February 3rd, 981–in the Era of Equilibrium.

The battlefield reeked of blood. Its stench clung to everything–the air, bodies, and mud beneath the feet. Warmth still radiated from the corpses, though their eyes had long gone cold.

A young man stood amidst the waves of troops flocking in all directions. His black hair waved against the passing wind. The sound of their footsteps, including his, never left the battlefield. It only got weaker with every body turned into an empty husk, tumbling around the battlefield. The last scenery they saw would be the very same crimson red, painted in their vision before everything faded into obscurity.

“Make way! Move!”

It was only a few minutes until the war hit its two hours mark. To have survived this long, swinging his double-edged sword countless times until sweat drenched his entire body, wasn’t a mere feat even for a foot soldier like him. Now, all he needed to do was repeat the same process with zero room for error.

But soon, his legs gave up. Without him knowing, after slashing and slicing his enemies to dice, the strength in his lower body left him. He stumbled on the pool of blood below him, reverberating as the ground shook because of hundreds of steps around him.

“Chase the rebels down! Don’t let them escape!”

“Color the ground with their blood!”

The young man looked around. The battlefield was a mess. Screams roared from each side, confusing him on where he should go. One person ran towards him in a hurry. The young man didn’t know who he was, nor was he familiar with the face of that person, but the armor adorning that person’s body was enough to tell him that he was an ally.

After all, the young man was wearing the same set of armor. They were donned in gold-hued armor. Right on their chests, a red-colored head of a creature named Dragon was embroidered on a crest shaped like a shield, where steel adorned its corners from one curve to another.

The insignia of Aethel Kingdom.

“Get up!” The man offered his hand. “We can’t let those rebels–”

Before the man could finish his words, an arrow punched through the side of his head. Its tip buried itself deep in his ear, where blood spurted out to carry the remaining years he still had in store. His eyes popped from his eye sockets, one of them fell like a marble to the ground. Then, that man–now had been reduced to a mere body–fell on the young man.

“U-urgh!”

The young man pushed the corpse off his body. Lifeless, that man became just another waste alongside other bodies left here to rot. Swearing he would never become one of them, the young man pushed his legs to the limit. Although trembling, he accepted the pain until he could get back on his feet.

But fate tried to test him again.

From the young man’s right side, a soldier rushed towards him–an enemy. Each step propelled him closer to the young man’s blind side. Rage clouded the eyes that stayed on their prey.

Ten meters away….

Seven meters away….

Five meters away….

The next step after that, the enemy was already in range. His hand was near his chest, ready to thrust his sword forward in a horizontal motion. The young man had only realized it, and although his instinct had told him to guard with the shield on his left hand, his body was one move behind.

Gritting his teeth, the young man turned his body with his left leg as a pivot. He concentrated. A bead of sweat lined up on his face, then another one followed until his forehead and cheeks glistened. His sight never left the enemy’s weapon and footwork. Time appeared to move slower.

All of a sudden, however....

Thud!

....The young man was staring at the world above him. Clouds stretched endlessly from one corner to another. The sky gazed back at him, a visceral scenery that his eyes had the chance to witness. Amidst the deaths, it was only the beauty that existed.

And at once, fear struck his heart.

As he spun, a corpse lying behind him had interrupted his maneuver. Unaware of that, he had stumbled on the rotting corpse and lost his balance. At this very moment, as one of his feet was still in the air–still having found no footing he pretty much needed–avoiding was out of the choices.

Both his mind and body, still wanting to live, jerked to block the attack–not with the shield, but with his own hand. His right hand, to be more exact. He moved his hand as fast as possible before the blade could reach him and deliver a life-ending blow. His expression stiffened to prepare for the pain that would soon come into contact with him.

Stab!

Steel meeting flesh.

The enemy’s sword had pierced the young man’s forearm. From the open wound, a stream of warm blood poured out. One drop after another was added to the pool of blood below him.

His entire body spasmed to battle against the sharpness of the blade puncturing his arm–not to mention the burning sensation which engulfed the young man’s arm first before creeping to other limbs as well.

It burned. Tortured. Tormented.

If it weren’t for him gritting his teeth and biting his tongue, he’d already have fainted because of the shock his body had to endure. Staying conscious was all that mattered to him now. For a moment, the sword got stuck in his arm. And when he looked up, the expression on that soldier was that of dread. His lips and eyes trembled.

“W-why are you doing this?!” The young man screamed.

“Shut up!”

“We are–”

“I said shut up!”

With a grip still firm on the sword’s handle, he retracted his weapon and readied himself for another attack–this time a horizontal slash from right to left. One look was enough to see that he aimed to end the young man’s life with this strike.

“D-die with your kingdom!”

Emotions had taken over the soldier. Different from before, he didn’t have the momentum required to muster a slash powerful enough to split the young man in half. Not only weaker and slower, he was also much more predictable. He’d lost his element of surprise.

His sword had reached halfway the distance from where the young man stumbled. Simultaneously, the young man had planted his foot back on the ground. The excruciating pain, although screaming hauntingly throughout his entire body, didn’t seize his ability to move. At the approaching attack, the young man swung his wooden shield with full strength. He bit his lower lip until it bled, not sparing even the tiniest bit of muscle in his arm from holding back.

A second later, both the sword and shield met at one point with a loud clank, trying to overpower each other. His last cry for survival was able to parry the imminent death and create an opportunity.

Shocked by what had just happened, the soldier tried to get back on his feet. But not only losing his footing and balance, the grip on his sword couldn’t withstand the recoil. It flew away, spinning around a few times erratically before its tip impaled a few centimeters into the earth.

Before the soldier could plan his next move, the young man bashed his shield right on the soldier’s chest. This time, it was the soldier who toppled backwards and fell on his back. He blinked once, and the next time he opened his eyes, a sword was thrust forward, splitting the wind in one swift motion. It only stopped after penetrating his neck, causing him to blink for the final time and not to open again forever.

The sound of minced flesh echoed in the young man’s ears as he pulled his sword out.

He was still breathing, but the burning pain enveloped his entire body. He took off the scarf covering his shoulder and used it as a temporary bandage. As much as it’d accumulated dust, sweat, iron shrapnel, and other elements, it was the best–or rather the only option at his disposal. He flinched in the process, which at least proved that his body hadn’t gone numb yet.

In that split second, he glanced back at the soldier he had just killed.

His gold armor shimmered no more. In its center, there was an insignia without its emblem. On a place where there should have been a soaring Dragon, emptiness took the spot, bleak and commanding hundreds of rebelling hearts.

The young man gritted his teeth.

“W-why….Why?!”

He had no more strength to keep the sword in his hand, yet he still held onto it.

Fatigue caught up to him, yet he still saw his reflection on the sword he carried.

The young man knew he could do no more of this.

Slashing his way through rebelling allies–his heart couldn’t bear that burden anymore.

Thumping of frantic footsteps hadn't left the battlefield. Those who tried to stay alive and those who tried to steal the others' lives, everything before his eyes could only be described using one word.

Chaos.

His black hair accepted the weight of gravity. Each strand fell on his eyes, covering the view as if it spared him from this horrible sight, not knowing his own hands had caused this as well.

He breathed in and out.

“W-what is that?!”

A sound clashed with the thoughts running in his head. When he looked up, he knew the reason. The young man broke into a cold sweat. There was still quite a distance between him and the nearest fight when he stopped in his tracks, not because of the pain or anything else, but because of what had emerged above him. His heart sank at the sight of that into what seemed to be a bottomless hole where light was absent.

Reflected in the young man’s eyes was a large red circle hovering in the sky, flickering with blazing color much brighter than the sunset itself. It made a subtle rotation in place, and within its area were lines and hieroglyphs written side by side with a slight gap between each one. With just a single glance, the young man knew exactly what it was.

Lumen–a powerful one at that. The invaders had decided to wipe their enemies.

“R-run!”

For the first time in this war, the young man dropped his weapon. His fingers had loosened. All the soldiers who did the same stared at that magic circle which had stolen their hope. Its shine mimicked that of a white flash those who were about to die would see.

In the next second, a stream of fire rained down on the soldiers of the Aethel Kingdom. The rage within each blaze painted the sky in red, and beneath it was the young man, standing there with both arms fell to his sides.

Bright as the sun, yet leaving only darkness that shrouded his vision.

The battle had ended.