12:00 AM. Midnight.
And we're already sprinting through the Sand Dunes like we made a personal enemy out of fate.
Why?
Simple. FORTY LUNARANITE DRAGONS ARE RAIDING THE PLACE.
"WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!" Olsen screamed, officially spiraling.
"I DON'T KNOW—JUST RUN!" I yelled back.
The sky cracked open.
Meteors tore through the clouds and slammed into the dunes behind us, shockwaves rolling through the sand like earthquakes. The ground buckled under my feet. We didn't slow down. Slowing down meant dying.
The wind howled, whipping entire walls of sand into the air. I could barely see my own hands.
Demaurion was right beside us.
Not fighting.
Dragging us out.
"Stay close!" he barked, water energy flaring around his boots as he slammed a hand into the ground. A wave of compressed sand and mist blasted outward, knocking a Lunaranite clean off its feet behind us.
I tightened my grip on my dagger.
A shape burst from the storm.
Lunaranite—spear raised, eyes glowing silver.
I didn't hesitate.
One clean slash across the throat. Blue-black blood sprayed. The body collapsed into the sand.
"Keep moving!" Demaurion snapped.
The dunes steepened. The wind got meaner. My lungs burned.
Behind us, the attackers weren't just dragons.
Dark Don.
Overbrawl.
And dozens of Lunaranite warriors tearing through the battlefield.
A beam of golden light split the sky.
Celestianites descended through the clouds—wings wide, feathers blazing gold and white, spears crackling with light energy. Dozens of them. Maybe a hundred.
Reinforcements.
Actual, no-joke reinforcements.
Their leader hovered above the chaos.
"GET OUT OF HERE, KIDS! WE'LL HOLD THEM!"
Half the Lunaranites peeled off and charged us anyway.
The Celestianites collided with them midair.
Everything exploded into chaos—steel on steel, wings slamming together, bodies crashing into the dunes.
"THANK YOU!" Ella yelled as we ran.
Something flew toward us.
I caught it—a coin, gold and white, warm like it was alive.
"What is this?!" I shouted.
"THINK OF WHERE YOU WANT TO GO AND THROW IT!" a Celestianite yelled back. "SOMEWHERE SAFE!"
My thoughts raced.
Thunderstark Kingdom.
The Gadian Sea.
Anywhere that wasn't here.
"THUNDERSTARK KINGDOM!" Olsen shouted. "IT'S SAFE—AS LONG AS WE DON'T TOUCH ELECTRICITY!"
Demaurion didn't argue.
"Do it. Now," he said, gripping my shoulder.
I clenched my jaw and hurled the coin.
Light swallowed us, and the portal opened, golden energy flaring around it as it hovered. The Thunderstark Kingdom, lightning flashed, skies were a deep blue.
VROOOOM! Dark Don surged forward, Lunar Lance cleaving the air, silver arcs of moonlight coiling like living ribbons, energy snapping and flaring around its tip.
He smirked, voice low, razor-sharp: "Finally… the one I've been hunting."
"SERIOUSLY?!" I shouted, yanking out my second dagger. SHING! SHING!
Prince froze. "DON! THIS IS NOT WORTH A WING, MAN! COME ON!"
"IT'S OKAY—GO!" I barked.
WHOOSH! SWOOSH! BLAST! They dove through the portal, and I planted my feet, violet eyes flaring. SHIIIINE!
FWOOOSH! ZING! Dark Don lunged, Lunar Lance whipping outward in a crescent of molten lightning, arcs of energy tearing through the dust.
I ducked low. WHIP! Sand sprayed as I flipped backward, landing with a sweep of motion that tore a shallow trench in the dunes. BAM! CRACK! My kick collided with his shoulder, energy fizzing off the impact.
SWISH! FWOOM! He spun, the Lance slicing horizontally, a spine of static electricity racing along the air. I rolled under it, dagger snapping upward. SNIK! SNAP!
ZOOM-ZOOM! I blink-stepped behind him, afterimages collapsing into a single ghosted strike at his ribs. THUMP-THUMP! CRACKLE! POP! Sparks erupted where dagger met lunar-charged steel.
THWING! He lunged again, tip stabbing forward, the blade crackling with fractured starlight. I leapt back, boots cracking the sand into shards. SKREE! CLANG!
"I've trained my whole life for this," he said, a halo of fractured energy spiraling from the Lance. WHOOSH! SWOOSH!
ZAP-ZOOM! I weaved, ghosting by his flank, dagger nicking jaw and side. The Lance hissed SSSSHH! CRACKLE!, whipping arcs that sawed through the sky.
WHOOOSH! THUD! Spin Drop low—he flipped backward like a ragdoll in a storm. WHOAAA!
"KEEP COMING!" I roared. RAAWR! I blink-stepped, afterimages stuttering across the sand. ZOOM-FLASH!
BAM! CRUNCH! His lance butt slammed into me, pressure detonating outward. SKREE! FLUTTER-POW! Sand and energy spiraled like a storm around us.
BLIP-BLAP! FWIP! SWISH! He warped diagonally, ribbons of lunar energy streaking his path, forcing me to roll aside. SKREEE!
"Faster than this, Don? You'll need more than luck!" he taunted, aura pulsing with molten lightning.
BLINK-BLINK! ZOOM-ZOOM-ZOOM! I appeared behind him, dagger carving a crescent slash across his chest. SHHHIIIING!
"RAHH!" I bellowed. RAAAWWK! Dagger flashing, I hurled the other. He deflected. CLANG! The Lunar Lance shattered, shards of fractured starlight scattering. CRACKLE-BOOM!
Weaponless, he staggered. Eyes glowing, voice low and dangerous: "Not… done… yet."
I heel-kicked him skyward. WHOOOSH! BAM! I blink-stepped above, dropping a Celestial Slam straight onto his spine, energy cascading in a dome of molten lightning.
KRA-KOOM! He slammed into the sand like thunder, coughing, dazed, sand vaporizing under the impact.
I readied twin daggers. SHIIIINE! I lunged, afterimages folding over one another, slicing his arm. THWACK!
He glared, teeth bared. "You… can't—win—so easily."
SHWHOOSH! In a flicker of white light, he vanished, leaving a warped streak of afterimages. Gone.
Just like that.
I turned to see Power throwing hands with Overbrawl while the Celestianites clashed in full force against the Lunaranites.
And oh yeah—we were winning. Hard.
I stretched, popped my knuckles, and smirked.
"Time to clean the house."
My eyes lit up, crackling with violet rage, and I sprinted straight into the warzone. The wind shrieked around me, but my battle cry was louder.
Power caught my eye and grinned just as the Lunaranites swarmed.
I clutched my daggers and dove into the madness—cutting, flipping, and carving through the crowd like a tornado with knives. I flipped mid-air, landed a Spin Drop, and sent bodies flying like bowling pins. I skid across the sand, reversed, and hurled both blades straight into two enemies.
Direct hits. They rebounded back into my hands, and I blurred forward again.
One Lunaranite—slice, throat gone.
Another—cut across the knees.
Third—launched sky-high and split in mid-air.
I surged upward, body blazing with celestial energy—then crashed down like a meteor, erupting a crater that flattened half the zone.
Surrounded?
Good.
I twirled my daggers and let loose—shredding through enemies at superhuman speed. My movements became a blur—an unstoppable blur of fury.
Chains of energy snapped into my hands. I lashed them out—caught a dragon mid-air—and spun it like a yo-yo from hell before slamming it down, shaking the entire battlefield.
Dragons fell. Dust spiraled.
And still, more Lunaranites dropped in like they hadn't just watched their whole squad get decimated.
I stood still, surrounded. My eyes glowed a piercing amethyst.
"Why do you keep coming?" I said, voice echoing like thunder. "I've already wiped out half your army. What's left?"
I cracked my neck.
"But hey… if you really want more—"
I clapped my hands once. A small spark.
Again—brighter.
And again—louder, fiercer, the energy radiating like a growing star.
Then I snapped my head up, eyes blazing.
"I'LL MAKE SURE TO GIVE YOU BLINDING DESTRUCTION!"
FLASH!
A blinding burst lit up the entire Sand Dunes like it was high noon in a supernova.
Ten celestial mirrors exploded into the air. I transformed into a rolling surge of energy and bounced between them at hyper-light speed, creating so many afterimages I looked like an army of me. The Lunaranites couldn't keep up. They were lost.
Then—CRACK—I punched one straight in the face with so much force, it triggered a shockwave that cracked the ground beneath us.
I ricocheted between the others like I was in a pinball multiverse, trails of celestial energy streaking behind me. I rocketed into the air, fists glowing like miniature galaxies.
Back in position, I roared,
"365 DAYS!"
Ten colossal, glowing fists rained down like meteors, pummeling the battlefield.
My entire body surged with celestial fire. I boosted downward, both fists charged and aimed at one last dragon.
BOOM!!!
I smashed it with enough force to send everything—dirt, bodies, air, time itself—flying backward.
I whipped out my daggers and blitzed through the survivors, throat-slashing in a spinning frenzy. I leapt, flipped, and slammed into the ground again, unleashing another shockwave.
Spin-kick. Decapitation. Dropkick. Stab.
Daggers flying in every direction like the final boss of a bullet hell.
Then I turned, blades wide, and sprinted through the crowd. I spun around mid-stride and fired a massive celestial beam from my daggers, the energy shrieking as it tore through the air.
KRA-KOOM!!!
The resulting explosion ended it all. Silence fell.
I stood alone in the aftermath, surrounded by scorched sand and fallen enemies. Blood stained the battlefield, and celestial energy still crackled wildly across my body.
My heart started beating faster than ever, I was tired but not that tired.
The Celestianites turned to me in shock, and Overbrawl was already on the ground defeated. Power was with the crowd of Celestianites, and they were astonished too.
One of the baffled Celestianites walked up to me, wide-eyed.
"Th-there's no way you, a 12-year-old, just wiped out like… 140 Lunaranites in a few minutes?! Who even taught him this stuff?!"
Another Celestianite leaned toward the one beside him and whispered, "Told you he'd win. Now pay up."
"He's crystallized too…" one muttered, stunned.
"I've never seen a young Crystallized Celestianite take down an army of Lunaranites and Dark Don in one go."
"I'm surprised too."
"You think he's gonna be our next leader after Vigilzante?"
"Isn't he part of the prophecy?"
"Where are his parents?"
"He's becoming a Hero, I just know it."
That's when Power strolled into the middle of the crowd, standing next to me like the main character in a war movie.
"Alright, everybody chill out," he said, waving a hand. "I taught him that stuff. Well… most of it. He picked up some tricks when he was younger too."
He glanced around. "Now clear out. We got somewhere to be."
Suddenly, Overbrawl staggered to his feet. He clutched his scarf, his teeth clenched so hard it looked like they might shatter.
Then—bam! He fired an orange energy dart right in front of us. A vortex exploded open, swirling and twisting until it morphed into a glowing portal. Without warning, he swiped his arm forward, creating a shockwave that yeeted us straight through.
And then…
we were falling.
FROM. THE. SKY.
We plunged through thick, foggy gray clouds, the air buzzing with static. Thunder cracked like it was screaming at us, and lightning tore through the sky like it was trying to start a fight.
Rain pelted us. Hard. It felt like the sky was throwing cold punches.
"WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?!" I yelled mid-air, twisting toward Power, who was also plummeting like it was a casual Tuesday.
Power looked down, his face getting serious fast. We finally broke through the bottom of the clouds and saw where we were headed:
Straight into a pool of pure lightning.
Yup. A giant crackling pit of blue-white electricity, surrounded by dark rocky terrain, jagged mountains, and some… things.
Great. Just great.
Power didn't answer, which meant we were probably about to die.
I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for pain—but instead, I felt this weird tingly, soft sensation. Like static mixed with feathers?
Suddenly, I heard a warping sound—
BAM!
Face-first into the rocky ground.
Power and I groaned as we got up and looked around, dazed.
"What just happened…?" I mumbled, shaking off the fall.
Rain was still hammering down, thunder still yelling, lightning still doing its electric temper tantrum.
Then I saw them.
Creatures. Big ones. Small ones.
Never seen anything like 'em.
One caught my eye: it was massive, armored in cracked dark plating with glowing energy snaking through the fractures like molten lightning. Its jagged face looked born from nightmares, its arms were radiating raw energy—and debris was levitating around it like gravity was taking a nap. The entire atmosphere buzzed like a live wire.
No doubt.
That thing was using the Lightning Element.
And then it hit me.
Zirixes.
Only rock-eating lightning creatures native to one place:
The Thunderstark Kingdom.
Most were small, but a few were massive—and we were smack dab in their territory.
That's when I spotted everyone—huddled inside a small glowing-blue cave in the distance, hiding from the storm. Through the thunder and rain, Power turned to me, pulling on a ripped gray cloak.
"Let's get in."
We trudged forward, rain soaking us to the bone, thunder roaring like the gods were arguing.
Inside, the cave was dim and cool, a little haven of calm in the chaos. I plopped down next to Archie and the others—Olsen, Prince, Demaurion, Ella…
And wait—
"ANGEL?!"
There he was, sitting cross-legged like he hadn't just been pulled into a full-on cave battle. His soft blue jacket looked like it came straight from a science lab catalog, gray jeans slightly rumpled, and his glasses sliding down his nose just a bit. Blue owl ears twitched atop his head, talon-like feet tapping like he was running calculations, and his folded, shimmering wings shimmered like he'd been analyzing light refraction all day.
"You're here too? How?!"
Angel—Portal Elemental Electronite. Cool nerd vibes, lowkey awesome, always three steps ahead in calculations and five steps ahead in sarcasm.
"I… uh, was conducting some observational studies in this cave, you know, until someone decided my privacy protocols were irrelevant," he said, adjusting his glasses with a precise finger tap.
"Your privacy doesn't matter," Archie muttered.
Angel's eyes narrowed behind the lenses. "Just as your… empirically invalid opinion doesn't factor into the current situational analysis," he shot back, voice calm but laced with the tiniest trace of superior logic.
I was about to argue, but—
Boom.
Curiosity literally smacked me across the face.
"Angel," I asked, hesitating, "why do you want to be a Hero of Avangard, if you even want to?"
Angel's eyes widened like I'd just asked him to explain quantum physics using only interpretive dance. He looked down, fiddling with a small clasp on his jacket. Sighing, he adjusted his glasses and finally looked back up at me, voice measured and nerdy with that weirdly compelling calm.
"For my future. And not just in some abstract sense," he began, fingers drumming a rhythm only he seemed to hear, like he was coding some mental algorithm. "I mean… practically speaking, I want to ensure maximum safety outcomes for Elementanites. Statistically minimize casualties. Optimize quality-of-life variables. Also—monetary gain, if feasible, to redistribute resources to struggling populations in the Rufty Mountains. Because equity isn't just morally correct; it's statistically beneficial for societal stability."
I blinked. Yep. Nerd alert. Full-on.
"Helpless Elementanites can't remain helpless. Variables must be controlled. Inputs optimized. Failures minimized." He tucked a stray strand of blue hair behind his owl ear, looking almost smug but mostly… scientific.
I see it now. Everyone wants to become a Hero of Avangard for a reason—but Angel's reason is like he ran the numbers and concluded the universe demands it.
"I remember… when I was five," he continued, voice dropping into nostalgic lecture mode, "I was a little Narian Miner. Loved the job, very hands-on, very empirical. But the profession deteriorated—data shows increasing hazard exposure and decreasing oversight. Young miners now face dangerous conditions due to cost-cutting and poor protocol enforcement. Morbidity and attrition rates skyrocketed. Witnessing these variables affect long-term outcomes was… disheartening. Thus, optimizing societal infrastructure and resource distribution became a personal mandate. Make life equitable. Reduce unnecessary risk. Maximize happiness indexes. That's why I want to become a Hero of Avangard."
He paused, squinting at Archie, who was idly igniting a little campfire that floated midair, casting flickering shadows on the cave walls.
It crackled, and it gave us warmth. I sighed, "This feels great."
That was until I noticed Demaurion sitting right next to Archie. He was holding his Trident, and it had 8 Leviathan meat stabbed through the top. I smiled at him knowing that he killed the Leviathan on his own.
He took them out, and he threw the meat at the fire. The meat started to slowly cook, and I stretched my arms and wings. The Thunderstorm out there was still going on, but I could feel peaceful here. Power turned his head to me with a proud smile,
"Don, it's pretty astonishing for you to defeat Dark Don and the entire Lunaranite Army on your own." "You're getting stronger," he rubbed my head. "I know," I said looking down. Prince lay back, "You know, I heard that there was a Power Gem in the Thunderstark Castle. I was thinking—maybe we could take it for our adventures. I mean, we're the Chosen Ones so nothing could go wrong."
Ella chuckled, "Prince, when you say that everything goes wrong." "But I'm sure we'd be okay." I looked at the two with a smile, "Let's just make a plan tomorrow. We sneak into the castle and we take the Power Gem, that way we can be ready to fight the next beast that comes in our way!"
At Foreshade, A Steep Mountain
I stood at the cliff's edge.
Foreshade sprawled beneath me, thick black fog twisting like it knew me. My boots dug into stone. Wings folded tight, heavy. Not rest. Restraint.
I breathed in.
Cold. Clean. Sharp.
"I never… understood," I whispered.
Her words. The ones she almost said. The ones she left behind like smoke. Fading. Almost nothing.
Silicia.
Her name made something ache inside me. Not pain, exactly. More like a question that kept folding in on itself, impossible to answer.
"What did you mean?" I asked the empty wind. "What did you want me to promise?"
The memory came back in fragments. A smile that didn't reach her eyes. A hand that didn't leave mine long enough to feel safe. A voice, soft, urgent, like it was being swallowed before it reached me.
"…don't let—"
That was all. That was it. And somehow, it shattered everything.
I swallowed hard, trying to piece it together. Don't let… what? Don't let it happen again? Don't let them win? Don't let me break?
Every scenario twisted in my head, every possibility bleeding into another.
Her death hadn't been random. She hadn't died to teach me rage. She had left me instructions. A responsibility. A promise. And I couldn't figure out what it was.
The fog below churned as my lunar energy sparked faintly, reacting to the tension in me. My claws scraped the stone. I tried to remember her voice, the cadence, the pause—every subtle hint she had left behind.
"She wouldn't lie to me," I said, voice tight. "She wouldn't demand vengeance… but she did want something. She trusted me with it."
I clenched my jaw.
Her last expression. Not anger. Not fear. Just… weight. Like she knew I'd have to carry something bigger than me. Something I wasn't ready for.
Was it to protect them? To save someone? To stop someone like me?
I closed my eyes, letting the memories drag me down. The gunshot. The scream. Her eyes wide and impossible to forget.
"I failed if I don't understand," I muttered. "I can't… I can't leave it unfinished."
The wind picked up. My wings twitched, ready to erupt. Not because of rage. Not yet. Because her promise demanded focus.
"She needed me to… do something," I said. "Something right. Something that matters."
I thought of Don. The future leader of the Celestianites. Innocent. Unaware. Potentially the key to keeping her promise alive—or destroying it.
Killing him? Sparing him? Every angle tangled into the question that haunted me: What would Silicia have wanted me to do?
I stepped closer to the cliff's edge, toes brushing stone. I wanted to scream. I wanted to throw myself into the fog just to escape the weight of it.
But the thought of her gaze—her quiet demand—kept me from moving.
"She wouldn't want this chaos," I whispered. "She wanted… something else. And I have to find it before I make the wrong choice."
The sun sliced through the clouds in a narrow blade, gold like a question mark in the dark. I stared at it. It felt like the only thing in the world trying to tell me the answer.
But it didn't.
And so I waited. And thought. And cursed myself for every second I didn't understand.
Because until I discovered her last words, until I knew what she truly meant, until I kept my promise—even in silence—there was no justice. There was no peace.
There was only me.
And the question.
At the Enchanted Kingdom of Celestia
BOOM.
A building collapsed.
Fire erupted. Glass shattered. The city screamed.
And I stepped through the smoke.
Dark Don.
I moved.
Lunar energy detonated around me as I tore through the streets in a violent blur of white light, carving through walls, flickering across rooftops, ripping through avenues like the city itself was in my way. Celestianites scattered—running, screaming, panicking.
Good.
That's how Lunaranites sounded.
I didn't slow. Didn't hesitate. I skidded up the side of a tower and launched into the air, landing hard on a rooftop as the city burned beneath me. Lunar energy danced across my armor. My fists clenched.
The Room of Zeniths loomed in the distance.
I smiled.
Not wide. Not proud.
Just enough.
I spun my lance and moved again. Buildings split like paper. CRASH. Debris rained down. Flames crawled skyward. Guards rushed in—armed, shaking, irrelevant.
"Stop him!"
I didn't answer.
One step. One strike. Lunar light tore through them. Bodies hit the ground before their screams finished forming.
The city was mine now.
A bullet came—predictable. I slid aside and fired back. BLAM. The guard slammed into stone, lifeless. I vaulted over a shattered pillar and unleashed a massive lunar beam. Entire blocks folded inward, crushed under white energy.
I landed again. Charged my lance. Drove it into the ground.
A dome of lunar force exploded outward—clean, efficient, devastating.
Silence followed.
I walked through the wreckage calmly, flames licking at my boots, smoke curling around my wings. Cars were twisted. Streets cracked. Celestianites hid where Lunaranites once begged.
"This is an announcement," my voice carried, steady and cold. "You don't get to pretend anymore."
I turned slowly, eyes glowing.
"You enslaved us. You butchered us. You killed her."
Fire hissed from my nostrils. One sweep of my arm sent a lunar blast tearing through the street, scattering everything in its path.
"Killing one leader won't fix this," I said. "Killing a symbol won't hurt enough."
A voice shouted from behind a burning car. "Y-you're just a kid!"
I looked at him.
The car split in half.
So did he.
The street went dead silent.
Ash drifted. Smoke rose. I surveyed what was left—broken, empty, burning.
"Anyone else," I asked quietly, "want to defend what you did?"
No one spoke.
I nodded.
Good.
White light swallowed me as I vanished, leaving nothing behind but ruin—and the truth I'd finally accepted:
This wasn't just revenge anymore.
It was payback.
And somewhere deep down, where memory should have been, I told myself Silicia wanted this too.
That lie followed me into the light.