CHAPTER 1-ORIGIN

“Remember, don’t follow me, okay, Kai?”

I nodded in mock attention, already planning out how exactly I would follow him. My big brother Leo was always so secretive about what he does in those dungeons… I wanted to find out for myself.

“Protect the house while I’m gone,” he chuckled.

I rolled my eyes. Protect the house? We live on top of a mountain; the only thing up here we need protection from is the wind.

As soon as I was out of hearing range, I ran into the forest and stalked him from the cover of the trees. He didn’t notice me, and after a half hour of following him, we finally reached the dungeon.

The dungeon looked like a giant, gaping hole in the ground, littered with stalagmites at the bottom. There was a path of rocks jutting out of the wall of the hole. One wrong step and we would be meat skewers for whatever monstrosities live down there. Accepting that I couldn’t make it down there discreetly, I chose to watch my brother from the top. My eyes widened in amazement as I saw him just floating down the hole, not even paying attention to the “stairs”. I wish I could use wind magic like that. He looked like a jellyfish, but in the air. I almost laughed at my own analogy, picturing him as a jellyfish, but quickly caught myself.

As soon as he touched the bottom, the dungeon started to change. The stalagmites went back into the ground. The walls narrowed, and doors on them opened up. Inside them were hundreds, no, thousands, of bloodbeasts. Snakes, bears, wolves, gorillas, and many that I didn’t even know the names of. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of them. How the heck is Leo going to fight all these?

Surely he’s not that strong, right? The truth is, I don’t know. He’s never shown me his full strength, even when I begged him to. He would spar with me all the time, but has never used an ounce of aura. I didn’t even know what his affinity was! For as long as I can remember, Leo spent most of his days holed up either in his room or in the library. At least that’s where he says he was. Nobody really checked to see if he was actually there or not. The only exception to this was when I pleaded with him to spar me.

As I peered back into the deep hole, my heart beating so loud I was scared he would hear it, I saw something that, never in my five years of life, would I have thought my brother was capable of.

All the bloodbeasts were dead. Every single one of them. Lions, birds, insects, tigers, rhinos, anything and everything that was in there. Lying on the floor, staring with glazed eyes, the proof of their final struggle still showing on their faces.

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‘Just what is my brother?’ I thought. Thousands of bloodbeasts were killed in a matter of seconds. I don’t think he even broke a sweat. But something was off. It took me a moment to notice, but I finally realized what it was.

None of the monsters had injuries.

‘Wait, what? That’s not possible.’ There’s no way all those bloodbeasts just dropped dead from a synchronized heart attack or something. Unless… does Leo know some kind of magic that can do that? Maybe he stopped their blood flow with water magic? Nah. I quickly dismissed the thought. Being able to use magic at that level would make him the greatest sorcerer of the century. So what was it that killed all these beasts?

‘Leo really is awesome, huh’

My thoughts were interrupted by a sudden blur in the corner of my vision. What was that? I looked around me, but I couldn’t see anything. Thinking it must have been a bug flying by, I looked into the hole again to check on Leo.

But Leo wasn’t the only one there. There was a humanoid figure clad in a black cloak that reached the floor and a mask with a weird-looking face on it. The mask was half black and half white, with eyes like an infinity symbol with a grey circle in the middle, and a mouth that looked like a rectangle split into four different colored sections, outlined in magenta. He wore a hood over his head, as if he wanted to complete his sketchy look. But where did he come from?

“Leo Dustfang,” the hooded figure said. “You know what I’m here for.”

How does that guy know my brother’s name?

“Nightshade,” Leo replied, “so we meet again.”

Again? He’s met this guy before? He’s not part of some weird gang or anything, right?

“Just give me the rune, and no one has to get injured,” the masked man threatened.

“You know I can’t do that. I’d die before giving this to scum like you.”

“Very well then. In that case, I’ll just have to take it from you.”

“I’d like to see you try it.”

I don’t know what happened after that. One second they were there; the next they were gone. Not even a minute later, they were back. But wait…

“No!” I screamed, “Leo!”

Both Leo and the Nightshade guy were in terrible condition. How did this even happen?

I threw all sense of self-preservation to the wind, and started climbing down to my big brother. The two of them watched me, but neither could do anything about it. I jumped down the last ten steps, and hurried towards Leo. He was worse than I thought. I don’t know what I could’ve done anyway, but he looked like the best healer in the world couldn’t save him.

This can’t be happening. My brother, the coolest person in the world, the one who always made time for me, who always helped me train, who was always patient with me. The brother who took care of me when I was sick, carried me on his back when I was tired, read me stories before I went to bed. He’s been my best friend since the day I was born, and was supposed to be until the day I died. I thought he would always be there for me. I was wrong.

“Kai…” he trailed off, blood trickling out of his mouth. “I told you not to follow me…”

“Don’t die, Leo,” I sobbed, “please don’t leave me.”

“I’m… sorry,” it seemed like he was fighting death just to get each word out. “Kai… continue what… starte… Chao...ergy…”

When Leo cradled my face in his hands, it felt like a jolt went through my body. My heart beat even faster than before, past what should be humanly possible. My entire body shook with some alien force entering it. I saw Nightshade teleport away, but I couldn’t stop him. It didn’t even matter, though. Nothing mattered anymore. I was numb, devoid of everything but sadness.

“Goodbye, Kai.”