I could do nothing but look on as the sword created by my father, Merlin, was about to cut him in half. I saw the look of satisfaction and relief in the eyes of the human, Prince Arthur, as he swung his sword down.

I remember the smell of searing flesh and the dangerous magical aura of the sword shining so brightly that none of us could stare at it...

Before this...

We were once allied together with the humans, we worked together and survived countless battles and numerable wars against the Demon race who once threatened to destroy the world.

We are not like the humans, our maturity rates are very slow and our reproduction rate very low, a single death of one of ours is like a thousand of theirs. We thought the humans would protect us during our time of need just as we had protected them.

After we, the Druids, who suffered terrible casualties paid a huge price to destroy the Demon race, we naively entertained the thought that we would finally be able to reclaim the forests as our home.

In our moment of weakness during a sacred ritual of our people, the Eclipse Ritual, that was meant to increase the birth rate and quality of our young; the humans found our hiding spot and ambushed us...

I remember the cries of the children outside who were slaughtered before they could even beg for mercy.

They did not even attempt to capture slaves or violate the women, it was nothing short of a complete purge. I knew this because the screaming stopped as fast as it began.

The humans were so ruthless in their attack that they made sure that most of us were dead before the eclipse had even ended.

The Eclipse Ritual required the greatest druids to join hands, and for us all to connect our Life Fire and continuously merge them one by one until we had but a single Life Fire.

This level of intimacy is something that even humans cannot understand. During the Eclipse Ritual, all the most powerful druids gathered their Life Fires and continuously radiated the area to empower the young.

I was an exception, from a young age I possessed the most amount of natural magic that has ever existed in our ancient records and this was the reason I was allowed to participate

The consequences of using magic or forcefully breaking away from this ritual could result in our Life Fires igniting and killing everyone in a sudden and brutally violent death.

Every druid possesses a Life Fire, this power is what allows us to pass onto the Ethereal Plane and reincarnate after death and it is this very Life Fire that allows us to use our natural magic.

All it would take is a single interruption to make all of our combined Life Fires ignite and explode, killing everyone on site.

We could only continue on as we felt the disappearing life forces of our brothers and sisters outside. We knew the humans had come...and there was nothing we could do.

They betrayed us and killed us without mercy. The very sword, Excalibur, that was created by my father as a token of goodwill to the humans was turned against us and used to slaughter our people.

That sword was meant to destroy demons and give the humans a fighting chance...How dare they use it against us!

Only now did we truly realize, how naive our people were. We should have paid closer attention to the increasing hatred the humans had towards magic, we should have realized that it would turn against us as soon as the demons were gone.

If something happened that they could not explain, then in their ignorance they would naturally blame us, demonize us; and then make us the new enemy. We would become the new Demons.

Why would they want to share the world with us when they can have it all? We underestimated human greed, their cowardice, and their treachery...and now we pay the price.

I remember thinking like this right as the shining blade of Excalibur was about to separate my father in two, then the Eclipse Ritual would ignite our Life Fire and kill the rest of remaining druids.

At 15 years old, I would be nothing short of rotting meat and my people would be forgotten in history since the humans would probably never record this treachery or even our existence.

Our Druid people would be forgotten and lost, without so much as a single totem surviving. I would die in a nameless grave, thrown into a pit of bodies with my dead kin...

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At least I thought that it would end that way...

In a sudden fit of madness and rage, unable to resign my fate; my hate for the humans and humankind had suddenly ignited.

When my father was about to be cut in half; I knew the Eclipse Ritual would kill us all and our Life Fires would be consumed.

We would never reincarnate...

A deep despair suddenly tore my heart in pieces.

I hate them! I hate them all! I would give anything to see them all destroyed!

Killed! Ripped to pieces! Shredded!

Torn Apart! Murdered! Violated!

Destroyed! Obliterated! Butchered!

Maimed! Devoured! Exterminated!"

Suddenly I heard the beating of drums...

*Doom* *Doom*

Suddenly I heard the sound of drums in my ears...

*Doom *Doom* *Doom*

The sound of the drums resounded in my heart, mind and soul. These drum sounds were far from majestic, they sounded eerie as if they were made of flesh

and it sounded like the screams of undying souls...

The drums felt old and ancient, every beat would make my heart go cold and my soul shiver.

*DorororoDun Dun Dun*

Druids were supposed to be the Guardians of Life...

Yet I reveled in the evil, blasphemous drums of death...

A terrible and wicked sensation crawled up my spine as I felt a strange sort of excitement

*Dununun Doom Doom*

For a single moment, I abandoned it all and lusted for the power to devour life instead of protecting it.

Rather than cherish life, I wanted to devour it all. The moment I came to this frightening realization, it felt as though a sturdy weight was removed from my shoulders.

I could feel my body changing from the inside-out...the color of my skin became as black as night and my fingernails resembled daggers made from obsidian stone.

I could see dark penta-shaped gems that twinkled like diamonds emerge from my skin, my trade-marked druid green hair that resembled leaves became pale and white like the skin of a lifeless corpse.

"Arthur Pendragon...You humans...To hell with you all!"

My voice didn't even sound remotely close to a living being, it sounded like the whispers of the demonic undead.

"You devil! What are you!"

The Prince Arthur suddenly stopped in his tracks, his face contorted in sheer horror as he looked at me. In my eyes, I couldn't see the confident face he had before neither his satisfaction.

I realized the appearance of the current me was probably no less terrifying than the Demonic Emperor.

"Mordred stop! You are turning away from the path of Life! Stop! At most, we would never regain our memories, but you are going down a different path!"

My father Merlin's voice tried to reach out to me...he sounded frantic and scared. For some reason, I did not care about his cries anymore.

Under the manipulation of the drums, I could control the Life Fire much easier than before. Rather, I did not even have to try; it felt completely natural.

What it took multiple powerful druids to do, I could do myself. Suddenly the Eclipse Ritual Life Fire was absolutely nothing for me to worry about.

A single flash of light...and everything was gone.

I forcefully took control of the Eclipse Ritual and exploded our Life Fires killing everyone within a few miles radius.

Luckily with the control I managed to gather, I was able to separate small individual portions of the Life Fires of the rest of druids. This would ensure that they would be able to reincarnate, as for mine; I burned it all.