"Ren my son, you are to protect the legacy of the Sinclair Clan, don't let them get a hold of the-"
"Hey wake up you scum." Said Dantarious while shoving Ren. "What the hell is your problem!" Snapped a waking Ren. "It's time for you mission, you are already late. Get to the rendezvous point or else." Said Dantarious in his rough and scrappy sounding voice. Dantarious walks out the broken down dorm. Ren already frustrated, begins to wonder whose voice was that? It sounded almost like a woman, the voice was so familiar. Ren got dressed and picked up his sheathed sword and began his descent down Mt.. Mercy pushing along brush and trees, the terrain rocky and Ren's ankle could twist with one wrong step. He makes his way to the narrow path on Maldez route 6, this route connects the manors and mountain cities in Gankrove to the Maldez capital that houses the kings palace. Along Maldez route 6, there is a connecting mountain along the border of Maldez called Mt. Encharter, this was Ren's destination.
Upon Ren nearing the top of Mt. Enchanter, the sound of swords clashing and the shouting of "Neutrus Sharpness" Could be heard. The smell of blood came whooshing in quickly after, this sent Ren into a haste to reach the top of the mountain. Once there the site of Merc Clan members, distinguished by their brown cloaks with red markings on the hood and arms, were seen with swords and blood of the Felt Clan knights. One by one each knight fell, Ren even drew his sword and used the incantation Neutrus Sharpness to sharpen his blade enough to pierce the knights armor, eventually killing four of them that ganged up on him in one fluid motion.
Once all the knights had fallen the remaining Merc Clan members joined each other covered in the blood of the knights, one grunt of the clan even remarked "That's it? The knights of the Felt Clan were this weak?" In a mocking manner. "Now, now. Let's not get to hasty, our objective was to confirm whether or not an elemental crystal was being guarded here or not. My best guess is we need to go through that cave entrance right there." Replied General Archos of the Merc Clan. "And you, where were you." General Archos shouted while looking at Ren. Ren quickly sheathed his now chipped sword and replied "I overslept, Dantarious woke me up, and now I am here." "How typical. Do you think your disgraceful behavior of not helping your squadron will be tolerated? Do you think you have the ability to do as you please? We lost grunts because of your absence. Don't think just because you're some big shot recruit you can trample over my authority. When I tell you to get here. You get here." Replied General Archos. Ren scoffed saying "Is that so?" A faint glow in Ren's eyes began to appear while he said "Then come show me how much authority you have over me. I dare you." "My magic level is equivalent to that of the Holy Royal Knights. You mean nothing to me." Replied Archos.
And then suddenly a voice up above yells "holy light sword strike!" And then a glowing yellow sword strikes a nearby grunt, impaling his chest and hitting the ground, suspending him in mid air as the yellow glowing sword drips with blood. Ren and Archos look up and see 6 Holy Royal Knights in the air and the incantation is once said again by all "holy light sword strike!" The strikes were direct and targeting all 5 remaining Merc clansmen, Ren looks to his left and sees 3 grunts get impaled in the same way the other grunt did and turns back to a holy light sword being a foot away from his face and he incants "Neutrus Barrier II" Which just barely stops the sword but then a giant flash of white light fades in and Ren's vision quickly faded out.
A sudden shock woke Ren who was under some stones and rubble as he began to violently cough. "Ren-Ren get up we must retreat." Said Archos while trying to catch his breath. Ren still trying to understand their situation, looks down to see a puddle of blood and a yellow glow near his leg, but the blood did not belong to the other clansmen, it was his.
"Reeeen" Said a woman with a soft speaking tone. "What did I tell you about climbing that tree, if you aren't careful you will get hurt silly" She said with a concerned yet blissful tone.
What is this place? Where am I?
"If you are ever hurt, what were the words I told you to say?" The woman said to a child laying in her arms.
Wait a minute… That's me. Why is this lady holding me?
"Oh oh, I know mama. Neutrus Mend, Dark Type, 1" The child says in his high pitched voice, then a shadow began to form, covering the wound.
Wait, mother? Not only that but why is there a black shadow covering my wound?
The shadow began to fade. How is that possible, the wound is… gone?
"Remember Ren, if you are ever hurt you must say those words and your pain will go away, can you remember that for me?" The woman asked looking into the child's eyes.
Neutrus Mend, Dark Type, 1. That's an incantation using dark type magic, but why did she tell me to use that? I was only a kid, how could I have been able to use that incantation? Is this memory even real? This woman, she looks… Familiar.
"Ren, remember." She said as Ren faded out the memory back into the present. Remember she said, okay. "Neutrus Mend, Dark Type, 1" Ren incanted. The ground began to move a bit, the caves entrance also started giving Ren a strange feeling, almost like it was, calling to him. Like in the memory a black shadow covered his wound and disintegrated the part of the holy light sword that have impaled his leg. "Ahh, so you are a dark type user" Said Holy Royal Knight Charles the III. "Wait… How could that be." Stammered Merc General Archos. "You- You- never told us you were a dark type, is that how you were able to mercilessly kill all those men-" Merc General Archos said before Holy Knight Charles III drew his sword and stabbed through his mouth, causing him to collapse on the floor. "I was talking. Now, onto the main subject. I haven't fought a dark type mage in quite some time. Are you going to give me as much fun as the last mages did?" Said Holy Knight Charles III with a spine chilling smile. Blood regurgitates from Ren's mouth but he's able to say "Fuck you." Before getting Charles kicks him in the head knocking him on his back, causing blood to come spraying out of Ren's mouth. Ren now battered, and bruised, still recovering from his leg wound, looks at the caves entrance and hears a whisper "Come get me, come get me, come get me." Ren, already in a bad situation decides he has to escape the knights, or else he will be killed in cold blood like Archos, he reaches to his waist and musters the strength to draw his sword while pushing his feet back to get distance between him and the knights. "Oh so you have a little game left in you?" Holy Royal Knight Charles III said. And the whispers grew louder now that Ren was closer to the caves entrance "come get ME, come GET ME, COME GET ME, COME GET ME." Ren evaluating his situation knows he can't take 6 Holy Royal Knights on at once, so he decides to step back in the cave.
As he backs in the cave the Holy Royal Knights begin to mock Ren for running away, Ren doesn't pay no mind, his only focus is on surviving. Once he makes it into the cave an overwhelming sense of mana begins to push down on him, and then he trips over a rock and falls twisting his posture to land on his hands instead of his head. Once reaching the floor he attempts to get up, but a crystal like object has been dug into his hand, he screamed in agony but knew he could not stop there. He looked down at his hand and saw it was a black crystal and when he attempted to pull it out of his hand, the crystal responded by pushing his other hand back. Then it dawned on him, he felt something traveling up his arm and throughout his body, almost like something entered his bloodstream and started circulating. The crystal move itself deeper and deeper into his hand and then it disappeared, being fully submerged into his hand. He got up and that's when Holy Royal Knight Charles III and the 5 other knights walked in the cave. Charles began taunting Ren by saying "Look at you, a lonely Merc Clansmen. Your whole squadron dead, you are the last one. We will make sure to send a message across to Kalen with the death of your entire squadron, we'll have y'all's heads on stakes in the capital, marking Merc Clan's failure to secure an elemental crystal. Oh how desperately I would love to see that, but you know what I would love more? Killing you. It's misfits like you that don't belong in this world. Your purpose is to serve the rich and powerful. You don't deserve anything less than to be a slave. Y'all will be good examples of what happens to those who defy the Maldez Kingdom." An evil smirk became painted on his face. "How does that sound?" Charles said as he began to laugh hysterically. Those filthy Holy Royal Knights. Those filthy nobles. This filthy empire. I hate it. I hate it all, I will kill every last person who has done me wrong. I'm tired of hearing this shit, "You, Charles, is that what you really think? Is this how you repay the honor bestowed upon you as a member of the Holy Royal Knights? Whatever, I'm done with that. I will kill all 6 of you if it's the last thing I do, I will use every last drop of strength in my body to be sure that you know what it's like to be hunted." Said Ren, a glow in his eyes began to appear, a red glow. "It is with this blade that I rid the world of someone with such dangerous ideals like yours." Ren said. "Don't you realize what situation you are in right now? There are 6 Holy Royal Knights and only one weak Merc Clansmen. You will die before you get to blink." Charles said in a demeaning way. "If you think so, then come at me." Ren said in an expressionless tone while his sword became engulfed in a dark shadow. "Very well Miley, attack" Charles commanded. Holy Royal Knight MIley charges Ren with her sword drawn but then Ren steps to the left letting her continue run forward and that's when she collapsed onto the floor and got sucked into the caves dark floor. "What the hell!" Exclaimed Charles III. "No worries, she was just weak, Kale, get rid of this scum." Holy Knight Kale drew his sword and charged Ren, who was standing still looking at the ground, with his sword in hand. Kale went to his right flank and swung his sword at Ren's head, but then, Ren's sword connected with Kales sword, effectively stopping his attack. Kale stepped back and his sword shattered, Kale got nervous and incanted "Holy light sword stri-" And abruptly stropped incanting and collapsed, Ren cut his tongue out his mouth, Kale died on the spot and got sucked into the caves dark floor. Ren turns to the remaining three Holy Royal Knights who all but Charles III have their swords drawn, and his brown robe began changing color to black and a black hood appeared on his head as he still looked down at the floor with blood dripping down his shadow sword. Charles barks at the last two knights to attack Ren, but then, the faint streak of red from his eyes were followed along to the solider closest to him as his sword struck the knights torso, severing it clean off. This scares Holy Royal Knight Charles III and he begins to flee, Ren attempts to take pursuit but Charle's right hand knight attempted to thwart his pursuit by striking Ren along his back. Ren looked at the knight and the knight began to incant "Holy light-" But was cut off by Ren with his the immense force of his voice using the incantation of "Demonic dark sword strike." Launching a glowing black sword at the knight impaling him through the gut and pinning him against the cave wall. Ren raised his hand up again towards the knight pinned to the cave wall and incants "Demonic dark sword strike." Another black sword flies out Ren's hand and plunges into the knights skull, killing him on impact. That's interesting, his body didn't have to hit the caves floor to be consumed by it. Nice. Ren steps out the cave entrance and looks up at Charles III already airborne and far away, he incants "Demonic dark sword strike times 10" Shooting 10 dark mana swords in the sky, Charles manages to dodged 9 of the 10 but gets his foot impaled by the last one and screams in agony, Ren smirks. Charles in a panic questions how Ren obtained such power, he struck down every single knight I had, how, how did Ren do this. What caused his rise through the shadows?!