I have been plagued by nightmares since I was a child.
The nightmares were always similar. I saw myself standing somewhere, witnessing a tragedy happening, powerless to change anything.
Sometimes, it was someone’s death, sometimes, it was many people’s deaths, and sometimes, it was worse.
In some of the nightmares, I was a child, in others, I was a teen, and in a few ones, I was an adult.
The nightmares were so frequent that eventually I got used to them.
Until the day I learned they were not simple nightmares.
Instead, they were visions of the future.
When I saw how people who died in my nightmares died also in reality, I realized something.
My nightmares were things destined to happen.
And if I did not try to change them, they would eventually occur.
Like the one I was having right now.
I was standing on a piece of land floating in the void.
All around me, I could see thousands of similar floating pieces of land.
Every piece of land was filled with traces of destruction. Some of them seemed calcinated, others had been frozen solid, and others had been cut into pieces.
The buildings that once filled them had been completely destroyed, and the people who inhabited them floated nearby as cold dead bodies.
As I watched this scenery, I realized something.
This is the world.
Or what remains of it.
Tears fell from my eyes, making my vision blurry, and an indescribable pain filled my heart.
I had tried all I could, but I had failed.
I could not save the world.
At that moment, I heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind me.
I recognized the owner of these footsteps without turning around.
“Venna,” I muttered with a weary voice.
She stopped a few meters away and sighed softly.
“I told you, Raven. Nothing can stop the destruction of this world, not even you.”
“… Are you here to kill me?”
She closed her eyes and nodded.
“I am.”
I chuckled softly. At that moment, a sword appeared in my hand.
A two-meter-long great sword, burning with cursed black flames filled with the screams of the people that perished under its blade.
“In the end, it came to this.” My voice was filled with resignation, but at the same time, it burned with hatred, pain, and resentment. “Tell me, Venna, what is left of someone who lost everything he loved?”
She did not reply, but it did not matter, I was not hoping for an answer.
“Just hatred, pain, and the desire for revenge,” I stated.
The black flames soared out, creating a sea of fire that covered everything my eyes could see.
Out of habit, I checked my wrist.
On my watch, I saw today’s date and hour.
Twelfth of the fifth month, year 730.
05:30 am.
“Today, I swear.” My voice, laced with despair, resounded throughout the destroyed world. “I won’t rest until my flames burn everything to ashes.”
Venna moved at that moment, unleashing hundreds of daggers toward my neck.
At the same time, I swung my sword.
And the world was dyed black.
Then–
“Gasp!”
I woke up.
My body was covered with sweat, and my heart was beating quickly, but I paid it no mind.
I just watched besides my bed, where my watch was resting.
Fifteenth of the first month, year 723.
Only seven years until the end of the world.