pieces of other chapters.. please ignore this. 

A tattered black hooded-shawl whipped against an encompassing firestorm—Death's Mask's sinister raiment. Through the crimson gem-sockets of his frightening archaic mask, a set of glowing, fearsome scarlet eyes laid within a fiery haze.

Ocelot, a heroic celestite medic, had cast off his violet-coloured cloak. The engulfing blazes from previous battle techniques singed the grass-plains and seized the elf's soaring mantle—dissolving it within a torrent of black-hollyhock-tinted fire.

"Listen to me, Hanyo! I will no longer just stand idly by to recover my friends and watch my people fall. Prepare yourself. I am the greatest celestite medic in the world. I have healed broken bones and grown back organs within life's creations for over two-hundred years. This devastation... not even I can fix what you have brought to my home country. It will taint the elven race forever. Now I am your opponent!" said Ocelot the elf, closing his eyes in focus.

"Ocelot, no, we have to take him on together!" shouted a young Agatha in the smoggy distance.

"Do not be a fool cousin! There is still time until Diaxis and Augustus arrive," yelled a young Felin.

"Ironrose style! Selenite Art: Eye's of the Wind Kami!"

Ocelot's elven eyes solidified with illuminating viridian mana before they began firing energy beams of the same hue. They cut through the apocalyptic atmosphere with a bombastic sound of screeching electricity as they barraged the harrowing figure.

With a smoke-filled fuchsia flash, a blood-red katana manifested within the vicious masked man's grip. He walked forward and timelessly slashed Ocelot's eye-beams—one after the other. Bangs of lime-hued light ruptured around the scorched region as the streams of energy split in half. The energies debris pounded the charred terrain as it shredded the masked man's dark cloak in an attempt to destroy him.

"He's cutting through hardened-mana with steel? How is that even possible?" huffed young Felin as he stood frozen with disbelief—overcoming his agility to perceive the next attack. Even his keen perception was not enough to keep up with this opponent's moves. As sweat poured from his forehead, he swiftly looked towards young Agatha who was unclipping needless equipment.

"We need to retreat my dear. There's nothing more we can do here. Everyone is going to die if we don't regroup," said young Felin, wiping the perspiration from his eyes.

Numerous remains of celestite bearers spread across the roasted landscape. The beautiful, colourful, elven country of Aratine was now a blackened wasteland dematerializing within an expanding void of searing flames. Distant, sorrowful outcries of elven woman and children scrambling to safety, stirred this battlefield into a ruinous nightmare. A war that nobody will forget.

Unclipping several enchanted weight-discs from her muddy silver corset, young Agatha's long chestnut curls whooshed upwards as the gravitational slam from the falling bells pounded into the soil—vibrating through the carbonized stone-ground beneath her.

"Ocelot needs us! Would you leave your cousin behind Felin?" she asked sternly.

"But, the twins Agatha... the prophecy. You cannot die here. You know this and Ocelot knows this," replied young Felin, grabbing Agatha's belly.

"I know, my love," she replied, clutching Felin's hand.

The unique tattoos etched into Ocelot's pale elven skin began to gleam with stalwart leaf-green mana.

"Do not worry my friends; it's time I showed everyone my father's powers. I will use the last bit of my mana to use his greatest technique!" called out Ocelot, smacking his palms together, once again.

"I promised I would only use this when the entire world needed it. The elves are not fond of ancient mana techniques that defy the laws of nature—especially my traitorous father's. That moment of need is now! Forgive me, grandfather, Hideki Yuun. I must take the life essence of this place to save my friends. Nature will never grow here again because of you Hanyo. You are not leaving here alive. Ironrose Style! Selenite Foribben Life-Art: Nature consumption! 100,000 sowings!"

With the smack of Ocelot's palms hitting the carbonized soil, a mysterious jade aura reverberated through him and his friend's bodies. His short elven blonde locks circled the air and with a final shout, the ritual completed—sourrounding the three champions within a thin mystical shield of shimmering aqua. Miniature turtles rapidly raced around and around inside the barrier of water at a nearly impossible speed.

"This technique was passed down to me by my grandfather, Hideki Yuun himself. This mana-shield is highly forbidden to perform in my family as it will absorb the life energies of nature and dismantle it forever. In doing so, I convert all the energy into this barrier, which will magically regrow and repair an open wound in milliseconds. I will not let you take this destruction any further! Half man, half-demon, it does not matter! I am Ocelot, son of Hayashida the Destroyer and heir to the most powerful member of the Ironrose!" Ocelot battle-cried, maintaining the water-shields with a sharp focus.

The masked man's gemmed-eyes held a carmine glow hidden behind a thick face-casing of charcoal-stained obsidian. Approaching the three Ironroses, he cast his katana into the air. Time seemingly slowed for the dark-blade as it dispelled within a purpled smoke.

Throwing back his shredded dark raiment and retracting both obsidian-plated gauntlets behind his back, the masked man tittered with a deep and foreign tone.

"You three are holding up well," he said, stepping on the head of a nearby elven corpse. "The others were... disappointing. You should be proud of yourselves for surviving this long. You have become apart of *my chosen* now."

"Don't you dare touch them!" screamed Ocelot.

"You especially Ocelot. You heal wounds faster than any sage slave I have seen in many years. Hideki would be proud. I now see why Hayashida had chosen you as his successor for the Celestite of Helios. However, I am especially curious to know how much mana you need to expel from your psychical body to maintain the 100, 000 sowings. Just look at all this nature mana around us pouring into your vessel," taunted Death's Mask.

"Shut up!" screamed Ocelot, discharging another barrage of eye-beams.

Young Agatha and Felin rushed to help Ocelot. Felin darted forward first and unclipped his combat-belt equipped with an innumerable amount of kunai knives. He swung the belt through blistering embers, continuously flinging each dagger with perfect precision. Until—the thrown daggers had suddenly converted to dust upon reaching a dark-purple mana-shield.

The masked man aimed one of his palms towards Ocelot and the other at a charging Agatha. As his ruby-crested eye-sockets began to illuminate amongst the metal mists of Felin's evaporating kunai barrage, he spoke subtly.

"Black-Ruby Art: Disintegration."

Amid Death's Mask's armoured fists, two mini-tornados of blackened magma swirled about and then launched towards Ocelot and Agatha with the sound of a screeching volcanic mountain. Felin halted his dagger-barrage and gasped as the fire-tornados clashed against his comrades.

"No!" yelled Felin.

Ocelot's mana-shields shone and tore apart with scorching hot energy, emitting a bubbling aqua around the pair. His muscles popped, and while holding on with extraordinary strength, his fingers, and soon after his entire limbs began to disintegrate and rebuild, over and over again.

"You were holding back... weren't you?" grunted Ocelot.

"As I told you and your sage slave friends earlier... only another Hanyo can kill me. Unluckily for you, I am the only one left alive."

"I don't give a damn what you are! The amount of mana your dishing out is almost 14 million cells per second! You are not just a hybrid. You're something else entirely... Agatha! Take my mana-shield! It is the only way to stop this magic from killing us both! The fire is burning my mana, not just my flesh!"

"Ocelot! Don't!"

Releasing his aqua-shield, Ocelot quickly shot his own remaining healing-turtles into Agatha's water barrier, forcing the fire-tornado lashing Ocelot to break through, flipping Ocelot backwards into the ash-filled ground. The malicious dark-fire began to eat away the elf warrior's flesh savagely—as he tried to pull himself up, his arms disintegrated into smoking embers. His body was dissolving faster than he could magically mend it.

As the 100,000 sowings technique attempted to stitch every cell back together in his face, Ocelot wailed one last time.

"Agh, Felin! Get her out of here! Your children must survive!"

Ocelot's eyes suddenly illuminated with an emerald radiance as his entire body lethargically decayed into a pile of ignited ashes. His corpse spread through the searing breeze like burnt parchment in the wind. He was apart of the ominous ambience now.

"Ocelot!"

Ocelot Silvian: Declared K.I.A on Octas 31st, 813 AC.

Cause of Death: Disintegration by mana.

The fire-tornado smashing into young Agatha's enhanced 100,000 sowing's barrier had finally dissipated. She unsheathed her violet-blade—the ensorcelled Hyperfang. As she dashed towards the masked man with incredible rapidity, Hyperfang ignited with heliotrope-tinted hellfire.

Young Agatha, without hesitation, began to deliver many fire-powered melee strikes.

Death's Mask threw his obsidian-gauntlets up and began repelling Hyperfang's mysterious deadly carving power with his gauntlets.

"That weapon will not work on me, sage slave. It is made of the same alloy my armour was crafted from," lectured the masked man, locking Hyperfang in a tight grip.

"I can't believe it. Ocelot... I am so sorry. I swear on my father's grave that I will not let your death be in vain. In the end, we will win this, that is a promise of a lifetime," muttered young Agatha, holding tightly through the clash.

"It's like Ocelot said. We are the Order of the Ironrose! The last line of defence next to the council themselves. You're going to pay for what you did to him, and everyone else!" she battle-cried.

Within a motion-blur, Felin quickly appeared in front of Agatha and fired a spinning kick, forcing Death's Mask to let go of Hyperfang and jump back.

"She is not your only opponent! You think you can just kill my cousin, rogue!" yelled Felin, slamming his feet into the ground—forming hand signs. Tears soared through the searing atmosphere as he chanted.

"Ironrose Style! Triple-Diamond Art: Mirror Image!"

Over one-hundred perfect doppelgangers of young Felin began to manifest from the burning ground and surround Death's Mask.

"Solidified Illusions? Are you trying to anger me?... Takahashi Sensai!" yelled Death's Mask.

The original Felin grabbed onto Agatha and pulled her up. "If this does not work... we will need to run. Without Ocelot's healing, we will die here, and we can't die, especially you," smiled Felin, grabbing Agatha's belly.

While dodging the clones melee attacks, Death's Mask began to throw a series of martial arts kicks and punches that could barely be tracked by the mortal eye—crushing each Felin doppelganger into the charcoal dirt.

After several psychical strikes and successful blocks, the real Felin had finally fumbled to guard against Death's Mask's sweeping kicks. Felin tripped—his face slammed against the dirt.

Snatching the collar of Felin's combat vest and dragging him off the charcoal-stained dirt with one hand, Death's Mask lifted Felin high into the air by his throat.

"I told you, Takahashi. Nobody can stop me. If this is your last line of defence for the elven kingdom, it's inadequate. You have wasted my time. Sanguine alone could have handled this country. Although, I will, however, admit that it has been the most fun I have had in a very long time," laughed Death's Mask, squeezing Felin's throat.

As Felin tried to pry away the masked man's grip, he sneered.

"I taught you the new forms of hand-to-hand combat in pity. Had I known what you were, I would have slit your throat while you slept and had your guard down!"

Swiftly, a wave of blood rained over young Felin. Death's Mask looked down—an unenchanted Hyperfang had penetrated through his obsidian armour and into his chest. Droplets of blood immediately streamed from the wound like a sacrificial altar.

"That's for Ocelot," huffed young Agatha, twisting the blade.

Death's Mask twitched and grunted. He hurled young Felin to the ground and smacked the unenchanted sword with his obsidian-armoured palm, all in one movement—popping out Hyperfang from his backside. Agatha lunged once more, but Death's Mask had slapped away Hyperfang with a sudden backhand while flipping through the air. The unenchanted blade flew across the blazing battleground.

As he disappeared within a thick layer of vermillion smoke and reappeared yards away, Death's Mask chuckled and waved his hand over his critical wound.

"That was smart Takahashi. Your distraction was fun and almost killed me. That... Hyperfang, is quite the weapon. I think it may be the most powerful mana-infused blade I have ever seen next to the Atticon Katana itself. Still, aren't you forgetting something?"

Young Agatha and Felin's eyes shot open as they witnessed the masked man's wound glow with cold lime-tinted light and then suddenly convert to a warmer colour—a symbol of tainted mana. The demonic magic sowed the stab wound back together—every cell back in its place. It was Ocelot's Celestite of Helios, without a doubt.

"What... are you?" puffed Agatha, staggering to keep her focus.

"It will take some time to perfect, of course. Ocelot had many years of experience. But don't worry. I am a fast learner," said the masked man, chuckling deeply.

As Death's Mask magically fused his critical wound, Felin quickly crawled his way back to Agatha.

"We have to go! Ocelot knew his healing was nowhere near powerful enough. We need the cores to stop him. We can regroup with Diaxis and bring the sages! We can live to fight another day, my dear," coughed Felin.

Fatigued, young Felin smacked his palm into a close-by withered flower patch, and soon after, a silvery portal manifested into the ground—hidden from sight.

"He's invincible..." said Agatha in grief.

All hope seemed to be lost. Chaos was going to claim this elven paradise. However, sometimes, destiny can lend a hand.

Agatha suddenly felt someone clasp her shoulder. As she turned around, she met the gaze of an outlandish man.

As he gripped the white hilt of his long silver-masamune tightly, this ambiguous man's vermilion eyes began to glow. They were the same eyes that Death's Mask possessed. The same eyes as Osamu possessed. The same eyes as Kazuki possessed. The mark of a Hanyo, half-human, half-bearing demon.

Slowly walking towards the burning forests, the man's white raiment fluttered in the cooking waves of heat.

"Take your wife and get out of here," he said.

"You just came through my portal, didn't you? How the hell did you do that? Who are you?" asked young Felin, trying his best to stand with his sprang ankle.

"My name is Miyasato. You've done all you can do here today. Let me handle the rest."

Agatha and Felin just starred at each other in disbelief.

"Are you blind? We just got massacred! Do you think you can take him on by yourself? My cousin was one of the strongest of us, and he didn't stand a chance. I am not staying here to die a pointless death along with him," choked Felin.

Ignoring Felin's outburst, the outlandish man called out.

"Brother! This has gone on far enough! How dare you use the power of the Hanyo like this!"

As Death's Mask sealed the rest of his stab wound, he clocked his encased face towards the mysterious outlandish man.

"Miyasato?... It can't be... You're supposed to be dead! I am the last Hanyo! This is another forsaken illusion... Takahashi Sensai, I am going to kill you!"

"I am no Illusion, little brother. I have come to stop this. To stop you."

Felin, without hesitation, grabbed his wife's ankle while her guard was broken and slipped through the summoned portal he created on top of the ground moments ago. They safely escaped as it sealed behind them with a gust of blood and ash.

"They were a weak bunch anyway as all sage slaves are. The cores are in the wrong hand's big brother. With them, I can change the world. A world where our kind will be reborn and be worshipped for being the creators we truly are. With you by my side, think of what we could accomplish! We could destroy or even control the plagues themselves! Just think of it, Miyasato! A grand utopia! Our utopia! It would be a world that would be conquered by Hanyo, and I will be their majesty!" laughed Death's Mask, clenching his fists.

"We too, are clones of the original Hanyo, do not forget that! What has happened to you? You were never like this! We dedicated our lives to protect Azmoria, not destroy it! Why didn't you seek me out?"

"You and Emerac left me for dead! In a forsaken realm fueled by rotting magic! I was trapped for over 800 years!"

"We did not know where you fell! Emerac and I searched for decades! What else could we have done?"

"I am no longer that little boy you so eagerly want to surface, Miyasato. I am now the nine-hundred-year-old Hanyo with three-hundred fully-tamed celestites. Emerac and Hideki were fools to call off the search. Izuki and I suffered more than anyone ever has! And now, with our gifts from The All Demon himself, not even you can stop us. I now have more power than any being, big brother. I highly doubt even an experienced Hanyo like yourself can keep up with me at this stage and I'll prove it by killing my former equal right now!"

Death's Mask pulled off his obsidian-gauntlets and threw them away. Raising one hand over the other, he drew in a deep breath and a sudden smell of burnt flesh as he swiftly severed his left hand with a magically-heated chop.

"Sanguine! Lend me your powers so we may rid my foolish brother of our newfound kingdom!"

The masked man's bloody hand fell to the charred soil and a surge of maroon energy repulsed through the ardent battlefield.

"Blood-Diamond Art: Necro-Turncoat!"

Removing his armguard from his face, Miyasato looked over his shoulder and seen the deceased beginning to rise to their toes. Their eyes were vain, and their remains stank of melancholy and singed hair. Their intentions are no longer their own.

Haven't the elves suffered enough? What an evil trick, thought Miyasato.

"So, Miyasato. Do they still say you are the greatest warrior on the planet? Well? Do they! Let's see you fight three hundred, mind-controlled, undead sage slave brats at once!" the masked man laughed, trying to rebuild his severed limb with his new healing technique.

**"They won't be able to use their mana powers any longer. But their melee skills will still be embedded in their muscle memory... what's left of it. I cannot risk him getting away again. Cyrolight Art: Manifestation. Sheba, It's time!"** called out Miyasato, forming several hand-signs as quick as light.

The chasm of styx generated alongside him as he punched the flaming soil. It's enflamed circular golden trim unrolled and swirled with crimson lightning and emerald water. A gigantic feline creature lanced out of the glistening portal within a flash.

Miyasato propelled towards his summoned rift, countering dozens of thrown-spears and sword slash techniques from the risen elvish undead within a blink of an eye. An omnipotent bearing demon, a hazy, shadowy jaguar-like creature, cloaked in cardinal reptilian layers and mystic luminescent mist had shot out of the portal and secured Miyasato's landing.

Flourishing his monstrous katana to the right and to the left sides of his demonic mount he charged forward--slashing, mana-blasting and chewing through the hordes of the living dead.

THE NEXT FEW CHAPTERS WILL BE THE END OF VOLUME ONE

BOOK IS BEING EDITED FIRST

WILL NOT BE CONTINUED FROM HERE UNTIL 2022