DAMIAN POV

“You need to keep standing, Damian. Even as your flesh gets punctured through or your heart stops for a second. You should fight. This is why I’m training you this way.”

“B-But my leg...”

“If your leg is broken then just hop on the other one! There’s no excuses!” He said and struck me with his sword again. I was thrown aside onto the ground.

It was a memory from way back then. The seven year old me was standing up to my brother. We were surrounded by all the family members who came to watch us train. He was assigned to be my master since my grandfather was sent on an important mission that lasted a few years.

I stood up while coughing up blood. All the orifices in my body were leaking blood. My arm was dangling. I was clutching my sword into the ground to keep myself from falling.

How many times had I tasted dirt while fighting him?

How many times had I thought about giving up?

Well, to be honest, even I lost count. I was weak.

A disgrace to our family and its history. The only one to be born with black magic in the family. All the members of my family were wielders of aura. My father and grandfather were wielders of the white variant. It was said to be the strongest and most violent. Some said that the black variant was one of the most chaotic but it came nowhere near the ferocity of white aura.

I wanted my father to tell me one thing.

You have done well, son.

Yet I had never heard him say that even once. He had said it countless times to Aubrey and Zelda but to me...

I was only a failure. I thought about killing myself countless times in the past. But, would anyone care for my absence? Who would mourn for the me of the past? Roman? Granny Barbara?

My sister...?

“Egh! Keh!”

I was punched without mercy by his aura fists. It was like being hit with steel rods across the face. Although the pain wasn’t as bad as the first time I started training, it didn’t lessen the damage I took.

“Pathetic. I can’t believe our mother had to suffer because she had you. She had to suffer abuse and mockery at the hands of the concubines.” Aubrey said coldly and kicked me in the face. I was thrown aside in my own pool of blood. I could still remember the iron taste of the blood in my mouth.

The pain in my ribs, stomach, chest and everywhere else was vivid despite being a memory. Every night I would curl my body in fright, hoping to not stand before that monster again.

Aubrey. Graduated top in the Knight Order and joined the family business. He killed many high ranked people in his active years. Even a king or any other ruler couldn’t survive, no matter how many guards they stationed outside their castles.

He was a mountain I couldn’t hope to cross.

A sea I couldn’t hope to swim.

A man I couldn’t hope to face.

It was always “I can’t win” no matter how many times I tried. The day and nights I spent training myself to be recognized as one of them was useless.

Was my determination not enough?

Or was all of it pointless this entire time...

...

-◆-

CLANG

“Guh!”

Each blow from Aubrey was powerful and fast yet so precise. I could barely hold on by blocking alone. He was so fast that I couldn’t even go on the offensive. I only managed to get a few hits in. Most of them were lucky shots.

Despite his deadly strikes, his entire face was as calm as someone strolling near a riverbed, looking over the horizon.

‘This pisses me off so much.’

It was clear that he didn’t view me as a threat. I was more like a dog that needed training.

SHING

Each manifested blade I threw was swatted aside by him. It was like annoying flies next to his ear.

Sparks flew from our connected weapons. I didn’t notice it before but the arena was being destroyed by the second. We were fighting in a crater that was formed from our battle.

A black wind spiralled around my arm.

“『Rotation』!”

The terrifying speeds of the wind was strong enough to cut skin but Aubrey merely used one hand to grab the arm that was covered by the wind. He gripped hard that I felt it until my bone.

He punched the spot where my liver was located. The pain from that alone was enough to sent pain signals to my brain.

“...!”

Blood spat out of my mouth. Not only that but vomit as well.

Another.

And another.

My entire body was trembling from the pain. Why—despite the fact that the battle just begun—was the gap so large?

‘What...’

The gap hadn’t shortened at all.

...How?

Why is he so powerful....?

...

I gritted my teeth and broke free from his grip by twisting my dagger in a back grip. He let go before the dagger grazed his arm and took a few steps backwards.

“It hasn’t even been ten minutes, yet you’re already bleeding.” Aubrey sighed as he waved around his sword. My blood that accumulated flew off the blade.

“Tch...”

I was no match for Aubrey in speed. I could barely hold on with my physical power alone. The mana weapons I manifested were basically useless.

I turned my gaze up towards the high seats. I could see my grandfather look at me.

His eyes were clearly asking me what I would do next.

“....” I took a deep breath and straightened my arms.

TSSK

“Hm?” Aubrey stopped in his tracks when he was about to come towards me. His brow twitched.

What made him stop was the sound of a thousand birds chirping. It was coming from my body. Specifically my core. Conjurer mages like me were not born with arcane cores like regular mages.

We differed from them. Our cores don’t undergo evolution divided in stages. Since I was a black magician, my core would stay the same as the aforementioned colour.

It was sometimes referred to as the Colourless core.

We had to go through other means in order to get stronger.

TSSK

A small stream of blackish lightning appeared when I opened my hand. More and more manifested and covered my entire forearm. A cacophony of crackling noises surrounded the arena.

Thunder.

“No way.”

Aubrey’s eyes were widened in shock.

The lightning wasn’t yellow like its natural colour. It was black.

The entire arena rumbled when the lightning coiled around my arms. Two giant dragon heads made of lightning manifested when I gripped my daggers.

Black lightning Dragon『 First form』— [Dragon Fist].

It was a forbidden technique that I learned from sneaking into the family library. It was forbidden for anyone to enter unless you were the head or an elder. I took that book that had the technique as revenge for what my family did to me all my life. It was amusing seeing all of their reactions. It seemed they didn’t notice until now.

It wasn’t like this technique was suited for anyone though.

ROOOOAR

The dragon heads roared when I went into a battle stance.

I could see the shocked expressions on everyone’s faces. My grandfather was shaking his head as if to say: “Good grief”.

My father was gripping the railings so hard that they were being crushed. He gritted his teeth so hard as he was breathing like a beast.

It was the same for the other three elders. They looked like they wanted to murder me. But, seeing as how my grandfather was calm about it, they didn’t move.

As I turned my head, I saw granny Barbara sitting next to Clyde. Clyde had a look of disbelief on his face. Being a mage, he must’ve heard of forbidden magic before. It was the power to destroy. And this particular technique I was using was part of that series.

The power to conjure destruction. Chaos magic.

“You little...” Aubrey’s face twitched. “You had something like this all along?”

“Why? You scared?”

“....” His face went back to being expressionless as he looked at me. “This changes nothing. In the end, you will succumb to my power. I will beat into you the ways of our ancient assassin clan.”

“Heh. Arrogant bastard.” The lightning raged in my hands. I had to stay focused otherwise it would lose control. “I was planning on saving this for last but I have no choice.”

For ten years I had to suffer at the hands of my siblings. I couldn’t even remember how many times I almost died. I thought about dying because I never had a will to fight them.

‘This changes nothing?’

“『Dark Healing』”

Smoke covered my body and instantly healed my wounds.

“Wha....”

“He stole the Book of Forbidden Magic!”

“That little bastard...!”

The audience got agitated when they saw me heal myself with that spell. It was a spell I found inside the book as well.

Dark Healing-Using the essence of one’s soul to heal wounds. The greater the essence, the greater the effect of the spell.

I stretched my neck and my legs. The dragon heads were being powered up by the second. I could see Aubrey’s frown getting more distorted.

“If you’re using the ancient warrior techniques then you know that this sacrifices life force for energy, right?”

I chuckled at Aubrey’s question.

“Life force...I have plenty of that to go around.”

After saying that, I increased the amount of power I poured into the black lightning dragon heads. They roared with more ferocity as the lightning grew louder.

I was a walking thunder storm.

“….” Aubrey increased the amount of aura around his body. It darkened even further.

“The power that injured the Human God does not belong in your hands, Damian.”

“Our ancestor didn’t leave behind what he found for nothing, did he?”

Before he died, the first head of the Minerva household found a forbidden technique that was powerful enough to injure a god.

It was confirmed by this technique that a person’s emotions is one of the most powerful weapons in this world. Using the pain, suffering, abuse and anger I experienced in the past, I could become an unstoppable force.

Roman told me one thing when he saw me steal the book of forbidden arts and magic.

It is more suited to you than to anyone else. Use it wisely, master Damian.

Ever since that day, I had trained to master this destructive power and make it my own. I could’ve used it back then in the fight against Aubrey at the border but I was hesitating. What if I wasn’t ready?

In the future, it will become necessary for me to tweak this technique a bit. I could feel the backlash coming closer by the second.

The dragon heads roared as I burst forward.

The entire arena rumbled. The audience covered their ears at the volume of the roar.

“….!”

I swung down one of my daggers at Aubrey with a loud shout.

Aubrey clicked his tongue and swung his sword towards me. The two powers clashed.

I felt the weight behind his strikes had lessened. Was it because I was stronger or was he holding back?

Either way, it made me attack with even more vigour. Every strike sent vibrations up my body. The backlash for accepting this power will be huge once I finish this.

“….!”

CLANK

The power behind his sword was beginning to get heavier. I decided to jump back but it seemed he knew my intentions. He jumped towards me again.

With a click of the tongue, I sent the first dragon head flying at him. An explosion occurred. Unfortunately, it crashed onto the ground and it seemed that he managed to dodge it.

I smirked. His eyes opened wide.

“You little…!”

I threw the other dragon head towards him while he was in mid-air. He crossed his arms and was sent flying into the ground.

Blood finally came out of his mouth.

‘Yes!’

I created a chain of lightning and threw it at him.

“…!!!”

His entire body was covered in the voltage. I conjured a long black spear in my hand and threw it at him.

It pierced through his flesh. His limbs fell down as if a puppet that had its strings cut. The next spear went through his shoulders.

“Die! Die!”

I knew that he was near death but I was still unsatisfied. The people looked at me as if seeing a monster.

Half of Aubrey’s body was chunks of meat by then. The aura that protected his being was nowhere to be found.

Just then he lifted his remaining arm while groaning.

“What? You want to die peacefully? Not a chance, you bastard.”

However, he pointed his finger at me. It then pointed behind me.

“….?”

Something similar to glass breaking rang out. I felt myself being pulled to somewhere.

“Huh?”

My entire body got goosebumps when I saw what the near dead Aubrey was pointing towards.

Black hair and aura. A tall build and golden eyes.

“…Aubrey?”

My brother was standing there unscathed. He uncrossed his arms and swung his sword in a relaxed manner.

“Have you finally come to your senses?”