TDE - Prologue - Prophesied Hero

Alright, while having trouble with my other stories I started playing with a concept and it turned into two chapters of this.

The world is one I have been playing in for years now, used at least half a dozen MC's but was never satisfied with anything I made.

Don't know if I'm gonna continue it, but I wanted to share it with you guys. 

It's still subject to change.

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The Supreme Lord Daimos sat on top of the hill and watched his land with a satisfied smile.

With a gesture, he waved his majestic wand, a branch from the mighty world tree on his backyard, and blessed all his subjects.

No, wait, that wasn't right.

Touching the ring on his finger, a gift from one of his many subjects given freely and not at all stolen when someone was sleeping, Daimos changed his title.

Without even a pause, the information sent by the system changed. It wasn’t a message or something written but a sense, an instinctual understanding of his new role in the world clear for all to see, so that anyone who looked at him would understand.

The Supreme Divine Overlord Daimos, ruler of all he surveyed, sat on top of the hill and watched his land…

"Daimos Karthien give it back!"

"Ugh, Astrid" The Supreme Divine Overlord Daimos cursed as he watched the girl approaching. "Come girl, bow before your overlord!"

"Shut up Daimos, you are no Lord of mine!" The girl walked with intent, her steps covering the distance between them at an alarming rate. "Give the ring back right now!"

Daimos eyed his nemesis carefully, Astrid was a year older than him and twice as heavy, plus she was holding a branch too.

His eyes narrowed and he glanced between his own mighty wand and his enemy's weapon, was Astrid's branch larger?

Yep, it was definitely larger.

"Peasant, you are right for we are no mere Lord, we are the Supreme Divine Overlord!" He crackled with a powerful, intimidating laugh. "See, It says right there in our title!"

"Stop running away you coward!"

"Quiet! We are not running away, we are strategically retreating!"

And he was doing it very efficiently too, barely stopping to glance back as his legs moved fast, descending the small hill.

Unfortunately, Astrid's legs were just longer than his and the girl was quickly catching up.

"Murderer! Murderer!" The supreme Overlord yelled in a dignified manner as he threw his mighty wand back in an attempt to delay his vile pursuer.

A second later he realized he had just thrown away his only weapon. "Aw crud!"

Astrid shielded her face with an arm, but the branch missed her entirely. "Double crud!"

Turning around, he continued his tactical retreat as fast as his little legs could manage.

The mighty Overlord felt a prickling at his back, sensing the treacherous strike he jumped aside and screamed "[Graceful Dodge]".

The wooden branch hit the ground right where his leg was supposed to be, it dug out a tuff of grass and even sent a stone flying.

"Hey, that could have broken a bone!"

"No it wouldn't, I was just gonna trip you!" Astrid protested as she stomped the ground after him "and what are you yelling for, you haven’t even awaken yet, you can't use skills!"

"Ha, that's what you think fiend! Take this [Overlord Strike!]" Rolling out of the way of another blow Daimos gathered a handful of dust and flung it at the monster's face.

Astrid was ready, this wasn't the first time the betrayer had tried to slay him, and she knew to close her eyes and cover then with her arm as soon as he has yelled the name of his mighty skill.

Huh, perhaps he had become a little too predictable.

His brief pause of concentration proved to be a mistake as his foe had not stopped her charge.

With a mighty yell of outrage, not at all like the scream of a scalded cat, he turned around. "Murderer! Murderer!"

Astrid too threw her stick and ‘she’ didn't miss, the traitorous branch tangled his legs making him fall and roll down the hill.

Then she was upon him, her claw like nails digging into his belly.

The battle was the thing of legends, there was even a shadow that covered their bodies in the middle of the day as if a cloud hang over their heads, it stopped over their fighting for a minute or two but eventually moved on, continuing towards the village.

Daimos thought it was a powerful dragon that stopped to observe their duel, but was scared away by their might.

Despite her advantage in size and weight Daimos wasn't immediately overcome by Astrid and they tumbled on the grass punching and kicking each other.

Daimos had been watching the village guards training, and got some advice from the older boys on the orphanage, so he was actually quite skilled.

Despite his small size and thin build, or perhaps because of it, Daimos was a fast and powerful fighter, and the little control over mana he had made him stronger than he looked.

It wasn’t a decisive advantage however.

Alas, in such close quarters, he was finally overcome, his treasure stolen from his cold dead fingers as the kinslayer.

"We are NOT related!" The regicide yelled over the decaying… "Ugh, stop being stupid and get up already."

"What's the big deal anyway, I was only borrowing the ring for a little bit, I was gonna give it back… eventually."

"Kay was crying when she woke up, you bastard."

"Hey, I don't even have parents, I can't be a bastard!"

"Do too, everyone has parents stupid."

"Nope, I was created from a bolt of lightning; it's how that scorched crater close to the river was created."

"No you weren't, now comes on, I managed to get her to stop crying but I don't know how long it will last" Astrid patted her clothes down and wiped away the blood from her split lip with an arm. "It's the only thing her mother left her and you stole it, Kay even told us that!"

"I didn't know it alright?" He confessed and got up himself, he wasn't actually hurt.

"Dai, you better apologize when you see her." Astrid said narrowing her eyes at him and lifting a closed fist in the air menacingly. "Or else…"

Daimos waited until she's had taken a few steps towards the village and had given him a more comfortable fighting distance for his preferred stile.

Something like… twenty meters or so.

"Don't order me around!" He yelled at his hated enemy and grabbed at his left arm with his right one struggling to keep it down. "You may have defeated me, Astrid, but it was only because I didn't want to release my true power!"

The larger girl stopped in her tracks and turned towards him, her foot tapping against the ground and her eyes narrowing, "Then do it."

"Don't think I won't, I scare even myself when I let loose!"

"I'm waiting. Do it."

For a second his right arm rose despite his effort at keeping it down and the markings all over it seemed to grow darker as he pointed a single finger towards his foe, but he managed to get his power in order and lowered it again.

"Well… you told me Kai was crying and, I do feel kinda bad about it, I guess I won't release it today."

"Humph!" Ignoring him, Astrid turned around and went back to walking. He followed. "How'd you even get someone to mark your arm like that?"

"I dunno, it's probably something they did to seal the powers inside me until I'm ready," Daimos commented as he scratched at the dark markings around his left arm, "it's been there as long as I remember."

The markings covered his thin arm from his wrist to just a little below his shoulder in an intriguing spiral pattern of black ink.

It looked kinda cool so Daimos loved it.

And so, defeated, Daimos, Supreme Divine Overlord, limped his way towards his captor's dungeon.

But he swore his vengeance, Astrid had to sleep eventually, then she'd learn what it meant to cross him.

Even Finn and Tajen had, and they were six years older than him.

Well, they had still caught him and almost broken his arm the next day, but they did stop playing pranks after that, so Daimos was calling it his win.

"Say, when did Kay even talk about her mother anyway?" He asked when his smaller legs finally caught up with Astrid.

"It was literally yesterday during class, Daimos."

Huh, that explained it; he may or may not have fallen asleep in class.

He had even learned to do it with his eyes open so the teacher wouldn't yell at him.

It would be an incredibly useful skill to have once his power attracts the inevitable sycophant and he had to ignore his words.

"Fine, I'll apologize; I'm a kind and graceful Overlord after all."

"Idiot."

Daimos sighed, poor Astrid, unable to see his true majesty, but she was still young, she'd learn.

A rustle to their right made Daimos pick up the pace, catching up with Astrid and putting her body between him and whatever was hiding in the bushes.

It was her fault he had been defeated and his mighty wand lost, it was only fair she protected him.

Astrid lifted an eyebrow at his move and snorted but Daimos wasn’t fooled, he could see her hands tightening into fists and her eyes quickly shooting towards the bushes.

"Ha, I knew it, you're afraid of leaving the village!" He had had his suspicions for a while now, but this was proof!

"Shut up you insufferable little…" then she stopped herself and took a breath, "it's probably just a rabbit or something, the guards and hunters keep the village safe from monsters."

Well, she was probably right.

Then Daimos remembered Astrid had been the daughter of traveling merchants who got ambushed by goblins when passing through Karth a few years ago.

"Don't worry Astrid." he said as he puffed up his chest. "I'm a kind and merciful Lord; I'll protect you, even after what you did."

"Hurry up pipsqueak, Sister Amanda is preparing horned rat for lunch."

"What! Since when?" Monster meat was tough and had a strong flavor but it was still meat.

More than that, monster meat still had some of the monster's mana inside, it was very small and most people couldn’t sense it, but Daimos had a talent for mana manipulation and was hoping to awaken as a sorcerer soon.

Just like the Dread Lord, he’d awake before he was 12 and grow into a mythic class Sorcerer.

Usually, Daimos let the other kids have most of the meat when the orphanage had it, he was just that kind but, every time there was monster meat, he'd stuff himself and fight like a madmen to get more.

A future overlord had to have strong mana after all.

"Aleck caught one for Miss Lilia just this morning."

Daimos took the time to thank his luck he decided to throw the fight against Astrid very early on; he still has enough energy to get a big piece of the meat.

"Well hurry up then, we don't want to be late" He stopped the limp he had been pretending to have and quickly got in front of the girl.

"Brat." Astrid huffed and followed after him.

They crested a second hill and froze, Daimos looked up and gulped as he saw the completely out of place cloud.

It was darker than anything he had seen before and floated far lower than any cloud should, exactly on top of the village.

"Aw crud." He cursed as he saw a giant silhouette inside the cloud.

Then a beam of light so bright it burned both of their eyes dropped on top of the village. For a few seconds all they could see was white, the light just filled the sky and blocked everything else.

Daimos heard Astrid's cry of pain as she stumbled back but he was too busy cradling his own eyes to really register it.

The pain was incredible, like someone had driven two nails in his eyeballs and all the way through his head.

He wanted to fall to his knees, curl up into a fetal position and cry like a little kid.

Then he heard the noise, a titanic explosion that seemed to fill the world around him and caused the very earth to shake under his feet.

He did cry, the pain being too much for him to bear otherwise, but his body moved on instinct.

What little mana he had was sent into his muscles to strengthen them while he followed Astrid's voice and tacked her to the ground.

Then the aftershock hit them, the displaced air hit him harder than old man Kurtz had even done and sent the both of them thumbing down the hill, the overload of mana burning his skin with so much power he couldn’t believe it was possible.

Daimos did his best to protect Astrid from harm but she still hit her arm on a rock and broke it.

All around them pieces of the village fell down like rain. Eventually, Daimos mana ran out and he passed out.

.

.

.

Daimos woke up as Astrid shoved him off her body with only one arm and got up.

"What's going on?" He asked confused, but there was no answer.

He tried opening his eyes, but they still hurt too much

Half blind, he pushed himself into a sitting position, then scratched at his eyes until he could see again.

He still needed to squint, but it was an improvement.

Finding Astrid was easy, she stood just a few meters ahead of him, her good hand resting on a large piece of Old man's Zabos roof, half buried into the hill.

Standing beside her Daimos watched the village for a few seconds, the destruction had been… total.

Even from where he stood Daimos could see an enormous, circular hole where the bean of light had hit the ground and evaporated the center of the village, everything else had been destroyed in the aftermath.

As he looked at things there was really only one thing he could say. "Well crud."

Astrid turned on him, her face a mask if fury but it died down as she saw the twin steam of tears running down his cheeks.

"It's… it’s from the flash of light" he justified and the girl just nodded.

Daimos didn't know how long they stood there looking at the destruction. There was no sense in trying to search for survivors, the village barely had anyone above level 5 and there was no building left standing after the light hit.

There was no way even a silver rank could survive that skill, much less the predominantly bronze rank villagers.

Astrid eventually started coughing and Daimos felt a prickly sensation on his skin, he didn't really know what it was but he had a bad feeling about it.

The mana seemed thick in the air, and Daimos swore he could almost touch it with his bare hand. That couldn’t be good, unaligned mana wasn’t supposed to be that thick.

He briefly debated just sitting down to absorb some of the mana for himself, he was sure it would be enough to at least awaken, but something told him it would be a very bad idea.

Grabbing the girl by the shoulders he struggled to turn her around and start to walk away from the village.

At first, Astrid tried to fight him off and stay in place, but she wasn't doing a good job of it.

Daimos had heard some traders say there was a bigger village around a day east of their little home, and he knew that's where the Sun rose, so he just started walking.

Three hours later their feet were hurting, they were out of breath and Astrid was coughing even harder but, at least Daimos could no longer feel the same prickling sensation, so he sat down against a tree and sighed.

Then the system spoke into his mind, the system didn’t usually use words, communicating by delivering knowledge directly into a person’s mind but, for important things.

[Congratulations! For surviving the effects of a mythic class spell you have earned the title <calamity survivor>, resistance towards mana poisoning increased]

To his side, Astrid jerked her head up at the notification, her coughing was alleviated and he saw her muscles relax a little.

Daimos however, didn't relax, instead, a bead of cold sweat ran down his forehead as he read the second system message, his eyes glancing everywhere in suspiciousness and then towards the disguise ring still in Astrid's hand.

[Congratulations, for being instrumental in the defeat of a prophesied hero, you have earned the title <heroic bane>; your alignment towards the dark, blood, eldritch, demonic and necromantic mana is greatly increased!]

In a hurry Daimos waved a hand around his head, as if that would dispel the system words faster.

While dark mana was merely frowned upon, even an orphan like him knew the other aspects were either forbidden or highly regulated.

Daimos used to hear the older kids telling stories of what the Dread Emperor would do to eldritch and demonic mages, it wasn't pretty.

Despite everything that had just happened, at this moment, there was only one thought in the 10 years old mind.

NOBODY must ever know.