After thinking for a while, the old man took a decision, to fire the cannon. But he didn’t want to drag down the young man with him, and thus sent him away. The young man was reluctant to retreat at first. But after the old man yelled at him and made him promise to live to tell the heroic tale of the old man to the world, he had no choice but to run away.

The man adjusted the cannon to the center of the experts, his main target was the giant raven at the front. He was no idiot and knew that the one riding that bird must be the leader and thus wanted to take him out. Lighting the fuse, he ran in the opposite direction of the cannon, to try and escape before the experts arrive.

The fuse burned, and entered the gunpowder filled bag, the gunpowder caught fire and the explosion sent the canister in front of it, filled with grape-sized iron balls into the air. The thin canister couldn’t handle the pressure and broke, sending out the iron balls flying into the crowd of experts. The iron balls spread in the air like a giant cone, the raven at its center.

The balls were not as fast as the bullets from the gun, but they were not slow either, and just when the cone had traveled halfway through the street, the raven tilted its head. Sensing the incoming attack, covered itself and yuuma with its jet black feather-covered wings.

The moment the wings were crossed was the moment the iron balls arrived, many of the balls had already fallen to the floor, but they skipped across the ground with the enormous momentum they had. Metal balls collided with the bodies of the experts that stood in the front row. The few normal thugs including Yugimi was in the front begging to Yuuma and were the main casualties.  Many were as without an arm or leg, some had a hole in their chest. The floor was covered in blood and gore, Yugimi was seriously injured by a metal ball that had dug deep into his left leg.

Some of the experts had serious injuries too. As the shot was from a distance and didn’t have enough momentum to cause deaths in their ranks, The Knights had only a few injuries.

Most of the metal balls had collided with the feather-covered wings of the raven, and many had been lodged in its feathers and flesh, It shook its wing and most metal balls fell off.

Yuuma commanded the raven and the next moment, it was flying up high in the air.

Yuuma was afraid of another attack, his demon raven, Tylar, could stand a few of these attacks without any problem, it had armored feathers. But a bird was still a bird, its strong point was not defense, and thus he decided to retreat immediately. He was hugging Tylar closely when they were flying up, he was thankful for what it had done. If he was injured by the attack, everything that he had done would go to waste. This made him remember when he got Tylar.

“When will you come back dad?”, a cute young boy, his hair, and eyes, golden in color, asked a well-built man who was in metal plate armor. The man had two long swords, one on each side of his waist, both almost touching the ground. He had a heroic air to him, he held his head high, like a true noble.

“As soon as we defeat the demons, Yuuma, Be a good boy, okay? ”

The boy who looked like he was five years old, was trying hard to not cry, he was afraid something would happen to his dad. His fears were true, although he didn’t know, none had returned from this portal,

It was not that the man wanted to leave his son and go on this perilous mission, but it was the imperial order and he had the duty to protect the human world.

The astrologers of both empires had visions when the portal first appeared, they saw what was inside the portal, demons! They looked like skeletons covered in skin, the astrologers had a vision of the demons savagely attacking spirit animals and doing weird rituals with their blood. And what scared them was that these spirit animals were top grade ones. Demons that can kill top tier demon beasts single-handedly, what kind of power was that? What would happen if they were to be let into the human world?

A large army was led into the portal’s position that year, and on arrival they found a demon standing outside the portal, he had its body surrounded by a skeleton, he wore a mask that made him look demonic.

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The commander of the army ordered an attack and the demon went down without any fight. It was as if the demon was not expecting the attack.

From that year onwards, once every three years, the astrologers get a vision and the portal opens for a few minutes on a random place, but even before the demons come out, a group of brave knights was sent in to prevent the demons from coming out.

This was the third time the portal was opening, and the second batch of knights that was sent in. The last time from the knights that had entered the portal, no one returned. Yuuma didn’t know this and only had the innocent wish that his father didn’t leave him,

“Promise?”, Young Yuuma asked,

“Promise!” The man said, running his fingers through the hair of Yuuma

27 knights, armed to the teeth, walked into the portal.

There were many people who were related to these knights near the portal, many had tears in their eyes.

Minutes passed, and the portal disappeared.

Crying and wailing of the dear ones of the knights resounded in the air.

A young boy stood there, still waiting for his dad.

The crowd started to thin, in a few hours, there were only a handful more people left near the portal. Tired of standing, Yuuma, walked to the shade of the nearby tree and sat down, and fell asleep.

When he was awake, no one was around. He guessed that they all might have had their relatives return. Yuuma waited there for an hour, then a day, he ate the fruits of a nearby tree when he was hungry, and drank spring water when he was thirsty, but still came back to the portal to wait.

On the third day, the portal had a small spatial tear in it and an injured raven, two times the size of a normal raven came out of the tear.

Seeing the tear open, Yuuma expected his dad’s return, but what awaited him was only grief. It was just a bird. But on closer inspection, in its right leg, there was a ring, the ring that had a knight’s symbol carved in it and beneath it, there was the name, it was Yuuma’s dad’s ring. The other leg had a parchment of paper tied to it.

The next day, imperial soldiers arrived at the portal, looking for Yuuma. Yuuma’s dad was one of the best knights of the empire and his the emperor wanted to gift his fief to his son. And soon realized that the Yuuma who had no family was somehow left behind at the location of the portal, and immediately sent a group to search for him.

Yuuma adamantly refused to leave the portal without his dad and the soldiers had to drag along a young Yuuma, kicking the air and scratching and biting them. But they agreed to one of his wishes and let him have the raven and took it along with them.

From that day onwards he treated that bird as his own brother and was really fond of it, later in his life, he realized that the ring was a final message from his father, although he was not sure what he meant. The parchment had weird runes that meant nothing in it.

The portal never opened again.

Later, he got a fief,

His childhood was as of a pampered boy, getting everything he needs at a command, he didn't value life, he was devoid of morals growing up. What else can you expect from a boy who had no one to control him or teach him good and bad things.

he studied everything he can about the runes, as he wanted to find even a clue about what had happened to his father. And after tens of years of research, he found out some of the meanings of it. It had the secret of obtaining bloodlines from spirit animals!

Exited, Yuuma treated this as the last gift from his father and experimented with the bloodlines. He wanted the power of those demons.

He wanted to get power and make all of those sent his father into the portal pay!

But whatever he did, he was not able to get rid of the poison from the blood of spirit animals and thus began his dark days. Experimenting with humans, injecting them with spirit animal blood. Finally, when he had an almost successful result, he injected himself with the spirit animal blood. He only got a bad fever and the result was that he became a dual element mage. But the situation changed with the next blood infusion.

He became sick, his vitality was eaten away by the poison from the blood. He became what he is now, what that was inside the portal, a demon.