An outcome of fate and hope.

A new force awakens.

"Lukas?! Lucas where are you?!" Derick shouted, frantically running around the forest, occasionally dodging the branches and stumps, rummaging through un raked fallen leaves and occasionally bumping into a few hedges and overgrown plants. Derick's vision began to grow blurry and he ran into a branch which caused his eyes to widen right open and he hit the ground with a low grunt of pain. 

He breathed heavily holding his head, his whole body shaking, he then realised that he had a scar on his torso from a nearby branch and cursed under his breath. As he stood up, staggering a bit and shaking, he then closed his eyes for a brief moment and let out a slow breath. He then instead of focusing on his wound and the curving pathways that seemed endless, he focused on his surroundings.

He suddenly reached a calm state of mind, listening to the leaves rustling in the wind and how the forest plants seemed to dance in time with eachother, then all of sudden he was shocked to hear some kind of singing. Unsure of what to do, due to the old folktales of the so called sirens he has heard of as a child, he decided to just move forward, listening to the song carefully along the way, as if to find his own path and then the singing started to fade away, soon to be replaced by crying of a familiar voice.

As he opened his eyes slowly, he was shocked by the sight that was infrount of him. "He never understands anything..." Lucas mumbled softly as a pair of arms wrapped around him.

"Don't worry, everything will be ok..." The creature spoke in a deep voice, he then seemed to notice Derick, giving a sinister smile in his direction.

"You know... I could give you a better life than this... Full of happiness, success, all the family you would desire." Lucas looked up at him and smiled hopefully.

"Really? Even after everything I did? I'm still a bad person..." The creature then let go of Lucas and flew backwards with huge raven like wings, he then seemed to summon some kind of circle on the floor which had the sign of a swan on it. Using that circle, the creature drained some of the power from the circle, a stream of light floated up elegantly and he swirled it around gently in his hands then held his hands out.

"Here... Take it... It's yours." Lucas then started walking forward, somehow not noticing the dark face the creature was giving him and it seemed like he was in some kind of dazed state.

"Lucas! No! Lucas, please wait! You're better than this!" Derick shouted, however Lucas just continued forward and then reached out his hands to grab it, but out of instinct Derick ran forward with full speed, despite the bad injury he had to face from the fall earlier, he then proceeded to grab the orb, pushing Lucas out of the way. Lucas fell on the floor with a loud thud and he grabbed his head in pain. 

"Agh... Wha- What happened..." He then shook his head to see his brother in the circle the creature had created. 

"Derick?! Derick no!" He tried to save his brother but was pushed back by a very strong dark force, followed by an un-naturally strong wind. He grabbed onto the rough ground as he lifted his head, squinting his tear filled eyes as he watched in horror as his brother was swallowed up by darkness as he screamed in pain and the symbol changed into a scythe. Derick then started to transform into this creature of darkness as the whole sky turned grey and the whole area wilted around him, his eyes turned a bright red and wings of a demon grew from his back. As the darkness started to grow, it began to spread towards Lucas and more importantly, the town he lived in.

Lucas managed to gain the strength to stand back up as he ran towards his mother's house and through the forest, tripping along the way and bumping into multiple trees. 

"Mom!! Mom!" He cried out as unfortunately he wasn't responded with an answer, out of pure panic he bolted around the whole house looking for her, only to stop right in his tracks. Looking down he saw a pot and a note, upon lifting the note up, he began filling up with rage as it read: "Dear Derick, if you're reading this then it probably means that something bad must have happened to your brother in the forest. I am no longer in this world and am now somewhere better for me to be and I promise you that I am safe, please take this plant with you, in order for it to grow, you need to plant it at the highest peek in the forest, I know this is a difficult task and it won't be easy, however I trust you will have the determination to make it. Lots of love from Mom."

Lucas fell to the floor, crumpling the note in a fist in his hand as he felt totally defeated. A serge of pain ran through him as a dark power seemed to surround him and he was powerless to stop it. He was so close to giving up until he heard a voice.

"It'll be ok, you just have to stay strong and believe in yourself, right? At least... Isn't that w...h...a..." The message seemed to fade out, however he understood what he had to do, he stood up with a decent amount of energy flowing through him then he grabbed the pot. 

"I need to do this... Not only for his sake, but for hers and mine as well..." He then smiled as the darkness seemed to go away from him and he looked out the window and up at the mountain, he knew this wasn't going to be easy especially in the state he was in.