Hero of Darkness

Chapter 1: A Man at the Edge

Winds howled along with the passing cold breeze. At the time of midnight, in the glitter of lights from skyscrapers & malls along with multiple vibrant neon signs; the city life kept running as usual.

Amongst these sky-touching buildings & millions of people going about their lives, stood a man at the edge of the highest roof in one of such office buildings. He heaved a sigh, looked towards the bright moon & closed his eyes. Thinking & contemplating how & why his life came to be this way. Thinking to himself, Elric asked.

"Man, why am I the only one living so miserably? Will anything for once, go the right way for me? Why am I the only one always getting short end of the stick? It's as if the world itself is trying to tell me that I really don't matter at all."

Reminiscing about his childhood, Elric remembered the young him when he was 12 years old. He was a good kid with a great talent for reading among other kids in his class. The teachers would always praise him for being quick to answers. He was always good at getting the pronunciation of words correct & could read a chapter from the book without running out of breath easily. But this made his fellow students dislike him at the same time.

Some started bullying him as the days went on & even when Elric asked for help from his Teachers, no one helped him. Some saying it's just a small quarrel between children while some intentionally trying to smother the incidents to avoid being accused of neglecting the students of their class by school management.

So, Elric never got the help he deserved. When he told his father about how the kids at his school were bullying him, and even beating him on some occasions; instead of consoling his youngest son, his father reprimanded him to not bring such small matters into the house. His father worked in a manufacturing company for household appliances and had to spend many hours per day in the office as he was the manager of the department. So naturally, he was always tired & tensed up when he returned home.

After holding his sobs somehow, Elric told his mother, Sophia about the incidents. She told him that she would talk to his teachers. Elric believed her & decided to wait for tomorrow. But the next day, nothing happened. He still got beat up again, his parents had no time to listen to him. Even his older brother, David whom Elric looked up to told him to 'Man the hell up'. David was 17 years old & part of his school's baseball team. And due to his growth spurt kicking in, he often tended to be physical with his body & rash with his mind.

He paid no attention to his younger brother as if it didn't concern him. Elric couldn't ask his elder sister Jessica as she would get mad at him even if he mistakenly entered her room. She was very peculiar with her things, clothes & looks. And always spent a lot of time in front of the mirror for God knows what reasons..

Author : Let's call her someone with 'Princess Syndrome'.

So after both his family & school staff failed to help him, Elric had no choice but to endure the harassment at school. Hoping that his bullies would get bored & not target him any longer. He even stopped being active with his studies & interacting with other students & teachers alike to not stand out. And later when he went to high school, he adapted the same approach.

But during these times, Elric did find something to keep himself busy with. He no longer held love for historical figures or whatever they taught in schools rather in comics that he often read at the Comic store a couple of streets away from his house.

Somehow, these Heroes from comics gave him a huge sense of belonging & an urge to be a better person. His favorites were Spider-Man & Batman. He would often imagine if getting bit by a radioactive spider will give him powers like Peter Parker or whether he could find a mysterious clan of ninjas & martial artists who could teach him how to fight like Batman.

But as all things come to end.. So did his interests in Comics. As Elric hit puberty, he became engrossed with the culture of Anime which was reaching a new horizon of popularity throughout the world. He would spend most time of his day watching them than studying for his class test tomorrow.

Years later, he entered the world of Novels and Mangas. And like there are no exceptions.. He got entangled in the web of addictive Cultivation stories, Korean hunter Manhwas, RPG & Virtual Reality game stories and the ones where a good for nothing Otaku gets hit by Truck-kun and gets reincarnated or transmigrated into another world.

But without realizing that he had spent these years distancing himself from his family & friends; he had become a loner who barely functioned in society. Spending so much time alone made him mentally become someone who liked being in solitude.

Due to his innate talent for learning & remembering what he read instantly, his grade never fell below what was expected from him. Elric had realized to this point that he had the rare case of having what we call Eidetic or Photographic memory.

His parents didn't care much for him anyway.. Only providing food & shelter out of obligation. He disliked both his elder brother & sister who always had the halo of entitlement around them. He didn't have anyone he

was someone without great ambitions and only good enough to live a mediocre

finally left his house and started living alone. Even when he had any conversations with his family over the phone, it'd be him who initiated the

4 YEARS LATER.

today. He stood in a line inside a coffee shop,

who he interacted much with if not out of necessity; and barely anyone he could even

of life was completely stagnant & uneventful in the

Elric really hard.. For the first time in his life, Elric had found himself completely alone.. both in body & spirit. This was something he yearned for during his teenage days. But now it suddenly felt terrifying

have a pet because they needed a lot of care & Elric was indeed a man-child

came & he reached his

suddenly felt a warm touch

excuse me. The coffee is in my other hand". A girl with bright blue eyes, blonde hair and

I was lost in thoughts." Elric

moment & quickly got

dinner (which wasn't just a cup of noodles like standard Japanese Mangas. Our boy knows how

just couldn't help but think about that moment again & again, over & over. Elric being the Virgin guy who never had a girlfriend, female friends or any form of physical connection to women throughout his life, got looped into that moment given how big of a Simp he had become over this point for fictional women. The Ideal romantic partner for

a long time, he finally fell asleep & woke up the next morning to follow the same cycle of corporate slave life. His routine followed for

even give him a soft smile; which always brightened up his day. Little did he realize that Katherine was doing it because it was part of her job to be nice to customers. But being the idiot he was, he felt like

this time, something was different in him. He wanted to make a move on a girl for the first time in his life.

already prepared for the worst. After Katherine got free from her shift, which ended only after 10 minutes since Elric got his coffee.

Katherine. Do you have

"Yes.. What is it?"

nothing. I just wanted to

at Elric with

plans which depended on me being free

startled [ Have I been

gathered his courage and said "Yes. I wanted to ask you out for dinner." Elric said with all his might. He sounded very calm & confident as if this was a

in the

live nearby. Give me your phone number,