《The Kingdom》


 Day 1: Start of a new life

    It was dark and cold. Nothing could be heard except for the faint breathing of a living thing. It sounded as if that living thing was in deep sleep and would not wake up any second. However, there was movement from the lifeless body. Slowly, its eyes opened. It could not see anything in the darkness.


    In a remote place surrounded by thick overgrown forests, there was a house that looked as if it had suffered the ravages of time. The windows were broken and some parts of the house were non-existent. A creaking noise came from the house and a door was slowly opened. What came out was a young man, around the age of 16. He had black hair which was spiked up. He was around 1.78 m tall.


    The young man looked confused as he scanned his surroundings.


    "Where am I?", he asked himself.


    He tried to understand the situation he was in but no answer came up in his head. To be more specific, nothing was in his head. It was like a blank sheet of paper waiting to be filled with knowledge and writing.


    "I don''t know where this place is. I don''t know what time it is. I don''t even know who I am.", the young man said.


    He was clearly troubled but he was able to remain calm. Maybe it was his instinct telling him to be calm so that he could assess the his current predicament. After thinking carefully, his first agenda was to find a place to stay. Currently, the house where he woke up was not a suitable place to sleep. Next on his list was to find food. His stomach already notified his brain that it needed to be satiated. Those were the tasks he needed to finish by the end of the day. Right at that moment, light was still there but in a few hours it would disappear.


    "Let''s go that way.", he told himself. With no sense of direction whatsoever, he blindly chose a direction to which he would traverse upon. He was relying on luck to find a place where people like him were gathered. With his mind made up, he started to walk.


    Three hours have gone by and he was now at the edge of the forest. He saw a settlement out in the open. A wall stood erect around the town and there was an opening which led directly into the town. The young man was happy that luck was on his side that day. He was able to find a town in just before nightfall came.


    Upon his arrival at the town, he was surprised at all the activity happening in the town. Lined up in rows were merchants selling various items from food to jewelry and so on. From his judgement, this town and its people were happy. Nothing troubled them and it was good for him as well because he wouldn''t be bothered by the town''s problems. Coming back to his first agenda, he started to look for an inn. As to how he knew what to find, let''s just call it instinct. He was not lacking common sense. He had basic knowledge required to live but he had no knowledge of himself.


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    After walking for thirty minutes, he found a small inn at the far end of an alley. Its location was somewhat odd since most inns would have situated themselves at the center of the town. Deciding to push through with it, he approached the small building. As he opened the door to the establishment, a ringing noise from a bell sounded. What he saw inside were empty seats and tables. There was no one inside or so he thought.


    "Welcome to People''s Inn. How long will you be staying for?", a lovely voice asked. From the corner of the room, there was a young woman with long brunette hair. She had a cute smile on her face and was currently staring at the young man. He found the name of the inn to be amusing since there was no one around but this young woman was calling it the ''People''s Inn''.


    "I will be staying for a week but if the need arises I will remain here until I finish my business here."


    "I see, then that''ll be 2 gold coins for one week and 15 silver coins for the succeeding days.", the young woman informed the young man.


    Now the young man had to pay 2 gold coins to the young lady. That was a predicament in itself since he just woke up hours ago and had nothing with him. He was not able to hand out the money. The young girl was waiting patiently for him to give her the payment.


    "Well you see, the problem is I don''t have any money at the moment but surely I can offer something of the same value to you?"


    The young woman frowned. For a person to stay in her inn without paying was not to her liking. She had to kick this man out of the place but she had to do it professionally.


    "I''m sorry but I can''t accept anything else besides money. As you can see this place isn''t very popular so I don''t receive as many customers as other inns."


    Now the young man was troubled. He was not allowed to stay at the inn. If this option didn''t work then he would have to sleep outside in the cold. He didn''t want to trouble the young woman since she had a business to run so he could only sigh and leave the place. After the young man left, the young woman was sad she had to kick out that person but there was nothing she could do.


    Hungry and tired, the young man was able to find a fairly isolated open space. He was currently lying down underneath an old tree and was staring at the night sky. Thoughts of sleeping outside was not what he planned but he couldn''t do anything about his money problem. In his light clothing, he was still able to fend off the cold and sleep.

 Day 2: The young mans death

    A kick to his leg woke him up. He saw the same young woman from the inn staring at him.


    "Don''t tell me, you really slept here?", the young woman inquired.


    "Well you woke me up didn''t you?"


    When the young man woke up, he noticed that it was still dark. The shops in town were already closed but the woman came out. "Maybe she went out for a walk?", the young man thought. It was odd for young woman to stroll around town at night. It could be dangerous even if the young woman belonged to the town. Anything could happen.


    What he didn''t notice was that there was a frown on the young woman''s face when she heard that he had slept out in the open. "Follow me.", the young woman ordered. Without asking any other questions, the young man followed.


    They had arrived back at the inn. "Stay inside. Don''t come out until morning.", the young woman ordered. The young man just nodded and did what he was told. Although he was curious as to why the young woman had acted that way, he couldn''t complain. He was now able to stay at the inn even with his monetary problem. The only problem was that he noticed that he was hungry. "Maybe I can find some food in here. I hope she doesn''t mind.", the young man thought.


    After finding some fruit and meat in the kitchen, the young man was now full. He was ready to go back to sleep but he was concerned about the young woman who had yet to come back. Deciding that the best thing to do was search for the young woman, he went out of the inn and went straight to the center of town. Deciding that the best thing to do at the moment was to search for the young woman, he went straight into town.


    There was an eerie sound coming from the town¡¯s center. Human voices could be heard which was odd since a while back, there shouldn¡¯t be anyone outside. As the young man drew near, he started to see a group of people gathered. They were covered in long black robes with their faces hidden. A man was in front of the group. As to how the young man was able to discern the gender of the person leading the group, he saw that the person was fairly tall easily exceeding six feet and that person also had a big build.


    ¡°Now it¡¯s been four years since the start of our mission. We have already infiltrated the local government and organizations of this town. We are one step closer to our goal. Hopefully, our lord will repay us bountifully for succeeding our mission.¡±


    The rest of the group continued to listen to the man who was apparently their leader in their mission. ¡°Tonight, we can start the massacre of this town¡¯s people. We can now begin to create the Death Staff.¡±


    The young man heard all this from far away. He had a keen sense of hearing. Apparently, the fate of the town was dreadful. They were all gonna die tonight and the young man didn¡¯t want that. He knew that the town¡¯s folk were innocent and they did not deserve to die. Surely enough, he also didn¡¯t want the young innkeeper to fall to her death tonight just when she offered to let him stay at the inn. The young man wanted to stop the group¡¯s mission but he was not sure if he had the power to do so. He would be required to fight fifty men but he had no weapon whatsoever. Maybe it was his sense of justice that motivated him to stop the massacre even though he had no chance of success.


    ¡°Kill them all!¡±, the leader of the group shouted and all of them began to move. They drew out their swords and started to go into houses. Screams could be heard from inside. Truly, it was a nightmare for those who were woken up and killed. The other people from the town were alerted by the screams. Lights started appear from the rest of the houses. Some of the people went out to investigate the noises they heard. When they saw the men who were covered in blood and had swords in their hands, they were frightened by what they saw. They ran back inside their homes and locked their doors but it was futile. The men kicked down their doors and killed them while they protected their children. The massacre had already begun and the young man started to think of a plan to stop the killing.


    Suddenly, a hand grabbed his shoulder from behind. He was frightened but it immediately changed to relief. It was the young woman from the inn. "Didn''t I tell you to stay back at the inn?"


    "Well I was wondering why you hadn''t come back so I went out to look for you."


    "But clearly I told you to stay. Do you understand the situation you''re in? You could die here and now. I want to run away as far as you can before they can kill you.", the young woman said.


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    "I can''t run away now that I know that people are dying every second. I want to stop what they''re doing and save the people of this town."


    "Don''t be foolish. You can''t do anything towards these men. They have weapons while you don''t have anything to protect yourself, no armor and sword. You''re just gonna die so I hope you act smart and run away."


    The young woman was right and the young man acknowledged it but he just couldn''t turn away. It was his gut feeling to protect the weak from the strong, to help people who are in need and to stop acts of evil. The young man was being idealistic but the truth was he couldn''t do anything. He would just help increase the death toll by one.


    As the young woman and man conversed, they weren''t able to notice that three men approached them from behind. The three men hit the heads of the two people and they were knocked unconscious.


    When the young man woke up, he found that he was currently tied up. He saw the young woman beside him. From behind, he saw children all on the ground and tied up. The leader of the group was in front of the young woman.


    "Were you trying to stop us? Leila Whiteknight." A look of surprise and anger formed on the young woman''s face.


    "How do you know my name?", Leila asked.


    "Well, we searched through your belongings back at the inn and we found your Identification Plate. Apparently, you''re a knight at the Bradford Empire."


    Leila regretted that she brought her Identification Plate with her. She was supposed to be on an undercover mission, gathering information about this alleged dark organization ''Beel Group''. This group carried out the most heinous acts of murder. The Beel Group was currently one of the largest underground organization in Bradford Empire. They were currently expanding their territory.


    "Men, we just found ourselves a culprit for the massacre of this town. The story will be that this knight of the Bradford Empire turned rogue and killed all of the town''s people."


    "You can''t do this. I¡¯m going to stop this madness.¡±, Leila told the leader of the group but it was all in vain. The men started to go near the children. They carried them towards an altar. This altar had magic runes written all over it. Clearly, this was for the creation of the Death Staff and the children were the sacrifices.


    ¡°With the blood of the young and innocent, let us start the ritual.¡± , the leader said. One child was brought up to the altar and a knife was placed on her neck. One of the men was about to cut the child''s throat when an arrow was shot at the man''s head. The man''s body fell lifelessly down.


    The leader was shocked. "Who''s there? Come..." The leader''s words were cut short as another arrow lodged itself on his head, he too had died. Now the whole group was alarmed and took up their stance preparing for battle but the enemy never came out. They remained hidden and kept shooting arrowd at the group. One by one each man fell until there was none left to kill. They were powerless against their unknown enemy.


    The children were ecstatic knowing that they were saved. What they hadn''t realized was that their parents were all dead and that they would become orphans.


    "Leila!" It was a man''s voice. Leila recognized the voice. It was her Knight Commander Greg Bradford. From her surroundings, twenty men came out all in their complete armor. It was Leila''s squad. They had come to save her when they noticed that Leila no longer contacted them for four hours. It was her routine ever since she started the mission 6 months ago. She was supposed to inform them if there was evidence of the Beel Group in the town. Their squad remained at the campsite in the forest.


    Leila was happy. She actually cried, for a knight that was unacceptable because they were suppose to be strong and emotionally stable. She forgot all that and turned to look at the children. She was happy that they were saved but sad at the same time because these children would become orphans. "Our empire will protect them.", she thought.


    She momentarily forgot about the young man that was beside her. She looked for him and found him lying on the floor near the altar. There was blood on the ground and sword was impaled on the young man''s back.

 Day 3- His name

    "Come sit with us. Azzard."


    The young man woke up and found himself in a bed. He could hear the neighing of horses and the chatter of people. He thought that this wasn''t the town because most of the people were already dead except the children. He noticed that his upper torso was bandaged. As to why he became that way, he recollected last night''s events.


    -The young man saw his opportunity to save the child now that the man who held her had died. He stood up amongst all the commotion and ran to the little girl.  He wanted the girl to be taken away from the altar since she could be hit by an arrow. When he arrived near the girl, he told her "It''s gonna be alright. I will protect you." Momentarily the little girl stopped weeping. While the young man was busy comforting the little girl, he could not see that a man had come from behind him. It was already too late to do anything and the sword struck his back and lodged itself comfortably causing blood to flow out continuously. -


    As he recalled his memories from last night, he touched his wound only to find out that it was completely healed. "Maybe someone healed me last night with divine magic", he thought.


    A voice had broken his thoughts and he turned towards the source. There she was, Leila Whiteknight. She was looking at him intently as if he was a person to be wary of. "Something must have happened last night."


    "Oh, you woke up. It''s already past noon. Come on let''s eat. We have food.", Leila said. The young man followed her out. The armored knights around him had the same reaction as Leila. They were all intently staring at him. "What happened last night?", he asked Leila. Leila stopped walking and turned around to look at him.


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    "I don''t know. What I saw was a mystery. When you were lying down on the ground bleeding, lightning started to fill the sky." The young man listened intently.


    "After that, lightning struck you 5 times. We thought you were dead but when we came near. You were starting to heal at an astonishing rate." The young man was shocked. Lightning may had help his body cells to rapidly regenerate, it was only a theory though.


    "So that''s why all of you were staring at me. You must think of me as a monster.", the young man said sadly.


    "We don''t. We''re just amazed at what happened and we don''t know how to take it all in.", Leila denied. The conversation stopped there and they went to get food.


    As the young man sat down at the table, Leila suddenly remembered something. "By the way, what''s your name?"


    That question lingered on the young man''s mind for a couple of seconds. He didn''t know his name at all but he suddenly remembered the dream he had. He couldn''t make out the people''s faces but he recalled that they had called out to him. It looked so real that he thought that those were his memories and his name so he answered Leila. "My name is Azzard."

 Day 4- Master Azzard

    The next day, Azzard got acquainted with Leila. He told her about his story, how he found himself in an old empty house in the middle of the forest. He also told her that he knew nothing about himself except his name. Leila found it odd for a man to wake up in the middle of the forest with no recollection of himself.


    Leila was a kind person. She spent most of her time with the children. She knew that they would be scared and lonely so took it upon herself to bring smiles to the children''s faces. She played and ate with them. Momentarily, the children forgot their worries and had a good time. Leila also told a little hit of history.


    "Children, do you know that we do not have any gods left in our world?", Leila asked.


    "Really? But my mommy said that we should always pray to the Light god for protection.", a child voiced out but when he had said the word "mommy", he started to cry. That triggered a chain reaction among the rest of the children. They all cried but Leila quickly comforted them all.


    "Now, now. Don''t cry. You should all be strong. You should show your parents who are in heaven that you''re happy. Your parents will be sad if you always cry." Those words made the older children stop their crying and went to comfort younger ones.


    "How about this. I''ll tell you a story about the gods of our world." Leila started to tell them the story.


    "In the past, we had gods. We had the Fire god, Water god, Earth god and so on. They weren''t friendly with each other and had always fought. Their fighting caused the world to enter the dark age. That happened many years ago. Volcanoes would erupt and earthquakes were quite frequent. More than half of the people in the world died." The children listened intently.


    "Humanity lost their hope and thought that they would all die but one man shattered those thoughts. He led a team who fought against the gods.¡±


    ¡°How could a person fight against a god? They are too strong.¡±, a young boy was concerned.


    ¡°Well that man did the impossible. He actually defeated the gods with the power he had. Rumors say that the strongest god, the Lightning god, bestowed him his own powers in order for him to have the ability to fight against the gods.¡±


    ¡°But those were only rumors and no one knows the truth because no one truly saw the fight between the man and the gods. One thing was sure though he won the fight and restarted the age of human civilization. Unfortunately, the man never appeared again."


    The children were amazed. The boys were the most affected. Some will probably dream of becoming as strong as the man in the legend. Can they do it? Well we can only wait and see.


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    "What was the man''s name?", the young girl asked, it was the same girl who Azzard saved before.


    Leila turned to look at Azzard, "His name was Brogart Azzard." Azzard was shocked, he had the same name as the guy. As to why Leila didn''t say anything before, she had just assumed that Azzard was named after the hero because his parents wanted him to be blessed. Was there a connection between them? Time will tell.


    -----


    Ten days later.


    It was time for the squad to go back to the capital of Bradford Empire, Elafris. They were originally stationed there as palace knights to the king. The knight squad was going to bring the children will them. They had also asked Azzard if he wanted to accompany them but he rejected their offer.


    "Are you sure you don''t want to come? It can be dangerous being alone. There are a lot of bandits nowadays.", Leila said.


    "Thanks for the offer but I want to travel on my own. I have things to do. If bandits attack me, maybe they''ll get struck by lightning."


    Leila couldn''t say anything to that. She just nodded her head. They started to part ways. The children said their goodbyes to him especially the little girl he saved.


    When he couldn''t see them anymore, he went on his way. He wanted to go back to the house he woke up in. He thought that maybe he could find clues about himself there.


    ------


    Azzard had no troubles in his journey back to the house. He opened the door and it made a creaking sound. When he stepped inside, he saw that the house had stairs leading to the second floor. He made his way to the second floor.


    What he saw was a room at the end of the hallway. He walked towards it.


    Azzard searched through the room but mostly found old useless stuff. He scanned the room was once again and noticed that something was underneath the old bed. It was wrapped in a white cloth, well it used to be white but dirt and dust mostly covered it.


    He reaches for the item. It was small. Azzard removed the cloth and saw a necklace. The pendant was circular in form and had a lion carved on it.


    There was something with the necklace that drew Azzard to it. It felt as though the necklace originally belonged to him. He wore the necklace and when he did a voice spoke in his mind.


    "Master Azzard..."

 Day 5: 1000 years ago

    "Master Azzard..."


    Azzard was startled. He searched the room to look for the origin of the voice but the room was empty.


    "Master Azzard. Gerard, your servant, has awoken."


    "Where are you? Show yourself!", Azzard ordered.


    When Azzard had given the order, the necklace started to shake. It was also luminating brightly and Azzard was temporarily blinded by the intense light. After a few seconds, the light disappeared and he was able to see again. What stood in front of him was a tall dark-haired man; he looked as if he was in his mid-twenties and he wore light leather armor. He may have been a warrior.


    "Master." the warrior then bowed slightly to Azzard.


    "Who are you?" Azzard asked.


    "My name is Gerard Rackforth. I am your servant, Master Azzard"


    "What do you mean by master? I don''t know you at all."


    ¡°I know that you lost your memories, Master. I was there with you. Now I am going to explain what happened 1000 years ago¡­.¡±


    The world had fallen into chaos, it wasn¡¯t what it used to be. People were suffering. Humanity had been plagued with a mysterious illness. This illness destroyed the brain and left the victim paralyzed; days after being paralyzed the person would die because they could no longer breathe nor eat. The Institute of Healers still hadn¡¯t found a cure to this illnesses. It had been three years since the plagued started to wreak havoc in the world.


    ¡°Azzard, let us proceed with original plan. We should go to the Demon lord¡¯s palace tomorrow and stage an all out battle against him and his followers.¡±, a dwarf advised him.


    ¡°That was the original plan but we found out that it isn¡¯t the Demon lord¡¯s doing. Although it is still possible that the Demon lord is responsible for illness, we may be wrong. When we encountered the Demon lord before, I felt his aura and even though he disappeared right away I know that it wasn¡¯t Draknair¡¯s aura. It felt as if somebody took control of his body.¡±


    The reason why Azzard knew the Demon lord¡¯s aura, it was because they were past companions along with the his current companions.


    ¡°Lokri, Azzard is right. We shouldn¡¯t enter enemy territory without facts.I suggest that we first investigate the current situation at the Demon lord¡¯s palace.¡±, a male elf entered the conversation.  Lokri the dwarf made ¡®tch¡¯ sound when he heard the elf talk. The elf was the strategist for the group. He was naturally wise due to his age and knowledge. His name was Orym Biafyndar and although he was companions with Lokri, they often fought. It was not that Orym loved fighting Lokri; the truth was that Lokri was always annoyed by Orym. He felt that Orym was arrogant and was the type ¡°who knew it all¡± but when he heard Orym¡¯s suggestion, Lokri couldn¡¯t help but agree. It was really obvious as to who had wisdom in the group.


    ¡®Then. I¡¯ll order Gerard to infiltrate the palace and gather intel on the situation. When he comes back, we should change our plans depending on the information that we¡¯ll receive.¡±, Azzard told the group and they just nod their heads. It was evident that Azzard was the leader of this group. Their group consisted of six members including Azzard: one dwarf, two elfs, one human, one dragon descendant, and one beastman. Although Gerard was also member, technically he wasn¡¯t. Gerard was just a sentient weapon which Azzard acquired in the ruins of the dragons. He had the ability to morph himself into human form.


    After been given the order by his master, Gerard travelled to the Demon land capital, Kolasi. Gerard was skillful in infiltrating since he could change his appearance as he wishes. It only took him seven days to arrive at the Demon lord¡¯s palace. Upon his arrival at the palace, he immediately went to the throne room.


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    ¡°....¡± The Demon lord, Draknair sat on his seat. The room was dark and there was no one else inside. Draknair did not move nor talk. ¡°This is odd¡±, Gerard thought. Gerard had always remembered the Demon lord to be loud. He was a character that always brought up the mood when it was low. It¡¯s very contrasting to what he was at that moment.


    Suddenly, Gerard saw a dark figure appear in front of the Demon lord. He wore a black robe. The black figure spoke, ¡°It is almost time for the apocalypse to come. Once it comes, everyone will perish and fall. I will be the only one remaining.¡± Gerard was listening intently to everything and was not discovered.  The black figure once again spoke, ¡°Until that time comes, I will continue to control your body from the shadows. You will become a world enemy and I will enjoy your suffering and the world¡¯s.¡± The black figure disappeared. With the information he had gathered, Gerard immediately went to report to his master.


    What transverse after was a great battle between Azzard and Draknair. His companions were defeated by Draknair¡¯s subordinates. The one who had the upper hand was Draknair and Azzard was already losing the battle. He was still able to defeat the subordinates of Draknair but after having done so he lost most of his energy.


    ¡°Draknair, come to your senses. You are stronger than this; I know you can cancel out whatever magic that¡¯s controlling you.¡± It was futile. The magic was too strong that even Draknair who had immunity to mind control magic was not able to resist against it. Azzard was pushed into the corner, he knew that he was going to die. Draknair drew nearer and nearer to him and finally he was in front of Azzard. Draknair held his sword up and slashed at nothing.


    Azzard was able to escape just in the nick of time but that cost him greatly. Activating teleportation magic with his low mana had taken a chunk of his life force. His move was stupid because he was still going to die at that moment.


    Gerard had materialized into his human form. ¡°Master Azzard. I can heal you and give you my life force but I will lose my powers as well.¡±


    ¡°No, don¡¯t¡± Azzard ordered. ¡°I will die anyway even if you transfer your life force to me. Save it. We can still win against them. We can also still cure the world from it¡¯s disease.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean Master? How are we to make that happen?¡±


    ¡°I will cast a forbidden magic that will destroy the entire palace where Draknair is in. But before that I will also cast a forbidden healing spell, Ultimate Heal.¡±


    The forbidden magic that Azzard was going to cast was Ultimate Destruction and Ultimate Heal. The repercussions for using these spells was that the user will lose his life. It wasn¡¯t a big deal for Azzard because he was dying anyway. He wanted to help the world one more time before he dies.


    ¡°I understand Master.¡±, Gerard said.


    ¡°Now, then this is farewell Gerard. You¡¯ve been a great companion and friend. Take care of yourself. Hopefully, you find a better master than me.¡± Tears dropped from Gerard¡¯s eyes. He admired his master for his strength, sense of justice, and valor. No one could replace his master.


    Lightning strikes came down from the sky and a loud boom originated from the Demon lord¡¯s palace. Then a bright light illuminated the entire world.


    ¡°So what you are saying is that I lived 1000 years ago. How am I still alive when you said that I supposedly died after casting two forbidden magic?¡±, the current Azzard asked Gerard.


    ¡°The reason why you¡¯re still alive even to this day is not a mystery. The truth is that you aren¡¯t Azzard from 1000 years ago.¡±

 Day 6- Meeting

    ¡°So who am I?¡±, Azzard asked.


    ¡°Well, the truth is that you are Azzard at the same time you are not. I will explain.¡±


    ¡°Just at the moment that the two forbidden spells were released, I thought that my master had died but it was not so. The old Master Azzard appeared before me but he was just a spirit. He had instructed me to wait for him because he said that he would return.¡±


    ¡°Return? How?¡±, Azzard wondered.


    ¡°Reincarnation.¡±, Gerard replied. ¡°The previous Master Azzard said that he would reincarnate in the future and that I would be the one to guide him.¡±


    ¡°I will become your teacher and I will teach you all of the old master¡¯s skills and magic.¡±


    This day was too eventful for Azzard. He just found out that he was the reincarnation of Brogart Azzard, humanity¡¯s hero 1000 years ago. A normal person might find this situation as ludicrous but this was a world of magic. There might be some spells that allows a departed soul to come back to the living. What did this mean for the current Azzard? Since the the previous Azzard had died and reincarnated himself  in him, he was to finish the mission that the previous Azzard left uncompleted. This is what Azzard was able to hypothesize from the story of his past.


    ¡°So you will teach me all about magic and I will have to stop the Demon lord?¡± Azzard asked.


    ¡°Correct but the Demon lord is already dead. You will have to investigate what truly happened in the past. Who was the dark figure that controlled the Demon lord- that is your most important question. You must find out the truth that was covered from the lies.¡±


    While Azzard and Gerard were both discussing, they were unable to notice that someone had slowly neared the old house. ¡°Darshee!¡± Both of them were alarmed to hear a voice calling out to someone. Azzard quickly dashed into a corner while Gerard morphed back into a necklace. Azzard picked up the necklace from the floor and listened intently to the voice outside the house.


    ¡°Where could she be? It¡¯s been a month since I last saw her. Some of the villagers said that they saw her going into the forest but I have searched this entire forest every day and I still wasn¡¯t able to find any clue on him.¡± the voice said. When Azzard heard the voice speak again, he was able to discern that it was a girl who stood outside the old house. He peeked through the broken window and saw a young woman who looked to be around 20 years of age. He was also able to see that the young man had long pointy ears. From then he figured out that the young woman was an elf. Azzard changed his position to get a clearer  look at the elf but in turn he nudged a piece of cutlery. It made a ¡°clang¡± sound and the elf immediately snapped her head towards the direction of the sound.


    ¡°Who¡¯s there? You better come out or I¡¯ll cast a spell that will burn the entire house down.¡± Her voice seemed to be tense and alert. Whether she was bluffing or not, Azzard did not want to find out.


    ¡°I¡¯m coming out but I¡¯m not here to hurt you¡±, Azzard replied. The door slowly opened from the inside and the elf could see that it was young human male that came out from the house. Right after seeing the human, a terrified expression formed on the face of the elf. Tears were pouring from her eyes and she knelt on the ground. She grabbed a dagger out from her waist and stuck it out towards Azzard. ¡°Don¡¯t come near me. I beg you, I don¡¯t want to become a slave.¡± Her voice was trembling as she spoke. It was evident that she was terrified of Azzard.


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    ¡°I won¡¯t turn you into a slave; I¡¯m not that kind of person. Like I said I¡¯m not here to hurt you.¡± Azzard explained in a soft voice. He didn¡¯t want to further  frighten the girl. The elf made no changes in her posture or position as to what it was awhile ago. Azzard made a slow step towards the elf but she immediately backed away while still holding out the dagger.


    In an attempt to convince the elf that he was not there to harm her, he removed his robe. ¡°See I don¡¯t have any weapons on me that could hurt you. I¡¯m defenseless against you so if you think that I¡¯m lying you can thrust that dagger and kill me.¡± Now the girl looked up to Azzard, her face looked pitiful. ¡°She must have had a bad experience with slavers and was probably traumatized because of it.¡±, Azzard thought.


    The elf could feel Azzard¡¯s sincerity in his words so she decided to take a risk and trust the man¡¯s words. She slowly relaxed and her crying ceased. ¡°Who are you?¡±, the elf asked.


    ¡°My name is Azzard. It was by chance that I was here and I don¡¯t have any ill intent towards you.¡±, Azzard answered. The elf slowly stood up and put away the dagger. She introduced herself, ¡°My name is Viashna Biafyndar. I¡¯m an elf.¡± When Gerard had heard her name, he immediately notified Azzard telepathically, ¡®Master, the elf has the same surname as your companion from 1000 years ago. She may be his relative and I suggest that you ask her about Orym.¡± Azzard followed Gerard¡¯s suggestion and asked Viashna, ¡°Do you know an elf by the name of Orym Biafyndar?¡±


    ¡°....¡± Viashana did not respond to Azzard¡¯s question. From what Azzard could see, Viashna was in deep thought. ¡°How does he know about grandfather? Humans should not know about grandfather since we live deep in the forests.¡±


    After a few seconds, Viashna decided to speak once more. ¡°I may have heard that name before but I¡¯m not quite sure. Anyway, why do you ask? Who is he to you?¡±


    ¡°I was just wondering if you knew him since you both have the same surname. I thought that maybe he was your relative or something. I guess that it is by coincidence that you have the same surname with Orym, who was with  hero of the world, 1000 years ago.¡±, Azzard replied.


    ¡°How did you-¡± Now, Viashna was shocked to find out that Azzard knew something about the past which was supposedly erased. She had heard stories from his grandfather that he accompanied the hero of 1000 years ago but whether he was lying or not; no one could tell because history does not mention that the hero of 1000 years ago had any companions.


    ¡°How did I what?¡±, Azzard spoke to her. This broke Viashna from her thoughts and immediately recovered from the shock. ¡°Nothing, It was nothing. Don¡¯t pay any attention to what I said.¡± Azzard said nothing in reply.


    ¡°Well, it was nice meeting you but I still have something to do..¡±, Viashna said her farewell to Azzard. ¡°I won¡¯t keep you so this is goodbye. I hope you find that person you were looking for but I¡¯m sure that she¡¯ll be fine.¡± Viashna was happy to hear those words because it comforted her.


    As they said their farewells, a loud scream could be heard from the forest ¡°KYYAAAA! HELP ME!!¡± Viashna recognized that voice, it was her sister¡¯s. The screams came closer and closer to Azzard and Viashna¡¯s location. From their east, an elf girl was running towards them and from behind a group of humans chased her. Azzard immediately knew what they were; slave traders.

 Day 7- The sisters

    Day 7


    Viashna was terrified of the slave traders now that they had surrounded like a pack wolves hunting their prey. Azzard stood by her side while Darshee, Viashna¡¯s younger sister was behind her. Both the sister were in tears and both were constantly trembling and shaking.¡±They truly must have been traumatized before since they react this way¡±, Azzard thought.


    ¡°Boys, it looks like we¡¯re going to party tonight. We¡¯re going to sell the three of them to the Fendrac Empire. The elves will fetch high price with the high nobles. As for the man, we can still sell him to a low ranking noble. He might be useful at a farm since he¡¯s young.¡±, one of the slave traders spoke. The rest of the men cheered at the thought of  a party since it had been a long time.


    Azzard as at a predicament. He knew that the current him had no power to fight against these slave trader. He knew that a single mistake could cost him his life but he also knew that he had to protect the sisters from becoming slaves. He needed help but where could he find it? Then he suddenly remembered that he was no longer alone, he had met Gerard who accompanied the great hero of the past, Brogart Azzard. So he called out to him telepathically since both could communicate in such a way. ¡°Gerard? Are you there?¡±


    A voice responded to his call, ¡°Yes, Master Azzard. Do you need my help in something?¡±


    ¡°I do. Currently, we are surrounded by 20 slave traders and all of them are carrying swords. I do not know if there are others hiding in the forest but I must protect the two elves that are with me here.¡±


    ¡°I see. Well, it seems I must come out again today.¡± A bright light came from Azzard¡¯s chest and in front of him, a man materialized out of thin air. The slave traders were shocked. They thought it was a god because of their limited knowledge on magic. They started to make a run for it because they thought of staying; they knew they were going to die.


    ¡°Well that was a surprise.¡± Gerard was amused at the situation that had just transpired. He turned to face Azzard and bowed, ¡°Since they¡¯re gone, there is no need for me here anymore, Master Azzard.¡± And so Gerard disappeared and once again transformed into the necklace that was hanging on Azzard¡¯s neck.


    Azzard breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad that the problem was solved easily and that no one was hurt. He looked at Viashna and Darshee and saw that they too were relieved. He noticed that Darshee was looking at him curiously. Viashna also saw the curious stare of her sister towards the man who had saved them from becoming slaves.


    ¡°Darshee, this man¡¯s name is Azzard. I met him awhile ago just before you came.¡±, Viashna introduced Azzard to her sister. Azzard held out his right hand for a shake but Darshee did not take it. Instead, she came closer to him until their faces were only a few inches apart.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± Darshee¡¯s voice was solemn and soft. Azzard liked her voice. From what he could see, she was less endowed than her sister Viashna. She had less curved and would be considered petite. She had shorter blonde hair compared to her sister. Both were beautiful but to Azzard¡¯s taste, Darshee was closer to it. As to why he compared the sisters to each other, he didn¡¯t know. It must have been a man¡¯s natural instinct to assess the women around him to look for the most suitable mate. Azzard forgot to respond to Darshee since he was so busy with his thoughts that Darshee asked him again but with louder voice. ¡°I asked you a question Mister. Who are you?¡± She sounded irritated with Azzard for ignoring her in the first place. To appease Darshee¡¯s slowly growing irritation with him, Azzard quickly replied, ¡°My name is Azzard. I meet your sister a while ago at this place.¡±


    Darshee nodded at his response and somewhat satisfied at his answer. ¡°I see, But who are you exactly? How were you able to summon a familiar? Are you good at summoning magic? Can you teach me?¡± Darshee bombarded Azzard with numerous question regarding himself. Viashna, noticing Darshee¡¯s incessant interrogation, stepped in to stop her sister from making Azzard uncomfortable. ¡°Okay sis. That¡¯s enough, we still have to leave. There might be other dangers lurking around here. A beast could attack at any moment.¡± Azzard was pleased with Viashna¡¯s actions since he couldn¡¯t answer the questions that were being thrown at him. After hearing Viashna¡¯s words, Darshee begrudgingly stopped asking questions. ¡°Fine. Although I¡¯m curious about Azzard, we need to leave this place immediately.¡± Viashna nodded at her sister¡¯s response.


    Viashna turned to look at Azzard and said, ¡°Thank you Azzard for saving my sister and I. I wish to show my gratitude through actions and not words but our current situation does not permit me to do so.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t mind. In fact, I don¡¯t need you to show me your gratitude. I¡¯ll be satisfied knowing that both of you are okay.¡±


    ¡°No, I must insist that we show our debt of gratitude towards the savior of our lives. According to Elven Law, ¡®One must treat the other the same treatment that one has received.¡¯¡±


    Viashna was not giving him room to negotiate so he reluctantly agreed with Viashna¡¯s words. Azzard thought that Viashna was going to be good in politics if she ever planned on it.


    ¡°Like what I said earlier, we must leave this place immediately and go back to our village¡±, Viashna spoke to Darshee. ¡°But we cannot leave unless we show our gratitude to Azzard so I suggest that Azzard return with us to our village so that we can at least you to a meal.¡± Once again, Azzard felt obliged to agree to Viashna¡¯s suggestion so he accompanied them.


    Night had already fallen when he arrived at the village that Viashan and Darshee were staying at. He could clearly see from outside that it was not a thriving village. He saw that the houses were made of poor material and that some were already at the verge of being a ruin just like the house Azzard woke up in. The villagers walking about the the area were scarce. During the entire time, Azzard two beastmen and a humanoid. He did not see any humans living in the village but he would ask Viashna just to be sure.


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    The group of three continued to walk and soon enough they reached a small wooden house. It was in a far better state than the others but still it was not worth being considered as a house.


    ¡°We¡¯ve arrived at our home. Please come in.¡±, Viashna instructed. Azzard entered the house after both sisters. The feeling that Azzard got from the house was warmth. Although the house looked bad from the outside, one would be comfortable inside. Once the sisters entered their house, they quickly went to work. They arranged the furniture inside, cleaned up any mess inside the house and started preparing for dinner. The pleasant aroma of food coming from the kitchen enticed Azzard¡¯s hunger and his stomach started to rumble.


    When the sisters finished cooking, Azzard could barely contain his desire to devour everything that was placed on the table. After the sisters sat on their chairs, the food started to disappear at a fast pace. Viashna and Darshee was delighted to see that Azzard enjoyed their cooking even though the meal they prepared was so simple. It only consisted of warm soup with vegetables in it and no meat. Bread was paired alongside it and roasted fowl was shared among the three of them. It was clear enough to see that the sisters were indeed poor just like many of the villagers there. However, Azzard did not complain about the meal and ate it heartily.


    Azzard finished eating in a matter of minutes. He never knew he was that hungry until he remembered that it had been a long time since he ate and that was just before the knights of the Bradford and Azzard parted ways. He no longer ate as he travelled through the forest and he met Viashna right after.


    ¡°Thank you for the wonderful meal. I was delighted with both of your cooking. I¡¯m glad to have met you two because if I didn¡¯t I wouldn¡¯t have been this happy after eating.¡±, Azzard said his thanks to Viashna and Darshee.


    ¡°No worries. Azzard.¡±, both of them quickly replied at the same time. The sisters looked at each other and slowly laughter came from their mouths. Azzard quickly joined in.


    The three people sitting at the table enjoyed each other¡¯s company and they slowly got to know each other. Azzard had found out that the sisters were former slaves of a high ranking noble residing in Bradford Empire. Slave trading was not deemed as something illegal in the empire so the noble was never arrested for having slaves. Lucky enough for the sisters that they were still young at the time and that they were not subjected to indecent acts by the noble. At least the noble had a conscience towards young children.


    Azzard had also come to know that Orym was their great grandfather. He even learned that Orym was the former King of the Elven Lands but sadly Orym had already passed away 7 years ago. He died trying to free his great granddaughters from their slavery. He caused a riot in the capital of the Bradford Empire; he fought greatly but since age was also attacking him from the inside, he was unable to fight the numerous soldiers of the empire and died. Viashna shed a few tears as well as Darshee but those tears were not a lot. They had clearly accepted their great grandfather¡¯s death.


    ¡°I see.¡±, Azzard spoke after hearing the story. Then a question came into his mind, ¡°If Orym was a former king wouldn¡¯t that make you the princesses of the Elven Lands?¡±


    ¡°Yes it is true but something tragic occurred and that was also the reason why we were brought under slavery. Our uncle, Flair Biafyndar, who was the right hand of our father, the King lead a mutiny. Our father was overthrown from his throne and was exiled deep into the Mist Mountains. Our mother, who was not there at the time, followed after my father and was also exiled in the Mist Mountains. It is said that the Mist Mountains is a dangerous place.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much. I¡¯m sure that your parents are fine since one of them was a descendant of Orym.¡±, Azzard comforted the sisters. ¡°Speaking of Orym, where was he? How come he was not able to stop the mutiny?¡±, Azzard added.


    ¡°Great grandfather was also not there went the mutiny transpired. He was with mother. She accompanied her in her travel to keep her safe. When they found out about what had happened, they searched for us but were told that we were sold into slavery. Our uncle sold us right after father had been exiled.¡±


    ¡°After that, mother and great grandfather went to the Mist Mountains to save father. Mother and great grandfather split ways. Great grandfather went to find us while mother worked to save father. Great grandfather had told us what happened before he died.¡±


    Darshee and Azzard were just listening to Viashna as she spoke. Darshee at that time was only 4 years old and she couldn¡¯t remember everything clearly but Viashna was already 12 years old at the time. Azzard felt sympathy towards the sisters. Although their parents could still be alive, there was no assurance to that. They had lost their family so both of them were probably lonely now.


    After everything was told, they all decided to rest. Azzard was given the spare room and the sisters went to the other room and shared. As Azzard closed his eyes, he heard a voice in his mind.


    ¡°Azzard you¡¯ve finally returned. I¡¯ll come for you and kill you.¡±

 Day 8- His determination

    Light passed through the window of the room that Azzard was sleeping in. A moment later, Azzard woke up and rose from the bed. His mind was quite refreshed for having slept quite well throughout the night. There were no disturbances to his sleep except for the voice he had heard the moment sleep overtook him.


    ¡®Azzard you¡¯ve finally returned. I¡¯ll come for you and kill you.¡± The voice was very ominous to the point that even a grown man would be scared to death by just hearing it. The words had troubled Azzard quite a bit; he had no memory of anything but there was already someone out there to kill him. Azzard could¡¯ve chosen not to pay any mind to the voice but something was telling him that if he didn¡¯t do so, he would surely suffer in the future. So he called out to Gerard to materialize inside the room.


    ¡°Master Azzard.¡± Gerard bowed slightly to Azzard but since he was already used to it, Azzard didn¡¯t seem to find it as uncomfortable as before.


    ¡°Gerard, just before I slept I heard an ominous voice speak in my mind. It said that I¡¯ve finally returned and that it wants to find me and kill me as well.¡±, Azzard told Gerard.


    ¡°....¡± Gerard remained silent as if he was thinking over something.


    ¡°What is it Gerad? Does those words seem familiar to you?¡±, Azzard interrogated Gerard but once again he wasn¡¯t given a reply.


    After a few moments, it seemed that Gerard had finally come back from his thoughts and spoke, ¡°It seems that we must be careful Master Azzard. We must heed those words since they could be the truth.¡±


    ¡°So someone is out to kill me? Who could it be? Is it Draknair or the black figure that controlled Draknair?¡±


    ¡°No it is not Draknair, Master Azzard. I am certain that Draknair had already perished after the attack that was launched to the palace. It is possible that it is the black figure but 1000 years had passed, only a few beings can live that long and still be alive.¡± Gerard informed and continued to speak. ¡°Now, that we¡¯ve been given a warning. We must immediately start your training so that you can gain your previous power back so that you may be prepared to face what¡¯s coming in the future.¡±


    Gerard had advised Azzard to commence his training and Azzard agreed that it was a good proposition. Ever since he woke up, he felt weak for not being able to protect those around him so his desire was to get stronger and more powerful. For Azzard, that dream was extremely likely to happen. He was the reincarnation of a powerful person of 1000 years ago and he also had the guidance of Gerard, the most powerful weapon of 1000 years ago.


    ¡°I agree. We¡¯ll start my training after I leave this village.¡±


    Breakfast was also good since the sisters were both great cooks. The three of them enjoyed the meal and once again Azzard said his thanks to which Viashna replied that it was the least they could do for their savior. Azzard told the sisters that he needed to leave because he still had something to do. He did not say anything specific. Darshee was still curious about Azzard so she wanted to ask what he was going to do but she was stopped by Viashna.


    Azzard planned on leaving the next day. He decided that he should explore the town a bit since he was curious about the villagers. After breakfast, he went out of the house. Darshee accompanied him and as for Viashna she stayed behind to clean the house and prepare the next meal. Darshee was sticking rather closely to Azzard. She had locked both her arms around Azzard¡¯s and she held it tightly.


    They first visited the market. It was more lively than what he expected it to be since he saw no one yesterday. The merchants were busy selling items from food to jewellery. Kids were running around and their parents were busy catching up to them. After a few minutes in the market that he was able to deduce that there were no humans living in the village. He noticed that many were staring at him and they were all non-human beings. Most of the population was comprised of beastmen, then came the humanoids, then the dwarves and finally the elves. All there were some elves, Azzard could tell that they weren¡¯t many.


    To  test his hypothesis, he asked Darshee. ¡°Are their any humans here? Why is it that everyone is staring at me?¡± Darshee chuckled at his questions and responded. ¡°Well you are the first human here to stay at the village. It is rare for humans to go to our village except for the soldiers who collect the taxes from the mayor.¡±


    ¡°That explains why she is so curious about me.¡±, Azzard thought.


    ¡°And why am I the only human to visit this village?¡±


    ¡°Well, as you can see. Our village is not doing well at the moment. Every year more crops die and even livestock. The village is poor and the taxes makes everything worse. We barely have enough money to buy food.¡±


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    ¡°I see but that doesn¡¯t answer my question. Why is that there aren¡¯t humans living here?¡±


    Darshee was silent for a moment. She looked to be deep in thought. She was hesitating whether to answer my question or not. After a few seconds, she shook her head and slap both her cheeks with her hands.


    ¡°Well, humans don¡¯t like other beings. It¡¯s not that there hostile towards us or that they discriminate us but it¡¯s more of that they¡¯re wary of us. The reason for their actions is that they believe that we are violent.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean by violent?¡±, asked Azzard.


    ¡°It¡¯s a long story but I¡¯ll cut straight to the point. It happened a few years back.¡± Darshee started to tell the story. ¡°The village was flourishing then and we had quite a few humans residing in our village. Everything was good but it all changed one day.¡±


    ¡°The human children started to get sick every single one of them. It was only the human children who contracted the illness so the villagers started becoming scared of us. They had thought that it was our responsibility because none of the children of our races became sick. The only healers present were the elves and the humans didn¡¯t trust them so they requested a human healer to be sent to the village to cure the children.¡±


    ¡°The human healer arrived and started checking the conditions of the children. He did not know what the illness was nor its origin. However, he did say that it was not a life threatening illness so the parents were relieved to hear that.¡±


    ¡°Were the children cured of their illness?¡±, Azzard asked.


    ¡°To say that it was cured would be far from it. The illness disappeared after a few days the healer came to the village. It was like nothing happened and every child was able to fully recover.¡±


    ¡°An illness that comes and goes. That¡¯s interesting.¡± Azzard added, ¡°If they were cured, everything should be fine afterwards, right?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what we were hoping for but sadly it didn¡¯t happen that way.¡±, Darshee said in a low voice.


    ¡°Rumors started to circulate among the humans. As the rumor goes, we were responsible for the illness of their children. It also said that once the human healer came to the village, the one responsible for the spreading the sickness was afraid of being caught so he cured all of the children. Or so it goes.¡±


    ¡°After that, the humans started to leave the village. And apparently the rumor had spread to other places. So every human is wary of this place saying that the people living here will make human children sick. They stopped coming after that except for the soldiers who collect tax.¡±


    ¡°Business has also been poor among other towns where most are human merchants. No one wants to buy the crops we sell. They say that it¡¯s contaminated. Adding to that, they sell us the poorest quality of items. All of our farming equipment is of poor grade which is the reason why our crops have died and we haven¡¯t been able to harvest much.¡±


    Azzard felt sympathy for the village. They were blamed for something that they didn¡¯t do. He took the side of the other races since there was no evidence that the other races were responsible for making the children sick.


    ¡°I wish I could help but the current me has no capability of doing so. I just hope that this village can find a way to solve your problem.¡± Azzard said those words not for comfort but for the purpose of motivating Darshee. He intended to bring up Darshee¡¯s desire to solve the problem that was in front of them. He believed that Darshee and Viashna were capable of solving the problem because they were former elven princesses. They must have some knowledge in politics which could help them in negotiating with human merchants for better prices and equipment.


    Once again, Azzard felt helpless for being incapable of helping. The first time he tried to help someone almost lead to his death. Luckily for him, he was healed immediately before the world took his life away to another place. The second time was when he faced the slave traders. He wasn¡¯t able to do anything but watch as the slave traders ran from Gerard. And this was the third time. He was supposed to be a reincarnation of the hero of 1000 years ago but to think that he was truly worthless now made his heart ache a bit. However, he didn¡¯t let this feeling bring him down; instead he made it his motivation. The motivation needed to become someone who was worthy of his past self: a person who was skilled in leadership and a person who was dependable.


    Gathering all his thoughts, he now knew what he had to do. Before he would train, he would help this village.

 Day 9- Visiting the capital

    The next day, Azzard went to visit the capital of the Bradford Empire. He was supposed to go alone but Darshee was determined to go with him. Alas, the three of them embarked on a two day trip. Viashna didn''t question Azzard''s reason for going to the capital. She merely thought of it as Azzard satisfying his curiosity. As for Darshee, she just wanted to be with Azzard. The trio were in high spirits as they departed the village but they would not expect that a disaster was brewing.


    Right on the mark, the trio arrived at the capital in two days time. When they entered, they were amazed at how busy and beautiful the capital was. The roads were filled with men and women going about their own business. The buildings were in good shape, much better compared to Viashna''s house at the village. Overall, the capital was a great place to live in.


    Azzard led the group as they made their way in the capital. Earlier when they arrived at the gate, he asked the guard for directions to the palace. They were currently making their way to the palace where the Bradford Emperor was residing in. Azzard was able to notice the heated stares of some of the people and it was all directed at Viashna and Darshee. The people could be heard murmuring among themselves. He was also able to notice the slight discomfort that was seen on the sisters'' faces. "It seems that humans don''t treat non-humans that well. This could be quite the problem for my plan."


    They arrived at the palace. Azzard saw a beautifully created castle with four towers at each corner. There was a wide door at the front guarded by ten knights. As soon as Azzard saw the entrance to the palace, he walked towards it and the sisters followed. The knights saw this young man with two elves walking towards them. They quickly gathered at the center and stood guard. The unit was blocking the entrance as to stop the trio from entering the palace.


    "What is your business here?", the leader of the knights asked.


    "I am here to request an audience with the Emperor.", Azzard replied.


    The knights looked at him weirdly as if he had said something absurd. Even the sisters could not contain their shock and were also looking at Azzard. Viashna and Darshee wondered what Azzard was thinking, that he was requesting to speak with the Emperor. "Azzard should know that the Emperor will not speak to commoners.", Viashna assumed that Azzard knew of this information.


    "Who are you that you are able to speak with the Emperor?!", one of the knights was infuriated at Azzard''s lack of respect for the Emperor. The knight''s sudden outburst was quickly hushed by the leader.


    "I am sorry to inform you but you do not have the qualifications to speak to the Emperor. Also, the Emperor is currently occupied at the moment. I request that you leave the palace grounds immediately or we will be forced to use other methods."


    Azzard did not like what he had heard from the leader. He had felt that their thinking was wrong and that the Emperor was too arrogant to even talk to the citizens of the Empire.


    "I cannot do as you say as I have an important matter to discuss with the Emperor. This is a matter of grave importance to a village that is quickly losing its means to survive.", Azzard pleaded with the leader of the knights.


    Upon hearing the reason why Azzard was requesting to speak with the king, the sisters, especially Viashna, were touched by Azzard''s words. Both of them knew what Azzard was talking about; it was their village that was needed to be saved and Azzard was trying to do so. Azzard planned to speak with the Emperor with the thought of asking for aid from the Empire. He wanted the Empire to help the village by improving the relationship of the village and the merchants. Azzard was not asking for a lot but it may seem to be too much of a request and that he did not know his place.


    The leader of the knights simply chose to ignore his words and reminded the trio to leave immediately but Azzard was determined not to leave the palace grounds until he met with the Emperor. Seeing that Azzard''s group had no plans of leaving, one of the knights took hold of his sword and struck Azzard''s head with the hilt. Blood oozed out from his forehead and Azzard was in pain. Darshee quickly ran to Azzard''s side and supported him.


    "Are you alright? Does it hurt a lot?", Darshee was worried that Azzard might have gotten severe injuries to his head. Viashna went to Azzard''s tended to his wounds, casting a low healing spell.


    The blow from the knight came too fast just like the second one that was closing in on Darshee. She was thrown off from Azzard''s side and she was knocked out cold. Seeing this, Viashna and Azzard madly ran towards Darshee. Viashna furiously shook her sister''s body but there was no response.


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    "You''re slaves are quite the annoying bunch. Don''t worry too much about that one. If you were able to purchase two slaves, I''m sure you can buy another one to replace her. I''ll even recommend you to a good place and you can have a discount." The knight who struck both Azzard and Darshee was laughing at his own words. He was quite amused by the whole situation. Azzard glanced at the leader and saw that he was not fazed at all by what happened. The leader noticed Azzard looking at him so he just quickly spoke, "Earlier, I advised you to leave immediately but you refused to do so. My subordinate here merely complied with regulations."


    Viashna was enraged after hearing the words of the leader. He called them slaves and that he didn''t care at all when Darshee was hit for no reason. She was about to cast a spell but Azzard grabbed hold of her shoulders and stopped her. Viashna didn''t know how to react to this. Azzard was stopping her from exacting revenge.


    "Viashna, we must leave now. Darshee needs medical attention. We must treat her right now or there could be grave consequences.", Azzard whispered to her.


    Viashna looked at her sister and agreed to leave. She needed to have her revenge but her sister''s life was more important than this. She took one more hateful glare at the unit of knights before she went her way. The knights, however; paid no heed to Viashna''s glare. As they saw it, Azzard''s group was being impudent on palace grounds and when they saw them leaving, they were quite happy to accomplish their job. Everything went back to normal for the knights as if nothing had happened a while ago.


    Azzard carried Darshee on his back while Viashna was busy casting a low healing spell for Darshee. People glanced at them while they were running but had no concern whatsoever after they saw Darshee''s and Viashna''s ears.


    "I can''t believe the audacity of their acts.", Viashna spoke while gritting her teeth. "They are supposed to be knights who have honor and valor but to think they would stoop this low infuriates me all the more."


    Azzard said nothing in response because his first concern was to give aid to Darshee.


    They found an inn and entered the place. It was quite dirty inside but it was the most decent one they could afford with their money. Since their main concern was Darshee''s life, they didn''t have time to complain about their accommodations. The owner was the same as the people in the streets. He did not show any concern for Darshee and merely cared about receiving the payment from Azzard.


    Azzard placed Darshee on the bed and Viashna continued on her spell.  She was now using an intermediate healing spell. Azzard just stood there behind Viashna and watched. The spell was working because the black bruise on Darshee was steadily disappearing but she had yet to awaken.


    Although Azzard did not say anything to the knights, he decided to keep his feelings of anger at bay. He did not want to worsen the situation and he wanted Darshee to be immediately treated. It was a good thing that Viashna was quite versed in healing spells or Azzard would have the trouble of finding a human healer who was willing to help them. He was aware of Viashna''s thoughts of wanting to exact revenge but he knew they could not do anything to them since he had no power. However, that didn''t stop him from thinking of getting his revenge.


    His group was badly treated here in the capital just because his companions were non-humans. They were treated as worthless people. The actions of the knights disgusted him to the point where he wanted to kill them. The village was dying and the Empire was unwilling to pay any attention to it. "What scums they are to treat people like this.", Azzard thought.


    Viashna was worn out after a whole 3 hours of casting the intermediate healing spell. Azzard sat beside Viashna and gave her a comforting hug to which made Viashna start to cry. Azzard told her that Darshee would be okay and that she would awaken soon. Viashna nodded her head to Azzard''s words and her crying slowly stopped.


    "Don''t worry. I''m sure Darshee will be fine. You''ve already healed her completely. We just need to wait for her to wake up. As for the knights and this Empire, we will have our revenge."

 Day 10- Grand King Magister

    Darshee woke up two days after the incident happened. She didn¡¯t suffer any major problems with her body function which made Azzard and Viashna breathed a sigh of relief.


    Since Azzard failed at helping the village, he decided to start his training the next day. The sisters were informed of his plan and they were a bit sad to see him go soon but they could not stop Azzard from leaving. So the three days later, Azzard left the village.


    He was currently heading towards the Mountains of Skotadi. It was located to the west of the capital of the Bradford Empire. People were afraid to come to this place after hearing all the stories about this place. It was said that the Beel Group¡¯s base was stationed here. Some would say that an ancient evil power slumbered beneath those grounds. All of those had no evidence to support them. As for the reason why Azzard was heading there, Gerard had told him to do so.


    Gerard informed him about the importance of the Mountains of Skotadi to Brogart Azzard, the hero of 1000 years ago. Brogart was born in a cave located deep within the Mountains of Skotadi. Gerard recalled that his previous master told him of this particular detail about his life. Azzard was able to know more and more about Brogart Azzard.


    He was told that Brogart had the same experience with him. He, too, woke up one day with no recollection of himself. He was about the same age as Azzard was now. Azzard, hearing this, was slightly startled but it vanished right away. He somewhat expected that it was so since both of them were the same person. After hearing this, it got Azzard thinking. ¡°If Brogart had the same experience as I did, does this mean that there were others before him? If so, how long have I been living in this world.¡±, Azzard thought.


    Since he still had to find the answers to those questions, he momentarily forgot about it and focused on his journey to the Mountains of Skotadi. He had planned to train there since Brogart had developed his own skills and magic. Azzard was hoping to relearn those skills because he believed that they were powerful skills.


    Three days later, he arrived at the location.


    The Mountains of Skotadi had thick green forests, not allowing light to hit the ground below the canopy. It had an eerie feeling to it, with the silence increasing the dreadfulness of the place. When Azzard entered at the base of the mountains, he had seen the bones of a large creature; it appeared to be the remains of a Erymanthian Boar. The body was huge, measuring at about 7 meters in length and 4 meters in height. The tusks of the boar were extremely sharp, easily comparing to that of a high grade sword. Azzard wondered what creature was able to defeat the large creature and shuddered at the thought of a scarier beast.


    Azzard steeled himself to continue walking even though he was slightly afraid for his life. Gerard told him mentally that he was already near the cave of Brogart and that he need not to worry about the dangers of the forest. Gerard reassured him that the beasts were a rarity at that place since there was something keeping them away, like a barrier of some sort. Azzard asked, ¡°Was it created by Brogart?¡±


    Gerard merely replied with the shaking of his head. He was not fully informed about the inner workings of the forest since he was obtained by Brogart after he had left this place. As to why Gerard was able to detect the cave, he told Azzard that he could sense the faint aura of Brogart which lingered inside the cave.


    Finally, after a full day without taking a break, Azzard arrived at the cave. It was extremely dark and if one were to peer through the darkness, one would only be able to see 1 foot ahead. It was that dark but Azzard did not worry. Earlier on, Gerard had imparted him the chant of the Illumination Spell which was an illuminating spell of the Fire category.


    ¡°O Great One of the Fire, illuminate this darkness.¡±


    Azzard recited the chant and from his hand a small ball of fire flew out. The ball of fire was floating 2 meters from the ground and was in front of Azzard. It illuminated the pathway and Azzard was able to see the inside of the cave. He could see that walls were a bit wet with water. The cave wa empty from where Azzard was at so he decided to go deeper into the cave.


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    The cave stretched out for 100 meters which made it seem more like of a tunnel than a cave. At the end of the cave, a living space was situated at the center. On the walls, a few paper scrolls were attached. The ink had faded due to the ravages of time.  Azzard scoured through the stuff that was left behind and they were deemed to be unusable. Azzard had hoped to find something useful; something that could enhance his training. He was disappointed that he was not able to find anything useful. Suddenly, he noticed something at the corner. Something was shining but since it was quite hidden, one would not be able to see the item. Azzard went closer to the item and picked it up while brushing off the dirt that had accumulated on the item.


    It was a metal ring; judging from the quality of the metal, Azzard determined it to be orichalcum, one of the strongest metal that can be found in this world. At the center of the ring, there was a large ruby attached.


    ¡°What is this?¡±, Azzard asked himself.


    ¡°That should be a memory ring. My guess is that the owner of this ring should be Master Brogart.¡± Gerard spoke into Azzard¡¯s mind.


    ¡°How do I use this?¡±


    ¡°Wear the ring and infuse some of your mana into it. It should show you the past events that were stored into this ring.¡±


    Azzard did as he was told. Once he poured some of his mana into the ring, it shined brightly for two seconds and then Azzard collapsed on the ground.


    -------


    Azzard was currently floating in dark space. He was alone or so he thought. A glowing figure approached him from behind. Azzard looked from behind and then he saw a man similar to his stature. The man spoke.


    ¡°I am Brogart Azzard. I am the owner of this ring. Since you were able to access the contents of this ring, this should mean that you are my reincarnation.¡±


    Seeing the figure of Brogart talking to him, momentarily stunned Azzard. The hero from 1000 years ago was currently alive and was conversing with him.


    ¡°I am no longer of this world. This is just a memory from the past that was stored into this ring.¡±


    ¡°So Brogart is dead.¡±, Azzard thought.


    ¡°I will impart to you the skills and magic that I have developed. But before that, I must warn you, a strong enemy still lurks this world. I do not know who he is or what he is.  Be warned he is strong. He has the capability to destroy the world with but a single thought. He was the one responsible for mind controlling my dear friend, Draknair.  ¡±


    Azzard was listening intently.


    ¡°That enemy seeks to kill you since only you have the power to kill him. Before you are able to strengthen, he will do everything he can to destroy you. However, do not worry too much. Currently, he is slowly recuperating his strength. In 1010 years from now, he will rise again.¡±


    Azzard calculated in his mind, ¡°In ten years, the world face its greatest calamity, extinction.¡±


    ¡°You must train yourself to the utmost limits and reach the highest level of magic, a Grand King Magister. Only five were able to reach this level and they were all from different times in history. The fifth one was I.¡±


    ¡°With the power of a Grand King Magister, you will be able to face the enemy head on so become one.¡±


    The figure slowly disappeared and what flashed next were the skills and magic of Brogart. Azzard was watching closely and slowly he had understood the types and levels of magic.

 Day 11- Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent

    Magicians were divided into twelve ranks.


    Grand King Magister


    King Magister


    Magister


    9th Order Magician


    8th Order Magician


    7th Order Magician


    6th Order Magician


    5th Order Magician


    4th Order Magician


    3rd Order Magician


    2nd Order Magician


    1st Order Magician


    Bradford Empire only had two Magisters while the Beel Group is rumoured to have a King Magister in their organization. This meant that the Beel Group had the military potential to invade Bradford Empire. It was only a matter of time when the Beel Group¡¯s goals reach a certain height.


    Brogart was capable of becoming the fifth Grand King Magister. This task was only made possible due to the life experiences of Brogart. Luck also played a vital role. Azzard held no confidence in himself. He thought that it was impossible for him to become a Grand King Magister since he was utterly clueless about magic. Even though Brogart had imparted him with the skills, he could not use them.


    Brogart trained in the Lightning type of Magic. His spells were based from the destructive power of lightning and thunder. Gerard also explained to Azzard that his previous master was quite adept in stealth and speed. This was due to the special properties of Lightning magic.


    Azzard knew he was unable to use Lightning magic ever since he started to practice in it. He could not get a reaction even after casting a simple Lightning Bolt Spell which even those who weren¡¯t 1st Order Magicians were capable of doing. The spell entirely depended on the base mana pool of a person; the more mana he had, the more successful he is in casting spells. But Azzard had large mana pool, Gerard had informed him. He also said that Azzard¡¯s mana had similar characteristics with Brogart¡¯s. That¡¯s the reason why Azzard thought that he was incapable of studying Lightning magic. As to how he had summoned the lightning bolt to heal himself was a mystery.


    It was not the end for Azzard. Brogart did not merely practiced in Lightning type magic. Brogart also practiced in Darkness type magic. Darkness type magic was a hard type of magic to train in. Only a few would be suitable for practicing this magic since Darkness type magicians were inflicted with some repercussion for training in Darkness type magic. They suffered from illusions and the inability to fall asleep. So most people opted to other types of magic since it was possible that they would become delirious and crazy over time.


    After his fruitless efforts in Lightning type of magic, Azzard tested his own suitability to Darkness type magic.


    ¡°If Brogart was capable of using Darkness type magic, it may be possible for me as well.¡±, Azzard encouraged himself.


    And so Azzard started to chant the only Darkness type magic spell that Brogart knew.


    ¡°Mysterious Elements of Darkness, enshroud me with your veil.¡±


    Mana was being pulled out from Azzard¡¯s body. From his surroundings, a dark type of veil slowly formed. Later on, it enveloped Azzard until he vanished, completely merging with darkness of the cave.


    ¡°The spell worked!¡±


    Azzard was ecstatic to find out that he succeeded in casting the Conceal Spell during his first time. Gerard, who was watching the whole thing in his necklace form, was flabbergasted. He understood how difficult it was for one to train in Darkness type magic. Aside from its setbacks, Darkness type magic was already considered to be a long forgotten magic. No one could comprehend its properties and train themselves in it. Also it was common knowledge that every single person. Seeing Azzard being proficient in Darkness type magic made Gerard think that Azzard was quite talented.


    Azzard wanted to practice the next spell but unfortunately there was none that he could practice with. Brogart had only left him with Darkness type spell. He was downtrodden and disappointed but he could not do anything about it.


    After his fruitful efforts in Darkness type magic, Azzard decided to take a break. He needed to think things through. He was useless in most type of magic while he was also quite talented in the only type of magic that was not studied by the people of this world. Anyone would be quite troubled if they were to experience the same thing. He was lost. Azzard did not know how to proceed with his mission, of becoming a Grand King Magister. Deciding not to overflow his thoughts with negative ones, he relaxed his mind. It had been a long day, adding to that he practiced magic so naturally he fell asleep quite quickly.


    The next day, Azzard went to do something else. Not only did Brogart leave him with magic skills and spells, he also left behind his fighting techniques. Although Brogart was more adept in magic, he was more than capable of defending himself from the physical attacks of enemies.


    Azzard came out of the cave and begun his training. He performed the basic steps of blocking and parrying. All beginners were required to first remember defence. Only by completely mastering defensive techniques was one able to proceed to learn fighting techniques. Most disciples would feel that it was boring, All of them wanted to learn how to punch, kick and so on but not Azzard. He was diligent in his training. His focus and concentration would be considered to be top notch. So the day went on like that, Azzard practicing defensive techniques while only taking a couple breaks in between.


    Three months have passed and Azzard went from a beginner in fighting to a master. To say that his speed was astounding would be an understatement. Even the geniuses among geniuses would have trouble matching up with Azzard¡¯s pace. If Azzard was to compare himself with the elite knights of the Bradford Empire, he can just barely put up a 10 second fight until he would be defeated. He was more confident before knowing that he had some power to protect himself but he knew it was useless. His original mission was to become a Grand King Magister but he strayed far from it. He became a fighter rather than a magician. He knew that magicians had more battle potential than fighters since they were limited to fighting with their body. Magicians were capable of destroying a small platoon with one spell while fighters would run out of energy fighting off a small platoon of knights. He knew that the strength would be looked down upon the hidden enemy that was still lurking in the world. It would be like how a person would look down at an ant. He also knew that he could do nothing about it.


    During his days in the Mountains of Skotadi, he hunted for beasts and trained his body into a fighting machine. His days weren¡¯t all that perfect, eventually he suffered some major setbacks.


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    After his training, he was completely exhausted and hungry. He had forgotten to hunt the day before therefore he had nothing eat. Maybe it was hunger or fatigue that made Azzard make one of his biggest mistakes. And that was to hunt at night. Gerard had warned him before that it was during the hours of darkness that the strongest and wildest beasts would roam about.


    Azzard spotted a two-horned rabbit by the bush. Two-horned rabbits were popular among the villages since their meat had a good taste and that they were also easy to hunt. Grabbing his wooden spear that he made while passing his time, he threw it aiming for the body of the two-horned rabbit. A yelp could be heard and it was a success. Azzard came closer to pick up his newly acquired meal when a loud roar could be heard. The roar came from behind Azzard which alerted him of danger.


    He knew it was no normal beast judging by how the ground would shake as the beast came nearer to his position. Moments later, before he was able to hide, the beast arrived at his location. Towering over him at five meters, it was a Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent with the rest of its body extending into the forest. Just as the name entails it was a Darkness type Magical Beast. Darkness Magical Beasts were quite difficult to deal with at night since all of them were capable of being invisible at night. It was like Azzard activating the Conceal Spell.


    Their battle began. Azzard picked up his wooden spear and defensively made his stance. Immediately, the Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent, slashed at Azzard. Using his spear, Azzard was able to propel himself and dodge the attack. Gerard had already woken from the loud roar and was guiding Azzard in his first major fight. Both of them knew that he did not have the strength to defeat the beast in front of him. Gerard could no longer assist Azzard in this fight since for some unknown reason, he was slowly losing his powers. So Azzard had to fend for himself. Death was not an option for he knew he had a mission to complete.


    The battle continued on with Azzard mostly dodging the attacks of the beast. Slowly, the beast was getting annoyed. Enraged, the Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent, once again let out a loud roar.  Then it disappeared. The beast had merged with the darkness of the night to cause alarm in Azzard¡¯s mind. He was doing so well at dodging the attacks but now that he was unable to see the beast, how could he continue to dodge? The situation had reached its peak. From his left side a whoosh was heard and Azzard was barely able to dodge it. He dodged the consequent attacks but it was obvious that fatigue was already slowing him down. And he was struck.


    Blood spilled everywhere. Gerard was afraid for Azzard¡¯s life. When the claws of the beast hit his opponent, it revealed itself. Azzard knew it was his chance so with the little energy he could muster, he grabbed hold of his spear and threw it towards the beast¡¯s heart. Miraculously, it hit the beast. The Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent became wild. It thrashed its surrounding and luckily Azzard wasn¡¯t thrown around as well. A few minutes later silence was heard and the beast lay dead on the ground, blood coming out from its chest.


    It was the adrenaline that kept Azzard going and the reason why he felt no pain but now that battle was over, his sense of pain came back to him. Azzard was really weak at that moment, and he lost a lot of blood that he looked as pale as the clouds.


    ¡°Am I going to die today?¡±, Azzard asked himself to which Gerard was able to hear.


    ¡°I can close up your wounds to stop the bleeding but I¡¯m afraid that too much blood was lost and you will still die.¡±, Gerard answered him.


    Azzard went silent. In his mind he was waiting for the lightning to struck him again but it seems as if it was only one time. The lightning was only able to heal him once.


    ¡°Heal me.¡±, Azzard commanded.


    ¡°Master, death is inevitable and the same thing for this world¡¯s end. It was truly unfortunate to have met this beast.¡±


    Azzard didn¡¯t listen to Gerard¡¯s words and commanded once again.


    ¡°Heal me. That is an order from your master.¡±


    His command was stronger this time that Gerard was unable to refuse.


    ¡°O Great One of the Fire, burn away disease and spark life into the injured.¡±


    A scarlet light appeared on Azzard¡¯s wounds and eventually the wounds stop bleeding. Azzard touched his wounds and was glad that they had stopped bleeding. He refused to die in a pool of his blood so he commanded Gerard to close his wounds even though he knew it was futile. It was regretful that the world will perish in 10 years but nothing could be done about it now. Azzard was already welcoming death when an idea lit up in his mind. He saw the blood gushing out from the Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent. Since the beast had a huge body, there would still be quite the amount of blood that remained in its body.


    Azzard was now near the beast and he invoked a spell.


    ¡®Mysterious Elements of Darkness, take what does not belong to bring forth to me.¡±


    The blood of the beast came from its body and was flowing through the air towards Azzard. It entered through a slit on his wrist that he made just before the spell. His body was continuously being supplied with new volumes of blood.


    As to how Azzard knew this spell, Brogart taught it to him. Brogart didn¡¯t leave him with one Darkness type magic spell but two. The reason why he couldn¡¯t practice the second spell was that it was a spell that was only used when one¡¯s life was bordering death. It allowed the spell user to take the strength of one person to make it his own. For example, if a Darkness type magician was dying due to old age, he can use the spell to replace his old body with the body of a young man. The life force of the young man will be transferred to the old magician and that young man will die to let the old magician live.


    It was the same thing for Azzard. He was dying of blood loss and was in dire need of blood. He activated the spell so that the blood of the Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent would replace the blood that he had lost.


    Just before his heart stopped beating due to lacking blood, a new vigor arose from his heart when it came into contact with the beast¡¯s blood. It pumped faster than it normally should and Azzard¡¯s life was saved from Death¡¯s hands.


    Extreme relief came over Azzard to know that he was still alive because he knew the complications of the spell he had just used, New Life Spell. It had less than 5% percent of being successful since compatibility was required. He was afraid that the spell wouldn¡¯t wprk since it was beast¡¯s blood and not human but luckily the spell did work or so Azzard thought.


    An extreme pain came from his chest. It was his heart, the rapid beating it was performing did not stop. Afterwards, Azzard felt a burning pain throughout his body. It was too much pain for a human to endure. His brain¡¯s defensive action towards it was to shut down. Azzard fainted.

 Day 12- Transformation

    Before Azzard fainted, he thought that the Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent¡¯s blood was not compatible with his body. He thought that his body was rejecting the beast¡¯s blood; the reason for the excruciating pain he felt just moments after the beast¡¯s blood entering his body. He thought that his body was deteriorating and that death was coming for him. But the truth was far from what Azzard initially presumed.


    The pain that he felt was a signal that change was currently occurring in his body. The blood of the beast was changing his body¡¯s composition and structure. His skin grew harder like the scales of the Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent. His muscles tore apart and reformed, greatly enhancing its own strength and volume. His height also increased from 1.78 meters to 1.94 meters. Even his hair was affected, it grew longer. It was a total transformation of the body. All of this happened while Azzard was laying on the ground and oblivious to the change that was happening to his body.


    Azzard remained asleep until he regained his consciousness two days after the battle with the beast. When he woke up, he noticed that the corpse of the magical beast was already dried up, only skin and bones remained.


    ¡°Why am I still alive?¡±


    ¡°The blood of the Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent saved your life,¡± Gerard responded.


    ¡°Master. Not only did it saved your life, it even strengthened your body. Your body became stronger than it was before. Your skin is as hard as the scales of the Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent. You also have its strength.¡±


    After Gerard spoke telepathically, Azzard was now aware. He was aware that he had become taller and his muscles had become bigger. The clothes he was wearing had become too tight for him that it was ripped at some places. Gerard was only able to observe the physical changes of Azzard¡¯s body. He was not able to discern the improvements to Azzard¡¯s mana pool. What was already a pool of mana had become an ocean of mana.


    Azzard was speechless.¡± How could such a thing happen?¡± He asked himself. It was the first time something like that occurred since the past attempts were failures. Azzard was also the only one to use the spell on a magical beast. What was originally the constitution of the Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent had become his through the New Life Spell. He had become in essence a Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent.


    A sudden realization came forth in Azzard¡¯s mind. If he had the constitution of a Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent, he should know all of its abilities and be capable of using them. But he was a complete novice regarding the abilities of magical beasts. With no one else to turn to, he asked Gerard.


    ¡°What are the abilities of a Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid that I do not know much about that magical beast since I am only a sentient weapon that remained dormant for most of its life. But I do know that it is able to invoke Darkness type magic without incantation.¡±


    Azzard started to cast the Conceal Spell without an incantation. He was successful as dark elements covered and enveloped his body. This was truly a blessing for Azzard. Magicians that knew how to cast spells without chanting were very few. But the problem was that Azzard only had two Darkness magic type spells in his arsenal. If he were to compete against another magician in terms of magical knowledge then he would lose without a doubt. Azzard could only sigh at the sudden development in his life. He now has the opportunity to become a Grand King Magister in Darkness magic because of the blood of the Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent. But only if he gains knowledge in Darkness type magic. Azzard sighed once more at the thought.


    The next few days passed by without a hitch to Azzard¡¯s daily life. He continued with his physical training. It was pointless though now that his strength was comparable to a magical beast. The elite knights could only dream of achieving that kind of strength. Azzard¡¯s strength was in fact already super human. He could easily defeat the elite knights of the Bradford Empire just with brute force. He could also easily fight against the other races of this world.


    After his training, he didn¡¯t bother to practice Darkness type magic. He went inside the cave and changed out of his dirty clothes. He sat on the ground and closed his eyes. Pure concentration was etched into his face as he was gathering mana from around him. The rate at which mana was flowing into Azzard¡¯s mana pool was astounding. It was like water gushing out from a dam. Most of the mana that was collected were of the Darkness type. Large amount of mana remained unusable for Azzard.


    ¡°Master, you have improved.¡±


    ¡°Thank you Gerard but it was all due to luck. If only I could gain knowledge of all Darkness spells¡­¡±


    ¡°Do not fret, Master. There will be surely an opportunity for you to become a Grand King Magister. It¡¯s only a matter of time.¡±


    As he heard Gerard¡¯s encouragement, Azzard¡¯s troubled thoughts became non-existent.


    ¡°Right, if I already possess a large mana pool and strength that is unsurpassable by other humans and races, I can become a Grand King Magister in due time¡±, Azzard asserted his own thoughts.


    Three days after.


    Azzard removed himself from the Mountains of Skotadi and was currently on a journey back to Viashna and Darshee¡¯s village. He never forgot about his promise with the sisters and that was to take revenge against those who opposed them of meeting with the Emperor of the Bradford Empire. Azzard was no saint but he wasn¡¯t irrational as well. He didn¡¯t take certain things such as oppression and abuse well. If you would treat Azzard and his friends badly, you would receive the same treatment from him. He didn¡¯t want to become a pushover who would silently endure the disgusting treatment of others.


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    When Azzard was near the village, he immediately sensed that something was wrong. It was already midday but he could not see any villagers moving about. It was particularly unusual since by that time every single one of the villagers should have woken up. He entered the village gates with vigilance. He scanned his surroundings and noticed that most of the belongings of the villagers were still inside their rundown homes. It was like they had been kidnapped because if everyone moved from the village in search of better places to live, they would still have to bring some of their belongings.


    Azzard saw drag marks on the ground and followed it as all of the drag marks were heading for the village center. Like an investigator, Azzard looked for clues as to what happened there.


    ¡°It seems as if everyone from the village were forcefully gathered here. Why would that be?¡±


    ¡°Master, they could have all been abducted and killed by a group of bandits.¡±


    Azzard refused to acknowledge this possibility because he still hoped that Viashna and Darshee were still alive. They were his only friends and to know that they were already dead would be heart breaking for Azzard. He didn¡¯t want them to be dead because they were still young and had yet to enjoy life


    ¡°I¡¯m sure they''re still alive.¡±


    Acknowledging that the village center was a dead end for clues, he decided to go to the house of the Biafyndar sisters to look for more clues. Just as he had expected it was empty, devoid of any life. Or so he thought. By the corner, a body was curled, arms holding tightly around their knees. One look at the person and you could easily see the fear in the person¡¯s body. Azzard called out to the person in a soft and gentle voice.


    ¡°Viashna?¡±


    The person stirred the moment she heard the voice of Azzard. She looked up and what you could see was a terrified face. Blood shot eyes were currently in trend for that person.


    ¡°Azzard?¡±


    Azzard had called out to the wrong person. Apparently, it was Darshee. She was the person who looked so terrified and was curled into a ball by the corner of the house. It took her a couple of moments to recognize that the man in front him was Azzard. He had changed so much that he didn¡¯t seem like he was the same person before. But Darshee knew his voice and that¡¯s all it took for her to stand up and hug Azzard.


    Azzard was taken by surprise but immediately recovered. He wrapped his big arms around her frail body. Once that happened, all the pent up feelings flowed like a river and she was crying once again.


    ¡°Viashna ¡­ she ¡­. and ¡­ the villagers¡­ were¡­ taken¡­. by¡­. knights¡±


    Darshee had to convey her message in between her sobs.


    ¡°We¡¯ll talk later after you¡¯ve calmed down a bit.¡±


    Darshee nodded to that and they sat on the chairs by the kitchen. It took her awhile to calm down but Azzard remained patient. He knew what she needed the most right now and that was comfort. While she cried, Azzard patted her back to comfort her.


    ¡°What happened?¡±, Azzard asked.


    ¡°A platoon of knights visited our village yesterday. All of us thought that they were here to conduct military training like what they do during the course of the year. We even welcomed them and showed them our hospitality.¡±


    ¡°But what we didn¡¯t know was that they were here to punish the village. So they grabbed every single one of the villagers: men, women, children and the elderly. They put the villagers in carriages and brought them away.¡±


    ¡°Who were these knights?¡±, Azzard inquired.


    ¡°They were the elite knights of the Bradford Empire. They were carrying with them the flag of the Empire.¡±


    Hearing this, Azzard¡¯s anger reached a whole new level. His hate for the Bradford Empire increased to the point where he sees the Bradford Empire as an enemy. While Azzard was feeling angry, Darshee was feeling sad and hopeless. Her sister, Viashna, was taken amongst the villagers and only she was left behind because she was able to hide herself well. Viashna also used herself as a distraction so that the knights would not notice Darshee hiding in their house. Darshee knew that they could do nothing to save them since they didn¡¯t have any power/


    ¡°Come on.¡± Azzard suddenly said as he held out his right hand for Darshee to hold.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Just hold my hand. We¡¯re going somewhere.¡±


    ¡°And where might that be?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re going to save Viashna and the villagers.¡±

 Day 13- Hugh Falconair

    On a rugged road, a platoon of knights were escorting twenty-five carriages. Seeing this caravan being heavily guarded by knights, a group of a hundred bandits had initially planned to attack the caravan since they believed that the carriages most likely held certain treasures. But upon seeing the emblem that was brandished unto the armours of the knights, the bandits got frightened and departed the place as fast as they could. The bandits were a small force that was controlled by the infamous Beel Group. Even though they had powerful backers behind them, they weren¡¯t foolish enough to fight against the elite knights of the Bradford Empire. It was common knowledge that a single elite knight could easily dispose of fifteen men and knowing that it was a whole platoon of knights, the bandits made the right decision to flee.


    ¡°Halt!!¡±


    A loud voice abruptly announced to the platoon of elite knights to stop in their tracks. In an orderly fashion, the elite knights who were directly behind their leader stopped in succession.


    ¡°We will make camp here. Proceed to deal with the preparations and secure the perimeter.¡±


    The elite knights saluted and in groups went do the things they were told. One of group elite knights was tasked with securing the perimeter while another was to prepare the meal. These elite knights would always follow the command of their leader no matter how foolish the command would be. They were trained to never question a command by a direct superior. While these elite knights would seem to be merely following orders due to their training, there was another factor that increased the discipline of the knights. Their leader, Captain-General Hugh Falconair, was an established elite knight of the Bradford Empire. He was regarded as a hero to the masses because of his contributions to the empire.


    Apparently, Hugh Falconair had huge contributions to the empire, enough for him to be granted a title of nobility but due to his character he refused the offer and remained a servant to the empire. This action won the hearts of many especially the commoners. They saw Hugh Falconair as a man who was benevolent, brave and extremely gallant. But that was only the outside. People were oblivious to the true nature of Captain-General Hugh Falconair. In actuality, the man was a sadistic person. He loved torturing criminals and outcasts. The real reason why he denied to receive a title of nobility was that he didn¡¯t want to be over showered with political tasks. He wanted to remain in the military so that he can continue with sickening acts. To the elite knights under his command, they saw that his acts were justifiable since the people at the receiving end were not good men. As they saw it, their leader was enforcing an act of justice, they nobly believed that such as acts were morally accepted like what they were currently doing.


    They had abducted an entire village of non-humans as a form of punishment for the villagers. According to Hugh Falconair, the villagers were allies with the Beel Group and that they had to be incarcerated to prevent anything bad happening to the Bradford Empire. The elite knights believed  the lies of their leader and dutifully followed his orders.


    Now why would an elite knight of high position go all out just to capture and imprison a bunch of weak villagers? The answer was simple; Hugh Falconair extremely hated non-human races. The reason why he was able to locate such a village was that a couple months ago he witnessed a disturbance in the capital, the palace of the Emperor. He saw three people, one male and two females, making a ruckus at the gates of the palace. From what he could hear, he was able to determine their goal. He understood that the trio had wanted an audience with the Emperor. They wanted aid for their village.


    Things like these didn¡¯t naturally occur, however; it wasn¡¯t that unusual as well. Hugh knew that there were numerous villages that needed the help of the empire but he knew that it was futile to ask the Emperor since the current Emperor was not a kind person. Emperor Hale Flameheart was the second son of the late Emperor Jack Flameheart. Usually the throne would be passed on to the first born son but things didn¡¯t go according to plan. The first son of the late Emperor Jack Flameheart was assassinated during one of his trips to another country. He was killed by the Beel Group as an act of terror for the Bradford Empire but the truth was that it was the current Emperor who conspired the assassination. Emperor Hale Flameheart desired for power and he knew that it was a far-off dream if his brother was still alive. So he paid a generous amount to someone to assassinate the prince and that someone happened to be Hugh.


    Hugh accepted the job because he was afraid of Emperor Hale. Unluckily for him, he was caught by the current Emperor torturing criminals, even the criminals who had light offences such as stealing. Hugh didn¡¯t discriminate the criminals in terms of age, gender or their criminal act. He just went and tortured them all because he took pleasure in hearing the painful screams of the criminals. Emperor Hale got hold of evidence for his acts and used it against him to force him to accept the job. If he hadn¡¯t done so then he would have been the one at the receiving end of torture since what he had done was breaking the laws set by the empire.


    He accepted the job and accompanied the first son of Emperor Jack, Gale Flameheart. Hugh travelled with him as his escort. With an opportunity presenting itself, Hugh took the life of Gale without alerting the rest of knights. He then proceeded to kill the rest of the group, all the nobles, knights and servants so that the truth would remain hidden. He hired bandits to dispose of the body and afterwards some were to act as knights. He brought with him the bandits and reported the details of the event.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    The whole empire knew of the death of Gale Flameheart. They were told that Gale died by the hands of the Beel Group and that Captain-General Hugh Falconair did all he could to protect the first son of the Emperor but failed to do so. He was gravely injured but they managed to fend off their attackers but when he assessed the health of the people around him, he found out that the first son of the Emperor had been stabbed in the heart. That was the story that was officially circulated amongst the citizens of the Bradford Empire but he knew and the current Emperor knew that it was all false. This secret would never be released and would be kept by him and the Emperor Hale Flameheart to their graves.


    Back to the issue at hand, Hugh saw these meddling trio and wanted to punish them for the disturbing the peace of the palace. But before he could do so the situation was dealt with and the trio left. He approached the knights who were stationed at the gates and asked about what happened.


    ¡°I heard a disturbance at the gates. Report to me the details of what happened.¡±


    When they saw the Captain-General, they saluted and immediately reported what happened to him.


    ¡°Captain-General, there were three people who wanted to speak with the Emperor but we told them that it was impossible for them to do so. They wanted help to be rendered to their village. We initially asked them to leave quietly but they were stubborn and we had to act accordingly. So we teached them a lesson and they backed away. That is all.¡±


    ¡°I see. From which village did they come from?¡±


    ¡°Sir, I believe they came from Ravenmount village.¡±


    Upon hearing this, the anger in Hugh¡¯s body boiled. He was aware of what happened in that village. The non-humans poisoned and made the human children sick. This event made his hate for non-humans grow.


    ¡°So a bunch of non-humans had the nerve of coming to the palace to cause a ruckus. They don¡¯t deserve the help of the empire at all. With what happened to day, I think it¡¯s time that due punishment must be given to Ravenmount Village.¡± Hugh muttered as he went back to his quarters.


    So that¡¯s how it happened. The story behind a platoon of knights capturing the villagers of Ravenmount Village. In truth, Hugh couldn¡¯t imprison the villagers. He didn¡¯t have the authority nor the evidence to do so. With that in mind, he planned to do something else. They would tie the villagers up and bring them into the deepest parts of the Mountains of Skotadi where they will be attacked and eaten by the terrifying magical beast that lurked in those forests. And they were just a day¡¯s travel away from the foot of the Mountains of Skotadi. Judging from their speed of travel, they can return to the capital city of the Bradford Empire in four days time. They had been done for five days already and had to return within twelve days. Hugh had informed the military that he was bringing his men to train. The military leaders had already enforced a procedure that training will only last for twelve days at a single time since the Bradford Empire was currently under constant threat of invasion from surrounding countries that held enmity towards the empire. With this procedure, it ensures that the military power of the Bradford Empire would not go down in times of war.


    The knights had finished up their preparations. Hugh was called by his subordinate to join them in their meal. He went out and ate with the elite knights. After finishing their meal, the leftovers were given to the villagers and were served on the floor of the carriages. This made the villagers feel like they were animals and they refused to go as low as to eat leftover food on the floor just to satiate their hunger. They had to protect their dignity.


    Viashna was among the villagers that were tied up inside carriages. She felt despair knowing that this would not end well. She was aware that the elite knights had planned something sinister that would lead to the deaths of all the villagers. Viashna was afraid of death just like the rest of the villagers. She could see a beast woman comfort her child telling her that everything was okay. The elderly were already looking as if they were already dead. They had no life in their eyes so did the rest of the villagers. It was truly unfortunate for them to encounter such a thing in their lives. They could only hope that someone would rescue them. She thought of Azzard at that moment but knew that it was a farfetched idea. In her eyes, Azzard was brave and good person but she was fully aware of Azzard¡¯s strength. He couldn¡¯t possibly fight against the elite knights of the Bradford Empire. Knowing that it was hopeless for them, she could only hope for Darshee to be well.


    She was successful in hiding Darshee in their home. Although she was captured and was feeling negative about her situation, she still had something that could make her happy and that was knowing that Darshee was in a safer situation than she was. She hoped that Darshee would be able to protect herself until Azzard came back because Viashna knew that he would coming back.


    The night went on and Viashna was feeling sleepy. Just as she was about to fall asleep, she heard loud voices from outside.


    ¡°We¡¯re under attack!!!¡±, an elite knight was able to alert his companions just before he was slain by a sword pierced through his back.

 Day 14- Rescue Mission

    Hugh heard loud noises outside his tent. Right at that instant, he knew there was something bad happening. He racked his brains and thought of different scenarios that lead to the loud screaming that can be heard from outside. Hugh hypothesized that a magical beast had come to attack their camp but immediately dismissed the idea since there were no magical beasts in those forests. Dismissing his thoughts, he went outside of his tent to assess the situation.


    The camp was literally immersed in blood and gore. There were blood stains on the tents of the elite knights. Decapitated heads of the elite knights were seen to be rolling on uneven ground.


    When Hugh Falconair came out of his tent, the surviving knights immediately gathered around him in a semicircle formation in order to protect him. An elite knight beside him promptly reported to Hugh, addressing the situation in the camp.


    ¡°Sir, we have not identified the attacker but we believe that it may only be one.¡±


    Hearing that it was only one attacker, Hugh was angered.


    ¡°If it¡¯s just one attacker then why aren¡¯t you able to deal with it?!¡±


    The elite knight paid no mind to their commander¡¯s anger and directly answered.


    ¡°It seems that it knows a certain type of magic that enables it to be invisible.¡±


    ¡°Invisible? What kind of magic is that?¡±


    ¡°We don¡¯t know but that type of magic resembles the ability of some magical beast to hide and remain invisible in darkness.¡±


    ¡°So are you saying that it¡¯s a magical beast?¡±, Hugh asked.


    ¡°I¡¯m not cert---¡±


    Before the elite knight could finish his sentence, they were interrupted by a disturbance. The elite knights that surrounded them were engaged in a battle with an invisible foe. Since the elite knights were not accustomed to such an enemy, it was clear that they had the disadvantage. The elite knights were not able to land a hit against their enemy. When they attacked at their enemy, they could only hit the air. They were wasting their energy so it was understandable that some died since they couldn¡¯t defend themselves from the attack.


    Limbs were flying off from their respective bodies and chests were stabbed by swords. The situation had rapidly escalated. Only twenty elite knights remained out of the hundred that Hugh brought with him. Hugh knew that he was going to receive severe repercussions for losing that many elite knights. The Bradford Empire would not easily forgive him even though he was regarded as their hero.


    ¡°Come on men. You are better than that. We are fighting against one single enemy but we¡¯re losing. Show me what it really is to be an elite knight of the Bradford Empire.¡±


    Hugh encouraged and tried to increase the moral of the remaining elite knights but it was futile. An invisible enemy was quite the foe. The enemy was also agile in his movements because once it strikes someone, it immediately moved before an elite knight could strike it.


    Back in the carriages, the villagers were worrying for their lives. They understood that the camp was under attack by an enemy and that enemy could possibly kill them as well. Most of the villagers lost hope especially the ones without families, they were just silently waiting for death to arrive but it would not turn out as they thought.


    The carriage that Viashna was in was suddenly opened by an external force. Fearing that it was the enemy, she let out a yelp as the door banged against the outside walls of the carriage.


    ¡°Viashna?¡±


    A female voice called out to her and she immediately recognized the voice. It was Darshee¡¯s voice. She was happy to hear her voice once again because she already accepted that they would not be able to meet again until the afterlife. But her happiness was instantly replaced with worry. She went out and pulled her sister in the carriage.


    ¡°Why are you here? You shouldn¡¯t have come to save me. I was already happy with how the things were. You were supposed to save yourself. Now we¡¯re both going to die because the camp is under attack.¡±


    Tears poured across Viashna¡¯s cheeks and once they did, Darshee brushed her hands against Viashna¡¯s cheeks and wiped them off.


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry sis. All the villagers will be saved. The one attacking the elite knights is Azzard. I accompanied him to save you guys.¡±


    ¡°Azzard?¡±, Viashna asked.


    ¡°Yes, Azzard. He came back and he saw me inside the house. I told him what happened and he decided to conduct a rescue mission.¡±


    ¡°Just him alone? He isn¡¯t strong enough to compete against the elite knights of the Bradford Empire. Everyone knows that the elite knights are the very strong.¡±


    Darshee reassured her worrying sister. ¡°I told you not to worry sis. Azzard has his ways. I saw it myself and I thought that we might just have a chance to pull off this mission.¡±


    ¡°Let¡¯s talk later. First things first. We have to free the rest of the villagers. We don¡¯t have much time.¡± Darshee informed her sister.


    And so the newly freed villagers went to free their companions. After everyone was freed, they ran away from the camp and gathered at another place.


    ----------------


    Thirty minutes passed and what remained of the platoon of elite knights was their commander. Hugh was in a defensive stance as he held his longsword with both hands. He would tune in to the sound of footsteps and was able to block the attacks of his enemy. He was not the Captain-General for nothing. Hugh was extremely skilled at fighting and was quick to adapt to his situation.


    The fight entered a stalemate. Hugh could tell that his opponent lacked battle experience. He could predict the direction of the attack. Most of the time his head and chest were targeted so he took this into account and was able to keep himself alive. He also believed that his opponent was a human or something like that, he knew it was not a magical beast since magical beasts didn¡¯t attack like how his enemy was attacking.


    Hugh blocked another attack with his sword and he could feel his stamina going down. But he wasn¡¯t afraid since he also knew that his enemy was quite tired as well. He just had to wait for the right opportunity to launch a counterattack that would instantly kill his opponent.


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Hearing footsteps behind him, Hugh prepared himself to launch a counterattack. He faced his invisible opponent and moved slightly to his left. He allowed the attack to hit his side so that he can also strike back at his enemy. A strong blow struck against his ribs and Hugh could hear his ribs cracking. He had not expected that the attack would be so strong but it didn¡¯t stop him to raise his sword and strike at the area where he thought his enemy would be.


    Slash. Blood squirted from the place where the sword had struck against.


    ¡°Ughh.¡±


    Azzard felt pain on his shoulder. The sword had penetrated at least 5 inches of his flesh but he was lucky that his entire left arm was still attached to his body. His skin was already hard like the scales of the Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent but to say that it was impenetrable would be a joke. If Azzard were to be hit by something, he would still feel pain and be wounded. His body was strong but it wasn¡¯t impenetrable.


    Hugh became ecstatic as his sword was able to hit his opponent. Although he initially expected to defeat his opponent with one strike. He hadn¡¯t expected the opponent¡¯s skin to be as tough as steel. He had poured every inch of his strength in that one attack only to cause a wound that was from being fatal.


    ¡°I think it¡¯s going to take a lot more than a single strike to defeat this enemy.¡±


    Hugh was not disappointed at all with the failure of his counterattack because when his sword struck against the enemy¡¯s flesh, the magic that originally made the his opponent invisible disappeared. He saw a tall, muscular young man that had hair up to his shoulders.


    ¡°So you¡¯re the one who killed all of my companions. I commend you for the strength you have shown but I must say that now I am able to see you, you won¡¯t have the advantage of this fight any longer.¡±


    Hugh driven by adrenaline rushed forward and swung his sword vertically at his opponent. Azzard dodged the attack by rolling on the ground. But it was not the end of the barrage of attacks that Hugh was doing.


    He swung left and right, up and down. He also slashed horizontally with his sword but he wasn¡¯t able to draw blood from his opponent.


    Azzard spent every energy he had in dodging. Azzard tried to use the Conceal Spell again but when he did so it nothing happened. He must have spent most of his mana in to using the spell. So he was left with only his superior strength and agility to keep his life intact.


    Hugh became impressed at the fact that his opponent was able to dodge the numerous attacks. Hugh already became aware of the strength of his opponent and he believed that his opponent will go down at any moment.


    It was now a battle between the endurance and stamina of the two men. The one who tires out faster will lose the battle. And it was Azzard.


    Fighting against a hundred men was not an easy task even though he was invisible and had a huge advantage against his enemies. It sapped away his energy and with the battle against the last opponent, fatigue showed on Azzard¡¯s face as he breathed heavily.


    ¡°It seems that I won. You no longer have the strength to continue this battle.¡±


    Hugh became confident and ran towards his opponent. Azzard immediately jumped back but he was reckless and he lost his footing. Seeing this opportunity, Hugh swung his sword as Azzard stood back up again.


    The sword struck against Azzard¡¯s side and it penetrated deeper than the first time he was hit. Blood oozed out from his wound and he frantically dodged the remaining attacks that was heading for him but was unable to do so.


    Azzard was now lying on the ground facing at the sky above. He could not see a single star as the night sky was painted black.


    ¡°HAHAHAHA. It was an entertaining fight. You could have killed me if you hadn¡¯t lost the ability to become invisible. It was unfortunate for you to have met me. I am the strongest knight of the Bradford Empire. You held your ground but it was enough. Now, I¡¯ll send you to the afterlife.¡±


    Hugh held his sword and stabbed towards Azzard¡¯s heart. Seeing this, Azzard remained still as if he had already accepted his lost. Azzard could no longer move so this may really be the end for him.


    ¡°Master, don¡¯t give up.¡±, Gerard told him telepathically.


    ¡°You can still live. With my remaining power, I can launch a huge fireball that will eliminate the enemy.¡±


    ¡°Do it!¡± Azzard commanded.


    So a large fireball formed in front of Azzard and enveloped the body of Hugh.


    ¡°NO!!!!¡±


    That was Hugh¡¯s last word before he was incinerated by the tremendous heat.


    Azzard was lucky to be alive and as usual it was Gerard who had saved him.


    ¡°Thank you Gerard.¡±


    Azzard spoke telepathically but heard no response so he called out again.


    ¡°Gerard?¡±


    No response. Azzard was alarmed so he grabbed the pendant that was hanging by his neck. He saw that the pendant had broken apart. He tried imbuing it with mana to try and fix it because most magical items were fixed with mana. Nothing happened and the pendant remained broken in his hands.


    ¡°What happened?¡± Azzard asked himself that question.


    Azzard was suddenly reminded of the words that Gerard spoke. ¡°With my remaining power¡± How could he have not noticed. Gerard spoke those words to inform him that the fireball would use up the rest of his power but he was not able to understand. If he did, he would¡¯ve stopped Gerard from using the spell. But if he had done so, he would¡¯ve lost his life. Gerard already mentioned before that his power was weakening so he was not able to help Azzard during the fight with the Four-Armed Dream Eater Serpent.


    ¡°Gerard. Thank you.¡± Azzard said those words as he held the pendant in his right hand. He just accepted the fact that the Gerard was already done. He made it his motivation to strive harder in becoming a Grand King Magister.


    Azzard pressed against his wounds to stop its bleeding and he proceeded to head off from the camp.