70~ Legacy of Betrayal

Twenty years ago...

Two men stood facing each other inside the castle. The first was surrounded by a brilliant yellow aura, while dark red energy radiated from the second.

The man enveloped in red energy glared furiously at his opponent before speaking.

"I can't believe it, Clay... You've thrown away everything we swore to each other and decided to rebel against me!"

Clay answered sharply,

"You're the reason for this, Gabriel! Your desire to achieve our goal has driven you to become greedy for power, to the point where you're willing to obtain it by any means necessary. Can't you see what you've become?"

Gabriel replied without hesitation,

"It doesn't matter how we obtain power, Clay. What matters is achieving the goal we've shared all these years!"

Clay clenched his fists and spoke with deep disappointment.

"What is happening, Gabriel? What's happening to us... What's happening to you?! Power has blinded you so completely that you can no longer see anything else. You're no longer the person I once knew."

He then added coldly,

"Would you refuse to obtain power when you have the chance to acquire it so easily?"

Clay met his gaze with the same cold expression.

"And would you forget yourself and your principles just to obtain it?"

Silence fell between them for a few moments.

Then Clay continued in a quieter voice, sorrow evident on his face.

"I won't deny that we shared the same dream. We fought against despair and continued down our path despite the cursed power we had acquired. We did so much together..."

Gabriel interrupted him sharply.

"But you threw it all away and decided to betray me!"

Clay raised his head as his Bloody Eyes began to glow.

"As your friend and partner... I'll stop you here, even if I have to kill you!"

Gabriel's eyes glowed as well, and he replied coldly,

"You know the consequences of betrayal, Clay. And you know I won't hesitate to carry them out."

In the next instant, the two men's energies erupted. They charged at each other, their powers colliding in the heart of the castle.

---

An eight-year-old boy watched the battle from nearby.

But the moment their energies collided, an enormous explosion swept through the area. A man rushed toward the boy, lifted him onto his back, and fled far from the battlefield.

As he carried the boy away from the castle, the child asked anxiously,

"Why are Grandpa and Uncle Clay fighting?"

The man answered angrily,

"Isaac... Your grandfather is fighting that traitor! Clay has rebelled against us, and now he wants to kill your grandfather!"

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Isaac hesitated before speaking.

"But... aren't they friends?"

The answer came firmly.

"Not anymore."

Isaac looked back, trying to catch sight of the two men they had left behind.

"I can't believe this... Clay always trained me and looked after me."

The man didn't answer. He simply continued running away from the castle.

Suddenly, an enormous explosion thundered behind them. The fighters' energies surged into the sky, tearing through the clouds as they rose.

The man stopped in shock and stared upward.

Impossible... That technique!

Isaac was still on his back when he asked anxiously,

"What happened? Is Grandpa all right?"

The man regained his composure and answered, trying to reassure him,

"Don't worry, Isaac. Your grandfather is strong. He'll win."

---

Night fell after four full hours of fighting.

Clay and Gabriel stood facing each other for the final time, both gasping from exhaustion. Clay could no longer remain standing. He dropped to one knee, while Gabriel stayed upright before him.

Gabriel spoke.

"You won't be able to defeat me, Clay. You've always failed to do so."

Clay laughed weakly before replying,

"I can't believe it... Even after using it, I still couldn't defeat you."

Gabriel studied his opponent for a few moments before answering,

"You really pushed me to my limits. But tell me, what have you gained from all this? Now, all either of us can do is wait for death."

A peaceful smile appeared on Clay's face.

"I've made my decision, Gabriel. I'll put an end to this farce and leave the rest to the next generation."

Gabriel's expression shifted slightly.

Clay continued,

"You'd better start looking for someone to inherit your will."

Gabriel stared at him in confusion.

"You're saying that when you know I'm about to kill you? And what do you mean by an heir to my will?"

Gabriel turned away and looked toward the distant horizon.

"I'll continue training my grandson until the very end, Clay."

Clay began laughing softly. His laughter gradually grew louder until he finally stopped.

He raised his head and glared at Gabriel.

"Have you still not understood that he's not the right person?!"

Then he shouted,

"He'll become exactly like you, you fool! And someone like me will come to stand against him. That's exactly what will happen!"

Gabriel's anger flared, and he lunged at Clay to finish him off.

But Clay made no attempt to resist. He simply offered a sorrowful smile and whispered,

"Goodbye, my friend..."

In the next instant, a golden light engulfed the entire area, and Clay disappeared before Gabriel's eyes.

Gabriel stopped and raised his head toward the sky.

I'll find you sooner or later, Clay...

---

Clay had already married, and his fears about the path he and Gabriel had taken continued to grow. He had come to realize that their actions had crossed the boundaries they had once set for themselves, and their pursuit of power was drifting further away from the goal that had originally set them on this journey.

He decided to turn back and correct whatever he could, but Gabriel paid no attention to his warnings. He remained determined to acquire even more power.

When Clay realized that he wouldn't be able to stop him, he decided to withdraw and disappear from public view, choosing to live an ordinary life far removed from their conflict.

---

One year later...

At the hospital, Clay's wife had given birth to a baby boy. It had gone smoothly.

Clay arrived at the room and found his wife holding their child.

She looked at him and asked,

"What do you think? Would you like to choose his name?"

Clay starred at the baby for a few seconds, then recalled his memories of Isaac, the young boy he had once trained and cared for.

He smiled and said,

"Elyes."

He then approached his son and examined him carefully.

He noticed a faint light glowing within the baby's blood and smiled once more.

So... you'll inherit my power.

And so Elyes was born, inheriting the light element from his father, Clay.

---

Meanwhile, Gabriel continued training Isaac, instilling in him the belief that Clay had betrayed them and was no longer the person they had once known.

As time passed, that belief became deeply rooted in Isaac's mind, until he came to regard Clay as a traitor who deserved to die.

Isaac continued his training before eventually setting out to seek fighters from all over the world, eager to challenge them and increase his strength.

Years passed until Gabriel met Vale and began helping and training him.

Over time, Gabriel came to see Vale as the right person to inherit his will and carry on his goal.

Before his death, he left Vale his final words:

"Bring balance to this despairing world..."

Gabriel didn't die in battle. Instead, he succumbed to an illness caused by his use of a forbidden technique involving elemental energy. There was no cure for it.

His death deeply affected Vale. After losing his mentor, Vale began investigating the knowledge Gabriel had left behind, traveling across the world in search of anything that could help him complete his teacher's goal.

At the end of his journey, he reached a conclusion that changed his view of the entire universe.

He came to believe that spirits were responsible for all the destruction that had befallen the universe, and that humans could never defeat them, no matter how powerful they became.

In his view, there was only one solution: strip every person on Earth who possessed energy of their power, so that the spirits would no longer consider humanity important and would stop coming to them.

And so Vale began searching for people who shared his goal.

Along the way, he encountered Isaac and Kyle. He defeated them both, then offered them the chance to join him.

---

Years later, Isaac decided to take revenge on the man he believed had betrayed them all: Clay.

One of the Bloody Eyes members, a man named Luke, was suitable for the task. Isaac ordered him to find and kill Clay.

Luke hesitated and asked,

"Isn't he the man who trained you? Do you really think I can kill him?"

Isaac answered confidently,

"Don't worry. He used the same technique my grandfather did. You'll find him extremely weak."

Taking advantage of Clay's illness, Isaac sent Luke on the mission to track him down.

Luke spent a long time traveling from place to place until he finally found Clay in the middle of a random night.

Clay was sitting in a restaurant, enjoying with his family and the family of one of his friends.

Luke didn't hesitate to carry out his mission. He killed Clay.

But what he hadn't expected was to face resistance from the son of the man he had come to kill.

Elyes underwent Golden Transformation for the first time in his life.

The transformation granted Elyes an immense surge of energy upon its initial activation, allowing him to defeat Luke with ease.

That moment bound Elyes's life to a conflict that had begun many years before he was born.

---

In the present...

Isaac stood before Elyes, watching the orange energy enveloping his body with an excited smile on his face.

"The reversed transformation, isn't it?"

The orange energy gradually faded from Elyes's body, revealing his orange hair and eyes.

He had merged his orange power Pulse with his Elemental Transformation to face the man responsible for his father's death.

Elyes planted his feet firmly and fixed his gaze on Isaac.

Only his opponent stood before him now, the man he had waited so long to take revenge on.

And so began a confrontation rooted in a past Elyes had never been part of, yet one that had now become his personal battle.