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(56) Chapter 24: No. 12

(56) Chapter 24: No. 12

Sometime around 300 Years ago.

The magnificent and peaceful city of Fome is ruled by the Daniel Family. The city lord has twelve children named after the number they are born. The children look nothing alike, nor does the city lord himself, and everyone believes it's because they have different mothers, whom the city lord meets during his adventures and gains the title of "Harlem Lord." The twelve veiled women following the city lord wherever he goes, are said to be the mothers and proven to be skilled fighters—worthy to be on the city lord's side forever.

"Have you seen our mothers' face?" Twelve asks his big brother Seven.

"I'm sorry, little brother, but I'm sure that they love us by this much!" Seven cheerfully let out to twelve as he opened his arms to show how much their parents love everyone in the family and hugged Twelve.

"But big brother, all they told us is to get stronger and something with Evil without enough information or evidence," Twelve said as he scratched his head and heard a soft and gentle voice by the gate.

"Oh my little brothers, you know our parents are doing their best to keep the kingdom and everyone in it safe and prepare us for the upcoming disaster that Father envisioned," One expresses to her siblings.

"Big sister!" The two happily welcome their sister as they run towards her, hug her, and gently bump their heads into each other.

The three siblings head inside the mansion to celebrate and announce the safe return of the eldest from a whole long year's adventure around the continent.

Dining with the whole family, One tells her story and how she becomes a hero and gains a lot of experience that she can share with her siblings. She hands over soul weapons, magic stones, and precious herbs and fruits to her siblings as instructed by their father.

Half are warriors, and the other half are magicians, perfectly balanced. Everyone dedicates their time to training to get stronger as what their parents intended them to be in the future. Day by day, then months to years went by, and the twelve siblings became heroes, became the city protector, and became whatever they wanted after they set out to see the world.

Everyone knows the Daniels throughout the continent, especially their bravery and ability to solve any problem they encounter with ease. After everyone gets back from their travel, their father sends them back to the world and returns the following year in the same month to talk about the disaster.

One year later.

Since news has yet to travel that fast, only a few of the siblings get wind of their home covered in darkness. Those who heard the news quickly return, while the rest are excited to return home without knowing the danger and horror they're about to face.

The mansion is the city's heart, and a rift can be seen oozing with Dark magic.

People lose their minds and will kill anyone they see in the first week of the "Gloom Event," only the strongest survive. Everyone never knew when the disaster would fall and had fate on the Daniels to stop it before anything wrong happened, so they never left the city, and that "Fate" was ultimately the cause of their death.

As instructed by their parents, the remaining children return home to be welcomed by the people engulfed in madness they swore to protect and helplessly send their souls to the other life.

Twelve rushes to the mansion unaffected by the Dark magic's effect and sees his father on top of the mansion, floating, and upon reaching the top, he sees his mothers in a circle formation.

"FATHER! WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP!?" Twelve loudly asks before he notices his big sister One's weakened body in the center.

"Enemy..." One points her finger at their father as she passes away with regret in her eyes.

Her soul emerges from her body, struggling not to get sucked into her father's palm. Once One's soul gets collected, their father releases a powerful magical burst after another power-up.

"One more!" The father looks at Twelve with greedy eyes mixed with madness, making it look like he has already lost his mind.

Twelve's body suddenly felt heavy, like being bound with an invisible chain, and no matter what he did to use magic, all his efforts were in vain. Not Knowing what was happening, he started floating, and as he looked around, lifeless bodies piled at the corner, their life force drained, knowing it was all his father's doing.

Heart racing, shortness of breath, trembling, dizziness, and vision tunneling, Twelve looked around, hoping someone would save him, and thought, *No... No, no, no, no! Is that... Brother Six? Brother Two? Brother Seven... Sister Three?! This can't be! They're all dead... I'm alone*

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*So it's Father... The disaster...*

*I feel... Cold...*

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, BROTHER?" Someone shouts.

*Brother? But my siblings are all dead?* Twelve tries to look around with his weak body.

"Brother! I didn't expect you to find me! All this year, I thought you died," The father shouts.

*Brother? We have an uncle?* Twelve questions in his head.

"You need to stop before it's too late!" The uncle shouts.

"Immortality is within my grasp!" The father let out and continued, "Just one more soul, flesh and blood—Your son."

Twelve wants to look at his real father, but the spell bending him in place is more potent, and all he can do is wait for his impending death. He can hear the two arguing and feel the pressure and power his real father gives off as he tries to destroy the barrier protecting the twelve veiled women to close the rift and stop the sacrificial ritual.

"You leave me no choice, brother!" Twelve's father shouts as he jumps to the center to bodylock his little brother and absorbs all magic in the surrounding area to end it all with a blast.

"No!!! Do you know how much I sacrifice!?" Twelve's evil uncle shouts as he tries to escape his brother without stopping the ritual.

Twelve looks at his father and notices him looking at him and at someone else as his lips move like saying his last word. He can feel and see how sincere his father's eyes are and want to know more about him, but this is the only moment they have as he hears a loving and motherly voice not far away.

Before everything turns to ashes, the evil uncle gives everything to Twelve as a last resort and curses his only nephew with eternal life.

Solidified shadow and pure malice shoot from the evil uncle to Twelve's body, losing his sanity until a warm embraces him from behind that feels like Holy Magic, helping him to survive the explosion and the direct power transfer from his evil uncle.

"We're sorry..." These are the two words Twelve hears before everything turns white from the explosion. Those words didn't matter to him, but the woman's voice sounded familiar, and he wanted to see her face.

*A loving family sounds good... Maybe in the next life,* Twelve thought before he lost consciousness.

The explosion produces Dark Magic moving across the continent, affecting every living creature like a nuclear fallout. Twelve wakes up in the vast black sand desert while black ash-like snow falls in the sky and quickly feels a sharp pain in his head after remembering what happened. The once beautiful city where he grew up and the lake that can be considered the most stunning and teaming with life are all gone and reduced to ashes.

Twelve doesn't know what to do now since all he did in his life was follow his evil uncle's instructions, and dying could have been better than surviving the calamity. He stayed in the area to die and commit suicide only to survive and keep living, feeling cursed by his own family to bear all the sins his uncle committed.

The strange music flowing throughout his body keeps him alive, and he never feels hungry or weak. He wanted to stay, but masters around the continent who could survive the thick lingering Dark Magic in the ruined city coordinated an investigation on what happened and who to blame that caused the lives of many across the land.

Traveling to where they believe the ground zero where the Dark Magic comes from, those brave and powerful men and women meet monsters and hybrid human monsters they need to fight to the death. Without any questions, after they notice Twelve walking towards them, they attack, cast magic, and activate their soul weapon's skill, only to be blocked by a magic barrier and a powerful skeleton. One attack successfully hits his arm and sends it flying, only to heal back together.

Twelve wanted to talk about his situation, but his body wasn't done reconstructing itself and could not speak or say a word to the masters. When he manages to get close to one of them, he immediately falls into madness and dies a second after his body melts from the pure Dark Magic oozing from his body.

Twelve didn't know how dangerous he had become and started running away from everybody, hoping not to accidentally kill them with his new power.

"PLEASE DON'T FOLLOW ME!" Twelve shouted and continued, "I do not have control over my power!"

*Now I can talk?* Twelve angrily thought God had abandoned him and made him the villain.

With the thick Dark Magic around the area, all the masters are disoriented, and all in their minds is to kill and destroy the things they find evil. They attack and use all their arsenal, but a skeleton materializes and blocks it with its own magic.

After running and trying to escape for almost a month from the remaining masters, Twelve sits in the middle of the forest, surrounded by dead plants and animals with the skeleton who helped him.

"Thank you, Skeleton..." Twelve let out, looking at the skeleton.

The skeleton slowly walks towards Twelve, and as the magic weakens that keeps the bones together, it speaks, "I'm sorry... My little treasure..."

Twelve knows that the skeleton used its depleting magic to say those words and notices a small ball of light coming out of the skull. He doesn't know what it is, but it feels comfortable, like home, that one missing piece in his life, and he instinctively touches the ball of light.

The skeleton's memories flashed in Twelve head, and all related memories to him: the day he was born, his parents watching him sleep, and the day he disappeared without any hope of finding him.

Coming back to his senses, the skeleton hugs him and hears her voice one more time.

"It's okay... Please live..." His mother uses her remaining magic as her bones fade away.

Twelve wants to shout, but no words come out of his mouth. He tries his best to hold his mother's fading skeleton, but the wind blows it away. He wanted to cry, but nothing came out.

"If there's God, can you at least make me mourn my mother!?" Twelve shouts and releases Dark Magic from his body until black-like ink comes out of his eyes.

Current time.

Twelve tears flow down his cheeks uncontrollably after Jio takes all his power for himself, and as for Twelve, to die is to live, and to live is keeping his mother's wish before she passes away.

"That should do it. Thanks for the power-up!" Jio let out to Christopher Daniel.

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