Hello? Ah welcome to this story which has been in the works for like almost half a year maybe lol
Posting it on Thanksgiving seems right in a way plus getting it out there will help me write more instead of being lazy lol
Anyways a big shout out to Shinn Of Destiny! He helped so much with my writing skills and without him this story would not be a thing so please go check out that beautiful son of a gun!
Now for the normal can of beans! I do not own the Legend of Heroes series or anything in it! Just a few Oc's and ideas behind the story!
Big warning this story contains a lot of dark shit like Character deaths, mention of suicide and selfharm and other dark stuff but it will not contain any type of sex or anything like that just the normal stuff you would see in Trails.
I think that's all… Oh well anyways! Enjoy!
'Thinking'
"Letters"
(Whispers)
"Talking"
Change of time/Pov
Artist of Shade in the story cover is Iwonn on Twitter and they have their own blog where you can get yourself some nice art as well but for a price.
Iwonn's Art Blog ( )
And away we goooooo!
Septian Calendar: July 7th,1211.
Time: 8:30 AM
Location: Shade Village
A blinding light is the first thing I see when I wake up. Upon getting out of bed I got dressed and walked out of my room and into the bathroom I looked into the mirror at my reflection. My 5 year old face stares back with red crimson eyes, deep black hair, and pale from the lack of sun.
That is me, Alex, one of the 300 residents of the village of Shade, a place far out in the mountains of Calvard and near the border of Liberl, a good distance from the nearest town, there's not many rules here but there is one thing you can never do or else they will kill you and that is...
"Alex, breakfast is ready. I'll be leaving for church now!" I hear my mom call me from the door leading outside the house. I sighed loudly and walked out of the bathroom to go and eat.
I sit down at the table and look at my food which is only some toast and eggs. "The church... Guess it's time to pray to our god… The Demonic Lord Zargo." I finished eating and left the house. I made my way to the church which sits in the middle of the village.
As I walk a few of the other kids run past me, almost knocking me over. "Out of the way Alex!" I just stared at them as they ran off, I dusted myself off and continued my way, finally making it there.
"Well, Alex! Glad you made it!" I look over to see High Priest Bennett walk towards me. "Hello Father Bennett... Um, is there something you need?"
"Why yes there is! I just got something in and I need your help with it. Oh and sadly we will miss the mass but trust me it's worth it."
He grabs me by the hand and pulls me through a door leading to the basement, upon reaching the bottom I see all sorts of machines and more rooms and hallways. He pulls me again and leads me to one of the rooms.
"Now Alex, can you please sit and take these pills." He hands me a few red pills so I sit down in the chair that sits in the middle of the room that has weird machines that line the walls.
"So just take it as is?"
"Yep, just swallow them." He grabs a notepad and watches me closely. "Well alright." With a small sigh I put the pills in my mouth and swallowed like I was asked then I waited.
"Hmmm? Do you feel anything?"
"No… What are these pills anyways?" The pills themselves tasted awful but something about it felt… wrong.
"Hmph, just something I'm working on. I'm going to keep you here for another hour just to make sure." And so began my hour-long wait of boredom.
"Hmmm? You still feel nothing, yes?" This has been the 75th time he has asked me this.
"Nothing at all sir."
"Damn… Alex, do you want to hear a story?" He puts his notepad down and looks at me.
"A story? Um sure why not."
"Long ago there was more to our order than this village, and they did some awful things all because of some family and their want for power. But in the end they all fell because they were careless and naive, the D∴G cult was wiped out at least it paper."
He gets up from his desk and walks over to me.
"They also rejected that bitch in the sky but worshipped something else than us, a child which in the end killed them all, but everyone here in Shade we were blessed by our lord and told to hide and so we did and we survived!" He starts laughing and then quickly grabs my shoulders and gets right into my face.
"But now our time to shine has come once our people show up to liberate us. We will rule this world and you, my dear child, will be one of the many keys to it!" He laughs again and walks back to his desk.
"Haha. Well you can go now. I have an urgent call to make now shoo!" He waves me out of the room and closes the door behind me.
I stare at it confused by everything that happened the past hour. I looked back to where the stairs were and started moving to them when all of a sudden something in me told me to stay, looking back at the office I walked up and pressed my ear to the door hoping to listen in on what he was saying.
"Yes sir the pill didn't have any immediate effects but I and the others will keep a close eye on the boy."
"Hmph. Gnosis, a pill created by that man Joachim… How many do you have now?"
"We have about 6 crates of red Gnosis and 8 of blue Gnosis, and once you get here we'll give them all to you and your army… Drugone." The name alone sent a chill down my spine.
"Good we will take Heimdallr by the end of August, and should be there by the end of the year if everything goes as planned."
Before I get found out I quickly leave and go back upstairs. Upon getting up there I see that people are starting to leave the building and that the main room is being rearranged. I pay no attention to it and walk out of the building and towards the back of my house.
Behind my house is a small path that goes to a small lake a rough 30 minute walk but it's worth it since it's the only place I can be alone and at peace around here, I start walking the path that I made and eventually come across the lake, I walked over to a tree on a hill and lay underneath it, I gaze out to the lake thinking back on everything that has happened this morning.
"Gnosis... What is Father Bennett planning?" I lay there for another hour or so just enjoying the breeze and the sound of the lake.
I eventually got up and started walking back to my house as it looked like it was almost noon. Which is strange because it shouldn't be noon until an hour or two. "Huh, did I misjudge the time? And why does my chest feel weird?" I continue to walk along the path shaking the weird feeling from my thoughts.
Upon returning I walked into my house and looked at a clock seeing the time 3:27 on it. "What?! It's already this late but how?" Shaking the uneasy feeling I'm getting I walk into my room hoping that some drawing can help.
"Hmm? The lake should be a good place to draw or maybe the front gate?" Suddenly it felt like I just woke up and upon looking at my drawing pad I see that an image of a city is on it or a place in a city. I see a few shops, many paths leading to other parts of the city, and even a weird bell in the center of it all, but what catches my attention is the building in the lower corner which has the words 'SSS' on it.
I looked up at the clock to see it is now 7:45. "What's happening?!" I get up and run outside seeing that it is now dark out. I look around for anyone hoping to find some help but notice the only lights on are at the church.
I start running towards it all the while the image from my drawing pops into my head among several others. A weird fort, a blue tree, and a burning city flashes through my mind as I run. I quickly opened the door and rushed in but what I saw shocked me, making me fall backwards in surprise.
"Ah. I see our guest of honor is here!" I look over to see Father Bennett walk towards me along with two others that have hoods over them masking their faces. The room only has torch lights on and everyone is wearing hoods except my mom Angela who sits in the middle of the room tied to a pole.
"Mom!?" I get up from the floor but I'm grabbed by the people with Bennett who hold me in place.
"Alex, please calm down, there's nothing to be scared of, in fact you should be happy for your time has come!" He and everyone else takes one of those blue pills from earlier.
He walks over to my mom who stands there unmoving, the others follow behind him dragging me along. I try to fight back but my body is starting to not respond.
"Ah yes! The time has come just as our lord said it would!" He goes next to my mom and lifts her head letting me see her tired face.
"Mom!? What did you do to her!?" My body starts to feel heavy and the weird feeling from before returns once again. I'm lifted up and dragged in front of her where I can see the sight of her bruised and broken body.
"You see Alex, this woman may have birthed you but not once did she want you, in fact she wished you were dead!" I see her head move up to look at me and all I saw was a small smile, one that she always gave me no matter what happened.
But before my eyes I see her head suddenly fall down and onto the floor where it rolls underneath me. Looking down I see her looking up at me with a smile still there. "Everyone, the time has come! With this offering we shall be blessed with power and not only that we have the child he has gifted us!"
The people let me go as I fall to the floor where I gently grab my mom's head and hold it close to my chest as tears stream down my face.
Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
Bennett leans down and gets close to my face. "You see Alex this is only the start, you won't have to worry about anything else, we will teach you everything you need to learn."
Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
The feeling from earlier comes back but much stronger than before a sudden wave of energy comes over me as I grit my teeth as pain is starting to manifest everywhere.
BA-DUMP! BA-DUMP!
"Wait, this doesn't seem right! I should be able to see the future yet why can I not!?" In that moment a blue tendril bursts from my back and shoots through his skull killing him instantly. My body heats up in pain as three more tendrils come out of my back.
All I can hear is the sound of people screaming, and soon after that bodies and blood hitting the floor as everyone in the room is torn apart from the tendrils.
In my last moment of consciousness another image appears but it's blurred the details, I can make out that it's of a girl with blue hair and after that it's only darkness.
In an unknown space.
My eyes slowly open and yet the only thing I can see is a pitch black darkness, I get up and look around only seeing the darkness.
"Mom?! Anyone?!" I desperately called out hoping to hear any voice at all, but nothing so I began walking in the darkness hoping to find something, after what felt like hours or even days of never ending walking. I finally heard a voice with no sound coming from it.
"Dear child, if you fall here then what use will you bring to this world?"
"Hmph I guess you are but a child… Fine I shall help but only this one time okay~"
The darkness that's around me suddenly turns into a bright white completely blinding me and envelopes me.
"Now be a good boy now and don't lose~" Those are the last words I hear before I lose consciousness once again.
An unknown amount of time later.
The first thing I feel is the cold beneath me, slowly I open my eyes to see that the sun is out and poking through some hole in the wall, I start getting up off the floor but notice that it's all wet. I look down at it and see that it's blood.
In a panic I fall back on the floor taking notice of what's around me. I'm in the church still around the center of the room but all around me is the blood and guts of those who I suspect were once my neighbors.
I should feel sad or really anything right now but my entire body feels dull. I stand up and walk out of the church and once outside I see that the entire village has been reduced to rubble.
"Did I do this?" I walk around the village taking in the sight of the destruction that I caused. After walking around and seeing no one I made my way back to the church, seeing the gruesome scene again was easier but I still avoided looking at it and instead looked to the door that leads downstairs.
I opened the door and made my way down and from what I can tell this place was intact unlike the village, after a small search I found a large room filled with crates.
"Is this where those pills are?" After looking around the room I was able to find one that was open, and inside it was those blue pills.
"Gnosis…" I turned around and began searching for anything that can be burned easily. Upon looking in the last room in this place I found the room to be filled with some type of machine with a screen in the middle and nearby a couple stacks of paper were sitting on a desk.
I approached the screen and looked down to see a lot of buttons so I pressed one and the screen flickered to life.
"What is this?"
I pressed another button and the image on the screen switched to another one which was filled with folders each named something different.
"Does this thing have information on me? And what are in these folders? 'Paradise Reports'? 'Demonic Cores Reports'? 'Gnosis Studies Reports'?"
I decided to stop looking at the screen and instead grabbed the papers and spread them around the rooms down here, and before I left the downstairs area I was able to find a lighter and used it to start a fire.
I made my way outside and watched as the church started to slowly burn from the inside out.
"Goodbye mom…" After I said that it then dawned on me that I haven't cried over her death or even felt sad or anything really.
'Why don't I feel anything? A part of me feels like I should panic but I feel… numb is this the real me?'
I shook off those thoughts for now and decided to leave making my way to the village exit. After passing through the gate I gave it one last look staring at the name 'Shade' afterwards I started walking along the road hoping to get to a town or really anywhere with people.
3 hours later.
I continue to follow the road which just seems to be never ending all the while the hot sun bears down on me, without any water or food I'm sure I will pass out soon from heatstroke.
I see a small dirt path that branches off into the woods. I decided to ignore it but as I was about to pass it something told me to follow the path so I did.
After some more walking I see up ahead a large house with stuff lying about everywhere and even a shed around back, but as I stand in front of the steps leading to the door I start losing my balance and the last thing I see is the sky above as darkness takes me once again.
An unknown amount of time later.
The first thing I feel is warmth as well as the softness coming from whatever it is I'm lying on, I slowly open my eyes to see that I am in a dimly lit room and that I'm on a bed as well.
"Hello?" I call out wondering just who found me.
It didn't take long for the door to open and the lights in the room were turned on letting me see who took me in. A man stands there staring at me, he has a decent size gray beard, his silver hair tied up in a ponytail, his figure is more on the muscle side than anything, his clothing seems normal with a simple button up shirt with a vest over it, a pair of jeans, and a pair of boots.
"So kid are you feeling alright?" His gravelly voice surprises me since it also had a hint of gentleness.
"I'm hungry and thirsty but that's about it." Despite everything that has happened, those really are my only concerns at the moment.
"Alright. I'll cook you up something but first can you answer me a few questions?" He walks over and sits in a chair I hadn't noticed until now.
"So what do you want to know?"
"Well what's your name?"
As I'm about to answer I stop myself, the name 'Alex' seems wrong now just thinking about makes me uncomfortable so at that moment I decided on a new name.
"My name is… Shade."
"Shade huh? Well my name is Vali, now where did you come from?"
His expression remains calm yet it feels like he's testing me or something along those lines with that in mind I went with the truth.
"I came from the village named Shade." His eyes widened but only slightly.
"Alright so what happened there? I ask because I found you dying outside my door covered in dry blood." Ah now it makes sense I guess it would be odd to find a kid like that.
"I'm not sure I was in the church in the middle of the village and they were doing a ritual of some kind and I passed out there, when I woke up I was in the middle of the room where it was covered in blood." Not wanting this man to know what I did using half truths should work.
"Hmm I see, are you the only survivor?"
"Yes I didn't see anyone else alive."
"Well I'm sorry for your loss. I'll get started on making you something to eat. To be honest you surprised me Kid, Shade is a few hours away on foot and in the middle of July the heat is at its prime so I'm shocked that you made it here in one piece!"
After those words he leaves the room but leaves the door open leaving me there alone.
'Middle of July? It was the 7th when that all happened so it should be the 8th now right?'
After some time he comes back into the room with a small plate of food and some juice.
"There we go apple juice and a burger with fries, best I can do right now haha!" He sits it down on the nightstand next to the bed.
"Umm what day is it?"
"Huh? Well it's the 14th but since it's past midnight I guess it's the 15th now."
I nodded, then proceeded to start eating my food without bothering to say anything else.
"Well Kid I better get some sleep, and after you're done just leave the plate there I'll grab it in the morning, so get some rest alright." He turns around and just before he leaves I stop him.
"Shade." I simply say
"Huh what now?" He turns around confused.
"My name is Shade, not Kid." I stare at him for a few seconds then go back to eating.
"Alright, well get some rest Shade." After that he leaves the room shutting the door behind him leaving me to my thoughts.
'It's been a week since that night? How is that possible? I should be dead if that was the case and yet here I am alive… Wait, I remember, there was that blue thing that came from me and there was more than one… Just what am I?'
After eating I tried to get some sleep but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't fall asleep so I simply laid there waiting.
Several hours later.
As I lay there I heard a knock come from the door. "Rise and shine Ki- I mean Shade. Haha." Vali opens the door and walks in.
"Huh? Hmm, well Shade after we eat some breakfast I'll take you to the nearest town, they should be able to help you far better than me."
"Alright… What's for breakfast?"
"Some bacon and eggs, just something simple." I nodded my head then proceeded to get out of bed all the while Vali watched me.
I followed him out of the room and into the hallway where I can see about another 3 doors and a staircase leading down. We reached the bottom and I saw the kitchen and dining area to my right, the living room to my left and in front of me is the front door.
As I walked to the dining table I noticed another door that's below the staircase, however I lost interest in it and went and sat down at the table.
After a little wait Vali brought me my food and we both sat in silence while we ate our food, afterwards he cleaned up and started making his way outside.
"You wait here while I grab my car from the garage alright." He then walks off to the small building next door.
I look around at the somewhat messy yard he has, as I move forward it felt like something was running at me from my left so I looked over to see a pack of wolves at least 6 of them approached me.
"Vali!" I yell out to him but as I turn to look over I see him also surrounded by wolves.
"Damn it! You show yourselves now of all times! Tch, Shade hide in the house. I'll take care of these monsters!" He readies his fists and punches one of them as they leap at him.
I nod but before I could make it inside I'm pushed to the ground as a wolf pounces on me and bites into my shoulder. "Ahhhh! H-help!" It chews on it for a little longer before it's suddenly kicked off and into a pile of trash nearby.
"Damn it! I'm getting weak with my age, Shade are you okay?"
I try to get up but as I do an intense pain shoot through my entire body, I grit my teeth as I look down at my shoulder seeing it heal itself all on its own.
"And take this!" I look up to see Vali drive off the wolves back to the forest.
Vali takes a heavy breath then turns to me and runs my way. "Shade! Are you okay!?" He stops in his tracks as he sees my entire shoulder heals completely.
After it heals the pain goes away completely as if it never happened, I stand up confused as to what just happened. "What?" I hear Vali say something so I look at him and see a look of terror and confusion.
"Just what are you?" He takes a step back in fear as he stares at me.
"I don't know…" I can only stare at my shoulder as I wonder what I am at this point, but a howl in the distance breaks both of our attention away from it and to the forest.
"Hmph! They want more huh well I guess I'll just have to give it to them!" He quickly goes inside and a few moments later he comes back out wielding a giant sword that should be wielded with two hands but he only does it with one.
"Shade we will talk after this but just know this… I won't harm you or will I abandon you!" At those words the wolves show up and with greater numbers than before, but as I stare at them it felt like I could tell where each one is at and just how many there are.
"Vali there's at least 23 of them and most are on the left with about 5 on the right!" I yell at him.
"Huh? Well guess I'll take your word for it!" He yells as he charges at them with speed I've never seen before.
I can only watch as he easily takes down at least half of the wolves within just a few minutes, but in the distance I felt a large monster coming closer very fast.
"Vali, a big one is coming, watch out!" At that moment a giant wolf leaps from the forest and lands in front of Vali, but this one is different from the others as a type of flame surrounds it.
"Shit this might be tough." The wolf roars at us and somehow all the other wolves in the area start having the same flame surrounding them and their bodies shift in an unnatural way.
"What the hell is this?!" Vali grips his handle tightly and with a loud roar rushes at the wolves with greater speed than earlier leaving the wolves unable to counter attack, and just like that all the smaller wolves are killed leaving only the big one.
Vali stands there taking heavy breaths and looking exhausted. "It's time for you to DIEEE!" Vali launches forwards as the large wolf also lunges forwards but instead of slashing at the best Vali smacks it in the face making it fall to the ground.
"Rahh! Helix Strike!" With swift movements of his blade Vali cuts through the beast with ease and with a final strike he cuts off its head, finally ending the beast.
I stared in awe at what I saw, his swift movements, his speed and even his skill. All of that is something I now wanted.
Vali takes a knee as he calms his breathing from the battle clearly he was exhausted from it. "Damn… Shade, you okay?" He turns to me with a worried expression.
"Yeah, I'm fine but what about you?"
"Please I handled tougher bastards than those assholes!" He stands up and walks towards me.
"But there are a few things I have to ask you about, like what happened to your shoulder or how you were able to sense where the wolves were?" He stabs the sword into the ground and crosses his arms.
"I really have no idea how really, when my shoulder was healing I felt so much pain like it got worse somehow and for the wolves it was like I was seeing from another eye but it had no color at all."
"Hmm. I see well judging from the wound from earlier your bones were affected but it seems that also healed up, furthermore there's no way we can move you into town now, who knows how people will react to your abilities." He grabs his sword and starts walking into the house.
"For now you'll live with me. I'll get you stuff you'll need from town when I head there soon."
"Can you teach me?" I say to him just before he goes inside, stopping him in his tracks.
He turns to me with a quizzical face. "Teach you?"
"Yes, teach me how to fight like that please." I look at his face with determination.
"Ki- Shade I'm not going to teach you how to do tha-"
"Please I want to learn how watching you fight just now makes me want to do it, to protect others." He only stares at me then all of a sudden he bursts out into a fit of laughter.
I stare at him in confusion as he continues to laugh. "Umm, are you okay?"
"Hahahaha! Haha! Ha… Alright fine I'll teach you but we're going to start off small and probably in the next few days."
"Why not today or tomorrow?" I ask while climbing the small wooden steps.
"You think I know how to teach? I need to plan and figure this all out, hell my original plan was to peacefully die in this house alone."
"That sounds sad and pathetic." I flatly state.
"It's not sad or pathetic! I just wanted to be alone, that's all!" He then angrily stomps into the house while I follow behind him.
He stomps to the door that's underneath the main staircase and opens it up revealing a staircase leading to a basement. He then goes down the steps while I follow along.
"Where does this lead exactly…" We reached the bottom and I'm left speechless at the sight. The room is by far the largest in the house with an entire training area setup in one of the corners, an area for weapon maintenance and crafting in the corner next to it, and the rest of the room is filled with different weapons ranging from staffs, swords, guns, and even a couple of weapons I've never seen before.
"This is where we will train for now, until you get some more muscle and strength you will NOT touch any of these weapons, am I clear!" I nodded my head then went to look around the giant room for a little bit all the while Vali kept a close eye on me.
"For now you can decide which weapons you want to start your training with, but in the end you can change it up however you wish since I know how to use all of them here."
"That's… Impressive." I looked around for a little longer then went back to Vali who is still by the steps.
"I want to use a sword but I didn't know there were so many… But for now I can't really decide on anything else." He smiles when I say that, like he knew what was going through my mind.
"You do have some potential after all. Well anyways I'm still tired from that fight so let's rest for today, I'll show you where everything is located in this house and later tonight I'll cook us some dinner." I nodded and we both began going back upstairs. I stopped and took one last glance at the weapons my eyes locked on to a scythe. I blinked and continued heading up.
Once we got to the main floor a sudden realization came to me. "Hey Vali, why do you have all of those weapons and do you really know how to fight with all of them?"
He closes the door and turns to me. "I can't say I mastered all of them but I was once an adventurer along with some friends, in that time I used many weapons and learned many ways to use them, like what you saw in that battle earlier."
"Ah I see… That move you used was called Helix right? I wanna learn that one."
"That is a difficult technique to learn… I'll tell you more when we get to training." He then lays on the couch and falls asleep immediately.
'He must be tired from that fight… Despite not falling asleep myself I still don't feel sleepy at all… Maybe I should just relax in my room for now, once I clean myself off.'
I spent some time in the bath cleaning myself off and checking on my shoulder, afterwards I searched around for something to do and found some random drawing supplies so I spent the next few hours doing that until dinner was made.
I walk to the table to see it filled with some simple foods like chicken, potatoes and some other vegetables. "There might be a bit too much food, I'm not used to cooking for two people yet."
"Thank you for the meal." I say then sit down and begin eating, there wasn't much said during dinner, after I finished eating I cleaned my plate then headed to my room where I layed in my bed until finally I fell asleep.
Vali PoV
I looked at the clock and saw it was close to 11:00 o'clock. I sat at my desk and opened the bottom drawer where the only thing in it was an opened letter. I grabbed it and closed the drawer and began reading the letter.
"Dear Val my friend, if you are reading this then that means I have passed away but I needed to tell you about the last vision I had last night.
I saw the port city fall into the water. The growing fire sweeping across the land burning it all white. The demon sitting on his bloody throne. A village of darkness torn apart with the cries of a child remaining. And finally a light with the only thing attached to it is a name Shade.
I'm not sure what this means for our future but I'm scared by it but it also appears to be my last vision as well because the connection broke on me completely. Val I'm not sure what will happen in our hunt but I'll be praying to Aidios for our safety throughout it so hopefully you won't see this letter after all.
Your good friend Ali.
Ps If you do read this then don't cry for me please.
I put down the letter and rub my eyes. The memories of that day flash through my mind.
"Damn it Ali after seeing everything that's going on in the west I can tell this vision is coming to life… But then what does that mean for him? Will he really be the final light in this darkness?"
I yawned, then got up and walked to my window. "Shade… I'm sorry it seems like fate has plans for you. I just hope you don't get dragged down into the depths of this darkness that surrounds you and this world… And maybe you can light this dark future."
With that I turned off my light and fell asleep as dreams of that dark day returned once again.
Chapter 1 is done! So how was it? This will be a long ass story so expect a lot but I also write slow so there's that lol
Once again a big shout out to Shinn for helping me out! And my friends for helping me out and even naming some people in the story.
And yes this is a Tio/Oc story but other ships will be in it as well as some twists here and there~
Anyways See ya next time!