"Urgh"
On a rainy night, a low, guttural groan reverberated throughout the middle of the forest—disrupting the melodious symphony of nature.
A young man—barely alive—lay motionless across a river bank.
His body was gravely injured, to the point where it was no less than a miracle that he was still breathing.
His hands... His legs...
He had lost it all.
It was a gut-curdling view to witness since the tissues and nerves had been stretched out, dangling onto his body as if the limbs had been forcefully ripped out of his body.
And it didn't just stop there since his remaining body, too, was brutally thrashed, cut, and slashed.
One of his eyes had been gouged out while parts of his hair were missing as though they had been ripped apart.
'What... What did I do... To deserve such treatment...'
A question arose in Davey's half-dead mind. Even in the face of death, where his body had completely gone numb from the immense loss of blood, he continued to question the world.
***
Davey Lionheart was the last descendant of the once most powerful knight clan—Lionhearts.
As the name suggested, they were known as the most brave and courageous warriors who served the Goddess of Light—Aria.
For countless millennia, they continued to rule the world under the blessing of Aria.
However, 5000 years ago, the Lionheart family began to plummet and fell to the status of beggars not long after.
It was too drastic of a change to be natural, yet the world ignored it as if nothing happened.
With time, the goddess as well, abandoned the family—which led to their further downfall.
With time, the size of the family began to shrink as the royal bloodline of Lionhearts had become diluted over thousands of years—which weakened their innate potential even further.
Years later, when Davey was born, his mother died while giving birth to him. While his father blamed Davey for his wife's death.
For countless years, it didn't matter to him however young Davey was, for he only saw his wife's killer in him.
Although bound to a promise he made to his wife, James—Davey's father—continued to take care of him, even if forcefully.
A few Years later, as Davey turned 5 years old, his father began to physically torture him after getting drunk under the pretense of getting revenge for his late wife while it was for his own pleasure.
For the next 5 years, James continuously tortured Davey, plastering his body in wounds, before finally on his 10th birthday, Davey's bloodline awakened.
Under the influence of immense power and the righteous nature of his bloodline, Davey subconsciously killed his torturing father and left the home.
But as the Goddess of Light sensed Davey's awakening, she took advantage of his berserk mentality, placed his stigma on him, and guided him to the temple of light.
The goddess made him feel loved and appointed him as the new saint of light, while also giving him the divine order to kill the demon lord to protect the world.
Davey continued to train with his sword for years, and earned the title of the strongest knight at the age of 18, becoming the youngest and the strongest divine knight.
During his stay in the temple of light, he developed mutual feelings for the newly selected saintess, Alisa.
Dead set on marrying her after the completion of divine order, he set out on the journey to kill the demon lord along with his lover and 100 Divine knights.
They subjugated the demonic kings, slowly weakening the demon lord's strength.
As the day of the final battle arrived, all the imperial knights had been injured. Thus, Davey decided to subjugate the demon lord himself.
As he relentlessly fought his way through the seemingly infinite army of demons, the demon lord sneak attacked Davey's wounded comrades and his lover.
Sensing this, Davey without an ounce of hesitation, jumped in to save them and end the battle in a single strike.
He poured his everything into a single strike and obliterated the demon lord, although at the price of his right hand which was the source of his powers.
He was happy that he had finally completed the goddess's task, and now he could live normally alongside Alisa.
But to his surprise, he was backstabbed by the very same comrades he sacrificed his powers to save. And the one to have stabbed him was none other than the girl he thought was the one for him.
His heart broke at the sight as he lost his consciousness.
Thinking that he had died, they returned to the temple of light, while Davey survived the betrayal and started to wander the world aimlessly.
He tried asking the goddess for help, but she only mocked him as though he was a mere pawn of entertainment to her before finally abandoning him completely.
For the next 5 years, Davey wandered through the world, realizing that the ones he had been saving were nothing less than demons themselves.
Until one day, when he became the medium for a local gang leader to let out his frustration and ended up in his current form.
***
Davey felt betrayed by everyone he deemed his own... Let it be his lover, his comrades, the goddess he served so diligently, and the whole world he tried so hard to save.
Everyone had used him as though he was a lifeless item and thrown him away as soon as his work was finished.
That's when another thought materialized in Davey's mind.
"What... If... I had made... Different choices in my life... Why... Am I dying... While they get to continue living on... They are... The ones who deserved to die... Not me..."
His consciousness continued to fade away into the depthless abyss of death.
Just as he thought he was about to die, a foreign thought appeared in his mind...
"Then, what would you like to do to such people?"
"Kill...them..." He replied as his consciousness finally faded away completely.
***
Davey snapped open his eyes as he felt an otherworldly warmth embracing his consciousness, only to find himself in a completely different space.
A pitch-black space where nothing could be seen for as far as eyes reached.
He couldn't move, not even an inch. Confused, his mind fell into turmoil but was quickly solved as a small, transparent white mirror-like screen materialized out of thin air, hovering before his eyes while text appeared over it.
---
[Davey Lionheart, The Karma has decided that you deserve a second chance, as you've been nothing but good for the world since your birth.]
[Your people may have abandoned you, but the World hasn't.]
[The world would like to present you a choice.]
[• Ascend as a Divinity. Or,]
[• Embrace the path of a Demon.]
---
"TO HELL WITH DIVINITIES!" Without hesitation, Davey snarled at the idea of being a Divinity.
He was angry, not with the world but with the humans and the gods that used him however they liked.
"I would like to... Be a demon..." He muttered, his voice barely above a whisper.
As soon as words slipped out of his mouth, his consciousness faded once again, although right before that, he saw a new text appear over the screen.
---
[An unknown entity smiles at you...]
---