The legendary white aura. Countless tales and myths have been told of this phenomenon. Centuries of study have yielded nothing on it. Some have even brushed off the stories as fiction. Despite the lack of proof of its existence, people held the idea as truth. It was like the idea of such unstoppable power residing inside of a person just spoke to their souls. Was it the power of gods? Some kind of mutation or change wrought by an outside force? Few people have ever witnessed the power that the white aura brings, but every one of them would say the same thing.

Damian knew this all better than anyone.

Barely a handful of people knew the true circumstances around the massacre of his people, but only he knew of the truth of how the army sent to eradicate his people never returned.

He was in his mid-teens when he and some close friends went to go rescue his sister. Damian had volunteered to take the blame for the whole situation, despite his friend’s objection. His banishment was simply being forced to live away from their village.

In a small hut some distance from the main village, Damian lived alone for next few months, occasionally being visited by his family. He lived off of the land, hunting and foraging.

One day, in the early spring, Damian was visited by his father. He warned his son of the order of the king. Damian wanted to turn himself in and spare his home any trouble from his actions, but his father forbade him. They argued for hours until Damian finally gave in. Tired, his father left the hut and turned to see large billows of smoke rising in the distance.

The man quickly ran toward the smoke, Damian following closely behind. He told the boy to stay behind, but Damian refused. Relenting, his father allowed him to come, as long as he stayed hidden.

The source of the smoke ended up being their home, their village. The landscape which had once been filled with houses was now covered in smoldering piles of ash and people. On the other end of the flatlands that their village had been settled on stood an army of two thousand.

Holding up a hand to signal Damian to wait, his father stepped slowly through the carnage. Falling to his knees, the man swept his gaze over the wreckage. The leader of the army came forward, stopping beside him.

Damian’s father asked the man to take his people and leave so that he could bury his people. The man refused, citing the king’s order to leave the carnage as a warning. Damian’s father rose to his feet, repeating his request.

Even from a distance, Damian could see the change in his father. He had never known the man to be violent. He had never yelled or screamed at anyone.

Turning to face the leader of the army, Damian’s father warned him that he was standing on the grave of his people. Tears started flowing down his face as he glared at the man.

The two men stared each other down until the army leader tipped his head upward and refused.

In one quick motion, Damian’s father’s aura erupted into a scarlet cloak that wrapped around his body, but before anything else could happen, a flash of white light burst from the man’s chest. In that instant, his aura had changed to a brilliant, white color and doubled in size.

The panic and fear in the army leader’s face as he staggered back was almost laughable. The man had been able to cry out an attack order shortly before Damian’s father threw out a simple punch. The Weeping Fist focuses sorrow into a source of strength. One powerful technique has been passed down beside this process through the generations. Gathering all of the pent-up sorrow into a ‘teardrop’ of mana that, in battle, can be released as a burst of violent energy. The flash of light that accompanied the blast was enough to blind anyone who had their eyes open. Everyone who had the foresight to close their eyes opened them to see a shadow burned into the ground that had once been their leader.

The battle continued for several minutes, as the entire army that had been sent was slaughtered. Even those that had dropped their weapons and attempted to flee were not spared as Damian’s father chased each and every one of them down.

In the end, only he remained. Damian moved to go to his father’s side, but stopped when the man fell to his knees and the light around his body expanded. Ducking behind a boulder nearby, Damian nearly avoided an explosion of blinding light that vaporized anything not made of stone in the area.

Peeking around the boulder, Damian saw that an enormous pit had formed, centering around where his father had fallen. Slowly, water started flowing through cracks and pits near the bottom of the pit, filling it with water. Rain started to pour from the sky as he stepped next to the pit.

The crater would come to be known as the Wellspring of Tears.

Damian had tried to share his story, but nobody would take him seriously. But the same force was standing right in front of him. Like before, he felt that only one thing could be used to describe the power that he felt from it. A force of nature.

“Humanity really has changed since I left.” Tim spoke in a curious tone.

The monstrous shadow creature stood, hunched over. Slowly, a glob of black energy started forming in a pair of its hands.

“Changed or not, you’re all still insignificant!” Aleron cried as they threw the glob at Pert.

Reaching out a hand, Pert caught the black energy and tipped his head to look at it. Frost quickly formed around it, hardening it until Pert simply dropped it to the ground where it shattered and dissolved.

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“Because of you,” Pert started to say, breathing slowly, “I nearly forgot my promise.”

Closing his eyes, Pert breathed in deep through his nose. As he did, the temperature in the room dropped sharply, to the point where peoples breath came out as a thick cloud.

The shadow creature took a quick step back the moment that he opened his eyes.

“Are you afraid?” Tim shouted. “You foolish thing!”

Everyone in the room felt their hair stand on end as Pert slowly stepped toward the shadow creature. Bright flashes of blue light flickered from his body as he moved.

The shadow creature held out a pair of hands and started to form another glob of dark energy, but it stopped when Pert flicked a finger in its direction, sending a bolt of silver-blue lightning to obliterate the arm entirely.

The creature’s arm reformed almost immediately. Turning back to Pert, it looked shocked, almost afraid.

In a flash of light, Pert’s body rocketed toward the shadow monster, ricocheting off of the walls as he dragged it out through the hole and outside, tossing it across the wet grass.

“It’s useless to fight!” Tim shouted, pushing the creature to its feet. “You can’t save her!”

“She’s right there. I can still see her, so I can save her.” Pert said simply.

Stormclouds rolled over the Gelling’s manor, booming as thunder rocked the sky. The storm was gathering in their direction.

Raising his hands to the sky, Pert shuddered as lightning directly struck his body. It was immensely painful, but the pain was what he deserved.

He remembered that time on the battlefield, when he first met the Wark. The creature was injured. It had failed to protect its young and nearly died. It came to him and felt the conflict within him. Time froze as the two met eyes, and the beast asked him why he continued to fight. Pert couldn’t answer at the time, but the Wark knew his heart. Just moments ago, the Wark came to him, asking the same question. This time, he had an answer. He fought, so that others didn’t have to. He suffered, so that his children wouldn’t suffer. He would die for his family and never regret it. He fought for love.

Feeling a tenseness in his chest, Pert grit his teeth and allowed the electricity to flow through his body without resistance.

Tim and Aleron turned and tried to escape into the bog, but stopped when a flash of light erupted from the ground in front of them. Embedded into the ground and stretching into the sky, the bolt of lightning remained frozen in place where it had struck. Hundreds of other bolts struck the ground in a wide circle around the two of them.

Lightning arced across Pert’s body until two bright, jagged limbs made of lightning stretched out from his back. These limbs worked, gathering the lightning and, like a spider’s silk, began to weave the electricity in the air into shape.

The shadow creature tried to attack again, but a simple snap of Pert’s fingers caused all of the black energy from the creature to explode.

“What do we do?” Aleron asked, clearly frightened.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen something like this before.” Tim replied. “But I’m sure we’re fine. Nothing can break the shell around the girl. We just need to bide time until he burns himself out.”

Right as Tim spoke, a dim glow started to emit from Pert’s body. The shadow creature prepared to react to any kind of attack, but they were far too slow to react to Pert’s movements. In barely a moment, Tim and Aleron found themselves separated from Jaime. Pert had, using only his hands, cut off all of their limbs and removed her egg from within their body with surgical precision.

Holding her close, Pert tried to break open the shell, but found it far too strong to even chip.

Pressing his head against its murky surface, Pert muttered. “Jaime, please wake up.”

Jaime stirred within the egg for barely a moment before the black ooze started to form around it again.

“Nothing can break it!” Tim mocked from a distance. “There’s nothing you can do!”

Reaching behind him, Pert grabbed onto what his electric limbs had been building: a simple, silvery-blue staff. Holding the staff in both hands, Pert lifted it high above his head and swung down at the cocoon. An explosion of light and heat erupted the moment the staff touched the shell.

Holding his staff to the side, Pert looked down at the cocoon to see that the attack had barely made a chip in its surface. Tim and Aleron started laughing, seeing his failed attempts.

╚╩╩╩╝ Jaime ╚╩╩╩╝

“Jaime, please wake up.” A voice called through the darkness.

Blinking, I frowned. I was so tired, and someone woke me up. Who was it? Who’s talking?

Looking around, I found nothing. I heard nothing, saw nothing, felt nothing. Fear started gripping my heart and a tightness filled my chest.

Then, a tiny hole appeared in the darkness and light started filtering in through it.

“Jaime, please. You have to wake up. I can’t do this without your help.” A voice called, coming from the hole. I recognized it, but I couldn’t remember where from.

Peeking through the hole, I could see someone standing against the black sky. They looked really familiar.

“Oh, she’s waking up.” Another voice spoke from nearby.

Turning around, I saw a man and a bird. They looked familiar too, but not in a good way.

“Just go back to sleep.” The man said. “You won’t have to worry about things when you’re asleep.”

The man’s words felt right, but wrong at the same time.

“You have to be brave, Jaime.” Another voice came from nearby.

Turning, I saw a silhouette in the darkness.

“Don’t let them control you!” Another silhouette formed.

My head started throbbing as several voices started speaking over each other in my mind.

Pert. A name popped up in my mind. I recognized his face. He looked… different from how I just saw him.

“Fight back. You have to fight them.” One of the silhouettes was becoming clearer.

“Mom?” I asked, reaching out to her as her form became clear enough to recognize. “Dad?” Tears formed in my eyes as my mind became clear. I hadn’t seen him in so very long.

“I don’t think so!” Tim shouted, raising a hand.

Black tendrils wrapped around my parents’ bodies again, dragging them back into the darkness. I couldn’t let it happen again. I had to stop it!

“No!” I cried out and the tentacles went limp, releasing the both of them.

I felt a burning in my forehead as my parents pulled themselves out of the shadows.

“Impossible!” Tim looked shocked.

╚╩╩╩╝ Damian ╚╩╩╩╝

Finished helping the children out of the dungeon and onto the grass, I turned to see Pert standing across from the butchered remains of the shadow creature. On the ground at his feet lay the murky orb containing Jaime.

Suddenly, the orb began to writhe and deform as the shadow creature’s body started to bubble and shudder. Then the orb shattered, and Jaime fell onto the ground, clutching at her head.

“No!” Jaime shouted repeatedly as a glowing red diamond formed on the center of her forehead.

Feeling that something was wrong, I darted toward the two, ignoring the shouts of the people behind me. Luckily, Pert disabled the barrier that he had put up, and I was able to reach him. I grabbed onto his arm and tried to pull him away.

But before I could even take a step away, Jaime screamed once again, this time much louder and fiercer as a swirl of violet and gold energy erupted out from her body.