As the newly appointed heroes traveled to the site of their first mission, accompanied by a few soldiers, Maïli was lost in thought. The reason was simple: she had met a familiar gaze eyes she had known for as long as she could remember. Her childhood friend, none other than Logan, the one the kingdom had long since cast aside. A storm of emotions surged within her: concern, nostalgia, and foresight intertwined, coloring her thoughts as she mentally prepared for the mission ahead.
"I'm glad to see he's alive. I always said he'd make it. Still, I wish he had stayed by my side… But perhaps it's better for him to be far away from all this. And yet, the moment I saw him, I wanted to drop everything to run to him, or at least stop, just to speak to him… even for a moment."
As she was caught in this whirlwind of emotions, the carriage rolled steadily toward their destination. Their first mission was a simple one or so it seemed: an extermination task to eliminate the monsters that had attacked a nearby village. As the landscape slowly unfolded before her eyes, Maïli reviewed the scant information they had been given.
"Apparently, this attack wasn't an isolated incident. Several villages have been hit in similar ways, except for one that was spared. An adventurer reportedly prevented it but the guild hasn't released any details about the individual. There's supposed to be a meeting with the guild soon, and we'll be attending."
After a few hours of travel, they finally arrived at the scene and what awaited them was nothing short of devastation. The small houses that once dotted the area were now nothing but blackened ruins, and the stench of smoke and burnt flesh hung heavy in the air. It was a sickening scent, not only from the ashes of buildings but also from the countless charred corpses scattered across the ground. The sight of a once-living community reduced to smoldering wreckage left a deep impression on them all.
"It's horrible…" murmured Emma, her face filled with sorrow.
"From what I've heard, this isn't the only place that's been attacked," Jay added grimly.
"Well, whatever let's just finish this quickly and go home," Shawn said flatly, as if the destruction before them meant nothing.
"Still as cold and arrogant as ever, huh, Shawn?" Maïli shot back, her voice icy.
"Don't start pissing me off, Maïli!" he snapped, glaring at her.
"You'd need balls for that to happen," she retorted, her tone sharper than steel. "Especially since you like killing defenseless children like a pathetic coward."
Silence fell over the group. The soldiers and the other heroes exchanged uneasy glances, their tension palpable. The sharp words and the heavy stares only underscored the moral rifts running between them remnants of choices that could never be undone. The air felt thick, suffocating, as if even the wind dared not move.
Then Maïli broke the silence.
"Shawn," she said quietly, "you seem to have forgotten something."
A chill ran down everyone's spine. A murderous intent burst forth, freezing time itself. The atmosphere warped into something heavy and oppressive, as if the world itself were holding its breath. Cold sweat trickled down Shawn's neck because, for the first time in a long while, he felt fear.
"The only reason you're still alive is because Moses and the King were there to save you. But now that they're not here who's going to protect you from me?"
With a smooth, precise motion, a blade of wind shot from Maïli's sword. Shawn barely had time to parry before the strike sent him tumbling more than ten meters. As he tried to recover from the impact, several fireballs were already hurtling toward him, adding a searing edge to the unfolding chaos. He hastily formed a water shield that blocked the flames, but she had used that brief moment to slip behind him. With a fluid, graceful swing, her wind-wreathed blade slashed across Shawn's chest, and blood sprayed violently. Fortunately, he staggered back just in time to avoid a more grievous wound.
Shawn could only stare at Maïli with a knot in his stomach as she advanced on him again, fireballs swirling and wind dancing around her. The tension was palpable; each of her steps seemed to echo like a warning in the taut silence. The elements, obeying her will, crowned her in an aura as beautiful as it was fearsome.
"How can she be this strong!" he thought, frustrated.
His mind refused to accept it. He was supposed to be the hero therefore the strongest. So why did Maïli surpass him? Then Logan's face surged into his thoughts, unleashing a wave of rage. Inferiority, anger, and confusion tangled into a tumultuous storm. Shawn found his own status called into question a bitter reality that wounded his pride.
"Damn it!" he shouted in fury.
Shawn's entire body flared with intense light as he resolved to go all out. The wound across his chest regenerated as if it had never been there, thanks to his Regeneration skill. At the same time, a message appeared before him the effect of the outfit he'd been given:
The effect of the "Hemera Celestial Light" armor activates:
1st effect: Increases all stats by 15% and reduces all damage taken by 20% if the wearer possesses the Light element.
2nd effect: Doubles Light-type damage and enhances the user's skills.
3rd effect: Completely nullifies all Light and Darkness attacks directed at the wearer.
4th effect: The attire self-regenerates using the wearer's Light element.
Seeing the message, Shawn couldn't help but smile as he conjured multiple floating fireballs of his own. With a confident air, he hurled them at Maïli. Yet she advanced with steady steps, slicing every fireball cleanly from the air. At the same time, Maïli launched her own volleys of fire and wind at him. It was a display of unbridled elemental mastery.
He was forced to endure a torrent of attacks a true deluge that overwhelmed him. She seized the opportunity, exploiting every opening to deliver a thunderous series of sword strikes. The clash became a glaring demonstration of Maïli's dominance, outclassing her opponent both in skill mastery and in the art of the blade. Maïli's talents eclipsed Shawn's beyond dispute.
Deprived of any adequate response, Shawn was driven into a purely defensive stance a desperate struggle to avoid fatal blows. That defensive posture left him vulnerable, exposed to his opponent's relentless force, which showed no sign of easing.
To try to escape this critical situation, in an almost superhuman effort, he gathered his mana and his Light element into a completely desperate strike.
"Luminous Slash!"
A sword of light tore toward her, but she did not panic. She raised her shield, wreathed it in flame, then amplified it with wind while invoking her legendary Return skill. It was a dazzling spectacle as Maïli's shield thrummed with blazing intensity. The fusion of elements wrapped her in an almost invincible aura, heightening her command of the battlefield.
[Return: Reflects the received attack back at the attacker like a mirror.]
Shawn watched in indescribable horror as his own attack turned back on him but worse still, wind, fire, and light had mixed into something devastating. She had learned this technique while training with Zem, and, unfortunately for Shawn, it would bring him far more than simple pain.
His eyes could perceive only the incredible beam racing straight at him. In a reflex born of raw survival, Shawn activated his Heroic Boost skill.
[Heroic Boost: All your stats increase by 60%. You may also boost up to 5 targets.]
Driven by the utmost urgency, he channeled his strength to form a Light shield. He had barely finished conjuring it when a devastating explosion thundered out, unleashing a shockwave that ravaged the area. A thick, choking cloud of dust rose, shrouding everything in temporary darkness.
When the dust finally settled, the destruction was laid bare, and Shawn appeared, kneeling on the ruined ground. His body was battered, slick with blood and wounds a testament to the violence of the blast. His once-pristine attire hung from him in pitiful tatters. He breathed with difficulty, each breath a proof of his pain and exhaustion.
There was no denying it: without the protection of that Light shield born of a desperate, instinctive act—Shawn would have been killed instantly by the raw force of the explosion. That split-second reaction was his only escape from certain death.
A heavy silence fell over the scene, broken only by distinct, measured footsteps. Shawn's heart—already strained by exertion and pain pounded harder, squeezed by mounting dread. Cold sweat and an unpleasant shiver rippled across his aching body.
With superhuman effort, he lifted his gaze, his heavy eyelids dragging open. Through the veil of his blurred, weary vision, he made out Maïli's silhouette approaching. Her steps were light, but the aura around her was crushing. When she drew close enough, Shawn's eyes reflected only one emotion: fear. Palpable, intense fear.
She stopped before him, staring. Her face usually expressive and animated was now devoid of all emotion. Then, breaking the silence, she spoke, her voice as cold as ice:
"Look at you. You thought you were king of the world with your gilded title the Hero, the Hero of Sigma. You thought that gave you the right to trample others like they were nothing. You really believe the world owes you? Since the day we met, you've been nothing but a selfish, heartless narcissist, blinded by your vanity. You don't care in the slightest about the people you crush, the ones you make suffer, so long as it feeds your sick ego and gets you something out of it. You're so absorbed in your own little world, your own ambitions. You're vile a blight selfish to the core, living only for yourself. And that's exactly why Logan has always surpassed you in every way."
"What do you know about any of that?" Shawn shouted, unable to bear the words slamming into him.
"Believe me, I'm well informed more than you think. Logan told me everything, every detail, and it's revolting. You're nothing but a subhuman coward. Your misery your pathetic little power games make me sick. You're a heap of vice and weakness, so empty of dignity or morals it's nauseating."
"That nobody from the orphanage has always been in my way!" he screamed, livid.
"Pathetic. You've never been able to swallow the truth, have you? That Logan is and always will be better than you. It eats you alive. Every success he's had was like a knife in your overblown ego. You're so consumed by your inferiority complex that you can't see anything beyond your festering jealousy. You've always tried to harm him at every opportunity, every moment. Like a venomous shadow, you stalked his every move, hoping to watch him stumble and fall. And do you know what's most pathetic about it? In your blind quest to surpass him to drag him down to your miserable level you're only digging your own pit. You reveal yourself for what you are: petty, small, weak. A creature rotted by envy, incapable of acknowledging another's superiority especially Logan's."
"Shut up! You don't know anything! And you must have cheated to get this strong!" he barked, desperate.
She burst suddenly into laughter under Shawn's incredulous stare.
"See? That's your problem: it's always someone else's fault never yours. The moment someone surpasses you, it must be a plot, a betrayal. You refuse to face the truth staring you in the face: you're a selfish opportunist a lazy coward jealous of anyone above you. Instead of rolling up your sleeves and working hard, you've always preferred cheap shots and scheming."
She drove her boot into his stomach, sending him onto his back in the dirt.
"Why did I beat you? The answer is simple obvious to everyone but you. I trained relentlessly, pushing my limits to the extreme. And you? Most of the time you stayed comfortably within the castle walls. When training ended, you ate like a prince, while the rest of us kept grinding without end. You sat in your comfort, stuffing yourself with delusions of grandeur. You never had the courage to surpass yourself, to face reality. Your jealousy, your inaction that's what defines you. You stayed put while I climbed, while I prepared for every fight to come. That's the real difference between us between Logan and you. And in the end, your rabid jealousy of Logan is nothing more than a reflection of your incompetence your inability to be even half the man he is."
She turned her head, sweeping the surroundings with her gaze. She saw Jay, Méverick, and the others, ready to lunge forward to help Shawn. They were tense bodies primed for action but also afraid to face her. Then, against all expectations, and under their incredulous eyes, she slowly sheathed her sword, the metallic rasp of the scabbard ringing in the air. She bent down and lifted Shawn's head by his hair as if he were her possession. Then she whispered words only he could hear. Her face close to his, she spoke in a cold, threatening voice, tinged with icy certainty:
"Count yourself lucky that I can't kill you otherwise I'd have to answer to the King. But the day my power surpasses all that, who will protect you from me?" she warned, icily.
The words heavy with a sinister promise slid into Shawn's mind, stirring a deep, primal fear. At them, an uncontrollable shiver ran through his body, setting his limbs trembling in a subtle but noticeable way, like a leaf swept by the wind. His body reacted instinctively to the veiled threat and to the reality of a danger yet to come.
She tightened her grip on his hair, leaned in closer still, and locked her gaze with his:
"Never forget what happened today. Don't you ever disrespect me again. Don't you ever give me orders," she whispered.
Though barely spoken aloud, her voice resonated with imperious authority and scarcely veiled contempt.
"Otherwise you'll end up exactly like thison the ground, pathetic, like the worm you are."
She spat the last words with palpable disgust, each syllable laden with animosity that left no doubt as to her sincerity. Straightening, she looked to the others and addressed them as well:
"Remember this sight because it could happen to you, too," she declared, with glacial authority.
They, too, felt a shiver run through them the warning etched into their minds.