"Damn Brat, Know your Place"
"How dare a filth come near me, I should behead you."
"Do you think you're in some fairytale".
"Mama, that commoner touched me... disgusting."
"How dare you touch my child you wretch"
"Remember Zultrix, you're still a commoner, don't act all high and mighty just cause you're my friend."
Insults, beatings, mockery, betrayals...
From so-called friends to high nobles. the list kept on growing.
Back then, my younger self would simply tremble, crying alone as the physical and emotional pain threatened to swallow me whole. I was born with a weak heart and a spirit that didn't know how to fight back.
Eventually, I learned to adapt. I learned to strike back. I even found friends—or people I _thought_ were friends—before they inevitably broke me again.
A woman's voice cut through the noise. It was my mother. She was my only clear memory: black hair, pale skin, and a face that seemed to carry the weight of the world, yet always found a way to smile at me.
In my dream, I was a child again, looking at my feet. "They were talking bad about you, Mom."
I expected a scold. I expected her to tell me to keep my head down. Instead, I felt her hand rumple my hair.
"Listen, Zultrix," she whispered, crouching to my level. "The world is a place where survival is everything. But protecting the ones you love? That is never a mistake. Always protect them. Promise me?"
"Okay, Mom."
She kissed my forehead, a peck that felt warmer than the sun. Then, a blinding light erupted behind her, swallowing the world. The last thing I saw through the glare was her crying.
Immediately I woke up.
"Shit", I cursed under my breath, "Even my Nightmares come to this world".
In my old life, those words were a haunting loop. To some, a mother's last words are a beacon of hope or a call for vengeance. To me, they were a reminder of the one person I had failed to protect. They were the only thing that had stopped me from seeking out death when the world became too much to bear. _'Continue to live, Zultrix.'_
My mind suddenly sparked in realization taking me away from my inner thoughts and dream.
"I'm- I'm alive", I was stunned, before I lost consciousness, I was dying in hunger and thirst. I thought I was going to die.
No.
I was going to die, yet I didn't.
Surprised to say I was angry a little even when I should be happy. But that didn't matter anymore.... for now.... Right now, I was in an unfamiliar place.
Lying on a hard bed of a soft material I didn't know of, my eyes scanned around
Walls of stone carved into a room as well as a wooden log standing upright, in it a wooden cup placed. Another thing I noticed were
"I'm inside of a cave.", that was the only logical answer I could give right now. the space it had wasn't enough to be called a cave but the stones along with some sparks coming from the stones, I could tell this was a cave... made by someone.
I swung my legs over the edge of the hard bed. My bare feet hit the stone floor, my body flinched—it was ice-cold. When I tried to stand, my knees buckled. I didn't hunger or thirst anymore, but my body felt like a puppet with its strings cut.
"W-Woah.", my legs almost gave out the moment I stood up. I had to practiced walking in small circles until my balance returned, then crept toward the doorway. To the right was a dead end filled with strange, cube-like stone structures. The left side however was the exit but the outside looked different but I barely paid a glance to it because something caught my attention.
At the corner of the right side of the cave were stones, cube-like structures with a wooden lid on top of them but the most eye-catching thing was the mist exiting from the small gaps of the wooden lid. I neither knew what it was nor did I care, I just wanted to leave right now. Stepping out onto a wide ledge, I immediately lost my breath.
I wasn't just in a cave; I was on the roof of the world. probably a hundred feet below, the Green Forest looked like a carpet of moss. Mountains in the distance were mere pebbles. The wind howled up here, a biting, freezing gale that made my every inch of body shaken in an instant. I could even hear my teeth chatter.
But at the same time, it wasn't so bad, Watching the beautiful sunset along the clouds brought me some sense of peace only the view was breathtaking.
Huh.
Shaking those thoughts off my head, my focus was back on point. Looking down the
"What the hell. How do I get down from here."
every part of me trembled, my teeth down to my legs.
"You really want to die, don't you?"
The voice was deep, resonant, and far too close.
"Hey, blue-haired boy. Look up."
I tilted my head back, and my heart nearly stopped.
He was perched on the overhang of the cave's entrance, one hand buried into the sheer cliff face as if the stone were soft clay. His long dark hair, a rugged beard, and **four golden eyes** that stared down at me with terrifying indifference. An appearance of a homeless man in his stained, sleeveless shirt, but his aura... it was like a physical weight pressing me into the dirt.
The worst part was that I didn't see him there despite how open this place is.
"Is it that you don't like to talk, or are you just slow?" he asked, sounding annoyed.
"W-Who are you?" I managed to stammer.
"First thing out of your mouth is a question. Hah." Sighing, he dropped from the ledge, landing as silently as a feather while carrying a wolf's corpse in one hand and stopped just centimeters away from me, his presence suffocating.
His eyes scanned me head to toe checking for something I don't know about.
Without another word, he turned and walked back into the cave. I found my legs moving before my brain could protest. I didn't want to follow him, but looking down to see.
We returned to the room where I'd woken up. He tossed the wolf onto a stone table and turned to me. The atmosphere shifted. Suddenly, I was forced onto one knee, the air in the room turning heavy and cold.
"Now," he said, his four eyes locking onto mine. "Let's talk purpose, human. Does the Empiria Nation still think I'm a threat? Are they sending children now?"
"I... I don't know... what you're talking about," I wheezed, struggling to draw air.
"A predictable response for a spy," he countered.
His eyes narrowed.
"Fine. Then tell me how you found the Crimson Lands."
The Crimson lands? was he talking about the place I just came for. Before I could process what he said, my mouth opened up.
"I don't... remember. I just woke up there."
The man's frown deepened. He let out a long, irritated sigh, and the crushing pressure vanished. I slumped forward, gasping for breath.
"Well, I suppose I can't expect much from someone who's been asleep for three days."
"Three days?" My head snapped up.
"That's what happens when you wander into the Land of Death," he said, walking toward the cave mouth.
I followed him, my curiosity momentarily outweighing my fear. "The Land of Death?"
Pointing a calloused finger towards the horizon, where the vibrant, cursed red of the Crimson Lands stained the world. "A land born from the failed experiments of filthy bastards who couldn't control their own power. Just thinking about them makes my blood boil."
The air grew heavy again, but this time it wasn't directed at me. It was pure, unadulterated rage. Something I know all too well.
He then turned back to me, his four eyes scanning me like he was reading my very soul.
"If you're not a spy for Empiria or Orsden... then tell me. Who are you?"
My mind raced. A name from my dream—the name the man that had screamed—flashed in my mind.
As if drawn by instinct or something deeper, I repeated those words.
Mavir.
"Mavir," I said firmly. "That's my name, Sir."
The man paused, looking genuinely surprised. "Mavir, huh? I'm shocked. I thought you'd say something stupid or stay silent."
"I... I apologize."
Suddenly, the man burst into a roar of laughter that echoed off the mountain peaks. It was a wild, boisterous sound that sent birds scattering miles below.
"Don't mention it!" He grinned, a look that was somehow both friendly and terrifying.
"Valor's the name, and fighting's my game."
"Huh?"