William caught sight of the powerful tyrant of a man in front of him through the veil of trepidation that shrouded his eyes, a man holding a chiselled face of pure, frigid beauty, who also held Sarah on his arm and picked up the icy greatsword with little to no effort, despite the weapon almost being the same height as William himself.
"From your clothes to your feeble-looking face… Huh. This is the world nowadays…?"
"Anyway, let me introduce myself. My name is Melatose, child. Remember that name, and remember it well, for I am the first to return from the other lands."
"…And we, who have returned after being lost in the other lands for so long, will conquer this weak earth."
William remained dazed and didn't respond to Melatose's threat. This icy figure hardened his gaze further and then stabbed the greatsword into the ground before he picked William up by the throat.
"…The Primordial Deities saw our potential, so they gave us a chance, bringing us away from the weak world and into the gloaming world of dusk that was the "Desolate Lands", just so that you pitiful humans could have a chance to last this long."
"However, now, we have been freed. Because this is the day of Twilight's Dawn. It is this that I am sure will cause a massive upheaval, surely turning all humans into those with potential to become powerful grandmasters, like us."
"But, as I think more about it, I don't think I would rather fancy a world like that. A world where we all can live together in harmony."
"And so, I think the best option is to deny this world, just like how we were denied. This world is worthless anyway, to both the Primordial Deities and us grandmasters, those who wield nigh-absolute power inherited from Gods, the Goldenblood!"
Melatose grinned with a sinister gleam in his eyes, as he revealed the source of his power.
"After the dust has settled, nothing will survive, except us Goldenblood, who have transcended all other humans!" Melatose declared, cackling.
He cast both William and Sarah aside and they were frozen in place. Fortunately, neither of them was dead yet, but the dark frost corroded both their bodies and their life force.
"…William… William…" Sarah murmured, her lips blue from the bitter cold.
William looked at her with petrified eyes as she coughed blood, and could only meekly nod his head to show that he was listening.
"…I… only wanted to meet you here to tell you about… our relationship… who knew something like this was going to happen…?"
"But, for some reason, right now I can see something about you clearly for the first time… you… you have something special…"
"…And, it's as if something is beckoning me to help you live on…"
"….I'm not so sure if I'm right… but, I think… I obtained some sort of special power… and I can see…"
William's eyes widened, while Sarah's voice faltered for a moment.
"What… Do you mean?"
"…I can see… your gift. It's faint, and almost like ink… or more so, a painting that I cannot comprehend…"
"…If you don't understand… It's fine… I don't even understand it myself…"
"…But… I don't think, even if I had a way to explain this phenomenon, I would have enough time anyway… I didn't think that our relationship would end like this… with me dying in such an unexpected way…."
An abrupt sensation stopped her from speaking, and the light in Sarah's eyes faded as she drifted off to an eternal sleep, meaning, she lived no longer.
William realised at that instant, and his countless tears froze the instant they came out of his eyes, and he raged desperately, unsure and horrified at the scene that he watched happen before his eyes.
Sarah had died. Just like that. Without even telling him what he should do. It was because of her that he could continue to live in his fantasies and that he didn't become downcast and depressed.
She was always like that. Helping him with things he didn't know how to deal with, and she always knew what to do when the solution seemed near impossible. Yet, she seemed to be completely gone now.
At that moment, William's desperation even reached world-breaking levels, and his heart began to blaze and boil with a foreign, glimmering power. However, Melatose merely sighed out of boredom as he watched the events unfold slowly.
"Boring. If you're going to obtain your special power, at least do it quickly. In the Desolate Lands, I had no choice but to obtain my fighting spirit and my Frost Sword Arts amid battle, where there was no time to waste."
Melatose was irritated and yanked his icy greatsword from the ground before he performed a devastatingly powerful ice slash, rupturing the ground in the first second that it was unleashed before freezing everything in sight and creating a large opening in the earth, a crack almost the size of a small valley.
This powerful slash annihilated everything in its path, and that included William and Sarah, who seemed like they were both subjected to a grim death.
"Huh… did I get weaker? I used to be able to fight off giants with this power…" Melatose muttered.
"…You can remain so calm after just killing someone. How telling. But right now, whether your strength has withered or not, that should be the least of your worries."
"Oh?"
Glimmers of light rose from the small valley in the ground littered with ice crystals, and a naked figure suddenly ascended with his eyes closed, and his palms, legs and chest splashed with Divine Ink, and dark golden wings that were also born of the same kind of special ink. His aura exuded intimidation as he fully unravelled.
"…Ah… hahaha!"
Melatose smiled devilishly, while the resurrected William, who had been suddenly reborn with a perfect body, including his left arm, remained furious and irate, his boiling blood reaching levels of unforeseen pressure as his mind, body and soul repeated the body he felt in that small time-frame of him being obliterated alongside Sarah, who was nowhere to be found.
"Finally, it begins in earnest! Now that you have finally obtained your power, others will naturally follow suit! It seems that Twilight's Dawn shall soon descend upon this earth!"
William's heart burned with fury, and with this newborn power inside of him, he suddenly charged forward, and in less than a second, he pierced through Melatose's flesh with a hand blade.
However, before William could fully unleash his newfound capabilities, he caught a glimpse of Melatose's unperturbed expression.
"…Heh. You have high potential, but you're still weak." Melatose uttered, holding William's arm before driving it in deeper, showing that it did not affect him.
"…You have deeply pierced my flesh, yet you have failed to draw any blood. This goes to show the feeble nature of humans, even when protected by the Deities and another mortal's useless defiance for you."
"Just know that I won't attack you again any more, because I can tell that you are now a meal worth savouring. So, wait for me, because I will come for you again. Your world shall change significantly, and you must adjust to the maelstrom that will arrive, sooner or later."
"This… is just the beginning."
Melatose raised his greatsword high in the air as he finished saying his words and a beam of light shattered the icy dome that covered the skies, revealing the now purple-sodden twilight skies above. The icy figure quietly created a portal behind him and ultimately walked away, leaving William for a confrontation set long ahead in the future.
Once William's hand returned to his side, he noticed that there was truly no blood on his hand, and his heart ached silently. The loss of just one person, whom he considered almost as important as his mother, made him feel like remaining in this forest for eternity, which would be her burial place for the end of time.
But, his sadness and woes were soon dispelled, as he was hugged from behind, and this person's aura sought to calm him down.
At this moment, Sarah, whom William thought was dead, was now alive, returning with a similar, glimmering power to him. A mystical, violet-blue hue.
And fortunately, William didn't hesitate and turned around to hug her again ever so tightly as if she would disappear once he let go. She seemed to still be the same person as before, with the same brunette hair, the same peaceful, loving green eyes and, for some reason, in the same dress too.
In his trembling embrace, Sarah smiled warmly and hugged him back.
"…This power… I guess it serves a greater purpose than I first thought." She said, "Now, William… free yourself, and let this world be freed too."