Alex cried and continued to cry. Tears poured freely down his cheeks, splattering against the dark black floor and glistening against the stars that twinkled in the background. His palms were curled into fists at either side, clutching tightly onto the fabric of his white pants. His vision blurred, and he lowered his head, unable to show this side of himself to the little girls who were eyeing him with their swirling, colorful pupils. They were worried for him, and he felt his heart pang at the sight of their faces. They reminded him of Ariana. They were exactly like his sister, cute and small with chubby cheeks and eyes filled with twinkling curiosity.
Tears began pouring down even harder, and unable to stand, he fell to his knees. His fists rested against his thighs and his head hung low as he cried even harder, the tears came down like a river, as though some great gates had been thrown open. The tears felt warm, bitter, and sour as they laid bare the bitter reality of his situation.
He had died.
He had walked toward death in that final moment, not wanting to die in shame, not wanting to hide until the very end. But even though he had hurled himself toward the enemies, the fact remained unchanged. He had died to the goblins, exactly as he had known before thrusting himself toward goblins. And the flood of memories returning to him made everything worse. He should not have remembered any of it. He should have forgotten. He should have never remembered his parents, never remembered his little sister, never remembered his grandparents, and he should have never remembered the princess.
What was he supposed to do with these memories? Were they meant to mock him, to prove that even in death, there would be no peace? Was it so he would continue to lament and weep all his life even after death?
Why? Why? Why?
"W-Wh...why is life so un...fair?" Alex muttered in a choked voice, the thin, trembling words were filled with resentment toward life. "W-What ab-bout my ef...fo...rts?" The words came tumbling from his mouth, his tears refusing to stop as he rubbed his eyes against the white sleeve of his shirt.
"Why." Alex shrieked in pain, the sound loud and high-pitched, and he began hammering his fists against the floor. His fists seemed to do no damage whatsoever to the star-filled black floor, but it was the only way he could express what he was feeling, even if only by a little.
Suddenly, Alex's fists stopped in their tracks and he jolted his head upward due to someone's hand ruffling through his hair. Though tears were still flowing down his eyes and blurring his vision, and even through those blurry vision he could make out that the woman standing before him was breathtakingly, divinely beautiful. She was draped in a white robe and adorned with golden jewellery, and her long white hair cascaded down around her. Her eyelids were closed. Her knees were bent as she crouched before him, and her pale white hand continued moving through his hair in a smooth and calming way. She neither opened her eyes nor spoke, and not a single reaction crossed her face even as he stared up at her in shock.
He was just about to knock the woman's hand away when the two girls cried out in joy, "Mother!" They both started running toward her, but the woman extended the palm of her other hand outward toward the twins. "Both of you have already created enough troubles," her voice calm and soothing to the ears. "I will be admissioning both of you with punishment soon."
The twins stopped in their tracks, their heads lowering as both of them clutched the hems of their dresses. They looked adorably cute, and he found he was unable to tell which was Molly and which was Lily, as both wore the very same expression and emotion, unlike before when Molly had acted as the guardian.
The woman's hand kept moving through his hair the way his mother's hand had, whenever he cried or whenever he was hurt. She reminded him so deeply of his mother that the tears which had been slowly fading threatened to fall even harder. And they did.
"Child, you have done your best," the woman said softly. "You do not have to lament and hurt yourself any longer."
The words should have calmed him down, but instead he lowered his head further and the tears dropped steadily to the ground. He wanted to stop them, but they would not obey. How could they? His heart had been hollowed out. He had been stripped of the only things that had motivated him to keep going. His family had supported him all these years, and now he had lost them too. Everything. Every single thing that had helped him remain sane against all the unfairness of his life had been taken from him.
"No," Alex shook his head, "Does it even matter that I gave my best?" His voice died for a moment only to rise louder, "When I am dead? When my efforts never amounted to anything?"
The woman, wholly unshaken by his anger and the rawness in his voice, continued soothing his head. "So, what?" she responded, her voice remaining placid and calm. "Death is never the end, child."
Suddenly the floor beneath them disappeared, and in what could only be described as a split second, it was replaced by something entirely different. He almost felt his chest turn cold as a battlefield materialized before his eyes, filled with every kind of body one would never wish to see. The woman flicked her finger, and he found himself standing straight. He stood beside the woman, his tears slowly dying down, though the grief and loss still settled heavily within him.
He turned his tear-filled, blurry gaze around him and found that he had returned to the same battlefield he had witnessed before. But, this time instead of observing it through a portal, he was standing above the battlefield. The battle was still being fought on both sides.
One side was clad in armour, while the other contained the same vaguely dark beings of multi-colored, varying numbers of limbs, their eyes wholly unlike any human eyes. In one word, they were disgustingly gore, and they seemed to bear qualities that suited it perfectly as they laughed maniacally and hurled themselves against the armoured ones. Even from his vantage point hovering in the air, Alex could clearly see that some among the armoured ones were no taller than he was, yet they too launched themselves at the enemy without hesitation.
Alex turned to the woman. He had understood by now that they were clearly not visible to the fighters on the field below, otherwise someone would have hurled a weapon in their direction long before now. Is this an illusion?
"No, it is not," the woman answered, shocking him. She turned toward him, her eyes still closed, her white hair flowing to her waist and lying perfectly still. "I can tell what you are thinking even though I am not reading your mind," she clarified before he could voice his doubt.
Suddenly the battle began blurring, moving at a fast and unnatural speed like the events of the battlefield were rushing forward and leaving him behind. Alex kept his gaze on the woman, but she remained quiet, a faint smile tugging at her lips.
Then the blurring world stopped, and she pointed her hand outward in one direction, toward the very horizon. Alex narrowed his tear-rimmed eyes.
From the far horizon, a figure appeared. A man, though the word hardly seemed to suit the person at all. He was walking on his own two feet, and yet the weight of each step seemed to shake the very earth beneath him. The sky above, already bathed in a red blaze, turned ominous and darkened at his approach.
A golden crown floated above his head as though it was not worn but rather a part of him, an extension of his very being. He had a powerful build and stood considerably taller than most, his short messy black hair seeming to devour the darkness around him and his golden pupils seeming as though they could drown the entire world. He wore a black suit that swallowed all light just as his hair did, and in one hand he carried a severed head, the head of a being Alex did not recognize. It was pure white like marble, except for the dark part that covered the eye like a dark ribbon was worn, its eyelids were dark and shut. The head was thin and slender, hairless at the top, with ears that were long, not pointed but long, with lower ends that stretched further down.
Suddenly the battlefield changed once more. This time it was not the world that changed but the man himself who changed it. He appeared at the centre of the battlefield, hovering in the air, and he raised the severed head so that the armoured people below could see. Then he drew the sword from his free hand and cleaved the head into pieces, and the multi-limbed beings shrieked in unison. In one clean, sweeping motion, he pointed his sword toward those beings and with a single cut, cleaved every last remaining enemy to their deaths. How? There had been at least thousands of them remaining, and yet he had cleaved them all to nothing with one stroke.
Alex expected cheers and joy to erupt, but there were none. Every eye on the battlefield turned toward one corner, and the crowned man vanished from his place in an instant.
The world changed once again and Alex found himself transported to a different location, still floating, his feet resting upon the air as if it were solid ground.
The woman pointed toward one particular circular gathering of people, who had formed a ring, with the crowned man having appeared at its centre.
Alex sucked in a long breath as his eyes fell upon the man he had seen earlier, the one who had smiled and hurled the spear toward the dragon. But now the man lay on the ground. He was dead, blood still flowing freely from the wound at the side of his waist, soaking into the earth beneath him. Yet even in death, he wore a smile. A beautiful smile.
Beside his body lay three beings that were entirely white. They wore long white robes, and their bodies were thin and vaguely human in shape, without extra limbs or extra eyes. Two of them had both eyes pierced through, and one lay with its eyes wide open and blank, the only darkness on any of their forms being the shadowed skin around their eyes.
Alex's fists clenched at his sides. Wasn't the man strong? How could he even die with such powers? Were these three powerful enough to kill someone who had brought down a dragon in a single shot?
The crowned man suddenly bent his knees, one pressing to the ground and the other half-bent, his hands resting over it and his head lowered toward the dead man. And the entire battlefield seemed to bathe itself in reverence as every other soul followed his lead. Those with legs bent their knees, those with one or none pressed their waists to the ground in deep respect.
The woman beside him, whom he had come to understand was a goddess, pointed her finger toward the dead man. "Death is not the end, child," she declared, her voice carrying the weight of something far older than words. "Some die in waste, and others join the ranks of the honoured." She paused, letting the silence settle before she continued. "Even the heavens bow before those honoured ones who gave everything they had and fought until the very end."
She kept her finger pointed at the fallen man. "He was no ordinary person. Not in millennia is someone like him born. He was an uncrowned king, worthy of being the @^&!#&, and yet he gave his life willingly, died protecting his people, so that his fellow beings might live." She paused briefly. "Those who give their best need not worry about tomorrow, for the actions of today take care of what tomorrow brings."
She then moved her finger to the crowned man, still kneeling with his head bowed. "Even a king, a ruler of rulers, a ruler of the @^!&!#!@ bowed before an uncrowned king, to offer his respect and his final farewell to the one who laid down his life defending his home."
The woman turned toward Alex. Her eyes had not once opened, and yet Alex felt the full weight of her gaze settle upon him as though it had always been there. "Every effort counts, whether small or great. You never know which step of yours brought you to your final destination. Perhaps it was the very first step, because it was the one that made you begin the journey at all. Or perhaps it was the very last step, the one that carried the journey to its end. Or perhaps it was one of the countless steps in between, because had even one of those steps been taken in a different direction, you would never have reached where you needed to be."
The goddess let the words breathe.
"You never know, child," she continued, and Alex felt goosebumps rise slowly along his skin. "All you need to know is that every effort counts. Every single one. If even one step had been wrong, or if you had simply not taken the next step forward, you might never have reached the end."
"So stop worrying about your efforts going to waste," she continued. "They may not make sense to you right now. But with time, every single one of them will find their meaning. No effort is ever truly wasted. Everything leads to something. And even this man's death, which may look like a foolish decision at first, helped save the lives of thousands and millions who depended on him and his death will continue to create a ripple effect for the future."
The world shifted in color once again, but instead of looking around him, Alex found himself turning the goddess's words over and over in his mind. Every effort counts.
He returned to the same star-filled place as before. The twins, who had been seated quietly in one corner, jolted upright at their reappearance but did not run forward. They stood still with their heads lowered.
The goddess, paying them little more attention than a small nod, walked toward the golden threads that hovered in the air. She reached for the broken thread and slowly moved her hand across the tied portion that the twins had mended in their own way. A slight smile crossed her lips.
The goddess turned toward Alex, her eyes still closed. "Child, do not let this opportunity go to waste," she said.
And before Alex could ask what she meant by those words, the goddess moved her hand across the thread, carefully undoing the bound knots and smoothing it until it appeared as though it had never been broken and never been tied together by any hand at all. Then, in one swift motion, she brought the broken ends together and made them whole.
"I can only bear your causality this one time," she said softly. "Make sure to become strong. We …" Her last words did not reach Alex, for at that very moment he found himself dissolving into motes of golden light and disappearing into the void.
***
[Ding! Failure to locate a suitable host.]
[Once again attempting to find a new host.]
[Failure! Failure!]
[Checking system's remaining activation time. More than 3 years remaining.]
[Forcing the system to awaken.]
[Re-initializing... 1... 2... 4... 5... 10... Failure.]
[Attempting again... 1... 2... 5... 20... 30... 50... Failure.]
[Failure! Failure!]
[Attempting partial activation.]
[Attempting again... 1... 2... 5... 50... 70... 90... 98... 99... 100%.]
[Partial activation successful. Some features will remain locked.]
[Detecting dangers near the host's life.]
[Checking host's state.]
[Host Dead! Dead! Dead!]
[Examining vital status.]
[Vital status non-responsive.]
[Error! Error! The host is dead!]
An invisible small golden thread entered Alex's dead body.
[Error! Error! The host's heart has begun beating.]
[Entering an Emergency State.]
[Examining and eliminating nearby dangers to the host's life.]
Golden light erupted from Alex's body, bursting from his torn hands and from every pore of him, and the golden light flooded the dry, barren ground. The goblins swarming over Alex's body and the goblin warrior that had been advancing toward Alex broke into a run the moment the light touched them.
"Kirkar kir kir!" the Goblin Warrior shrieked, but the light moved far faster than any of them could flee, and every single goblin, including the warrior, perished on the spot, their bodies consumed entirely by the radiance.
[Reattaching the severed arms of the host. Curing injuries.]
Both of Alex's arms, which had laid severed upon the ground, were lifted by an invisible force and drawn back into their respective sockets. The golden light that had scattered across the ground returned and enveloped Alex entirely, covering every part of his body. Injuries, scars, wounds and all the damage left behind began healing, broken bones were tended and dislocated joints were restored to their original state.
[Host's vital status returning. Checking conditions. Breathing returning to normal. Heart functioning perfectly. Brain uninjured.]
[All readings normal. Scanning status window. Everything is normal. Everything is normal. Abnormal status effect detected.]
[Removing it. Successfully removed.]
[Host's level will increase. Calculating EXP points.]
[Level 1 → Level 5 → Level 10.]
[Condition for class assignment met: Reach Level 10.]
[Searching for a suitable class for the host.]
[Based on analysis and resonance, the Swordsman class resonates with the host.]
[Assigning Swordsman class.]
[Anomaly detected.]
[Swordsman class evolving into Death Swordsman. The host has been touched by death and returned to life safely. The host successfully defied the death]
[New Skill: Unclaimed by Death [Uncommon]. Every attack from the host will carry a remnant of death.]
[Affinity to Death unlocked]
[Class successfully assigned. Level will continue to increase until available EXP is exhausted.]
[Level 10 → Level 15 → Level 25.]
[EXP reset to zero. No further EXP available for level increase.]
[Waking the host.]
[Error! Error!]
[Identifying error.]
[Hidden class discovered.]
[Hidden class: Checking info. Assigning as the main class. Death Swordsman will be deleted.]
[Bloodline of dual class detected. Unlocking secondary class. Assigning Death Swordsman as the secondary class.]
[Hidden class: @%!^@. The name of the class can't be revealed. The host's level too low]
[The host cannot bear the causality of the hidden class.]
[Restoring Death Swordsman to main class and overriding hidden class.]
[Hidden class not responding to override. Error! Error!]
[Attempting again. Hidden class cannot be removed from main class.]
[Hidden class morphing into Unclassed to protect the host from @%!^@]
[Main class: Unclassed. Increase levels to reveal true name.]
[Gifting one skill upon successful awakening of the partial system.]
[Skill: Minor Sword Aura [Basic].]
[Death Swordsman class effect detected. Minor Sword Aura evolving.]
[Minor Death Sword Aura: Host can imbue his sword with a minor aura of death.]
[Main class: Unclassed. Increase levels to reveal true name.]
[Secondary class: Death Swordsman.]
[Level: 25.]
[Affinity: Death]
[Waking the host.]
Alex opened his azure eyes and welcomed the sight of two moons hanging in the sky.
***
End of Book 1
***
Story will be on hiatus for a week!
***
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