Icarus did not want to die, yet here he was, standing before death in the ruins of a fallen kingdom.
'Shit...'
The muscular man standing before him swung a massive great sword down at Icarus's battered body. The man who was about to kill him was the Hero of Beasts, Herculos.
"Hero of the Fallen, you are the weakest opponent I have faced throughout my entire life. Please die here and make it easier for yourself..."
'Is this really how I die?...'
Icarus knew he had no chance against Herculos, but he could neither run nor fight against this foe.
Accepting his fate, he braced himself for death, but suddenly a strange force instantly pulled him away from the attack as strange black screens appeared before Icarus.
['The Readers' have noticed your existence]
"What is that—"
*BOOM*
Herculos's great sword slammed down, hitting the concrete wall and getting lodged within it.
['The Readers do not want the death of 'Icarus']
The strange force pulled Icarus away before Herculos could free his blade, and he noticed his blade had missed Icarus. Before Icarus could react, even more black screens appeared as the strange force pulled him through the ruins of the city.
Everything went by in a blur as he was dragged across the ruins he had been guarding with his life.
Past the rubble and debris of old buildings and towers, across a familiar stone garden and graveyard of the residents of the fallen kingdom of Solaris.
['The Readers' have opened a group chat called: 'Helping Icarus']
[Reader #324: Pingbing has joined the group chat]
[Reader #1202: Tajen has joined the group chat]
[Reader #101: Fooly has joined the group chat]
[Reader #249: REV has joined the group chat]
[+2 more....]
[Chat Members: 6]
The strange force dragging Icarus suddenly stopped in an alleyway decently far away from Hercolus.
Icarus looked around, confused about what was going on; noticing he wasn't being dragged by anyone, he stared at the screens reading their contents, which filled him with even more confusion.
'What the hell...?'
Icarus curiously touched the system, but his hand went through it completely.
"What are you?..."
[PingBing: we are readers]
Icarus read the new screen that appeared in front of him, which raised even more questions, 'Readers?'
[PingBing: were readers of ███ █████ ████]
[Reader PingBing has received a warning for 'Spoiling']
[REV: You Idiot]
[REV: Were supposed to follow the rules of... Just don't even type it to be safe]
[PingBing: even the title of this.... is a spoiler?]
[REV: seems so]
Icarus read through the messages in the group chat and began to feel even more confused.
[Fooly: Hey death fodder!]
[Fooly: For simplicity think of us as ur adviser from god, do you understand?]
"My advisers from god?..."
[REV: Guardian angels also work tbh]
[Mimiki: Just know were here to help you <3]
"A-alright?..."
'I should be thankful, right? I avoided death for now..'
Suddenly, Icarus heard a familiar roar that came from the south, "ICARUS! YOU FOOL, COME OUT YOU COWARD AND ACCEPT DEATH!"
[You have been detected by Hercolus's Blessing 'Prey Seeker']
'What?!'
[Fooly: Hey death fodder go left if u want to live.]
Icarus hesitated for a moment, but after hearing Hercolus's roars getting closer and closer, he decided to listen to 'Fooly.'
[Fooly: Run forward until u reach the graveyard then hide behind the nearest dead tree to ur left.]
Icarus quickly ran until he reached the graveyard he had created after the collapse of the Solaris kingdom and hid behind a large burnt tree that was at the furthest left.
"ICARUS! YOU CAN'T RUN OR HIDE FROM ME, BASTARD! COME OUT AND PERISH!"
Icarus held his breath after hearing Hercolus roar out nearby.
The sounds of footsteps got closer and closer.
[Fooly: Hey death fodder, do u trust me?]
'I have no other choice left, do I?'
[Fooly: gouge out ur left eye.]
'What?'
[Fooly: gouge it out. Just trust me... if u want to live then do it.]
Icarus hesitated for a moment while he heard the footsteps getting closer and closer.
[REV: Fooly, you insane bastard! No way your trying to make him unlock his...]
[PingBing: its the only way for him to survive]
[Tajen: Then all the other heroes will know he exists..]
[Korin: Do it!]
As the footsteps stopped right in front of the tree, Icarus gritted his teeth.
'FUCK IT, I WANT TO LIVE!'
Icarus gouged out his left eye as quickly as possible after hearing the sound of Hercolus's voice.
"Found you, coward."
[Mimiki: (⊃д⊂) I hate gore!!!!]
Warm blood trickled down Icarus's face as his left eyeball fell to the ground with a soft thud, golden flames burst from the eyeball the moment it landed on the soft dirt.
'It burns... so much...'
[You have gained the blessings, 'Sun Scorched' and 'Sea Cooling']
'Fuck, I can't think...'
Hercolus took a few steps back in surprise as the golden flames consumed the tree completely and soared upwards into the starry night. Icarus, in a daze, barely walked out of the flames, covered in burn scars.
[Korin: ٩(●ö●)۶]
[PingBing: so that's his blessing?]
Hercolus drew his blade from his back. "Seems the cowardly hidden hero of Solaris has finally stopped running and has decided to reveal himself to all the other heroes! Come face your death, Hero of the Fallen!"
[Your 'fable' is manifesting]
Icarus's body moved on, a black shattered blade formed in his hands that was chained by white chains to his arm and a pair of white majestic wings sprouted from his back. He readied himself for battle.
[The sun scorched the child's body, burning it, but he continued to try to live. This was his burden that he must bear.]
Icarus's hands and wings became black from the flames around his body. His scorched wings and chains waved in the air slightly as his body charged forward at Hercolus.
Hercolus's brown and messy hair flowed through the wind as he swung his great sword, 'Marmiadoise,' down at Icarus.
Icarus swung his broken blade to meet the strike.
The broken blade was engulfed in flames that erupted from the broken edge, making it whole once more. The heat changed the chains from white to black and made them rattled as he pushed forward. The moment the blades made contact, Icarus was sent flying into a nearby building.
*CLANG!*
*FWOO-BOOM!*
Icarus could not groan nor scream in pain... he could only feel the sensation of flames around his body burning his flesh. His vision was blurred, yet he got up and flew down at Hercolus, clashing with him once more.
[The child wanted to fly like everyone else, yet instead he fell from grace, he simply laughed at his fate as he fell further down.]
The clash continued throughout the night.
*CLANG! CLANG! CLINK! CLANG!*
Flames crackled, buildings were destroyed, and the taunting of Herculos continued.
Covered in cuts, burns, and bruises, Icarus stood. He felt nothing but the flames heat that gave the sensation of his flesh being burned. Multiple screens appeared before him, but he could not read them. He simply gritted his teeth and continued fighting.
[The child fell into the deep, cold ocean that comforted him with open arms, calling for his final breath... but he did not want to die... not yet, he still had a burden to bear.]
The golden flames flickered and died.
In their place, streams of cold water coiled around him, soothing his burns with a numbing embrace.
Icarus could only feel the sensation of pain this time from the cold water freezing his body, yet his body continued to move.
His blade became whole once more but instead of flames, it was water that had replaced it, his body screamed in agony as he swung his blade once more.
Hercolus blocked the attack easily and countered, and Icarus clashed once more until the battle had lasted until dawn.
[The burden of hell itself, the sins that reached the sun and the furthest oceans, go forth and die, for a better story, for a better world, for the next dawn of the next day...]
[The child's body did not stumble, did not falter... he could only bear the burden of this kingdom he loved that abandoned and imprisoned him.]
[In the end, that child slain at dawn at the hands of the kingdom he loved.]
[That was his hero prophecy of Icarus, the hero of the fallen kingdom of Solaris... destined for death.]
[Now forced to roam the ruins of the Solaris kingdom and until he is killed by heroes who have come to slain the 'traitorous bastard' known as Icarus.]
Icarus stood over Hercolus as the light of the sun shone through the ruins on them, his blade embedded in Hercolus's chest.
"Haahaa... Seriously, how weak am I?...."
Icarus laughed to himself after noticing Hercolus had not been killed yet, his blade could not reach Hercolus's heart.
Icarus tried pulling out his blade but couldn't, instead, he saw something interesting on Hercolus's chest. Tearing off Hercolus's armor and clothes, he saw deep green skin bubbles on Hercolus's skin that smelled like rot.
"Haha... even after the battle.... Haa... you fail to kill me... Ha...so called... hero of the fallen..."
Hercolus stared at Icarus, laughing to himself while coughing up blood before he finally stopped breathing and died to the hands of poison, not by the hands of Icarus.
As Hercolus, the Hero of Beasts, took his last breath, his body crumbled into golden dust.
Icarus's blade dissolved as well as its chains that bounded him to it in the air the moment Hercolus turned to dust.
Icarus was suddenly hit by a truck of exhaustion, he leaned against the rubble around him for support as the streams of water around him dissolved into nothing. His wings were no longer burnt, no longer black, and were back to their majestic form.
[PingBing: HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!!!]
[Korin: I think that scene was better then the MC's Awakening...]
[Mimiki: ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡]
[Fooly: Death fodder, you should rest now...]
[Tajen: (૭ ｡•̀ ᵕ •́｡ )૭ NICE JOB!]
[REV: Should we.....
Icarus couldn't read the rest of the messages due to his exhaustion from the battle.
As the sun shone down on the fallen kingdom of Solaris, on the remaining hero, Icarus fell.