“It is not yet your time.” A gentle voice radiated through the all encompassing darkness. Although it was gentle, the voice completely outshone the continuous thumping, making it seem miniscule and small. Almost microscopic by comparison.

  The rapid and heavy thumping slowly calmed down under the gentle embrace of that voice, and in the darkness, a light slowly emerged. Faint at first, but with every thump it grew bigger and brighter.

  It started off dim. Like a candle flickering in a heavy storm, seconds from being blown out. Then it grew bigger and pushed back the darkness. It first grew to the size of a campfire, then a raging inferno, before becoming a blazing star.

  Huh? Lucien felt like he had suddenly woken up from a daze. He didn’t know what was going on. It was like he had fallen asleep for a long time only to be suddenly awakened. His ears were ringing. His vision was blurry. And his entire body was in pain.

  He couldn’t make heads nor tails of where he was. For a moment, he couldn’t even remember what had happened. What’s going on? He tried to look around, but he couldn’t move his head, and what he could see was a complete mess.

  A blur of colours. Red, blue, brown, green. He didn’t know if he was looking at the sky, the trees, or the dirt. It was all just a mess. It’s like someone had smashed him over the head with a chair and completely knocked the lights out of him.

  While his vision was still trying to piece itself back together, memories started to filter in.

  That’s right. We were attacking the bandit camp, where is everyone?

  He remembered running through the forest with the others, scaling the wall, and getting encircled by them.

  Roddy!

  Images of Roddy being carried away over someone’s shoulder appeared next. Then he remembered escaping the encirclement and chasing after him, only to get knocked to the ground and dragged away.

  Adam. So that’s why I feel like this. Memories of the one-sided beatdown played through his mind in slow motion, as if to taunt him. He barely even put up much of a fight, and by the end he was just getting walloped without any chance to breathe.

  How am I alive? The pain was so unbearable that he wanted to die, but at the same time, it made him realise he was very much still alive.

  “----!” A muffled voice flowed into his ears, but he couldn’t make out what was being said. But he could tell that the voice sounded angry.

  There were other voices too. But they were so far away that he could barely even register that there was a sound. What’s going on?

  The voice was shouting, growing angrier and louder by the minute, but Lucien still couldn’t quite make out what was being said. Ah, my ears must be busted. No wonder I’m feeling like this.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  His head was a complete mess, but he was starting to make out something different with the voice. It didn’t just sound angry now, it sounded scared. Terrified even.

  The other voices were now even further away, then they disappeared completely and the shouting voice was left behind all on its own.

  Huh? Lucien’s vision slowly started to clear up a little, and after a few minutes he was able to move his head. He looked towards where he thought the voice was coming from, and saw Adam standing there with a pale face.

  It took him a few seconds to register what was happening, but then he noticed Adam’s hand. Or more accurately, the lack thereof. The entire hand was missing, bones and all. Even the flesh and muscle going up half the forearm was gone as well.

  The Forearm bones looked to be barely hanging in there. They were covered in cracks, with bits of them having flaked off and disappeared. They were barely attached to the rest of the body by bits of muscle that hadn’t been ripped off.

  How did that happen? Even though his vision wasn’t completely cleared up yet, he could still tell that this injury was very different from his own. While his injury had been cleanly cut through, then healed, leaving the injury a clean one, this one in front of him was completely mangled.

  It was like it had been ripped apart by a ravenous animal.

  Lucien had no idea how this could have happened though. Last thing he remembered was that Adam was attacking him repeatedly with his family’s heirloom, then he was out like a light. He didn’t remember Adam even being slightly injured aside from his nose, and he certainly didn’t remember there being anything or anyone that could have hurt him like this. Especially with all the bandits that were surrounding them.

  Remembering them, Lucien forced himself to sit up despite the pain he felt from moving, so that he could look around further. Where are they? Why can’t I see them? Ah... They must’ve been the voices I was hearing. Did they leave then? Where’s Roddy?

  Lucien tried to get to his feet, and this was when Adam finally noticed that he was awake. He stomped over furiously, his mind a mixture of suffocating pain and immense rage. “How are you still alive? Why are you moving!? You should be dead! Dead! Stay dead!

  Adam’s eyes were bloodshot as he rushed at Lucien, ready to swing at him.

  Lucien instinctively reacted, throwing his hand forward to protect the rest of his body, when suddenly something happened. A spiky ball of light shot out of his palm, disappeared in the air, then reappeared right in front of Adam a moment later.

  The ball of light shot through his chest with frightening ease, as if it was cutting through air, not flesh and bone. Adam was stopped in his tracks as a large, gaping hole appeared in his chest where his heart should have been. He looked down, confused, before teetering and crashing to the ground.

  The ball of light shot back towards Lucien, stopping right in front of his confused face. While Lucien was still trying to process what was going on, the ball of light started to dim, before being overtaken by a black metallic sheen. A long handle shaped itself out of the base, and the familiar morningstar once again took on its usual appearance. Although, with some changes.

  While it still looked plain, it no longer looked old and damaged. All the cracks were gone. It looked like it had just been made that day and had yet to see battle.

  How did it? What... While Lucien was processing what happened, he was suddenly hit by an overwhelming feeling of drowsiness. His entire body felt like it had been drained of all its energy. Even the pain wasn’t enough to fill the emptiness he was feeling.

  His body crumpled back down to the ground, like a puppet with its strings cut. His eyes closed unwillingly as he felt the emptiness invade his mind as well.

  “Lucien!”

  The last thing he heard before he fell asleep was someone shouting his name and the hurried sound of footsteps.

  -End of volume 1-