The horizon was a burning candle.
The city was completely enveloped with flames, engulfing the crumbling building, spreading its boiling rage through everything in its way. The fire, like a wild creature refusing to be tamed, grew more and more wild by each second. The dizzying radiant heat from the blazes pulled everything within reach deeper into the burning abyss.
The ruins were still smoking and he could see the faintest glow of embers as he manoeuvred around the creaking threshold. Black dust lingered in the air and penetrated his lungs, choking as he walked around his "house". Nothing had escaped the fire, glass littered the floor where the windows had broken and the "once" grand chandelier lay blackened and twisted on the ground.
A single drop of grief welled up from the corner of his eye. He shrugged it off.
The island was a chaos from where he now stood. The crimson flames danced across the land, sprinkling embers through the air before cascading back to Earth and staining the land as thick grey smoke billowed into the skies.
He was on top of the world, standing on the edge of possibility. He had no-one to turn to, nowhere to run.
Then, suddenly something grasped Acxel's shoulder.
A voice behind addressed him. "Are you...", and before the person managed to finish, Acxel reflexes kicked in.
He spun around, throwing the offender off-balance to the side, landing on garden bed. He instantly flipped up. He stepped back and gripped his sword tightly, suddenly becoming more cautious of his surroundings. He looked at the offender. It was a girl about his age, about sixteen. She had a slim build along with light golden brown hair and dark brown eyes.
"Umm... are you ok?" Acxel stuttered. "I am very sorry for what happened".
The girl got back up on her feet and crouched down. Acxel backed off.
The girl stood there, eyes closed. Far off in the distance, a bird chirped. Then she charged.
Acxel didn't know what happened, too shocked to move. At the last moment, Acxel managed to evade the slash only barely gashing Acxel's face.
"Oh no, this is bad" thought Acxel, desperately trying to wipe away the blood.
"Crap". Acxel's eyes slowly began to change colour, slowly radiantly a deep black aura.
"No, focus". "FADE AWAY", he thought desperately.
The girl charged again, this time Acxel was prepared. The only sound heard afterwards was the metallic clanging of swords. Then with one sweep, he knocked the two short swords simultaneously out of her hand, the black aura fading away.
Acxel sighed with relief. "It" was gone.
"Who are you?"retorted Acxel, though your swordsmanship is really impressive".
The girl blushed slightly and exclaimed "Felicia Lisesharte is my name".
"Wait, why did you try to kill me?" he protested.
"I thought you were trying to kill me, you threw me onto the garden bed remember?", exclaimed Felicia.
"Right... I am very sorry", he apologised bowing his head.
They exchanged recounts of their adventures and shared laughs.
Finally, Acxel enquired "So, why are you here?", "I mean like, what are you doing out here?" "Don't you have someone to look after you?"
There was a gentle breeze and the leaves around them rustled gently.
After a moment of silence, she replied in a hesitant tone "I am trying to find the Black Hero, The Black Dragon that decimated the Old Empire five years ago".
