I was looking into the night sky, my consciousness was heavy and my eyelids were about to close down into sleep. I tried standing up, but my legs wouldn’t respond or rather they weren’t even there in the first place.

“H……hu……huh…”, I could barely speak. My whole lower half was missing and my left arm was cut off. I felt like there was a pinch instead of the intense pain there could’ve been.

“You’re still alive? That’s quite impressive.”, a voice spoke coming from in front of me, but I couldn’t move my head to see whom it was. However, I recognized the voice.

‘Did he do this…’, I tried to speak to him, but my voice did not come out. The king slowly walked in my direction and looked at me with a pitiful sight.

“It’s a shame, that you couldn’t fight any longer. I was actually having fun for a moment.”, the king said looking at me with his pitiful sight and I was looking at him with my dead emotionless expression.

‘I’m sure of it… I saw him only for a split second, for a single frame… he broke the threads with his armor and body alone… when time was stopped…’, his ability ‘Pride’ allowed him to stop time.

‘Pride’ can stop time for a limited amount of time, in the time which time was stopped he had found out how to escape the threads, then attacked me while time was stopped. He probably intended to kill me, but ‘Pride’ had reached its limit.

‘Why… I made sure that those threads were dense to the point where if he made a single movement, his body would be THORN TO SHREDS!!! Is his ‘Vitality’ and ‘Endurance’ as high as his strength? And why the hell does he deserve such a skill!!! It is cheating! WHY?! Why does someone like HIM, deserve such strength!’, I thought almost out loud when suddenly the doors to the throne room were opened.

“Master!”, Athena barged in together with Alice, they had probably been able to hold back the knights from interfering in the battle and now came over here after seeing me fall.

“To think my own daughter would betray me.”, the king said ignoring Athena who came over to my check on my body that looked like it was from a horror movie. “Father, I didn’t betray you. What you did is unforgivable, thus I acted on my judgement.”, Alice spoke her word against his.

Her father looked at me. “This boy wanted to know the reason why I sent mercenaries after his village, I guess I’ll give him another answer.”, the king said without taking his gaze off me.

Soon after a couple of seconds he opened his mouth. “I wish to make a Utopia, where only the purest race of them all shall live, the humans.”, the king spoke of his ambitions. “The reason this world is so corrupt is due to the other races that dirty this world.”

“The reason I sent those mercenaries to assassinate that village, was because they were nothing but trash dirtying my kingdom had I let them live they would’ve gone in the way of my future perfect Utopia.”, the king went on and on.

However, I was not listening anymore, my mind was filled with several thoughts swirling like a carousel at max speed.

‘They died, because of your senseless hate. Just because they were elves!’, my anger had reached its limit, my body was tattered, and my life was about to be extinguished.

“Master, please stay alive!”, Athena screamed once more, she couldn’t use ‘Life Attribute Magic’ to heal me and she did not have any potions either. She didn’t have any idea on how to heal somebody, thus she could only resort to telling me to stay alive and even if Alice helped it probably would only buy me some time to live longer.

Even with my hate, I could not stop myself from dying. My body was feeling heavier and heavier and my consciousness was slipping already, and particles of light started appearing around me, meaning that I was about to disappear.

‘No! I can’t die yet! Not until he’s gone!”, I resisted with all my strength, but it was pointless as my body was slowly disappearing. ‘Why… does he have such strength, it is not fair. With so much power yet using it like this.’

‘I’m…’

‘I am

‘…so jealous.’

“uh…”, I muttered sluggishly. I woke up in a field, the grass that moved according to the wind and the clear blue sky that almost did not even look real.

‘Is this Windows XP wallpaper?’, I thought jokingly. “Where am I though?”, I asked myself but did not get an answer. My memories were hazy, I could barely remember

I saw two hazy figures in the distance, one of them looked female and the other male, my vision was not at its best right now. But then, the two figures came out and clear.

“Hello Shiro.”, Iris said. “It’s been quite a long time Shiro.”, Leo said as well.

“How…no, rather… hmm…?”, I rubbed my chin in confusion trying to think of what was happening. “Weird, I feel conscious, yet I think this place is not real. Are you two spirits?”, I asked them.

“Really? That’s the first thing you say us?”, Leo face palmed himself in disappointment. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Hello, Iris, Leo.”, I greeted them like it was any other day.

“So, back to the question…”, I got right back to the question. “Uhm, no we’re not spirits.”, Leo finally answered the question.

I looked around the endlessly green plain and looked back at Leo and Iris.

“Is this hell?”

“If you’re going to ask at the very least make it ‘heaven’!”, Leo annoyed by my question shouted and Iris just watched in the sidelines.

“Alright, last guess. Was this place created by my subconsciousness and you two aren’t really here.”, I gave my last shot at guessing.  “Did you really guess that?”, Leo doubted my words. “Hm. I see, so why did my subconsciousness do this?”, I asked myself, but I knew there would be no answer.

“Well, it doesn’t matter.”, I brushed aside the reason to me being here. “So, what’s happening to me.”, I asked another question instead.

“It seems like you’re going to disappear soon.”, Iris answered my question this time. “Oh, I see.”, I didn’t say anything else after that and stood there in complete silence.

After a couple of moments, I spoke up. “You may just be a fabrication of my mind but… would you listen to me?”, I asked ‘Iris’ and ‘Leo’ and they nodded in agreement.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry……. I’m so sorry! I’m sorry!!! I couldn’t protect any of you…”, I apologized and apologized over and over.

Despite me never mentioning having regrets from what happened it was still weighing in my heart. Had I been back sooner… maybe I could have done something to prevent their deaths. Or I could’ve at the very least done something at all and now they are all dead, Iris, Leo and almost every elf in that village, the only ones that survived were me and possibly the twins.

“Why are you apologizing?”, Iris asked me. “Had I been there for you guys, maybe I could’ve protected you and Leo.”, I told them, but they were dumbfounded by my answer instead.

“You don’t have to apologize.”, Leo said trying to stop the tears streaming down my face. “It’s not your fault, Shiro.”, Iris said trying to reassure me, but my tears would not stop.

I had not cried in so long, I remember the last time I cried was when Iris was in my arms, but before that I don’t remember. I almost never cried, sometimes I tried but could not.

‘Maybe… had I been there sooner I… could’ve at the very least done ‘something’, whether it amounted up to nothing, I still wanted to have done ‘something’.’, I cried and wheeped like a child who had regretted everything it had done. Snot and tears were raining down my face, Leo and Iris hugged me in an tender embrace.

“You did alright.”, Iris said stroking my hair, whether what was happening here was real or not, I did not care anymore.

“Even my revenge wasn’t… for them.”, I am pretty sure what they had wished for was not the death of somebody else over theirs, that is not the type of people Iris and Leo were.

If not, that person would be me, the whole thing, I wasn’t able to forgive them. My revenge for those who killed my dearest friends, was all just for myself to stop feeling guilty over my own incapability of saving them.

“I’m….. SORRY!!!”, I apologized with all I had, I had never apologized so much in my life, not even on earth.

“M…a….ste….r”, a voice that I recognized cried out my name. I released myself from their embrace and cleaned my face up. “I want to go back, there is someone waiting for me.”, I said selfishly, despite me knowing full well that I would only be able to resist for a couple of seconds.

“Unfortunately, I can’t go with you. I’m sorry”, I told them, and they shook their heads. “It’s better this way and, stop apologizing. It’s starting to get pathetic.”, Leo said.

“Hey! Don’t say that.”, Iris scolded him. “No, he’s right. I have already apologized enough. But...”, I looked at them one last time, before going back to the hard reality awaiting me. “… I haven’t thanked any of you yet, so here it goes!”

“Thank you, Leo, Iris. For having taken me in and giving me those joyful moments. Thank you so much.”

<< The levels of ‘Spirit Form’, ‘Pain Resistance’, ‘Light Attribute Resistance’, ‘Enhanced Agility’, ‘Dark Vision’, ‘Fast Healing’, ‘Enhanced Mana’, ‘Materialization’, ‘Intuition’, ‘Status Effect Resistance’, ‘Enhanced Muscular Strength’, ‘Automatic Mana Recovery’, ‘Chant Revocation’, ‘Enhanced Vitality’, ‘Thread Refining’, ‘Wind Attribute Resistance’, ‘No-Attribute Magic’, ‘Surpass Limits’, ‘Swordsmanship’, ‘Dark Attribute Magic’, ‘Dark Aura’, ‘Flight’, ‘Fast Thought Processing’, ‘Flame Manipulation’, ’Thread Reeling’, ‘Wrath’ and ‘Distorted Mind’ have increased. >>

<< The Skill ‘Spirit Form’ has evolved into the Unique Skill ‘Soul Form’. >>

<< The Skill ‘Pain Resistance’ has evolved into the Skill ‘Pain Nullification’. >>

<< The Skill ‘Mana Control’ has evolved into the Skill ‘Mana Manipulation’. >>

<< Due to acquisition of ‘Soul Form’, the Skill ‘Swordsmanship’ has evolved into ‘Dual Soul Blade Technique’. >>

<< You have evolved from ‘Black Ghost’ into ‘Dark Soul’. >>

Name: Shiro

Race: Dark Soul

Age: 0 Years old

Titles: None

Job History: Ordinary Person, Dark Attribute Mage, Astral Smith,

Job: Thread User

Job Level: 67

Level: 0

Attributes:

• Vitality: 1893
• Mana: 4057
• Strength: 1450
• Agility: 1200
• Endurance: 1684
• Intelligence: 2349

Passive Skills:

• Pain Nullification: Level 1 (NEW!)
• Light Attribute Resistance: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
• Enhanced Agility: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
• Dark Vision: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
• Fast Healing: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
• Enhanced Mana: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)
• Materialization: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
• Intuition: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
• Status Effect Resistance: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
• Enhanced Muscular Strength: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
• Bloodsucking: Level 1
• Automatic Mana Recovery: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
• Chant Revocation: Level 5 (LEVEL UP!)
• Enhanced Vitality: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
• Thread Refining: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
• Wind Attribute Resistance: Level 3 (LEVEL UP!)

Active Skills:

• Possession: Level 3
• No-Attribute Magic: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
• Mana Manipulation: Level 1 (NEW!)
• Surpass Limits: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)
• Archery: Level 2
• Dual Soul Blade Technique: Level 1 (NEW!)
• Dark Attribute Magic: Level 7 (LEVEL UP!)
• Scream: Level 4
• Dark Aura: Level 8 (LEVEL UP!)
• Etiquette: Level 1
• Fast Eating: Level 2
• Flight: Level 2 (LEVEL UP!)
• Dismantling: Level 1
• Cooking: Level 1
• Fast Thought Processing: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
• Alchemy: Level 3
• Blacksmith: Level 5
• Mining: Level 1
• Flame Manipulation: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
• Coordination: Level 1
• Thread Reeling: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)

Unique Skills:

• Wrath: Level 6 (LEVEL UP!)
• Distorted Mind: Level 4 (LEVEL UP!)
• Soul Form: Level 1 (NEW!)

Unique Skill Explanation: Pride (Limited Information)

This skill allows one to stop time for a limited amount of time, the higher the Skill level is, the longer the amount of time will be stopped. ‘Time Attribute Magic’ does not a allow you to stop time unless you’d have a tremendous amount of mana to do so and high knowledge to do so.

Further effects may be noted in the future.

YeetusFeetus

This chapter, was the if not hardest chapter I've made up until now. I had to walk in circles and form up sentences that would make sense and etc... I'm not sure whether I was able to get the emotional moment, but I hope I made it correctly. And I may have made some mistakes making this chapter (Since it's night where I am at).