During a stygian night only to be illuminated by the stars distant and out of reach of mortals. An island stood in the middle of a lake that reflected the 4 moons of Veniel and what stood on top of the island was a cell house stretched for nearly half a mile (0.8 km)—almost engulfing the island whole. But unlike usual, a crater could be seen that destroyed a portion of the cell house, and in the middle of the crater stood the bloodied figure of a demon boy while surrounding him were numerous figures—each with a weapon in hand.
"Your luck has run out now, hasn't it boy?" Frere said with a neutral tone but if one looked at him carefully, they would notice his eyes were filled with fury.
"I admit it. It was my mistake keeping you alive but I won't make the same mistake again. Everybody..." Foere commanded while raising his hand to draw everybody's attention.
"...kill him."
Without wasting any more time, Foere and everybody else rushed at Ares with nothing but the lust to kill. Ares, even when not in the right state of mind, knew his nonexistent chances of winning this battle, especially when his body should've long crumbled but only standing due to the purple cracks that engulfed his body. But even in this state, even when his consciousness was nearly non-existent, he wished to find it, the key to understanding both himself and his Path.
*Crack* *Crack*
Ares immediately began jolting forward with extreme fervor that wished to devour all those who stood in his path.
His bones, muscles, and more, were convulsing from both the stress and damage they had been through while the purple cracks seemed to be pushed to their limits trying to hold them together. Ares's mind was being pushed to the limit where even now he was on the brink of being unconscious, this didn't stop him as...
*WHOOSH*
*TEAR**TEAR*
Ares ripped off the first two guards' heads with just a simple motion of his hands Immediately 5 guards came behind Ares but due to his petite body, he was easily able to navigate through the strikes. This however didn't last long as one of the guards had a sure-hit strike on him from behind him but before the guard could deliver the blow...
*TEAR*
Ares's tail smacked his body tearing him into two halves. It had to be noted that Ares's current body was strong enough to pierce a 2nd Layer's Aura so 1st Layer meant nothing to the current Ares. Then suddenly a flash came near Ares's face, and knowing the opponent was a team leader, Ares put his full focus on him and blocked the ongoing sword strike with his jet-black reptile tail.
*CLANK*
To the team leader's astonishment, the sword covered with Aura only managed to make a dent to Ares's tail. Then Ares leaped toward the team leader to rip him apart but then suddenly...
*FOOSH*
Suddenly Ares felt a gust of wind hitting him and was thrown back dozens of meters away.
*COUGH*
Involuntarily, Ares threw up large amounts of blood as his body began to shake. Looking up with maddened eyes, he saw Foere calmly floating in the air while looking at Ares in disgust.
"Do you see yourself right now? How are you any different from an injured beast with no intelligence whatsoever? A being like you is something that not only I but the world is disgusted by-"
*Crack**Crack*
"!"
Ares's purple cracks began to enlarge and started to convert into a deeper hue and soon turned pitch-black. Soon a pitch-back ambiance surrounded Ares which started turning him into something unholy.
Foere didn't know what kind of metamorphosis was occurring but he knew it was anything but good.
"GRAAAAAAAAHHH!!"
Without wasting time, Ares rushed at Foere with veins bulging all around his body giving him a beastly look. But in doing so, the guards around Ares were able to gain an opening. An opening that they didn't miss.
*Stab**Stab**Stab**Stab**Stab*
Ares's body was filled with stab wounds. The wounds soon were covered by black cracks which only seemed to further enrage the berserk Ares.
Suddenly, in a blinding flash, Ares's body was covered in cobalt-like energy which soon turned into a blazing blue flame.
The time limit for the use of [Embers] was up.
With this sudden occurrence, the guards were given no time to adapt and nearly everybody was either burned to death or gained severe burns.
Suddenly a team leader came in front of Ares covered his fist with Aura in landed a gut punch. Ares then tries to spread his flames but the team leader counteracts the flames from spreading to his body.
Given no choices, Ares goes on a spree by landing any punches without rest giving no time to the team leader to defend
*Bam**Bam**Bam**Bam**Bam*
The pattern continued before Ares turned his fist into a claw-like shape and swung it toward the team leader's head.
*TEAR*
Ares ripped off the team leader's head but just before he could continue to go on a rampage...
*Pierce**Pierce**Pierce*
The three team leaders left stabbed right through Ares's chest but before they could pull back their swords, Ares's flames roared toward them, an amount that even their Aura couldn't protect them from.
Even so, the team leaders had succeeded because at this point even Ares couldn't keep moving.
Or so they thought...
With three swords stabbed through him, countless stab wounds, broken bones, ruptured muscles, and more, Ares kept moving towards Foere who was still floating in the air.
Foere then pulled a substantial amount of wind toward his hand and began compressing it. Ares made his last push by jumping towards the floating figure of Foere with maddening eyes, but then the compressed wind shot towards Ares.
*BOOM*
Immediately Ares was brought crashing down to the ground creating a 2-meter(6.56 ft) crater around him. Slowly Ares's berserk eyes began to go back to their usual self, but even then, they looked near lifeless.
'I failed...' were Ares's first thoughts when regaining clarity and began to move towards the slaves who were being slaughtered due to them being injured and are now considered 'worthless.'
But he ignored the slaughter and began to fervently look for an individual.
Soon he found him. An old man with now disheveled hair, a fluffy beard that seemed no different than clouds, and limbs so thin that they showed the outline of the bones.
Surprisingly the man looked calm towards the slaughter in front of him. Then, suddenly, he began looking elsewhere and soon he found Ares who too was looking at him from a distance.
Despite the impending doom, he looked into the boy's eyes. He didn't give an expression of disappointment, anger, or hatred, no, he gave an expression with looked both serene and divine to Ares's eyes.
He mouthed words that seemed unintelligible, but Ares who saw them, found himself in a trance by them.
'Thank You, Ares.' were his final words that were spoken with a content smile, and not long after, he was slaughtered with indifference. Ares didn't show any kind of emotion to the slaughter. No sadness, anger, guilt, or anything really, because on that day Ares's reality, which previously glowed with hope, began to dim.