In almost every typical story set in the world of magic, there's always a kind of demon lord who unleashes chaos into the world, and to oppress that evil, a hero will rise.
However, in this story, in his quest to quell the formidable enemy, the hero sought power and was forced to embrace savagery as the kindness in him slowed down his progress.
Eventually, after a great struggle, he finally slew the demon, but the costs were very great.
He lost his friends, family, and subordinates who swore loyalty to him.
Filled with ire and hatred for the ungrateful society that acted as if he did what he was expected of and nothing more, he turned into a monster himself and started harming the very same mankind he had sworn to protect.
A new generation of heroes rose against him, but no one proved to be a match to this hero-turned-villain, and they all fell.
Not being able to find a way to free his soul from this abyss, the Hero spent the rest of his life in isolation and disappeared into the shadows of time.
In short, my whole past life can be summed up in these seven sentences.
Do I remember my past life?
Not really.
Since young, I was merely told by my grandpa about the stories of a certain ancestor of my family, and I was supposedly his reincarnation.
If you ask me whether I still believe it, well, I could say there are certain similarities between us, especially our ocular powers and also our life stories.
But my ending isn't the same.
Because I have comrades, who I can say are remarkable individuals, both in powers and personalities.
To know more about our story, we have to start with myself.
My name is Arceus Blaze, son of Richard Blaze and the heir to the legendary Blaze family.
Why is it legendary?
Well, if I had to explain it, I should probably start from the first age of Astron.
Thousands of years ago, when mankind was still struggling to defend themselves from the wild beasts, our supreme mages at that time sacrificed hundreds of virgin girls to please the gods, and in return, they sent a hero from another world.
He brought the magical weapon technology and beast-taming scroll to mankind, thus beginning the second age of Astron.
From there on, we never looked back.
We tamed the wild beasts, forced the dragons to hide in the mountains and werewolves in their underground settlements, destroyed the arrogance of the elves, and almost extinguished the demons from the face of our world.
Yes, the start was not a pleasant one, but that changed the fate of mankind.
From standing almost in the lower order of the food chain, we became the most dominant force in the world.
This period lasted for 4831 years.
But then again, as people say, "Nothing lasts", one day, our founder fell in battle.
It was not clear who he battled with.
Some historians say that he battled with the werewolf progenitor.
Some say that he challenged the Dragon Empress and got himself eaten.
Some say that his life was ended by the Gods themselves as his existence caused the imbalance in the world.
Some say that it is the work of elves, and some say that he was betrayed by the Emperor of Divinia, who used to rule the world at that time.
Whatever the truth might be, once he had fallen, the elves, the dragons, the werewolves, and the magical beasts started troubling mankind; a civil war started in the empire and gave birth to multiple countries, and evil organizations started popping up everywhere. This is the third age of Astron, which I was born in.
One must be wondering what this has to do with our family being legendary.
Is it because of my ancestor?
Not really.
So much time has passed that there are hundreds of thousands with the Blaze surname and thousands of families claim that they are the direct descendants, although none holds as much as wealth and power our family had.
Then, did our family play a huge role in anything?
Well, yes.
But, not in a way that I'm proud of.
Our family was known to switch sides several times to side with the winning party.
During the past 5000 years, it happened so many times that people started believing that whomever our family chose would be the rulers. Because of that, our family amassed a large amount of fortune.
Some historians call us the legendary traitors while some call us the saviors.
Fortunately and unfortunately, I was the favorite child of my father. Yeah, it is not a typo. I was both fortunate and unfortunate.
I was fortunate because I was given the best resources for my training and was talented enough to awaken the ocular powers of my ancestors.
But, at the same time, I was unfortunate because I'm the only male child my father had. Despite being more talented than me, my two older sisters couldn't succeed him as the next leader of the family.
Hoping that I surpass him one day, my dad decided which academy I would attend, and what I do after graduation, and even fixed my marriage with the princess.
Eventually, February arrived, and in a few days, I will turn 16.
Then, two months later, in the second week of April, I would go to the Heavenly Academy, one of the three prestigious Hero academies on the continent. After studying there for five years and graduating, I would take over my dad's position.
Never in the world did I expect my birthday would turn into a tragedy that would completely turn my life around.
2006, Third Age of Astron;
Astrapolis City, Republic of Ospana, Alsacian Federation;
As the 7th day of the month arrived, the Blaze mansion was filled with guests, influencers, Heroes of high rank (B and above class), politicians, and several wealthy individuals who were there for a party hosted by Richard, I mean, my dad.
I was aware that they weren't here for my birthday party but to meet the King of Ospana, my soon-to-be father-in-law.
While the King no longer rules Ospana, he still holds an enormous influence as it has only been two decades since the abolishment of monarchy here. So, yes, in a way, getting into his good books will help them a lot.
The King arrived with his beautiful 18-year-old daughter, Lysandra Sunfire (in short, 'Lysa'), the third princess of Ospana. She is a third-year student at Thunderclap Academy, one of the three prestigious academies of the Xynnar Continent.
Man, she was so dazzling on that day that my friends and other young men stood there in a daze for a few seconds.
However, there was no smile on my face.
Why you wonder…
Well, we disliked each other since we were children.
Not to mention, she used to enjoy watching her friends bully me.
Behind that beautiful smile lies an evil and selfish person who doesn't care about the process as long as she achieves what she wants.
If not for the fact that Lysa was born in the royal family, I'm sure that she would become a villain and trouble the masses.
Unfortunately, I couldn't do anything in this situation when I lacked the strength to disobey my father.
Since we were not going to be married until I was 21, I felt that there was enough time to break up this marriage alliance.
So, I played along as Uncle Helios, *Ahem*, His Majesty, and my father announced my engagement with Lysa formally to the audience.
Everyone was congratulating us; my so-called fiancée was quite engaged in conversation while standing beside me and I was waiting for the banquet to start so that these pests would finally leave and I would have some peace.
After some time, at last, I got to separate from her to join my friends at their table while she joined her dad and got busy with conversations.
I thought I could finally breathe in relief, but very soon, the party turned into a nightmare, with everyone falling from their seats one after another. It just happened all of a sudden.
I too felt numbness in my body and fell to the floor with my consciousness intact, just like the others.
It was then I saw my youngest uncle, whom I had admired since young and hadn't seen for many years, come with an army of hooded figures.
In front of my eyes, my father's head was cut off by that bastard.
The King didn't get the privilege to escape with his life too.
Never did I feel so helpless in my life on that day. I couldn't move, I couldn't use my ocular powers, and I couldn't even talk. The only thing that could move was my eyes, which could only shed tears and make my vision blurry as the shiny marble floor was painted red in blood.
After killing everyone who attended the party, apart from me, Marvin approached me with heavy steps. An uncontrollable stream of tears was flowing down my eyes.
He crouched in front of me and looked me in the eyes without any sort of emotion on his face and said in a low tone, "The era of heroes is over, my dear nephew. It's the era of Twilight. Now, off you go…"
As he thrust the knife into my forehead, everything went blank for a few seconds before my consciousness drifted into space.