Spectral Regalia Resurgence

Avrin looked, only to see a hunter wounded on the ground and bleeding profusely. He then saw his father, injured yet still holding a torch and sword as he defended the wounded man. Avrin looked over, hearing a scream of pain before a chomp. He watched as the magic beast, bit a hunter in half and dropped the remaining part of his body from its bloody maw.

His eyes looked to see blood all over the area; the 4th hunter was dead too from before. He gulped, then quickly nocked his arrow, firing towards the wolf with precision. The wolf, though, with its keen senses, turned its head slightly, the arrow hitting its thick fur, not even injuring it.

The wolf then glared at Avrin. Himon gasped, clenching his teeth and roaring out, "FOOL! What are you still doing here?! Get lost, go, quick!!" His face was red from stress. He saw the wolf take a step towards his son. Biting his teeth, he roared at the creature, leaving the wounded man on the side as he picked up the torch from his comrade on the ground and threw it towards the wolf.

The wolf let out a quick yelp as the fire hit it, causing a bit of its fur to burn. It then looked at Himon again, anger and hatred obviously present in its eyes. "I'm not leaving!" Avrin called out, knowing he was a fool and an idiot, but he couldn't watch his father do this alone. He nocked more arrows, shooting from the back as the wolf seemed to casually look at Himon as if he were the bigger threat.

Avrin's arrows simply bounced off or got stuck in the thick fur. "Run, you idiot!" Himon roared out again as the wolf finally turned to look at Avrin again but Himon's heart skipped a beat. He threw his own torch at the wolf, hitting it directly on the face.

The wolf gave a howl of pain. Then, it pounced at Himon who tried to defend with his sword but was crushed down onto the ground, shouting in pain. The magic beast was quite intelligent. It knew that Himon was probably the so-called pack leader of this human group, and it also was hurt by him, so it wanted to savor his pain and not end it so soon. It growled menacingly and cruelly before its massive paw began to press down on Himon's body. Himon could feel his organs ripple and his bones break. He coughed up blood. Thankfully, he was still built more than the average hunter, but even then, he was at his limits.

The life was close to leaving him. He looked at his son desperately and mumbled in a painful whisper, "R...un..." The wolf then lowered its large maw towards Himon's head, intending to bite it off as ruthlessly as it could. Only then could it barely be sated for the pain it felt and for death of its pack members.

Its large teeth were about to crunch down on Himon's head, yet at that moment, it felt odd. A dark wind picked up, and the air gave a distorting sound. The wolf felt odd; it then felt pain that was getting worse. It quickly turned, and its bestial eyes looked wide in horror.

Above its body, a void of pure darkness surrounded by purple and other colors appeared. It saw that its abdomen and body were being quickly broken down into chunks and pieces that warped before being absorbed by the void. It shrieked in pain and wanted to escape, but it was too late. The wolf looked towards Avrin, fear in its eyes as it felt an off presence from him. Avrin's right hand was extended towards it, It appeared pitch black and disgustingly distorted. It was as if his blackened hand didn't reflect light, like a blotch of paint was dripping onto a white canvas, and as if something was being horribly changed. His hand caused the air to ripple.

Avrin's body was coated in a purple aura, his eyes giving a sinister look. His usually normal eyes turned blue with a vertical slit and two horizontal lines at both the top and bottom of the slit. The air around him was rippling; the natural mana that touched him-despite being normally invisible- seemed to spark when it came in contact with Avrin.

As if the mana was flammable and Avrin right now was a lit match. For the wolf, though, this was already the end. Eighty percent of its body was already gone, and it could only look at Avrin for a few seconds in shock before it fell down to the side, its paw off Himon, as it was dead.

It was also at that time that the other hunters had arrived, looking at the situation with deep stunned expressions and fear. They were just in time to see the wolf slump over dead with its paw leaving Himon. However, the large void that corroded its body was now vanishing, like a rip in reality, and Avrin was in that odd state.

Avrin panted heavily. His body hurt; his heart felt weird. It was like the feeling of glass shattered inside him, and something inside that glass had spread within him. He felt so tired, so mentally exhausted. His vision grew blurry. He could see the hunters rush over as Avrin then fainted, a consequence of the state he had used from his emotions leading into deep desperation to save his father.

Avrin was currently dreaming. He dreamt of himself curled up, floating in emptiness. Below him was an ocean of darkness, a darkness that wasn't the usual; it wasn't evil or malevolent. It was something that simply existed in this dream. His eyes in this curled state, he could see swirls and figures in this dark ocean: a serpent opening its mouth and devouring an entire galaxy, a figure holding a sword as he walked in the void whilst the tip of the sword cut nothingness itself as it was dragged along. He saw a dining table in a room; he saw objects he couldn't discern on that table, but thinking about them made his head hurt and mind twist.

He wanted to move and wake up but couldn't. The void seemed to shrink, the dark ocean suddenly coalescing into a black heart. He knew what that heart was; he watched as it suddenly began to beat. Each beat seemed to shake the emptiness, yet for Avrin, this beat felt so very comforting.

The heart began to drift away before vanishing into the emptiness that now turned as dark as the black ocean. Avrin's eyes tried to comprehend the next sight: a flash of hyper colors that formed together into two pairs of eyes that looked at him. They were exactly the same eyes that he had during his state, but he didn't know this. A vertical pupil with a horizontal line slightly below the top and one slightly above the bottom, both pupils in each eye suddenly began to spin and spin, like vortexes that then merged together and began to drag Avrin in.

The closer Avrin got, the more afraid he felt, the more his head hurt. He was scared, a deep fear he had never ever felt before, not from dying, not even from the being that had reincarnated him. This was a primal instinctual fear as if this was truly an end's end, yet a voice echoed. It sounded so familiar, but he was certain he had never heard it before.

"I am pathless, I break limits, and tread beyond divinity." Everything seemed to freeze, then like glass that cracked, it shattered. It was also at this moment that Avrin opened up his eyes in the real world; he had woken up. His body was sore, his head still in pain. He weakly and quietly groaned. His eyes focused around him. He was in his bed that was thickened with blankets and furs. His mum was sleeping, leaning down against him.

He looked at his mum, seeing she had been crying non-stop from the tear marks, her face pale. It felt like the time he saw her fatigue and exhaustion when they brought him. "Mum?" he mumbled, reaching over and gently touching her arm, shaking her a bit.

"Hmm..." Audrene stirred a little before opening her eyes. She looked up and saw her son was awake. Her eyes turned wide in joy; she then reached over and hugged Avrin tightly as she cried loudly. "You're awake, my dear little child, you're safe!!" her voice was loud.

The sound of rushed footsteps sounded from outside the room as the door burst open. Himon, in bandages and ointment around other places, walked in, along with the herbalist Forson. The two looked at Audrene and then Avrin, who was awake. Himon's eyes squeezed; he tried hard as he could, barely holding himself from crying at the scene.

Forson laughed quietly and grunted, taking a breath from his pipe from whatever herb he was using for a hit.

"Urgh... Mum... you're crushing me..." Avrin mumbled. His mum then pulled back and glared at Avrin, no doubt she had a bone to pick with him.