348 True Identities
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Shade mercilessly cut down Jack’s arms with a single and precise slash of his knife. His magic hammer, generated by the combination of a variety of magical accessories was also sliced in half. The destruction of this magic tool made all the accessories making it possible break immediately as well. Although it wasn’t as if it mattered that they broke or not, as Jack now lacked arms and was bleeding intensively. His entire body also slowly went back to his original size, and things were looking quite grim for him, if someone didn’t stopped the bleeding, he would die very soon.
Jack slowly looked up to Shade’s merciless blue eyes, they seemed to shine with a redder hue, until they turned completely red. These red eyes and his white hair made him look like an albino, or even worse, a demon. The darkness that emanated from his body truly made him look like the root of all evil. Despite that, he was a Hero of humanity, and someone that was supossedly given the title of a good person, someone that saved others and protected humans. But now, a human in front of him was at the verge of death because of his strength.
Well, it wasn’t as if Shade had never killed humans before.
“Y-You’re… R-Red Eyes… White hair… Ungh?! D-Don’t tell me you’re… From those damned Darkage Family?!” Jack cried in shock as he realized the overwhelmingly strong young man wasn’t merely a strong Adventurer, but someone that belonged to a prestigious yet mysterious family within the Human Continent of Gallatea.
“Oh, so you know my family.” Shade said in silence, his eyes slowly turned from red to blue as he calmed himself down. One of the abilities that such family had was the power to turn their eyes red-colored when they were enraged. This also caused their magic and physical power to multiply in a burst, feed over by how many blood they could spill over…
“Uuggh… Aggh…! T-There’s no way I would ever win… against a Darkage Family Member… A-After all, you’re all cold-blooded assassins trained since children, aren’t you? The weapons of the Empire… You’re all monsters… But how is one of you still alive?! D-Didn’t you all die?!” Asked Jack.
“Hey, hey, man, you’re getting a bit off-topic here. Don’t you think you’re not the one here with the position to ask questions? I am impressed you’re asking my friend things so leisurely after getting your arms chopped off. Do I have to cut down your legs to realize how fucked up you are?” Allan quickly came to the rescue, knowing that the memories of his family made Shade uncomfortable, especially of the event that happened over thirty years ago, the one that Jack had recalled.
“I lost… You win! Take whatever you want… It is not as if I can do anything… Kill me already then!” Jack roared. His bravery left the two heroes rather shocked. Allan sighed, as he waved his head and patted Shade’s shoulders.
…..
“This guy’s nuts, just like us I guess. He’s really to die anytime. Probably a thing that he got from the battlefield.” Sighed Allan. “To tell you the truth, Jack, I kind of understand some of your reasoning, and the reasons behind what you’re doing. Maybe if I had ended without developing enough empathy through my life, I might had felt the same way as you did. And I might had done even worst atrocities than I already did.”
“Just who… who exactly are you two?” Asked Jack.
Without nothing to lose anymore, Allan and Shade decided to reveal their true identities to Jack. They had already checked around and disabled all sorts of magical tools with a mere wave of their Mana essence. Perhaps Jack thought he could record what he heard and some of his allies would eventually pick them up, but such opportunities were already taken away from him without the former soldier even realizing.
“Allan Bravo Firebrand, Hero of Blazing Flames… Some others called me the Hero of The Blazing Sword too.” Allan said with a carefree smile, his shiny orange eyes blazed with fiery hue as his spiky red hair gave away that his affinity with flames was so strong that even his hair and eye color turned close to the color of the fire he wielded, a particular characteristic of the Firebrand Family, where his mother belonged to.
“Shade Darkage, I am the Hero of Shadows. Others call me an Assassin.” Shade said, his appearance alone gave a frightening look in the darkness, even more a his terrifying powers to control this element were unparalleled.
“H-H-Heroes?!” Jack muttered in shock. “U-Ungh… Y-You’re the Heroes?! Why…? Why are you trying to protect the demons?!” Cried Jack.
“I knew you would ask that…” Sighed Allan. “I am too lazy to explain it to you, and its not like you’ll ever understand.”
“We have not turned our backs in humanity or something.” Said Shade. “But as heroes, we feel the necessity to help people in need… Although I’ve killed many demon soldiers prepared to die, and I did not feel as much remorse for that, I have also… taken the lives of innocents out of the selfishness in my heart. As a way to selfishly redeem myself, I am trying to help these victims. I know fully well that my actions contradict themselves, but I am already too deep into this to stop. And I feel like, for the first time in years, I am finally obeying my utmost desires instead of obeying the orders of others.”
“Y-You… You regret what you did… in the… war?” Jack asked, his vision was getting blurry and his breathing slow, the more blood he lost, the quicker he was dying.
“Yes… More or less.” Sighed Allan. “Though I am not so gloomy about it… My friend here is very depressed. I have to cheer him up, and there’s no way in hell I am letting you enslave these people either. We abolished slavery for a reason! You bastards bring it back right after we ended our job… You sicken me.” Allan said with a disgusted expression on his face.
Jack never thought a Hero that saved humanity would say those words to him, who always thought he was fighting for humanity.
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