[center][color=1a7b30][h2]Aleph Banton[/h2][/color] [img]https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/718843028765585408/ftZaWnuy.jpg[/img] [b][color=1a7b30]"..."[/color][/b][/center] [hr] [center][@ADamnFiddle][@Lucius Cypher][/center] [hr] [color=1a7b30][b][url=https://youtu.be/aSWxwHXwCWw]"W-what... ?"[/url][/b][/color] To Aleph, who was preoccupied with his attempt to save the knight from the influence of an evil blade, the crazed man had acted to fast to even properly respond. Searing pain unlike any he had ever felt before spread throughout the wound and he began to feel cold almost immediately as he dropped to his knee in surprise and defeat. [b][color=1a7b30]"But..."[/color][/b] he was in disbelief he could be murdered so easily. [b][color=1a7b30]"...a hero never dies...!"[/color][/b] Banton clutched dearly to the hope that some miracle would save him from death, a hope that would keep this world's hero alive so that he might defeat the true evil of the world. But as his back hit the floor, he could no longer feel his limbs. A numbness had taking a hold of his senses, and his vision blurred soonafter. What he wanted to move would not. Not even his trusty hand with a power to remove this world many times over would listen to his commands. Not even the pain was spared from this numbness, but that did not Ease Aleph in the least. [color=1a7b30][i]I... don't wanna... die without.... without accomplishing a single... thing...![/i][/color] His body's shutdown was followed slowly by his mind, which made it all the more terrifying. To Aleph, it felt like hours since he had suffered this wound and the realization that he was slowly (to him) dying was frightening. Had his foes felt the same kind of terror he was experiencing? He could not wish this feeling on the worst of evils -- it was too much! [b][color=1a7b30]"..."[/color][/b] [center][b]Aleph Banton --- has died ---[/b][/center] ... ... ... ... ... [b][color=1a7b30][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea_p9fKfEVo]"I'm fine, thank you."[/url][/color] [/b] Shooing the concerned waitress that picked up on his joyless look away, Aleph took a slow bite out of his meal. He could not even recall what he had ordered or what he just put into his mouth, but he simply couldn't care less. His mind was elsewhere as he chewed slowly in a certain tavern. [i][color=1a7b30]....What do I do?[/color] [/i] He was at a complete loss. He had never known a fear like the one he experienced last night. Countless times had he been required to fight for his life, but it had never truly been in danger. His foes were almost always weak. Pathetically so. It had been quite some time since he even needed to plan or worry in a battle, that mage from earlier being the first real fight in so very long. But even then, he did not feel despair like he would later that day. Hopelessness that crushed his very heart and soul without the slightest difficulty. Was he really a hero? Did heroes experience fear like that? Was persevering through such terror required of one? If so, then he was not sure he could be one any longer. Aleph Banton did not own such a strength in his character. It was impossible for him to go through that again, his mind would break into a Trillion pieces. He would cease being anything more than an empty shell of a person were he to experience that another time. In short, he was not a hero. He was just some adventurer with abnormal luck and a delusional personality. He was not fated to fight any demon lord and he was not chosen by any means to do any great in this world. What he was... was a worthless existence. Yes, that was it. He only knew how to fight and was not known for his social skills. There was little more to his being than fighting. How could one pretend to be a worthwhile existence when they had no job? When they had no wife? When they had no friends or allies? When their entire life amounted to very little? Worthless. Pointless. Meaningless. Unnecessary. Aleph only had one trait, but it could be spelled different ways. In the end, he was little more than a child playing a game until he scraped his knee and got too scared to play again. He knew this for such a long time now, and yet...