As the sun slowly and calmly ascended in the sky, its first golden threads began to awaken the world. Small birds bothered people with their beautiful, echoing voices that filled the air, as if celebrating the beginning of a new day.
There was an attempt by the sunlight to penetrate some of the houses built of stone and wood, sending out a gentle warmth and spreading vibrant colors. The wind passed gently and softly between the trees and in the dusty village streets, making the atmosphere in the village beautiful and refreshing. The sight of the sun rising in such a picturesque atmosphere was an absolutely breathtaking natural painting.
This beautiful scene was enough to captivate the heart of anyone who would cast their gaze through the wooden window, or those working in their small fields stretching around that extremely quiet and serene village. Life here was simple and peaceful, proceeding at a steady pace for decades, disturbed only by the recent strange echoes of Theo's training.
There was a boy sleeping on his simple bed made of straw and coarse fabrics. His eyes slowly opened, as if the window light that seeped into the room was his natural alarm clock. One of his simple habits that he acquired over time was to sit on his bed for a short while, perhaps for about five minutes, and keep watching the scene of the sun during its beautiful sunrise, which he never tired of.
This was his special time to meditate and escape for moments from the harshness of training and the complexities of life.
'No matter how many times I see this scene, it will still pull me in with an irresistible force,' Theo thought as he tried to pull his eyes away from the window, pushing himself to get up and start a new day of pain and effort.
Theo got out of bed, put on his usual simple clothes, then left his room heading towards the kitchen as he usually did in the morning. But for the first time in years, he did not find his aunt Celia cooking their delicious breakfast that he was used to. He almost went to his aunt's room to ask her why, because it was completely unusual for her not to cook breakfast or be in the kitchen at this early hour.
But for a moment he froze in the middle of the small hallway. The memory of last night came back to him, Celia's talk about her departure to search for information.
A desperate smile mixed with a slight sadness appeared on his lips for a moment, then he looked at his mother Elena's closed room door.
'It seems my mother will also take some time to get used to Aunt Celia's absence from the house,' Theo thought, a little sadness appearing on his face, before he quickly hid it behind the mask of indifference he used to wear.
But he quickly caught a slight movement behind his mother's room door with his senses, the sound of irregular breathing or a simple movement inside the room.
'Or maybe not, maybe she's already awake,' he thought for a moment before he heard his mother's voice calling him from the adjacent room.
"Oh Theo, good morning, my dear," Elena greeted him with a warm smile although she was still rubbing her eyes with her hand. It was clear she hadn't been awake for long.
"Sorry Theo, but I'm not used to Celia's absence in the morning yet. I tried to wake up before you and prepare breakfast, but I was a little late." Elena said as she rushed towards the kitchen to prepare their breakfast.
'Or maybe I'm the one who hasn't gotten used to waking up and not finding her.'
Theo thought, and felt another pang of sadness in his heart. Then he said, trying to ease her burden.
"No, Mom, you don't need to apologize at all. I was actually trying to prepare breakfast myself now."
It was a small, simple lie, and he knew it was a lie, but he didn't want his mother to know the truth or feel guilty, because he knew what would come from her in terms of apologies and feelings of inadequacy.
Theo sat for a while on the wooden chair in the kitchen, waiting for breakfast. He watched his mother moving in the kitchen, simple, calm, warm. Their lives were calm and simple thanks to Celia and her protection.
'Would my life have been like this, relatively calm and simple, if it weren't for Aunt Celia's presence, her strength, and her wisdom that protected us for years?'
Theo thought with a little sadness, remembering how Celia's presence provided them with security, and how she was always the rock they leaned on. But no sign of this sadness or deep thinking appeared on his face at all, as he was with his mother whom he didn't want to worry.
Theo finished his breakfast with his mother, then got up ready to start his usual day of training. He said goodbye to his mother and headed towards his usual training ground, but this time his only companion was Rayn.
Theo had unconsciously sealed his magic inside him whenever he approached Rayn or trained with him in physical combat, so as not to use it in fighting him and unintentionally harm him, and so as not to show his full power to Rayn, who did not understand the nature of his power or its true danger.
And while he was fighting Rayn with his wooden sword in the training ground, he was also talking to him.
"Hey Theo. Don't you know where Coach Kyle is today? I haven't seen him in a few days. Did he finally go to pick up the love of his life or something?" In every training session, Rayn would ask similar questions about Kyle, reflecting his simple view of the world and his relatively superficial thinking compared to the complex matters Theo faced.
'Why did you leave me with him, Coach Kyle,' Theo thought to himself, correcting the momentary thinking error that made him attribute the idea to Kyle.
He lamented his bad luck for Kyle's sudden absence, and felt that his training with Rayn, despite their friendship, could never compare to the harshness and effectiveness of Kyle's brutal training. He knew that Rayn, despite his increasing strength, could not push him to his limits as Kyle did. Theo replied calmly.
"No, I don't know where the coach went, Rayn."
At that moment, as if Theo was taking revenge on Rayn for his repeated questions about Kyle or perhaps because Theo felt frustrated by the lack of challenge in training with him, Theo made a very fast and unexpected side swing with his wooden sword.
Rayn barely avoided it with a delayed reaction, and was pushed two meters back due to the force of the blow although it did not hit him directly.
Then Theo disappeared from in front of him in an instant, using his speed and agility that Kyle had honed to their maximum, and appeared behind him without Rayn feeling him at all.
He punched Rayn in the back of the head with a calculated force to only knock him unconscious, not to seriously harm him.
Suddenly, and before Rayn completely fell unconscious, and unexpectedly by Theo, Rayn grabbed Theo's treacherous hand, saying in a low and surprised voice, "Not this time, Theo." But as soon as he finished speaking and raised his head to look at Theo, he found another person's foot already stamped on his face with unexpected force.
Rayn completely fell unconscious this time, unable to resist the second blow he didn't expect at all.
Theo looked at Rayn lying on the ground unconscious, Theo felt his mood improve slightly after that blow.
Theo carried Rayn as usual; he had grown accustomed to this scenario by now. He headed towards his house, leaving him at the door. He knocked on the door and quickly disappeared before anyone could see him or ask him about Rayn.
Theo had always done this whenever Rayn bothered him with his repeated questions or tried to ease the pace of training with his excessive talking. Rayn's family had gotten used to this already, and it became part of their strange routine.
Unlike the first time it happened, where they were scared and worried about what happened to Rayn, until the matter was repeated several times and Rayn finally explained the matter to them after reaching the conclusion that Theo was the one doing this to him at the end of every arduous training session.
Theo had always been much stronger than Rayn in almost everything, physically, magically, and mentally. Rayn had suspected this for a long time, but whenever he remembered their quick fight with the goblin recently, and how Theo skillfully dodged and accurately and powerfully attacked, he would scatter those thoughts away, convincing himself that it was just luck or that Theo possessed hidden skills.
Theo was very careful not to show his full potential and true strength to anyone other than Kyle and Celia, as they were his teachers and the only ones who knew everything about him and the nature of his truly exceptional powers. Showing his full strength might increase the villagers' fear and his mystery to them.
But unlike Celia who announced her departure and the reasons for her research, Kyle had suddenly and mysteriously disappeared without saying anything or even bidding him farewell. Theo had secretly checked the entire village and its surroundings searching for any trace of Kyle, using his sharp senses and his ability to track, but it was impossible for Theo to find a single trace indicating his location or destination. He felt deeply frustrated and soon lost hope of finding him or knowing the reason for his disappearance.
He continued his usual routine, physical training with Rayn, hunting in the middle of the day to get food and apply tracking and evasive skills, and at night he trained in magic alone.
He barely slept for three hours at night, a very small amount compared to most humans. But this small amount was enough for a sorcerer at his level, according to his aunt Celia, the higher a sorcerer advanced in level and rank, the less they needed sleep, food, and physical rest.
And his path in the fighters' track also helped one recover quickly from injuries and exhaustion, as with every rank they increased in this path, their recovery speed and endurance increased along with their combat and physical abilities. He combined the two paths in an exceptional way.
At first, Elena was very worried about him due to his lack of sleep, the intensity of his training, and his constant exhaustion, but she quickly got used to it, as whatever Theo did would not harm him permanently or seriously, she would not care about it and would not harshly reproach him, she trusted his judgment and his ability to take care of himself despite his young age.
Theo, while meditating and preparing to form his second ring in the path of magic, which was something he was waiting for his aunt Celia to return to help with and supervise, had already begun to think about his own theories about the two paths he was training in, instead of just thinking about creating his original magical technique that Celia had talked about.
He had always felt that the intensive physical training with Kyle infused something strange and refreshing into his body that developed his muscles and strength in a quick and different way from any ordinary training.
When he tried training with Rayn physically, he didn't feel that strange and distinctive feeling at all.
That energy was very refreshing and mysterious, and it was what quickly increased his strength in the fighters' path and helped him reach his current rank quickly.
He was sure it wasn't mana, for it differed in its nature and sensation, it was something very close to it in feeling but fundamentally different.
'What is this energy? Is it related to Kyle himself? Or to his training method specifically?'
"That strange feeling I can't get again since the Master disappeared," Theo whispered, not entirely clearly, as he sat alone in his yard thinking deeply.
"What is it that you can't find again, Theo?" Elena suddenly asked, her warm face appearing directly in front of Theo's, trying to tease him a little and remove his frown and his deep thoughts that worried him.
"Wh-what," Elena's plan successfully surprised Theo. He jumped and crawled several steps backward, shocked by what had just happened, he never expected his mother to get so close to him without him feeling her at all.
"Hahahaha," Elena laughed loudly and merrily, her eyes gleaming with small tears from the intensity of laughter and happiness at seeing him in this state.
"I haven't seen you like this, scared and shocked, in years, Theo," Elena said as she hugged Theo tightly in her arms, feeling the warmth of his small body despite the tension.
"Of-course," Theo was still surprised by what happened, and felt fear from being so focused on his thoughts, to the extent that his mother, who had not learned any combat skills and did not even know any movement exercises, had crept up to him like this without him feeling her at all.
'If it were an enemy, I'd be dead now,' he thought with deep concern.
Theo was already going to his room to go to sleep after saying goodbye to his mother, when he heard a low sound from his still-absent aunt Celia's room. It was the sound of something falling or moving inside the quiet room.
He almost ignored it and considered it just imagination or a sound from outside, when he suddenly thought.
'Wait, I've never entered Aunt Celia's room before. No one has ever allowed me to.'
Curiosity suddenly and strongly ignited within him; he tried to ignore those thoughts and go back to his room to sleep, resisting the strange urge that pulled him towards his aunt's room.
He cleared all thoughts from his mind several times. He closed his eyes trying to resist more strongly, focusing on his desire to ignore the sound and sleep. But when he opened them again, he found himself already inside the room, as if his body had moved with a will separate from his mind.
'What happened. How did I get here?'
He looked around the room, which was unbelievably filled with books. Wooden shelves on the walls were completely filled with old and new books, and the rest of the books and manuscripts were placed on the floor in irregular piles, or on her large wooden desk, or even her bed was filled with scattered books and manuscripts. The entire room looked like a sea of paper knowledge.
'To this extent she was looking for solutions for me, for answers to questions related to me and my element?' Theo thought, feeling guilty for making his aunt go through all this effort and take a dangerous journey for his sake.
But at the same moment he felt warmth engulf him again, the warmth of the love and care his aunt showed him, just entering his aunt's room and seeing all these books through which she had tried hard to solve all of Theo's problems and search for the nature of his element, made him feel warmth engulf him again, treating him from his feelings of guilt and frustration.
As if Celia had already expected his entry into the room, and cast a precise spell that welcomed Theo with this warm feeling like a hug to ward off all negative thoughts about himself.
Theo turned his eyes around the book-filled room, searching for the source of the sound he had heard. Until he found a large book that seemed to have fallen to the floor from Celia's desk.
Theo looked at the book lying on the floor and then picked it up with his hand. The book's cover was very old and made of thick leather, looking worn from much use. He then turned the book to look at its name and read the title written 'History of Berserkers'.
'History of Berserkers? What is this? I've never heard this name before in any story or book.'
Theo wondered to himself with great curiosity, Theo opened the first page of the book, and the page was very thin but unexpectedly heavy for him, unlike the book as a whole which was of reasonable weight, as if the page itself was challenging him and preventing him from opening it.
Theo felt almost terrified by this feeling of resistance from a sheet of paper, he was a third-rank fighter and his physical strength was approaching fourth-rank, and he was on the verge of reaching it already if it weren't for Kyle's recent absence which stopped his intensive physical training. The cover was heavy but it was normal for him despite his increasing rank and strength, but the first page itself resisted him with an unjustified force. The matter still surprised him and aroused his concern and astonishment. He gathered his strength and focused his will, then read the first page with difficulty.
It spoke about the history of 'Berserkers', or as it was written in detail on the first page, that they were an ancient and very rare branch of legendary ancient fighters. They were descendants of one of Zeros' students, the first fighter in history, where these Berserkers possessed physical strength and combat abilities twice the strength of ordinary fighters of the same rank as Theo.
The first page described in detail how very strong and brutal they were in combat, and how their strength depended on absolute rage and intense focus in battle.
From what Theo understood from the comparisons mentioned on the page, if an ordinary fifth-rank fighter could not be easily defeated except by a six-ring sorcerer, and even six-ring sorcerers would indeed find some difficulty in facing a skilled fifth-rank fighter, then fourth-rank Berserkers had the ability to kill ordinary sixth-rank sorcerers with relative ease, and not just the powerful ones among them.
That information was like a thunderbolt to Theo, the difference in power was enormous and unexpected.
Theo did not stop reading that page as he was now at its end, and he absorbed the shocking information like a sponge. And due to his extreme shock and intense concentration, his voice had appeared as he read aloud although he did not notice it at first, "But Berserkers were much more dangerous than stated above. For if you did not kill him in several quick and decisive blows and tried to knock him unconscious in greed of searching for the source of those abilities, when they lose consciousness their bodies continue to fight by pure instinct that is developed at the beginning of their harsh path, and their strength increases to three times their strength when conscious. So, if you are a sixth-rank sorcerer and the Berserker in front of you is a fourth-rank, and you have knocked him unconscious, you must flee immediately no matter how old you are, or how strong you are, or even if you are close to the seventh ring, unless you are already a seventh-rank sorcerer. Then you will defeat him."
Theo's heartbeats were now more audible to him than ever before, pounding in his ear like war drums. And his breath was accelerating with time, as if he had been running for long distances. He felt slight dizziness. When he realized that he had completely lost himself in the content of the page and that he had indeed finished that page, he tried to turn the next page to learn more about these terrifying creatures, but he couldn't. His hand did not have enough strength to bear the weight of the next page and turn it, it resisted him with the same strange force that the first page had resisted him with.
Theo gathered his strength again, and tried to push his magic mana into his muscles to increase his physical strength, pushing with all his might. The page began to turn very slowly until Theo finally reached the middle, the page was now standing in the middle of the book, opening with great difficulty. Theo's veins were bulging out on his forehead and hands very severely under the enormous pressure, and his mana was close to complete depletion, and he had started spitting a small amount of blood on the ground from the intensity of the effort he was exerting.
Until Theo noticed what was happening to his body from exhaustion and self-harm, he immediately stopped pushing the page and left the book in its place on the ground before it completely fell from his hand, as it seemed that the book had fallen from his aunt's desk due to its wear and tear or perhaps it was placed on the edge of the desk and fell. He quickly wiped away the traces of his entry, and went to his room quickly before his mother noticed anything strange about him.
He sat on his bed, breathing with great difficulty. He looked through his window at the sky that was slowly turning the color of dawn, then noticed in terror that a full hour had passed while he was in the room, struggling with one page of an ancient book.
He sweated again, not just from physical exertion, but from the horror of this dangerous observation.
He had spent an hour reading one page of a book that seemed to possess a will of its own.
His mana was almost completely depleted, and his muscles were still trembling from the exhaustion and pressure he had exerted.
Theo looked again towards the window, thinking about the Berserkers, their terrifying power, their danger even when unconscious, and the secret of this book that could not be read easily.
Before closing his eyes to rest a little, he thought deeply about everything that had happened, about Kyle's disappearance who might know more about them, about Celia's journey to search for information, and about that mysterious voice that spoke of his future and his sacrifice.
'Berserkers'