All stories by Hamustra

To the light!

1-Darkness

Arthur Leywin's point of view:

Darkness. Complete darkness. How many times have I been here? Second? Third? It doesn't make sense to me anymore. There is nothing here. Absolutely nothing. Time does not flow here, there is no space, and matter does not exist. If there wasn't even that here, how could sound, smell, taste and other sensations exist here? That's right, no way. Only regrets and sadness remained - the only emotions I could feel now.

I could not protect them. Mom, sister, Tessia, Virion, Twin Horns, Helstea family, Сaera, Sylvie - they all died. Even the annoying Regis died. How I would like to hear some sneer from this wolf. But no, I knew it no longer existed. I myself destroyed it, as well as this world that I managed to love. In order to protect my family and loved ones, I used any method, hoping that everything would work out. And what at the end? I killed them myself! I killed those I love! With power equal to the gods, I ended up destroying what I had so desperately protected! 

And here is my punishment for this terrible sin. Now I swim in this ocean of eternal darkness, unable to die, with memories constantly flashing before my eyes. Often they were happy, but in the end they were still haunted by the thought that I killed them.

* * *

The plan failed. They reacted too quickly to my appearance. I was pierced by a dozen spears now. The power of each of them could destroy a mountain, but my body withstood such a blow and regenerated little by little. Now, thanks to the incredible reserves of aether, no matter how many hits I got, I would still regenerate everything. Even a severed head was not a problem for me. 

Various creatures stood around me. Among them were dragons, hamadryads, titans, leviathans and other members of the big eight. Kezess was at the head of this whole flock.

Аsuras. We suffer so much because of them. We don't have a moment of peace in this life. I hate all of you! Thousands of аether mages have died because of your desire to save your asses! Because of your quarrels, hundreds of dikatenians died! People close to me died because of you! And now these vile creatures stood in front of me and declared me the biggest mistake of this world?! May you all burn in hell fire!

However, my attacking abilities were not enough to kill them. I didn't have enough strength to fight them. Even after defeating Agrona, I still didn't have the strength to compete with all of them. This made me even more furious. I hated the creatures standing before me, I hated myself for not being able to defeat them. And then a voice sounded in my head. It definitely didn't belong to Regis, who was already too exhausted from the battle. Sylvie was also in critical condition after all the recent battles, so she couldn't say anything.  No, that voice was just like mine, the difference being that it was warped by the аether. It was the voice of destruction that was hidden deep within me

Destroy them. Destroy them all. Burn them all to hell.

The words went from my heart straight to my brain, causing a reaction throughout my body. Before, I would have tried to just ignore it or Regis would have stopped me from doing it. But not this time. My partner was barely alive restoring his aether reserves in my core, so he could not affect me in any way. I was left alone in the battle with the "gods" of this world. Whether my dear people will live depends on my loss or gain. 

I began to think about what would happen if I used the Rune of Destruction. Since my ether reserves are now much larger, now everything will not be limited to some military base in Vechor. I think there should be enough of them to destroy an entire continent. Now I am in the Epheotus, so I can not worry that my actions will harm my loved ones, who are now almost on the other side of the world, right? I don't care about the future of Epheotus, as well as its inhabitants, who are not participating in this battle. Besides, using the Rune of Destruction is the only way to kill Kеzess and his minions.