I opened my eyes, feeling tired and having no will to stand up from my bed. I tried to recall everything that we did last night after the fight, but all I can remember is my conversation with Gabriel about his past. Who would’ve thought his father was a Celestial? I guess I wasn’t the first one to have the idea of assuming a mortal form. Oh, and for some reason, I was made the leader of this ragtag group of experiment escapees. There goes my plan of not attracting attention to myself. It sure felt like that was a very long night.

As I gathered my will of standing up, I was finally able to break free from the eerie, non-existent force that’s seemingly chaining me back to my bed.

“Is this a form of magic I’m not aware of?” I asked myself.

After finally being able to stand up completely, I went outside the prison room that I slept on due to the lack of available space in the village and saw Gabriel, Frain and two other members talking to each other in the prison’s reception hall.

“Oh hey, you’re awake.” said Frain as she noticed me coming. “So how do you feel about sleeping? Does it feel good or anything?”

I looked at her with my dead tired eyes, and paused for a brief moment.

“Couldn’t be worse” I tell her. “Does everyone do this every night?”

She quickly burst into laughter which caught the two member’s attention, making them turn their heads towards us. I looked at them and saw the utter confusion in their faces about our peculiar conversation about this mortal practice called ‘sleeping’.

“Well, that’s the gist of it.” Gabriel said to the two members. “We’ll leave in an hour so be sure to be ready and inform everyone.”

“Yes sir!” the two of them replied in unison.

As they exit the building, Gabriel walked up to Frain and I who was still not showing any signs of stopping in her laughter.

“Arthur.” he said. “We kind of decided this without your consent since you were still asleep, but I was appointed to the combat specialist position while Frain was appointed to be your personal guard. Do you have any objections with that?”

“My personal guard?” I asked. “Foolish mortal. Do you think I require guarding? And wouldn’t it be wiser to have someone like Frain, who has tremendous offensive capabilities, as the one in charge of attacks?”

His eyebrows frowned a bit but not the the point of anger. He then flashed a vague, but noticeable smile.

“Yes, you do require guarding. If what you told us last night is true, casting Celestial magic would undoubtedly harm us too, with that higher dimensional light you’re talking about so that basically limits the circumstances where you can cast offensive magic.” he replied. “And that’s why Frain will guard you. You’re capable of giving near unlimited supply of mana, which means the two of you would be an incredible force to be reckoned with.”

“Couldn’t you just close your eyes whenever I’m going to cast magic?” I said. “And besides, why am I the leader anyway? If I was just a support it would give me more leeway and allow me to avoid being targeted.”

“What, you expect us to close our eyes in the middle of the battlefield where just a split second of carelessness could cost us our lives?” he replied. “Also, even if you’re just a supporting role, the Empire isn’t stupid. They’d catch on to your ability soon enough and realize what you can do, which means they’d still be targeting you. Making you the leader puts you in the best position as the face of our group and as the most protected individual.”

“The face of the group huh? The man who can give mana.” I said. “Alright, the logic and reasoning behind your decisions seems sound. I consent.”

“Not just your ability to give mana. You also have a charismatic charm with your face, you do look like the type of person who’d lead people to a cause afterall.” he added. “So everything’s all good and set? We’ll leave in an hour so if you need to prepare anything, now’s the time to do so.”

“No, I don’t really have any possessions with me.” I replied. “In the meantime, I think I’ll walk around the forest south of the village for a bit. It’s within the walls so you don’t need to worry about me.”

After that, they simply told me to be careful anyway and proceeded to go back to their own cells to ready the things they’ll bring with them. I, on the other hand went to the forest where I first came to when I descended down this world. Despite all of the chaos that happened last night, the forest seem to be untouched and is still in its pristine condition as it was yesterday.

I looked around the green scenery and the animals that runs around, minding their own business. Not too far from the village is a pond with several lily pads on it, and various animals with their young drinking from the said pond. I walked unto a tree and decided that I’d rest upon it for the moment when all of a sudden, a long, green stick-like reptile hanged down from the tree branch and bared its fangs unto me.

I immediately sensed danger from that particular animal. Without even thinking about it, my right hand moved on its own and I casted Void Pulse towards the general direction of the animal. Unfortunately, I didn’t managed to hit it. It went past the hanging reptile and collided to a tree trunk behind it, completely disintegrating everything in that area the size of a watermelon. After the void bubble disappeared, the air surrounding the hit area immediately collapsed into that point to fill in the empty space caused by my magic. The air imploded so fast that it created a moderately loud explosion noise, which seems to have alerted everyone from the village. After regaining my senses, I looked at the animal that startled me and saw that it’s now in the ground, wriggling around in pain and occasionally banging it’s head unto the exposed tree root. It appears that it saw the extra dimensional light from my spell and that caused it to lose it’s sanity. I see that even lesser intelligent creatures cannot escape from that madness.

As Gabriel, Frain and other members of the group hurried to where I am, I turned to look at them and assured them that everything is fine and there was no need for concern. Their faces, however, seems to say the opposite.

Frain hurriedly walk to me, in horror while covering her mouth.

“WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?” she shouted.

“Don’t worry, I was just startled by this animal right here, but I managed to incapacitate it with my magic… although not the way I had intended.” I replied to her.

“No! Your arm! What happened to it?” she replied while still shouting.

I turned to look at my right arm, and to my surprise and horror, I saw it severely mangled, with my fingers all broken up and turned to places they’re not supposed to. My forearm had multiple, deep cuts on it with one of the bones broken and showing outside my skin alongside it’s heavy bleeding that’s slowly making a small pool of blood on the ground. Only upon looking at it, did the extreme, utter pain followed.

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I screamed so hard, it almost broke my vocal chords and caused even the villagers to show up and be afraid. I couldn’t think straight at that time. The sensation I felt was so strong that it made me regret even coming to this place and assuming a fragile, fleeting human body.

“HEALER! NOW!” Gabriel shouted to the villagers and to the group.

Seconds later, a familiar face came to us running and said that she can heal me. It was Ella. She quickly knelt beside me and started casting her spell. It gave off a yellow, warm light that felt so soothing. Slowly but surely, the pain I was feeling started to disappear and my heavily damaged arm starts to revert back to its natural form.

After being completely healed, Frain wrapped her arms around me tightly, while in tears.

“What the hell did you do?” she asked while crying. “You stupid idiot what the hell did you do?”

“I- I don’t know. I just casted a spell to attack that reptile over there, and then this just happened.” I replied. “I didn’t even realize what had happened if you didn’t pointed it out to me.”

I turned to look at Ella and told her how grateful I am for her aid. It seems that all the hatred she had for me due to yesterday’s happenings have completely disappeared as she’s now displaying a concerned, empathetic look.

Everyone was silent that time, as I was escorted back to my jail room and sat down on my bed. After everyone checking out on me, all that was left in my room was me, Frain and Gabriel. We closed the door and proceeded to discuss what had happened to me earlier.

“So? Mind explaining everything in detail?” Gabriel asked me with a serious, angry look on his face.

I then started to explain to the two of them everything that happened by the very second. After that, they looked at each other and seemingly came to a common understanding of my circumstance.

“It’s called ‘Recoil’.” Frain said. “Normally, it’s not something that will do that much damage, or even do any damage at all. Every mage experiences recoil whenever they cast any offensive magic but usually, it’s just a small push or even a poke in the arm. It shouldn’t even come close to hurting.”

“That’s a thing?” I replied curiously. “I didn’t experienced that when I casted Mana Drain last night though.”

“That’s because it wasn’t an offensive spell.” Gabriel said. “What you did was merely remove all of the mana in their system. You didn’t do anything to directly attack them.”

“This probably happened because the magnitude of the celestial spell you used was too powerful for that human body.” Frain added. “I guess that means I gotta take my job seriously, huh? Seeing as you won’t be able to cast any offensive spell at all.”

“I’m afraid you’re right. That was the weakest offensive celestial spell at my arsenal and it did that much damage to me. Can you just imagine what will happen if I cast Magna Nova?” I said while laughing.

“You do know we have literally no idea what those spells you’re saying do, right?” Frain said. “So what spell did you use earlier anyway? How does it work? I’m curious.”

“The spell I used was Void Pulse. Basically what it does is it fires a pulse of void energy and whatever non-permeable object it comes in contact first, gets consumed by the void.” I said. “It’s a spell that contradicts the natural laws of this plane so it gave off an extra dimensional light that made that snake lose its sanity.”

“Consumed by the void?” Gabriel asked. “Could you explain further?”

“Do you not know the Void plane?” I asked. “Basically, that spell opens a temporary hole between this plane and the plane of the Void. It appears that you’re not aware of the existence of the void plane so let me discuss. The void plane is a plane of complete emptiness, not even mana exists there. Anything that comes in contact with the void, and I mean ANYTHING, gets removed out of existence completely. Even the mana with it doesn’t return back to Archeus.”

“Wait, so does that mean that it’s possible for the void plane to consume all planes of existence if left unchecked?” Gabriel worryingly asked.

“Yes. In fact, we Celestials believe that the void plane exists as a ‘last resort’ of some kind. It’s real purpose is unknown, even to us but we collectively believe that it’s sole purpose is to be the one that kills this universe in the end.” I replied. “Basically, the void plane will be the end of everything in the end. Know that although not really a secret, we Celestials do not encourage sharing this information to mortals. I trust that I won’t hear other people talking about the void plane later on, am I clear?”

“Yeah.” both of them choreographically replied.

After Frain thoroughly make sure that I’m all good and healthy to go, we immediately began to set out of the village. As we make our exit, I saw Kael and the young boy who I presume is his son waving at us, smiling. I waved back at them and the young boy smiled even brighter than he is already. Before walking past the gate, I heard Ella’s voice shouting from a distance.

“Don’t you dare sexually harass anyone!” she said while waving at us goodbye.

“Yeah! I won’t!” I replied to her as I waved back.

Upon passing through the barrier gate, with the bound Imperial Knights with us, we saw the two fallen automatas from last night’s battle still there, left untouched. The two pilots’ body have completely dried up and insects began to riddle their bodies. I talked to Gabriel and suggested that we should salvage those crystals as they’re very useful. We did end up salvaging the crystals but they were too big for anyone to carry so we smashed them into tiny fragments small enough to fit inside their enchanted packs that can carry near infinite amount of items.

“So where are we headed exactly?” I asked Gabriel. “Also where do you plan to leave these knights at?”

“I’ll tell you where we’re headed to once we leave these knights.” he replied. “We’ll leave them near the city of Palgrim, the center of trade and commerce in the entire Empire. That’ll get the word of our existence out and hopefully, incite others to join us. Tell you what, I’ll leave the naming of our group to you since you’re the leader.”

“Naming this group, huh?” I said. “What’s our cause anyway? What do we fight for? I think that should’ve been the first thing I’ve asked.”

“We fight for what is right.” Frain said as she joined the conversation. “We fight against injustice, corruption and the abuse of the Empire’s power. We fight for the weak and the oppressed, and those who cannot fight for themselves.”

“So we’re a group of vigilantes?” I asked.

“Yeah, I suppose that’s a short way of putting it.” Frain replied.

“What about… ‘Knights of Justice and Vigilance’? Sounds fitting don’t you think?” I asked.

They looked at me with their expressionless faces, as if their bodies have been drained away of their souls.

“No? Ok, let me think again.” I added. “Oh! How about The Gr--”

“You know what, I think I’ll let Frain handle the naming.” Gabriel interrupted. “Have any better ideas? Make sure that it’s recognizable, remarkable and sentimental as the name of the group bares its actions.”

“I know!” I exclaimed. “What about ‘Sword of Damocles’ huh? If I heard correctly, it’s the ever-present threat that those in positions of power always are in present of. Its fitting and sentimental, isn’t it?”

“That’s… actually good.” Gabriel said surprised. “We’ll take that name then.”

He stopped in his tracks and turned around to the small amount of people following us and proceeded to get their attention by clapping three times.

“My friends! My comrades! My brothers!” Gabriel shouted. “All of us here have experienced hellish treatment from the Empire. We’ve been treated inhumanely, subjected to countless experiments like animals and discarded like trash if we proved to be useless to them. That is exactly why we’re finally able to see all the corruption and abuse of the Empire that is otherwise masked by its grandeur and false prosperity. So now, we take arms, not only to show the people the real face of the Empire, but also to fight back for what is right and send a message. A message that will remind the Empire that they’re not all powerful and they can’t just do what they want! Today, we take up the name Sword of Damocles!!!”

The peace and quiet of the forest was immediately replaced by the loud, enthusiastic cheering of the members. It was like a loud, booming victory cry amidst the woods which make it sound as if the cheers could travel for miles on end. Afterwards, we resumed our walk until nightfall and decided to set up camp within the forest, with the knights still bound and kept in check.

I managed to stay awake for a couple of hours until the unpleasant sensation of sleepiness struck me once again. I gradually resigned to this feeling and let myself fall into a deep slumber, besides the warmth of the dancing campfire.