Dan ran back to town as fast as he could.
He didn't know if it was under attack from beasts or something else, but, regardless, he desperately ran. The town was the last place where he had happy memories of his sister and all of the friendly townspeople.
BOOM!
A plume of fire followed by another explosion rang out from the town.
Dan quickened his pace, 'please don't let me be too late!'
He arrived at the town wall after what felt like an eternity. He slipped in through the gate and ran along the streets.
Turning a corner, he found countless bodies. The majority were riddled with holes but still recognizable; others were damaged beyond recognition by burns or simply in pieces.
Dan continued running, looking for any survivors as he passed through the silent streets.
He suddenly heard a shout from a street or two away, "Run! I'll stall for time!"
The ground started to shake, and a massive pillar of earth rose from the street nearby. Pressed against the top of the pillar, a man in a purple cloak laced with gold was thrown into the sky.
The man in purple abruptly stopped and floated in mid-air. His face couldn't be seen and was hidden under his hood.
[Earth Pillar!]
Another pillar of earth rose from the ground. Riding it, was the town Elder. He shouted, "I will protect my people!"
[Earth Giant: EX!]
Large boulders of earth, and whatever was on them, began to break free from the ground and float to the sky.
The pieces of earth swirled around the Elder and began to dramatically take the shape of a six-armed humanoid with the Elder in the center of the chest. It towered at a whopping 150 meters. It looked as if it would touch the sky.
The earth giant reared its six fists as far back as they would go, "You shall not pass!"
And as if it were machine-gun fire, the earth giant began a barrage of punches.
The punches were so fast that they broke the sound barrier, with each attack making a boom with wind current following.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
So much wind was being thrown around that dust shot into the sky and clouded it out.
The barrage stopped after a minute of rapid-fire blows. The earth giant was crumbling apart, unable to handle the force behind the storm of blows.
All of the buildings in the immediate area had been leveled from the shockwaves along. Dan was only alive because he had ducked for cover behind a sturdy stone wall.
The dust cleared, and from it, a figure was seen. The man in purple had survived the barrage of punches. He didn't even have a scratch on him.
He brushed some dust off his shoulder, and mockingly, the man in purple said, "Not bad for a Stage Three, but you're weak! Too weak! You should just become a sacrifice and die!"
Dark clouds slowly formed a spiral in the sky.
Blue arcs of electricity began to run along the spiral of clouds until they gathered at the center.
The electricity formed a glowing sphere of electricity that gradually began to grow larger as time passed.
The Elder turned his head as he looked around at the town he had loved, which was now either ruble or was in flames, and sighed.
'I hope I managed to protect someone at least...'
He had no way to defend himself from the attack. By the time the Elder brought a sturdy enough defense to the sky, it would already have been too late.
The man in purple brought a cheap notebook from his cloak. He chuckled, "If it weren't for this little book, I probably would have at least gotten a bruise or two from that attack of yours. Thanks to the book, though, it gave me all the information on you I could have ever needed!"
The Elder grew enraged as he realized what that book was, "You...!"
The man in purple laughed madly, "Hahaha! And to get it, all I had to do was kill a little bitch! She tried to keep it from me, so I made sure to punish her!"
The man spoke loud enough for even Dan to hear, despite their distance from each other.
Dan's eyes turned bloodshot as he stood up from behind the wall.
The man in purple continued, "Well, it was slightly entertaining! Time to die!"
[Storm's Judgment!]
zzzzzz! Booooom!
A torrent of blue electricity came crashing down onto the Elder and what remained of the earth giant.
They were instantly vaporized and turned to ash from the high voltage.
The lightning lasted for a full second before it dissipated. All that remained was a crater scorched black and some lingering arcs or electricity on the ground.
Dan let his hands down from his ears; they were ringing a high-pitched sound. His hair stood on end.
'Why am I alive? That lightning strike should have killed me.'
Slowly opening his eyes, he found an earthen dome surrounding him, slowly crumbling.
The Elder had noticed last second that Dan was still in the vicinity. He didn't have enough time to save himself, but using the last bit of his strength and resolve, he had sacrificed the rest of his mana and even some of his life force to protect Dan from the incoming attack.
He looked around and saw that almost nothing of the town was left standing. He suddenly locked eyes with the man in purple.
Dan gulped the saliva in his throat.
In the blink of an eye, the man in purple appeared in front of Dan.
"What an interesting aura you have, or rather, lack of one."
(A/N: Changed from a blue to non-existent aura for future plot reasons)
The man lifted Dan up by his throat with one hand and squeezed tightly.
In a condescending tone, he said, "How unfortunate, if that weakling hadn't protected you, I probably wouldn't have found you. Then again, you would probably be dead if he hadn't. Hmm, I guess, either way, you were done for."
Dan could see the man's face clearly. He had crimson eyes and black hair. The man also had had his cheeks gouged out at some point. The top and bottom of his cheeks had stitches going across them, making his mouth look like a scarecrow's.
His face turned a slight shade of blue, and he felt his mind go fuzzy.
Abruptly, another man in a purple robe appeared out of thin air. The new person's robe was laced with silver. The new man immediately kneeled in respect and said, "Sir! The lord says to bring the souls we gathered back to him at once."
The crimson-eyed man flung Dan into the sky. "Ugh, fine. You're such a buzzkill... Sigh, let's go."
...
Ka-sploosh!
Dan landed in the river. Mind still fuzzy, he struggled to break the surface of the water.
Haaaah!
He broke the surface and quickly panted for air, following which, he swam to shore.
Dan staggered along as he walked aimlessly. He was lost; he didn't know what to do.
'That bastard could have snapped my neck in an instant! But he didn't; he wanted to see me suffer!'
Dan pulled the notebook out of his pocket, which was now soaking wet. He separated some of the pages carefully as to not break them.
'As I thought, it's unreadable...'
"Aah!"
While immersed in his thoughts, he suddenly stumbled over something in the grass and fell.
Cursing his clumsiness, he looked at what he had tripped over.
He had tripped over a black-edged dagger. It was the very same dagger that had once made its home in his sister's neck.
Anger welled up inside him.
'I swear that I'm going to make that man pay.'
Dan engraved his sister's killer's face into his mind.
'If it wasn't for him, then I would still be happy!'
'If it wasn't for him, my home would still be there!'
'If it wasn't for him, then my sister...'
He added a new goal to his list. Dan vowed to get revenge as he gritted his teeth in anger. 'I'll pay him back tenfold with the same weapon he used to kill my sister!'
Dan now had two goals. To discover every type of magic, skill, and spell, and to kill the man who had taken everything from him.
He suppressed his anger; he would save it for if- no, when he encountered that man again.
Before Dan knew it, he had fainted from exhaustion.
...
Dan awoke by being hit on the head. Looking around, he found himself surrounded by heavily armored knights who were all pointing weaponry at him. They all had equipment that gave off an indescribable pressure.
He glanced down at his hands and legs, only to find he had been shackled with chains. He was incredibly confused.
A man who seemed to be the leader said, "You are being charged with first, and second-degree murder, mass genocide, serial killing, terrorism, destruction of government property, destruction of personal property, and as a traitor to the Kingdom of Ash"
Dan exclaimed in confusion, "What?! How could I do all of that?!"
The man in charge slapped Dan, "Quiet! You will not speak unless spoken to! You are sentenced to be a criminal slave for life."
Dan was bitter, he was being charged for something he didn't even do! The only good thing was that he got off easy. The kingdom needed a scapegoat for the tragedy, so they put the blame on to Dan when they found him as the only survivor.
They had been lenient due to the circumstances and scapegoating, so he got off easy. Just being a traitor would get one executed normally, so that was one thing to be happy about.
He also got to keep the black-edged blade and his notebook. It's not like he was an actual threat anyways.
He was sold off in a bulk sale to the Dralos Kingdom, and that's how he had ended up in the soul-stone border mine.
It was also somewhat convenient for him because the bones of a titan-class beast gave rise to an abundant ecosystem, which in turn, allowed him to research many different types of magic.