So he decided to wander about. Aimlessly, as aimlessly as he felt as of right now, wandering without purpose, without cause.
Months of training in isolation, honing his swordplay, tightening his skills, and all it had amounted to was his current level of doubt. Of concern. The world was filled with strong people, far stronger people than he, but yet he had kept training because he had felt at some point or another he would have made a dent. That he would have been able to make a difference if the ball that was the Earth ever decided to roll closer to a perilous fall off the edge of calamity. Yet, he had watched it on television. He had not lifted a finger as the madness spread and the mayhem escalated.
It hurt him, if that was to matter in this particular situation, it pained him to watch such things from such a far distance, and to not even lift a finger in like wise. But what was he to do? Go be eaten by some monster or detonated by a stray blast meant for a more influential or more powerful being?
What could one man hope to accomplish in this situation?
World ending powers smashing each other and leveling cities as a mere afterthought. What was he to do? Swing his sword at them and hope they didn't just end him before he got a hit in?
He stopped himself near what looked like a tumultuous cliff near his encampment. It overlooked a vast sea of green and an almost endless sea of stars up above him painting what looked like a beautiful tapestry as they lit up the night's sky. He looked across that ocean, thinking of all the things that were going on in the world, and thinking deeply on just what he should do.
Fighting was an option, after all he had trained for years to fight, but just what would fighting get him? Who could he protect with the meager amount of power circulating through him? He had read reports, studied dossiers, and watched tape. The truth of what would happen if he got involved, if he lifted his sword, and fought was all he had inside of him: his heart, his soul, and his body was that he would simply endanger everyone he was trying to protect.
He slammed his fist into the nearby rock formation, shattering it into bits of debris, and sighed as the sound of the rubble hitting the water broke the silence of the night around him.
Powerless.
That is how he felt at that very moment. A war was going on, people were dying, and god like powers were playing an intricate game of chess on a global scale and he felt sick to the stomach at his own powerlessness. Meanwhile, the body count rose. Not just the body count of the soldiers fighting on the front lines, heroes who would be remembered for fighting the good fight, but the innocent people who would get caught in the cross hairs of the sickening war that was consuming everything like a wild fire.
At one time, Steiner wouldn't have hesitated, and he would have ran in to that fire swords swinging. He would have risked it all just for one life, just for one person to walk out, and be just fine, but now? Now doubt was hitting him, the feeling of worthlessness overpowering the very core of his identity, and causing him to second guess what he should do or how he should go about doing it.
"
Damn...why am I hesitating? People are dying...get your shit together Stein!"
He spoke to no one, but himself through gritted teeth as he balled his fists up, and continued to look out over the sea of stars before him. In the distance he could swear he could see the fires of burning cities, and perhaps if he listened enough he could perhaps hear the wails of people making their last push until their candle was put out. Life being snuffed out. A shiver ran up his spine, but not of fear, it was of anger.
He took a deep breath and then swallowed it all.
All of his despair, all of his fear, and all of his dread were swallowed in almost a millisecond. The sound of silence became thick as Steiner closed his eyes and focused on the sound of the breeze, the sound of waves breaking against the shore, and the beating of his own heart.
All of this could be gone.
The beauties and splendors of the natural world erased, his life snuffed out, and the whole of humanity would just be gone. That is, if all hands weren't on deck. If everyone wasn't willing to chip in, if all of the people who walked this Earth, and were looking to defend the Earth and its people didn't do something....then everything would be gone. Mana would win, humans would die, and chaos would rule.
Could he really just stay on an island and contemplate his own weakness while all of this shit was going on?
He was weak, he was an ant compared to the elephants in the room, but even an ant could help. Even an ant could lift a piece of dirt to help build something wondrous. So what if he got cut down? If he got cut down then maybe someone would get away? Maybe someone would live because he was willing to do the deed. To put his life on the line. To do what heroes did.
"
No more doubts...lets get to fucking work."
Steiner walked away from the cliff and with it, abandoned his doubts, and his fears. For in a heroes line of work, those things had just had no place.
Coding Altered From: [THEFROST]'s