At the same time, back in the world of Fabloth, 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 specialized 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 realizing 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.
"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…"