40th of Nadus 2990
7375 days to The Cataclysm

Five-year-old Elric stood there, stationary as a corpse, with his eyes fixated on his father, Takashi's head, in a metallic box that burst through one of the windows a few minutes earlier. He felt his feet sinking into the hardwood flooring of his modest home and his whole world tumbling down around him. Unable to utter a word, he turned to his brother, Tadashi, and his mother, Helen, expecting a reaction out of them.

His mother, fell to her knees, also unable to speak as tears dribbled down her pale, freckled cheeks with her black wavy hair in a mess. On the other end of the spectrum, 15-year-old Tadashi seemed cautious, gripping his swords with his gauntlet activated. He felt as if his heart was beating in his throat. A bead of sweat trickled through his black, messy hair and down his fair, reddened cheeks. His eyebrows furrowed over his dark green eyes in anticipation of danger. Nonetheless, an eerie silence draped the house.

The silence was interrupted by a high pitched screech. Before Elric or Helen made sense of it, Tadashi grabbed both of them and flew out of the window. A few seconds later, all of them were hurled forward by the shock waves of an explosion that engulfed their home in flames.

Tadashi lost control and stumbled onto the soft grassy meadows abutting their house. He got up and looked at his family, but all he saw was their terrified expressions. Seeing their faces, the terror that began to surge up within him almost took over his soldierly bravado, but he quickly shook it off.

Tadashi wondered how anyone could kill his father. Even though he retired, he still was the Admiral of the Navy. He also wondered why anyone would cause harm to a family as peace-loving as theirs, but soon he realized that questions came later, now was the time for action.

"Time to go," said Tadashi, proceeding to escort his grieving family to safety.

He was stopped right in his tracks by a flaming bullet that burned through his right shoulder. Tadashi squeezed his shoulder with the left hand to stop the flow of the gushing blood. He turned around and was greeted by the sight of a tall man, in completely black clothing, including a black face mask, surrounded by numerous hounds.

Normally, Tadashi would be unfazed by a sight like this, but these circumstances weren't normal in the least. The hounds weren't like any he's ever seen before. They were massive hulking beasts, six feet tall on all fours, covered in dense brown fur, glaring at him through blood-red eyes. Their teeth were at least six inches long, ripping through their lower jaw in a closed mouth. Their low pitch, but terrifying growls were able to send shivers down Tadashi's spine.

Helen pulled Elric close to herself and took refuge behind Tadashi.

"How did you not notice all these hounds the very moment you got out?" mocked the man among the hounds through a voice scrambler.

"Either way, give me the kid, and we'll have no problems."

Tadashi wondered why he would want his younger brother; either way, he wasn't going to yield.

"Listen up asshole," said Tadashi.

"You're not laying a finger on my little brother, YOU GET THAT!?" screamed Tadashi

"Well then, you will be known as a noble sacrifice for the greater good," hissed the man as his hounds arched their backs, ready to be set loose on the remaining members of the Shirozou family.

Tadashi looked back to check on his family. Helen continued to grip Elric tightly towards herself. In her mind, there's nothing in the world that could separate her from her son, adopted or not. Tadashi looked straight into his mother's eyes, but neither of them uttered a word. They weren't needed. The trust between the two allowed them to peruse the heart itself, transcending the need for dialogue.

Tadashi's chest swelled up with a fiery, and a somewhat terrifying, wave of determination that pointed towards only one goal; KEEP ELRIC SAFE!

Tadashi turned back to face the man.

"May the massacre begin," taunted the man as he signaled to hounds to attack.

In those few decisive seconds, Tadashi was quick to come up with a battle strategy.

Twelve hounds charged straight at him, while six diverged to either side for a three-way attack, making the total number of hounds, twenty-four. The only escape route was the edge of the cliff behind him, but that wasn't safe as failure to carry both his mother and brother during flight would result in a fatal fall. The only viable option was to stall until help arrived, which would be a few minutes given that someone already reported the explosion.

The battle plan was clear as Tadashi pulled out his sword in all its glory. The shimmery white Skotono that goes by the moniker of, 'The Shirozou.'

A Skotono is a mystical weapon made by the craftsman of the Skafos, a secluded island, south of the mainland. In exchange for goods, they build a device called an Imperium. When an Imperium is imbued with a weapon, it's called a Skotono. Even among the Skotono, two remain above all. They are often referred to as the legendary Skotono. The Shirozou, and The Kurokami. The Shirozou, is an all-white blade imbued with the Imperium of Diamond, usually only inheritable by a specific bloodline. While the Kurokami, was the opposite, an all-black blade imbued with the power of shadows, also only inheritable by a specific a bloodline. Originally these Skotonos were given to the strongest soldier. Eventually, they both became a title, and as time passed, a family name.

With one swing of his Skotono, Tadashi created a twenty feet tall platform of diamond from underneath his family, a safe distance away from the jaws of the hounds.

Helen let out a sigh of relief as the loosened her grip on Elric. Tadashi, on the other hand, kept shifting his gaze from the hounds to the man.

Tadashi stood tall on top of the platform, readying himself for battle. He saw the man unsheathed his sword, and on pure instinct, Tadashi charged towards the man.

The man blocked Tadashi's attack with his sword, and both of them were pushed back by force. The man pulled out his Skotono, a two-handed gun with an extremely long barrel and pointed it at Tadashi.

A blast of flame emerged from the tip and was headed straight at Tadashi. With a horizontal swing of his blade, a diamond wall arose in front of him, acting as a shield from the searing flames on the other side.

Finally able to catch his breath, Tadashi flew upwards, in an attempt to re-engage the man in combat, but he was stopped mid-flight by a hound that bit his left leg just under the knee. The hound's teeth sunk into his leg, ripping through his flesh and emerging from the other side.

He stabbed his Skotono into the hound's heart, and it let go of his leg.

Tadashi leaned against the diamond wall, looking at the remaining hounds that were ready to tear him to pieces.

Tadashi forced himself to stand straight, and he took a battle position. For all he knew, the next few minutes would decide the fate of his family.

The hounds ceased their standoff and charged at Tadashi all at once. After a deep breath, Tadashi let out a war cry and charged towards the hounds as well.

Tadashi stabbed one hound in the face and used that point as an axis to flip forwards to land in between the two lines of hounds. With one circular slash, he was able to decapitate four hounds before creating another platform for him to escape the rest.

Six down, eighteen to go.

He unsheathed his other regular blade, and jumped straight into the disorderly horde, with his arms wide open. On landing, he was able to take down two more hounds with his swords and landed on the back of another, which he quickly killed by ripping out its windpipe with his bare teeth.

With his swords still in the hound's heads, he used the bodies as projectiles and threw them in either direction onto the hordes on either side. He then proceeded to rapidly skip towards his left before the hounds could recuperate from the surprise attack and cut down the three right in front of him.

Twelve down, Twelve to go.

Though the circumstances were dire and lives were at stake, the exhilaration in Tadashi managed to bring a smirk to his face.

Tadashi charged towards the hounds but was stopped dead in his tracks by the screams of his mother.

The robed man had flown up to them and was about to burn both of them down.

In that moment of distraction, one of the hounds dug into Tadashi's left hand. Though screaming in pain, Tadashi managed to throw that hound onto the robed man, which made him lose his balance and tumble onto the grass.

"I really don't want to do this," thought Tadashi.

"I'll barely be able to fly if I do it, but I suppose that risk is necessary now."

Tadashi sheathed his regular blade, and using both hands along with all of his stamina, dug his Skotono deep into the ground. Large spokes of diamond arose from the ground underneath the hounds and decapitated them all at once.

One spoke was aimed for the robed man as well, but he dodged direct impact and was able to escape with only a mutilated right arm.

He lost control of his flight and stumbled to the ground. The blood that spurt out of his arm couldn't make the once green grass any more red.

"That Skotono of yours really is a force to reckon with," panted the man, holding his wound with his left hand.

"It has its own damn energy source in addition to the user's own. Even a weakling like you could beat this horde of hounds with that blade. No wonder it's one of the legendary--"

Tadashi quickly unsheathed his regular sword and threw it at the man, cutting both his legs off in the process.

The man fell to the ground, screaming in agony.

Tadashi limped up to the man and victoriously towered over him.

"I hope your boss gets this message, but don't ever fuck with my family again," said the heavily wounded Tadashi.

Tadashi was about to dig his sword between the man's eyes but stopped just before he could make contact by the sound of his mother.

"Wait!" screamed Helen.

"See what's under that mask of his" she continued.

Tadashi nodded proceeded to unmask the man. Just as he was about to reveal the man's face, he was stopped by the low growling sounds of the hounds behind him.

"I thought I got rid of those beasts," said Tadashi as he turned around to see what made that sound.

Tadashi's and his mother's eyes widened in horror as the dismembered parts of the hounds rapidly grew into new bodies, unfurled large bony wings and lifted off the ground. The number of hounds doubled from twenty-four to forty-eight.

The robed man laughed hysterically as he said;

"You can never kill them, they'll always grow again from their body parts."

Tadashi stopped the man's laughter by stabbing him between the eyes.

He turned around to the hounds and tried to create a wall, but was too tired to do so.

Weighing his options, Tadashi immediately decided to take the risk and flew off the cliff along with his family, the hounds hot in pursuit.

Tadashi flew towards the central city as fast as he could, without once batting an eye to the hounds behind, but he could feel it, they were catching up to him, and he was too drained to carry his brother and his mother. He knew his mother realized it too, and he looked at her, with tears in his eyes.

"What do I do Mom?" Tadashi managed to say in a broken voice.

"It's up to you to decide what the next line of action is, and deep down, you know what to do."

"There must be another way!" cried out Tadashi.

"You know there isn't. I know we haven't made this very clear to you my son, but, your father and I, we are so proud of you, and through all your disobedience, through all your tantrums and recklessness, we are still your parents, and our children, You and Elric, are our world and I may not get a chance to say this again, but I will always love you."

Hearing his mother's soothing voice, Tadashi cried out loud, still unable to get over his emotions. Never has Tadashi been so indecisive, but his thoughts were interrupted by his mother's voice, and this time, it wasn't soothing.

"WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO, SOLDIER!" screamed out Helen.

At that moment, Tadashi was able to set aside his emotions and let his inner soldier take over his mind and body once again. Helen sensed this change in her son and gave out a sigh of relief. She turned towards Elric, still unable to speak from the traumatic experience.

Tadashi could feel the breath of the beasts on his feet, and so he made a decision.

Helen caressed Elric's red hair with tears in her eyes as Tadashi's grip on her loosened.

Eventually, Tadashi let go of his mother. The hounds were distracted by Helen and proceeded to rip her apart instead.

From the corner of his eye, Elric witnessed his mother being ripped apart, limb by limb, yet, seeing her children safely escaping this fate, she had a smile on her face, all the way till her last breath.

Tadashi gained speed and ten minutes of flying later, was crossed by reinforcements flying in the opposite direction to take care of the situation.

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Hope you're enjoying my story
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