POV of Ares Pridelyn:
I opened my eyes to a complete darkness with the exception of a faint, distant light above me. I could feel my body sinking–shying further away from the light and submerging deeper into the abyss.
Where am I? I thought. I turned my head from side-to-side. It's so dark...
My eyelids felt heavy. There was nothing but silence. All of my worries and troubles felt like they had been lifted off from me. My body felt light and weightless–going with the flow of the abyss. I felt like I could close my eyes and drift into a deep sleep.
It's so peaceful…
I could feel my eyelids closing slowly. I had almost let them until I felt the void crashing in on me. My eyes shot open. A dark and mysterious presence filled the void. I could feel my breaths falter. The void filled with an intense heat, and I began to quickly flail my arms out toward the faint light.
It was no use. I could feel myself still sinking further into the void until I kicked myself off of my back and straight forward to the light. It felt as if I was hastily swimming back up with a desperation of adrenaline to the distant surface of a deep sea.
Closer. I thought. Closer!
A sharp whizzing sound surfaced. It grew louder as I got closer to the surface of the void. The sound almost haunted me as it expanded across the void and flooded it. I could feel a surge of adrenaline pushing me forward as my muscles ached.
It was extremely difficult to breathe. I could feel myself panting away the lasts of my breaths as I kept reaching toward the light. As I drew closer, I realized it wasn't a light at all; instead, it resembled a spherical window in which I saw the blond man from earlier. He looked upset and displeased.
I grasped the window with barely a moment to spare. The void filled with light and disappeared. As the light faded, everything around me spun. Finally, the spinning stopped. I was kneeling on one leg looking down at the blood-stained ground. A sharp pain ached across my upper body. I rested one of my hands across my chest and shoulder as I panted heavily. I looked to the left and then to the right.
"W-What happened?" I asked myself.
My head hurt. It began to throb at the front, and I covered it with my hand as I winced. I was surrounded by masses of broken brick, stone, and wood. Blood painted the long, narrow, cracked roads. Dead bodies rested on the pavement–laid out as if they were in a deep and comfortable sleep.
The sky was dark and red. The sun was coming down. The sound of screams had long faded and was now replaced with the sound of flames burning freely. I looked down to see pairs of dark flames dying off into the wind.
The last couple of events came back to me as a grave feeling grasped my heart. I remembered the same whizzing sound from when I was in the void. This time, I could make it out clearly as I remembered looking down and being struck by the man's attack. Then I remembered…
"Mia," I said in despair. The name hung in the air as my eye teared up.
I looked up at the man responsible for her death. A renewed anger fueled me as I stood up from the ground. The tear fell from my face as I clenched my fists and dragged my feet forward.
"Mia," I said once more. I had barely noticed I was still saying her name. My mind had went blank except with a constant thought hammering away at me.
Kill! Kill! Kill!
The man looked at me. His cocky smile was no longer present. Instead, he looked more serious and beat down. His clothes were ragged compared to the last time I saw him.
Just, what in the hell happened? I thought. I don't remember anything after–
The memory of Mia and I being struck by his spell replayed. It flooded my mind as I recalled the look of terror on her angelic face. I remembered the blood splattering out of her wound and her body hitting the hard stone ground.
I could feel my muscles practically crushing my bones as I tensed up more. My throat closed tighter and my teeth grinded into each other.
"I'm getting sick of it all," I said in a low tone. "I really am…" My vision locked onto the man. "First, Aerodom… now this." I exhaled deeply. The memory of meeting Mia flashed across my mind. A strong flame ignited within my fist and engulfed it. "Give me a break."
The man finally reacted. His body jerked as he quickly cast a spell and launched a wave of air in my direction. I punched through the attack. Gusts of air lashed against me as my fist collided with it.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I asked the man. "A child… a fucking child," I softly cried out. "You killed her! You killed Mia!" Another flame sparked and ignited in my other hand as I grew closer to him. He attacked once more. I punched through it too. Over and over again, he threw spells at me and I broke through them.
I began running at him. With sheer rage and determination, I broke through every spell and began punching him across his face. I could feel my anger increasing with every blow. Blood splattered out of him as I continued punching him. Blow-by-blow, I kept going but still nothing… It wasn't good enough. I wanted him dead.
I stopped punching him and grabbed him by his tattered cloak. His body fell limp and his arms dropped to his side as he stared back at me. His face was covered in blood from his leaking nose and mouth. I could feel the tears slowly running down my cheeks. I was breathing hard. I felt angry and ashamed. I felt like a monster full of rage and despair. I just wanted to break down and cry.
I looked down for a moment to see one of the man's arms coming back up at me with his palm open. He had conjured a strong current of wind inside of it. The wind swirled around in his palm and came rushing at me with his hand. I couldn't react fast enough. He hit me and I felt my body fly through the air before landing promptly back on the ground.
***
POV of Aaref Fayeworth:
As I arrived in Reichart, I noticed the depressing remains of what used to be a lively town. Bodies and blood decorated the town like an artist adding an extra dazzle to his masterpiece. It was a terrible sight triggering grief and sympathy. Flames crawled across the broken fragments of stone and wood, devouring whatever was left. Limbs stuck out from the piles of debris as faces, both familiar and not, lay cold against the hard stone tiles. My attention stopped at the sight of a young boy mostly buried underneath the fragments of stone from the arena.
I thought back a couple of days ago to the moment before the tournament had started. The young, blond short-haired boy had approached me with smiles and warm greetings.
"Aaref Fayeworth!" he shouted at me with a wide grin. "I want to be a great adventurer just like you!"
A slight breeze passed over me. I could feel a slight frown forming on my face before I realized I had been floating in the same place for a moment too long. I continued looking past the area and glided forward.
About half of a mile ahead of the broken arena was the golem presumably responsible for all of the destruction. It was laying on its back. I could still sense its mana, but the dark presence from earlier had vanished. The other three mana signatures were still present and an additional one had appeared.
I looked closer at some of the bodies nearby. They seemed to have been struck or pierced by something, making it impossible for the golem to have caused their deaths. Looking further at their wounds, it'd make sense if some of them were hit by falling debris or lodged rocks during the attack. However, the wounds differed from person to person and some where parciullarly sharper and cleaner than most of the wounds as if a master archer or skillful mage had inflicted them. Some of the bodies were even unwounded and completely untouched.
I looked at the golem in its violet eyes. It was still laying on its back. Suddenly, it tried to push itself off of the ground and regain footing. I quickly gathered a pool of mana in my hand and looked at the golem with disgust.
I threw the mana down; it struck the golem straight in its chest, creating a small hole in the middle of it. Its body twitched as I began descending to the ground. I paused. Its eyes were still lit with a purple malice, and it was still attempting to get back up.
"Tsk."
I looked at the hole in its chest. The attack had made a thorough incision but from the edges of the hole peeked a glowing, hard purple ore. The rest of it was covered by the thick remaining layer of its chest.
That must be your heart, I thought.
Annoyed, I pointed at it and shot out a ray of mana. It pierced the rest of the ore, shattering it and breaking it.
I looked past the deanimated golem. A small battle was unfolding between two mages. Both of them appeared heavily wounded. The dark-haired mage was barely able to stand. His body was covered in bruises and blood. Across from him was a blond mage with elven features standing upright with his hand covering a wound on his shoulder.
"How dare you touch me?" the blond mage cried out. His tone was full of resentment and disgust. "You filthy commoner! Look at what you did to my face!"