A dark haired man was seen running through the alleys of the slum-like environment he found himself in, wary eyes darting around in anticipation, searching for the faintest glimmer of a spell while making sure his legs never stopped moving.
!SHHINGGG!
Here it was, the [light beam], a basic spell that could be learnt by anyone with a decent enough affinity for light, but when casted by someone at the level of his pursuer, a TIER 6 holy mage from PURITAS, this simple spell became an attack that vaporised anything it came into contact with, even the air wasn't spared.
Breaking into one of the buildings around him to temporarily escape the attack, the man was met with a hungry looking group of about 10 men.
[Blood drain]
With a simple thought he cast a spell, draining the men of the little blood they had and turning them into dried up husks, a much swifter death in his opinion than the one they would have gotten after being hit by the holy mage's [light beam], a nasty attack which "purified" the target of their "evil deeds" by burning them, body, soul and all, before sending them to their maker.
Besides, their blood would serve a much better use in his hands than they could ever use it for, such as protecting him from the attack which soundlessly tore through the straw roof.
[Blood shield]
With another thoughtless action, the blood hovering around him moved to defend him, forming a three-layer thick shield which crumbled quickly before the relentless attack.
'Tsk. Useless lowlife blood. Couldn't even buy me a second to catch my breath.', thought the man, his clothes slightly torn from an earlier attack that grazed him revealed bronze skin with a not-so-faint sheen of sweat decorating it.
'Useless lowlife scum all around me. Even if I sacrificed all of them as meatshields it would barely buy me 5 seconds, it might be enough time to activate it, but it's not worth the risk.'
He continued his internal rant, his eyes noticing how the beam barely reduced in size even after being activated for half an hour nonstop.
With his heart pounding blood at maximum capacity and his brain occupied with deciding whether he should take the risk or not, he failed to register the arrow headed to his heart, the same kind of attack which left his beast-hide infused clothes in their current sorry state, the arrow shot by a peak TIER 5 archer with light and wind affinities, the same elements that made up these deadly arrows, granting them extra speed and minor purification properties, it was no wonder why the man would not want to be on the receiving end of that attack.
!THUD!
The arrow landed squarely on his chestpiece, piercing straight through it and his heart in mere milliseconds, the tip showing out of his back.
Crumpled on the filthy, trash covered pathway, the man heard footsteps and weakly looked up to meet the holy mage, his pair of dark crimson eyes met the molten silver ones of the TIER 6 being who pulled a set of white handcuffs from out of thin air.
"You are hereby arrested and shall face trial for all your existing evil, villianous acts, and for resisting arrest, murder of at least 20 civilians and the manslaughter of many more, anything you say can and will be used against you at trial", boomed the holy mage, cuffing him in the process.
The man, despite his pitiful situation barely stifled his humourless laughter, 'Tsk. Labelling me as a villian, charging me with 20 civilian murders when I only killed 10, along with many counts of manslaughter when they all died to the holy beams, seems like someone really doesn't want me around- hnnngggg, ahh'.
The purification had finally kicked in, though they would make sure to cancel it just before he died, but for now they would watch him suffer, squirm, scream as his body and soul underwent the hellish pain of being burnt, his life being played in front of his eyes.
The memory, the scenes being played all started on that day, the day where everything had started going to shit on his home planet without anyone's knowledge, the day regarded by many as THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
***------***
[31st December, 2024. 11:37 pm]
In one of the posh mansions in Beverly Hills, a New Year's Eve celebration was being held as people chatted, flaunted and boasted their wealth while making sure to form connections or at the very least, relationships with peers of similar reputation or financial standings.
Unlike other celebrations going on around the world, this celebration would transition into a birthday party, that of the Smith family middle child, Mateo.
Mateo's peers and age mates did their best to form connections with the top brass of society since a chance like this was rare, with very few of them from that class, and fewer free from student debts.
As his mother was busily instructing the maids qnd helps, making sure that everyone was attended to and his father, a well decorated army veteran was catching up with some old friends who happened to drop by, the soon-to-be 19 year old sat in a dark corner of the hedge maze, bereft of overhead lighting, headphones strapped onto his ears as he blasted loud heavy metal music in an attempt to drown out the noise in the form of pretentious chatter and shameless ass kissing.
Keeping an eye on the time while approaching a tight bend in the racing game he was playing on his phone, Mateo stood up.
Eyes glued to the screen, he easily made his way out of the familiar hedge maze and onto the walkway that led straight to the house.
Knowing his mother, he needed to be present with the rest of the family under the big Christmas tree as they were ushered into the new year otherwise he would be welcomed with the wrath of a woman who showed only her bubbly personality to non family members and her perfect throwing skills to her children.
10
9
8
7
He heard them shouting, most likely with bright smiles on their faces, a sign for him to leave the game.
6
5
4
A few seconds more and he would reach his family, he could already see his older brother's ever stern face as he stood behind their sister, the suit they were both forced to wear doing a bad job at hiding his muscular body.
3
2
1
He made it, and with the rest of the crowd he shouted, "HAPPY NEW YEAR".
!ZWWOOONNGG!