"Dhein! Wait for me!"
The little girl's voice echoed through the peaceful noon silence as she ran, catching up to her older brother. Their footsteps fell softly on the grassy hills not far from the grand manor.
"I said don't leave me behind!"
Not batting an eye, the boy continued to run, but the girl caught up to him, nonetheless. She then asked:
"Where are we playing today, brother?"
Helpless, Dhein stopped in his tracks and let out a sigh. He thought running away as fast as he could would be enough to shake his sister off and save him from her godforsaken antics. He was dead wrong. No matter what he did or how far he went, Zarria would always catch him.
With a single drop of sweat on his cheek, the boy faked a smile and replied.
"I-I'm not going to do anything fun today. You see, I'm just having a stroll."
Zarria smiled innocently and chirped:
"Then I'll go with you! I'll follow you anywhere!"
Hearing that, Dhein's heart sank into the bottomless abyss. He felt like giving up. For as long as he could remember, this little sister of his had always tagged along wherever he went. It shouldn't have been a bad thing, right?
Except that this little girl was as strong as an ox and faster than a horse. She breaks concrete walls for fun, jumps off tall trees, fights wild beasts and defeats imperial knights like it was nothing.
She was a monster.
And he belonged to that family of monsters—the Theocheirós Clan, divinity's bridge to the mortal world. All clan members were feared by the empire because they possessed powers that no mortal should.
All of them did, except for one special individual.
The heir to the Divinity Clan himself, Dheinyrus Theocheirós.
Unbeknownst to anyone but himself, Dhein never awakened divine powers or any magical ability. For some reason, however, the people around him failed to see this fact. They always held him in high regards and treated him as the strongest Theocheirós ever born in history, and before anyone knew it, the rumor that he was the strongest human in the world had already spread in the entire continent.
Sighing, Dhein gathered whatever chance was left to convince his sister.
"It's gonna be very boring, you know? Why not go with our cousins and play with them for a change?"
His soul almost left his body when a pout darkened Zarria's face. The last thing he needed was to be in the receiving end of her wrath.
"I don't want to! Everyone says I should try to learn every lesson I can from you while I can! My brother is the strongest human blessed by the gods, so I want to seize this opportunity to become stronger too!"
'I am anything but the strongest human!' Dhein cried internally.
In the end, he had no choice but to give up.
"Alright. But as I said, I'm only going to take a stroll, okay?"
Zarria smiled widely and nodded.
With that, the two ventured into the forest.
Dried leaves crunched satisfyingly under their shoes. The warm sunlight, filtering in gentle rays through the thick canopy overhead, cast pillars of light along their path. Dhein walked without worries even though they were entering the deep parts of the woods. After all, walking right behind him was the scariest creature this continent had to offer.
He'd always wondered why everyone saw him as this godly entity. No matter how he looked at it, he was clearly the weakest human in the whole empire. Unable to use magic or connect to divinity, Dhein was quite literally powerless in a world where magical powers and supernatural abilities reigned supreme.
Perhaps it was because of his name. His father, the current head of the Theocheirós clan, had the title "Godhand" for having a very strong affiliation to the divine. After announcing that he had procured a male heir, the world instantly assumed that this child was destined for greatness. He was the son of the strongest Theocheirós after all.
Before he knew it, Dhein had been riding this delusion. He stopped denying the feats and honor credited to him even though he knew full well he didn't do anything.
Why? Well, because being bathed in praise felt hella good.
And because he really wasn't sure what was gonna happen to him if anyone ever found out about his powerlessness. A safe assumption was he would be exiled. Maybe thrown away and replaced with another—someone who was actually strong. If not, another possibility was Zarria might be forced to marry a man she didn't like for the sake of a male heir.
'Hell if I'd let that happen!' Dhein thought.
None of those possibilities appealed to Dhein. And because of that, he will continue this lie for as long as he could. Who knows? Maybe he was just a late bloomer and would actually awaken powers in the future.
Lost in thought, Dhein went deeper into the forest while Zarria followed close.
Until the trees became less dense and the bushes around were no more. They ended up near a giant cliff. Below them, the clang of hammered metal reverberated faintly in the air. The gaps of silence were filled by deep growls and heavy, careless footsteps.
Dhein was brought back to reality. There shouldn't be anything in this forest aside from wild beasts and harmless monsters that Zarria had already scared off to the next country. Yet, what were those strange noises?
His questions were left unanswered, but he knew better than to pry. The obvious move was to turn back and leave. But as he was about to do so, Zarria had already walked ahead and gone near the end of the cliff.
With widened eyes, he whispered.
"What are you doing?"
Zarria turned her head slightly and replied:
"Brother! Look!"
Though hesitant, Dhein mustered his courage and stepped near the cliff.
His breath caught upon seeing the wooden towers down below. Scattered across the cleared field were shelters and smithing facilities. Groups of horned monstrosities walked around, completing individual tasks of manufacturing weapons against humanity.
It was a demon encampment.