Golden.
Everything was golden.
The dusk, the waves, the beach, and the armor worn by a blonde young man.
His sword, no doubt, was also etched with aureate runes—
And currently struck through the chest of another lonely silhouette.
His enemy was an exception to the golden seaside painting, his hair was black, so were his entire outfit. However, his shadowy figure was interrupted by two different colours — red from his blood, and gold from the blade through his body.
The two sat across each other, sharing a bar table for drinks while gazing at afar.
It was the shadowy man who broke the silence first.
"Why did you bring me here, Kael?"
"...Well," the golden knight shifted his attention back to his opponent.
"Why did you come along, Aurora?"
"Anyone would." Aurora thumped his glass onto the table, as if irritated by Kael's smirk when he responded with another question.
"I was utterly curious about what you're up to. Afterall, who in their right mind would ask 'Care for a drink?' in the middle of a battle?!"
"And!" he pointed to the blonde man.
"Don't call me that."
"Well…" Kael lowered his arm, lifting his chin while he looked at Aurora with his lips curved like a crescent moon.
"If you're that against your human name, what should I have called you instead?
"The God of Calamity? Lord of the Dark strings?"
"Or a title that's gaining rising popularity amongst the mortals: 'Whose death will bring all good'?"
"...Aurora is fine." The shadowy man poured himself another glass of booze, face utterly red.
No one knows if it's the alcohol making him blush, or just being embarrassed by the titles.
"Anyway," Kael smiled, putting his glass down.
"I wasn't, nor am I up to anything."
"Unfortunately, this sword is the last trick I had." He pointed at the blade that still remained in place. After it had struck through Aurora's chest, it did not move an inch since then.
"If you could withstand this, then you've won."
"But… Judging by the fact you could not do anything, I suppose the battle's already settled."
"So," Kael said while emptying the bottle.
"I just wanted to have one last drink with you, my friend."
Silence.
The sun continued to set, and shadows began to emerge in the old tavern.
However, as if announcing its defeat, none of the shadows could engulf the golden glow from the blade.
"...I guess you're right." After some time, Aurora finally spoke.
"Well played, Kael."
"You've won…"
*Tap* *Tap*
It sounded like water droplets, falling onto the wooden surface.
Curious of why Kael hasn't said a word, Aurora looked up—
And what appeared next in the reflection of his eyes made him freeze in place.
Kael was struggling to remain in his posture, with tears running down his face like a river.
He was crying.
How many years…no, centuries had it been? From the last time Aurora saw the God of Fate shed tears.
"Woah woah, what's going on?" He desperately looked around, hands not knowing where to place.
"Why are you the one crying when I have a blade stuck in my chest?!"
"I—I didn't want it to end like this." Kael continued to throb.
"I hope you can forgive me… Really, I do."
"The World cannot move forward without us disappearing. It's selfish, I know. But I want to leave the future to the mortals, the people."
"I promise you." He wiped his tears off of his face.
"After your end today, I will join you soon enough."
For a moment, the two weren't the most powerful Deities throughout history—
They were small again, young again, human again; playing, laughing, sharing food and crying under the canopy of a colossal tree.
That was when Aurora realised, even now with Kael who threatens his life, he could not bring himself to hate him.
The shadowy silhouette reached his hand out, and landed softly on Kael's head.
This was his way of comforting his forever friend, like countless times in the past, during their journey of becoming Gods.
"Don't feel bad." Aurora said with the calmest voice.
"Compared to those who could only live a century, my life was much longer, and much more fruitful."
"I have my thanks to you."
Kael slowly looked up, surprised by what he's hearing.
"You are the God of Fate." Aurora continued, handing Kael a black handkerchief.
"I trust in the future you see."
"Thank you…" Kael sneezed into the handkerchief, and returned it.
"But I could only see 100,000 years into the future. The time beyond that is a mystery, I could neither see, nor live long enough to experience it."
"Way to ruin the mood, bro…" Aurora facepalmed himself.
"You were supposed to follow the script, and say that you're confident that your plan will succeed until the end of time."
"Hehe." Kael smiled, this time more sunny.
"I could never lie to you, my friend."
"Nothing is guaranteed in this world."
"You're right about that…" Aurora crossed his arms, his eyes locked onto Kael.
"So this is it?"
"Yes, my friend." Kael nodded with ambitions in his eyes.
"Tommorrow… will mark the beginning—"
"The Age of Dawnflame."
***
*Fwoom*
Amidst the darkness, an aqua glow suddenly appeared.
It came from a torch which belonged to a young boy, the blue flame echoed inside the hollow cave.
He was pale, hair messy. His clothes were dirty and scrapped, barely keeping him warm from the chillness of the night.
Most of all, he was hungry and tired. So tired, it was almost as if he could collapse at any second.
"Hey you little shit!" A kick came from behind, making the boy fall on his knees.
"Walk faster!"
The voice came from a tall, muscular man. He walked right past him, not even bothered sparing the boy another gaze.
"Haha, nice kick brother!" A short man followed closely behind, laughing at the boy who struggled to stand.
"Should we just leave him here?"
"Don't you see that's what I'm already doing?" The tall man stared at the short man angrily, and the latter became quiet in an instant.
"That old bastard!" He continued.
"Why did he send this useless shit with us? Does he not know the danger of this place! Any mistake, no matter how miniscule, could bring death to us all!"
"Brother…" The short man hesitantly asked.
"I've been wondering… but what really is this place?"
"We've been grave robing all our life, yet we never needed a String Master to accompany us."
"What's in here might be big trouble…"
"This isn't your usual tomb." The tall man kept walking, not looking back.
"I don't know who it belonged to, but I'm sure it's more than a King."
"Then we should turn back!" The short man shivered, almost crying out loud.
"We could die here for real this time!"
"And?" The tall man turned around furiously, face livid, voice spilled as if a volcano had erupted.
"What do we do once we get back?!"
"This tomb is surrounded by knights, led by a renowned String Master!"
"We were captured, sent into this tomb as a sentence for our deeds done in the past! If we return with nothing, you think they'll spare us?"
"Then—Then what should we do?!" The short man fell to his knees, as if praying for something.
"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"
"Will you shut up already!" The tall man kicked the short man in the face, then leaned and grabbed him by the collar.
"Listen, there is still hope for us."
"If this tomb is really as serious as they treat it, then there must be great rewards waiting!"
"Right now," his voice grew quieter, wary of someone potentially hearing their conversation.
"I don't give a shit about gold, thousand-year booze or any other thing we could find."
"What we need is an Instrument. If we could find one of those, we can become String Master ourselves—"
"And kill everyone that's out there."
The tall man's eyes grew sharper, blue flames were reflected in his pupil, signalling his ambition.
The short man calmed down, not because he was relieved, but he simply froze in place hearing the unbelievable statement his brother had just made.
He had always known the existence of String Master, and the supernatural power they hold. Yet never would he have imagined, a human bestowed that title could go head to head against an army wearing steel.
Just as he was about to say something, the boy had caught up with them.
Seeing him, the tall man helped his brother get up, and the three continued walking.
After twenty minutes of silence, they had reached the end of the cave.
But, their hopes had diminished the moment they realised they had reached the end.
There was nothing.
No throne, no chests, no statue, no altar.
One could even say it's cramped for a tomb, the entire space was only the size of a bedroom.
Compared to the gigantic cave system they had to travel across, the final destination was nothing but anticlimaxing.
The only thing remained was a large dark casket covered in moss, and a piece of brown paper.
"NO!!!" The short man instantly broke down in tears.
The tall man stood there in silence, not knowing what to do.
Only the young boy had passed through them, and gently picked up the brown paper.
The paper was old in color, covered in dust. Yet it felt new, as after all these years, it did not break from the moisture or bugs.
After sweeping the dust off, a golden glow came visible on the paper. It was from the texts, which wrote: [
31st of March
Wednesday
Sunny
Dear Diary,
Today, I met…
]
The boy's hand trembled, the golden glow from the texts were reflected in his eyes, as if the flame of hope had visited him once more.
"What is it?" Seeing the boy's reaction, the tall man asked impatiently.
"... My God." the boy's voice nearly cracked.
"This… This is a page of Kael's Diary! The God of Fate—"
He stopped, as blood began to leak from his mouth.
The boy slowly looked down in denial, the pain was real, his chest was pained red, with the front of a long dagger peaking through.
"You…"
Before he could finish, the dagger was drawn back, and fell to the floor.
Within seconds, he died.
"Brother!" the short man called out to the tall man, who was holding a dagger covered in blood.
"Why did you do that?"
"Don't worry about the report, brother." The tall man walked forward, unfazed by the fact he was standing in the middle of a blood puddle.
"We could just say he died during the exploration."
"But that ain't important." He picked up the brown paper.
"As soon as they see this, they will not care about anything else."
He skimmed through the reading, after confirming the page was the real deal, he turned around with a crooked smile.
"Of all the Gods, Kael's Diary was recognised the most. Even a nobody like me knows the value of this, do you know how crazy those Scholars would become upon seeing this?"
"Hurry up and open that casket!" He pointed at the black coffin, commanding with spirit.
"Today is when we'll turn our life around!"
"Yes, Brother!" The short man laughed with greed, running wildly towards the casket, and began to push the lid off with all of his effort.
When he finally managed to open it, his mind was flushed with confusion.
"What did you find?" The tall man peeked over the short man's shoulder, and found nothing, again.
The smell was so vile one would be convinced there must be a corpse inside, but no, the casket was hollow.
The only feedback they got was the chills they had when the lid was pushed off, as if they had released something corrupted with horror, something that shouldn't exist in this world.
"Too bad." The tall man signed.
"But a page of Kael's Diary is good enough to negotiate our freedom. Let's form a plan of how we can make a deal with that String Master—"
"Oi, are you listening?" He stared at the short man, but the latter wasn't looking back at him.
He was looking somewhere else, somewhere that made his eyes locked; even when cold sweats fell on his pupil, as if he couldn't feel pain, he did not even blink.
Following his younger brother's gaze, the tall man shifted his attention, and was too, frozen in place by what he saw.
The pale boy, the young boy that he had killed with his own hands, was standing.
The bloodpit formed early was no more, instead, the entire space was replaced with shadows that were attacking the blue flames of the torch.
The appearance of the boy did not change, yet anyone could tell, he had become a completely different person.
Just as the tall man gathered his courage, and was about to say something—
The lips of the boy moved.
"I see…" He said slowly, voice deep as if it had come from the bottom of the abyss.
"So this was where you entombed me,"
"Kael."