A one-armed man ran for his life, drops of blood trailing from his missing limb even as he used mana to stop the bleeding.

  It was Melakh, an expert-rank mage who had also reached the second rank of aura manifestation. He was a prodigy within the Silent Dawn, an assassin guild specialised in killing nobles and important figures others were too afraid to deal with.

  He was one of the elites of that organization and yet, now he was fleeing from the very organization he once served.

  The Silent Dawn followed a simple rule.

  Either you die during the mission or you complete it silently because if a mission failed, everyone involved would be purged to maintain the anonymity of the organization.

  Melakh had taken what seemed like a simple request to assassinate a young noble girl who was supposed to be traveling with a weak mercenary group. Although he normally didn't bother with such easy missions, whenever an assassination involved spoiled brats like that, he rarely turned it down.

  He had planned to finish the job quickly, earn the money, buy potions and herbs and then return to his training to advance further on the warrior's path. His goal was to reach the warrior equivalent of an expert mage as well.

  But everything went awry during the mission.

  A crazy woman had sacrificed herself for a few kids and as if that wasn't enough, a particular blond kid had suddenly used some strange energy, something that made even him tremble, if only for a brief moment.

  And then, the Demi-God Ascendent Ragnar had arrived. Everything went downhill from that moment as every subordinate under him was slaughtered and although barely a day had passed, they had already found him as well.

  All of this… because of one kid.

  Malekh prided himself on being a prodigy. He had reached the Expert Rank at the age of twenty-one, something even nobles struggled to achieve.

  He himself had been a mere slave, sold by his own parents, before being saved by a kind person. Just when he thought he had finally found a proper family, that person was slaughtered by noble children, simply for getting in the way of their carriage.

  Malekh still remembered the promise he had made to avenge him and more than that, to avenge himself by killing the parents who had sold him to a slave trader.

  "I can't die…"

  "I can't die…"

  "I can't die…"

  He kept repeating it desperately as if those words alone could save him but as if mocking his futile hope.

  He changed direction sharply as the sound of pursuit grew louder behind him. His mana was thinning rapidly and the wound on his missing arm refused to close properly despite his efforts to seal it.

  Every breath made him feel immense pain.

  He tried to turn left toward the main road but the sound of footsteps cut him off before he could commit, the other side was the same as well so he pushed forward, towards the only direction that still felt open, not realising until the trees thinned abruptly that forward had been the plan of his enemies all along.

  The cliff edge appeared before him without a warning and right on cue, an arrow cut through the air and in an instant, pierced straight through Malekh's shoulder.

  "Arghhh!"

  Malekh stumbled before collapsing onto the ground.

  "Surrender, Malekh and I will give you a painless death for old time's sake.

  The voice echoed as a short man stepped forward, a long bow in his hands and half of his face burned and scarred.

  It was Douglas, a Grandmaster who was the Warrior's equivalent of Expert ranked mage.

  Malekh looked around him.

  In front of him stood Douglas, while behind him lay a cliff, beneath which stretched the Starforge Forest, a land filled with treasure but where even the strongest mortals struggled to survive.

  A thick fog blanketed the forest like a protective barrier.

  Malekh knew that if he fell from the cliff, his chances of survival were already slim but entering Starforge made those chances even slimmer.

  But surrendering meant even more certain death.

  A fire burned in his eyes as he thought of the boy who had caused all of this.

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  "Raze…"

  He had heard the woman call him then and now that name echoed relentlessly in his mind.

  Without a moment of hesitation, Malekh leapt off the cliff. Douglas wasn't an amateur as he immediately fired several shots at Malekh's falling body but the dense fog blanketing the Starforge Forest made it difficult to land a clean hit.

  As he fell, Malekh closed his eyes, the face of the blond boy surfacing clearly in his mind.

  "If I survive this, I will make sure you regret ever letting me leave alive when you had the chance."

  He swore as his body was swallowed by the dense fog, disappearing into the depths of the Starforge Forest.

  Meanwhile, Douglas, still standing at the cliff's edge, glanced back at the two subordinates who had witnessed Malekh's escape.

  Although Douglas was confident that Malekh wouldn't survive, uncertainty had no place in the Silent Dawn.

  Letting out a deep sigh, he drew his bow and fired twice with inhuman precision. Both arrows pierced straight through the hearts of the two men, killing them before they could even react.

  Looking down at their lifeless bodies, Douglas clasped his hands together and prayed.

  "Oh, great sun, bless these children of yours and ensure they never lose the light."

  After the calm prayer, he knelt beside the corpses for a brief moment before lifting them onto his shoulders, one by one, and casting them down the cliff into the Starforge Forest below.

  "May you rest in peace, my brothers."

  With that, he turned around and left.

  Meanwhile, deep within the forest, Malekh had somehow survived the fall as a tall tree had broken his descent but its sharp branches pierced into his already missing arm, drawing fresh blood as pain surged through his body but even so, through the agony, only one thought remained in his mind.

  "I will survive this…"

  —

  Meanwhile, somewhere far from the world of Fabloth, on a massive planet, a beautiful woman stood on the top floor of a tower hundreds of stories high, overlooking a crimson sun as it set on the horizon.

  She had blonde hair and crimson eyes and her beauty was enough to charm even the toughest of warriors with a single smile but a smile was something her face was incapable of making and the aura she emitted alone was enough to drive away even the strongest of people.

  She was Seles Ruinard, Duchess of the Skyfall Dynasty and the sister of the current Emperor, Raon Ruinard.

  Her eyes shifted ever so slightly as a girl, who looked to be in her late teens, entered the room without her permission. The girl shared many of her features, except for her green eyes, which she had inherited from her father.

  "I am here, mother."

  The girl greeted her softly.

  Seles finally turned and gave a small nod, acknowledging her presence.

  The girl looked at her mother with a steady gaze. "Is it true that you sent Raze to a new world alone?"

  She demanded an answer.

  She was the eldest among her tens of half-siblings and although she had never met Raze face to face even once, she cared about him deeply. Her mother had forbidden her from meeting him, yet she had always kept watch over him from afar.

  Even if he didn't know she existed, to her, he was her precious little brother. Still, she couldn't bring herself to oppose her mother's decisions whether it was isolating him or forcing him to train beyond his limits.

  She had always hoped it was simply meant to make him stronger but a few days ago, when she went to check on him again, she hadn't found him in his mansion and after investigating further, she finally learned what had happened.

  He was sent into some backward world for a mission when he hadn't even formed his mana core or taught anything except physical training.

  "Why do you hate him so much, mother?" She asked, her voice trembling despite her effort to remain calm. "Isn't he your own blood as well? Do you truly not feel even a shred of empathy… or emotion for him?"

  She finally mustered the courage to speak against her mother. Seles, meanwhile, looked at Alice with a cold gaze.

  "I do not see the need to explain my decision to you, Alice." She spoke without a trace of motherhood in her voice.

  "What has he even done to you except for being born to you?"

  Seles's gaze didn't change as Alice continued.

  "He was even born with one of the most sought-after physiques, the one that made him loved by the elements. If you had nurtured him with care, he was bound to become the strongest asset of our family and yet, you sent him away to some backwater world on a useless mission to die, without even letting him learn how to use mana."

  "How is he supposed to survive in a cruel new world with nothing but physical training? Isn't that nothing more than a suicidal mission?"

  Her eyes trembled even as she spoke.

  Seles didn't answer, she merely stared at her daughter as if the entire discussion was pointless. "If that's all you had to say, you can leave now."

  Alice clenched her teeth. "Fine. If you aren't going to answer me, then I will find my own answers."

  She stormed out of the room without any hesitation.

  Left alone, Seles looked at the now closed door.

  "Foolish child."

  She muttered, thinking about the most competent and at the same time, the weakest willed of her children. Although Alice possessed the talent to surpass even her, she had bound herself with useless shackles of emotions.

  Still, Seles wasn't harsh with her daughter as her talent was far too valuable to waste. As for Raze, him possessing a supreme bloodline and potentially becoming the most powerful child if nurtured properly, that wasn't a lie but it was only half the truth.

  What Seles and even the Emperor had never told anyone was the second physique Raze had been born with.

  He was one of the rare individuals who awakened not one but two powerful physiques and yet strength didn't always come as a blessing… because the second physique he awakened was something legends referred to as a curse.

  It was a physique only seen three times throughout the history of the Skyfall Dynasty.

  A physique destined to be hated by the elements and something which caused even fate to hate the wielder.

  The physique granted no blessings whatsoever and always remained dormant, as every person who awakened it had died before the age of thirty but more importantly, there was no possible way to advance beyond the ranks of mortality without an affinity and thus, that boy was nothing more than a stain on the name of the Ruinard family where even the weakest surpassed mortal ranks with ease.

  She never even expected him to complete the mission with his so-called useless existence but her brother, the Emperor, had insisted on sending him there as if he knew something she didn't. He was the sole reason that filth was even alive as he was the one who stopped her from killing him the moment he was born.

  She knew her brother was hiding a few things from her but she didn't care as her only goal was the supremacy of her family and she knew her brother would do anything to achieve that goal.

  So even if he kept certain truths to himself, she didn't mind.

  Still, even she couldn’t hold her curiosity about what her brother could be planning.