Darkness. Darkness. And more darkness.
The last thing Zephyr felt was a scorching pain at his belly that he couldn't endure.
[Host awakened.]
"M-Mother... are you okay? Are you hurt too?" He struggled to free himself from the dark space but his body was strangely at peace.
He needed to rise up, rise and fly back to his only family. Even if it's the end, it would only be worth it if they experienced it together. His head was on aching yet his body didn't feel any other reaction.
"Mother!"
[Turbulent emotions in Host identified.]
[Troubleshooting...]
[Diagnosed report: Unpleasant memories.]
"PLEASE! Are you okay! I can't see anything! I can't see you!"
[Diagnosed solution: Lockdown of turbulent emotions and unpleasant memories.]
[Initiating lockdown...]
[Lockdown complete. Host secured.]
Zephyr's eyes widened and he leapt from were he laid, his body floated above the ground and he felt lighter than normal. His mind was a haze as he looked around for anything that would comfort the aching he felt in his chest.
Something terrible had happened, he could feel it but couldn't place what. His heart was still beating erratically from the result but the yearning he felt slowly faded. He noticed he wasn't on anything solid and looked down.
"M-My body!"
He stared at a crimson-scaled lifeless dragon with a torn wing and a hole in the underbelly. "Am I d-dead?"
A sudden rage filled him and he forced his soul towards the body. How could it be that he died in such a lame way! He didn't remember anything but there was certainly no reason for him to die so soon!
As he reached for the ground, he saw another dragon laying besides him with a gash on her head.
"Nee Adalinda." He reached for her head but his hand went through. He sighed. His teacher was dead as well, and she was trying to speak to him before she died.
His eyes swept across the large waste of earth, it didn't look familiar and he had no idea what caused it, but the rage inside of him made him knew that he should know. He had experienced it.
[I can answer your questions.]
Zephyr shook his head. He must be hearing voices. He reached for his body again and found that he couldn't still get in. "I am really dead and can't do anything about."
He looked for any sign of life in this place but there was none. What could he do as a ghost floating around?
[I can answer your questions.]
Zephyr touched his hand and strangely felt it. "A voice in my head that can answer my questions. How does it know what I don't know?"
[I am not a voice in your head. Well, not literally. I am a sentient system, and you can address me as D.O.C 100. You can tell me what you want and I'd do my best to assist you in achieving it.]
Zephyr rubbed his head and grunted. He rose in the air and felt pleased that he could use his wings even in this odd form. "I want a physical body."
[Which means you are ready to meet him and discuss your quests and its conditions.]
Zephyr had no idea what it meant but he appreciated the idea of meeting people who could explain what happened.
He looked down at the body of the dragon who taught him, Adalinda. Something was wrong with him. It was the body of someone who should mean a lot to him – yet he felt no sadness. Whatever grief he should feel had been replaced by a hollow rage. A rage directed at nothing he could remember.
He didn't even know how and why he identified who the dragon was. Maybe if he saw someone familiar then he'd get back his memories? "Take me there. I hope they don't stay far away because It's tiring to fly."
[Soon, you wouldn't need to fly.]
Before Zephyr could digest what was said, his reality panned to a black hole which sucked him in. He felt no panic but a pain spasmed through his body repeatedly making him wince.
His body was spewed out at a forest of white trees. He breathed heavily looking around. "Doc? Why can I ghost feel pain?"
[It's D.O.C.]
He touched his head, as if trying to feel for it inside. "Didn't you say I can call you what I like?"
[....]
Zephyr stepped from the dry ground to the soft white grass and fell on it afterwards with a thud. It was oddly comforting, but he also found it odd that his body had weight in this space.
"Where is the one I am supposed to meet? Where is this place? Will they really give me back my body?"
Despises numerous questions, the system only answered one. [You will be given a body.]
"My body?"
[A body.]
Zephyr didn't like the sound of that. In that moment, the environment warped and a hole grew in it. Immense energy consumed the space around him as something entered from the hole.
He also felt the voice in his head leave even if he couldn't actually feel their presence before. A sense of loneliness creeped in and he touched his chest. At least he felt something.
"Eryx Ryuu Zephyr."
Zephyr's head went down and he stood erect and raised his wings high, as he felt compelled to.
Whoever spoke was superior to him and everything in his fibre wanted him to abandon his pride as a dragon and reverence them.
"Yes, I am here, Nii." He couldn't see the one who spoke but their voice and presence showed they were older and more experienced.
'Nee' and 'Nii' were used to address older dragons, female and male respectively, so Zephyr felt his speaker was worthy of it. Whether they were a dragon or not.
"Are you really the only one who survived in Raxatia?"
Raxatia. Zephyr recognised the name and remembered the realm he had grown up in. Had he only survived? It made sense why he saw no one and the only bodies he found were badly injured.
But survived what? He still couldn't remember.
He lifted his head to see who spoke and his eyes widened when he sighted a mountain-sized entity, an elder-dragon, covering everything in front of him.
"I-I think so. There was no one alive with me. What had happened?" He didn't feel worried, only curious. "I can't remember. Or feel. Why can't I remember and feel?"
"It's probably the decision of your guardian, System D.O.C, but it's for your best interest." There was a displeased grunt. "Humans. Humans happened. And this time, they had help."
"Humans..." an image flashed through Zephyr's mind.
A female human with red hair and blue eyes, it had been a phoenix first. More memories flooded in; there had been a meteor. It stopped, and everything felt blur again.
"I see. Only I survived." he felt hollow again.
"That might still be uncertain, but D.O.C had registered you because you were compatible one in Raxatia. Its former host had been sent to your realm before her death."
Zephyr remembered the phoenix and nodded. He had inherited that voice from her, but what did it entail? "Will I live again?"
"Yes, but not as you, and you'd have to work with D.O.C to finish the former host's missions, in a new body."
The voice paused, and its form slowly lowered towards Zephyr. "For your first mission, I'd gift you a Top-tier skill you can use to get an edge over hosts. After you finish the other host's quests, D.O.C would be yours, and that's when you can use this skill." The entity rose up again. "Avenge the dragons and Raxatia. Alright?"
Zephyr sighted a crystal gem on the bond of the entity, he instinctively reached for it and the moment he made contact, it vanished. A soft glow moved from his claws through his short arm and separated to his two amber eyes. Yet he felt no difference in his body.
"Avenge…? I don't really know the details, but am I strong enough to go against the humans?"
"You will still have the mind of a dragon, and that will always rival even the bravest human."
Zephyr had no reaction to that praise, as long as he got a new body and lived again, he'd use the time to know the full potential of D.O.C and do what he can to avenge.
"What if I don't succeed?" he asked because at the moment, he wasn't in tune with all his emotions and that was already a handicap.
"D.O.C would find another host, and the bleak fate of the phoenix would be yours." The entity replied with a slight disappointment. "But believe in yourself. You can use the former host's mission to learn a lot."
The possibility of dying didn't scare Zephyr because somewhere in him, he felt like he had lost so much that living was no longer worth it.
Yet… how hard could it be?
"I will do it."