Protagonist? Antagonist? I Reject Both

Steve listened to the news carefully and with utmost attention as there was a huge chance of him being posted at Shadow Realm as a test subject to die.

The news anchor started explaining the ins and outs of Shadow Zones.

Shadow Zone refers to a Dimensional zone that pops out of nowhere and humans have no prior information about it.

Moreover, Shadow Zones were often unstable with the risks of occasional collapse and the passage getting closed. Despite that one couldn't neglect it as there were chances of creatures in that zone coming out and creating chaos if left alone.

Once conquered, humans will gain an additional place to do their bidding and farm resources.

Sighing heavily, he opened the box only to find a transparent crystal in it.

"A crystal...Who sent it?"

"Is it something priceless?"Steve scratches his head with a faint excitement and keeping it aside, he takes out his smartphone and starts searching it on the internet but even after a few minutes of intensive search he still hasn't found anything.

His mood turned sour as his hopes of obtaining a priceless crystal were crushed into pieces.

"Do I have no choice but to take it to an appraiser to find its value? But can I keep it safe if it turns out to be a priceless jewel? I would be killed if someone had eyes on it."

Feeling hopeless, he put down the crystal and was about to place it back in the box when he saw a piece of parchment in the black box.

Steven took out the parchment and saw a few words on it.

[Put a drop of blood on it.]

"Huh! Blood..."

Steve sucked in cold air wondering what kind of shit was this. Nevertheless, he did what was instructed in the parchment to satisfy his curiosity.

He stabbed his finger with a pin and a drop of blood trickling down, fell on the crystal.

The crystal started shining brightly and shaking uncontrollably. A faint hum emerged from it and the crustal turned blood red absent and shot into his body.

At the same time, Steve's vision slowly started to fade, and his body slowly felt weak.

An old familiar voice started ringing in his mind whispering in a soft warm voice, one that he was very familiar with.

[Steve, I apologize if my choice had brought big trouble upon you and the whole family. I know you and everyone would resent and they should certainly do that because what I did was wrong…..]

[But I had no choice..]

[All I did was for you and left this voice in case my plans were found out and I died.]

[I wasn't able to see your saddened face for not being able to cultivate and others thinking you as trash. I couldn't bear the look people gave you, treating you like a bug. I wasn't able to bear it and I was worried about the future. That is why I tried to look for a solution. Something that can make you stronger without the limitation of Superhuman serum and it's a side-effect.]

[That's why I did this in exchange for the power that can help you to get stronger without limitations. Your path may be laden with peril and you might hate me for the rest of your life but believe what I did was because of sincere consideration of your well-being.]

[Something that might allow you to live in this cruel world.]

Following that voice an agonizing brutal pain assaulted him. His body curled and wriggled like a worm. Every fiber of his muscle started tearing off and morphing due to the offset of pain.

His vision started to fade and with that, his eyes turned red and then it pulled shut but before he passed out, a seductive yet mischievous voice echoed in his ears.

[Congratulations! You are now one of our kind.]

[You have become one of us. A vampire of a superior race and tribe having the power of the Royal Family.]

[Welcome the feeling of superiority.]

..........

Back in Chalice City…

A gentle exhale emerged as Leon stretched his body and cracked his neck.

After the Vampire hunt, Leon decided to take a vacation from all the hunts. But he wasn't resting in the meantime.

Leon has already accumulated close to a billion dollars. Half of it came from Serum as Argent paid 200 million dollars more for doing work well.

With this amount, he directly bought a small house with a big garden that he used for training according to the manual.

The sword given by the old man was good but it was useless for him. He managed to fight his intrusive thoughts of selling it and then offending the old man.

As per sword instructions, it was immensely helpful to him.

The martial arts Leon learned were of mixed type incorporating everything he knew.

In his previous life, he began with Taekwondo and Karate. Thinking that he has become some hot shot after a month of training, he went back to take revenge on the bullies of the alleyway only to get beaten shit out of him.

Then he pulled the senior card who was a black belt and quite powerful along with other sidekicks alas….

His 20-year seniors, who ranked well in the district championship were fucked by a few 15-year-old kids wielding a wrench.

Along with them, Leon was beaten like a dog.

It was only then that he got a reality check. Systematically show off martial arts, rules, and regulations, nothing works on the street.

So what if you are a black belt or a world expert, can you beat that fucker who will be spewing bullets on you or 20 armed men throwing weapons from all around.

Moreover, he had been kicked in his balls so many times that he started to doubt if his balls were alive or if his bloodline had already ended with him.

Leon still remembered that day, when he was lying in the street where an old man sat and spoke with a smile.

[Kids it's not just about practice and hard work. It's all about experience and patience. A wall that hadn't been tested by tides of time can never be dependable.]

[Bruce Lee said, fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 types of kicks, but fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. But what if a person had practiced every move 10,000 times or more as you know life is too long to practice each move even millions of times. Moreover, he hadn't just practiced in his home but rather in the actual fight.]

And next day, Leon went back to get beaten again by practicing martial arts until he stormed off the alleyways terrorizing everyone.

Leon chuckled remembering that he had thrusted his sword 9003 times.

"Those were some time," Leon shook his head with laughter.

Unlike his previous life where each fight was a risk to his life, he hardly faced any risk now except the Vampire woman who gave him a hell of a run.

If she was just a bit serious in the beginning he wouldn't know when his head would be cut away.

"I hate it….I hate that feeling of powerlessness."

SWISH!

Faint blurred lines scratched the air as Leon drew his sword.

Darkness started to erupt from within him.

Until now, he still didn't get the hang of this power and the power of darkness seems to react only within extreme situations.

So, he tried to imagine that woman who gave a feeling of despair and stood like a huge solid wall. Though he tried to kill her, there was something inside him that kept whispering that you couldn't kill her and he knew that the last strike where he was going to cut her into pieces was just useless, and in the end, he just had to wait for a helper to arrive and save him.

And this irks him.

"Despair….It's been long since I had felt that."

Gritting his teeth, Leon swung harder.

"So, let's just get strong until there is no one who can give me despair."

"I don't want to be invincible. I just don't want to lose to such people so let's give it all."

SWISH!SWISH!SWISH!

Sword marks started cutting through the air.

However, his frustration grew as he wasn't able to replicate the exact move he used to silt Terpas. It was a turning point that killed Terpas but no matter how much he tried he wasn't able to use that power of darkness when he tried to cut Seraphina.

"Why…Why isn't this happening again?"

"What am I lacking?"

"Understanding....Enlightenment…No, what is it."

Leon's sword began to shroud in darkness, mirroring the depth of his despair and the intensity of his losses.

"Hmmm!"Leon hummed.

"Feelings…I seemed to lack the intensity of feelings…"

With each swing, the blade carved through the air, unleashing a tempestuous hurricane that tore through the surroundings, leaving chaos and devastation in its wake.

After each arc of the sword, a trail of destruction was left in its wake, marking the path of Leon's anguish.

"NOW!"

With a final, powerful swing, the sword shot into the sky, leaving behind a burst of dark energy that dented the very fabric of reality, casting ominous shadows across the landscape.

For a moment, the light around the area morphed and was consumed by darkness as the dark sword arc ascended up into the sky casting an eerie ominous hue, and disappeared into the sky.

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