A slender figure stood in the courtyard of a building that could be classified as a mansion. His whole body was covered in scars, which seemed to be caused by cuts. His face was tanned, and he had a long scar running from his left eye to his chin. His left eye was damaged with the scar on it, and the other eye had blue pupils.
He was currently strangling the neck of a boy who seemed to be five-years old by his blood-stained baby face and a small stature. The boy was struggling to remove the man's hand off his neck, but was failing miserably. Beside the two of them, there was a woman present, who had both of her legs and hands twisted in a weird shape
She was looking at the two with horror in her eyes, she first looked at the struggling kid and then at the man and shouted while crying
"Alistor, why are you doing this? We haven't done anything to you. Please atleast spare Tim, you can torture me however you want but PLEASE SPARE HIM"
Alistor didn't give any reaction as if he hadn't listened to what the woman had said. After a few more seconds of struggling, the boy stopped moving, his horror-filled eyes slowly lost its life and his bright-red face started to lose it's color. The woman shouted hysterically
"TIM!!!!!!! NO!!!!!!!"
Alistor then let go of the boy's neck, causing his body to fall to the ground.
He then turned to the woman who was screaming frantically and said, sad and sympathetically.
"Do not cry, Martha, I hold no grudges against you or your son. If you both weren't required to help your dear husband to gain his true sanity, I would have never even thought of harming you."
Even though Martha heard Alistor, she was in no condition to process what his words meant. She started crawling towards the boy's corpse by wiggling her body and using her broken hands to push her body. Alistor watched it all happen and then looked at the entrance of the courtyard with some anticipation in his eyes.
When Martha reached the corpse of Tim, she put her head on the his chest and started crying to the point that she had difficulty breathing, but it didn't bother her. After a few minutes of crying, her eyes also lost its life, and her body lay motionless on the child's chest.
Alistor, seeing all of this, smiled and stood near a pillar of the mansion, leaning on it for support.
"Mark, my friend, I am waiting for you. I have prepared all of the things necessary for you to gain your true sanity, so that I finally will have a fellow comrade."
He muttered to himself.
A man arrived at the mansion after a few hours. He was tall and bulky, with tanned skin and a few light scars on his body. He exclaimed happily as he entered the house.
"I am back, Martha, I even bought a premium wooden sword for Tim. I know this time I was late, but forgive me, the war lasted longer than ex-"
Before he could finish his sentence he entered the courtyard and saw the corpses of Martha and Tim. For a few moments he merely stood there, frozen, when he gradually regained his senses, he ran towards the corpses shouting
"Marthaaaa!!!...Tim!!!"
He took both of them into his arms and began checking their heartbeats; when he realised that they were both dead, he started to question if everything was real. He had just returned from a war and had many plans to make his wife and son happy, but after witnessing all of this, he started to convince himself that it was all an illusion.
But before he could completely convince himself, he heard a familiar voice coming from his back
"Mark, my friend, this is the gift I prepared for you, are you devastated? Do you feel that something inside of you is calling out to you?"
Mark was an army general who had fought and won numerous wars, so he had enough experience to figure out the situation by now. He quickly stood up and kicked Alistor in the chest with all of his strength, sending Alistor hurtling into the wall metres away. He then screamed as he dashed towards Alistor.
"Why did you do this? WHY!!!!??"
He grabbed Alistor by the neck and slammed him into the floor, he kept repeating it a few times before slamming Alistor's body against another wall. But all he could see was a smile on Alistor's face which grew wider the more he beat him. He then aimed a punch at Alistor's smiling face, but it was stopped by a hand before it could hit him.
"This was necessary my friend, now don't you feel stronger? Isn't the despair fueling you to surpass your limits? You only need a little bit more desperation before you gain your true sanity. But worry not my friend, I will help you in that."
Alistor's body began to make crackling noises, which resulted in his broken bones visibly recover at a rapid rate. He then began twisting Mark's hand which was in his grasp. Mark groaned, but the adrenaline didn't let the pain affect him much.
Alistor punched Mark in the stomach with such speed that left Mark flabbergasted. Before he could react the punch landed on his gut, causing him to spit out blood. Widening his eyes, he questioned Alistor while coughing
"H-How!!??"
Alistor smiled and answered
"Did you really think that I was as strong as you? I would not have lived in this place full of weaklings if it hadn't been for the fact you have the potential to release the demon sealed inside us. So, don't let me down, Mark."
Alistor then grabbed Mark's head and bashed it on the ground. Mark was about to pass out from the sheer strength of the slam, but remembering the death of his wife and children, he came back to his senses and started using his full power.
Mark's body was engulfed in flames as he hurled fireballs at Alistor. Alistor smirked at the approaching fireballs and snapped his fingers, causing the fireballs to explode in the way.
"You truly are a genius in the fire law; The power of these fireballs are stronger than they should be for someone in your realm, but it is not enough to even scratch me. Don't you want to seek revenge on me for killing your wife and son? ..... TRY HARDER MARK"
Mark started to chant something, after a few seconds the ferocity and the temperature of the fire surrounding Mark started to increase rapidly. His skin started to show cracks, through which an even hotter fire started to rise. He then raised his hand and started manifesting a beast-like creature made of magma-like fire
Alistor started laughing and said
"GOOD, you truly are worthy of being someone capable of embracing their true self. Out of all the candidates I have tried this on, you have come the farthest in the trial. KEEP GOING!!"
Mark started sprinting towards Alistor, his speed was atleast ten times faster than before. Alistor, for the first time, took a defensive stance and started emitting a strange translucent-white gas around him.
When Mark's kick was about to hit Alistor, his body stopped in mid-air, and the strength of the kick was absorbed by a translucent-white gas around him. Mark was experienced enough to not panic, he pulled a dagger from his boots and threw it towards Alistor.
Alistor smirked at the approaching dagger and snapped his fingers, stopping the knife in mid-air. He then released a strange green cloud of vapor from his hands, which he directed at Mark at an incredible speed. He then started speaking with the struggling Mark
"Mark, embrace the demon within you, it isn't something to fear. It will be the only thing which will accompany you till death, it will be the only one truly sad when you take your last breath. So accept it instead of fearing it."
The vapor slowly started surrounding Mark which left him immobile, his hands and legs slowly went weak and he fell down. Mark eyes widened as he desperately tried to move his body, but he was unsuccessful. Seeing this Alistor smiled and muttered to himself
"Though I could easily defeat you, wouldn't it be more effective to give you the idea that you could possibly beat me if I didn't use my poison arts?"
Mark looked at Alistor with eyes red with anger and said
"YOU BASTARD!! Martha treated you like her brother, why did you do this?... kill you... I will kill you... I WILL KILL YOU!!!!!"
The powerlessness and inability to avenge his wife and son's death slowly started to put Mark's mind into chaos, Alistor took advantage of the moment and started speaking
"You see, this weakness isn't because you didn't practice enough or your talent wasn't enough. It's simply because you aren't currently your true self, nobody in the world is , and that is where I come in. Even if you hate me, I will still help you embrace the demon hidden within you and become someone truly powerful."
Alistor then put his hand on Mark's head, his hand started glowing in a red color. A few seconds later, Mark's body began twisting and turning in strange shapes, and he shrieked as loud as he could. This continued for half an hour before Mark stopped making the noises.
Alistor looked at Mark with anticipation in his eyes, he waited for an hour there waiting for Mark to move or show some reaction. During the waiting, he occasionally murmured to himself
"After all the agony, all the torment, you are finally letting your demon descend."
When Mark showed no reaction for hours, Alistor's eyes were filled with disappointment and sorrow. He then said in a sad and disappointed tone
"I had high hopes for you, Mark, but you disappointed me too. What am I doing incorrectly? Why can't they embrace their demons? Is it because they aren't desperate enough? 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩 I suppose I'll have to test it on a few more people before I find out what's incorrect."
Alistor then began rushing away from the scene. He was running at a much quicker speed than he had been during the fight, and his wounds had also recovered entirely in such a short period.