I remember…
Back in 1st-year middle school…
They drove me to a corner… threw me to the ground, surrounding me… beaten, spitted at, humiliated…
I could only lie there… on the ground… afraid, getting laughed at… helpless…
Until he came.
“Oh, my bad! My fists were itching to punch something!”
“Just like you said, this guy was hiding down the stairs.”
“Y- yes…”
I felt relieved… someone who I’ve made friends with stopped the beatings I received from those guys. Back then, I thought there is someone else who is willing to save me other than Mika, someone I could call a ‘friend’.
“W- Why are you here, Des-“
WHACK!
I felt pain, the relief I had when I saw him suddenly vanished right then and there… He whacked my head with a stick, enough to make my head ring. He crouched and looked at me with his deadpan stare, I could only see hatred fueling in his eyes.
“You know… it was really fun hanging out this past week, talking together, going to the cafeteria together… but you don’t seem to remember who I am, huh?”
Shock, confusion, fear was running through my head as he said that, utterly speechless as I recollect no memory of him whatsoever.
“And yet, you think we could be friends?!”
“… Wha… what do you mean..?”
“Tch, don’t worry, ‘dude’. I’ll beat you over and over again until you remember. Hold him.”
“I- I don’t have a father… I don’t under-“
“SHUT UP!”
And then I learned.
“…”
The person who I thought was a friend,
“You bastard… now, get ready, it’s time for you to receive your punishment, so,"
betrayed me
...
That’s where you’re wrong, Dian
“!!!”
I opened my eyes, finding myself floating in an endless dark space where there’s seemingly nothingness over the horizon. I felt cold, feeling coldness beyond anything that I’ve ever experienced in my life, as if my body is frozen, only realizing that my whole body is chained up.
This is… what..? why… am I here..? what… happened..?
“Welcome back, Dian.”
That voice…
I looked over to the familiar-sounding voice near me, and I saw… me, sitting on a wooden chair with a grin on its face facing me, looking at me with a humorous expression on its face.
M… me..? who are you..?
“Oh, Dian, I’m so disappointed… did you truly forgot who I am?” It said with a look of disappointment in its face.
I tried remembering, remembering who had a voice like as deep and raspy as it. The sheer pain I felt just trying to remember what happened before this and where I am was astonishing, but out of all the memories I try and recollect, I only remember its name.
This deep voice... Kh’Thazal … is it you..?
“Hehehe… turns out, you do remember me…” It said with a pleased look on its face.
I don’t understand… why do I only remember your name..? what… is happening..?
“…” It went silent for a while, then it stood from its wooden chair and began approaching me and then its face close in on mine with its deadpan eyes looking at mine. Its appearance started to morph slowly to a face that I felt familiar with.
“You got too close to Isabella.”
…!
My head started to ring and my previous memories came rushing back onto me, I felt all the pain, I remember the betrayal, their expression when they torture me, grinning sadistically as they mercilessly massacre my legs.
“Coming to this town with her… laughing, smiling, crying, looking at you filled with happiness on her face… VERY UNACCEPTABLE, DON’T YOU THINK?”
Liam… you…
Anger and disbelief started to swell inside me, the thought of his smug face feeds the wrath within me.
“I can’t wait until everybody knows your death… the brokenhearted and hurt Isabella will be vulnerable to emotional support…”
You… killed me…
“I can get close to her, held her with my arms, and ensures that everything will be okay, and then she’ll surely seek me for comfort.”
You… betrayed me…
It morphed it’s face to another man that I remember was in Liam’s group.
“I can’t believe it’s that easy luring this idiot here, good acting, young master Liam! Hahahaha!”
You… lied to me…
It morphed itself into Liam again, looking down on me with a smirk on its face.
“Thank you, Dian.”
Shut up…
“Because of your stupidity, I can finally get close to my goddess.”
Shut… UP..!
“Goodbye, and have a nice sleep… for eternity. I hope your corpse will be fine dining for the Dragon below! Hehehe… hahahaha!”
SHUT UP!
I directed all of my anger towards it and tried punching it with all of my strength despite the chains that are holding me back.
CLACK!
CHINK!
Before I could strike it with my full-blown punch, the chains covering my whole body came loose and its sharp and pointy edge stabbed Liam’s stomach and penetrates his armor. The pressure and speed of the chains were enough to lift Liam into the air and started ripping him in two. Guts and blood pour from above as Liam’s body fell in front of me.
*pant*… *pant*…
The chains then retracted into my heart where it seemingly was coming out from, I noticed the area near my heart was glowing in a dark-purple aura. My left arm started itching and when I inspect it, my left arm slowly turned into a dark-purple color from my left shoulder to my left hand’s fingertips.
What’s… this..?
“Hahahaha! Excellent… marvelous… you remember what happened now, right?”
The scattered viscera and the body of Liam started to restructure and then stood up, taking the appearance of a blank and flat face with no facial and body features.
Didn’t… didn’t I die..? I was… thrown into a bottomless pit of darkness…
“You did… your whole body splattered when you hit the bottom of the pit. You did die.”
He betrayed me… it happened again…
“Humans are deceitful creatures, my friend. Each one of them wears a mask with a villainous side behind it, an alter ego they won’t expose until you are at their mercy.”
Your name was Kh’Thazal, right..? exactly what are you…
“Indeed… our talk was interrupted back then, didn’t it? Let me introduce myself again. My name is Kh’Thazal, a Deity forgotten by all of Gaia’s inhabitants, a God betrayed by all of the other Gods and Goddesses of this world and locked up in eternal darkness, destined to not see the light of day ever again. I am the God of the Void.”
God of Void… I don’t understand… why is a God appear in my dreams… in this negative space, I created and vow to never visit again…
“Hahaha… you can thank the people from this world for that, Dian.”
The people from this world? What do you mean?!
“I felt a surge of magic from somewhere in Gaia… Magic enormous enough to open an interdimensional portal. I, who has been locked up by the other deities for centuries, felt something… I felt sadness… despair… hatred… a heavily tortured soul beyond the portal the humans of this world created… with all of my remaining fraction of power, I traversed the portal… and I found you, Dian…”
An interdimensional portal..? is that what caused us to transport into this world?!
“Yes… it has been centuries since an interdimensional portal last opened…”
No way…
I looked at my left arm and the skin of my left arm now rot and turned to a dark purple color.
If I’m dead… then what’s happening to me..? why is my left arm… like this…
“It’s the gift that I gave you… 『Resurrection』, a ‘skill’ that grants you the ability to come back from the dead with a portion of your body parts as the small price to pay.”
Coming back from the dead..?
“Your journey hasn’t ended yet. You serve a greater purpose in this world… and you certainly have an ‘unfinished business’ with that adventurer.”
Unfinished business…
“Revenge, eye for an eye… isn’t that what you truly desire?”
I… don’t…
Kh’Thazal then closes in on me.
“He betrayed you, he tortured you with his goonies, how many suffering do you have to go through to make you realize?”
…
“I know all about you, Dian. I know all the pain and hardship you went through back in your world… you always gave up whenever they caught up to you and beat you, you stay still and protect yourself, but deep down you wanted to fight back… you wanted to KILL them, wishing them agonizing deaths!”
That’s… that’s not true… I- I'm not a killer...
“Hahaha… I wonder about that… I’ll let you decide on that adventurer’s fate. Heed my words. Nothing will change if you don’t fight back. Now, it’s time for your Resurrection, Dian,”
RISE!
