Chapter 0:
Prologue
One Star Hero
Steel against steel.
Clang!
The land is covered in red, with not a single shred of nature in sight. Lifeless corpses lay as far as the eye can see; weapons of all kinds stick out of the ground like a meadow of iron.
Thunder rumbles from the ground; the roars of iron-clad soldiers howl underneath the dull sky.
And a woman in white with bright golden hair stands beyond them. With her sword in hand, she swings it against a soldier's blade then knocks another one away.
An axe swings at the woman; she grunts and immediately jumps back. The soldier brings the weapon back and rains it down.
Wings open like a fan on the lady in white; it flaps vigorously and propels her away from the crushing blow. She soars high into the null.
Arrows, fire, and lightning fill the air. The woman flies like a bolt of thunder as the rain of colors trails her.
The woman's white golden sword radiates with a furious light. She shouts once and slashes through. A wave of golden light splits the sky, disintegrating the entire rain.
A swordsman appears above the woman; she gasps and hurries her blade to block.
Clang!
The woman descends to the ground as the swordsman pushes her down. With all of her strength, she shoves the man off her, but another soldier comes from above and strikes.
The woman's heart beats faster than lightning; she raises her sword, and just in time, the soldier's blade clashes against hers, but the impact knocks her out of the air. The woman crashes onto the ground, staining her white dress with dirt; her wings break apart and scatter like fireflies. She hastens to stand back up as the rumbling of soldiers becomes louder with each passing second.
But a soldier with gauntlets quickly lunges toward her and strikes a blow to the woman's gut.
The punch is heavy as a pile of concrete blocks that the woman lost all the air inside her. She cries out and rolls back, dropping her sword. Now gasping for air, she lies on the ground, barely able to move.
The rumbling comes to a halt; soldiers in different wares and emblems surround her with weapons at the ready.
"You did this, Dwelleen." A soldier growls at her. "This is all your fault."
Dwelleen gasps for air; she couldn't form any words, nor would she meet the glares of many.
"Because of you, people are killed in this war. You created this! And now, we humans must mend it ourselves!"
"No..." Dwelleen finally spoke. She slowly lifts her head from the ground and stares dead into everyone's eyes. "I gave you all Armaments as a gift to protect your loved ones, cure the sick, and give you all fortune, not a weapon to kill each other." Her eyes begin to sting and blur her vision. "He did not sacrifice himself for this..." Tears roll down her cheek.
"Your Armaments are exactly what caused this nation to go to war, and now we will use the very gifts you gave us and end you."
Weapons all around begin to glow in outrage.
"Because of you, my father and brother were killed!" A lady knight with tears streaming from her eyes yells. She aims her bow directly at Dwelleen with an arrow engulfed in flames.
"You will pay for my fiancé's death," a young mage hisses. He holds a staff that glows blue with icicles surrounding him.
One by one, blame is cast upon Dwelleen for the deaths, the country's falling, and the war.
Dwelleen opens her mouth to defend herself, but then...
Everyone roars.
Magic from all sides come together at Dwelleen and explodes. A storm of destructive colors unleashes, tearing the land and sky apart.
Dwelleen screams from the top of her lungs as she is burned, frozen, drowned, crushed, and ripped at the same time. I can't do this anymore! Her eyes shoot open and glow golden.
A bright white barrier surrounds Dwelleen and instantly expands like an eruption; it breaks the storm of magic and knocks all the soldiers away.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But I will keep our promise and find another way to save everyone," Dwelleen mutters to herself. The barrier that surrounds her gradually rises into the sky.
A barrage of magic from below explodes against the barrier, but none could break the field.
A rift opens below of Dwelleen; she gently floats into it then disappears.
The barrier dissipates as if it was never there.
"She got away."
Every soldier glares up to the sky in silence where Dwelleen once was.
Boom!
Gunfire grabs everyone's attention; A man falls into a puddle of blood.
Ice-cold eyes stare at each other; everyone's grip on their weapons all tighten. Then roars from all sides collide; magic flings back and forth, explosions, screams, and shouts grow across the barren land. The ground beneath their shoes transforms red; more and more soldiers fall, creating a valley of corpses...
And the war never ended.
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