Sounds of clashing swords filled the training room of the imperial castle.
Luke Harvestz, a fifteen-year-old boy, gracefully brandished a wooden sword.
It was just training, there was no need to use real weapons.
The opponent, a man in his 60s, was calm. His eyes easily followed, the course of Luke's sword.
With simple moves, the man blocked all attacks.
Despite having all attacks blocked, Luke didn't feel frustrated, he knew he wouldn't be able to defeat his opponent.
The difference in power between them was very big, it was like heaven and earth.
After having all attacks blocked, Luke took a few steps back.
Sweat ran down his face, tiredness pooled in his muscles, and his breathing got harder by the second.
The battle between the two has been going on for a while, and for someone like Luke, who isn't used to training, it's pretty tiring.
Taking a deep breath, Luke studied his opponent's posture. The man was holding the sword with both hands, performing a defensive stance.
If he attacked in the same way as before, he would be easily blocked.
Knowing this, Luke devised a simple strategy in his mind to try to break through the defense.
This would be his last attack attempt.
Quickly, Luke closed the distance between them. Instead of wasting the rest of his energy uselessly moving his sword, he stretched his left arm towards his opponent's face.
Moving the mana from its core to its hand, a magic circle appeared, and a fireball released.
Luke has awakened affinity with two elements, fire and ice. But what caught people's attention was the color of the flames generated by Luke, instead of the usual red, they were blue.
The man, seeing the blue fireball approaching, moved quickly, dodging the spell.
He stepped to the side and leaned diagonally, avoiding being hit in the shoulder.
This simple strategy was enough to break the defensive posture, and that's what Luke wanted.
Seeing the opening in his opponent's defense, Luke wasted no time and swung his sword diagonally, slashing up and down.
His aim to hit the shoulder, the least protected area.
Totally against Luke's expectations, the sword didn't hit the opponent's body, but the air.
The man used wind magic to dodge the attack, he cast a spell that pushed his body aside.
Now it was Luke who was helpless. The opponent did not miss the opportunity and hit the sword in the side of the young man's body.
He used so much force that the wooden sword broke.
Feeling the powerful force hit his body, Luke thrown into the air.
His body hit the cold floor and rolled until he collided with the wall, if not for the wall he had continued to roll a few feet.
Luke tried to get up, but found his vision was blurry. He felt his mouth fill with blood.
The red liquid that came out of his mouth was the last thing he saw before he lost consciousness.
After a while.
"Luke, wake up."
Slowly, Luke opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a bucket of water thrown in his face.
The icy water along with the cold weather in the morning made the young man's body shiver.
Realizing that his eyesight had returned to normal, he stood up and started walking towards the fire that lit the training room.
"First, you hit me so hard it made me pass out. Then, you threw ice water in my face. Is this how most grandparents treat their grandchildren?"
The gray haired man was Luke's grandfather.
"This is how warriors trained."
Sitting by the fire, he looked at his grandfather.
"But even warriors don't wake up at four in the morning to train."
"You have classes at the imperial academy and I have responsibilities as a former emperor, this is the only time available."
Josedh Arnstein, Luke's grandfather and former emperor of the Catalos empire.
Name given in honor of former leader Catalos Arnstein. He was the first hero and responsible for uniting most humans. Catalos, the greatest leader and greatest hero of the human, being responsible for defeating two demon kings.
When Catalos died, his successor assumed the position of leader.
After a few decades, the Arnstein family founded the Catolos empire and named it after their ancestor.
Three other kingdoms sprang up in human territory, but all, after many years, bowed their heads before the empire.
The excuse they give is that they need to unite to fight the demons, in a war that extends to the present day, but the truth is that they don't have the same military power as the empire.
Luke has Imperial blood, but he is not a direct successor to the throne.
Josedh, his grandfather, had two children, his eldest daughter, who became the current empress, and his youngest son.
Thomas, the youngest son, married Amelia Harvestz. She is the current head of House Harvestz, the most powerful ducal family in the empire.
Thomas and Amelia had two children. One of them is Luke.
Josedh looked at his grandson, who was sitting up, massaging his ribs. Luke is tall and thin, his face formed by a pointed nose and black eyes that convey calm, his hair is black and falls over his forehead in a fringe to the right side.
"That last move of yours was careless. You only thought about offense and not defense."
"Yes, that's why I'm in this state."
"It could have been worse. I could have stopped you from casting your magic by cutting your arm if it was a real duel."
The boy's eyes widened, and a shiver ran down his spine. His grandfather was right. When he reached out, Josedh could have used his sword.
If he had a real sword, he could have cut the boy's wrist region.
"You're right, I was very careless."
A smile formed on Josedh's lips as he saw Luke thinking about his mistakes. In all his years of life, many people asked to be accepted as disciples, but he never accepted.
Two months ago, Josedh went to Harvestz Manor to take some imperial swordsmanship books to replace the old ones. Thomas, is responsible for training Imperial soldiers and knights.
That day, Luke was home. Out of curiosity, he picked up one of the books and followed it step by step using a stick.
For the first time in his life, Josedh saw someone worthy of being taught by him. Luke's movements were perfect.
The fluidity of the movements was very natural, it looked like he had years of training.
Knowing his grandson's bad reputation, the only thing that crossed Josedh's mind at the time was:
"Genius."
Luke had an affinity for fire and ice, and a talent for swordsmanship. He was blessed by the Goddess of light. If he was built correctly, Luke could become a swordsmen wizard.
After, Josedh spent a month and a half insisting that his grandson train with him. However, Harvestz never liked training and always denied it.
One day, when Josedh had already given up, the boy came to him and said:
"I want to get stronger. Please train me."
Obviously, Josedh accepted.
They've been training for two weeks and Luke has surpassed all of Josedh's expectations.
In two weeks, he learned things that an above average person would take at least a month or two to learn.
'If from the beginning he had taken training seriously, this boy would be a monster at that age.'
"Luke, I didn't ask you before. But what changed your mind? Why did you suddenly want to get stronger?"
Upon hearing his grandfather's speech, memories of two weeks ago came to mind.
× Flashback ×
Luke was skipping class in the dorm.
In a world where strength is valued, most students were dedicated from an early age, whether commoners or nobles.
Everyone except Luke, he never found a reason to become strong. Therefore, he always avoided the swordsmanship lessons he had at home, did not increase his magic power, and did not gain combat experience. He learned at most a few spells related to his affinities.
A few months ago, he turned fifteen and was sent to the imperial academy, but it didn't go very well. Luke always skipped classes.
As currently, instead of going to class, he is in his room reading a book.
Everything was normal, until suddenly, a ball of light appeared in the middle of his room.
From that ball, a figure began to appear.
Startled, Luke took the sword the academy had given the students.
"Calm down. I won't hurt you, I just want to talk."
"Who are you?"
The being that just materialized, had long black hair, eyes as sharp as a sword, and skin as white as snow.
Luke found it strange, it looked like he was looking at an older version of him.
"I am Argonos, your ancestor."
Hearing his speech, Luke didn't know how to react.
Out of nowhere, a stranger comes out of a ball and says he is its ancestor.
'I am getting crazy?'
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then, he slapped himself in the face.
'It's just a hallucination, he's going to disappear.'
He opened his eyes slowly.
"Are you still here?"
The black-haired man was still standing in front of Luke with an unsatisfied expression.
"Of course I am. I'm waiting for you to stop clowning around and listen to me."
Argonos had little time, so he was angry at Luke's behavior.
Luke decided to accept reality.
"Fine. Did you say ancestor?"
"Look this."
A blue flame appeared in Argonos' hands.
"This is proof that you are my descendant. I have waited many years for someone like you to appear."
Luke was shocked to see the blue flame, the energy that came out of it was the same energy he felt when he cast his first fire spell.
"Do you know what this blue flame means?" asked Argons.
"No."
"This flame is proof that our mana is the purest there is. We have affinities with all elements." As he spoke, several magic circles formed. Each contained one element.
Fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, and ice. The six basic elements that make up elemental spells.
At ten years of age, a person can awaken the elements. Not awakening an element does not mean that an individual cannot become a mage, it all depends on talent and mana. In addition, there are other types of non-elemental magic.
"Were you a hero chosen by the Goddess of Light?" asked Lucas. In the story, only the mage selected by the Goddess awakens an affinity with all the elements.
"No, the affinity with the elements of nature depends on how pure your mana is. The purer it is, the higher the affinity number."
"But I don't have an affinity for all the elements."
"They're dormant inside you. To wake them up, you need to absorb the core of a beast that has an affinity for that element. But it needs to be a strong beast, at least A-Rank."
Hearing his ancestor's words, Luke sighed. He dropped the sword and lay down on the bed.
"What's your goal? Why did you come after me?"
"In the forest of doom. There is a dungeon I created, my legacy is there. I want to pass on my legacy, and you are the only option."
Looking up with carefree eyes, Luke said.
"This will not happen."
Argonos saw that Luke's eyes had no interest in the strength so, many spend their lives seeking.
"The Goddess has appointed new heroes, which means that a new Demon King will be chosen soon, and the war will resume."
"Where are you going with this?"
"I once heard a prophecy from an oracle, according to him, the greatest demon king in history would rise and bring ruin not only to the empire, but to the world. The world will plunge into eternal darkness, and not even the Goddess of Light will be able to stop it."
Luke felt a shiver run down his spine.
"I didn't want to die, so I entered the spirit world. I've been in this form for several centuries and the prophecy still hasn't come to pass."
"Are you saying that such a prophecy will happen soon?"
"No, I don't know when that will happen. My point is, IF it happens, what are you going to do?"
"I don't understand what you're getting at." Confused, said Luke. Only heroes can defeat the demon king. What could he do?
"I'm giving you the opportunity to become the most powerful being that ever lived, you have a talent for magic and sword, the two most valuable things in this world."
"Do you want me to become a swordsmen wizard supreme?" Luke said, trying not to laugh.
Argons sighed.
"Luke, if the prophecy is fulfilled, the empire will be invaded. Mother, father, sister, grandfather and all your loved ones can be killed, and you will not be able to protect any of them because you are weak. When everyone dies, regrets won't bring them back."
Argonos said and started to disappear, he was becoming a ball of light again.
"If you need me, my spirit will be in the holy mountains."
Argonos said and disappeared.
His ancestor's cruel words sank into Luke's heart like a nail.
The words affected the young man so much that that night he had a dream.
He was tied up, in front of him his entire family killed. Blood and severed limbs were everywhere.
Scared and desperate, he woke up.
It looked like he really had lost his family. Everyone was being killed and Luke couldn't do anything about it.
The thought of losing his family never crossed his mind.
Suddenly, Argonos' words echoed in his mind.
'Repentance will not bring them back.'
Luke, after living life in a relaxed way, finally decided to grow up.
"I think it's time to assume my responsibilities."
× End of Flashback ×
Luke looked at his grandfather and said.
"I finally found a reason to become strong."