The curtain of night was falling, and a creepy veil of darkness was getting impatient. The forest was endlessly large and deep, the deeper you go, the more unknown you find the world inside to be. It was as if a dark world unknown to mortals was awaiting you.

Edward ran, ran and ran. He kept running towards the depth of the forest. Soon, he could see several dark silhouettes surrounding a girl. The girl looked like an immortal fairy besieged by demons. The entire surrounding was cold, and it was snowing heavily.

"Huh? What do we have here? A little mouse wandering around!", said a shadow. It noticed Edward with its sharp senses.

Snow also noticed him at this moment. "What are you doing here? Why did you come here?", she shouted in shock.

"I have come to save you", he replied.

"Save me? ARE YOU INSANE?or is this some kind of joke? Are you trying to impress me by pulling this stunt? Listen, even 'I' am not sure I can survive this, let alone a mortal like you! So don't get your hopes up. Run, or I won't bother to save you.", she became angry and snapped at him loudly.

"I genuinely want to save you.", he said. "If I can't, then let me die with you", he was serious.

Snow didn't know whether to laugh or cry after seeing Edward acting like this. 

"Enough talk, finish them already," said the leader of the group of demons.

They attacked from all directions. They didn't bother to attack Edward right now. He was just a mortal, not a martial arts cultivator, so they can kill him any time they wish. They were focusing on taking down Snow. She was pretty hard to deal with.

Very soon, they overwhelmed her. She was injured and on the verge of going down.

Edward was worried.

"STOP!"

He rushed towards the demons, throwing punches.

But it was futile. He was blasted away by a shockwave and crashed into a nearby tree. His whole body was hurting. He tried to get up, but he couldn't.

The demons were attacking Snow from all directions. Edward lost his mind. With all his willpower, he forced himself to get up and started walking towards Snow. He grabbed a heavy rock from the ground and flung it towards one of the demons with all his strength.

Once again, it was useless. The demon shattered the rock with a flick of its finger. Broken fragments of the rock came flying towards Edward like bullets. Some of the fragments hit his body, causing serious injuries all over his body.

"Just what are you doing? What is with this madness?", Snow shouted. She couldn't bear seeing Edward going this far for her.

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Edward once again got up. His whole body is covered in blood. "Run", he said. "I will find a way to buy time for you to escape. You are powerful. If I can delay them for even half a minute, you can run very far away. Saying that he picked up a larger rock. While lifting the rock, his whole body was trembling. Yet, his eyes were calm, and he had a look of determination.

Seeing Edward like this, Snow wondered about something. Edward was just a mortal now, but what if he one day turned into a martial arts cultivator? How far could he go then?

"Bam!", Edward was sent flying away by one of the demons. He crashed into a tree nearby. His whole body was drenched in blood. It was unknown whether he was dead or alive.

"NO!!!!!", Snow shouted. For some reason, she was very angry right now.

"Die! You demons!", she yelled.

Snow was almost out of energy. She gathered all her powers to make one last powerful attack.

"crack crack crack".Everything was covered in ice. A deep blue light burst out. An image of a giant Whale appeared and slammed over the demons.

"Ahh!!!"

Most of the demons instantly died, the rest were gravely injured. The leader was quite stronger than the others, but he still couldn't avoid injury.

"Die!" The leader shouted. A dark beam shot out and hit Snow. She fell and passed out.

"She's finally down.", said one of the demons. "Let's kill her quickly, boss.", said another demon.

"Hell, she did quite a number on us. Only 5 of us are alive from our squad of 25. Still, if there wasn't a seal on her, we might have failed the mission. I guess we demons are still underestimating the power of the 12 Zodiac Clans. With them in the frontlines, wiping out the human race from the Nine Paragon World won't be easy.", said the leader.

The leader slowly walked towards the unconscious Snow.

"Don't. Touch. Her........", a faint voice said. A figure was crawling towards this direction.

"That brat is still alive?", the demons were shocked. 

"He is a stubborn fool, isn't he?", the leader chuckled.

"I'll finish the girl off. One of you go kill the brat.", said the leader.

"Yes, my lord.", said a demon.

He started walking towards Edward.

"So we're gonna die together, then.", Edward thought.

Suddenly...

"THE HEAVENS AWAIT THE ULTIMATE PARAGON!!!", a voice said from within Edward. Perhaps it was his subconscious mind or his deepest desires. Who knew that his thoughts would match the words that appeared on the "Heaven's Fate" tablet? 

As the words echoed in his mind, his mind went blank.

"BOOOOMMMM!!!!"

Suddenly, the devil that was coming to kill Edward exploded. Nothing was left of him.

"What? What happened?", the leader exclaimed.

BOOOM!!!BOOOM!!!BOOM!!!

All the other demons exploded. None of them survived. Only the leader was left.

"NO!!! Who are you? What are you?", the leader was terrified. He never felt such fear. He never felt such powerful and heavy aura coming from any demon or human, let alone a young mortal boy. He kept trembling nonstop.

"NOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

BOOOOOM!!!!!

His fate was sealed. He was also gone, reduced to atoms.

A powerful aura exploded from within Edward. It engulfed the surroundings. A flash of light entered Snow's body all of a sudden. After that, the aura vanished, like it was never there.

Edward suddenly calmed down. He was shocked by what just happened.

"What...What happened to me?", he thought. He was trembling and feeling weird. He noticed that all his wounds were healed. He did not have even a single scratch on his body.

"What just happened?", he asked himself, but he did not know the answer.

He suddenly felt unbelievably tired. He forcefully stood up and walked towards Snow. She was unconscious, but luckily, she was alive. He carried Snow in his back and started walking towards his village.

The forest was lonely, and it hid many secrets. Tearing through the veil of darkness, a young man was carrying a beautiful girl, and walking out of the forest. He looked just like a Hero who had returned with his heroine after the end of a long journey. But in truth, it wasn't the end.

IT WAS JUST THE BEGINNING...