It's a dark and cold night, a group of armoured men are standing some 30 feet away from a giant castle that looks abandoned-with cracks showing all over its body.
The group of warriors are all led by a tall, white-haired man standing in front of them, oozing out aura and charisma, his sword plunged into the ground.
He is no ordinary warrior, he comes from a great family line of heroes who fight off evil spirits controlled by the great evil spirits in the spirit realm. The family are known as the 'Astras', they have fought these evil spirits for generations, never losing one battle against them
The current hero faced with the challenge to continue their successful streak as heroes is 'Nicolas Astra' . He is the hero of this era, he is at the final hideout of the evil spirit that wants to bring the great evil spirits into the human realm.
Nicolas raises his sword from the ground, releases his majestic power, the spirits from afar are trembling from it and are unable to move.
"Tonight is the night we end it all…. And party to the fullest!"
The warriors all roar their chests out they stomp the ground ready to charge into the castle, before they begin to charge a man in a full brown robe goes to them and hands out cups filled with energy potions
"Keep it down guys, don't forget your energy potions just because it is the final fight"
The energy potions give them all an extra boost in their battles, and increases defense against attacks
He hands the last one to Nicolas, Nicolas smiles while patting him on his head, as a gesture of thanks for being with him all through his journey as the hero. The atmosphere gets colder and tense. Nicolas points directly at the castle and signals his hand in a forward movement for all of them to charge in full force
His men all go in, killing off each spirit they meet, Nicolas doesn't pay much attention to it as his mind is fully focused on getting to the boss spirit in the castle to kill him off and be done with his hero journey
The mage uses his detection magic to find where the evil spirit is hiding, he then leads Nicolas towards the direction.
Nicolas's eyes flicker with excitement as he gets closer and closer to the door, he sees two big spirits guarding the door, he wastes no time.
Nicolas jumps in front of them and delivers a powerful spirit energy blast at the guards, their heads roll off as a result. As Nicolas is standing in front of the door, sweat drips from his forehead, the room behind the door feels cold, able to make a weak man's breath seize
Nevertheless Nicolas isn't a normal man, he is the 'Hero' he steels his resolve while clutching onto his sword tightly, as he turns trying to give a resounding speech to their final battle he sees only the mage with him
"Where are the rest?"
"There are plenty of spirits here, Nico, they are busy turning this path to be only for you and the final boss" The mage affirms him
Nicolas grins from cheek to cheek as he opens the door, walks in and points his sword to the final boss
"Tonight it ends here, and you shall die by my sword"
The evil spirit isn't fazed nor scared by Nicolas's presence he is busy with opening a portal for the Great evil to enter
Nicolas notices what he is doing, and charges straight at him to cut off his head but as he gets close to him, everything starts to look wobbly, upside down for him, he is finding it hard to stand, he uses his sword as support to stay on his toes
He calls out to his mage for help, but as he does that, he starts hearing laughter from the evil spirit and also his companion the mage. Nicolas believes it's still in his head as he tries to walk to his friend, the mage falls him to the ground
"Foolish Astra, I can't believe it was this easy to deceive you"
Nicolas thoughts are scrambled, making it hard for him to put together what is going on right now, he hands begin to tremble like it never has before, blood starts to pour out from his mouth and eyes, everything starts to feel heavy and everywhere starts to feel dark
"Whe-where are the others"
"Dead" The mage says, with a sinister grin on his face
Nicolas drops his sword and falls to the ground
The mage walks to the evil spirit as he is opening the portal, he looks at the pitiful Nicolas
"How sad, you know the spirit energy drinks i gave you guys right? Well it was poison, they are all dead, but it got to you late, well the spirit power in you is a lot so it took some time"
Nicolas struggles to get up, as the blood continues to pour out of him
"Bu-bu-but you always gave it to us, why was today any different"
"Don't bother yourself with it, just die in peace, failed hero" The mage laughs
The evil spirit gets on his knees as the portal is complete and a great evil spirit comes into the human realm, his manner of speaking is refined and polished, he exudes power
Nicolas' body is getting weaker and weaker as he is unable to hear what is going on, the only thing he is able to grasp is "Praise Absalom".
As the great evil spirit walks up to Nicolas dying body, he pulls his hair to look at the fall of the last hero in the world, then just before Nicolas can think or say anything next, his head is chopped off by the spirit and it rolls to the ground, he sees the three figures all standing above him
Then everywhere goes dark. Years go by and the world is in ruin, due to the failed hero 'Nicolas Astras', the people of the world who used to praise the Astras tongue lashed them for failing to save them all.
Up above once every hero that dies in the Astras family line, they rest in peace in the hall of champions but not for Nicolas, as he is the first of his kind to lose the war with the spirits, so he was Banished to the dark realm, forever reliving his failures and seeing he knew and loved call him 'Failure'
100 years have passed and he continues to relive his horrors, but one thing he keeps saying to himself
"if I had one more chance, if I go do things all over again, it would be different… I would be different, I will save the world, I will not be a failure, I am not a failure"
Then he finds himself outside of the dark realm, he sees light for the first time in years, and he is met by one of the five divine spirits for grants the heroes their powers
The divine spirit looks at him with scorn, but uses words that don't match his expression
"You… Do you want retribution? Do you want to right your wrongs? Do you want to save the humans? Do you want to banish the evil spirits? Do you want… to be the hero again?"
Nicolas eyes widen, and he answers quickly
"Yes, Yes, Yes!"
The divine spirit stretches its hand out to him, and gives him what he wants, a second chance to do the world and himself good, to save the world as the hero again
The light shines bright, his eyes are unable to see what happens next. He suddenly feels his body on the hard, warm ground of the human realm, with the soft grass ground, his head feels fuzzy, he slowly raises up his body, as he gets up his body feels like it has been hit with a giant hammer
He scratches the back of his head, he feels something on his hand, and as he looks at his hand, he sees blood on it, he looks around him, blood is on the floor, his mind is unable to grasp what is going on now, he sees a lake right beside him, he looks at it to see whether he has any facial scars
But it is nothing like that, he sees that he has a new face, hair and body
Then he hears a warm voice behind him
"How do you like the new you?"