A plain-looking red car traveled through the empty countryside. Inside it, a certain young man in the backseat shifted his body in a fruitless struggle to find a comfortable position to sleep in hope of getting over this unbearable trip a bit faster.

  He had empty black eyes and short dark hair that had been neat once but now was just a mess after brushing it over the seats for the last two hours.

  The boy's name was Lucas. And today it was his eighteenth birthday.

  Although it did not feel like that at the moment.

  How boring...

  Earlier that morning, his mother had scared him awake with a surprise trip to a 'fun place'. Yes, she had called it just a 'fun place', with no description whatsoever. When he tried asking, she simply replied that it was a surprise.

  That had been a couple of hours ago, although it seemed to be much more than that from his bored perspective. And the heat certainly didn't help.

  An hours-long trip in a car with broken air conditioning in the middle of summer. Super fun idea.

  Despite his internal mocking, Lucas wasn't actually mad at his parents. He knew they were trying their best to cheer him up after some recent events had let him down.

  He wasn’t as bothered by it as everyone seemed to think—for him, it simply meant he had more time to make his choice. But seeing them go out of their way to care warmed Lucas’s heart.

  Not like that's an unusual thing for them to do.

  For example, his mother worked with desserts, and whenever she sensed he was feeling down, she’d make a special batch of lactose-free cupcakes just for him.

  He wished he had brought one with him for the trip, perhaps that would’ve made it a bit less boring. His mouth watered just by remembering it, the sweet frosting melting on his tongue and the fluffy cake awaiting right below...

  At that moment, the car went over a little bump. The sudden movement made Lucas bite his tongue, bringing him back to the boring reality.

  Cursing inside, Lucas let go of the cupcake thoughts, resigning himself to having a look at the scenery.

  They had just entered some sort of bridge, which is why the car had bumped a few moments ago. A large expanse of water could be found at Lucas' right, reflecting the sunlight in its not-so-clear waters. It wasn't an extraordinary view by any means, but it had its beauty.

  The road ahead was empty and silent, only the blazing sun made them company with its insufferable heat.

  No, wait. Actually, there was a truck coming in their direction. Lucas somehow hadn't seen it at first.

  It looked quite blurry to him, probably due to the heat or speed. Or maybe these were the consequences of not having breakfast in the morning.

  He noticed the ‘truck’ was behaving quite weirdly, swaying on its lane like a drunkard. Perhaps he should comment on that with his parents.

  His father, the driver, kept driving, completely unfazed, while his mother scrolled on social media.

  I must be overreacting.

  If his parents hadn’t done anything, that must mean there was nothing to worry about, right? Lucas tried to rationalize it, but the tiny seed of doubt in his heart compelled him to do something.

  However, when he finally decided to act, it was already too late.

  "Dad!"

  It happened too fast for him to understand. The powerful impact reverberated through his body as the sound of warped metal and shattered glass reached his ears.

  The last thing he saw was a spur of crimson red before everything went black.

  ***

  "Careful." A certain young noble hurriedly murmured to his friends before pushing them to the wall. His sky-blue eyes glistered in contrast to his pale-blond hair, although it couldn't be seen at that moment.

  Soon after, a shadow passed in front of them. A few seconds more and they would've been caught by the enemy.

  He let out a breath of relief as he withdrew his arm.

  That was close.

  This was Luke Dunkelheit, a noble from the kingdom of Avalon. Right now, he and his two friends were hidden deep in a series of ruins pertaining to an illegal organization.

  A few days ago, Luke and one of his friends, Ruby, had each received a divine revelation telling them that this organization, Das übel, was planning a huge operation soon.

  Das übel was an organization that conducted research on dark magic, which had been banned long ago. Due to its illegal status, commerce with Das übel was prohibited, forcing it to rely on criminal acts to maintain itself, causing a lot of problems for the nobles who ruled the region, including Luke's family. So, they decided to go investigate it.

  "Maybe we should return." Luke heard a certain yellow-blond noble murmuring in his ear as they continued to wander through the enemy base.

  This was one of Luke's friends, Goldwyn Ritter. Through the use of Luke and Goldwyn's magic, they managed to easily sneak into the appointed location under the cover of the night alongside Ruby. However, despite having searched the facility for hours already, they just couldn't find any sign of the supposed 'huge operation'.

  "The Goddess has placed her trust in us, we can't give up so easily." Luke argued back in a low voice.

  His friend gave him a dubious look. Goldwyn had not received any revelation, unlike Luke and Ruby, so he was a bit skeptical of the whole thing. But Luke was certain of it. He remembered as clear as day how the sky had darkened out of nowhere, right before lightning descended to carve a message into a tree.

  Lucas turned around to face his friend, holding him by the shoulder and looking directly at his emerald-green eyes.

  "Believe. That's what the skies carved in the old yew. It's clearly a test of faith, one that I have no intention of failing."

  Goldwyn wanted to argue more, but ultimately decided to just shut up and sigh. He knew it was useless to argue with Luke when he was so convicted of their mission, he would only give up after they had checked under every rock in the region eight times over.

  Satisfied with his friend's acceptance, Luke was ready to continue forward when he noticed something was missing.

  "Wait, where's Ruby?"

  Goldwyn's eyes widened as he turned back to check on his friend, only to realize there was no one behind him.

  "She was here seconds ago." He whispered, a bit of exasperation showing on his face.

  Goldwyn immediately started searching for her in the dark, but to no avail.

  Lucas held him by the arm. "Don't be rushed, we'll find her." He reassured him.

  Closing his eyes, Lucas readied himself to dive into a world beyond. Before him, reality was broken down into its base concepts, its aura.

  Seeing the world through new lens, he started searching for one familiar concept he knew very well. However, no matter where he looked, Luke simply couldn't find it.

  He did find something else, though.

  "The wall on the left, it’s fake." He said as he opened his eyes.

  It was the very same wall Luke had pushed his friends against a few moments ago.

  Hearing that, Goldwyn opened his eyes as well. He, too, had been searching on the plane beyond. "She must've traversed it by accident when we weren't paying attention."

  "And something prevented her from crossing back." Luke completed. He had already approached the strange wall in the meantime and now prepared himself to test his discovery.

  Pressing his hand against it, instead of the solid rock that surrounded them, his fingers met no resistance and went right through it, disappearing into the darkness.

  It's a torrent of chaos but crafted in a way that can barely be distinguished from order.

  Withdrawing his hand, Luke crossed eyes with Goldwyn. They knew what they had to do.

  And so, the duo dove into the dark.

  The space behind the wall was vast and filled with darkness, the chaotic aura muddled their senses, and only Luke was able to discern the environment due to his affinity. Guiding Goldwyn through the dark, in a few minutes, they had found themselves in a completely new location.

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  They had emerged on the mezzanine of a great hall built on dark wood and rock, pillars carved of black stone blocked their vision of the center. Behind one of these pillars, they spotted a very familiar ginger-haired young woman surrounded by a crimson cloud. She was poking her head around the column, making her long hair fall to the right of her waist.

  Swiftly moving towards her, the boys found hiding spots for themselves behind the pillars on her right. Noticing their approach, the girl turned to look at them and smiled, using her magic to write with crimson blood in the air.

  Took you long enough.

  This was Ruby Dawn, noble heir of a family from the extreme east of Avalon and one of Luke's closest friends. She was extremely proficient in her family's blood magic, making her the strongest warrior of their group by a considerable margin.

  Dismissing the writing back into the crimson cloud, she prompted them to have a look at the center of the hall. A much safer affair now that Luke was with her since he could magically block the light to obscure their poking heads.

  The floor below them was covered with dark inscriptions and strange lines that connected circles scattered across the room. Atop each circle stood a hooded figure, except for the one in the center, in which a familiar symbol had been engraved. It was a sort of circle that opened at the bottom into two horizontal lines.

  The symbol of darkness (Ω).

  As they observed, the inscriptions started emitting a dark glow, as if the light around them had been sucked away. The central symbol glowed the darkest, completely disappearing from their view.

  I'm not sure what they're doing, but they have been preparing for quite a while.

  You two arrived just as they started.

  Ruby continued writing in the air to communicate with them. Since the pillars were quite far from each other, it was hard for Goldwyn to muffle all the sounds they made, so using this alternative method was safer.

  Luke gave a quick read to Ruby's writing and turned back to analyze the scene. He didn't dare dive further into the plane beyond to check his suspicions, but he was pretty sure there was a large amount of chaotic aura being concentrated at the center of the room at that moment.

  That darkness is too strong for a single person to handle. Is it the result of their combined will? Maybe the inscriptions are responsible for conducting their auras toward the center, where their coordinated wills combine to create pure darkness? If that's the case, then that's an amazing feat of engineering and coordination.

  Luke was a rare user of light magic, the only one in the entire kingdom. As a user of the element that directly opposed darkness, he was quite familiar with the methods used by Das übel. After all, many of them were direct reflections of his own. And yet, what they were doing right at that moment was a complete novelty for him.

  They must've hidden their research very well for this to be the first time we see anything of it.

  And their efforts had paid off. If they could find a way to weaponize it...

  Luke shuddered. He didn't even want to think of the possibility. No wonder the Lady had intervened so directly—this power was far too dangerous to be left unchecked.

  They had to stop it.

  But... how? They were just three knights. Talented, yes—exceptionally so for their age—but still only three, facing dozens of seasoned magic users.

  What were they even supposed to do? What had the Lady truly sent them here for?

  While he delved into these thoughts, Luke suddenly felt something pinching his left arm. It was a tendril of blood conjured by Ruby, apparently, she had written something else while he wasn't looking and was now trying to get his attention to it.

  Explosion.

  To reinforce the message, she opened her hands in suspense and made a mute boom sound with her mouth.

  She was as silly as ever, but Luke understood what she meant.

  Chaotic aura was unstable by nature, if they could cause a slight interference, the whole experiment would go in disarray.

  Luke shifted his focus to a certain individual below, he could see by the patterns that he was the center of the experiment. He also had a suspicion of who that individual was.

  Regardless, just breaking his concentration should be enough for the success of their plan. Which shouldn't be complicated, Luke could already feel Goldwyn preparing some invisible air projectiles on his right. They weren't strong, but they were more than enough to cause some chaos.

  The real problem would be the aftermath.

  Such a powerful explosion... and I can't even conjure a shield beforehand.

  As a light user, anything Luke could create would be way too bright for him to hide. So, if they wanted the highest chance of success, he would have to wait until the last moment possible to conjure his defenses.

  He couldn't even rely on his friends since both would already be at their limit with their own defense—and attack, in Goldwyn's case.

  It was risky, much more for Luke than the other two. They all understood that, so Goldwyn and Ruby would only act after they were sure Luke agreed.

  It all depends on me.

  It was scary, knowing he had a high chance of dying right there. But he hadn't been raised a coward.

  Luke had a dream. One day, he wished to become a hero. He had already accomplished it, in a way. Lots of people saw him as a savior, or a Paladin, as he was often called. But he still felt he wasn't quite there yet.

  And well, what type of hero could he be if he ran away from his fears instead of facing them right on?

  Believe, she said. So let's see if my faith is enough.

  And so, he signaled for Goldwyn to attack.

  Luke felt as the projectiles traveled through the air and saw as the first enemies noticed them. They tried blocking the attacks with their own, but they were hard to spot, be it through normal vision or magical senses. One guard even threw himself in front of one of the projectiles in a last-ditch attempt to block them.

  But it was all futile in the end. A single one of Goldwyn's attacks managed to pass through, hitting the target's leg and making him lose his footing. He quickly recovered, but that single moment of distraction had been enough.

  Luke didn't wait to see the results. As soon as Goldwyn released his attack, Luke brought forth his aura, spreading it into a thin sheet in front of him. He planned to manifest this sheet as a physical barrier. However, before he could do so, something scattered his aura, opening a hole in it.

  He tried closing, but for some reason, he couldn't. It was fleeting, a nature he had never seen before.

  Down below, the entire inscription flashed, the balance had been broken. The darkness at the center started behaving weirdly, it expanded and retracted as the enemy tried to contain it.

  In a desperate attempt to save himself, Luke tried stepping back, but the fleetingness followed him. Once he did, his friend noticed something was amiss, but it was already too late.

  The chaotic aura exploded, momentarily engulfing the world in darkness and sending shock waves in all directions. The man behind the experiment would've been hit the hardest if it wasn't for the sacrifice of one of his companions, whose blood painted the man's hair red.

  Luke, on the other hand, was hit directly by the explosive force, being sent straight through the wall towards the sky. He traveled far from his original location, eventually landing on a distant branch of the main facility.

  Using his magic to soften his fall and to protect his body, Luke broke through one last wall before crashing into a fragile glass container. The material broke on impact, scattering dangerous shards that pierced Luke's back as he fell on them.

  Enduring the pain of broken bones and torn flesh, Luke bit his lip to hold himself back from screaming. He was still in an enemy base, he could not afford to be found by them in such a state.

  Calm down, you have healing magic now, remember? It hurts a lot, but you're going to be okay.

  He had broken an arm and possibly a few ribs, his back was encrusted with several shards of black glass, and there was something wrong with his foot. At least, that was what he could identify at the moment, he was sure to have other internal injuries.

  Thankfully, his healing magic didn't care whether he knew which injuries he had or not. It simply accelerated the body's natural healing, so there was no need for any highly technical knowledge unless it was something too severe.

  Concentrating his will, Luke felt a wave of invigorating energy traveling through his body as his bones slowly mended and snapped into place. The shards on his back, however, remained unchanged. He wouldn't be able to dislodge them unless he turned over.

  So that's what he did.

  A muffled scream escaped his mouth as his body fell over his belly. But it had been worth it, and soon enough, he started feeling the shards pop out of his back.

  He had one problem, though.

  My foot is not healing...

  Not only that, his whole lower body was starting to feel numb. He tried sending a current of healing energy towards it, but it simply disappeared midway through.

  This effect, it seems familiar...

  Luke's eyes widened as he understood his predicament.

  Many times before, in expeditions against Das übel forces, Luke had interacted with a strange force capable of opposing the energy of life that ran through the bodies of living beings, the very same Luke was using to heal himself. Das übel called this force thana, the essence of death.

  And, as it turns out, Luke had been unlucky enough to precisely hit a container full of it.

  He could feel the numbness in his body slowly crawling upwards as his healing lost effectiveness. That was the thana spreading, if it continued like that, he would soon be, quite literally, drowning in death.

  Luke tried crawling away, but his arm was still broken. He could try fighting the thana with his healing, but he knew he would run out of aura long before he overcame the deadly essence.

  There is another way.

  In the past, whenever they were to uncover a thana research lab, they were sure to find a container of the opposite energy nearby, ready to be used in emergencies. Since Luke seemed to have fallen in one of these labs, he would probably see the same there.

  He just had to find and release it, somehow.

  Closing his eyes, Luke spread his aura and focused his senses on the plane beyond. Not long after he had found what he searched for, a black container full of vitality on the right of the one he had just smashed open.

  The room grew clearer as Luke conjured a small, bright projectile above his head. The plan was to use it to break the life container, liberating a flow strong enough to overpower the thana and save his life.

  However, time was running out, Luke could already feel his body tiring out. If he passed away, it would be over for him.

  He only had one shot.

  Once again, he remembered the words of his Goddess.

  Believe.

  They had failed him once, but that was all right. He was probably meant to be separated from his friends for a greater purpose. He would survive now. He had to.

  Focusing his will, Luke released his final attack.

  It traveled through the air for a moment, carrying a strong force, before hitting its target.

  Luke heard the glass crack and could feel a small stream being set free.

  But it wasn't enough. He had underestimated the material's resilience, the flow was not strong enough to overpower the death essence before he was gone.

  He had failed.

  No- It can't be.

  He tried creating another projectile, but he didn't have the strength anymore, and it quickly broke apart.

  Fear gripped his heart as his world started to darken. His eyes got wet as his last moments approached.

  No... I- I don't want to die.

  He had a dream to accomplish. He was going to be a hero. It couldn't end like that.

  Doubt and despair took over him as the light of his eyes started to quietly fade away.

  Did I understand it wrong? Was I not good enough? Where have I failed you?

  Why... why have you abandoned me?