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Background

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A young boy ran through the fields of his homeland. He laughed, chasing his sister who had just been taunting him. The corn stood at above their heads, meaning that they couldn't see what was happening over the hill. They played around there for the whole day - as their mother had allowed them to - and only upon the first star appearing in the sky, did they decide to return for dinner.

As they approached their small town in the countryside, they could see a light brighter than what would have been there usually. Emerging from the wall of corn, his sister froze. He gently pushed his way past her, only to freeze also. Everything he'd known... Everything he'd loved... he was now watching burn. The town was beyond recognition. The flames had engulfed everything, meaning that navigation throughout the town's streets was now impossible without suffering from burns, and potentially death.

He told his sister to wait where she was before he set about circling the town in hopes of finding survivors. Her eyes, filled with tears, longingly looked into the flames, as she fell to the ground. Making sure she was ok before he set off, he headed in a clockwise direction around the town.

'Arenzil'. Once his home, now gone. It hurt him. As he was walking, he stumbled upon a blade. It was a sword, and it was one unlike any he'd seen Mr. Yiskik, the local blacksmith, make. Upon closer inspection, his heart lurched, and in his mind he found dozens of theories as to what had happened.

The sword bore a symbol. A symbol that sang songs of legend, chanted chants of terror, and inspired fear in even the most brave of warriors. Despite this being his first with the symbol, he recognised it instantly.

Then he heard something he'd never had hoped to have heard.

He threw the blade to the ground, and ran back to his sister. His heart racing, he yelled out her name. As he approached her, he saw a orange swirl of what seemed like energy behind her. She was being held by a bipedal creature of sorts. As she cried his name once more, the creature walked into the swirl of energy, dragging her in with him. The boy managed to touch fingertips with his sister for a final time before she disappeared. The orange swirl vanished, and where she had been was now scarred with a burnt mark. He kept calling out her name, eventually running into the cornfields from which they had emerged.

As the sun arose, nearly all hope had been lost from his heart. In a final breath of mourning, he threw away all of his sorrow. Gripped by a newfound determination, he walked back around to where he had found the sword and picked it up.

ing tales of an academy for those seeking to become a warrior, the boy turned his back on the smouldering town he'd once loved. He didn't even think to try and scavenge it for anything. He no longer cared. He'd lost his mother. He'd lost his father. He'd lost his home. And, more importantly, he'd lost his sister.

He took it upon himself to not let others suffer his fate.

「"For the heart, and for the soul; life shall be preserved."」