The Rising Hero

I woke up in my amazing bed that I was still trying to find something softer than the previous comparison so it would make sense. I stayed lying in my bed with a content smile with the only thoughts going through my mind were the bed, the knife, and the note from Faust... HOLY CRAP!!! I FORGOT ABOUT FAUST!!!

With that thought in mind, I practically jumped out of bed with expert level speed before getting dressed in the same clothing I had on yesterday. They looked the same, but were in the color of white. I also grabbed the knife from its case and slide it through the back loops of my pants. I thought of my mental checklist of what I needed to traverse the dense forest that lied behind my home.

Satisfied with all I had, I rushed out the back door with enough speed to practically run through trees and tear them down. I didn’t bother to even take in the scenery as I bolted through the woods and literally ran through the trees. I don’t know how I did it without feeling pain, but I did.

Eventually, I reached the clearing with my lung burning from the lack of oxygen entering them as I huffed to attempt to put air into my lungs. My hands were on my knees and I was bent over to support myself before I fell to my knees.

“So you finally made it.” A youngish voice announced before a girl my age leaped from the trees ahead to a few meters in front of me. “Umm... do you need water?” She tilted her head with a confused and worried expression mixed together.

“Please.” I huffed before finally looking to the sky to give the air a straight shot to my lungs.

She presented me with a bottle of water which I drank greedily. I didn’t spare a single drop as the cold water was quickly gulped down be me as my breathing just got a little better and were on the road to being normal.

“Thanks.” I stood up with my breathing being deep and filling as my lung recovered.

“No problem.” She said while I examined her for the first time. She had red hair and green... eyes.

“Faust!” I was completely shocked that I had Faust in front of me again. “What do you want? Wait... AM I GONNA DIE AGAIN!!!” I was on the verge of a panic attack at this point because death is painful.

“No, but I may have made a tiny little mistake.” She looked sheepish while looking at me which didn’t help my growing fear. “I may have made you a Balancer. I infused your body with too much magic along with the magic of a Daemon.” My eyes widened for a moment at the news I was just given.

“First, you in fused my body with magic. My dead body. The one back on earth.” I was confused because my old body should be six feet under by now.

“When you were sent to your world’s god, he had to take your body with it and cure it so you wouldn’t die again. Your body is the exact same body you had for sixteen years now.” I nodded before I remembered the last thing she said.

“Lastly, you infused my body with your magic and the magic of a Daemon. One of the most powerful, evil creatures in the entire world of Equus.” Even I wouldn’t have done something so reckless like that no matter what situation.

“If I didn’t your body would tear itself apart with the positive and negative emotions. Your literally divided in you emotions.” I understood why now. The world would have not known what to do with me.

“I blame the depression.” I said with a roll of my eyes. “But why my actual body inside of a new one?”

“...” She didn’t answer before face palming knowing that she could have done that from the beginning. “That would have prevented a panic.” She sighed heavily before walking away. “By the way, did you get my gift?” I nodded and pulled out the knife with a single motion.

She smiled before leading me deeper into the woods that seemed to grow darker and darker as we continued on. I couldn’t help but jump at the slightest of noise as we continued one through the creepy forest that seemed to go on forever. Although I felt overwhelming dread and fear, it was a nice walk that I throughly enjoying.

“Why am I following you?” I said with apprehension entering my voice.

We stopped before she finally turned around with a smile one her face which actually brightened up the forest a little. It didn’t stop her eyes from expressing fear from our surroundings as I instantly went on guard and prepared to grab Faust and run at the slightest growl or sight of a monster. She seemed tense and looked prepared to run with sat same smile on her face. Here eyes seemed to go above me and focus on something behind me which ultimately made terror grow within me.

“Follow me and run when I tell you.” She said while stayed still while preparing to run for her life. I was completely an utterly confused by her sudden change in demeanor. “Now!” At that word, we rushed further into the forest while the stomping of something followed behind me.

I spared a glance at what was behind me before redoubling my efforts to escape from the Daemon that was following behind me. We continued running without gaining any ground, but we were steadily loosing more ground with our fatigue getting the best of us.

I looked back at the Daemon that looked like a golem type daemon with a single edge scimitar in its right hand. Its head was small to the point of it being unnoticeable while its body was the complete opposite as it was ten times my size. Its speed was staggering since golems normally lumber towards their victims, but this one was in a full sprint and showed no signs of stopping.

Seeing no other way and being the only one of us with a weapon, I immediately ran towards the golem at a full sprint. It tried to land an attack on me via a horizontal slash which I slid under before running towards it. Sliding again, I attacked the femoral arteries on the thighs and attacking one of the Achilles’ tendon.

It didn’t last long as I was swatted away with extreme force which sent me flying. I didn’t stop until I was sent through a tree and collided with another one. I let out a cry of pain as a few sounds of bones snapping echoed through my ears. I landed on the ground where I was met with the golem making a mad dash to me.

I tried to roll out the way, but its massive hand punched me deeper into the ground before picking me up and throwing me in the direction of where Faust ran. Many, many trees were torn down by the use of my body being thrown through the dense forest. I landed hard as my body created a deep ditch in the line of my extremely rough landing. Tears leaked from my eyes from the indescribable pain I was feeling throughout my entire body as the golem lumbered towards me.

I saw that my efforts to hold it off were useless so I did my best to run away. I tried to put pressure on my arms which just buckled underneath the pain of the throw. I stayed there with all the pain in the world focused on me as this behemoth of a golem ominously lumbered towards me. I felt its footsteps through the ground as it shook even more violently with each step along with a loud boom accompanying the steps. I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable.

Eventually, the footsteps stopped its booming and the vibrations ended. A minute passed and nothing happened which I took for a sign that it ether left of is just waiting for me to open my eyes. I got my answer as the sound of metal cutting through stone came from right beside me. I opened my eyes to see my soon to be killer as it pulled its sword from the ground.

It lifted its massive sword into the said slowly while I raised my hand in a fruitless attempt to stop the sword. This was it... I’m gonna die again. Its sword came down at blinding speeds as I screamed in fear and closed my eye as me death came, but nothing happened except for the sound of metal hitting metal.

I opened my eyes to see what happened which resulted in me seeing a large dome in front of me made of a clear blue glasslike substance. I lifted my other hand and found the knife still firmly in my grip which I smiled at. I half the shield while preparing to try something daring which wound seem crazy.

I dispelled the shield and threw the knife at it... but nothing happened. I was disappointed and saddened that it didn’t work, but fear took control as it came in for another killing blow which would be unavoidable for me at this point. I closed my eyes again, but only for my body to feel like it was being pulled before I felt a familiar object in my hand. I opened my eyes which garnered amazement to flood my system as it worked.

I gritted my teeth as I pulled out the knife as many broken bones made themselves known from the pull and attacked a few times on it torso as I fell. It groaned loudly as it dropped to one knee which I used to my advantage and stabbed the blade into its stomach area and pulled as hard as I could. I was breathing heavy as the effort to put into doing that attack was substantial compared to the warp-strike.

I had the bright idea of looking back at my kill before all that amazement and happiness exited my system as it got up and its wounds healed. I decided not to stay as its wounds healed, so I limped away because of an open fracture from my left leg that hurt like hell.

I limped as fast as I could, but it was fast enough as it quickly made it towards me. I turned and tried to make that same shield which worked, but I used both hands which I thought would make it stronger. It did, but due to my injured state, it wasn’t strong enough as its sword made contract with my shield and it pushed down on the back of the blade.

Shards of the shield cracked and broke off which put an enormous strain on my body. More and more shards of the shield cracked off and disappeared from sight. With the strain from my body and the multiple broken bones, I screamed loudly as I put even more strain on my body to make a stronger shield. I could feel every individual cracked, fractured, and broken bone as the strain pushed against me. It didn’t matter as the shield continued the crack and break until it gave out and the resulting explosion from the broken shield send me flying through the trees once more.

“Why!” I yelled after being sent through even more trees that broke my bones even further. The pain was excruciating for me as each slight movement was like my bones braking more and more which caused me to stay still, but I knew that I would forget and try to move again.

I couldn’t move. I struggled to breath. I coughed up blood. I was gonna die again, but this time for sure as the golem’s pounding footsteps grew ever closer. Blood dripped from my mound and onto the hash stone ground of the cave... wait... cave?

I looked around and saw the entrance had a green glow surrounding it as the golem grew ever closer until it could be seen. I was about to scream in terror until a hand covered my mouth and someone shushed me. The mystery person and I watched as its upper body moved until it faced the left and it doing the same to face the right. It grunted in frustration before walking away, much to my surprise. I got a good look st it before it left and the three scars on its torso will be a permanent reminder of our fight. The person uncovered my mouth and wiped my blood from their hand off on me.

“You were lucky.” A new female said in a matter of fact tone which I completely understood. It was complete luck that I was thrown in here or that the golem was sadistic enough to toy with me enough to allow me to live this long. “Are you Okay?”

“No... no I’m not.” I did my best to sit up, but I yelped from the pain and lied back down. “I was thrown through so many trees. At least I unlock my magic.” I made a weak shield around my arm to demonstrate.

“I’m sorry.” A familiar voice said as I turned to it and found Faust. “I should’ve told youth keep running and that we were almost there, but I didn’t. Now... now your hurt because of me.” Despite the pain, I sat up and lifted her head to face me.

“I... it’s fine. I didn’t die again so I don’t care. That and it would’ve got me no matter what you did. I did give it one hell of a fight though.” I tried to sit up only for my bones to crack and shift under my weight. “Fuck!” I was in total pain before I looked at the woman who was off to the side.

She seemed to be the same age we are, but looked odd to me. Not like she had a birth defect, but similar yet different for some unknown reason. Or more like I know her, but she looks different and I can’t tell why. She had silver hair that seemed like a stark contrast to her age and seemed to be built more for speed and maneuverability than power. She still looked tough enough to bring absolute pain to any who dared to attack her. I don’t know why, but I continued to stare at her while scavenging the archives of my mind to try and remember where I know her from. Eventually, my curiosity got the best of me and I asked my most frustrating question I had to relieve myself from Its burden.

“Alright, I have to ask! Who the fuck are you?!” I yelled with frustration clearly evident in my tone and my facial expression.

Faust was not amused by my sudden out burst and seemed like she had a disappointing epiphany come to light. “Wow... you really don’t have any control of your anger at this age.” Wait... hold one... wait one fuckin’ minute... hold the phone... and many others I can’t think of at this time.

“Wait, am I gonna go through the emotional and physical changes I went through again?” This could be bad if the answer is what I think it is.

“Yes, why?” My eyes widened as I remembered the one defining trait that made the original younger me absolutely terrifying.

“I had horrible rage issues and years of therapy to quell the rage and even then; the only reason I became so tame was because of my depression.” She didn’t seem worried for some reason as I expected but a rather happy one.

“Then I’m glad I forgot to wipe your memory Because now you can control it.” Despite the pain I was currently in, I couldn’t help but glance everywhere but Faust. “Oh my gosh, you can’t.” I lowered my head in defeat as she hit nail on the head with that statement.

“That doesn’t matter. Let’s heal him before he dies... again.” The new girl said as she got close to me and began to use a healing spell on me followed by Faust who was doing as the girl said. “By the way, I’m Winged Spear, but from what Faust told me, you know me as Aranea Highwind.” My eyes widened as the identity of this girl was revealed to me as my favorite character in Final Fantasy 15.

“H-how?” I was at a loss for words as I silently gawked at my favorite character in that series. My mind was utterly fried from the news and I was still trying to recover from the mind fuck that was happening right now.

“Easy. I died after Noctis was sucked into the crystal. All those daemons overwhelm me and eventually killed me. She told that you came here by the same means... death. How?” I looked away because I went off with a whimper compared to show she died. Although I was feeling considerably better than I was when I was thrown into the cave.

“My god messed up when he was creating a disease to help the population crisis and released it prematurely on accident. It entered me and for three months I held it off, but I eventually died in front of my entire family. God cured my corpse and brought it to him where he apologized and handed me off to Faust where she asked me if I wanted a power before de-aging my body and ‘reincarnating’ me into this world as Nocturnal Shadow or Noctis for short.” When I finished my explanation I felt ashamed that I died in a less flamboyant way than Aranea did. I sighed seeing that I died so slowly compared to her which I guess I should be happy, but I felt so weak after hearing her’s.

“Damn.” I looked at her and she had a face of pity and sadness. “That must have been rough to go through.” She actually seemed sadden which surprised me because I never saw this side in the game.

“The last few days were the most painful.” I had to add that in because I just couldn’t leave out that detail... and I was having a moment of trying to see if I could push this character to be even cuter that she was now. I mean she is absolutely adorable. “It doesn’t matter because it already happened. There’s nothing I can do to change it.”

“Right... can’t change the past.” I nodded while Faust hesitated for a moment before agreeing. I didn’t care because if it happened, it happened and I’ll just have to roll with it. Aranea didn’t seem to convinced while the magic continued to heal all my broken bones.

I felt much better to the point I could actually move for the first time in this cave. I was amazed by this power they had that I could use, but I still needed much more to learn so I could use it. I needed to start with the shield so I could get a feel for the magic without destroying the environment around me... why is the ground shaking again.

The gollum was back, but the other two seemed not to noticed as they looked like they were lost within their own focus. I looked behind me and found the edge of the cave which terrified me since we had only one way out. Was the illusion going to hold while it stood there.

“Umm... guys?” I asked to get their attention with my tone seemingly wavering a little from the hulking behemoth in front of me.

“...”

“...”

No response. “Guys.” My tone was a little louder much to my growing fear.

“...”

“...”

Still no answer from them. What the hell! Are they that focused on this. I was gaining confidence thinking that the illusion was still up. It then raised its sword causing my eyes to widen as it’s blade glowed red as a smoldering flame consumed the blade. I didn’t know weather to call it terrifying of absolutely fucking amazing.

I got my answer as it swung its blade through the Illusion causing me to react immediately as I pushed them away. I was gonna dodge myself until the sword cut open my left shoulder and nearly took of that side of my body. I was extremely lucky that it’s momentum stopped at my hip or I would be saying goodbye to the left side of my body through screams. It didn’t matter if I lost it or not though... I was in an insurmountable amount of pain from that daemon’s attack.

“SHIIII-AAAAH!” I yelled as the curse died in my throat from attack and the flames coating the scimitar. I don’t know what happened, if it was Equus Magic or universal magic, but I was still able to move left arm despite it pretty much being chopped off. I looked to both my sides at the two were in shock on what fate they almost met. “What are you doing! Attack or ru-AAAAAAH!”

My anger began to rise as the continuous pain rapidly flared throughout my nervous system, but I was beyond screaming at this point. My pain was converting into anger as I was slowly losing myself to it and my vision faded to black.

(Third person)

The other two watched helplessly as their friend was struggling to move the scimitar before he stopped all together and flared his magic aura. It was a royal blue mixed with a white and seemed to violently flare at random intervals. They were surprised by this as if they never seen something like this happen ever; even if Faust has seen it in tournaments as a show of power to scare the opponent. What made it special was the fact that his aura was turning from that into a black and red aura that consumed his body as his anger visibly took control. His face contorted into a snarl while his eyes seemed to pierce right through the soul of the daemon. He now seemed that the blade practically cutting him in half was ineffective to the now enraged human... or was he now.

His body began to physically change from a normal everyday human body to a more demonic looking one. His ears became longer and pointed like an elf’s which seemed to move on there own as if hearing something others can’t. He bared his teeth to show that his canines were becoming more fang like and sharp enough to tear through skin. His nails became slightly longer and sharp enough to cut through armor as a dragon like tail practically shot out of his backside. His eyes were no longer there dull gray and changed into a scarlet red as his pupil became cat like. The whites of his eyes slowly turned black which crawled from the corner of his eyes to the irises before his right eye leaked magic like a water foist.

With a feet of amazing strength, the half daemon through the scimitar out of his body and up into the ceiling of the cave and getting the enormous sword stuck. The gollum pulled and tugged to no avail as it tried to get its main weapon free. The enraged human didn’t stop there as he threw his arms to the side, his left side drooping a little bit, before throwing his arms back and down until his arms were raised above his head and hand in the shape of a claw. For a moment it did nothing, but the question of ‘if he failed to do what he wanted’ was answered when the gollum was encased in ice before Aranea struck the back of his neck with her spear; rendering Noctis unconscious.

“Faust! Let’s get out of here before that gollum breaks out!” Aranea ordered as she took his left side while Faust ran over as fast as she could to the young boy and got his right. “About what I said about changing the past...” Aranea trailed off for Faust to continue knowing she was hiding something.

“We can, but this is the only time where the Harmony Arms locations are known. They don’t belong to anyone and they are known by all. However, it’s extremely dangerous to get them.” Faust answered while scanning the area with her magic for anymore daemons.

“Why this time then if those arms are so damn important?” Aranea prepared to attack at the sight of a daemon.

“I have a theory that me maybe he new Blade Master. I’ll tell you about this later, but we can’t tell Nocturnal.” Aranea glared at her which she responded with the infamous puppy eyes causing the spear wielder to give up her glare.

“Fine. I won’t tell a soul.” The foliage got denser and darker as they continued to hurry deeper into the woods. “Where are we going?” The deeper they went, the darker and more ominous the forest seemed to get.

“A place where not even daemons would ever set foot in... the Everfree Forest.” They walked into the darkness, not knowing how long they would be in there.