“Another round?”
A faint voice echoed as the radiant, unclothed body of a young man drifted through a frigid void. As these words left his lips, a brilliant surge of light pierced the darkness, revealing the sudden emergence of spectral figures with skull-like visages materializing from the shadows.
“Ahhhhh, a new soul,” one of the eerie apparitions hissed.
“Sniff, this one smells vile,” another chimed in.
“Hehe, we love the wicked souls the most. They are harder to break,” the third spoke up.
Whispers of the specters filled the void in no time, while their fingers left subtle but painful marks on the young man’s skin, causing him to bleed from these scratches.
However, the young man remained unfazed, his countenance unperturbed. To him, this was a natural progression. He knew what he was getting into when he chose this path and had no regrets. His life was well-lived in his book.
He had been a bad person in his previous life, committing many evil deeds. He always knew he would end up in hell if it truly existed, but he wouldn’t change, even if he could turn back time. On the path to glory, he could never falter.
“Be gone!!!” Suddenly, a thunderous roar resonated from within the void, causing the specters to turn into smoke and dissipate.
Startled by the voice, the young man raised his head and gazed at its source.
“Hmm?”
Raising an eyebrow, the young man observed a bruised and battered demonic creature resembling a whale. It appeared half-dead, but its eyes brimmed with vitality.
“It looks like I am in luck….”
Though its mouth didn’t move, the whale-like beast communicated telepathically with the young man.
“Do you want something?” The young man raised his eyebrows, genuinely surprised. After his unfortunate death, he had been sent to this void, which he presumed to be hell, where he was tortured by various creatures. However, he had never encountered anything like this before.
“I want a lot of things, kid. Sadly, the universe couldn’t care less about what I want…”
Pausing briefly, the creature reminisced about its life. It had once stood at the peak of its race, their sole protector. Unfortunately, ambition had led to its banishment to the void.
“I sense an evil cruelty in your heart, young man. I can’t quite wrap my head around it, but you strike me as one who has seen through the vestiges of life…..” The whale-like creature remarked, its gaze fixed on the young man’s unflinching expression. For some reason, it felt drawn in this direction. It didn’t expect to find someone here.
“Tell me, young man, what is it you desire?”
The creature finally inquired, intrigued by the cruelty and sheer willpower it sensed in the young man’s heart, something it had been missing all its life. Maybe understanding the young man’s state of mind could have saved its race.
“I desire a lot of things, strange creature. Sadly, the universe couldn’t care less about what I desire….”
The young man’s reply mirrored the creature’s previous words. It wanted to know his desires, and that seemed rather suspicious.
“Ah… so it’s like that?” The creature smiled, appreciating the young man’s unapologetic nature. He was an old monster who had lived for thousands of years, and no one had ever spoken to him in such a way. Strangely, he liked that about this guy.
“Sigh, what a shame, but since I’ve come across you in my dying moments, I can only take it as fate. I will grant you my legacy and a new opportunity at life. I have failed in my duties as the progenitor of the Warlocks. On your path, you will meet many of them. Please save them from harm’s way. Of course, if you choose not to, then I can only consider myself unlucky to have met you in my last moments.”
As the creature finished speaking, a golden light appeared out of thin air and shot into the young man’s forehead.
He was a staunch believer in fate; finding a young man in the midst of the void couldn’t be a mere coincidence. Maybe his entire life had led to this moment, and perhaps this young man was more significant in the grand scheme of things. The creature, at the edge of its life, wanted to leave one last mark on this world.
“By the way, what is your name?” The creature asked, wanting to know to whom it had given its legacy.
“Badur,” the young man replied.
“Ah? Strange, there’s this folktale in my world about a beast that will devour our world; its name was something like that…” The creature found the name a bit surprising, but when it turned to look at the young man, he was gone, vanished into the void.
“Sigh, whatever. I wish you luck in your future endeavors, Badur,” the whale-like creature said softly as its body floated through the void, fading into obscurity.
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
“There is no way I’m risking my life by carrying this burden along!!!”
“He is our son. I will not leave him behind.”
“No son of mine will be a cripple. You just want us to die here alongside your crippled son!!”
The sound of a couple arguing filled a small, dim room. In front of them sat a young man with brown hair in a wheelchair, his sickly body drooling unconsciously at the corner of the room. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open.
“Hmmm, where am I?”
As the young man pondered unconsciously, a robotic voice sounded in his mind, and his thoughts were flooded with memories that didn’t seem to be his own.
He quickly realized what was happening.
“Please take me with you. I promise I won’t be a burden!!” The young man spoke aloud, panic evident in his eyes. Immediately, the man who had been arguing rushed over.
“You can speak?!”
“Yes, Father, please take me along with you,” the young man said with a distressed look.
“Don’t worry, I will not leave you behind,” the old man assured him, pushing the wheelchair toward the door.
His female counterpart sneered at the scene; clearly, she didn’t want things to turn out this way.
