Somewhere around the world, specifically, on the skies. An enormous and terrifying dark cloud was moving towards the direction of the Grigmor kingdom. It was a storm releasing endless numbers of and loud thunders. It was bringing heavy rains and strong winds around the area of the land.

But within the storm, there was a ship, the ship of Kairos.

The ship stood still as it was being pushed by the winds and it got wet and slippery due to the heavy rain.

But when the ship was in the middle of the storm, the occurrence of bolts of lightning and thunders was increasing rapidly and the sizes of the lightning were as huge was ship and the thunders were deafening to the ears as it was very loud that it gave the ship tremors. The winds had gotten stronger that pushed the ship in all directions and it was doing a good work balancing itself. The droplets of water were bigger in size than before. It was more dangerous to be in the middle of the storm than anywhere around the storm.

In a bad, terrifying situation that one could die, a huge lightning strike was going towards the main deck of the ship from the top of the ship. The end tip of the lightning strike was very sharp and its electrical current would reach millions of amperes and even more. And it found its helpless victim.

"..."

Time was slow, too slow, for Kairos.

He was running straight towards the door and should get outside the cabin right now. As the door opened, leaving a loud bang, and the wet winds drove inside the cabin and everyone felt the cold temperature outside. Kairos saw Eve limping towards the stairs to the stern deck. She was in the middle of the main deck and she's outside the ship in the worst place in the storm.

Kairos was feeling the gales from the storm and the droplets of water on his face as his clothes were getting wet.

"..."

The lightning was nearing towards the head of Eve as the light was getting brighter.

It was nigh and so was death.

And Kairos, the only person who saw her and knew the danger of being outside right now, was still in the cabin, not yet even near to the door.

He was breathing heavily. He felt the door was far, too far and unreachable.

His heart was pounding at an incredible rate for he would be the only one who would see the tragic, unacceptable, intolerable death of someone who was very close to him, Eve.

She still had more to live as she was very young.

He was not thinking of anything as he could not imagine someone would die that could still be saved. Let death be upon him rather upon Eve, he felt inside his heart.

He didn't care anything about himself. All he cared about was to hope and save Eve.

He wanted to wake up from this worst nightmare.

His chest tightened as he felt his own heart being squeezed.

He had hope, always with him, that he could save her.

His face was so worried and scared, but at the same time, he was angry.

No, no, no, no, no!!!

He ran and ran with all his might.

When he reached the door, the finger of death from the tip of the lightning strike was perfectly aiming at Eve.

He saw it.

He was screaming everything out from his lungs, but it seemed the world muted itself to sympathize with Kairos to avoid hearing the pain and terror of the screams of Eve.

The silence was heard in the ears of Eve because of the thunders.

Kairos could not hear his own screams.

His eyes were focused on Eve as everything around her was blurry.

Eve's eyes slowly blinked and noticed him.

Slowly, she moved her head at Kairos.

She saw him with anxious eyes and he saw her with innocent eyes.

Eve...

Kairos?

She didn't expect to see him outside with such expression because she didn't know what was happening and what would happen to her next, but their eyes met.

This would be the last moment of seeing each other.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Then a loud boom was heard miles across the lands and skies and the rumbles echoed through the highest mountains. The ship shook up and down from how powerful the lightning strike was. A bright flashing of light was seen outside the cabin as the windows were penetrated through by the radiating strong beams of light from the lightning strike.

"KAIROS!!!", all of his friends shouted together.

They all panicked and rushed out of the cabin to stop him.

Some ran, some crawled and ran, and they didn't care if they would get hurt. They had no idea of why Kairos ran outside the cabin and shouted the word, "Eve"

"..."

"..."

There, Kairos raised his wide-opened right hand up towards the finger of death, the lightning strike, taking all of it from his palm as his right hand was where the source of the bright light was.

He was just in time.

Eve was on the floor as she fell, looking at the raging face of Kairos as his whole body was surrounded by electricity. She couldn't think of anything and it was her first time to see Kairos with that face.

Kairos was furious, very very furious, and his eyes were radiating with wrath.

"Begone..."

He whispered so murderously with intense anger.

He clenched his hand like a snap and a louder boom was heard by the ears of everyone within the ship, then a very powerful shockwave was released around the whole ship.

From afar, the dark cloud could be visible from space, but now, the storm was gone in an instant, leaving a speck of dust, the ship of Kairos.

A single form of action, a clenching of a hand brought clear skies to the land. The spectacular power of the Red Horseman of the Apocalypse.

"..."

Everything was now quiet.

"..."

The whole ship was shined by the lights from space aesthetically and the skies could be seen again.

But when the friends of Kairos were outside, they heard a little girl sobbing. They froze still as what they were witnessing.

But they were confused because they didn't know what was happening and the voice sounded familiar.

Kairos stood still with his position and slowly moved his arm down.

Eve sobbed as it was the only thing she could do because Kairos saved her and she thought he was hurt by her actions. She slowly stood up and hugged the right leg of Kairos. And he felt how cold her body was.

"I-I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry..."

"Forgive me.", she sniffed her running nose.

"I'm sorry, Kairos..."

"I hurt you..."

Kairos smiled genuinely at her and kneeled his other knee down as Eve was still hugging his leg.

Both of them looked at each other. Eve was saddened, her face was covered with tears of guilt that she hurt him and it was her fault, but Kairos' look was happy.

Kairos' smile was pure and he looked like he didn't feel any pain at all. And Eve was sobbing as tears were flowing down continuously and she was breathing heavily.

But Eve was checking the face of Kairos if he was alright and he was, so she hugged him immediately.

"It's fine, Eve. You're safe.", he whispered to calm her down.

"I'm sorry..."

She covered her face on Kairos' shirt. Her sobbing continued, but its volume was lowered down. She tightly held the shirt of Kairos while sniffing her runny nose.

He scooped his left forearm on her butt and lifted her up while his other forearm was at her back with the hand on her head. He gave a gentle pressure to push the forehead of Eve towards his chest because of her wound. He didn't want to panic about her injury to avoid her panicking.

His friends stayed at the door, looking at them. They were confused and asked themselves, "What happened?"

"Is that Eve?"

They were not sure because all they could see was Kairos' back, but the voice was similar to Eve's and it could be someone other than Eve.

Kairos turned around and slowly walked to his friends and trying to give her warmth from his body while hugging because he felt how low her body temperature was.

"You can stop crying now, Eve. I'm not hurt at all. Don't worry, I'm the Red Horseman, remember?"

She didn't answer, but Kairos was trying to tell her that the title he had the "Red Horseman" would mean that he's strong enough to handle such a lightning strike without any pain.

Then he thought, Ah... She's still a little girl after all. Too new and innocent for the outside world.

Kairos thought that it was her first time that she was able to hurt someone, who she loved, from her actions that could actually cause death. Eve had never been out from the kingdom since ever and she had been taught and experienced the good things in life back in Drigmor. And she wanted to go out to achieve her dreams, but she would never expect or know that she could hurt herself from the pain of her loved ones.

She was weak and fragile. This was the first time her heart squeezed as she experienced something bad in her life.

Then Kairos thought of a past when she visited her before. They still looked the same in appearance, except Kairos was wearing a green shirt with a sunflower on the chest and black pants that were folded to his knees with two horizontal white stripes on the right side of his pants.

There, Eve was on her bed with her pajamas as the red blanket covered her lower body only. Beside her was a white teddy bear with black eyes and nose and Kairos was sitting on the edge of the bed. They were having a conversation, but before Eve was talking more about her dreams, she asked.

"So how powerful is the Red Horseman of the Apocalypse?"

"Well, from the title itself, I can create an apocalypse in this world."

"Heh, that's nothing compared to the King of Kings. You see, the King of Kings can... Uhhh... Hmmm... Wait a minute."

She was thinking very hard because she didn't know anything about the King of Kings, what could it do, and what impact it could do to the whole world, so she made up, "The King of Kings can make an apocalypse to your apocalypse in the world of this world!"

Kairos raised his eyebrow, knowing that she didn't know yet about the King of Kings.

And Eve noticed that he figured it out that it was made up so she changed the topic.

"Whatever, what's important is that I will have my own ship just like yours and I will have my friends who will go with me around the whole world, having a lot of fun adventures. And I will be the captain and the leader. You can be the Red Horseman of the Apocalypse, but I will be the only King of Kings!"

"Queen, Eve. How many times do I have to remind you."

"Shut your mouth!"

"Hahaha!"

"Grrrrrrrrr!!!", she was annoyed.

Back to the present, Kairos knew that she would, eventually, experience the world and what the world would give to her life. But he knew that there would be good things and bad things as he traveled and experienced a lot, so he told her, "Eve, be strong, starting now. Because there are more coming and they are much worse than this. The moment you face them, let them face the strongest.

"Uh.", she mumbled in agreement as she tightly gripped his shirt.

Eve slowly stopped crying as she was sniffing a lot with her running nose.

When Kairos was near his friends, they asked him as they were worried, "Are you alright, Kairos and Eve? What happened?"

Kairos answered calmly, "Yep. I saw Eve outside and she was in danger."

"What!? We didn't notice her on board.", the thin man answered.

"Good thing, she's safe.", the tall man continued.

Everyone hummed in agreement.

"She's one sneaky girl... She got a cut on her forehead-"

"WHAT?! She's wounded!? You asshole, you could have said that first! Let me get the medical supplies!", the fat man shouted and ran to the stern cabin.

"Could you also prepare her clothes and she's wet and cold from the rain. She needs rest and warmth.", Kairos continued.

The tall man immediately answered, "I'll take care of that."

"I'll prepare some towels!"

"I'll make a bowl of soup!"

"I'll prepare the bed!"

Everyone wanted to help.

Kairos walked to the stern cabin where the rooms were. His friends rushed to their respective places in the ship in aid for Eve.

For Book, he was unconscious from the wall as he hit his head hard. He laid down with flying birds over his head and slept eventually.

As the ship of Kairos continued to move forward to Grigmor with the clear skies. And now Kairos didn't care if they got spotted.

Things went quiet and peaceful. The ship's shadow covered a part of the land as it was moving, obvious to all who looked, but would risk of being attacked. But if anyone would attack the Red Kingdom, they would encounter the man who held the title the "Red Horseman of the Apocalypse"

Time passed and Eve was wearing light pink pajamas with a design of a strawberry color in the shape of a heart on the area of her heart and white clouds around the clothes. The tall man newly made the clothes. While her original clothes were being dried up, the friends of Kairos and Kairos, himself, were talking with each other.

They were like a family.

They were inside a medium-size wooden room that was old, cozy, and comfortable. There were old wooden cabinets, tables, chairs, and etc..

After that, they were all laughing as they were playing an old maid. There were four players and all of them had played against Eve as she won the most. They were energetic and had a lot of fun together.

It was wholesome.

During those games, there were moments when the thin man, a spectator, looked behind at his friend's cards and directed the cards that Eve needed.

She smiled foolishly and thought, Niiiiiiiiiiccceee!

Some moment was he was caught telling Eve which card and he would act like he didn't help her.

Even she was cheating, all of them had fun as they just laughed at it.

Slowly as time continued, one of his friends started to get out as they were getting tired, until Kairos and Eve were the only ones left.

So they stopped playing.

She was on the bed, still energetic and wide awake and Kairos asked her as he brought the dried backpack, "I almost forgot, here's your backpack, Eve."

"Ah! My backpack!"

She took it immediately from the hands of Kairos and hugged with a smile.

Kairos saw her reaction and thought that whatever items were inside that backpack must be so important for her, so he got curious and asked politely.

"Eve, is there something you're bringing for your adventure?"

"Yep! I only have someone here though, but it's supposed to be empty because I will have everything soon when I'm the King of Kings.", she opened the main zipper and took the item out.

A white knitted teddy bear with black button eyes and a black nose. Its arms and legs were long and sausage-like.

"Only a teddy bear? Does it have a name?"

"Yep, I was told that it was a gift. And it doesn't say his name when I ask it, though. Must be a silent type."

"I see. Any plans with your teddy bear?"

She continued talking about things about her future adventures, "Of course, I have. Soon, we will have our own ship, and be name "Eve Kingdom", and we will have my own flag, and we will have a lot of friends who will accompany us with any adventure. If anything or anyone goes against us, we will beat them all. Together, we will make our dreams come true!"

Kairos was smiling all the time as he was listening to her and he was enjoying it. Eve had told this to him a lot of times and he still wanted to listen.

"Heeeh, I can't wait to see them all."

Eve yawned and got tired, but she continued and shouted while pointing her finger diagonally.

"And I will become the King of Kiiiiiiii...", her eyes slowly closed and fell on her pillow.

She slept comfortably.

Kairos properly covered her with the blanket and stood up while looking at her. He sighed and thought, You can only be a queen, Eve...

Then he remembered Eve saying, from the past, a lot of times, "Shut up!"

She would definitely say that...

He turned the lights off and left the room.

By the morning, the ship shall arrive in the kingdom of Grigmor, waiting for Book's accolade.