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Isaiah sat on top of a hill that looked out towards the crumbling pieces of shacks and rotting farmlands. 'Bleak', 'Depressing', 'Pessimistic', are all an understatement of what he was currently seeing and feeling.

Though life always was like this, it wasn't that bad back then. He had been hopeful and optimistic, even with a hint of happiness, if you could call it that.

The wind blew on his face, causing his unkempt and greasy hair to flutter. Feeling the breeze made him feel better. It was like the breeze contained an antidote that healed the mind. He'd always felt something peculiar about it, the breeze, it was mystifying. That's why he'd always sit on this hill whenever he was feeling off.

After calming down, Isaiah patted himself down while standing up. He started to straddle towards the old rickety village, and looked back one more time to the hill.

He was already 16 and getting older. He could no longer take his time sitting around.

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Back then even with the hardships, it was at the very least what you could call 'merry'. There were was 4 of them; Him, his sister, his bestfriend, who he used to even call his own blood brother, and that man, his father.

Isaiah picked up the bucket of water, then held a wooden ladle on his left hand to scatter the water around the farmland.

Isaiahs father used to always do this with the other villagers, but now it was just him. The ones left in this village were mostly the elder, with some children and a few people his age.

He used to have a dream. It was him and his bestfriend, Elias, both of them promising each other to change the entire world. They would avoid village work to practice, holding thick wooden sticks to teach other, to spar. Now all of that was gone, and all he was left with was his obligation to aid the villagers until his death.

After what his father had done, him and Elias had developed a sort of deep hatred and conviction to rid the world of all cruelty and evil people. But that was back then.

Isaiah paused and took a glance around the village. In one of the shacks a few kids were peering out at him, but an elder pulled them away and looked at him disdainfully. Seeing this, Isaiah sighed and felt like running away, to abandon this place and live somewhere else. The villagers hated him anyway. They used to like him, but not anymore. Not when that traumatizing event occurred.

Isaiah thought back to the day 'they' arrived. The ones that took his sister. The local Lord's vassals. His eyes seethed with hatred. He and the other villagers barked at them as he slowly picked up a rusty metal axe, but Elias had managed to calm everyone down, especially Isaiah, saying that he couldn't do anything right now. They were taller, stronger, older, and there were a lot of them.

Isaiah thought that he was right, so he backed down for now. But, he would have his way when he was older and stronger. At least, that's what he thought, until they brought in a strange man in weird clothes.

He stated that he came here from the 'Beyond' along with others, from the pure white that enveloped our entire land. He said that they were looking for talented individuals to nurture for their 'Great Emperor'.

At first we thought he was being silly, then he showed us something amazing.

he called it 'MAGIC'.

The air fluttered and the trees swayed when he told us he was 'gathering mana'. Then, everything stopped and a tiny fireball gradually became bigger on his palms.

At that point I was already flabbergasted, my jaw widened in amazement, but he did something even more incredible.

He held his hand out towards the air and fired it, like a torpedo of fire that spewed out of his hands.

Seeing this, Isaiah and Elias both stared each other in amazement. They knew what each other was thinking.

'THIS IS OUR CHANCE!'

Their chance to get hold of an unknown power that can change everything, to exact revenge on those that did them wrong. But, nothing ever goes according to plan.

The strange man then began to examine everyone, and after a while of doing so his face twisted into contempt, with a shadow hanging on his face that gradually became darker and darker, until he stumbled on Elias.

His face had finally lit up.

"Amazing!" He exclaimed. He shook Elias around, almost jumping with joy. "My travels here weren't a waste after all!"

The strange man then instructed for Elias to wait for him until he finished examining the remaining people.

Then, he continued on to me with a brightly grinning face, which I returned back as well. He placed his palm over my forehead, but a few moments later he frowned in disappointment.

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"I was excited since I'd of thought you were brothers from the close relationship you displayed earlier. I guess not." He shrugged. "You have no magic affinity at all. A pity."

I felt like freezing cold water was spilled on me. My vision of magic, my revenge, it started to slowly fade away. But I still had hope, until he hit me with his cold, whispery voice.

"You have no physical talent either." He surveyed my body from top to bottom. "You can't fly any higher than this."

After he said that Elias and I tried to speak back, trying to prove myself. But he was firm with his choice and we knew then that there was probably nothing we could do to convince him.

After examining the remaining people, he spoke out to everyone.

"I've already found a candidate, thus my mission is finished." The man declared. "I shall be going back in 2 weeks time."

He then turned towards Elias. "I'll speak with you, so come with me." He said, dragging him away.

Elias turned towards me with a concerned face, and seeing this I mouthed that I was fine and gestured for him to go with the man.

After that he returned at night, continuously telling me all sorts of things, like how he'd become powerful and come back to the village to support us, and make sure that the Lord wouldn't dare harm us.

I was amazed. Apparently even the Lord feared the strange man, and being the mans disciple Elias would as well have the same authority on the Lord.

After that, Elias gradually changed over the following week. We were almost tied before he met the man, but over the following week his prowess grew to unprecedented heights.

But, it his personality started to change as well. He became a lot colder towards me and the other villagers. Never talked as frequent. Until the night before his departure.

I saw him standing alone in the farming fields with bloodstains all over his body. Worried, I took him back to the shack to ask what happened, but he shook it off saying it was from training, so I just helped him wipe it all off.

"Isaiah, " Elias spoke. "What do you think of our dream?"

Surprised with his question, I laughed. "Well, if it's about your master, I'm past it." I scratched my head. "Plus, words would never get me to stop anyway. I haven't lost hope."

He smiled at my reply.

"Let's go to the hill." He stood up.

Seeing him being like his usual self, I grinned and replied with a nod.

We sat on the hill as I looked towards the village, and he looked towards the sky.

"Isaiah, do you think were ants?" He asked, still staring towards the sky.

"Ants? I guess in the sense that your shorter than me." I laughed.

Elias smiled at my reply, then turned towards me.

"Have you ever thought about how big the world is?"

I paused, then replied. "Once or twice I guess, since we have to, right?"

He stared at me with a slight smile for a moment, then spoke. "Yeah." His smiled started drooping until he had a blank face.

"You know, my master gave me an assignment." He said, staring back at the sky again. "I said I would do it, but I wouldn't be able to do it towards you. So he said I could choose who, but it would require more people."

I looked at him stupefied, confused on what he was saying. "What?"

He stood up and patted himself down, then looked down to me. "It's nothing." He replied with a laugh.

"Right... So you're leaving tomorrow. When will you be back?"

"Maybe... Not in a long time." Elias replied.

"That's vague as hell!"

"Yeah. I actually have to leave tonight."

"Really?! I'll go get the villagers then to hold you a leaving party!" I quickly stood up as well, ready to run back towards the village.

"No, I wanna go quietly." Elias replied with a frown.

I stared at his crunched face and I could already tell that there was no convincing him.

"Alright. Then, at least let me see you off."

"Nope. Master said I can't let anyone see me before we go."

I crunched my face at his reply, but before I could speak back he changed the subject, and we began to talk about all sorts of things before I started feeling a strong sense of drowsiness, which resulted in me falling asleep without even knowing.

Then, I woke up to the sound of several blood-curdling screams and cries. It was from the village.

I quickly got up and dashed towards the screams, picking up an axe on my way. The first thing I thought was the local Lord, but when I arrived at the village gate I quickly knew that even the Lord wouldn't do something like this.

It was a mountain pile of corpses. Seeing it made my stomach turn, making me throw up.

Then I looked up, and my chest twisted and my eyes started to turn red. These were people I had been used to seeing for the past 14 years of my life. They were the men and women of our village.

"YOU!!" An elder pointed, as he saw me and walked towards me aggressively. "IT WAS YOU WASN'T IT!"

"..What?"

"I SAW THE TRAILS OF BLOOD LEADING TO YOUR SHACK! AND YOU WERE WITH ELIAS LAST NIGHT!" The old man started to cough. "WHY? You learn this so called 'magic' and you start to forsaken us?!"

"No.. No it wasn't us!"

Everyone started to stare at him. He saw that some of them had fear, some had tears in their eyes. "I swear.."

"Why... " The old man that came up to me started to droop, falling on his knees as tears fell from his eyes while he clutched the ground.

If Elias was here right now, he could probably calm everyone down. If he was here..

Then, the image of his bloodstained figure standing in the farming fields popped into my head.

"No way.. No way... "

Isaiah felt myself becoming dizzy. He staggered towards the corpses, and when he stood Infront of them he knew instantly. Some of them were burned, some had strange, tiny holes in them, and the most visible were the beheaded bodies.

Without any control, he felt his legs move, running away from the entire scene.

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It took a year for everyone to function normally, the older kids had to take on the responsibility of taking care of the village as the elders slowly deteriorated.

As for Isaiah, he found it odd how fast he accepted that his friend had orchestrated such a tragedy. At the time he accepted it, all he felt was the grievance towards the death of the villagers, and hatred towards his former 'brother'.

But, since everyone had been suspicious of him, he made sure to work hard to make everyone feel at ease and the work he had to do around the village helped him forget about it.

Another year passed and he felt himself calming down, he still felt a hint of melancholy but what replaced most of his hatred was his dream fading away gradually. He'd lost hope.

At this point, he felt that he was silly to dream of something impossible.

"It doesn't matter anymore." He muttered. There was nothing else he could do. From his father, to his sister, to Elias.

An image drifted into Isaiahs mind; His sister grinning at them as him and Elias sparred.

'I guess it never did.' He shook the image out his head.

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