a person comes out, eventually leading to the entire body of the person forced to come out from within.
Once the person comes out, the portal behind him closes and the shadows forming the portal dissolves into the dim shadow of the person. The person had the hair like the knight sky, skin as pale as white sand and height close to the warrior, eyes holding a look of sarcasm as he stared at the warrior with murderous intent and an amused smile.
"Let me remember....ah. It's been a hundred years, before you established the Shadow Empire did we meet for the last time." The warrior teasingly said with the bone-chilling eyes still looking at the appeared figure with hostility.
"tch, tch, tch....It seems you are still too strict on yourself. Your subordinates were dying and you didn't even look back." The man beside the abyssal throne looked at the throne and sat down, having one leg above the other and his hand by his chin as he teasingly exclaimed, making the warriors vein throb with fury,
"How Ruthless and Uncaring~~."
The aura around the warrior darkened and an insurmountable pressure rose in the throne room. But the person sitting on the throne looked as if completely unaffected. He smiled, but opposite of his calmness, sweat formed at the back of his neck.
The monster in front of him was none other than a Sacred powerhouse. Not only that, the person in front of his was part of one of the strongest and most talented group of people....The Nine.
It is a group of Nine individuals who are [Fated] to complete an incomprehensible duty given by Fate itself. Their fate was decided even before they were born.
The person in front of him is one of them called 'Hero', also known as 'Auro' of the Nine'.
Auro glares at him and lets out a sneer saying, "Hah! If only you didn't inherit the Forbidden lineage, maybe my subordinates wouldn't have to sacrifice their lives. Today, I'll kill you and make sure things as ominous as you would never step foot in this world....Supreme 'Forsaken By Radiance'."
The shadowy man called 'Forsaken by Radiance' stood up, snorted and reached his hand to the heavens and the shadow dissolved into his own stretched out to his hand and took the shape of a dark abyssal sword similar to the throne behind him. it's as if both of them were made out of the same material. The supreme pointed his abyssal blade towards the warrior and being ready for a life and death battle, said
"Let's see if you can Sacred Auro of the Nine."
Having said that, the person's figure distorted into shadows and took the form of a shadowy fiend with a fearsome face and clean body, as if the fiend was handcrafted by a human. It has six hands and three heads that covered every angle of sight. All six hands held the same abyssal blades. Auro looked at the scene and pointed the tip of his sword toward the shadow fiend and, as if to heed his command, the space distorted starting from his blade towards the fiend like heavenly thunder descending from the sky but horizontally.
As if to sense his intention, the fiend rushed at lightning speed moving within the shadows to close the gap and attack while dodging the space turbulence that would heal within a few breaths. Without wasting any time, the fiend attacked with all six of his blades towards Auro. But Auro simply just stopped the space attack and with a single swing, his blade clashed with the six abyssal ones.
As if calamity has struck, the large castle of the Emperor Shadow crumbled withe vast force coming from within it. Heaven was visible from their position with the roof and walls cleared like dust from wind. Their weapons stayed entangled to each other, but the fiend's abyssal blades trembled. with his third pair of eyes, he could see the space cracks that formed just from a single nonchalant swing from the Sacred.
He had already known, it was only because Auro was using physical attack that he even had the chance to fight. If he had used his sacred worldly authorities, he would've been dead with just that single swing with no remains left.
It was unfortunate that his aspect has restricted his growth. If his aspect was just one rank higher, a Transcendent Aspect instead of his current Ascendent Aspect, he might've had a chance to touch upon the realm of Spirit.
It was a common knowledge that the Aspect rank not only determines a persons might in each rank, it also determines the maximum stage a Awakened can reach.
For example, His own aspect is of the Ascendent rank, with the maximum stage being the Transcendent rank. He is a special case who defied the heavens and it's rule with his 'will' to reach the Supreme rank. But that was it, that was his limit. After Supremacy, to become a Spirit, he would need the Heaven's permission or a God's intervention, which in both cases were impossible for him.
Heavens or you can sat, Fate's permission isn't feasible because he have defied it's rules and rose to Supremacy. And about the Gods.....
The fiend looked at the eyes of Auro, who held murderous intent which confirms that the fiend would die today no matter what. As for his actual intention of killing him, it was also the same reason the Gods would obliterate him upon even a tiny detection of him.
The Shadow's he controlled have shown signs of defiance recently which indicates that Shadow has come to realize the deeds he have committed, and is now showing signs of rejecting him of 'His' blessing. Now, anywhere he goes, to Demons, Gods, Daemon's, anyone who knows of him WILL hunt him down. There's no way to escape.
But this one last time, He wanted die fighting. While following his Supreme will did he wanted to take his last breath.
The clash once again as the moon hung in the sky and space cracks formed continuously filled with rage, completely overturning the surrounding plains. At the end, the results were clear.
The fiend now in the form of 'Forsaken by Radiance' was batter and in a completely miserable state. His hands were ripped apart, heart tore through and one eye cut out with blood scattered around the ground. Auro looked at him with calmness that still didn't quench his anger and hatred.
Looking at the miserable wretch in front of his eyes, he mumbled something that was only heard by the two of them, "Your Nightmare is Over, Supreme 'Forsaken by Radiance'."
The man smiled mockingly and uttered two words "Fuck OFF!"
At the corner of his ears, he heard someone call him in a distant and familiar name. He wanted to look over but Hero's blade was faster than his intentions. With a swift swing, his vision was blurred then completely darkened until he felt a strange sense of weightlessness.
He didn't had any control as his soul began to ascend and his shadow began to descend. They were going to the Cycle of Reincarnation and the Shadow Realm. He knew he couldn't stop these, but even then, his will remained strong. 'He' forced the two important part of a living being to stay in the mortal realm.
The will of the world began to corrode his will, but even then, he endured, trying to keep the two pieces of 'Himself' to himself. His will remained Tyrannical just like the will that helped him rise to the realm of Supremacy. But...it slowly began to fade...into the vast world and merge....with the world....itself.....
At that moment, a strange and unfamiliar voice eroded his mind.
[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell!]
[Prepare for Trial!]
Huh?.............
To be Continued...