1 Once upon a time ago

"๐˜š๐˜ข๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ, ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ธ๐˜ข๐˜บ๐˜ด ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ... ๐˜›๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜จ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฅ๐˜ด ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜บ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ท๐˜ฆ ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜จ๐˜ฐ๐˜ต๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ถ๐˜ด, ๐˜ฃ๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜จ๐˜ฆ๐˜ต ๐˜ธ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ."

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"๐˜ž๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฐ ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ, ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ?"ย 

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"๐˜”๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ! ๐˜ž๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ, ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ!"ย 

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"๐˜•๐˜ฐ, ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ, ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ, ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ!"ย 

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...

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Samael woke up drenched in cold sweat and thought. "Great, another nightmare,", wiping off the drops of sweat from his forehead. Nightmares like these aren't so new to him anymore. He looked around to see his fellow soldiers praying to their respective gods. 'The gods, huh?' he thought.ย 

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They were currently on the way to the frontlines. The great kingdom of Taraheim has been in a feud with a nearby empire and recently tried to form a peace treaty, but the other empire took this chance to kill off the prince who delivered the message along with his knights. This act greatly angered the king and caused a massive war to erupt.ย 

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So far, the war has been going on for at least 8 months now. Both sides have already suffered massive losses, but the ones who really suffered were the civilians who got caught in the crossfire between the two kingdoms.ย 

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Samael's thoughts were cut short when a sudden ice surge hit their cart, sending them flying. He hit the ground hard with a sickening thud. He was disoriented by what just happened. Samael looked around and saw multiple giant ice spikes protruding out of the ground where they were formerly located.

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The scene was chaotic; soldiers were running and forming battle formations while some were dead or impaled by the ice spikes, screaming in agony. Samael felt lightheaded and tried to stand up. He used his sword as a stabilizer and finally regained his footing.ย 

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Fortunately for him, he didn't get any serious injuries; he was just shaken and bruised from the sudden attack. He immediately tried to get in formation, but another wave of ice struck the crowd of soldiers, multiple organs and dead bodies flew in the air, and it rained blood.ย 

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Samael halted his steps and backed away from the scene. The attack came from a superhuman who was surrounded by enemy soldiers. He looked around and saw enemy soldiers coming out of the woods and thinning their numbers.ย 

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A sudden scream got to his ear, and he turned around only to be greeted by a soldier trying to cut his head off. He immediately blocked it, but his form was off, so he fell to the ground. The enemy soldier kept bashing his shield nonstop; he knew if this continued, he'd die.

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Samael tried to calm himself and waited for the enemy to charge back. When the enemy tried to swing at him again, Samael took the chance and stabbed the soldier by the knee where the armor was not covering. This made the soldier scream in pain and topple to the ground, giving Samuel the chance to stand up.ย 

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He hurriedly stood up and decapitated the soldier, sending blood everywhere. He was exhausted and tired, but it was not the time for rest; more enemy soldiers approached them, and the chance of escape was low.ย 

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Samael looked around again and saw nothing but carnage; his fellow soldiers were getting massacred by the enemy. Samael tried to help, but another wave of ice attacks hit the battlefield, and unfortunately, he wasn't lucky this time.ย 

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Samael's legs were impaled by an ice spike hanging him in the air, and the overwhelming pain nearly knocked him out. He gritted his teeth and used his blade to try to chip the ice off. After multiple swings, the ice finally cracked and he fell to the ground.ย 

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The ice numbed the pain in his legs, but not for long; the battle was already lost. The intel told them that this was the safest route they had and that superhumans were all on the front lines. It turns out they were fooled, and now here they are.ย 

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Samael couldn't help but let out a desperate laugh, and he thought, 'Is this it? Is this how it ends? In the end, I never accomplished anything. How pathetic.' He looked at the setting sun on the horizon and thought, 'What did we do to deserve any of this..? What did we do for the gods to subject us through such hardships?'

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He chuckled once more as his vision started to fade, and his last thoughts were: 'In the end, no one really answered.'

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...

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Samael felt like he was falling, and a warm feeling embraced him. His body floated in the endless darkness of the void. For Samael, this felt really peaceful and comfortable; he wanted to sleep and just forget.ย 

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After 18 long years of fighting in this cursed world, he can finally rest. But something felt wrong for himโ€”a thought he couldn't get rid of. something he hated for a long time, something that haunted him in his sleep.ย 

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"๐˜š๐˜ข๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ, ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ธ๐˜ข๐˜บ๐˜ด ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ... ๐˜›๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜จ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฅ๐˜ด ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜บ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ท๐˜ฆ ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜จ๐˜ฐ๐˜ต๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ถ๐˜ด, ๐˜ฃ๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜จ๐˜ฆ๐˜ต ๐˜ธ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ."

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Why? Why does he remember this now? Why this memory? why now? He had so many questions, yet no matter how hard he looked, he never found any answers.ย 

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The voice kept repeating the same words that he hated; it was almost maddening. Samael tried to scream to make it stop, but he couldn't.ย 

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"๐˜ž๐˜ฉ๐˜บ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ช๐˜ฅ ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ ๐˜ณ๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ?"

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Samael heard this and looked back only to see a woman with fair skin, black hair, and beautiful black eyes along with a kid with black hair and black eyes.

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"๐˜‰๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ถ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜บ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ค๐˜ฌ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ.."ย 

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"๐˜š๐˜ฐ ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ถ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜บ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ค๐˜ฌ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ?"ย 

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"๐˜ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด.."ย 

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"๐˜Š๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ, ๐˜'๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ ๐˜ด๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ."ย 

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"๐˜ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ.."ย 

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"๐˜–๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฅ๐˜ข๐˜บ, ๐˜š๐˜ข๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ, ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜ต๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ด ๐˜ฃ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ฌ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ, ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ท๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ง๐˜ต ๐˜ฃ๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜ง. ๐˜š๐˜ฐ ๐˜ถ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ช๐˜ณ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฅ๐˜ด ๐˜ข๐˜ด ๐˜ข ๐˜ด๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฌ๐˜ฆ ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ต ๐˜ข๐˜ด ๐˜ด๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ฑ ๐˜ข๐˜ด ๐˜ข ๐˜ด๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฅ. ๐˜ด๐˜ฐ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ช๐˜ณ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฅ๐˜ด ๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ฏ'๐˜ต ๐˜ค๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜บ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ."

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Samael looked at this scene, and tears fell from his eyes. How could he forget? This was something he desperately tried to run from: his past.ย 

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The woman and the kid slowly vanished, and he heard the same lines again. But this time he wasn't running anymore; he was tired of running away. He steeled himself and looked beyond. He finally understood what it meant.ย 

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He finally remembered who he wasโ€”he wasn't someone raised to run away. The gods may have forgotten them, but he will never forget who they are. He was Samael Darkbringer, and it was time to wake up.

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