Six months passed in brutal solitude.
Allen lived like a phantom in the wilderness no fire, no shelter, no rest. The forest became his crucible. Every day was war. His clothes were torn to shreds, his hands calloused and bloodied from endless battles with beasts that had lost their fear of man.
They came in the night, drawn by the scent of something… unnatural. Monsters mutated by SERRA, by madness, or worse crept through the underbrush, their eyes glowing with hunger. And every night, Allen survived. Not through strength alone, but through evolution.
He had unlocked something new.
A technique born of desperation, honed in blood:
Copy.
By channeling Darkness SERRA through his mind and body, Allen learned to clone himself. At first, it was crude misshapen shadows that melted after a few seconds. But he persisted. Now, he could make three perfect copies, each one able to move, act, and even fight for brief moments. They couldn't feel pain, and they didn't hesitate.
He used them to hunt.
To scout.
To kill.
By night, they helped him surround monsters. By day, they mimicked birds, deer, even insects silent eyes in the trees. The copies had no will, but they didn't need one. He controlled them with thought alone.
Every use of the power came at a cost. It wore down his body, tugged at his mind, and sometimes, when he stared too long at his own clone… he wondered if it stared back.
But he needed it.
He had to survive.
Now, the day of his return loomed.
Allen stood at the edge of the forest, the sun bleeding through the leaves like a warning. The place where he had arranged to meet Doryan to finally reunite him with his daughter, Lara was only two days away.
But Allen wasn't ready.
The thought of returning to the kingdom gnawed at him.
Lara was there.
So was the Iron Chain.
And the memory of what he had done with it.
"I made a promise," he muttered, tightening the cloth around his wrist. "I'll keep it… even if it kills me."
He had more than one reason to go back now. There was something else he needed to finish unfinished business buried in blood and silence.
That's when he heard the scream.
A desperate cry echoed through the trees.
Allen crept forward, shadows swirling beneath his feet. Down the slope, a lone farmer ran through the underbrush, his clothes torn, face streaked with dirt and fear. Behind him, a group of forest beasts thin, clawed, fast raced through the trees.
"Please GOD! Someone save me!" the farmer cried, stumbling over roots.
Allen narrowed his eyes. "I don't have time for this…"
He didn't want attention. Saving someone meant exposure. If word spread, if someone recognized him, it could ruin everything. He thought about using a Copy to save the man quietly… but something held him back.
He watched, silent.
Then something clicked.
The man wasn't scared.
His aura… it wasn't afraid.
Allen's eyes widened. He pushed deeper into his Darkness state, activating his mind-reading ability.
"We got you, fool."
Allen froze. "...A trap."
He spun around but it was too late.
Six royal guards dropped from the trees in front of him, blades drawn and cloaks fluttering. Their armor bore the seal of the Twelve Kings black and gold.
Then a presence behind him. Three of them.
Thorne Vessan. Callis Moren. Rika Solden.
Three of the Six Knights' students all stronger now, all ready for blood.
Thorne stepped forward, lightning arcing between his fingertips. "So. This is the great fugitive? Honestly, you're not as clever as the rumors say."
Callis smirked, hair drifting in the wind. "Should we even call him smart? You use illusions and shadows to hide like a rat."
Rika cracked her whip of water, eyes burning with hatred. "You piece of shit… we've been through hell to find you."
Allen's mind raced. No. Not now… Doryan… in two days… I can't get caught.
Rika snarled, "How the hell did you erase your SERRA presence? We couldn't sense you at all."
Callis answered before Allen could speak. "It's barely existing anymore. He's suppressing it so hard, it's like he's not even alive."
They were mocking him. But Allen didn't respond. He was calculating. Searching for any escape.
Thorne, surprisingly calm, said, "Don't underestimate him. That's what he wants. We're ordered to bring him in alive. He still holds the cure to Lyra's illness."
Then his voice turned colder. "But fight back… and we'll cut off your arms and legs."
Callis grinned. "By the way, your tricks won't work on us. We know about your healing. And your mind reading. That's why we trained to erase thoughts from our minds. We can fight with pure instinct now."
Allen took a slow step back. His clones stirred silently in the darkness behind the trees.
Think, Allen. THINK. How did I fall for this stupid trap?
The forest trembled with tension.
The fight was coming.
And this time, it wasn't just about survival.
It was about everything he had left.
Allen raised both hands slowly, the forest wind tugging at his cloak.
"…Okay," he said quietly. "I give up."
Rika blinked, surprised. "Ahh… how boring."
She smirked, walking forward with her water whip coiling beside her. "But just to be sure… I'll break your limbs. Wouldn't want you running off using some stupid trick again."
Allen didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
Didn't even blink.
Rika raised her hand ready to strike
But Allen's lips curled into a small smile.
"Maybe I can't read your minds…"
Suddenly, shadows surged upward like smoke from beneath his feet.
"…But you can't read mine either."
Darkness swallowed him.
In a blink, his body vanished into the swirling void.
Shadowverse.
From within the shadows, Allen's voice echoed, tauntingly:
"Heh… who's stupid now?"
But the moment he emerged from another patch of darkness, Thorne was already there right behind him, blade crackling with lightning.
"We predicted that already."
Callis's voice followed as wind tore through the trees:
"Your Shadowverse allows you to teleport between shadows within 200 meters. But that's not enough to escape us."
A brutal punch caught Allen in the ribs, sending him flying through a tree trunk. Wood cracked. Blood sprayed from his mouth. Before he hit the ground, Rika lashed out with her whip wrapping it around his ankle and slamming him into the dirt.
They weren't giving him a second to breathe.
Allen tried to rise, but Thorne was there again, raining lightning strikes down like a storm. Allen raised his arm, activating the defensive SERRA Transfer technique Doryan had drilled into him absorbing the kinetic energy and redirecting it. But the power behind Thorne's attacks was immense. His bones rattled with every clash.
"Block this!" Rika shouted, slamming down a deluge of water like a hammer.
Allen dodged, but the ground turned to mud beneath him. Callis surged in with a blade of compressed wind, slicing across Allen's shoulder.
He spun and countered, creating two dark clones that intercepted Callis and Rika, giving him room to breathe. But they were immediately vaporized.
Lightning lanced through his chest Thorne again.
Allen screamed, collapsing to one knee.
Why…? Why haven't they captured me yet?
He gasped, bleeding and dizzy. If they wanted to… they could've. I can't stop them. They're not fighting seriously…
Then it hit him.
They're not trying to capture me…
They're toying with me.
"Ha!" Rika laughed. "Your turn, Thorne. Let's see who messes him up more."
Thorne smirked. "Watch and learn."
Callis hovered behind them, arms crossed. "We're keeping score, by the way."
Allen's vision blurred.
They're… competing.
This is a game to them.
He looked down at his hands, trembling. Blood dripped from his fingertips.
They think they've cut my wings.
They think I'm weak.
He clenched his teeth. "Think… Allen, THINK…"
Suddenly the floodgates broke.
A tidal wave of voices crashed into his mind. Thoughts. Whispers. Screams. Prayers. Thousands of them.
"Please let them survive."
"I hope he burns."
"If I scream loud enough, maybe they'll kill the traitor faster."
"Allen… that's the boy, right? The monster?"
He clutched his head, screaming in agony.
His mind burned.
"Wait…" he croaked. "These thoughts… there are too many… why?!"
Thorne walked forward, arms glowing with electric light.
"You noticed, huh?"
His tone was mocking now.
"Today is the Promised Day. Every year, at this exact time… the public execution ceremony begins."
Allen froze.
"You've lost track of time in those woods," Thorne said, smirking. "But we knew you'd still be listening. Always reading minds, right? So we decided to teach you a lesson."
Callis grinned. "How does it feel, Allen? To read every mind in the city at once?"
"Great, isn't it?" Rika added with a sneer.
Allen collapsed to one knee, hands still gripping his skull.
They dragged him near a town filled with thousands of people. Thoughts stabbed into him like daggers. They weren't just hearing his pain they were weaponizing it.
He screamed as memories, hate, joy, despair, and anger surged into him all at once his own voice lost in the sea of a thousand others.
"Shut up… shut up SHUT UP!!"
His hand reached for the ground. His fingers touched the metal of his spear, half-buried beneath the dirt.
He gripped it.
And with a broken breath, launched himself skyward.
Lightning chased him.
"Hah! You can't even aim!" Thorne yelled.
Rika raised her hands, summoning a tidal surge of water and SERRA that spiraled toward him.
"Let's see how you fly through this!"
Thorne combined his lightning with Rika's water electrified rain fell like blades from the sky.
Allen was midair, but had nowhere to go.
He forced a clone to absorb one wave, but a second struck him from below.
Pain exploded in his ribs.
He twisted, trying to stabilize mid-air but Callis was already weaving wind below.
Tornado.
A deafening vortex exploded around him, lifting the storm of lightning and water into a hurricane of chaos.
Allen was caught in it tossed like a ragdoll, cut by shards of wind, shocked by bursts of lightning, crushed by raw force.
He screamed as he was hurled out of the tornado downward.
He slammed into the earth.
Hard.
His body rolled, broken and gasping, to the edge of a wide cobbled road.
A crowd was moving nearby hundreds of civilians heading toward the central plaza.
Allen lay there, one arm dislocated, blood dripping from his lips, unable to move.
Above, the three disciples of the Six Knights stood on the cliffs. Watching.
Rika laughed. "Oops. Looks like our little game got out of hand."
Callis nodded. "He'll live. Let the crowd take care of the rest."
Thorne didn't smile. He just watched Allen silently… then turned away.
Allen lay in the dirt, broken and unmoving.
The crowd didn't recognize him. His face was covered in grime and blood, hair matted, clothes tattered beyond identity. As people rushed past toward the execution square, they stepped on him like trash.
He didn't scream at first.
But when he tried to stand, he realized
He couldn't feel his legs.
"W-What…?" Allen gasped. "No… no no no no!"
Panic surged through him. He clawed at the ground, dragging himself with shaking hands.
Then came the laughter.
They stood above him Rika, Thorne, and Callis faces smug, expressions cruel.
"You thought you escaped?" Rika said coldly.
Her massive lizard, nearly the size of a horse, slithered beside her. Its scales were black and red, like cooled lava. It hissed, jaws dripping saliva that burned the ground.
Allen turned his head weakly his legs were gone.
Fed to the lizard.
He screamed.
Not a heroic scream. Not a warrior's cry.
A raw, animalistic shriek of pain and terror.
"PLEASE! PLEASE! MERCY!"
He crawled toward them, tears mixing with blood.
He licked their boots, kissed their feet, begged like a dying animal.
"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'll do anything don't kill me please!"
Rika's laughter was cruel. "Gods… this is pathetic."
Callis sneered. "You always were a stain."
He knelt beside Allen, grabbed him by the neck
And with a clean slice, severed both of Allen's hands.
Allen's screams echoed like thunder.
"This is the end," Callis whispered.
He grinned.
But then
A deep laugh echoed through the air. Mocking. Ancient. Confident.
Callis's eyes widened.
"W-What…?"
Then BOOM.
The Allen he held detonated, releasing a massive surge of compressed SERRA.
It was the serra bomb.
The explosion tore through the clearing.
Callis's body was launched backward his arm gone, face half-burned. He hit the ground and didn't rise.
Thorne and Rika staggered back.
"WHAT?!"
"How?!"
The voice returned clear now, resonant, like it came from everywhere at once.
"You really had a bad time, huh?"
"You thought this was your show. But let me ask you something…"
"Didn't you think it was strange that the crowd didn't react to our fight?"
Thorne's eyes darted around realizing now: the people weren't moving. They were standing still. Frozen. Blank.
Clones.
"W-What…? But they were real minutes ago…"
"Do you remember the spear I threw?" the voice continued. "It was never meant to hit you. It was charged with SERRA to cause a mass panic explosion."
"They all ran. You didn't notice… because you were too busy treating me like a doll."
"The truth is… you were the dolls. In my game."
A spear dropped from the sky Allen's spear. It slammed into the ground, causing another eruption of SERRA. The shockwave separated Thorne and Rika, scattering them across the battlefield.
Then it got worse.
They looked around the clones surrounding them had changed.
Each clone… now wore their own face.
A dozen Thornes. A dozen Rikas.
Mirroring every movement. Mocking them.
"What is this sorcery!?" Rika shouted.
Thorne tried to rally the guards. "Assist us NOW!"
But the guards turned on them.
Attacked them.
A New Nightmare Begins
Thorne and Rika were forced into a wild, chaotic battle.
Blades clashed in the street. Fire and water collided. Lightning tore apart illusions wind scattered clone after clone.
Thorne used his lightning spear to impale three guards but five more came at him, yelling Allen's name.
Rika screamed as her own lizard, confused by illusions, attacked her clone until the real Rika sliced it down in fury. She called out to Thorne, but he couldn't respond.
Rika's whip spiraled in every direction, water boiling from rage. She threw ice spikes, only to have them redirected by clones. Her breath was heavy. Her thoughts racing.
"They're everywhere… they're ME…"
After endless combat, the real guards were dead.
Rika collapsed to one knee, gasping.
Thorne's arms hung limp. His armor cracked, face bruised. He growled, "Why… why did they attack us…?"
Then came the voice again.
"Because I made them see me as you."
"And now, the only enemies left… are you two."
"I can feel it you're no longer fighting with instinct…"
"You're fighting with fear."
"You brought me here to suffer from mind overload. But the truth is…"
"It doesn't bother me anymore."
"I brought you here."
"And now… you can't escape."
Madness in the Mind
Allen emerged from the shadows, standing calmly.
He reached into Rika's mind and twisted it.
Suddenly, Rika turned and saw Allen standing beside her.
But in truth, it was Thorne.
Her eyes widened in terror.
"YOU!"
She pointed at him, trembling. "L-Lizard, ATTACK!"
The massive beast her beloved pet now barely tamed leapt forward, obeying her command.
Thorne shouted, "RIKA! It's me! SNAP OUT OF IT!"
She screamed, backing away.
The lizard lunged its jaws tearing through the air toward Thorne.
He had no choice.
He fought back.
Long, Brutal Fight: Thorne vs Rika's Beast
Thorne dodged as the beast's jaws slammed down inches from his throat. He rolled, lightning dancing across his arms, then blasted it in the side with a surge of energy.
The lizard screeched, skin crackling from the strike but it didn't stop.
It charged, tail whipping toward him like a tree trunk. Thorne jumped over it, barely avoiding being crushed.
He conjured a lightning spear, drove it into the beast's eye but it kept moving. Blood sprayed from its face, but rage drove it.
He leapt onto its back, trying to choke it with electric tendrils But it slammed him into the wall.
He coughed blood.
His body was burning out his SERRA near empty.
"I… won't die like this…!"
He charged one final blast threw it straight into the creature's throat
BOOM.
The explosion tore the beast apart.
Blood. Smoke. Silence.
Thorne dropped to his knees.
He looked up, dazed.
Allen stood above him.
Laughing.
Crying from laughter.
"Bravo… BRAVO! What a show!"
"You made me hurt my friend."
"And now… you're going to pay."
He slammed his foot into Thorne's face.
The night was heavy with silence.
Thorne Vessan lay bound in darkness his arms chained by shadows, blood crusted along his jaw, vision blurred from exhaustion and defeat.
Across from him, in the dim glow of flickering blue SERRA flames, Allen sat quietly.
Watching.
Waiting.
Then he spoke.
Calm. Icy.
"You still have that proud look in your eyes, Thorne."
Weren't you the one ho suggested to not underestimate me.
Thorne spit blood at the floor, refusing to meet Allen's gaze.
"You're wasting your time. I won't beg."
Allen chuckled, slow and sharp.
He stood, stepping into the light.
"Oh, I'm not asking you to beg. Not yet."
He raised a finger and the flame shifted.
An image appeared in the fire: Rika and Callis, beaten and unconscious, suspended in shadowy binds, somewhere else in the forest.
The funny part is that i almost forgot the ceremony execution how could I forget but thanks to you refreshed my memory.
Unfortunately we won't be able to attend to real ceremony.
So i came with this idea how about we create ours.
Thorne's eyes widened. "If you touch them!"
"Touch them?" Allen interrupted with a quiet laugh. "Thorne… I'm going to destroy them. Slowly. Unless…"
He stepped closer. The chains tightened around Thorne's arms.
"Unless you beg me for mercy. And kiss my feet."
Thorne snarled. "Never."
"Then say goodbye to them."
Allen turned, raising a hand. The image flickered Callis groaned, a dark tendril tightening around his throat.
"Wait !"
Allen paused.
"That's what I thought."
He knelt before Thorne, holding out one foot with deliberate, disgusting arrogance.
"I want to hear it, Thorne. I want you to look me in the eyes… and say: 'Please, Allen. Have mercy. I'm nothing compared to you.' And then you'll bow. And you'll kiss my foot like the failure you are."
Thorne trembled not from fear, but from rage and shame. His pride screamed. But his friends Rika, Callis they were all he had.
He bit his lip until it bled.
Allen watched, unmoving.
"Tick tock, thunder boy."
Finally, Thorne dropped his head. His voice cracked.
"…Please… Allen…"
"Louder."
"…Please, Allen… have mercy…"
"And?"
"I'm… I'm nothing compared to you…"
Allen smiled grin wide, eyes filled with cold fire.
"Good."
Thorne, trembling with rage and humiliation, leaned forward
And kissed Allen's foot.
The moment stretched.
Allen closed his eyes and exhaled, as if enjoying the moment of victory.
"That's more like it."
Allen stood alone in the chaos.
Clones faded. Smoke cleared.
He lifted Thorne's unconscious body over his shoulder knocking him.
His grin faded into a cold stare.
"One down."
"Time to go home."