On this dark day, he stood alone, the emperor of what used to be a mighty empire. His army of hundreds of thousands destroyed. Destroyed by the hands of demons. Only he and his blade were remaining, slaying the countless demons and anomalies that were surging from the dark.

There was still hope, he thought, knowing well that except for him, no one remained on this earth. Everything was lost, yes, but if he let his hope turn into despair, he would quickly fall like everything else did, because the only thing that kept him alive and differentiated him from everyone else was the fact that his hope remained, and would keep fighting in till his very last breath.

Even if everything else was lost, he would cling to hope. Fighting not just with his strength, but with the unwavering force of his will, he believed that, until the very end, keeping his head high and his hope higher would lead him to triumph. He might fall in battle, and perish at the hands of his enemies, but in the end, he was certain of one thing, the victory would be his.

Maybe he was wrong, maybe not, not even the gods knew. The gods were praying for their last child, to keep fighting, fighting until he slayed every last foe. If he did, he would become one of them. A divine being, a god!

One after the other, his sword was slashing through the endless hordes of what was once his knights, friends, and family.

After what seemed like an eternity, he started feeling like he would fail, that he would die. But he remembered them, remembered what it felt like years ago. When he was not alone. His people would yell "ALL HAIL THE EMPEROR!!!", his wife had said "Come back to me, my love.", his children asked, "Where are you going, Daddy?". Then he remembered the speech he made before venturing into this endless battle. Those thoughts brought him strength. And fueled his hope.

Even if he knew they were dead, he had made a promise and would do everything to keep it. Even if they were now dead, an emperor shall respect his word. And so, he slashed at the demons. Killing one after another. Mountains of corpses lay as far as his eyes could see. The dead bodies that rose from the dead and turned on him. He was now fighting against the shells of the people he swore to protect. He swung his sword, cutting through their rotten flesh, splitting their rotten bones.

Again and again and again he swung and lashed. His sword now rusted and cracked. He would fight until the end with everything he had left. His teeth, his hands, even his feet if he had to. He would kill, exterminate, and destroy them until there was nothing left but his desolate land.

At last, after a hundred and ten years of fighting, he finally killed the last enemy. The sea of monsters that first attacked them, had now become a sea of corpses, most of them rotting after the flow of time. He had killed them all, the demons and the corpses that transformed from people to monstrosities. He was an emperor, a hero, and maybe even a monster.

As a father, he had once known happiness, tenderness he could barely remember now. Those long-dead feelings whispered at him through the fury and the endless waves of falling enemies. To his daughter, he had been more than the sword-wielding beast he had become; he had been her guardian, her comforter, the one who would protect her from all the dark things of the world.

But now, the dark things we're from within, emerging from his own hands, his own blade. Every kill seemed to echo in the hollow space inside him. where her voice had once called him "Daddy." Though he had risen to the mantle of an emperor, a nightmare, at the core of that hollow, was the promise of a father—a promise he had kept, twisted by centuries of blood and bone.

In his heart, beneath the mask of wrath, he remained hers, remembering that he had once held her with the same hands that were now stained red.

Now that everything was over, everything ended, his task was finished, he could finally ascend, ascend and become a god. It wasn't by greed, nor avarice, but a far more darker, yet gentle reason. Because when a mortal ascended into a god, he had one wish, one wish that was sure he would turn to reality, and that wish was, to turn back the flow of time and erase the demons from existence, but unfortunately, such a wish cost a hefty price, and that was himself.

The only ones that would still remember the one hundred and ten years of bloody battle would be the gods, ascended beings that humans couldn't even wish to comprehend.

—-----

''That's it for the night, Corvus, you need to sleep now, I'll tell you some more stories tomorrow night.'', said a… gentle voice? The little boy, with short dark hair, looked at his mother before opening his gentle and curved lips and said, "And the night after that?".

With a sigh, the woman with long and beautiful brown, almost black hair said, "And the night after that too…" but you need to promise me you'll sleep and behave well, here and at school. His red eyes that looked like ruby started to illuminate, the tip of his lips turning into a grin, "Yes!!! I promise!!!".

The woman chuckled before slowly kissing him on the top of his head. Then she started falling into the embrace of their bed, and gently whispered, "I love you, good night", to her cute little angel, with her… beautiful voice?

Unfortunately, he didn't get the chance to hear her stories again, in fact, he never heard anything from her again. On the following day, coming back from school, with the paper flower he had made, a beautiful paper ornament he wanted to surprise his mother with. He wanted to make her smile.

It took him the entire day to make it, and he was happy with the result. With his little and delicate hands, he had made a masterpiece. And so, coming back from school, he opened the door of the little wooden house that was small even if only for two people. The house had one room, with a double bed a kitchen, and a table, you could even say that it was spacious for commoners.

Normally, they would have to share the house with another family, but the inheritance from his deceased father had set them up for the next 30 years at least. It would if they kept living like this.

The little house had a split in it for a door handle, which was little to but big enough to put a finger or two and pull. 

His crystal-like eyes, ruby red were shining bright, reflecting the daylight until just a moment ago, now as dark as night. His eyes had lost everything. From shining brightly to total emptiness with nothing inside, but soon to be filled with sadness, rage, and darkness.

His mom, whom he had loved, and adored, who was his star in an empty sky. His mom who told him countless stories about kings, hunters, and heroes. The sole person whom he wanted to see smile, the only person that made him smile, was now dead. Her cold body lying breathlessly on the floor, braced by coldness. Her last breath had not been heard by anyone.

She was naked, stripped of all her clothes, bleeding from places that shouldn't be. A terrible scene that not a single soul should have ever seen, especially not a child. A child who happened to be hers. A genius wasn't needed to know what had happened, but in the eyes of a child, god knows what he thought at that specific moment.

He froze, it was like time had stopped, his eyes could see his mother, eyes wide open, crying, yelling for help, help which never came. He wasn't there when she needed him. When she needed him the most.

The world was yelling in his head, telling him to avenge her, to find the culprit, find the one who did that, to kill them, to cure the plague in this now rotten world.

—-----

Ten years ago, 3 years before Corvus was born, when his mom and dad first met each other. It was on a rainy night, the beautiful starlight sky was shadowed by a family of clouds. The rare thread of light that could pass through was lighting the darkest corners.

The wind was calm, the trees even more. The rain was falling on the street filling up the road. It was a calm night, the only sound being the multiple raindrops reaching their short-term goal. There were only two people on the street that night, one being a pandemic doctor coming from his late patient's house, and the other, a young farmer girl that had just closed her stall in the adjacent village. Only a couple of hours ago, and was now coming back.

The two of them bumped into each other, the young girl falling on the ground with her empty basket now broken. The doctor started to apologize and helped her back to her feet. She looked hurt and cold. So he offered to let her warm up at his house which the young farmer soon declined, but after seeing the road and sky she decided to accept with a sight, he even offered to give her a new basket to replace the one that had broken. It was quite tempting since it was her only basket. And she really did need one.

On that note, she asked him where he lived, and he pointed at the house that was right in front of them, she nervously laughed before running with him to get out of the heavy rain, and into his cozy-looking wooden house.

It had a small crack for a door handle, and inside was a single room with everything for one person, which included a double bed. Realizing that, the girl soon blushed panicking about whether it was a good idea or not to go inside. She accepted the help of the stranger, who at first glance looked quite normal.

Was she going to lose her innocence tonight? Was he going to ask for indecent things? The young man, looking at her red innocent face laughed and said, "Ahahah, don't worry miss, if you want to stay for the night I'll sleep on the ground, you'll have the bed, I won't be doing strange things, not that I think your thinking about that of course.", holding back another laughter.

 She felt offended and decided to just hit him in the stomach, the guy fell on the ground in pain, laughing harder than the rain. The girl opened her mouth, and in an angry tone she said, "You could have some respect for a beautiful young miss, you won't get to see someone as perfect as me often after all.".

The masked doctor holding back once again his laughter got up and took off his mask, revealing a beautiful, almost perfect face, with only a scar on his right eye which made him blind on that side.

Looking at the masterpiece she had in front of her, she started to blush and utter, even with a scar, she thought, "How could something so beautiful… be?", she couldn't take her eyes off him, which of course made him fluster too. "hum, co- could you maybe stop looking at me like that?", realizing her mistake, she quickly glanced in the other direction.

—-----

He knew what he needed to do, his mind was now set, and he had a goal, a mission to accomplish—looking into the eyes of his beloved wife, of his beloved mother. What was she to him again? And before he could even understand what was happening, his thoughts exploded, it was like another person had entered his head.

Memories of somebody else started flowing through his mind, his eyes widened in pain, pain like he never felt before, pain he couldn't begin to understand. However, he knew one thing, he knew that the pain was a must to advance, not why or how, but he knew. 

Like awakened from his slumber, he stood on his two legs, looked one last time at the body lying in front of him, and turned around. He looked up and then down, took a wooden piece off the floor, and picked up a box from under it.

After catching a glimpse of it, he opened it, inside was a mask, a long robe, a pair of gloves, a hat, a hood, and a pair of boots. It looked like clothes that a doctor would use, after a while, he took everything out and put it on. Even if a moment ago it was too big for him. It fit perfectly now, it wasn't the fabric that changed, but him, he was now way over 6 feet.