Percy equipped his Flare suit and walked off to the Annual Knight Dress-Up Party, hoping that he would just be recognized as a cosplayer and not the actual Hero. Percy walked through the school gates, everyone wearing makeshift costumes made out of fabric and tin.
“Your costume looks great, Percy!”
Amy and her boyfriend, Andrew walked over to him.
“Even i have to admit, definitely better than whatever these people call a knight’s outfit.”
Andrew laughed.
“Haha, thanks…i’m surprised you two would be here, this kind of thing sounds ridiculous.”
Percy replied.
Percy spoke before catching his eye on Thomas, peaking behind the corner before eventually walking off.
“Yeah, I thought It’d be a great way to kill off time instead of being stuck home with Amy’s intimidating parents.”
Andrew spoke, while noticing Percy’s eye drift off at someone else.
“You good Percy?”
Amy stood infront of him.
Percy stood there in silence, the angry threats Thomas had given him made him uneasy and almost wanted to make him go straight back home, but he had to get information if he was actually affected by the Magic storm.
“…I- I’ll be back, I need to deal with something.”
Percy walked off to search for Thomas through crowds of people.
After many minutes of wandering past many students wearing their own homemade knight costumes, he believed that Thomas had left the school, until he saw a boarded-up area, restricting students from heading past.
“He has to be there…”
Percy thought to himself.
He looked around himself, seeing if any teachers were noticing and when it was clear, he ducked under the barricade and walked into the restricted hallway.
Percy walked down the hallway, the loud chattering of people slowly fading away as he went deeper into the hall, his footsteps growing louder and echoing throughout the vacant hall.
“Y’know…i am a real big fan of the Flare.”
Thomas stood at the end of the hallway, the darkness covering his face.
“Me too, I even decided to go as him.”
Percy replied.
Thomas slowly exited from the dark and slowly started walking towards Percy, blood had been smeared all over his face as he held the hand of a severed Teacher.
“I know your secret, Flare…I do not believe it’s a coincidence that not only you were there at the Alchemist Headquarters innocent and that you have a spitting replica of the suit The Flare wore.”
Thomas walked closer, dropping the dismembered arm of a teacher.
Percy slowly started walking backwards, terrified of how far Thomas has gone into insanity.
“The magic storm took the life of my younger brother, i tried to save him after he had been impaled by fallen debris, until the magical blast crashed through the ceiling and knocked me out, leaving him to bleed out and die.”
Thomas’ eyes glared at Percy.
“You want to know what kind of material pierced my dear ol’ brother’s chest?”
Thomas lifted up his hand at Percy.
“Metal Blast!”
Thomas shot a ball of metal at Percy.
Before the blast would hit Percy, Andrew grabbed Percy’s arm and pulled him back behind a corner.
“You okay man?”
Andrew spoke as the two of them leaned behind the corner.
“No, it’s Thomas, he killed a teacher and is now trying to kill me!”
Percy replied in fear.
“Stay back, i got this.”
Andrew walked back into the hallway with his hand pointed at Thomas.
“Water Blast!”
Andrew shot water at Thomas, knocking him over.
Andrew than immediately began running towards Thomas; however, he would recover fast.
“Metal Beam!”
Thomas hurled a beam of metal at Andrew, blasting him backwards through a wall and into the Cultural Classroom.
Percy quickly went through the open hole in the wall and noticed that Andrew had been knocked out.
“Come out to play, Flare!”
Thomas began walking towards them.
Percy regained his bravery and walked back outside, ready to take down the Dark Wizard.
“Flare Blast!”
Percy shot a scorching flame at Thomas.
However, the blast would do almost nothing to his body, only burning off Thomas’s shirt.
“…”
Thomas’s eyebrows curled up along with his mouth into the most monstrous face Percy had ever seen in his life.
“Metal Barrage!”
Thomas began blasting multiple fragments of metal at Percy.
Percy managed to effortlessly dodge them all while slowly approaching Thomas while doing so, landing a punch once reaching him.
“AH!”
Percy’s wrist broke after hitting him.
“Come on, put up more of a- FIGHT!”
Thomas grabbed onto Percy and landed a heavy punch into Percy’s chest, knocking him across the entire hallway.
“Uah!”
Percy tried breathing; however, the cracked ribs added a sharp pain from every breathe he took.
Percy laid on the floor, the pain so unbearable he could not get back up and Thomas and slowly walking down the hallway towards him.
When Percy held onto his broken chest, he felt a tube inside one of his pockets and pulled out a small vile Violet had given to him, able to remove magic for a little while, just enough time to remove Thomas’s magic durability and land a finishing blow.
Thomas picked up Percy off the floor with one hand, hoisting him up in the air and conjured a sharp, metal dagger with his magic.
“If you had just let Derius die…you wouldn’t share the same demise as my brother, it’s just a shame the Great, Flare had to die so soon.”
Thomas was about to stab Percy until.
“Water Blast!”
Andrew shot water at Thomas’s head, barely affecting him.
“You’re next after he dies!”
Thomas turned his head to look at Andrew from behind.
Once Thomas turned back around, Percy smashed the vile into Thomas’s mouth, the liquid managing to be digested by him.
Thomas lost his balance and limped backwards, feeling his magic being drained from his body.
“W- what did you just-”
Thomas tried blasting Percy; however, his magic had been completely depleted and was felt vulnerable.
“I am sorry for your brother, but killing Derius or anyone won’t bring him back…”
Percy said, charging his fist up with flare magic and struck into Thomas’s face, knocking him out instantly.
Percy stood over the unconscious body of Thomas while looking down the hallway at Andrew who saw the whole thing.
“…I knew it!”
Andrew smiled at the sight of the Flare standing only a meter away from him.
Magic Council Guards quickly entered the hallway, Percy running away from the scene.
“What happened?”
A Magic Council Guard helped Andrew off the floor.
“The Flare saved me…”
Andrew replied.
Percy accidentally ran into Amy while running around a hallway, knocking over her bag full of paper.
“Oh, shoot, I’m so sorry.”
Percy apologized as the both of them went down onto the floor to pick up the papers.
“No, no, it’s okay.”
Amy replied quickly.
Both picked up sheets off the floor and placed it back into her bag, they both went to pick up the last piece of paper however, both touched hands doing so.
“Oops…uh, yeah, anyways, i have to get- y’know, going back home now, i- enjoy the rest of your night.”
Percy began blushing and quickly stood back up before limping off back home.
Amy looked at Percy in confusion before letting out a soft laugh before continuing down the hallway.
-Meanwhile | Magic Council Office-
“Just give me a few more days, i will have the fines paid for soon!”
Derius frankly tried to reason with the Magic Council Captain.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Graves…but you are unable to cover for the damages caused and are hereby sentenced to time over at the Silent Tower prison.”
Magic Council, James spoke while on a chair.
Derius stood up with a sad look on his face, looking down on the floor before looking back up with a straight grimace.
“Not how my story ends, James.”
Derius began smiling as he reached into his pocket holding a knife.
“HEY-”
The Captain tried standing up but would be stabbed immediately in the stomach, falling to the floor trying to crawl out the room.
“I’m afraid your story has to be cut off so short, could have so easily been avoided.”
Derius walked over to the Captain and stabbed James once again, murdering the Captain.
Derius stood over the corpse and poured a potion all over the body, completely vaporizing the corpse and he left the room, wiping blood off his face with a handkerchief.
-The End-
