There is nothing more terrifying than someone who doesn't hesitate to kill anyone who comes in their way, that is exactly, what I, Lunaria Caelran used to be, and is still considered the same.
When the age of corruption, begin seven thousand years ago, during the Veiled Century. Humanity barely held onto life, as the corruption clinged onto them and then slowly started to corrupt them.
At first it was just humans, then it spread onto other species. The lovely and sharp elves, started to look like something straight from hell. The Orcs, once fit and strong, looked like zombies. Until, it eventually spread towards even the Gods and Goddesses of the world. No one knew what was this corruption, nor where did it came from, all of them knew just one thing. Survive.
That's why, I had to develop such a personality if I had to survive. To be someone, who won't hesitate to kill anyone for their survival. Even if it meant killing family. I never carried any regret from killing anyone. I had the same cold expression with them, as I always had normally.
But if there was ever someone who I regretted killing, that would be my step-brother. My regret wasn't out of guilt, but out of the useful chance I wasted by listening to an order.
Unlike any other person, I had met. He was a lot more unique and interesting than anyone else. Just like me, he was brought as an orphan, and later raised at the headquarters of pure beings, also known as, the people who haven't been corrupted yet, all of us who were raised at the headquarters, were like a small family. Where we all practiced, got raised and survived, while the world outside was contaminated with corruption.
Swing! The dummies were all sliced in half, I had the record of being the fastest during then, exactly thirty dummies in 2.8 seconds. The practice this time was about the maximum number of targets you could hit and at the fastest pace. I was around fifteen during then. Among all my step-siblings I had during then, the closest someone ever got, was Risa with a record of twenty eight dummies in 3.5 seconds.
My record was considered unbeatable, even for the adults. But the day it broke, was also the same day, my step-brother was brought to the headquarters as well. Compared to me, he was only seven years old. Half a year less than the half of mine. Even Risa was older by five years. But for his age, his talent exceeded those older than him.
Swing! The moment, he swinged the blade, the cut was far more precise than even what I had ever made, the heads of the dummies fell down. My record of thirty dummies in 2.8 seconds, was now broken. Replaced with a record of thirty five dummies in exactly 2 seconds. The sight flabbergasted everyone, including me.
But I noticed something, while everyone was talking to him. I could see a faint tired look on his face, a small trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth, that he wiped off by pretending to scratch his cheek. His arms were trembling but he hid that from everyone.
I figured out, that he has the talent to surpass me, but his body is too frail and weak to withstand the full potential of that talent. It wasn't just me who noticed it, the other senior classes like myself, also noticed it. Like a glass, sharp yet frail.
Next was spell casting, magic being a spiritual matter, was shaped into an attack or shield for offense and defense by guiding the spiritual nature to transform into a physical one. Each one of us picked up a casting tool. Spell book, staffs, wands etc.
A sword was everything for me in a fight as well as in practice, I casted spells through a sword. It wasn't something strange after all, since some even used bows and gauntlets for it. In the end, it was about what reveals the true nature for your magic.
But him. He didn't picked up any tool, he thought it wasn't necessary if the practice was about improving your spellwork, a tool only enhanced the total result after all.
The dummies were placed in front in a line. The goal was simple, who could shoot through the most dummies in just one spell. The record of a hundred and fourty-two dummies was held by solara, a phoenix younger than me by a year. Casting was her speciality after all, and her gauntlet enhanced her further.
All of shot one by one, using as much energy as we could for a powerful piece. Solara maintained the lead with a hundred and fourty-two dummies this time as well. Followed by me, at a hundred and twenty eight.
But when it came to him, he didn't charged up at all, instead he just manifested a shard of obsidian, sharpened the edge and spinned at a high speed before launching it through the throats of the dummies. That small piece of obsidian was more than enough to break solara's record, and set a new one of two hundred and twenty-two.
When asked over how did he manage to perform such a feat, he just simply said. "I just used rotational momentum, nothing else." And the answer was more than enough, he spinned the shard at high speed with the edge sharpened, which resulted in the powerful pierce.
But eventually, I started noticing a pattern. In each practice, he only aimed at the throat, almost as if his intentions were for a one hit kill only. In every practice other than a spar, he only aimed at the throat.
But it wasn't what truly intrested me about him, what intrested me was his ability to absorb corruption by reversing the flow of mana but instead of mana, he reversed the flow of the corruption.
Corruption clinged onto someone was of the same nature as physical mana, magic manifested by us to be exact. If mana before guided by us, is spiritual mana, then the one after our guidance was physical mana. Which we referred to as Magic.
Just like that, corruption was like another form of physical mana, but the reason it only made him intresting was that, it was only him who could absorb corruption. I once tried to repeat the exact technique, but I couldn't even pull a single bit of it. After the corruption was absorbed, the corrupted were back to normal again.
This little secret was just between him and me. But after half a decade, when it was found out, he could absorb corruption. Everyone was ordered to kill him, some who had gotten close to him of course couldn't do it. But the others, like myself didn't hesitated and went to kill him. Reason to kill was simple, they couldn't risk the chance that letting him absorb the corruption could soon turn him into something far worse than the ones they deal with normally.
It took a whole month to chase him down, before I finally killed him. But now if I had to think about it. If I hadn't killed him, I could had relied on his ability to deal with corruption faster. But after eight years, fate brought me another chance then it seems.
Now standing in front of me, absorbing corruption out from a dragon, was someone with long-dark black hair. A red petal flower, as an accessory, with two red earings on either ear. Crimson eyes with a red glow, a mischievous grin and a sharp look. Wearing a white cloth over a black high neck. A face similar yet different from that of his. The same ability yet a completely different personality.
This is the story of this person and I. In a world, where only survival matters. Side by side, till the end. Which will eventually end by my hands.