Humanity's Hero Of Despair

The air crackles with tension as I barely dodge another set of sword swings by the Zahard Twins.

Their blades of light cut through the space I was in moments ago, staining the atmosphere with the blinding light of pridefulness. My heart races. The rush of adrenaline hits me like a tank as I struggle to survive the onslaught of attacks. The defensive dark power of my scythe wards off the light magic like its life depends on it.

The Zahard Twins attack me with the power of a hurricane, with lightning ready to strike me at any moment. I am trapped in the eye of their storm, engaged in a wild dance for survival. Only time will tell if I make it.

I feel my hands tighten as I wrap my fingers around the handle of the scythe and deflect another strike. My scythe becomes a whirlwind of its own, fighting back against the storm of light. The Zahard Twins, powerful sons of an Eradicator, represent everything their father stands for.

Greediness. Pride. Violence.

One student accidentally stumbles into the middle of our fight. I try to shield him, but the twins swiftly cut him into pieces. His crimson blood stains the marble floor. This student's death is just one out of many crimson corpses lying around the ruined, crumbling campus.

As my body continues to fight for its survival, the academy echoes with sounds of despair. Screams of pain, cries for help, and worst of all, the silence of death radiates throughout the floating fortress of hell. Familiar faces I saw in the Revolutionary Room, not even more than a day ago, are now tarnished with dirt and blood.

As I force the Zahard Twins back, I notice some Eradicators lying dead on the ground. At least we aren't the only ones suffering losses.

Stay focused!

My brain shouts at me as my throat comes within a hair's breath of being sliced. These blades of light are not ordinary, shining with the brilliance of the sun. Get too close to it, and you will fall. This is not the time for me to be vaporized.

The surrounding despair caused by deaths, pain, and suffering fuels me with just enough power to raise my stamina. The regret I encounter within myself increases with every surge of power. What a nasty way to gain power from the suffering of others.

Twin one's sword slightly flickers as he slashes again toward me.

"Is that all you got, Nico?!" twin one says while forcing me back. Twin two follows up twin one's attack, making it harder for me to make a comeback. Their pressure slowly overwhelms me. I have to do something.

"You better hope we give you a painless death!" twin two says as he makes my grip loosen around my scythe as we clash weapons. I can't fight both of them yet while potential surprise attacks distract me.

A wave of flames crashes into the Zahard Twins in a brilliant orange light. Suddenly, they are on the defensive as Ignis emerges out of the blue, lunging at them with his own crimson enchanted sword. Ignis surprises twin one enough to knock his sword out of his hand. Twin two launches his attack on Ignis out of anger.

"Nico! Go on ahead of me and find the Principal Keeper. Save your energy to defeat him. I will handle these two," Ignis says to me while sparks from his sword clashing with twin two's sword fly into the air.

"On it!" I say, while escaping from the twins before they can launch another assault.

I am very thankful to Ignis for covering for me. My mind can focus on the primary goal. Find the Keeper Principal, the leader of the Eradicators for the academy, and defeat him. Justus is fighting the Elite Keeper Leader somewhere, and my sister is fighting off the rest of the Elite Keeper Squad. This makes my duty of defeating the leader even more important.

Plus, I have a personal beef with the Keeper Principal.

The howling sound of magic surrounding me drowns out my footsteps. The landscape overflows with shattered dreams and ambitions. It is up to me now to make sure those deaths aren't in vain.

The worst part of understanding my dark magic is that I can physically feel the darkness in others. Their spirits and hope vanish with every death. I can only hope my friends make it through this.

But I have to focus. The key to ending all of this madness is the Keeper Principal himself. If I can take out the Eradicator leader of this place, then the other monsters should retreat. The classrooms look like a wreck as I pass them trying to find the Keeper Principal.

As I round one corner, I spot a group of HRC members cornering a couple of Eradicators. Their determination is admirable as they overwhelm the Eradicators, but not without sustaining injuries themselves. My mind wants to help, but my gut pushes my body forward past them, knowing the primary threat is lying just ahead.

Flashes of brilliant light explode from one hallway. My eyes widen in fear as a student goes flying into the wall, their body lying limp on the floor. Before my brain can process it, I am face to face with the monster leader himself.

He stands intimidatingly in the center of the hallway, glowing in a bright golden aura, surrounded by HRC members. The same golden aura that blinded me on the first day at Keeper Academy. This time, the light won't be able to stop me from vanquishing it.

You would think someone being surrounded would put them at a disadvantage, right? In most cases, yes. Here, no. Students go flying back into the walls or are burned alive from the light of his wand. He plays with them like toys.

"FACE ME COWARD! ALONE!" I yell at him.

My hands tremble against the solid handle of my scythe as I approach him. To my surprise, my outburst makes him stop torturing the students. I have no idea how long this will last, though. My best bet is to keep him distracted until I can defeat him and let the students escape.

"Nico. You surprise me. We did not know you saw through our illusions. We may have given you mercy if you just cooperated with us. Your act of defiance, along with everybody else, is punishable by death," the Keeper Principal says sharply.

Yeah right. Like he wouldn't kill nobody, even if we just all listened to them. Anyway, since the Eradicators are not the Keepers and don't even deserve to use their title, I will refer to the Principal Keeper as Eradicator One. Him being one because he will be the one to die by my scythe or wand.

"Not like you wouldn't plan on killing anybody if something didn't go your way. It's the only way you know how to deal with your problems, right?"

My face tries its best to form a smirk to show that I am not afraid of him. I want to show him his useless pride means nothing. That he is not perfect or above us at all. I want him to feel embarrassed at being suggested by the fact he is just a gigantic mass-murdering baby and not a composed, perfect, powerful person.

The Keeper Principal seems to forget anybody in the hallway exists except for me. His footsteps make me feel closer to death's door as he confidently walks toward me. His aura only gets brighter as he gets closer. With every ounce of mana, I will my aura of darkness to expand and my scythe to enlarge. I quickly form a second scythe out of my first one, which is a technique nobody has seen yet.

It is one of my secret weapons. Dual wielding. Let's just hope my last secret weapon will work against him.