Emma watched the battle from the window of a nearby building. When she heard there would be fighting, she rushed to the area, preparing to heal people. But that was before she saw the blood and gore and battle, and her heart seized up. Now, her eyes were glued to Raul. He looked like… an animal, ramming into soldiers’ shields with his shoulder, slamming their faces with his hilv, smashing them with the butt of his axe. His speed was twice as fast as the sycounts around him, and he looked like a bolt of lightning, weaving through the crowd at high speed, laying waste to everyone. If he decided to kill them, it would be a massacre, and Emma feared that at any moment—he might.

Emma’s heart wrenched as she analyzed Raul’s unstable magical aura. He needs to release it… she thought with teary eyes. If he doesn’t…. His mana core was like a furnace stuck inside a pressure cooker, and his body was leaking mana through his pores. If he didn’t release that mana, his core could explode. But he didn’t know how. He wasn’t ready… for that axe. If he was ever going to be ready.

Why…? Emma thought, wondering what Sara was thinking. Why would you give that to him?

The axe just looked ominous, releasing red smoke that left chem trails as he swung it. Yet people didn’t understand the half of it. That axe… was evil. It ate blood….

No. Emma was just being dramatic. It wasn’t eating blood. It was more like boiling it, extracting the processed mana, and allowing it to be absorbed directly. But that energy was flowing directly from the hilv into Raul’s hands, flooding his body as if he were a vampire. It seemed like a weapon with intense power and potentially devastating drawbacks, but right now, Raul wasn’t ready to wield it. If he didn’t release that pressure, it would shatter his core. It was likely excruciating, and she felt at any moment, he would snap and release a massive blast that killed dozens just to prevent himself from bursting.

Raul took a deep breath, tasting the ash and smoke on the battlefield. Suddenly, a soldier flew out of the smoke to strike him. Raul lifted his hilv, and the blade hit between his two hands, letting out a metallic clang. Then he push-kicked the man’s chest, sending him flying into a group of soldiers. Without pausing, Raul slammed a soldier with the top of his axe and then dodged to prevent a strike.

They were slow. So slow. It was as if he had reached a rift in time where he could move faster than everyone else and was preemptively striking. It was thrilling—yet he couldn’t enjoy it. His body was a furnace, and he had so much energy that it was painful. Crumpling soldiers’ breastplates, push-kicking, blocking, and slashing all felt terrifyingly cathartic, as if violence was an insatiable itch that he needed to scratch to gain relief. He needed to use magic, but if he did, dozens of people would die—friend and foe.

What the fuck did you give me? Raul thought, looking at the axe he’d later come to know as Halkon’s Executioner. The runes and lines were once dim; now, they looked like the glow of a game controller, clearly visible yet somehow able to blend into the background. It was ominous, yet he didn’t drop it. Sara gave it to him for a reason, and he needed to abide by her judgment—

—or maybe that was just an excuse to keep it. Either way, whatever it was doing, it wasn’t intoxicating. It didn’t make him angry or throw him into the pits of lunacy. Yet it did cloud the shit out of his mind because it was so fucking painful that he wanted to release his full power just to ease the strain.

No, he should drop it and use his hands. That was the rational thing to do because if he continued at this rate—

“Arrows!” a rebel yelled.

Raul’s eyes widened, and he looked up just in time to see archers sending a hail of arrows from above. He immediately shot forward and grabbed a random soldier with his left hand, using them as a shield. Five thuds hit the soldier’s body, and an arrowhead exited below the man’s shoulder blade, spraying Raul with blood.

Raul took sharp breaths and looked around. Many of the rebels had been stuck, but a dozen of the enemy soldiers were bleeding out beside them. “You killed your own soldiers? You really killed your own soldiers!” In a fit of rage, he threw the corpse in his hand at the archers. The corpse hit a wood railing, causing it to snap as the body continued forward, slamming into an archer and killing her.

“Shut up, traitor!” A sycount flew into the fray with a horizontal slash. Raul blocked with his hilv, then swung it at the woman for a strike. The sycount pulled back, thrusting out her sword. Raul jumped backward but bumped into a soldier, killing his momentum. The sycount’s sword flew forward, puncturing through his armor and hitting his body-tempering skin and muscles. It still broke the first layer, making him scream out in pain. Instinctively, he grabbed the blade from the top and pulled it back, yanking it from her hand and then butting her in the forehead with her own sword handle.

They backed away cautiously, avoiding soldiers as they circled one another.

“I hate traitors,” she said, “but you ‘heroes’ are the worst of the lot. You’ve been given everything. Noble status. Wealth. Power. Everything we dream of. Yet you’re protesting, moping, and destroying everything just because you didn’t get your way. It’s disgusting.”

Intense pain and energy flowed through Raul. He didn’t hate her for her beliefs, but the pain made his patience run thin. “They’ve given us everything?” He chuckled and gripped his axe even tighter, thick webs of veins jutting up his arms. Then he released a tidal wave of magical pressure that stopped the fight, sending the weaker soldiers to their knees and making the sycount wince and back away. “Is that what you all think?” He took a step toward her. “King Escar stole everything from us. Our families. Our friends. Our peaceful world. And what do we get in return?” He took another step forward, whisps of red energy seeping out of the axe like miasma, surrounding his body in a crimson haze.

The woman’s eyes trembled as he approached. “W-What—“

“A death sentence!” Raul yelled. “You turned us into this! You’ve ripped us apart! And you’ve locked us up for it!” He stopped in front of her. “I don’t give a fuck about your power and prestige, he said, lifting his glowing axe high. “Give me my fucking friend back!”

Raul slammed the blade to the ground. It shook the earth with the crack and boom of thunder, shattering the clay under the dirt. A crevasse spread across the garden, splitting the battlefield in half before slamming into a castle pillar. Rubble fell from the castle’s wing, making it groan and threaten to collapse.

Jason ran through castle corridors with Mary, his heart pounding from a massive explosion that rocked the building. There was an insurrection, and people were fighting out in the courtyard. As they approached, soldiers flooded within the halls, pushing past them. A few saw Jason and froze, blood draining from their faces as they turned away.

“H-Hero!”

Jason looked at the terrified soldier with wide eyes. “What?”

“P-Please don’t kill me! We surrender!”

Jason’s chest welled with rage. Don’t kill me? I surrender? Why the fuck were people treating him like a murderer? He hadn’t killed anyone! He had attacked someone unfairly, sure. That wasn’t cool on his part, and he’d admit to that and bear the hate. But this? Fear at sight? It was unbelievable!

Mary took a step forward. “What’s happening out there?”If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“W-What?”

Mary wrapped her hands around the soldier’s cheeks like a seductive whore, and she spoke clearly. “Are you a rebel?”

“I-I….”

“So you are?” Mary asked, lowering her right hand, tracing her thigh to her dagger, unsheathing it slowly. “Because if you are, I’ll kill you.”

“Mary!” Jason yelled. “We’re not—“

“Shut up!” Mary snapped back, then grabbed the man by the cheeks. “Are you part of the insurrection?”

“N-No!” he yelled.

“Good,” Mary said, pushing him away. “Then you’re not our enemy. Now tell us what’s happening.”

“A-Another hero. He’s out there. We went there to stop him, but….”

“Who?” Jason yelled.

Mary pushed him away. “You’re not helping, psycho boy! Stop scaring him!”

“You just fucking threatened him!”

“I got him to speak! Now shut the fuck up.” Mary turned to the soldier. “Who?”

“L-Lord Martinez.”

Jason’s vision blurred. Raul? His friend Raul? The man who was so level-headed? Did Sara corrupt his soul so bad that he’d turn into a traitor? He didn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe it. Without warning, he rushed past the pleading soldiers, moving as fast as his legs could take him.

“Jason! Take this!”

Jason turned and caught something. It was an obsidian stone. “Wait… is this?”

“It’s an amplification stone,” Mary said. “You might need it.”

Jason gripped the stone. He didn’t want to accept Mary. She had just slapped her servant for being late with info on the insurrection, was sleeping with guards and heroes, and had just told a soldier that she—a hero—would kill them. She was maligning the name of the heroes, but… this world was cruel, and it felt like she was the only sane one when it counted. Now, she was helping him. That counted for something. “Thanks.”

Then Jason turned, rushing past terrified soldiers, running as fast as his legs could take him. If Raul was corrupted, he had to save him before it was too late.

Mary watched Jason leave with the amplification stone with a hardened expression. He clearly didn’t learn anything from their trip to Kent Forest—and she hoped that he didn’t have to.

Jason was too naive. Raul was far stronger than him, and despite her warnings to Roman Mournings and the other mages about the sketchy axe Sara gave him, they let him keep it anyway, claiming it was just fancy artwork. Yet they weren’t blind. Roman and the rest of the quacks were acting like Nazis, pretending it was insignificant while secretly watching, waiting to learn what it would do for the sake of research. They wanted it to be a murderous machine so they could use it to further their magical ambitions. Now, it was being used on the kingdom, and they’d have to bear that scar—

—but Mary wouldn’t. Sara was in chains, and she’d make sure she died. Raul needed to die, too, since he was also a threat, and she would ensure that at any cost.

Raul looked around the battlefield. It had been a few minutes since his attack, and most of the soldiers had fled. The rest had a broken will to fight, were petrified with fear, or looked at him apprehensively, unwilling to abandon their post but also not willing to throw their lives away. As for the sycount he was fighting, her eyes were glued to the trench that somehow split the battlefield without hitting a single soldier (yet still threatened to kill dozens from a collapsing building). If he didn’t alter the trajectory, her body would’ve exploded in a mess of gore.

“Listen to me!” Raul roared, panning the battlefield. “I am not your enemy, and I will not apologize for asking you to surrender!” His mind felt much clearer after releasing the built-up pressure. “You have no chance of winning, so step aside, and we’ll leave once we have what we came here for.”

Just as the soldiers tentatively nodded, agreeing to a cease-fire as the rebels brought lockboxes out of the treasury, Jason ran out of the crumbling building, sword in hand. Then he froze, standing at the edge of the courtyard, staring at the labyrinth of corpses. Limbs were strewn everywhere, dead bodies still smoldering in the wreckage. And when he looked at Raul, he found him smoking with crimson miasma. “No….” He made eye contact. “What have you done?”

Raul fell silent.

“You… murdered them,” Jason said. “You’re a murderer….”

“Murderer? I’m here to save my friend.” Raul said, looking at Jason’s sword. “What are you here to do? Mediate?”

Jason’s lip curled. “I’m doing my duty. The one we swore to uphold. Or have you forgotten?”

“I did no such thing,” Raul said. “I’d never swear an oath to protect people who kidnapped us.”

“Don’t twist this around, Raul. You were going to fight Agronus with the rest of us until Sara got locked up.”

“That’s right. I was. That was until I saw this.” Raul reached into his spatial ring and pulled out dozens of envelopes that had been delivered to his door that afternoon. “Sara exposed hundreds of crimes committed by nobles this week. Extortion, human trafficking, over-taxation, murder, assault, and other crimes. That’s why she got locked up. That’s why I’m protecting her. What the fuck are you doing, Jason? You’re here to slaughter people to protect their crimes.”

Jason’s eyes widened.

“This is why no one will see you as a hero, Jason,” Raul said. “A few friends and nobles? Sure. But the people never will. They’re grateful to the person protecting them.” He threw the letters at Jason’s feet.

Jason stood frozen, and for the first time, Raul thought that he might see reason. Jason had an ideal version of himself, and contrary to popular belief, narcissists don’t necessarily think of themselves as the best. Oftentimes, they latch onto others who represent their ideals, using their belief in others as a way of expressing their own inner image. That was Raul’s one chance.

“Join Sara,” Raul said. “Be a hero.”

Jason hesitantly stuck his sword into the soil and picked up one of the letters, exposing Mary hiding behind him. Her eyes flitted between Raul and Jason with disbelief in her eyes. She was furious. She wouldn’t be convinced. Raul had to find a way to deal with her without breaking Jason’s potential moment of redemption.

Jason stood back up and read the letter with trembling eyes. “Wait… is this true?”

“That’s a signature from a high noble on the bottom,” Raul said. “They’re all signed. If they weren’t, the kingdom wouldn’t be rioting.”

“I don’t believe this….” Jason mumbled.

Emma watched Jason with a bleeding heart, praying, wishing, and begging he would take Raul’s side. She didn’t care who was right anymore. She just wanted the fighting to stop. She hated fighting in general, and the thought of Raul and Jason killing each other was too much to bear. Please, Jason… Plea—

Emma’s eyes widened in horror when she saw Mary develop a small fireball that blended in with the flames, using Jason’s body to hide it. It was only the size of a baseball, but…. She looked at Jason and saw his body warping with intense energy that pushed out like amplified sound waves on a visualizer. He has an amplification stone…. Emma opened her mouth to scream, but she couldn’t. Instead, her body shook, and the day in Kent Forest, when Sara’s small fireball turned into a raging cyclone flashed across her mind. The way it exploded with mist… and from that mist, the web… it hit Titus… and—

“So?” Raul asked, snapping Emma back into the present.

Jason looked up. “If this is true—“

“What the fuck are you doing?” Raul yelled, jumping backward.

“Huh?” Jason jumped by reflex, and a small fireball shot forward, turning into a raging vortex as it passed him. By the time it reached Raul, it was a raging inferno that exploded on contact, setting the entire courtyard ablaze. Screams rang out in the orange-flickered darkness as dozens of soldiers and rebels who were watching on the sidelines burned alive. And the center… it was on fire….

Emma suddenly got her voice back. “Raul!”

Jason looked up at her from the ground, and his face turned white as a sheet.

“You’re here?” Mary screamed. Her body was trembling, creating a strange strobing effect in the flames, and her tone…. It felt as if Emma’s presence just ruined everything. “You’re a traitor too? I can’t believe it!” Mary lifted her hands.

“I-I….” Emma’s body seized. Witness. Witness-witness-witness. She killed Raul and Jason… witness…. Her mind haywired like a skipping record. Primal instinct was telling her to run, but she couldn’t move. It was like she was paralyzed.

PTSD. Emma didn’t want to admit it, but she had PTSD. She often thought about Brandon nearly killing her, the hangs…. Bodies. Nightmares. Emma started to hyperventilate.

“Put down the arrow!” Mary yelled, pointing at an invisible archer near Emma but not at her.

Psychopath. Kill. Witness, witness-witness-witness. Emma couldn't move. She was going to die. Raul…. Save me.

Suddenly, the flames shifted, and something shot out of the flames like a red lightning bolt. For a second, Emma watched the object stop. It was only for a split second, like when someone takes a picture on their phone, and they can see it still for a moment before the camera returns. It was just a snapshot—of Raul next to Mary, his body wrapped in red smoke, unharmed by the flames. Then the snapshot was over, and Raul slammed the back of his hilv into her neck.

Mary’s body shot across the courtyard like a meteorite, slamming into a stone wall and sending rocks tumbling down on her body.

“W-What just happened?” Emma stammered.

Suddenly, Raul shot forward and grabbed Jason by the neck. Then time stood still again as Raul choked him. The petrified soldiers and rebels in the courtyard (the few who hadn’t died or escaped) were now just gawking and trembling against the walls, shielding their eyes from the scorching flames. It was now clear that they, the heroes, were in a different league than everyone else. Fighting was pointless. If the heroes ganged up on the kingdom, the kingdom would fall. So they waited, the rebels watching their Hero fight—the kingdom’s soldiers waiting for their Hero’s sentence.

“Did you two just try to kill me?” Raul asked, squeezing Jason’s neck. “If so….” He chuckled ominously, and Emma’s blood ran cold.