Kallistos was out of it, he couldn't bear the loss of his parents, his mind started to shut down and before he knew it everything went blank.
The knight who was aiming for Kallistos’ head was found lying on the floor, the knight didn’t know what hit him but moments before the knight completely died he saw something horrifying, he saw his own body, he saw his lower half to be exact. The knight was horrified by what he saw but before the knight could fully comprehend what was happening, a blade struck his head, split his skull and finished him off.
Kallistos went out of control, he lost control of his body and just gave in to instinct. After he killed the knight he mercilessly killed anyone who dared block his path, his body like compelled to something, went deeper and deeper into the battlegrounds.
Surrounding Kallistos were bodies upon bodies of people. Blood was everywhere but Kallistos paid them no mind, Kallistos’ trampled on them while running, only aiming for one thing, the center of the battle field. He killed anyone who tried to stop him, kill after kill, and death after death. Soon Kallistos neared the center of the battlefield. Kallistos could see it, could see the person that his body was itching to fight. In the center, a man could be seen standing tall, the man was the commander of the battalion invading the village, great aura and mana exuded from him. The man was a magic knight, a knight that which is a magic swordsman that could control both aura and mana.
***
Aura is a power that comes from within a person’s body, their soul to be exact, while mana, mana is the power that surrounds the environment. Both powers are replenishable, meaning that one can never truly run out of it, the only determining factor that separates the best from the others is the amount of mana or aura one could handle and store inside their body. The amount that one can store in their body is dependent on the person, one could have enough mana that could fill an entire river while some can only fill a small pond, and that, that is the determining factor that separates nobles from commoners.
From birth nobles had large amounts of either mana or aura whilst commoners from birth could only store a small amount of either one. Some exceptions were sometimes born into both groups, a noble with low amount of mana or aura and a commoner with large amounts of it, but these are rarer occurrences than that of a magic swordsman. Magic swordsman, anyone and everyone could either control mana or aura but only a few can control both powers, they are what we call a magic swordsman, for that reason magic swordsmans, who could control both mana and aura, especially those people with high amounts of mana and aura are put in high regard and are thought of as a rare occurrence, a blessing so to say, since a case of a magic swordsman is a one in a million occurrence and eighty percent of these cases are found mostly in the nobility or royalty, thus the order of hierarchy in Etheria Empire had remained stable and unsullied for the past millennia.
***
Acting on pure instinct Kallistos was drawn to the power that the man exudes. His body began to be filled with adrenaline with each step he took. His mind couldn’t think of anything else. Kallistos wanted to fight this man, maybe it’s the instincts and greed of a man. Man from their truest nature aspires to be the greatest, the strongest at least once in their lives, maybe that’s the reason why that when Kallistos lost all common sense, his instincts, no, the warrior in him took over. Kallistos wanted to take down the strongest man in the battlefield.
But before he could step any closer to the man. A strange yet familiar voice called out to Kallistos.
“Kallistos! Stop! you can’t fight him!”
The voice kept screaming, warning Kallistos that he couldn’t handle this man, not yet, this voice told him that he would die before even putting a single scar on that man. As the voice screamed Kallistos came back to his senses, he realized where he was and what he was holding but before his body could fully process the information his body collapsed, all the adrenaline in his body had vanished, he could now feel the fatigue that the constant fighting caused.
Before passing out completely, Kallistos saw the magic knight and the other enemies were retreating as a brigade of knights started to show up, the knights of the capital had arrived, then slowly as the brigade of knights started to defend the territory and drive out the invaders, Kallistos eyes shut and he lost consciousness.
***
Kallistos started opening his eyes. Kallistos sat up immediately and looked around the place, he could see a lot of people around him, some were having their wounds being taken care of, some had lost a part of their limbs, there were also people crying over their lost loved ones, and others that were in critical condition.
As Kallistos was assessing the situation around him a lady knight who wore a full set of armor approached him
“You shouldn’t be sitting up immediately” The lady knight told Kallistos
“Where am I?” Kallistos asked the lady knight who stood beside him
“Before you ask any further questions lay down first or your wounds might open back up again”
Kallistos laid down as per the knight's instruction and asked “so, where am I?”
“You are at one of the tents that has been set up to treat the survivors”
“Were you the one that saved me?”
“No, do you see that burly man over there?”
Kallistos looked to his side and saw a large bearded man with a full set of armor, the man looked like he had fought many battles just from his build alone, but the most prominent feature of the man was not his body build, but the man had a nasty scar running down his left eye. The man was helping patch up another person.
“Yeah” Kallistos answered
“He was the one that saved you”
The large bearded man finished patching up the injured person and suddenly looked at Kallistos' direction and immediately approached him as he noticed Kallistos had awoken.
“Hey kid, how are you”
“I’m fine, thank you, mister, for saving me”
“It’s alright no need to thank me, it’s my duty as a knight of this empire to help those in need”
“I am grateful nonetheless, mister”
“By the way we found this lying on the floor beside you when we saw you, so I thought it was yours and brought it along, is this yours?” the large knight brought out a pendant from his pocket and gave it to Kallistos
“Yes, thank you mister” Kallistos carefully sat up and put on his pendant and tucked the pendant under his clothes.
“Alright then, may we ask you a couple questions” the large man asked Kallistos, the two knights beside Kallistos started to look more serious, Kallistos nodded in response.
“What were you doing in the center of the battle field and how did you get there”
“I-I don’t know” Kallistos racked his brain on how he ended up on the center of the battlefield but he couldn’t remember a single thing
“One moment I was beside my parents corpses and then it all went black after that I heard a voice, I can’t remember what it said but that was when I regained consciousness and then my body collapsed from exhaustion” Kallistos started to shiver in fear as he recalled the past events, he remembered his parents corpses lying on the ground burnt and injured.
“Calm down, it’s alright, it will all be alright” the lady knight tried to calm Kallistos down and looked at the large knight
“Henry, I think we should let the kid heal up and rest first before we ask him any more questions”
“Alright… rest up kid, come to our tent once you are all healed up, let’s go Amelia”
The two knights headed out of the tent and as soon as the two knights went out, reality struck Kallistos, his parents were dead and he couldn’t even say goodbye to them properly. Kallistos’ eyes welled up in tears as he got his pendant out and clutched it remembering all the times he had with his parents.
A couple minutes went by, Kallistos started to wipe away his tears and started to build up his resolve. Kallistos had resolved to become stronger, strong enough to avenge his parents and strong enough to protect the people that can’t protect themselves, Kallistos resolved himself into becoming a knight. He didn't know how but he knew he would do anything and everything in order to fulfill his goal. With his new found resolve, Kallistos started to hope for his speedy recovery in order to put his plans into action.
To be continued…
