Keisin ran through the forest, his anger seething through him as his body glowed with the golden tendrils of his magic, burning the trees around him wherever they touched. He saw a man in the distance and ran over to him, grabbing the shocked man by the cuff of his shirt and lifted him so that he was inches from Keisin's face.
"Where's Pheona?" Keisin yelled at the man, his blue eyes narrowing threateningly.
"Who?" The man gasped with shock.
"Pheona- the woman you bandits took. Where is she?" Keisin hissed, impatient.
"Lokune must have gotten her- he's over there!" The man pointed into the distance. Keisin growled in fury and let his power flare, sending the man flying into a tree before running in that direction.
"She keeps burning through the ropes!" A bandit yelled as he tied another rope around Pheona's wrists as she squirmed against their grip in terror, a cloth tied around her mouth preventing her from yelling.
"Tie her with these, then." A man threw chains to the one binding Pheona, who grinned before tying her wrists tightly with the chain, preventing her from casting spells. She mumbled through the cloth loudly, her eyes wide as she looked around at them in fear.
"She'll get us a pretty good price over in Raza." The man in charge chuckled, looking over when a loud crash sounded from the forest. The dozens of men in the clearing stood, grabbing weapons to fight anyone who came into the clearing.
What they weren't expecting was to see a sorcerer burning with anger, his magic flying around him, causing his hair to float from the amount of magic filling the air around him. He looked around the clearing at the men and saw Pheona tied up, her eyes wide as she watched him pleadingly.
Keisin snarled in anger, his fury flaring as he yelled and let his magic flare, engulfing the clearing in the golden light.
Pheona flinched from the golden glow, watching as bright flares flashed within the glow, a man's horrified scream filling the air. Another sounded off, followed by another. Pheona whimpered in terror at the face on Keisin, shocked that he was capable of such horrible violence.
The glow faded, revealing Keisin breathing heavily over a dead body of a man, the glow around him vanishing with a black spark. She couldn't help but think about the sorcerer that had caused the destruction of Avalon- maybe Keisin wasn't so different after all.
He looked over to her and ran over, untying the cloth from around her mouth.
"Are you alright? Did they hurt you?" He asked, his eyes filled with concern as he looked her over.
"No, they didn't." Pheona said, unable to help the shaking that started when she looked around at the massacre he had caused. Dozens of men were dead- killed in a span of just a few minutes. "How could you do this?"
"Do what?" Keisin asked in concern. "I saved you- they took you, and who knows what they would have done with you?"
"You didn't need to kill them like that." Pheona said, looking down at the man who had fallen at her feet, the one that had tied the chains to her wrists.
Keisin moved around her to untie her wrists, letting the chain fall to the ground. "What, you'd rather just be taken? What was I supposed to do?" He said, bitterness filling his voice.
"No, but you didn't have to kill them. Just knock them out or something. But… you just tore them apart." Pheona moved away slightly from Keisin, her fear filling her with dread. He really was no different. He had killed with no sense of remorse, no idea of the terror he had caused.
"Did you find-" Rynu ran into the clearing, stopping dead in his tracks when he saw the destruction around him. He stared for a moment before looking up with shock at Keisin. He walked over to Pheona, seeing her shaking with wide eyes as she stood beside Keisin.
"Come on, let's go Pheona." Rynu said, glancing warily to Keisin as he let Pheona away.
Keisin watched them walk away, looking hurt and confused. He looked behind him and gasped as he realized what they had seen. Dozens of men lay dead on the ground, broken and burned from his magic. Keisin looked down at his hands, realizing what he had done.
"Gods, maybe I'm not any different." He put a hand over his face in agony, his eyes wide. He watched Pheona walk away with Rynu, knowing now what she had seen. No wonder she had started shaking like that.
He walked away from the scene, falling against a tree as he realized he had just gone against everything he had ever been taught- everything he had ever believed in. Was it really so easy to turn so evil? He flinched as his chest tightened, emotions overtaking him as he buried his face in his hands.
If it was really so easy to be what the woman he loved feared, then he didn't want to risk it. He walked further into the forest until he was far away from the scene, unlatching the amulet from around his neck. He stared at the amulet as it revolved from the chain it hung from, the names of his ancestors etched onto the back. He had betrayed them all. He choked with pain as he took his amulet, throwing it far into the forest as darkness took him over, causing him to fall to the ground.