"WHERE ARE YOU KID?!" Sydney roared, spinning in circles at the middle of the city square. "SHOW YOUR FACE!" 

Saliva foamed out the corners of his mouth and dribbled down his chin. Sydney's red eyes were unhealthily bloodshot and swirled with a sense of growing insanity. They darted to every building, window, and rooftop - longing... craving to find his escaped victim. Expanding demonic power took over in favor of his waning self-control. He didn't care about the other students anymore. All he cared about was killing the kid that stole his greatest source of power out from under his nose.

He'd officially lost it. 

His echoes drowned out the weeps and whimpers from the students scattered throughout the grounds. The purple dome of magic still left them trapped. 

Building frustration provoked Sydney to kill two more students who attempted to defend their friends from his attacks. Their cold, motionless bodies lay in dark pools growing on the concrete pathways as he continued his frenzied search for the teen. 

Sydney's anger grew exponentially with every passing second. The dark, purple aura surrounding around his body boomed and cracked the ground beneath his feet, swirling clumps of grass and jagged fragments of pathway like a storm.

He cursed and mumbled to himself with an inaudible volume.

The job wasn't worth it anymore, even with the potential to avenge Marion driving him forward. Aldric assured him the students wouldn't put up much of a resistance, but instead would run and hide, leaving him with easy targets to kill one by one. Things had initially went well, because the students had proven him right, all except for the one bastard with the sparks. 

This kid was a bump in his plan of a smooth in and out, and had to be taken out if he wanted to escape without being caught. He couldn't hold this barrier to the grounds forever, especially if he steadily eliminated his sources of power by steadily killing the students.

Lost in his thoughts, Sydney felt a wave of heat on his back and a gust of scorching hot wind. Coming to, he spun around with a sense of urgency, and his eyes snapped open.

A blazing wall of fire that spread half the length of the square had erupted behind him in his moment of distraction.

"The hell?" Sydney grumbled, jumping further away from the smoldering fire. His leather jacket, smoking and sizzling from the sheer intensity of the flames, began to shrink around his shoulders and waist. With a powerful tug, he ripped it off and threw it to the side. The second it hit the ground, it completely engulfed in fire.

The raging inferno burned a bright orange, casting long, dancing shadows across the damaged walls of the square. The heat brought moisture to Sydney's skin. Thick, dark smoke flooded the already cloudy sky. 

His eyes scanned the area around the wall. Someone had obviously summoned this fire spell, but he couldn't decipher where it came from. He noticed the other students in the square take cover behind broken walls and doorways of the buildings still standing. 

It couldn't have been any of them, he thought. They're all too far away.

A black, shapeless shadow sped past Sydney's left, and then quickly out of sight, leaving behind blue sparks where the shadow stood for a just split second. Noticing this, Sydney frantically spun to face the shadow with sweat now dripping down his brow. His reactions were enhanced but his eyes, darting in every direction, were met by nothing but the fading remains of dead sparks. 

That was the kid. Those were his sparks. But where did he go?

Thoughts and anger had effectivey slowed his body movements. Sydney had let his guard down for too long. He suddenly felt something clasp around his right hand like a powerful bear trap. He sucked in a sharp breath and looked down to see hundreds of small, yellow particles completely encasing his hand.

Sydney growled, rage overtaking him for his foolish blunder, and tried to blast his way through the glowing particle gauntlet with magic. His beams, however, couldn't burn through the buzzing trap. Whatever spell surrounded him held strong.

Rage quickly turned to panic. The vibrating particles began to squeeze and constrict, gripping tighter and tighter around the demon's fingers, wrist, and palm, until he finally felt - and heard - his hand snap from the intense pressure.

Sydney howled horrifically and clutched his hand as he doubled over in immense pain. It was as though thousands of knifes had sunk into his skin, like every bone in his hand had just been crushed into a fine dust. Weakness flowed down into his feet and rattled his knees.

Biting the pain away, he looked up at the wall.

Then everything went dark - like an approaching nightmare.

***

"No way... It actually worked!" Leon cheered from the other side of the fire wall, concealed by the thickness of the roaring flames and smoke.

Tabito lay on the ground, spread-eagled and panting heavily. Forming the wall had taken up the last bit of his magic, and his legs had finally given out.

"Hey," he chuckled, "Riarshi was right on the ball with his guess. It's just like he said-"

'-I think... and I'm taking a risky guess with this, but I'm assuming he can only use one hand to shoot those deadly beams. He only shot that girl and threatened Hara with his right hand, but when that barrier around the square formed, I saw his left hand glow. All we need to do is incapacitate his right hand and we can beat him. Tabito, you make a wall of fire with your flamethrower to hide Leon and yourself... I'll run to the side to distract him. Then, Leon, you cover his exposed arm with your particles while he's turned away from the wall. The concealment of the wall won't allow him to react in time... Block, no... actually... crush the damn thing if you can.'

"You actually think this can work?" Leon asked suspiciously, wiping his brow. "Even with his Magic Breaker, he can't possibly stand a chance against this guy... he's just a commoner."

Tabito gave Leon a dirty look. "He gave up his magic for us, Leon," he snarled, taking personal offense from this insult to his friend, "This is what Riarshi does. He doesn't care about what happens to himself if it means someone else is saved."

Thoughts and images of his little sister crying for help flooded his mind. She had been scared, anxious, and utterly alone until one hazel-eyed teen rescued her at the expense of serious injury. 

"His dream was to become a Hero," continued Tabito, "just like the rest of us. But now that's gone-" he broke off.  He collected himself and held his head high. "I don't care if he's a commoner with low magic, Leon. Because right here - right now - I'm telling you... he'll freaking prove all you nay-sayers wrong and make you eat your words."

A proud smile spread across Tabito's sweat and dirt-caked face as he looked out to the fire wall. "Now, we just have to put our faith in him."

***

The particles finally released from Sydney's crushed arm and sped back to their caster on the other side of the wall. Blood splattered on the ground as Sydney winced and gurgled in agonizing pain. Sheer trauma blurred his vision for only just a moment. Despite his attempts at summoning magic from his hand, not a single spark could be lit.

They had blocked his lethal magic.

He was helpless, and he knew it. 

But helplessness wasn't his only thing haunting him currently. The growing heat from the rippling fire vanished, and a bone-chilling cold swept over the grounds of the center. Two blue eyes shined through the fiery depths of the wall, bobbing in the flames while slowly, patiently, inching closer to him.

"DAMMIT IT ALL, WHAT ARE YOU?!" Sydney screamed toward the approaching monster, his voice shaking and cracking like an adolescent. His body was freezing, gripping, as though someone dunked his stomach in an ice bath. He felt sick, and was on the verge of vomiting when a dark voice called out from behind the flames.

"I'm just - like - you."

The bobbing blue eyes emerged from the depths of the blazing orange fire. They glowed menacingly through the dark shadow of a face, unfazed by the heat, staring straight at the demon.

Sydney's remaining hand trembled by his side. He couldn't move. His legs, arms, and heart were frozen solid, rooted to the ground by a swarm of ink-black hands that he couldn't distinguish as real or fake. 

"Oh? Falling victim to your own curse?" Riarshi snarled. Not a single ounce of emotion graced his stone-like face. "If you want to know what I am, look around you."

Sydney didn't need to see it, he felt it - the worries, anxiety, sadness, and fear from over a hundred students that had flooded into his own body were now leaking, shrinking, and disappearing rapidly. Each morsel of compounded despair left his body, flowed across the city square in a thin purple ribbon, and sunk into the teen walking through the glowing flames.

"This kid..." Sydney whimpered.

It was only him and the boy, secluded in a long, narrowing tunnel of flames and darkness. He felt cold, a frigid cold that stabbed his bones. He felt alone, like all hope had disappeared from the world. There was no escape.

He glanced at his hands. One was mutilated into a heap of blood, skin, and bone, but the cold numbed the pain. The other, shaking violently, was gripped on the wrist by a black, corpse-like hand. 

When he looked up, his stomach dropped. He noticed one last wave of despair floating across the sky. It was his own.

His face was now livid with fear. Fear from the monster stomping its way toward him.

Sydney now knew the truth.

"HE'S A REAL DEMON!"

Sydney frantically raised his left hand and formed a purple wall in front of Riarshi, begging... pleading that this would stop this nightmarish devil from coming closer.

But it failed.

Riarshi, without hesitation or pause, stepped right through it, shattering it into thousands of small particles that dissolved the second they hit the air.

"No!" Sydney bellowed, his face screwed up with terror and desperation. 

He formed ten - no - twenty more walls. And just like the others, Riarshi smashed through them without skipping a step, continuing his slow pace toward the man. His blue eyes shined brighter and more vicious as he moved closer. The sparks surrounding him flashed wilder.

In a last ditch effort, and with all the remaining magic he had left in his body, Sydney formed one final wall. It sprung up from the ground, standing about twenty feet tall. It was the darkest shade of indigo possible without being entirely black.

"You can't break through this one!" Sydney screamed, laughing hysterically and pointing a shaking finger.

"Watch me."

Riarshi dug his feet into the ground, squatted, then launched himself at the man with blistering speed, sending a shock wave behind him that warped the giant fire wall. 

As he neared the near-black barrier, Khohn's words echoed in his head.

"It's your power..."

Riarshi cocked his fist back and dug his nails into his palm. The black shadow coating his arm flickered into a bright blue flash of sparks and lightning.

"Stop running.."

He sped forward even faster, gliding along the ground as though he was weightless. His vision narrowed, and his brain zeroed in, registering nothing but the demon in front of him.

"Turn around, and punch that darkness in the face!"

With an animalistic growl, Riarshi screamed a final incantation with all of his might.

He swung his blue, glowing fist and connected with the enormous wall, shattering it instantly. His blow continued through with momentum and cracked the side of Sydney's dropped jaw.

Riarshi, with a powerful twist of his hips, followed through with his punch, crushing Sydney into the ground with a massive, ground shaking explosion. 

The city center rumbled, the shockwave of the punch smashing every window in the surrounding buildings. Glass, sparkling in the lights of the magic, rained down over the square. The hurricane-like winds from this monstrous attack swept through the clouds, clearing away the dark overcast. The newly birthed sun beamed over the city's remains.

A thick, gray cloud of smoke littered with blue sparks rose from the crater's center, and the purple dome encasing the city square shattered. Its purple particles glimmered in the fresh sunlight and showered down over the silent and awed crowd of students.

For several seconds, there was complete silence, and nothing dared to move besides the ribbons of smoke climbing high into the bright, glittering sky.

At the center of the massive crater, the dark silhouettes of two figures came into view through the fading smoke. One was lying still at the bottom, while the other was standing upright.

Tabito, who had just risen to his feet, promptly fell back to his knees. "Oh my gods. He-"

A mighty wind cleared the remaining smoke, leaving behind a brown-haired teen standing above a bald man's unconscious body. 

The spark magic that surrounded the teen had disappeared forever.

"He won!" Tabito wailed.

There was only a second of silence, then realization to the moment set it. An eruption of cheers and screams shook the replica city of Spiritfield. Sydney lay at the bottom of the crater, mouth agape, with half of his face bloodied and disfigured where Riarshi's fist had landed.

"He did it!" roared throughout the square.

Students hugged, high-fived, and jumped in the air. Others fell to their knees and hysterically cried, releasing all the built up fear they kept strained in their throats. Lovers kissed and family embraced.

It was over... it was finally over... they were saved.

"He actually did it... Lagic did it," Leon muttered from a distance. Depleted of magic, his body finally succumbed to the fatigue. He plopped his bottom into a patch of grass. A smile grew on his sweaty face.

An aqua portal swirled open at the East side of the square, from which dozens after dozens of Heroes rapidly rushed in. Chester appeared and stood at the border of the portal, waving more Heroes in with a frantic hand.

"GO GO GO! Get in there and help the wounded!" he ordered at the lines of Heroes spilling through. He turned to the students. "Anyone with healing magic, please stay and help tend to those hurt!"

The Heroes had finally arrived, which received another incomprehensible cheer from the students. Healers ran over to those who were injured, while others helped start the evacuation into the portal by sending groups of students at a time. 

A select few had a more immediate and grim task to complete. They ran over and tossed blankets over the deceased before running back to the evacuation. 

Riarshi, who had been standing tall at the center of the crater, finally collapsed backward. He was completely devoid of all energy, almost as though life itself had been sucked out of him. 

Before his limp body smacked onto the ground, he felt himself land softly into a pair of outstretched arms. His heavy eyes slowly looked up to see Tabito with the largest, cheekiest grin he'd ever seen.

With unconsciousness looming near, Riarshi could barely form the words he wanted to say.

"W-we did it Tabito," he whispered faintly, the corner of his mouth curling into a small smirk.

It was a surprise to see, but Rrvers of tears fell down Tabito's cheeks. His orange eyes sparkled just like his sister's did three months ago in that alley, and a comforting warmth suddenly spread throughout Riarshi's freezing cold body. The familiar sensation was extremely pleasant, soothing, and nearly put him to sleep. The fact he couldn't use magic anymore was far in the back of his mind, because right now, he felt utterly amazing.

"No, Riarshi," sobbed Tabito, "you did it. You saved every-"

Tabito suddenly broke off. He shifted Riarshi's weight and his eyes met a horrific sight. It took all of Tabito's remaining strength and will to not get sick all over his friend.

Riarshi's entire right arm, neck, and right side of his face was burned to a dark, red crisp. The skin was gone, and blood seeped from each joint.

Riarshi, however, couldn't feel a thing. His initial cold had numbed to the pain. The only sensation he noticed was the incredible warmth spreading over his chest and pulsating up to his temples. It was truly the greatest feeling of all time. 

Tabito shut his eyes, groaned, and pulled Riarshi in tight.

"Someone!" he cried in a panic, looking around the square. "We need a healer over here, now!"

At that same second, a young blonde girl came sprinting over to Riarshi's side, kneeling next to him.

She must have been a student, as evident by the scoring armor still donned over her chest. He couldn't really tell, though. Everything was slowly becoming a fading blur. 

Her hands ruffled around Riarshi's body to scan for wounds. "I'm a healer type. Let me-" she broke off when she noticed his right side, "-oh my gods..."Riarshi could only guess her facial expression. 

"Yes, we know it's bad," Tabito snapped, looking down at Riarshi's face then back up at the girl. "Just do what you can until a Hero gets over here... please."

She nodded gloomily. "Okay, I'll do what I can."

As she began her best attempt at healing Riarshi's right side, a gigantic figure landed out of Chester's portal with a ground shaking thud.

Everyone stopped in place, student and Hero alike, and stared at the man. The bustle of the evacuation grew silent. The man's diamond chest plate reflected the remaining bits of glowing purple shards from the raining dome barrier.

It was Giradin.

Compared to every other Hero who came through the portal, his expression failed to contain a single ounce of celebratory happiness or intense focus. Instead, his face was flushed with anger, and his glaring eyes drifted across the grounds of the square.

Why is he here? Riarshi's foggy mind questioned, nearing closer and closer to a dark and much desired sleep. There was now even more warmth floating over his right side from the girl's healing spell.

Giradin began walking toward the middle of the square. Hundreds of eyes followed him on his journey. Riarshi gasped an expecting breath, but Giradin's destination was not today's savior.

No, he was stomping toward a small, black-haired girl kneeling in the grass off to the side. Her bright sapphire eyes shined in the sunlight, just like his.

"Dad... I-" Hara stammered.

"Shut your mouth!" Giradin screamed, his voice shaking the surrounding buildings.

Hara winced and let out a high-pitched squeal. Tears formed along her long eyelashes.

Everyone watched, and did nothing. 

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH OF A DISGRACE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW?!" he howled. Blue veins popped from his red-hot forehead like steep mountains. Each one of his neck muscles tensed, protruding through his skin like strings.

"That's the kind of fight you put up against that man?! You are weak, despicable, and worst of all - a coward! And because of you, some weakling just used their Magic Breaker - threw their life away - just to save your sorry ass!"

Hara didn't respond. She remained motionless, kneeling in the grass, with her skin covered in dirt, blood, and tears. Her head hung low and her eyes stared aimlessly at the ground. Silent tears ran down her face and plopped along her battered armor.

"You should feel ashamed, Hara," Giradin said quietly, but still with a boiling rage behind his words. "This is all your fault. If you had the power, this kid wouldn't have had to sacrifice everything..." Giradin spun on his heel and stomped his way back to the portal, muttering curses to himself the entire way.

Something seized control over Riarshi's body. He wasn't sure if it was Hara's negative emotions fueling him, or his own burning rage at what he had just heard.

Riarshi finally understood...

It had been Giradin all along. He was the father she spoke of at the diner. This man was the reason Hara felt so alone... the reason she welcomed death while staring it in directly in the face. It made pefect sense as to why she kept it a secret for so long.

It was then that all the hate he had harbored in his heart for Hara suddenly vanished, and was replaced with a gnawing, inextinguishable need. Horrible pain spread throughout Riarshi's burned and battered body, but he had to do something... one more thing before he fell into the depths of unconsciousness. He couldn't sit and watch as Hara was left alone in the distance. There was one more enemy to defeat today.

Riarshi pushed the blonde girl's hand away, much to her surprise.

"Hey!" she yelled. "What are you-"

Ignoring her plea, Riarshi used the last sliver of strength he could muster from his wounded body to push himself off the ground. His vision was awfully blurry, but he could still see Giradin's shape shift in and out of focus.

Tabito tried to grab what remained of Riarshi's shirt. "Woah! Riarshi!"

Riarshi slapped his hand away, too.

"Hey, Giradin!" Riarshi shouted, barely forming the words. His body swayed side to side, feeble legs struggling to hold his weight.

The whole city square went silent again, and turned its attention toward Riarshi - the broken teen who stood in its center.

Only a few feet from the portal, Giradin slowly turned around to face Riarshi. His angry, sapphire eyes lit with an intense fury. And surprise.

"None of this is Hara's fault!" Riarshi roared with the little strength he had.

Jaws dropped and eyes widened throughout the square. Although he had just saved them all, this kid was screaming at none other than Giradin.

Hara looked on in shock. 

"Where the hell were you this whole time, huh?" continued Riarshi. "Sitting on your ass in the theater and watching it all happen? What the hell happened to all your talk about undeniable strength? You're supposed to be the strongest in the world! None of you bastards had magic that could get you here? She at least put her life on the line to help!" Riarshi stumbled slightly, but caught his balance. Blackness flashed before his eyes and intense pain burned through his right side.

"And you have the audacity to call me a weakling. It was my choice to give up my magic, and I don't regret it for one damn second."

He thought back to diner and the woman on the news. "I understand why that Hero used her Magic Breaker in that fight," he claimed, "and my reasons are the same. I'm willing to take on that magicless burden if it means I could save Hara and everyone else. Screw it, in the end... it doesn't matter if I don't have magic... and it doesn't matter that my dream is dead..."

The same unknown force that ordered Riarshi to stand up and shout at the country's strongest man took control of his uninjured left arm. He raised it high into the air.

"Because I'm still alive, and my life's not done yet!"

With this, one final eruption of cheers rocked the city square. The same people who booed him relentlessly at the Newbie Showing three months ago were now cheering with full effort.

A three syllable chant, a chant Riarshi never in his life thought he would hear, cried out from all the students while the Heroes looked on indifferently.

Ri-Ar-Shi!

Ri-Ar-Shi!

He stood tall with his fist raised high, staring daggers at the wide-eyed Giradin. Without a reply, the massive man snorted and jumped back into the portal, disappearing from the square with a flash of teal.

Riarshi didn't care if the Top Hero hated his guts... he didn't care that his magic was gone... because in this moment, standing within a roaring circle of hundreds of his peers, he felt like the greatest hero in the world.