"You will always be average, always. Do you hear me, Levi? Your mom was the same…"
That voice crawls back from the corners of my memory as I parry another swing of his blade. Well, if flying backward counts as parrying. Shit. I don't think I can take one more hit. What a life.
I spent my whole existence drinking and partying with people even more mediocre than me, only to end up here, dying to a boy not even half my age because I called him immature in front of his girl.
Now that I think about it… that is kind of funny. Sigh, I'm really gonna die, aren't I?
The youngsters around us stare down at me, disdain painted all over their faces. I struggle to stand after crashing to the ground. Hiss. Something's broken, many somethings. I'm gonna die here. Ten years I survived the end of the world. That's more than that man ever did.
Still… I should at least fight for my life, right?
Bang!
Everything goes black as the kid's foot connects squarely with my face, my nose, specifically. Blood floods my mouth. The fear finally wins against the pain clawing at me. I don't wanna die.
"You will always be average."
I hear it again, a whisper. Wait, that's not my dad's voice. Did this brat just call me average? Why that word?
I'm staring at the sky now, bleeding out, lungs hitching. I can't survive this one. Footsteps, slow, deliberate, each one hammering against my chest.
I don't want to admit it, but I'm terrified. Terrified of a sixteen-year-old ending my story.
And then I feel it, the sword piercing through my heart.
They say being awakened means you don't die right away. Guess they were right. Because in what feels like my final moments, I smile and pull out the most precious, most dangerous thing I ever found; the violet stone, such a beautiful object.
I hold it tight and push every ounce of essence I have left into it. That feeling comes again, the same one I always get when I try to inspect it, a dread that something horrible is about to happen. But I'm dying anyway, so I keep going until there's nothing left in me to give.
The stone slips from my fingers.
Then... that sound.
That's no human sound. Oh shit… we're all done for now, aren't they?
I close my eyes in anticipation.
BOOOOOOOM.
The loudest sound I've ever heard..... and definitely the last.
I feel it. Like I'm being burned out of existence. No, not burned, erased. A mana void. My skin, my bones, my thoughts... all gone.
I look around. There's nothing left but white.
We're truly, utterly… Gone.