Some time later.
Elias still could not fully believe what had happened.
He had resisted Aethron.
The chain he had felt throughout his entire existence had loosened. It had not vanished completely, but its grip weakened enough for him to feel something he had never truly known before.
Freedom.
He did not take it lightly.
He immediately withdrew from places where he could harm the innocent. He moved through the shadows of the underworld, through canals, caves, abandoned spaces of the world. Places where his presence would trouble no one.
He knew that if he wished to carry out good on his own terms, he had to learn to control the power he carried within himself. The problem was both simple and terrifying — he had never known how it truly worked. It had always been automatic. Natural. He had never even considered that one day he might be free.
Now he had no choice.
---
**Narrator:**
And so Elias knew exactly what he had to do.
He had to learn to control the power that was his.
To find a place that would temporarily become his home.
And to begin his training.
Time lost its meaning.
---
Elias did not leave his refuge — a deep cave far from civilization — for a very long time. During this period, he tried to understand something that had once functioned on its own. He tested his presence on the surrounding environment. He observed how quickly plants, grass, and insects withered. How life around him faded away.
He could not see the boundaries of this death. He could only feel it — like pressure spreading outward until it could go no further.
Gradually, he learned to reduce his reach. Enough that standing beside another being no longer meant death. What he did not realize was that every suppression carried a cost.
When he finally decided to return among people, he believed he was ready.
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---
Through shadows, he returned to the world he once knew. He appeared on the edge of a city. Thousands of people filled the streets. Life. Movement.
And then the question arose.
*Will I still see the marked?*
The will he had felt for so long was weak now. Aethron’s command still existed within him — but it no longer ruled. Yet the familiar sensation returned. A pull. A calling.
Elias understood immediately.
Aethron was still there.
But no longer in control.
This time, Elias chose for himself.
He did not pursue random targets. He sought out mobsters, murderers, people responsible for the deaths of many. True monsters. It did not take long before he found a criminal family. He approached through the shadows — and without a single word, released the power he had been holding back.
They fell within moments.
It was then that he gave his ability a name for the first time.
**Aura of Death.**
After their deaths, he drew the power back into himself. The hunt continued.
But the original purpose — to punish evil — began to change. Killing became hunger. A desire for more.
He did not realize that he himself was becoming something else.
---
Some time later.
Elias indulged in his freedom. He moved across the world, leaving hundreds of dead behind — always carefully chosen. Always releasing only as much of his aura as necessary to spare the innocent.
He gained a new ability: he could sense evil within people. And the greater the darkness, the stronger its pull.
But he forgot one thing.
His power was growing.
The worse the person, the greater the surge of strength. Each time he suppressed his power, his limits slowly shrank. Every restraint carried consequences.
When he sensed immense evil kilometers away, he did not hesitate. He found him — a globally wanted serial killer, moments away from claiming another victim.
This time, he did not release his aura.
He intervened physically.
He grabbed him.
What followed frightened even Elias. The man’s body began to disintegrate. Skin, flesh, bone — total decomposition in public. People screamed and fled. The darkness within the man erupted, and with it Elias’s power.
The Aura of Death broke free.
Its reach expanded in an instant — and although Elias pulled it back immediately, the damage was done. A wave of sickness and death spread through the city. The area was sealed off. Quarantined.
Standing among the shadows, Elias felt fear for the first time.
*How? When?*
Only then did he realize that he had no idea what he was becoming.
---
Meanwhile, Aethron observed.
And for the first time, he felt something gods rarely feel.
Concern.
And with it, a thought.
If Elias could grow…
perhaps the other messengers could as well.
And so he issued a command that should never have been given.
At the same time, he began preparing a plan — one meant to resolve everything.
---
**Narrator:**
And so Elias tasted freedom.
Then hunger.
And finally, fear.
While Elias trains and searches for the limits of his own existence, Aethron begins to act.
What command did Aethron give?
And what is Elias willing to sacrifice in his desire to make the world better?
The story continues.
