Darkness and light fight together against the gushing tsunami. My attributes clash with Darilyus' sword.

*CHING!* *CHING!*

*BAM!* *CHING!* *BOOOM!*

We constantly exchange attacks, zapping our battle around the scarred chamber as we leave sword marks all around. Interchanging the control of mana in the air.

I'm starting to feel the drawbacks of the potion, the extreme pain of rip and tear ripples through my muscles and the energy within my body is running rampant. I'm pretty sure the servant said five minutes was the limit but fifteen minutes have passed since I drank it, is it my physique? Moreover, countless cuts litter my body, slowly draining my vitality.

Blood splashes out of his open wound whenever Darilyus swings his sword. His face grows pale by the seconds.

"Stop! We will die if this continues!" I shout as I launch three simultaneous slashes.

He deflects all my strikes and returns piercing shots.

I guard his attack, throwing me away to a distance.

"Huff huff huff huff..." I pant frantically.

Darilyus, also out of breath, grasps his injured shoulder. He is stalling for time. Reinforcement from the Royal Army will be here soon. I need to end this.

I head for the bars of my father's jail cell.

!

Darilyus recklessly responds to my act and charges towards me, a spot-on prediction from my analysis. At an estimated distance, I suddenly change my course towards Darilyus, catching him off guard.

Waves of water erupt out of my blade as I thrust a widespread aura at Darilyus.

"Wha-"

Darilyus ejects his aura to dissipate the water and prepares to deflect my attack, not falling for the same trick, yet I concentrate aura at the sword's tip, blasting a torrent of sheer force. Darilyus is sent flying back despite his deflecting mitigation and crashes into the piles of rocks. His sword flies out of his hand and rolls across the ground into a hole.

"KEUGH!!"

Darilyus falls forward with a loud thud.

"Y-You...huff...who...?" Darilyus mumbles, attempting to lift his head. His visibly shaking body freezes from his harsh injury, pale skin, frantic gasping for air, and eyes about to shut paste his face.

"Just...stay there..." I say.

I trudge slowly towards the jail cell, eventually losing strength in my entire body as the adrenaline flushes. My sword drops to the ground and I start to see two world phasing in and out.

"H-Haah...Hah...Huff...Huff...H-Huff...Hah..." I can't control my breathing, my heartbeat pounds so rapidly it feels suffocating.

My sanity hits its peak. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know why I'm here. I just know I need to save my father. Quickly. Before the reinforcement comes. Giving up is not an option that crosses my mind. I must move. I must save my father.

*BAM!*

What's that sound? I can't see anything.

Ah...my face fell to the ground.

My entire consciousness is melting in an ocean of pain. My body is simply pain and pain everywhere, misery is engulfing my soul.

I hear sounds of shuffling. Am I moving? I don't know.

...

I must move.

"Kueaghhhhh..." My groans accompany my gritted teeth.

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My inhumane determination forces mere mana to push my mortal self, bit by bit, slowly, I crawl my way with bleeding and breaking nails. Blood bursts from my veins. Pain grinds my sanity and mental mind, cutting it up into bloody pieces over and over again.

...?

My vision rises abruptly. I can't feel anything touching me as my body's senses went haywire. Is this a hallucination?

"Yo...he..."

Small bits of voices ring in my head. Is someone there?

I start to move further away from the jail cell.

No! Stop!

"Save...both of them..." I squeeze out my voice with my last remaining willpower.

...

...

Darkness soon engulfs my sight. My consciousness flashes in and out of my body, capturing incorrigible nonsense I can't put together. Is someone chasing us? What are they shouting?

No, all those don't matter. Is my father safe? What about Darilyus?

I...

Fuck...

==================

Seventy years ago, a boy was born in a well-off family in an old kingdom. He went through a protected childhood with caring parents and developed a kind and gentle persona in his early days under good guidance. His parents were revered for their benevolent attitude towards commoners and servants.

His parents wanted the boy to be a great person regardless of his intention to succeed in the family. In his hometown, Darilyus was a folklore identity of a fisherman who once came to feed the locals amidst a drought without receiving a single thing but gratitude. Thus, the boy was named Darilyus Natuilles.

Darilyus grew up to be a handsome and respected man with broad knowledge but a naive outlook on the world. He came across his shares of "evil" but those are nothing compared to the real forces behind the shadows.

Darilyus, an active advocate of justice, frequently interrupted plans or apprehended evil, garnering great fame and envy. His rising status was a great obstacle for many tainted with darkness. Thus, a long term plan was hatched.

He soon created an organisation that enacted karma while making friends and many memories on the path at the age of eighteen. By then, Darilyus was already a talented Master Swordsman with prospects piercing even the Lord realm. He was climbing rapidly on a golden ladder. However, the higher he climbs, the deeper he falls.

Darilyus was travelling the kingdom for enlightenment as a neighbouring lord declared sudden war on his family and ambushed the Natuilles land. They had excessive information about the security forces and systematic procedures of the Natuilles family, it was suspicious. It ignited confusion and doubts among comrades. When many apprehensions of suspects mitigated nothing, more started to suspect loved ones and broke relationships. In the end, the land crumbled from within. Darilyus had a wife and baby by then. He quickly returned as fast as he could to his family after the news, to the lands of once happiness and joy.

I see it vividly. The burning memories of that day.

The sight of raging flames filled the air. A deja vu. Darilyus was too late. He returned to people surrounding his burning home.

"...Look who finally came back," A knight in full black armour said.

Subordinates of that black knight stood between him and Darilyus.

"Y-You...why are you doing this?" Darilyus still asked.

Darilyus doesn't want to believe his eyes. That black armour was a gift Darilyus gave to a close friend.

The black knight's smirk can be seen through his helmet. "I was never your friend, fool."

"But the past ten years...the memories we spent together, what about those!!" Darilyus exclaimed.

"...Heh...HAHAHAHAHAHA!!" The knight chuckled and looked away. "Do you still not get it? You are more of a pushover than I thought."

...

Darilyus drew his sword. "Move."

"Haha...Sure." The black knight and his subordinates moved aside.

Darilyus rushed through the sea of fire into the mansion of fiery ashes and ascended the breaking stairs. Bodies of people he recognised constantly plagued his mind in every step.

"Mother!! Father!!!" Darilyus screamed as he kicked a door open.

!!!

Flames engulfed the bedroom, smoldering it with thick acrid smoke and crackles. Beyond burning curtains and carpets, lied two familiar faces.

His father slept impaled beside his bleeding mother.

"No!"

Darilyus ran to his parents and brought his mother into his arms.

"Daril...yus..."

"No no no...please...why....why is this happening?" Darilyus mumbled. Streams of his tears fought against the heat.

His mother stared at him with pitiful eyes and tried to touch his face. Darilyus pulls her bloody hand to his cheek.

"I'm sorry...for leaving...you behind."

Darilyus didn't understand. His parents emphasized how good karma brings about happiness ever since young. Darilyus believed them.

...

"It's...okay...do good...don't be like...those people...destroying lives...that's me and your father's final request...please..." His mother said with her last strength.

...

The roar of fire accompanied by crashing furnitures interrupted their moment. The once comfortable space transformed into an inferno nightmare.

...His mother stopped moving.

Darilyus hugged his mother in silence.

...

...

Afterwards, he was framed for killing his family and banished from the kingdom. The only thing that kept his sanity was the small glimmer of hope that his wife and child survived the war.

Ever since then...he only strive to find his kin and do good. A foolish decision but it was his foolish mother's final wish.

...

Damn it.

It hurts.

It hurts to go through all this.

==================

I open my eyes to tears flowing down my face.

A straw ceiling and dusty air.

...

Am I in some abandoned hut?

Trying to move my body hurts. Despite that, I pull myself up from the cold ground. This pain is nothing after all that.

I touch a soft skin after shifting my hand.

?

The weird female prisoner with bloodshot eyes and messy black hair from before lies naked beside me.

...

"Brat, you up?" A heartwarming voice says.

I immediately shoot my attention to the voice. My father leans against the wall staring at me.

!!

I forget about the woman and jump to my father, tripping from movement incoordination.

*THUD!*

"Ngh..." The woman turns to the other side.

"Ugh...D-Dad..."

My father sighs and closes his eyes. "I...don't even have the strength to scold you."

"I'm sorry...you can scold me however you want. Your life and death is...my top priority."

I look around the hut. A small fire burning on wood sits in the middle of the empty straw hut.

Fire...

"Where...is Darilyus? The bald...old man." I ask.

"He died on the way here...so I buried him outside." My father says. "He was a great man."

...

"I'm sorry," I say.

"Say that to Darilyus."

I nod and forcefully pull myself up. I trudge out of the hut and across the snow to a cairn. The freezing blizzard may obstruct me but my burning conscious refuse to succumb.

...

I stare at the cairn for a few minutes silently, going through all of Darilyus' memory.

...

"Kuegh...ugh...negh..." I couldn't contain myself and bursts into icy tears.

"I...I'm sorry...really..."

Underneath my sorrow and grief was my rage and hatred towards my powerless self. Soon, the anger flies to my enemies, the outworlders, and to those that betrayed Darilyus.

And finally, to fate itself when this message pops up.

--------------

You have sacrificed a noble man in exchange for your father's life.

Struggle.

Struggle more.

Struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and struggle and st#u19+$×

$¥×§§§€€€

--------------

The bottom of the message distorts into a weird glitch.

I clench my fist to the point of blood. My seething rage contorts my expression and bloodied, gritted teeth into a feral snarl.

"Fucking bastard...I will do just that."