"Master Azzard..."

Azzard was startled. He searched the room to look for the origin of the voice but the room was empty.

"Master Azzard. Gerard, your servant, has awoken."

"Where are you? Show yourself!", Azzard ordered.

When Azzard had given the order, the necklace started to shake. It was also luminating brightly and Azzard was temporarily blinded by the intense light. After a few seconds, the light disappeared and he was able to see again. What stood in front of him was a tall dark-haired man; he looked as if he was in his mid-twenties and he wore light leather armor. He may have been a warrior.

"Master." the warrior then bowed slightly to Azzard.

"Who are you?" Azzard asked.

"My name is Gerard Rackforth. I am your servant, Master Azzard"

"What do you mean by master? I don't know you at all."

“I know that you lost your memories, Master. I was there with you. Now I am going to explain what happened 1000 years ago….”

The world had fallen into chaos, it wasn’t what it used to be. People were suffering. Humanity had been plagued with a mysterious illness. This illness destroyed the brain and left the victim paralyzed; days after being paralyzed the person would die because they could no longer breathe nor eat. The Institute of Healers still hadn’t found a cure to this illnesses. It had been three years since the plagued started to wreak havoc in the world.

“Azzard, let us proceed with original plan. We should go to the Demon lord’s palace tomorrow and stage an all out battle against him and his followers.”, a dwarf advised him.

“That was the original plan but we found out that it isn’t the Demon lord’s doing. Although it is still possible that the Demon lord is responsible for illness, we may be wrong. When we encountered the Demon lord before, I felt his aura and even though he disappeared right away I know that it wasn’t Draknair’s aura. It felt as if somebody took control of his body.”

The reason why Azzard knew the Demon lord’s aura, it was because they were past companions along with the his current companions.

“Lokri, Azzard is right. We shouldn’t enter enemy territory without facts.I suggest that we first investigate the current situation at the Demon lord’s palace.”, a male elf entered the conversation. Lokri the dwarf made ‘tch’ sound when he heard the elf talk. The elf was the strategist for the group. He was naturally wise due to his age and knowledge. His name was Orym Biafyndar and although he was companions with Lokri, they often fought. It was not that Orym loved fighting Lokri; the truth was that Lokri was always annoyed by Orym. He felt that Orym was arrogant and was the type “who knew it all” but when he heard Orym’s suggestion, Lokri couldn’t help but agree. It was really obvious as to who had wisdom in the group.

‘Then. I’ll order Gerard to infiltrate the palace and gather intel on the situation. When he comes back, we should change our plans depending on the information that we’ll receive.”, Azzard told the group and they just nod their heads. It was evident that Azzard was the leader of this group. Their group consisted of six members including Azzard: one dwarf, two elfs, one human, one dragon descendant, and one beastman. Although Gerard was also member, technically he wasn’t. Gerard was just a sentient weapon which Azzard acquired in the ruins of the dragons. He had the ability to morph himself into human form.

After been given the order by his master, Gerard travelled to the Demon land capital, Kolasi. Gerard was skillful in infiltrating since he could change his appearance as he wishes. It only took him seven days to arrive at the Demon lord’s palace. Upon his arrival at the palace, he immediately went to the throne room.

“....” The Demon lord, Draknair sat on his seat. The room was dark and there was no one else inside. Draknair did not move nor talk. “This is odd”, Gerard thought. Gerard had always remembered the Demon lord to be loud. He was a character that always brought up the mood when it was low. It’s very contrasting to what he was at that moment.

Suddenly, Gerard saw a dark figure appear in front of the Demon lord. He wore a black robe. The black figure spoke, “It is almost time for the apocalypse to come. Once it comes, everyone will perish and fall. I will be the only one remaining.” Gerard was listening intently to everything and was not discovered. The black figure once again spoke, “Until that time comes, I will continue to control your body from the shadows. You will become a world enemy and I will enjoy your suffering and the world’s.” The black figure disappeared. With the information he had gathered, Gerard immediately went to report to his master.

What transverse after was a great battle between Azzard and Draknair. His companions were defeated by Draknair’s subordinates. The one who had the upper hand was Draknair and Azzard was already losing the battle. He was still able to defeat the subordinates of Draknair but after having done so he lost most of his energy.

“Draknair, come to your senses. You are stronger than this; I know you can cancel out whatever magic that’s controlling you.” It was futile. The magic was too strong that even Draknair who had immunity to mind control magic was not able to resist against it. Azzard was pushed into the corner, he knew that he was going to die. Draknair drew nearer and nearer to him and finally he was in front of Azzard. Draknair held his sword up and slashed at nothing.

Azzard was able to escape just in the nick of time but that cost him greatly. Activating teleportation magic with his low mana had taken a chunk of his life force. His move was stupid because he was still going to die at that moment.

Gerard had materialized into his human form. “Master Azzard. I can heal you and give you my life force but I will lose my powers as well.”

“No, don’t” Azzard ordered. “I will die anyway even if you transfer your life force to me. Save it. We can still win against them. We can also still cure the world from it’s disease.”

“What do you mean Master? How are we to make that happen?”

“I will cast a forbidden magic that will destroy the entire palace where Draknair is in. But before that I will also cast a forbidden healing spell, Ultimate Heal.”

The forbidden magic that Azzard was going to cast was Ultimate Destruction and Ultimate Heal. The repercussions for using these spells was that the user will lose his life. It wasn’t a big deal for Azzard because he was dying anyway. He wanted to help the world one more time before he dies.

“I understand Master.”, Gerard said.

“Now, then this is farewell Gerard. You’ve been a great companion and friend. Take care of yourself. Hopefully, you find a better master than me.” Tears dropped from Gerard’s eyes. He admired his master for his strength, sense of justice, and valor. No one could replace his master.

Lightning strikes came down from the sky and a loud boom originated from the Demon lord’s palace. Then a bright light illuminated the entire world.

“So what you are saying is that I lived 1000 years ago. How am I still alive when you said that I supposedly died after casting two forbidden magic?”, the current Azzard asked Gerard.

“The reason why you’re still alive even to this day is not a mystery. The truth is that you aren’t Azzard from 1000 years ago.”