4

  “The lawful and unlawful order of the world... Altira’s children serve the light, and that wretched twin sister Sheiva serves all that is darkness. How could I have fallen so ill, to let one of the wretched children of Sheiva serve with me? A Diborn… pathetic.”

  The rough anti-voice of Leonidas croaked, delivering a kick to Omar's gut. “Rise, monster!” Leonidas screamed out. “You do not get to die here,” he beckoned, delivering another blow that forced Omar to catch his breath. The Diborn coughed out, protecting his abdomen.

  “Leonidas…?” Omar’s eyes widened. The calming dark gray skies were gone. Red smoke and fire brimmed all around him. The air felt thick, making it hard to breathe.

  Omar rose to his side and saw everything. Everything he was ordered to protect as a Diborn serving the Legion of Edindale went up in flames all around him. Hundreds of souls in the small country of Gamba begged for help as they suffered in the flames and carnage of battle.

  The familiar air passed by Omar as he scanned the horizon, searching for all that seemed lost. He gripped his heart, watching a large manor on top of snowy hill burn to a crisp. This place, it was his home. Everything here was supposed to feel familiar, but once he opened his eyes, he saw the carnage of unfamiliar red lands. This was hell, not home. He only wished he could close his eyes and forget it all.

  “What–” Omar stumbled on his words. “What happened?”

  Leonidas draped his long, colossal silver sword over his shoulder staring down at Omar as if he was lesser than himself. “You and your scourged monsters united and blew up this entire country. Fifty thousand souls have vanished. Not even the power of the Phoenix could save this land. In the blink of an eye, you three demon spawn killed all these people. Have you shared any remorse? No, because you’re just a monster. I know this place is where you grew up, where your family lived, and you have burned it all to the ground. How cruel…”

  Omar couldn’t move. His body froze as he sat in disbelief. He slammed his fists in the ground. “I failed.” Omar collapsed. “This power is a curse like you said. It’s a power that I am too powerless to handle. I only meant to stop the two.”

  Leonidas narrowed his glance at him. “No memory of what you did, eh, demon? You, Kharon, and Gurin wrecked this city in a battle that lasted hours. Because of you, a woman I met here long ago is likely dead. Your family is dead. The royal castle is gone, too. You are at fault. If the gods had any true sense, they would give someone like me this power and bless me in Altira’s light. Only then would the power of a demon serve this world.”

  “I never asked for this power.” Omar rose from the snowy ash ground. He pulled himself together. “If you want this curse, have it. I care not for power. I only want to better this world.” His head stirred around the burning city. “Now, I see the truth. Someone like me could never save this world. I am the one killing it in the end.”

  “Then, I shall exile you, demon.” Leonidas readied his sword.

  Omar turned away from Leonidas, who dropped his guard, walking a few steps closer to a burning house. A family of five with a mother, father, two boys, and an infant were burned alive in the wreckage. He let out a deep sigh, turning away from the horror as the house finally collapsed on the burnt corpses.

  “Jai. Maeve. Mother. Father. Forgive me.” Omar shut his eyes.

  For a short moment, the dying screams of agony disappeared. Omar could feel the trail of the cold air returning around him as he sighed.

  “I said I’d bring him home. That I would find Malakai and reunite our family. I will not fail again.”

  “Vial creature…Die!” Leonidas showed no remorse. He swung his gigantic sword at Omar.

  The colossal sword flung over Omar’s head, creating an overbearing shadow. It went to cleave his body split down the middle. Omar remained focused with his eyes shut tightly. Leonidas didn’t care pushing the blade further down to kill the monster he saw before him.

  A longsword clashed with Leonidas’s blade before it nearly cleaved Omar’s skull in half. Omar had unsheathed the blade just in time for it to stop Leonidas’s attack. Omar let out a sigh of relief, as his onyx eyes stared somberly at his foe.

  “How? That fast?!” Leonidas exclaimed in utter shock.

  Omar narrowly turned his head to peer at Leonidas with a side eye. “Sorry, captain. I cannot die just yet.” He delivered a roundhouse to the jaw of Leonidas, sending him flying into a barrel.

  “I will not harm you if you lay your sword down. Enough blood has been spilled for a lifetime already,” Omar warned. “Do not do this. Or I will have no choice.”

  Leonidas grunted with a laugh. “Don’t do this, it says.” He laughed harder, shedding off his ragged cloak. “You are a Diborn. Have you the decency to at least die like a good puppet? No one cares what you need to do. You are nothing in this world. You’re just vermin on the tip of my greaves.”

  Leonidas stood on his feet, aiming his sword towards Omar. “If I say die, you will obey me.”

  Omar let out a frustrating groan. “I never served your legion. I am just here to find my older brother and those who stand against my father, the Chronicler of Eurafalia.” Omar gripped his blade, pointing it back at Leonidas.

  Both men readied their weapons. “The smuggler. The Chronicler made you a spy. Your whole family is worthless.” Leonidas launched himself towards Omar with his sword swinging overhead. “King Hyvin should have killed you that day. I will tell them that when I deliver your head!”

  “I came to protect the world we serve.” Omar shook his head. “But I must say…Captain… this is where you draw your last breath.” Omar gripped his free hand, his eyes shut tightly. His heart beat like a drum, and the power within him surged like never before. Omar clinched his fist, and a surge of power engulfed the area in surplus of water.

  Leonidas flung backwards and reverted to his original position as the monster in front of him was unleashed. His power within had awakened, a Diborn Shardbearer power.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Omar lowered his sword down his side as water slowly dripped from the blade’s tip. The small streams and rivers remaining in the surrounding area channeled through Omar himself. It was as if he had turned to water himself. Leonidas gawked at the sight of the Diborn’s true power.

  “You…” Leonidas reckoned. The sight of Omar and his blue aura radiating off his body made the hairs on the back of Leonidas’s neck rise in terror. Panic crept in, as the overwhelming sensation of the Omar’s power flowed through the dense air.

  Leonidas foolishly launched his sword towards Omar. “I will defeat you!” he screamed, throwing all his force into a spinning strike.

  Omar’s piercing gaze never left Leonidas. Omar’s body remained stiff and firm as he swiftly blocked the attack with his sword. The Diborn easily knocked Leonidas back from the deflection alone. Leonidas crept on his heels unbalanced and unwary of his surroundings. His vision was blurred, as the world seemed to spin around causing him to stumble from the dizziness. His own sword weighed him down and anchored him to the molten hot ground. Leonidas screamed out in anguish.

  “Don’t,” Omar warned, holding his sword to Leonidas’s neck while the captain tried to make it to his feet. The Diborn advanced in a split second, pouncing on top of him.

  Leonidas desperately tried to pull his sword free. He turned to the Diborn in disgust. The captain’s eyes met Omar’s as he spat at him. “Mongrel. I will not be killed by such a being like you.”

  Omar remained silent as Leonidas spoke. “How can you live with yourself after all this, Diborn? I wonder…Having no soul means not having a heart, either,” Leonidas croaked. “I only wish the explosion had killed me, too.”

  Omar dropped his guard, but the tip of his blade advanced forward. Leonidas grabbed the blade by his gauntlets and pulled it into his heart. The blade pierced passed his armor easily, as a soft expression of pain rested on Leonidas’s face. He looked at all the carnage around the two of them and chuckled one last time.

  “I hope Kharon makes your death a long and painful one…” Leonidas whispered, blood pouring from the gash in his chest. Omar dropped the blade. “Monsters like you deserve far greater tragedies. No mortal… will weep… the soulless–” Leonidas toppled over, every bit of life leaving his corpse.

  The ashes of the country began to collapse Omar’s lungs, sweeping him off his feet. His own life began to disintegrate within the smokey ruins of this country. Fallen ruins continued to fall around him, as he fell onto his back, coughing. Omar turned his head to face Leonidas’s corpse.

  “I tried to do good…To do what was right…” Omar reached for the stars. “And I failed. I am no hero. I am soulless, a monster like the rest of the world says. All Diborn deserve to die, including me. We are scum of the blade’s creation.” Omar closed his eyes fell unconscious.

  Deep in his subconscious, he was awakened by a small child’s voice. “So cool!” the child exclaimed. Omar could now see the young boy, his ocean blue eyes gazing upon him. Omar looked around and say that they were within a forest of green. The Diborn was stunned. His mind continued to play tricks with him. The young boy with him was a mirror image of himself as child. The little boy grinned widely, showing missing front teeth.

  “Your one of those adventurers, aren’t you?!” the child asked. Omar only nodded his head. The kid chuckled. “When me and my brothers get big like you, we’re going to travel the world and become King of Legends. It’s going to be so cool. Do you like being an adventurer?” The child’s energy bothered Omar.

  In his heart, Omar sensed the emptiness. Compared to this image in his mind, he couldn’t feel that sense of excitement anymore. That part of his life was missing. He could only bend a knee to the child and force a smile for the kid. His eyes watered, but no tears fell.

  “That sounds like a fine goal, little Marshall…” he stuttered. “I hope you and your siblings can achieve it. For I have failed.” He turned away, but once he returned his glance to the child, the boy was gone. All Omar could see was a dense black fog surrounding the forest’s trees. “I have wasted this life.” Omar shut his eyes once more.

  “I have failed…” Omar repeated, dropping down to his knees.

  When Omar reopened his eyes, he stood in from of his family home. Chaotic flames licked at the villa’s beams. The fire warmed his body, as he stood watching the flames devour the familiar structure. Back then, he had wept deeply at the loss, but now he stood firm and expressionless. The sky was dark from smoke, casting an orange cloud above his head. Eerie shadows lurked around every part of his burning home.

  Memories flashed through Omar’s mind, gentle memories of him running out the front door with his three brothers and sister to enjoy a peaceful day of joyous play. The burning home reminded him of his mother’s awful cooking, which he now missed more than ever. He recalled the laughter from the living area with his family. Each crackle of the falling debris felt like a final goodbye to the wonderful life he once had. It was the destruction of everything he once held dear to him, and it all had vanished in the manner of one night.

  The roof drooped effortlessly down and collapsed onto the architecture, which builders had spent hours manifesting. Omar gripped the grass, pulling its roots, tears streaming down his chin. He fought the urge to run inside and save all those he held dear, but he knew they were already gone. The most he could do now was save himself from the horrors that awaited him.

  Omar was away when the fire erupted. If he had been there, he could have saved his family from the carnage. Omar was a mighty warrior who stopped horrors like this. Each flicker of fire erupted in his soul, making him wish he had chosen a simpler life. Missing this moment to protect his family had destroyed whatever life he had left inside of him.

  “Mother! Father!” Omar desperately screamed. “Jai! Maeve! Malakai…” He punched a stone.

  Omar’s hand throbbed in jolts of pain, but he didn’t pay attention to it. His screams echoed through all the Pale, as sharp cracks matched the falling villa. Skin scraped against the courtyard path, as he repeatedly bashed his hand into the ground. “It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault!” he cried.

  “Omar!” a voice called out.

  For a moment, everything froze. His breath caught in his throat as adrenaline surged further through his body. The pain was intense, and his heart sunk in frustration.

  Darius, despite several gushing wounds in his abdomen and arms, managed to limp over to his son. The fires burned behind him as the old man carried a spear dripping with red and black blood. His clothes were torn to shreds. Darius nearly toppled over, but Omar was able to catch his weak father before he fell to the ground.

  “Father! What has come of our home?!” Omar asked, watching the ashy clouds encircle them. “How have you–”

  Darius interrupted, coughing up blood. “You must understand, child. The Chronicler is responsible for vesting evils who serve the blade. So, they see me as the number one enemy to the blade. I am a target. So is our family. But it doesn’t mean any of this ends with my death. That is why I entrusted you, my boy. I trust all of you. Malakai, Jai, and Dante. My boys...”

  Omar shook his head in frustration. His mind flared as Darius began spitting out gibberish to Omar. “I don’t understand.” He helped his father to his feet, but Darius succumbed to his wounds and fell weak.

  “There is no time,” Darius uttered out, gripping Omar’s hand. “When you and the others were much younger, a power was vested into you all, a power hidden behind a curse. It was one only the Marshall family can seize to hold. Never let the Specters take you. And fight for truth in this world.”

  “Father. What am I to do?!” Omar yelled. An army marched out from inside their villa. Hundreds of soldiers dressed in black, their eyes coated like onyx emeralds. These men were soulless just as him. It was the Diborn army in the flesh. Following behind them were twenty large Shardbearers in their superior forms, dragons, wraiths, monsters never before seen in the history of this world. They marched to battle Darius and Omar.

  “This scroll contains everything. Omar, do not return to Belkos. Understand the mission given to you. You are the hero of this world. Diborn by birth, but hero by death. Follow the righteous path and find our family. Never give up, and unite this world into one,” Darius whispered. “Now go!”

  Omar ran as fast as he could through the burning city of Gamba, his once beloved home. He ran until he couldn’t go any further. Lost in the snow, he awoke with a new purpose: to save his world and his family. The scroll wrapped in Omar’s arms. Pending doom lurked around him in the quiet wilderness. He clutched the small gem around his neck and wept. At that moment, his transition began. Omar’s final crusade.