"Run!"
Benny Radsmey, fifteen years old, dashed through the lush forest of the Shield Isle, the wind whipping against his face, the scenery passing by in a blur as his older brother, Harry Radsmey, urged him. He, too, was running with his all, clothes tattered with soot and grime on his face as the two desperately ran, not towards the fire where screams asking for aid bellowed, but away from it.
Tears fell from the two's face as they desperately tried to ignore the voices. Their family, their friends, and everybody they had ever known and loved where there, suffering, dying.
An explosion, another one, Benny remarked at the back of his mind, resounded just behind the two of them. They paid no heed to it, of course, they didn't have the leeway to do that.
"Mother… Father…" Harry muttered under his breath, clutching the rosary their parents made for them on their shared birthday.
Benny held his as well. It was just a simple multi-colored trinket made of cheap material, a memento of those beautiful, peaceful days long gone. Yet, as they held it, they couldn't help but weep, as well as run for as long as their legs were attached to their body. The rosary gave them strength, provided them hope, kept them on just on the verge of breaking.
Another explosion, this time so close that they could still feel the wave of heat coming from it at their napes, resounded.
The two's face paled as their speed—what they thought as the fastest they'll ever be—increased even more.
A reddish aura enveloped them, empowering their body, keeping them on their toes as well as helping them bare fatigue, emanated from their rosaries.
Mana.
They ran even faster, their senses enhanced. It help them avoid mishaps, kept their speed constant, their body sensing the danger before their mind even could. It was akin to having a sixth sense, and they utilized it to it's best with utmost efficiency.
Again, an explosion resounded, this time beside them, destroying a nearby tree. Wooden sharps flew towards them, arcing through the air like a scattershot.
The two, enhancement magic surrounding the two of them, dodged the wooden shards easily, making as much distance as possible as the stuck close to each other, their arms raised. They, in a manner, had been prepared for this.
A figure, lean and menacing squatted at the fallen tree, now no more than a splintery stump. Benny spared a glance, following the trail of destruction that the monster in front of them laid out.
Dozens of trees, no, an entire section of the forest itself lay decimated. Smoke covered the skies and ash filled the air as the forest burned endlessly as the screams and cries of everybody they ever knew, still audible in the twins' mind, brought them on the edge of insanity.
The monster, a lean man with green eyes and a rotating halo of runes above his head, stood up, saliva dripping down it's open maw like a feral beast. A heart, unknown as to whom, rested in his left hand. It was still beating. The monster opened his maw wide, swallowing the still beating heart whole. It formed an unnatural lump at the monster's mouth as it traveled to it's stomach.
With a sickening smile, the monster wiped the blood off his face, sending a cold chill to the twins' spine as they kept their fists clenched, blood dripping from their palms as their fingernails dug into them.
The monster looked at them with predatory intent, the edges it's lips curling up.
They stood their ground, keeping their stance low and the magic around them at rest. Their eyes were wide open, making sure that they don't miss a single twitch, a single blink, a single tell that the monster might make as to what it's next move could be.
""…?!"" With nothing more than simple step, the monster was gone. It's shadow moved from one tree to another, always moving. It moved faster than the two of them could recognize. Afterimages of it's shadow formed an array of darkk strokes.
It was fast, Benny remarked, but not unpredictable.
Benny squatted, keeping his horizontal as he placed his fist at his center, his knuckles pointed down as the boy stretched his mind, his consciousness expanding, forming a one-dimensional circle below the two of them, an intricate pattern of light and dark etched in it.
"Shield Style, Formation 5: Negative Space."
Benny kept his focus, perspiration dripping down his head, keeping his breathing stable as he kept the spell active, his eyes bloodshot open. Harry noticed this, offering some of his mana to lessen the burden.
"No!" The boy yelled, not looking back. "Shield Style isn't suitable for offense. If we're going to make it out of this alive, we need to make sure that this monster dies in one hit. We need your Sword Style… I'll be fine, don't worry."
Harry had always been an outcast, a rebel, if you will, but now, amidst this chaos, he acted as obedient as a puppy, nodding firmly to his little brother's orders.
Benny grit his teeth, despite what he said, Shield Style was still too much for his body to bear. Mana, and therefore magic itself, is still a foreign concept to him, having been only initiated a minute before. It was a miracle that he was even able to cast such a powerful spell from memory alone, let alone maintain it.
Dammit!, Benny cursed internally, 'I can't keep this up for long. If that monster takes any more time, then our whole plan is ruined! I don't even know if we CAN kill it in one hit. Harry's as much of a beginner as I am. I don't know if his Sword Style can take that monster down. At best, maybe — just maybe — we could incapacitate the monster with a well-timed critical blow. At the very least, I need to make sure that Harry can escape. There's a fishing boat just beyond this forest, ready to leave. It's our last chance.'
Blood spurted from Benny's nose, but he paid no mind to it, instead choosing to focus as much as he could on his spell.
Time itself seemed to slow as Benny kept his focus at it's very edge, just barely enough him keep him conscious.
It was then, as he felt himself slipping away, that it happened.
The monster entered his range.
"Shield Style, Formation 8: Bells of Valor!" As soon as Benny felt the monster enter his spell, he unleashed another.
The ringing of a thousand bells at once pierced the monster's and Benny's eardrums, the only two able to able to hear the spell. Blood dripped from both of their ears.
Benny smiled as the monster clutched it's ears, rolling on the ground as it groaned painfully. The monster, it seemed, was more sensitive to sound than Benny.
Without missing a beat, Harry dashed for the monster's neck, raising his arm high, almost like a sword, and brought it down, all of his mana converging on that single point. "Sword Style, Formation 1: Midday's Fury!"
Fire erupted from the boy's hand, and Benny could tell from his brother's face the pain it caused.
"…?!" He brought his hand down with a sickening scream, only to be stopped, wide-eyed, mere inches away from the monster's exposed neck, by a slender hand, milky-white hand.
"No, no, no. That's not right." The lady, bearing a dress reminiscent of a spider, clutched Harry's hand with refined grace, extinguishing Harry's flame.
The twins dazed in horror as their best attempt at survival is reduced to nothing more than an arm, no skin, no nerves, no muscles, just purple liquid, oozing from the woman's hand.
Harry, in Benny's surprise, did not scream, instead, he just stared at the vile ooze, mesmerized.
"W—What did you do?" Benny asked, his voice feeble and weak. His body drained of energy and vigor, the will to fight leaving him, only to be left by the fatigue and cruel reality of the situation. The reality that, no matter what they did, they could never win.
The lady, her pitch black sunhat covering her eyes, just smiled, clutching Harry's neck. The purple liquid melted the boy's skin, seeping into his flesh.
Benny, having completely given up, only watched with half-open eyes. Even that sapped him of any strength that he had left.
Harry fell to the ground his neck completely disintegrated. Benny felt the need to reach for him turn into lethargy, and he moved his gaze back to the woman.
"Come on, my protector. We still have many isles to go." She said in a sweet, sunny voice.
Benny blinked, and the two were gone, leaving him and his brother alone. Completely alone.
"…!!" As soon as he realized this, he felt his body coming to, his will returning to him. Several emotions swirled inside of him.
He hated himself. He loathed the monster. He admired the sunny woman. He felt deep melancholy for Harry. He felt remorse for everybody on the island. But, most of all, he felt rage and anger filling him, turning into a fire inside of him.
Benny looked to the smoke-filled sky, his lethargy turning into hate, his will turning into fury.
As he gazed into the invisible blue sky, he swore with his entire being.
"I'll kill him." No, not just him. "I'll kill them all. Every single one."
On this day, a demon was born.