In a far-off place, amidst vengeance and enmity, flourished an inseparable bond between two half-siblings.
But one incident changed things forever.
Year 2006;
In an underground Arena, a 15-year-old was fighting for his life against an angry bull at atleast ten times his size. He looked deeply injured.
"Kill" "Kill" "Kill" "Kill" "Kill"
Hundreds of cheers filled the arena as the teenage boy was rolling, jumping, and doing whatever he could to evade its attacks.
Amidst the audience, there was a teenager in tears, who more or less looked the same as the fighter, pleading with the man in a suit and bodyguards behind him. "Big Brother, please show mercy upon him. He is still a teenager. Don't punish your own blood because of false accusations from a servant."
The man in a suit resolutely answered with his gaze fixed on the field, "Don't take me for a fool, Marvin. I know what kind of person that trash was. And don't dare you call yourselves my own blood. Both of you should be thankful that my mother treated you as her own, but in return, your brother showed his thankfulness by committing such a deed against a girl. There's only one punishment for such an act."
"Argh…"
Following his words, a painful scream escaped from the boy in the arena, and Marvin abruptly turned his head to find his twin brother getting pierced by the horn of the magical beast.
"No… Arvil…" He shouted in agony, but his cries were drowned under the cheers of the spectators, who only found it exciting to watch someone die in front of their eyes.
Letting out a deep sigh, Richard Blaze patted the head of the kneeling boy, "Remember, Marvin. We are the descendants of the Hero. We have to be as strong as the trunk of a Banyan tree, even when its cursed branches were cut off, one after another."
Marvin raised his head to look at his brother in hatred for the first time in his life.
In the far-off place, once the seeds of hatred sprout in the heart of a warrior with weak willpower, even a hero could turn into a villain.
First-person POV;
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 oppose 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 a normal thing, 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.
Who am I, anyway? Let me introduce myself first.
My name is Arceus Blaze, son of Richard Blaze and the heir to the legendary Blaze family.
Why is it legendary, you might wonder.
Well, if I had to explain it, I should probably start from the first age of Astron, which probably doesn't have a beginning due to historical inaccuracies, but surely has an ending.
Thousands of years ago, when mankind was still struggling to defend itself 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 then 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, it was a fact that once he had fallen, the elves, the dragon, 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 were popping up everywhere. This is the third age of Astron in which I was born.
If you think our family was called legendary because of my ancestor, you are wrong by a mile.
It was actually my direct ancestors who played a huge role in making our family achieve a legendary status, which was only given to eight such families in the entire world.
So, what did my family do that they were given the legendary status?
I don't know if it is the curse or the blessing, but whenever our family chose a side in the power struggle, our chosen one would always end up as ruler. Because of that, our family amassed a large amount of fortune.
The only problem was that we don't tend to stick to one party all the time. That's why 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 not the most talented child. There was someone else; well, atleast, according to my relatives.
The favoritism from my father often brought dissent from my uncle, who is thirteen years older than me.
With the rank of an S-class Hero and the spirit of a six-winged Angel, he is considered one of the strongest members of our family, but due to the fact that he was the result of an illicit affair between my grandpa and a maid, the elders weren't ready to accept him as my dad's successor.
It is tough for ancient families like us to become as broad-minded as the commoners.
However, as my brother became the youngest S-class, my dad's worries about my future increased. He doesn't trust our power-hungry relatives much.
Without my consent, he decided to take the responsibility into his own hands after I turned 10 and awakened the ocular powers, a rare occurrence in our family.
Hoping that I would become a strong leader, my dad decided which academy I would attend, what I would do after graduation, and even fixed my marriage with the princess.
As if that wasn't enough, he even created our organization's branch thousands of kilometers away and sent my uncle away.
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 have taken 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.
2017, 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 the 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 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.
People think she is a graceful lady, but I know that behind that beautiful face lies the heart of 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 into the royal family, she would have become a villain and caused trouble for the masses.
Unfortunately, I couldn't do anything 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.
I, too, felt numbness in my body and fell to the floor with my consciousness intact, just like the others.
It was then that I saw my uncle, whom I hadn't seen for two years, come with an army of hooded figures.
In front of my eyes, my father's head was cut off by that bastard uncle of mine. 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 that attended the party, excluding me and Lysa, Marvin crouched in front of me and looked me in the eyes without any sort of emotion on his face and said just one simple sentence that would haunt me in my dreams for several years, "The era of false heroes is over, my dear nephew."