Dark skies covered the mountains. Heavy rain was pouring as if a deity in the heavens was weeping at the conflict below. A conflict that had not been seen in decades. It was as if the cycle had begun anew. One of the mountains had just been decapitated, losing its jagged  peak and breaking into pieces and falling down its slope. Something crashed through it, falling down into the valley below.

A boy emerges from the rubble. He was beaten, bruises covering his entire body. Blood was trickling down his face and arms, panting heavily from his previous scuffle with…A man lands right in front of him. He picks the boy up with one hand by the neck, lifting him up from his feet and into the air. “Pathetic.” The man hurls him into another mountain, this time creating a hole in the center of it and crashing down into the dunes. The boy crawls up from underneath the sand, his body starting to give out on him. He would not win this battle unless someone else helped him or he unleashed his true power. The former was unlikely because everyone had been ordered to defend the innocent civilians across the kingdom. But the latter… he vowed to never unleash that power again no matter the cost. But the situation was dire. Perhaps it was the only way to guarantee that he would live and to prevent the kingdom from falling to this man. He lands before the boy, picking him up from the neck again. However, instead of flinging him across the island again he throws him onto his back just a few feet away.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the best student the academy has had in decades!? What’s the matter with you?!” the man exclaims.

The boy remains silent.

“Not going to say anything? Just going to glare at me like a kid who doesn’t get what he wants? Fine, don’t say anything. I’ll do all the talking like I always do,” the man starts circling around the boy while eyeing him down.

“You think you’re going to stop me? You are sorely mistaken, little baboon. What you’re doing here is only delaying the inevitable. The academy incident was but the fuel to the flame. Call it a… gentle push, to keep my plan in motion. I planted the seed to this beautiful garden of chaos long ago when I left this place. And now? Now it can finally bloom into my most magnificent art piece!!” the man rejoices, stretching his arm and hands into the air. He turns to the boy and asks, “So, what do you think?”

“You’re a fuckin’ psychopath, you know that?” the boy taunts with a raspy voice.

“Ohoho, it speaks! How wonderful! I thought I broke you from playing with you too roughly…”

“You know….” the boy gets up slowly. “Maybe I’m starting to understand why the principal banished your ass,” he sneers.

“What the fuck did you just say to me?” the man asks heatedly.

“I mean, think about it…. With how insane you are, I’m surprised he didn’t kill you. If I was in his shoes, I definitely would have…”

The man is furious, fists clenched and staring at the boy like a jaguar about to kill its prey. “You should learn to respect your elders, you primitive neanderthal.” He lunges at the boy to deal a critical blow, but this time, he counters it and sends him flying instead into a nearby hill. The man emerges from the dirt and dusts himself off.

“Come on, answer me this. What makes you think that this plan of yours will really work out? Be honest. You’re doing this all for what? To prove you’re better than everyone? That has to be the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard. Everyone wants to be better than everyone else! But no one is as brainless enough as you are to go to these extreme measures! See, now I’m starting to understand you more. You’re no threat. You’re just a pest that needs to be eradicated.” I’ve never said anything like that to anyone before! And yet… Why did it feel so good? Oh man, I think I’m having an adrenaline overload… I-I need to calm down before… The boy’s thoughts are interrupted as the man lunges at him again, screaming like a barbarian raiding a village. He pummels him into the ground with the intent to take his life as the boy begins to slip away from the living world. “After I kill you, monkey, I’m going after the rest of your pathetic school! I will find them and when I do, everyone is going to witness my absolute power before I wipe them from existence! Your principal! Your professors! Your friends! Even your WORTHLESS! LITTLE! BROTHER!”

My… brother? The boy felt a sudden surge of power flow through his body. It was growing by the millisecond. Intense heat suddenly surrounded the both of them. The heat became unbearable almost immediately, as the man stopped pummeling him and had to retreat. It would take a few yards before the heat finally dissipated. He looked back at the boy and his surroundings, and everything in the area was dying. The grass, insects, reptiles, birds, trees…everything. The boy rose up, his veins glowing red-hot like the surface of the sun. Suddenly a bright light equivalent to that of a thousand suns blinded the man as he screamed in agony, followed by an explosion loud enough and powerful enough to shake the earth. A few moments pass before the light subsides, and the man recovers from the emotional event. He gazed back to where the boy was and what he saw would shake his core. A flaming deity stood before him, towering higher than the tallest trees. Wings whiter than the clouds, flames brighter than the sun, and a body that belonged to the men of legends. The area around him was nothing but molten lava, the result of his intense heat. The only thing the man could do was gawk at him.

“YOU WILL NOT TOUCH A SINGLE HAIR ON HIS HEAD,” the deity says with a booming voice.

The man regains his composure before speaking. “Touched a nerve, did I? Well then, this should be interesting,” the man says amusingly.

The deity surrounds himself with rings of fire and balls of molten lava while the man begins to radiate mana around him. Two titans. Two souls. One will. One is the harbinger of chaos, the other is the guardian of peace. One is full of compassion and light, the other is full of darkness and resentment. But they are both driven to bring the world into their own version of an age of order.