(The old man was smiling that it almost bordered on creepy, faint wrinkles deepening around his faded blue eyes like shadowed crevices. Soren cleared his throat placing a slight curled up fist to his mouth, his gray eyes focused on the old man's light blue eyes, ash-blond hair catching the lantern flicker.)
"Could you explain how you know that they can't control their abilities?" (Soren asked, his voice had slightly calmed down.)
"Oh it's simple, I can just tell," (the old man met Soren's gaze, his smile remained enigmatic.)
"But how?" (Jiwon raised an eyebrow as he slurped up a bowl of meat stew, the sound almost obnoxiously loud as the slurping ofbroth echoed as the old man's eye twitched slightly before he looked over at Jiwon. Jiwon met his gaze unblinking and the old man kept the gaze stare-down unbroken.)
(The old man slowly looked away from Jiwon and shifted his gaze between Renji and Damien.) "Do you even know what Wi is?"
(Damien and Renji met each other's gaze before looking back and shook their head slowly. The man smiled even more before he cleared his throat.) "Fine I'll explain to you what Wi is.... I have nothing better to do anyway."
(The old man slowly began to explain the power system of Wi. Outside the home, daily life continued: men chopped trees with rhythmic thuds, women baked oven warm bread as the scents spread, kids played tag with joyful shrieks. It was relatively peaceful as night slowly began to descend on the village, lanterns flickering alive golden pools, families eating dinner happily as laughter spilling throuywindows. Single men ate in the silence of their homes fork-clinks echoing as they heard the laughters of next door neighbors, single stray tears ran down their cheeks glistening especially at the sound of a man and a woman laughing and talking to each other lovingly.)
(Back in the old man's house—clearly the village chief by deference—silence settled post-explanation. The old man had finished his explanation; all four pondered silent with idle forks. The old man slowly stood up.) "Alright, since I have explained. You may leave my home."
"Huh?" (Jiwon intoned before chuckling nervously.) "You are funny for telling us to leave your home." (Jiwon had a nervous smile, his dimple faint and the old man met his gaze with serene intensity; Jiwon kept his gaze as a clear bead of nervousness flowed down his cheek, the old man's expression serene unyielding.)
(One cough and a blink later they all sat outside in the freezing cold of the night huddled tight, with backs against the wall. Renji and Damien's hair/dreadlocks were flowing down their shoulders wind-tossed, Soren's hair kept in place tucked behind his ear as Jiwon ran fingers through his hair tousled but they were freezing with loud shivers.)
(The morning sun slowly rose warm beams hitting the four men that slept on the hard floor of cobblestone next to a bakery shop. The first to emerge from their home was the old man; he stared in the direction of the four men sleeping vulnerably and narrowed his eyes assessing, walking past the sleeping angels slow and deliberate, moving down the path towards the grass. The grass was purely green vibrant dew-kissed; the segment of the black grass was gone. 'That's interesting,' the old man thought internally as another man walked up to stand besides the old man—it was a redhead man with brown eyes and a thick groomed mustache.)
"Sir," (the man said respectful.) "We haven't gotten an attack last night. Are those four men the reason why?"
"It's the dark one and the white haired one," (the old man corrected precise as he stared off into the distance at something he knew existed but was not visible in the horizon.) "We will see for the next week."
(Soren, Renji, Damien and Jiwon spent their days as beggars on the streets with dirtied tunics, people would feed them scraps/bread as the week passed by. The old man stood at the same spot by the green pastures and narrowed his eyes vigilant, the redhead man plus a group of burly muscular men stood by the old man staring into the same distance with a tense grip on their axes.)
"Sir, we have been through a week of peace and even the grass looks greener. How are those two men," (referring to Renji and Damien,) "acting as a barrier from them?"
(The old maintained his gaze on the distance unblinking before his eyes slowly drifted towards the redhead.) "I don't know, but I believe they are hungry. Normally we lose a few people every night; it's a miracle that we have not run out of people in this village yet but I doubt they will stay hungry another day...." (A reluctant pause as something close to fear passed through his eyes.) "Place the women and children in the underground shelters. Today is going to be a bloodbath."
(The men shouted unified.) "YES SIR!" (They all turned on the heels of their boots as they walked back into the village alert. The old man looked up towards the sky as if praying to something past the clouds.) "Oh, If my days end today, I know I have lived a long and fulfilling life."
(The old man left the pastures with his staff tapping slowly as village life moved fluidly and the night slowly descended onto the village, lanterns blooming and giving light. The four were huddled next to a wall tight-knit before they all felt a chill, it was sinister and oppressive than their previous chills, their hearts pulsed erratic and instinctively Damien's eyes lit to a crimson blaze with sparks of fire edge of his eyes flaring, Renji's eyes lit to a golden light with sparks of lightning at the edge of his eyes crackling.)
(Soren and Jiwon looked over towards both Damien and Renji with an alarmed gaze.) "Why did you activate your Wi?"( Soren spoke, his voice edged with worry.)
(Damien and Renji looked at each other with shared understanding before Damien muttered.) "We didn't activate it at will, something just ac—"
(The men all exited their homes, eyes lit with different colors and glows. The pressure of Wi in that village during this night was high and suffocating, slowly the green grass began to darken and turn black not withering. From the horizon a shout of unintelligible language and guttural warble was heard before the ground began to tremble, a low rumble that shook the homes. Mother's held their children tightly in their underground shelters. The men looked at each other with nod and moved forward in army unison, their expressions were hardened and resolute; Damien and Renji immediately followed instinctively before Jiwon took both of their arms with a firm grip.) "The hell are you both going?"
(Damien looked back dreads swing, a slight twitch of his lips as they slightly spread almost into a feral smile.) "Don't you feel that?," (Something close to excitement washed through Damien's crimson blazing eyes as he continued speaking), "A fight is coming." (Damien pushed Jiwon's hand off easily and began to move towards the direction of where the man went, stride full of a purpose. Renji just stared at Jiwon, golden eye's peircing into Jiwon as something close to fear screamed in Jiwon's mind to let go and he let go reluctantly.)
(Renji followed behind Damien and stood by him when he reached the small army of men that stood before the darkened ominous pastures. Renji's gaze landed on the distance, expression serene and betraying nothing; Damien's expression was far from serene as a sharp grin spread his lips wide, showing his even teeth.)
(A man stood at the front, it was the redhead his eyes glowed a bright brown. He then shouted with a booming voice.) "MEN!, WE MAY DIE TODAY. WE MAY NEVER SEE OUR WIVES AGAIN AND WE MAY NEVER HUG OUR CHILDREN AGAIN BUT," (a dramatic pause as the man looked into the distance at the approaching pure darkness with hints of violet swirling ominously, fear washed through the every man's gaze except for Renji and Damien, but the men washed their fear away, hardening their expressions and clenching their jaw.)
(From the distance figures began to walk with a loud war chant, a rhythmic thunder meant to ignite fear into opponents. They approached through the cloud of pure darkness, walking in unison and in the dark cloud, shined multiple pairs of bright lights maybe one bright light here and there, the lights were all violet, some darker and some brighter.)
(The man continued voice refusing to break.) "BUT IF WE DIE AT LEAST WE MAY DIE WITH DIGNITY, IF WE DIE AT LEAST WE WILL DIE AS ROLE MODELS FOR OUR CHILDREN. TELL ME MEN. DO YOU REGRET ANYTHING!?"
"NO SIR."
"GOOD, NOW ONWARD!" (A collective roar as some men materialized weapons with colors matching the glow of their eyes, some men's fists covered in different elements fire/ice/wind flares and began to charge forward towards the approaching figures.)
(Immediately the figures charged as well and clashed into the middle, as shouting and screams ignited as both sides suffered casualties but it was the human side that suffered the most.)
"What are we fighting?" (Damien adjusted his weight on his leg shifting and leaned forward to stare as he tried to make sense of the figures, his eyes narrowed before he slowly straightened and shrugged, waiting patiently for a visual answer.)
(His question was immediately answered as immediately a mangled head flew towards Renji but as if the head was a fly Renji swatted it away with the back of his hand. Both Damien and Renji looked to see the head before looking back. They could finally see the enemy, their skin was dark as midnight, ears similar to that of a elf pointed taper, attire was rugged beastlike hides that covered what they were meant to cover. These figures were dark elves in their full evil glory, their fangs bared as they all killed with evil grins.)
(Now I shall explain the history of this world. In the beginning of time there was a banquet between the good gods and goddesses; their feast in their divine realm was joyously loud. One drunk god recommended they create a world and everyone agreed almost immediately. So they came together to create a world so beautiful with waters that flowed greatly almost crystalline like, trees beautiful and tall with emerald canopies, animals all peaceful and harmonious. Than in another divine realm one below the divine realm of these good deities were the evil gods and goddesses; they looked onto this world with hate, envy and immediately polluted it with darkness,originally there was only day with endless light, these evil creatures made night and it's shadowy fall; originally all creatures lived in peace and harmony, immediately these evil deities ignited hate and discord. Then came the long great war between two sides cataclysmic, but for some reason they didn't fight each other themselves due to fear of affecting universes in their apocalyptic clash so they created beings as their proxies. Good deities made humans/elves amongst intellectual races; evil deities made demons/dark elves as a savage horde—more races exist but the list will take forever. Deities bestowed Wi upon creations as a divine-gift; war raged for centuries as oceans, seas and rivers with bodies of blood, the ground flowed with rivers of blood and dismembered bodies covered the lands until one human and one dark elf reached the final key unleashing hellfire onto the opposing sides. The battle's grew more destructive with them as the center pieces, continents shook greatly and skies almost shattered as they even affected the divine realms. The genocided sides caused for humans to hate dark elves eternally and dark elves to hate humans eternally as well. The damage forced gods/goddesses of both sides to retreat and repair realms, but they left with a warning that whoever unlocked their fifth key would be ultimately destroyed either painlessly or painfully. But even during their absence, wars continued to stem but more peaceful. Hence even why people preach against the fifth key or forbid it from being entered.)
(Renji and Damien watched both sides fight to the death brutallyas the dark elves were winning tremendously, slaughtering, eviscerating and guzzling blood in front of human enemies. Damien and Renji took a step forward and were intervened with the old man blocking them with a cane.) "Don't go yet; you may have strong Wi or mental strengths but you are unable to control it. So the moment you lose focus you will be affected greatly with side effects."
"This is stupid," (Damien muttered frustratingly as he crossed his arms over his chest, boot tapping against the ground impatiently.)
"Control yourselves first...just for a little while," (the old man said shakily, his voice with a slight tremor, eyes focused on the sickening carnage.)
(Renji noticed the man's haunted gaze and immediately grabbed the cane from the old man's grasp and broke it to two crack halves dropping before walking forward with no fear in his body or mind.) "The side effects can have their way with me after I send all those creatures to hell."
(Damien stared with a shocked blink before allowing a low chuckle to build and immediately bursting forward in an explosive sprint. His grin wide and feral, baring his teeth.)
(A sound of loud laughter echoed weirdly midst the war-clash before a dark elf noticed Damien and saw Damien burst upwards for a vertical leap before descending down like a meteor, his foot came down and smashed into the ground for a large crater, BOOM, the shockwave confusing foes and comrades alike and stopping the movements of fights.)
(They just stared stunned before suddenly a dark elf felt someone grab the back of their neck with a brutal clamp—it was Renji.) "Don't you know, I made a promise to send you all to hell. I should be keeping my promise," (Renji leaned into the elf's ear whispering as his chill breath ghosted it's pointed ear.) "Right?" (Renji's cold breath hit the creature's ear before Renji spun on his heel and hurled the elf towards another elf causing a collision.) "You are struggling with these things? Disgraceful," (Renji muttered with disdain as elves locked onto Renji; they saw something similar to death as their instincts screamed at them to recognize a kill or be killed opponent before them.)
(But they were too distracted all in a deep trance as hands pierced through two elves torsos and out the other side, clutching beating hearts, Damien's devilish laugh boomed with a sharp grin, other elves felt tide switch.)
(As the two elves fell, Damien discarded their hearts. The remaining humans looked onto Renji and Damien with hope as the elves saw something dangerous. They saw Renji as if death came in human form, with serene calm as if this was his everyday job. And the other one, Damien, they saw him as the incarnation of the devil himself, a being laughing midst battle already instilling fear into them.)
(A dark elf shouted with a guttural command and snapped the other elves out of their trance. The elves hardened their expressions as one elf slowly approached testing before the entire army charged like a horde towards the two.)
(Damien grinned devilishly before shouting with a provocative roar.) "That's right, come to me. YOUR BLOOD WILL BE A WONDERFUL ACCESSORY TO MY CLOTHING." (He continued laughing, eyes shining manically as one elf swiped with their claws, Damien slapped it away before grabbing the elf's hand and pulled it closely, grabbing its head slamming it onto the ground with a loud, CRUNCH, blood ran down onto the ground as the elf seized to move.)
(Renji ran forward towards the charging elves and leaped with an aerial arc and smashed a knee into one elf face's, shattering their skull. He landed in the midst of the enemies and spoke, eyes shining slightly.) "I shall reap all of your souls and send you to the deepest pits of hell."
(Don't forget Wi is adrenaline amplified, the longer use makes the user more deranged which unleashes the users deepest darkest side. There is nothing to hold them back. One has to send them to hell and the other has to put them in hell.)
(To the human watchers that survived, trying to describe the carnage allowed only for them to fumble words out to each other and their wives. Renji's efficiency was spreading blood cleanly across the dark grass,' Was he the grim reaper?' Men asked themselves either in silence or when talking to each other, 'I remember how the elves tried to cave him in, and with his hands and smooth spin all their heads flew off.... HOW?!' Others asked, another added, 'I remember looking at him and seeing death standing behind him but it was in a white robe and holding a white sycthe, but when I tired to look at it's face I found just see him wearing that robe, It was as if I saw death in white', ;Damien was pure chaos in his killings, 'I saw him laughing as he ripped out the hearts of the elves and immediately throwing it towards other elves,' One said, another said,'I remember seeing a spark of a flame igniting wherever he walked or ran, it was like hell on earth,' One said to his friends and one of the friends immediately replied with, 'The same way I saw death behind the white haired boy, I saw something devilish on the dark kid, when he ran its like I could see horns on his head, when he killed it's like I saw souls getting tortured, it was like seeing a devil with a crimson gaze'. People muttered to each other.)
(The fight stretched until late-night/early morning. Men stared in awe, including the old man plus Soren and Jiwon who could do nothing but stare at the two monsters they see as friends midst the carnage.)
(Damien and Renji stood drenched with blood. Eyes flickered off like a light and immediately everything crashed into them. Damien began to violently vomit, Renji stared at bloodied hands as they trembled with fear and shock. Damien and Renji passed out from shock and their mind falling unconscious.)
(Hours later they woke up on beds, their bodies clean as Damien slowly sat up and saw both Soren and Jiwon before looking away in shame. Renji sat up and did the same.)
(The old man stood there staring before he cleared his throat.) "Look, I understand you are shocked by your own actions but don't take it to heart."
"Don't take it to heart?" (Jiwon asked surprise in his voice, looking towards the old man.) "They kill—"
"If they didn't kill, the village would be destroyed. Besides I explained Wi and it's side effects. If it's hard to accept, how will you continue breathing in this world?" (The old man clapped back,shutting down Jiwon who swallowed his words, The old man looked over towards Damien and Renji.) "Rest, we will talk later."
(The old man turned slowly and left the room, followed by Soren and Jiwon leaving Renji and Damien to ponder alone.)
(Are they going to accept their dark sides?Will Soren and Jiwon look at these two the same? What will the old man tell them?)
(Find out in the next chapter....)