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Post by SlvrNight on Jun 6, 2011 17:50:50 GMT -5
Prologue
The male teenager stared straight ahead, his brown eyes fixed upon the flames before him. Several pews and wooden tables sat upon one another in a burning pile of smoke and flames, blocking the exit of the room. The teen wore a blue sweatshirt with white lines on the sleeves, along with plain blue jeans and black sneakers. His skin was a light tan color and his short brown hair was dyed gray with dust and small pieces of wood. He took several steps back, his eyes still fixated on the pile of flames. He then quietly whispered to himself.
“Did I get her? Is she gone?”
A stream of flames was suddenly launched out from the burning pile of rubble, grazing the teenager’s right arm and creating a small flame on his sweatshirt sleeve. This made him yelp in pain and quickly take the azure sweatshirt off and toss it to the side, watching it swiftly envelop in orange flames. “Damn it…that was my favorite sweatshirt too.” A feminine, but angry, voice came from the flaming rubble in response to the teen’s comment.
“You’re still able to joke? Even at a time like this?”
A woman with blood-red hair calmly, and slowly, walked out from burning wreckage. Her skin was pale and she wore a black t-shirt with red jeans and a red scarf wrapped around her neck. Small orange flames began to appear on the woman’s body as she continued walking towards the teenager who, in response, continued to back away. After a minute of this ‘chase’ the teenager hit a wall. He turned his head and saw that he had not actually backed into a wall, but had backed into a large circular stained-glass window. The glass showed a picture of a beautiful sunset, with a man in white and blue robes sitting on a grassy field surrounded by twelve other men with differently colored garments. The teen’s attention was taken from the beauty of the window back to the demonic woman, who was now only about ten feet away from him. Realizing what was going to happen next he swallowed heavily and asked the woman a question.
“Suzuki. I have to know. Why are you doing this? I thought we…you and I, had a-”
The woman swiftly interrupted his sentence with a harsh response. “No, we didn’t. You were wrong. There was no real connection between us. Everything I did, all of it, was for this moment.”
“This moment?! That’s all you wanted?! You became friends with me, made me fall in-”
“Yes! This is all I wanted! Now shut up…”
The red-haired woman named Suzuki held out her left hand and flames quickly engulfed it. The fire suddenly changed form and melded together to form an orange scimitar, with a red handle and a tail of flames leading from the bottom of the blade to the floor.
“…and die.”
The demonic woman dashed forward at superhuman speeds, faster than the teenager could even blink. Suddenly, the teen no longer saw a flaming room, but instead saw the dark gray clouds of the sky. He held his hand up towards the clouds, as if attempting to grab them. He then felt a burning sensation on his chest and looked at it, his eyes widening once he saw the fiery opening that exposed his inner organs. As he continued to look at the wound he saw the flames of the slash quickly start to engulf his ribs, then his lungs, and then his heart. The teen looked up at the clouds once again and noticed they were quickly getting farther and farther away. He coughed up blood as he muttered his final words.
“Dear God…please have mercy on me.”
After this final statement, the teen’s vision went black. *******************************************
The demonic woman stood next to the burning corpse, looking down at it with a blank face. She looked at her flaming blade and watched it quickly dissipate into small embers of flame. The expression on her face then began to slowly gain emotion, eventually forming a face full of sadness and regret. The red-haired woman continued looking at the corpse, her red eyes unmoving, and spoke a final sentence to it before turning around and walking away.
“Please forgive me, Carl.”
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Post by SlvrNight on Jun 6, 2011 17:53:19 GMT -5
Chapter 01
The burning sensation he felt all over his body. The warm, iron-filled, liquid underneath him. The despair he felt within his heart. All of these feelings soon faded away and were replaced by absolutely nothing. A feeling of emptiness filled up his body and heart, while he felt his physical being slowly change. He felt his eyes open and saw nothing but darkness. Or was it truly absolute nothingness? His mind could not process such a thing, if anything at all. However, slowly, his vision began to return. The first thing he saw was a lone candle, sitting on the floor. Soon after, dark walls formed, a mirror appeared on top of the desk, and several other desks appeared around the room, each one stacked with several odd items on top of them.
“-arl.”
A voice…the voice of a female? His mind took several minutes to process such a simple fact as a shadowy figure formed in his vision.
“Hey!”
The figure gradually began to gain shape and color, taking the form of a beautiful woman. Her skin was pale, her hair long and a deep red, similar to blood. Her pupils were the same demonic color as her hair and she wore a simple outfit: a black t-shirt with red jeans along with a crimson scarf wrapped around her neck. Her eyes were fixed upon him and she was bending over, looking down at him. From this view, it slowly became apparent he was on the floor.
“Can you understand what I’m saying?”
He blinked his eyes several times then proceeded to slowly nod his head. The gesture made the red-haired woman smile and she stood upright. She walked a few steps away and leaned against a wall. “All right…in that case, can you get up?”
He simply lied on the ground for several seconds, blinking. He then slowly began to move his arms and began to stand up. After a few minutes of struggling he managed to fully stand up, but quickly began to lose his balance and fall backwards. The woman rushed behind him and gently pushed him back up, holding his shoulders to make sure he was steady. She backed up a few feet and her crimson eyes looked up and down his body. She placed a hand to her chin and began muttering to herself with an expression of disapproval on her face.
“I was afraid of this…the process was incomplete. He should have been able to easily stand up after this much time, let alone actually speak…”
As the woman continued muttering to herself, he looked around the room and noticed that he had been laying down in a circular symbol with odd markings on the floor. The symbol had been surrounded by seven candles, hence why he saw a candle when he first woke up. He then slowly walked over towards the large circular mirror standing upright on the desk in front of him. The man saw that he had long brown hair that fell down just past his shoulders. His right eye had a red glow, while his left eye and entire body were wrapped in white bandages. He turned from the mirror and looked at the woman, who was still muttering to herself. She noticed his stare a few seconds after and her eyes shifted between him and the mirror.
“Oh. Are you wondering why your body is like that?”
The man nodded in response.
“You were in a terrible accident. You’re body was severely burned and I found you. If I had found you a few minutes afterwards, you would have died.”
The bandaged man stared at the woman for a few more seconds, and then turned back to the mirror. He brought his face close to it and breathed heavily on it, clouding it up. He raised his right arm after this and wrote two words with his index finger on the mirror. The woman walked towards him as he did this and stood next to him, waiting for him to move his hand. He did so seconds later and the woman read the message aloud.
“Thank you?”
She looked at the bandaged man and smiled at him. “You’re welcome, Carl.” This last word made him quickly look at the red-haired woman with a look of confusion in his eyes. The woman continued smiling as she began walking towards the other side of the room, where the door was. She looked back at the bandaged man and spoke in a gentle tone. “Your name is Carl Makkura. My name is Suzuki Hellblaze. I take it that you’re unable to speak, but don’t worry. I’m sure I’ll be able to figure out what you want from your facial expressions.” The red-haired woman turned and grabbed a black cloak that was hanging off a hook on the wall and tossed it to Carl. She then threw a black t-shirt, jeans, and shoes at him; all of which he caught.
“Put those on, okay?”
Carl silently nodded and proceeded to dress himself. After he was done, he turned and looked at himself in the mirror once again. A look of sadness came across his face and he quickly placed the cloak’s hood over his head, shadowing his face except for his glowing right eye. He looked towards Suzuki, who had her hand held out towards him. He walked towards the red-haired woman and gently placed his hand within hers. She then closed her hand and kindly pulled him behind her as she opened the door, allowing light to flood the room.
“Welcome to your second life, Carl Makkura.”
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Post by SlvrNight on Jun 6, 2011 17:55:46 GMT -5
Chapter 02
A room filled with darkness. It would be an empty room filled with darkness if it were not for the single stone pedestal in the center of it. On this stone platform was a large green marble-like orb. If a person was to take a closer look at it though, they would see the green coloring was actually the result of…grass? Yes there was, not a single blade but instead, a whole field of grass within this odd orb. It was a large meadow filled with healthy green-leafed trees and bushes. Within the center of this beautiful pasture though, resided a circular area devoid of these beautiful plants. This area was barren and had only brown dirt. It was about 30 meters in length from its top to bottom. Two people stood in this round dirt area, both looking at each other from several meters apart.
The red-haired woman had her arms folded and she looked at the cloaked man ahead of her. He had his right arm outstretched towards her with his palm held up. The woman shook her head and spoke to him in an annoyed tone. “Carl! I told you to concentrate! You’re letting your mind wander too much!” She pointed up towards the sky and continued speaking. “Just think about the damn sky or something! Or just think about the clou-oh wait…no. Clouds make people think about their shapes and stuff…Just think about something simple!” As soon as Suzuki finished her sentence a ball of bright purple light flew by her head, missing it by only a meter or so. She quickly looked behind her and saw that it had crashed into a tree, leaving a small, but noticeable, burn mark. The red-haired woman then turned and faced Carl, a look of disappointment on her face.
Carl tilted his head in confusion. This made Suzuki sigh and shake her head as she took a few steps towards the cloaked man. The two people were still separated by several meters as she folded her arms and looked around the green meadow. The red-haired woman returned her attention to Carl, her eyes closed as she spoke. “All right, now try that again. Except, this time, see if you can launch a more powerful blast.” The cloaked man stared blankly at the woman for a few seconds before slowly nodding. He seemed to be having a difficult time comprehending just exactly what was going on. Suzuki noticed this and quickly raised her hand, signaling him to stop. “I can see you’re hesitating. Is there something wrong?” She asked the cloaked man this question in a concerned tone. He looked down at the ground for a few seconds, and then shrugged his shoulders.
“You’re confused, aren’t you Carl? Are you wondering how you have these abilities? Why you have them?” The cloaked man raised his head, ready to give his answer, but was stopped by a statement from Suzuki. “Don’t be.” Her tone was suddenly harsh and uncaring. “Don’t worry about such things. There’s no benefit from knowing that kind of stuff. Now do what I said before and throw a stronger blast at me.” The rejection of Carl’s worries made him look down at the ground again, but he soon lifted his head back up and lifted his right arm; his palm held upwards in Suzuki’s direction.
After a few moments of silence, an orb of purple light, about the size of a baseball, began to grow in front of Carl’s palm. It slowly continued to increase in size and he soon had to hold his right arm with his left hand to keep it steady. His legs began to tremble and his breathing became faster as the orb of violet light continued to grow larger. Soon it became the size of a beach ball and Carl quickly fell forward, releasing the sphere of energy right before falling. Suzuki kept the same emotionless expression on her face as it flew towards her and she swiftly smacked it to the side with her hand. The sound of an explosion was barely audible in the distance. She shook her head as she walked towards Car’s exhausted body, stopping two meters or so away from him. “Well, you did the main thing I asked for, Carl…it’s just that now you have to practice doing something else.”
Carl slowly lifted himself off the ground and sat on his knees, continuing to breathe heavily as his eyes looked up at Suzuki’s. She looked down at him for a few seconds before walking pass him towards a large tree. “It seems like you have a problem controlling how much energy you expel at once. I have something that may help you learn to control that.” She reached the tree and crouched, going through a small red bag that was at the large plant’s base. The cloaked man’s head turned and he looked at her in confusion. Wasn’t the way to control his energy through practice? What kind of physical device could help him with such a thing? These questions were quickly answered once Suzuki returned to him. “Stand up.” She demanded. Carl slowly pushed himself to stand up, briefly losing his balance once he was up. She then told him to put out both his hands and close his eyes, which he obeyed. As his eyes were closed he felt two heavy objects fall into his hands and he quickly put more strength into his arms to keep them up.
“All right, Carl. Open your eyes now.”
The cloaked man did as he was told and his crimson eyes widened once he saw what was in his hands. A pair of small silver handguns was now in his palms. They reflected the sun’s brightness and had black vine-like designs on the sides of the handles. He looked at Suzuki with the same confused expression as before, which made the red-haired woman giggle quietly. She closed her eyes and placed a hand on her chest as she explained. “Those weapons were used to train me in the proper use of my energy. Now, I’m passing them on to you. They’re really tough, so if you’re ever in trouble and getting attacked by someone with a close-range weapon, such as a knife or blade, you can use these to block them.” This comment made Carl’s left eye twitch and she quickly waved her hands in denial. “No! It’s not like I plan on you getting into any conflicts like that! It’s just that…well…” Sadness suddenly came over Suzuki’s face as she looked away from her friend. “The world isn’t like what it used to be…”
Carl took a step closer to her in response to her comment and she looked at him again. Suzuki placed her hands on his still-outstretched ones and smiled. “Don’t worry about that for now, though. We need to get back to practicing!” She then jumped a few meters away from him and pointed. “All right, it’s not too difficult to use those things. Just use one for now, put the other in one of those holsters on your jeans.” The cloaked man momentarily looked at the two firearms in his hands then proceeded to place the one in his left hand into his left holster. He held the other handgun in both hands, looking down at it. His attention was taken away from the weapon by Suzuki calling out to him.
“Now try shooting at me!”
This demand shocked Carl and made him shake his head in refusal. This made the woman roll her eyes in annoyance. She shouted at him, “Don’t worry! You can’t hurt me with those things no matter what!” The cloaked man looked down at the handgun once again and sighed. He then lifted it and aimed at Suzuki’s left leg; staying in that position for several moments. The red-haired woman began tapping her foot impatiently, but then she unexpectedly heard a loud crackling sound and saw a thin beam of purple light fly pass her left leg. She brought her eyes back to Carl and saw his eyes were closed. A small growl could be heard from the woman as she picked up a rock from the ground.
“Keep your damn eyes open!”
Suzuki quickly threw the rock at Carl, hitting him in the head, making him stumble backwards, and fall onto the ground. He slowly sat up with his hand on his head, a hurt expression on his face. She ignored this and pointed at her head. “Shoot at me! Make sure you don’t miss this time, got it?!” Carl fully stood up and took aim with the silver handgun again. He held the firearm with both hands and fully outstretched his arms, aiming for Suzuki’s chest this time. A full two minutes went by before he finally fired another shot. Unfortunately, he closed his eyes at the last second and the beam of violet energy passed by the woman’s head. She looked behind her and saw the beam continuing on and hitting another tree. She turned around and looked at Carl with a smile on her face.
Suzuki walked towards the cloaked man and stopped in front of him. She placed a hand on his left shoulder and he opened his eyes, seeing her smiling face. She spoke calmly towards him. “Don’t worry, Carl. It seems like you won’t be able to shoot right like this. We’ll try something else.” He let out a sigh of relief and smiled back at the red-haired woman.
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Post by SlvrNight on Jun 6, 2011 17:57:10 GMT -5
Chapter 03
“Don’t worry, Carl. It seems like you won’t be able to shoot right like this. We’ll try something else.” He let out a sigh of relief and smiled back at the red-haired woman. His smile quickly disappeared though once he felt something smash into his stomach. The pain of the impact made him fall onto his knees, his arms over his stomach in pain. As Carl held his abdomen he heard Suzuki speak scornfully towards him. “We’ll try beating you up. That should give you the motivation to shoot right.” He looked up at her, only to receive a kick to his head that sent him rolling backwards. He laid face-up on the ground, both hands on his head as a small trail of blood began to go down the side of it. The woman walked closer and looked down at him as he writhed in pain. She sighed and stomped on his chest, making Carl cough. Suzuki stomped on his chest once again and then proceeded to kick his side, sending him rolling across the ground once again. This time, Carl was lying on his side with his hands on his chest as he coughed every few seconds. Blood began to trickle out of his mouth as he coughed up blood a few times. The demonic woman continued walking towards him.
Suzuki quickly reached Carl and turned him onto his back with her foot, then swiftly placed it onto his throat. She laughed quietly as she put more and more strength into her foot, slowly starting to crush his esophagus. The cloaked man gagged several times and grabbed her shoe with his hand as he attempted to push it off of him. He was not getting anywhere with that and his gagging and coughing increased in frequency. Suzuki noticed this and leaned over a bit so her head was a little closer to Carl.
“Are you trying to say something, Carl?”
She put slightly less pressure on his throat, waiting to hear if he was actually going to say anything. The cloaked man managed to cough out only two words.
“Kill…me.”
This request made Suzuki’s scarlet eyes widen. She quickly took her foot off of Carl’s throat and began walking away. The cloaked man held his throat as he slowly sat up, coughing every few seconds. He could hear the red-haired woman muttering as she walked away. She stopped once she was several meters away and turned her head to look at Carl as he continued to gradually get up. He coughed out blood once again and fell onto his knees, holding his chest as he breathed heavily. Suzuki looked down at the ground and closed her eyes as she spoke.
“Those are the first two words you’ve said since you woke up, Carl.”
The red-haired woman looked at both her hands for several seconds, and then looked at Carl once again. “If that’s what you really want, then I’ll do that for you.” She slammed her hands onto the ground and a red circular symbol appeared underneath her. Two large stone towers began to rise out of the ground, one on Carl’s left and another to his right. The cloaked man looked at the towers in surprise, his eyes widened. He attempted to stand up quickly but fell down to his knees once again as he was overcome by more coughing. Suzuki crouched and looked at the crimson symbol around her. She lifted her right arm and her hand glowed bright red as she made marks within the circle. As she did this, silver chains began breaking out of the ground and wrapping around the stone towers. These chains then flew off the structures and wrapped around Carl’s arms and legs, forcing him to stand up and lifting his arms. He looked around in a panic as this happened.
Suzuki stood up and did a small jump backwards to get out of the red circle. She looked at Carl and folded her arms as if waiting for something. Then, as if on cue, the chains wrapped around Carl’s limbs glowed bright orange and he let out a scream of agony. The scream sounded like a twisted “Why?!” So, at this time, the red-haired woman began to explain what was going on. “Those chains are going to constantly feed a steady amount of hellfire into your body, Carl. The difference between hellfire and normal fire is that hellfire can actually be in the form of pure energy, like your little energy blasts from before. Plus, hellfire also messes up non-physical parts of you, such as your mind and soul, as well as your physical body.” She narrowed her eyes in anger and let out a small growl before continuing. “You said you want me to kill you. So I am. Just stay there and die.” Suzuki turned away from the squirming cloaked man and began walking away, vanishing into flames seconds after that.
Carl continued to scream as he felt the heat being poured into him from the chains. He looked around rapidly, hoping to see something that could help him. He saw nothing but the beautiful grass and the trees of the meadow. The pain of the demonic fire dispensing into his body was not enough to distract him from the splendor of the area. He then let out another brief scream of pain as he continued to feel the fire. The cloaked man’s shoes began to dig into the dirt as he attempted to resist the painful torture. He clenched his fists and teeth as he continued to fight against the agony.
How much time had gone by? How much demonic fire was released into his body? How long had he been there, squirming in his hellish torture? These questions ran around in Carl’s mind as he let out brief screams of pain every few minutes. There was no way to measure time within this place for the “sun” just sat up there in the “sky”. Suzuki had previously told him that these two things within this place were artificial. The grass, trees, and other plant life, however, were truly real. Carl’s mind was taken away from its wandering as he let out another painful cry. His head slowly turned and he looked at the chains wrapped around his left arm. Those damned chains. Their orange glow made them look as if they were made of solidified fire.
Dried tears covered the cheeks of Carl’s bandaged face. His vision began to get blurry and the green plant life gradually turned into colored blobs in his eyes. As his eyes began to close, a stronger burst of hellfire shot into his body jolting him with pain and reawakening him. He cursed under his breath and looked at the chains binding him once again. The cloaked man grits his teeth and put all his strength into his left arm as he began forcing it forward. As he did this he felt more heat coming in from the demonic chains. The intense pain of this forced tears to progressively come from Carl’s eye as he continued to move his left arm. He soon heard a crack and put even more strength into his arm, soon the chains wrapped around his left arm broke off from their stone tower with a loud cracking sound. His arm fell down to his side with several chains still wrapped around it. However, the chains were now their normal silver color. They no longer had the demonic fire flowing through them.
Carl proceeded to force his right arm forward now, with the aid of his left. He broke off this chain faster than the previous one and quickly fell to his knees from exhaustion. He breathed heavily as he looked at the last two chains wrapped around his legs. He sat up and grabbed his right leg then quickly pulled it to the side and broke its restraints. He smiled as he did this, noticing that it was becoming easier to break them. He continued to do this with his left leg, quickly causing the final chain to break.
Carl was now lying on the ground, face down. He continued to breathe heavily for several minutes before managing to lift his head up and look ahead. He began to crawl forward, not caring where he was going. As long as he could get away from those cursed stone tower he would be happy. As he moved along he felt brief, but frequent, burning sensations within his limbs. The cloaked man ignored this pain and continued crawling, soon reaching a large tree. He turned himself over and sat against its trunk, his head looking down at the ground. Carl’s vision began to blur once again but he shook his head and it returned to normal. His eyes widened once he noticed a shadow on top of him and he quickly lifted his head.
Standing in front of Carl was the woman who put him in that torture machine in the first place. Her red scarf and long crimson ponytail flowed on the wind as a breeze blew by the two. Suzuki stared at Carl silently for, what felt like, hours. He turned his head away from her and she sighed. “So, you’ve chosen to live, Carl?” The cloaked man did not give her an answer. She didn’t expect him to say one anyways, especially given his current condition.
The red-haired woman crouched in front of him and gently placed her hands on his face. She turned his head so he was looking at her and said: “Don’t ever tell someone to kill you. Odds are they will not give you the quick and painless death that you had in mind. Asking someone to end your life is just asking for more pain.” Suzuki took a hand away from Carl’s bandaged face and placed it on the chains wrapped around his right arm. “These chains...” She stood up and began walking away, speaking as her back was turned to him. “What you did just now shows that you still have some sort of attachment to life. If you truly wanted to die, you would have endured that pain. These chains will remain on you so long as you have an ounce of will to live.” She turned and faced Carl once again, several red bangs covering the right side of her face as the wind continued to gently blow. “The day you lose these chains is when you are truly prepared to die. I pray that day never comes, Carl.”
The red-haired woman walked towards the cloaked man and bent forward once she was a foot away from him. She held out her hand towards him with an expression of relief on her face. Carl looked up at her, his red eyes shifting down towards the outstretched hand. It was not truly a choice, whether to accept her hand or not. To not accept it most likely meant abandonment and possible death by the woman’s hands. Accepting it meant that he would continue to live...but at what cost? As he grasped Suzuki’s hand, this question plagued Carl’s mind.
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Post by SlvrNight on Jun 6, 2011 17:58:39 GMT -5
Chapter 04
Carl followed Suzuki through several dark hallways, constantly curious as to where exactly she was leading him. She was holding onto his right arm, practically dragging him, and all questions concerning their destination were left unanswered. It wasn’t until they reached a wide crimson door that she finally spoke. Her tone was stern and it was clear that what she was about to show him should not be taken lightly. “It’s time for you to learn exactly where you are, Carl. This may be difficult to take in, but there’s not really any other option since you can’t just stay locked up in this place.” The undead teen nodded in understanding. Suzuki smiled lightly and pushed the massive door open, revealing a colossal forest of, what looked like, blue trees. All the plants in front of him were shaped like normal ones, but all of them seemed to be made from beautiful azure crystals. They reflected the light from the sun, giving the whole forest an appearance even more beautiful than the trees alone would give. Carl was completely awestruck by such a sight and stood where he was as he marveled at the beauty in front of him. Suzuki gave him a few minutes before smacking his back, with considerably more force than necessary, and pushing him out the door. He stumbled down the steps of the building but regained his balance once on the solid earth. She walked by him and spoke in a gentle tone. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” She looked back at him as he smiled in response and said “Yes. It truly is. Your home is located within an absolutely wonderful place, Suzuki.” She laughed and continued walking forward, beckoning Carl to follow with a small flick of her wrist. “This place has a rather simplistic name, Carl. It is called the Azure Forest. The reasoning for such a name should be obvious.” “Of course it is. But I’m wondering something…why exactly are the trees in this place made of crystals? They’re not supposed to be like that.” “Well, the explanation for that can be both confusing and simple. So long as you don’t try to over think it.” “I’ll just take what you say.” “All right the-” She stopped midsentence and placed her hand to her chin. “Actually, on second thought, I should probably show, and explain, something else to you first. Follow me.” The demonic woman walked deeper into the forest with Carl right behind her. The duo soon reached the end of the forest and Carl let out a small gasp at what he saw.
The two of them were now standing at a cliff, allowing them to see the land ahead for several miles. As Carl continued to stare at the scene in front of him, Suzuki walked closer to the edge and spread her arms outward. “This is the world, Carl. This is how it looks now.” A few moments of silence passed before he began to absentmindedly walk to the edge as well. He stopped next to the woman and continued to gaze out at the world. It was practically a wasteland. The remains of many buildings were strewn about; some still ablaze from whatever conflict caused such destruction. Trees were nothing more than charred and broken sticks while several craters dotted the land. Skeletal remains of humans and animals alike were scattered around, with many more being present than dead tress and buildings combined. The undead teen slowly turned towards his female companion, his voice softened. “How…how did this happen? What caused such a thing to happen?!” He did not even wait for her response before continuing. “I may not have any memories from before you saved me, but I know…I know the world isn’t supposed to be like this! This feeling of despair…this atmosphere of death…it’s not supposed to be like this! What the hell happened here, Suzuki?! What happened and how can we set things right?!”
The demonic woman looked away from Carl and an uncomfortable silence developed. The silence felt as if it went on for days before she turned back to him with a gloomy expression. “There is no way to ‘fix’ this. Too much damage has been done to ever make the world the way it used to be. That is-” “No! You’re wrong! You’ve just given up, that’s all! There is a way to fix the world and I’m going to find it. I can’t just leave things as they are… I can’t-” Carl’s outburst was cut short as Suzuki smacked him. She quickly grasped his shoulders and brought her face inches from his. “Calm down. You’re not thinking clearly. Maybe you will once you know how all of this happened.” “I don’t care how it happened! I just want to make things the way they should be!” “You think you can help make the world better if you don’t even know how it got this way?! Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it, Carl! I brought you back into this world and I’ll be damned if I let you screw yourself over!” He became silent after this, unsure of what to say. Suzuki slowly released his shoulders and took a step back from him. She folded her arms and looked out towards the wasteland again. “Now that you’ve calmed down a bit, I’ll tell you what caused all of this.”
“Three years ago there was a scientist who was experimenting with some form of new energy he discovered. He had wanted to use this energy to provide free, clean, power to the entire world. While those were some pretty good intentions, apparently he didn’t do enough research on this energy. It turned out that this so-called ‘energy’ was actually a living organism. I’ll be honest Carl, I have absolutely no idea how this guy fucked that up so badly. I would think that something alive would be easy to separate from energy. But I’m not a scientist, so what the hell do I know?” Suzuki said this last sentence with a considerable amount of disgust. “Anyways, this creature ended up infecting this guy. Closest thing I can compare it to is a parasite. The guy went batshit crazy. He started using his vast intellect to create clones of the parasite within him and infecting others with it. Once he had enough, he finally went on to his main goal, which was to open the gate to the Underworld and unleash Hell on Earth.” It was at this point that Carl took a step forward and had another outburst. “Wait a second! Didn’t anyone try to stop this guy?!” “How could they? All of those infected merely kept silent about what was going on. By the time anyone knew what they were planning, it was too late.” “What about you? Since you know so much about what happened, I’m going to guess you were actually there! Why didn’t you try to stop it?” Suzuki stared at him blankly for some time, but her expression suddenly turned into a harsh glare and she did not give an answer to his question.
Suzuki looked out towards the wasteland again. “The current condition of this world is a result of that scheme. However, someone actually did stop him, but not until he had already opened the gates. It was a small group of people, specifically, seven superhumans. They engaged the man, known as Cloako, and his army of infected soldiers. The superhumans were backed up by several of the armies from around the world, including the Americans, the Russians, the Japanese, and others. It was a difficult fight, but the superhumans were obviously victorious. Four of them died in the conflict, while sixty percent of humanity was wiped out from the creatures that came flooding out from the Underworld. It was a bittersweet victory, to put it lightly.” She looked at Carl, waiting for a response. His silence indicated he was still processing what she had just told him and decided to continue anyways. “That event is now known as the Eight Hour War, due to how quickly the gate was opened and then closed.The three superhumans who survived are named Silv, C, and Miku. With their leader, Silv, now called The People’s Hero. He’s the one who killed Cloako, so I suppose it makes sense that he’s getting the most recognition. But still…” Suzuki continued speaking, her voice getting lower as she began rambling to herself. During this time, Carl took a few more steps towards the cliff, stopping at the very edge of it. His mind was so full of what he had just learned that he could not properly think straight. Despite him having no memories of his past, he still had a feeling within him that just told him the world was not supposed to be this devastated wasteland. As for this “hero”…if what Suzuki had told him was true, then that means he was unable to prevent over half of humanity from being killed. This was a rather large failure and it filled Carl with disgust.
“Some hero… He let such a large number of people die. That’s not a hero at all.”
His female friend overheard this and looked at him with a confused expression.
“He doesn’t deserve his title, Suzuki! Sixty percent of this world’s people died! About how many is that?” “About 4.2 billion.” “Why are you so calm when you say that?! A real hero wouldn’t have allowed a single person to die! He should have saved everyone!” “Carl, that’s not possible. You’re being naive. Plus, he is just one man” “You told me he had friends! Six of them! Along with several militaries from around the world! So don’t give me that ‘he’s just one man’ excuse!” “The invasion was a surprise to everyone you idiot! I told you that everyone who knew anything about Cloako’s plan was infected and on his side! I gave you a damned brain so I’d really appreciate it if you used it!” “Well you…wait, what?”
All the anger in Carl’s voice vanished right at that moment as the furious expression upon his face shifted to one of confusion. His voice shook slightly as he continued speaking. “W-What did you just say?” Silence was his only answer. Suzuki looked away from him and began walking back towards the Azure Forest, leaving him alone at the cliff. He turned and looked out towards the wasteland once again, his mind now on other, more important, things. “She is hiding something from me. I am in a world that was ravaged by a war and the only person I have with me is someone who I cannot trust.” He stomped the earth below him in frustration. “She didn’t even get to tell me why the trees look like that.”
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