The stone beneath his knees dug through his pants, creating small abrasions upon his knees. His face was streaked with the blood that had leaked from his eyes and nose. Except for a smudge, where his best friend, his chosen family, had given him a last kiss goodbye.

Pain ripped through him. Emotional pain, like an irrational itch on his heart that could never be scratched without first tearing it out. The world weighed down on him. A once familiar weight of hopelessness now coupled with an unfamiliar feeling of loss were upon his soul and body to the point that both were bent close to breaking.

His time before meeting Ren had never weighed this much upon him. Back then, he had only dealt with his lack of motivation, his lack of drive. His lot with the world had been accepted and he had wallowed in it. What need was there for him to improve himself if the world didn’t want him around anyways?

A sharp crack brought his attention slowly back to his surroundings. The crossbowmen were looking out towards the end of the dock. The spearmen and the captain of the guards were withdrawing their weapons from the last of the adult spikemaws. The monster hunters appeared to have just started their assault on the alpha spikemaw, content in taking their time.

The large armored man stepped to the side after he had punched the monster in its head. His sword was stuck through the wooden dock and he didn’t have the time to yank it out yet. The hidebound pugilist followed in his shadow, fists covered in what seemed to be rocks. She delivered a devastating blow to the creature's midsection, causing it to be thrown off the dock.

The waters behind the spikemaw were frozen into an unsteady terrain, almost appearing to be an exquisite ice sculpture. The monster smashed into the thick ice and scrabbled with its claws to slow its slide. Finally able to stop, it bellowed in rage as it found its footing again.

As it stepped forward to charge back to the safety of the docks, a large arrow took the spikemaw in the shoulder. The monster stumbled and face planted into the ice with a hard thud, and slid forward. A sudden wall of ice surged from the frozen waters and caused the spikemaw to slam into it, stunning it.

The deep blue armored warrior leapt from the docks and fell as if he were a comet of destruction on top of the spikemaw pinning it to the floor with his sword. The impact caused cracks to form in the ice.

Stuck in place, the monster was helpless as an arrow took it through the eye and a spike of ice forced its way up and through the monster’s skull and into its brain, ending its life. As the beast thrashed its last time, the young Nameless that had just lost everything he held dear, felt as if he were the monster pinned to the floor, by the cruel machinations of Life and Death.

Why couldn’t he hold the power that these beings had? What made them more special than anyone else? Clearly they all wielded some sort of power or magic. All he wished for was the power to save his friend. Why must the world refuse him that? One altruistic wish couldn’t upset the world that much. Why must he scrape by while others could move mountains and freeze oceans with a simple wave of the hand.

It wasn’t fair.

Or was it really the world that was holding him back? Was the reason he had sat on the streets and done the bare minimum to survive because of the world, or because of himself? Just because life wasn’t easy for him, it had meant that the world was out to get him?

He had been an orphan of poor folk, tragically killed from a monster attack while they had worked in the fields. He had been left in the orphanage without any families coming to save him or accept him. After growing too old for the orphanage his last chance to be saved had been becoming a trained mage. However, the testers had rejected him after he had been unable to show any affinity to basic elemental magic.

He had given up on life after that, convinced that the world just wanted him to live his days out as a wastrel beggar on the street. All that had mattered was doing the bare minimum to survive. He had lost all motivation and allowed the tragic events of his life to shape him into what he was. And then, Renata had found him.

Ren had shown him something. She had shown that he could be better. She had shown him that all he needed to do was take control of his life. She had been a close comfort to him, like the family he had never had. That was all he needed to start turning his life around.

Would he let Renata’s death and life be meaningless? Would he fall back into the pit of despair that he had finally crawled out of after so long?

No.

He wouldn’t.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

His resolve built up within him, fueling his determination, his drive, to do better. He would to BE better. He would not give in, not again. He would take this world and force his will upon it if he had to.

The fuel that built his determination blazed into an inferno of animosity towards this world. It would not break him down anymore. The weight drew back from him, burned away by the force of his newly forged will. For what could it possibly do to him when it was of his own making?

The corpse of his best friend lay within his arms yet. She was so peaceful and serene. Content in her death, as it had led to the life of her friend. What was the worth of this life without her though? He could hardly feel the warmth in her anymore, the life was gone. This was a mockery of his friend, she deserved better than this. How dare the world take her, his only family, from him.

The inferno now raged within him, banishing the weight that forced him down. He looked up to see the group of guards that had formed a perimeter around him were now facing him. As his gaze met their faces, they winced and grimaced at the state of his face.

The whites of his eyes had turned fully red as they slowly oozed blood. His nose slowly leaked blood and snot. Expressions of sadness and rage were playing across his face as he struggled with the grief of his loss that conflicted with his newfound willpower. Each battling each other until the rage finally took over.

His thoughts began to brim over. If the world had taken Ren from him, why couldn’t he take her back? The only thing in his way was his own limitation after all. She had only died mere moments before this, so her spirit should still be close by. Though admittedly, he didn’t know how the afterlife worked. He would just have to take his chances.

He retreated into his mind again. Inside the landscape of his mind the door appeared before him again, chained shut as it had been before. He reached out and pulled at the chains again, refusing to accept that this was his limit. He would not allow these chains to hold him from reuniting with his friend. Yet they would not budge, even with his newfound willpower and strength of spirit.

He grasped the chains in his mind and felt a surge of power from within. It burned at the chains, for he would not be held back any longer. He would not allow himself to be held back. The chains melted in his grasp and fell away.

He reached out desperately for the door, mind full of relief. He had finally broken the chains that had held him back for so long. He would finally be able to access that which had eluded him all these years. His hands grasped the door and pulled furiously.

And still the door stood closed. It refused to open to his touch as if knowing what he intended to do if it opened. As if it had judged him long ago and withheld its secrets from him still. It would not allow itself to be used in such a way by a youth such as himself. He was not allowed to access such things that only gods should have control of.

The inferno inside of him blazed and consumed his doubts as they came. He had broken his own limitations so how could the world hope to put its own upon him? Besides, a door isn’t the only way one could travel.

His eyes stared out at the guards, expression ever twisting, breaths came out as though hyperventilating. He looked out at them without seeing them, so far inside himself that nothing else mattered.

His head slowly tilted upwards. His rage at being contained stoked the fire within him hotter. He would not be kept from this. Nothing would stop him now. Looking up at the sky, his lips parted, and he screamed wordlessly in rage.

He threw everything he had at the door within him. He threw his resentment from years of abandonment. He pummeled it with the bitterness he had from holding himself back all these years. Finally, he exploded forth with the fury of losing his friend.

A detonation went off inside his mind as his lungs ran out of air, cutting off his scream. The door holding him back was nowhere to be seen, in fact, neither were any of the walls that were around it. What now lay before him was a vast cosmos of energies.

Endless mana mixed and fought each other in a storm of violent energies. Some smashed together in endless combat. Others merged and fed into new energies, creating new colors in the vast expanse. Among them all however, a pale green color caught his attention, it seemed ethereal in nature. Ethereal as if it were a part of the afterlife.

He reached towards it with his mental hand, attempting to pull it to him. It refused his pull. He pulled on it harder, reaching out with his will and yanking at the ethereal light.

It suddenly shot towards him violently, only he wasn’t pulling it towards himself anymore. It blitzed at him with an angry and ferocious demeanor. The ethereal green felt more like a beast lashing out rather than someone refusing to acknowledge his existence. He realized that something wasn't right and threw up his hands. He tried to push it away with his will, or halt its progress.

The light disregarded his hastily attempted rebuttal like a bull charging through small wire fencing. His defenses weren’t just shattered, they never even existed. As the light streamed towards his eyes, he wondered if he had possibly been too brash with his newfound determination.

The light pierced his skull and pain soon followed, quenching some of the fiery determination that he had brought. The light traveled through him and down into the pedestal he stood upon in his mind. A primordial voice raged with the force of a tsunami.

A FOUNDATIONLESS CHILD DARES TO COMMAND SOULS!? YOUR ARROGANCE SHALL BE YOUR DEATH!

He stood there, locked in pain, terrified of what he had done. Realizing then that the pedestal he stood upon was actually a conduit for something. He looked down and was astonished to see that the platform was connected to his physical body. The angry magical energies forced their way into his skull, driving their painful fingers into his brain.

Then the pain was gone, as his physical skull exploded into pink mist and bone shrapnel.