Prologue: His Past and Their Present.
It was raining.
The smell of rust wafts in the air, and the sound of rain permeated the surrounding area.
Explosions ring in the distance, no more louder than a slight whisper to a young man staring at the sky, Expressionless.
The feeling of the wet rain slipping down his head, to his chin, and towards his chest, a spear embedded deeply within his body.
He had killed dozens of soldiers in this war, earning himself worthwhile recognition. But in the end, his turn came.
Just like him who wished for liberty in a war where soldiers are forced to eat remains from their foe, his enemies were the same. Impoverished, weakly, dead inside. The eyes of the countless bodies that lay immovable within the muddy waters.
All looked up the sky, their eyes colorless, empty.
“Buah-”
‘Ah… i’m going to die’
It was the end of him, naturally, the victor gets to live. The person who stabbed him in the heart started moving before suddenly falling down on the mudd.
In a war where soldiers are not kept in their best conditions, it wasn’t surprising for one to die in the battlefield exerting strength to kill others.
‘At least, i should’ve gone back’
He reminisced about the time he spent with his family, the grudges he accumulated along the way and his regret.
‘Get stronger’
As light slowly faded away from his eyes, the world turned gray, time seemed to pass like a snail. In his eyes, the flow looked blue.
With one last look, his eyes open, he stared at the sky one last time before closing them forever.
**
“I’m Sorry Mister Ymir, Your Fiance has contracted an undiscovered disease. The chances of creating a cure for her condition in time is not likely”
With the news of his fiance falling down and brought to the hospital, he arrived. But he didn’t hear words of healthiness and recovery, but hopelessness. The smile that gave him light, was laying lifeless in a bed.
Countless machines supported her, with wires and tubes going in and out of her body at multiple points.
It looked like a rotting corpse.
“I know this can be hard but we will try our best curing her. Please stay strong”
Thankfully, with the technology of the modern era her life was preserved.
Time passed, he completed multiple ground breaking technologies and research. He tried to get the attention of rich sponsors in hopes of paying for his research, he sold off his creations in hopes of amassing money.
In a world where the topic is the transition of energy source to nuclear power, he researched new alternatives with the promise of riches and fame from his creation, while the people slowly got over their fear of this energy source.
A year passed, he married his fiance in the hospital.
Two years passed, and his research in new energy sources was well known. It even got him a Nobel prize. A new type of energy not located on earth, but somewhere else. And with his theory, humanity could harvest that energy.
Unfortunately, it was still an unproven theory.
Time passed,
Another call came in.
[Your wife… ]
[She cannot stay with us anymore]
"In the end, I couldn't prevent it. I couldn't fix it. I couldn't do anything’
“My life’s work… seems useless now doesn't it?”
He looked at his phone.
*thrumming*
On the screen, 11:34 AM, a flashing light engulfed his vision, all one could hear was the sound of wheels grinding against the asphalt road. It was a crossroad, the lights were green and countless pedestrians walked the open path. Suddenly.
*Honk!*
It was the sound of a horn, deep and loud, accompanied by its bright lights. He looked to his left, with empty eyes. The rain had been especially strong today, the drops masked his sullen eyes from tears.
All he saw were two sources of light on a flat surface a meter apart, from it came the sound of a roaring engine and malfunctioning machinery.
He couldn’t think much before finally realizing that his life was about to end.
*Bam!*
***
“Ymir. “
“Ymir!”
“Ymir?”
Someone called, his eyes slowly opened. A child in a dark alleyway beside a dumpster, holding on tightly to several books. He looked for the source of the voice but soon stopped, realizing it as a dream.
From a time of the past.
“...”
A terrible past.
Collecting his thoughts, the kid, after a night scavenging for tomes and books through the dumpster near the house of a wealthy family, walked away while sheltering his face with the robe that covered his body.
“You must get stronger.”
“Where were you?”
“It’s all your fault.”
The voices of his family echoed through his mind, enacting memories he had tried to forget time and time again without success, causing hallucinations, able to see and hear fragments of the past. Against these grievings, he covered his face further as he walked amongst the crowd.
“Learn magic so that you can help Mom!”
“You are weak. Are you even my brother?”
“...”
‘Sorry’
He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, after moments of walking, he finally reached his destination. He stood at the foot of a house; a home familiar to him, two floors—where he and the people in his hallucinations lived.
“Welcome home”
“Help me!”
“...”
He entered, memories started flashing before his eyes—memories of when he lived happily.
‘I will get stronger, don't worry, Mother.’
Only bones remained, a sword embedded through the shirt onto the wall, on a skeleton only clothes left on its body.
“Did you have fun, my son?”
‘No’
The hanging bones asked, the kid replied. He went through the back, this time, his older sister, or what should’ve been his older sister, missing its head.
“You’re late.”
‘I’m sorry
Only bones remained.
Lastly, going upstairs to his room was his younger sister, sitting in a corner. Her eyeless sockets stared at the kid, lifeless, motionless, clothes still on.
“...”
She was a meek and shy girl, unlike his older sister, a contrast in the hallucinations he lived with.; everything he perceived through these visions was ‘real.’
These corpses were the reminder of his family
But like cursed until his death, the only things on his mind was.
“Get Stronger”
“Avenge us “
“Live”
A Nightmare, a terrible nightmare.
One that kept him from going insane.
*gasping*
A lone kid in a dark room, only briefly lit by a candle extinguishable by a simple blow of wind, was reading countless books on the floor.
Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, slowly drizzling down his chin and dropping to the wooden floor. His eyes, which remained glued on the book, seemed distant and lifeless, his breath erratic and messy.
There was no blood flowing from his face, only the bulging of his veins which stretched down from his temples to his chest and to the rest of his body. He remained seated, unmoving, as particles of light gathered within him.
Seconds
Minutes
Hours
He remained static and focused. Pouring all his concentration into the formation of a circle in his heart. It seemed smooth sailing until then, but, as if to contradict his dedication and efforts, the ring around his heart shattered like broken glass. A defective product should not even be worth mentioning.
Blood poured from his mouth, nose, and eyes, he could not process what had happened.
Only the sense of despair and regret ultimately condensed as he grew, breaking his heart, both emotionally and now physically.
As his life force slowly withered away, with his last strength, he grabbed his chest and squeezed it hard to mitigate the pain, before muttering a single word struggling in his breath.
“Finally…”
The smiles of his family he missed passed through his mind like a revolving lantern. The candle slowly died, his life snuffed out—ending his miserable existence within the sea of storms now bound to take place.
“Do not give up”
In a world where everything had turned gray, countless figures supported the child's body, hands that held him were colored in a bright blue color.
Written by: Chia and Cherry
