Chapter one ; The forgotten origin
724 Words
In the back water street in the city of obi ___deep within the entrance to the dark Alley besides those dirty streets in a small run down building bearly recognizeable. The night smelled of iron and rain.
A boy stood barefoot on cracked stone, his thin body trembling—not from the cold, but from what he knew was coming.
“Stand up.”
The voice behind him was heavy.
Final.
Jesse tried.
His arms shook as he pushed himself off the ground, knees scraping against the rough floor.
Blood mixed with rainwater beneath him, thin and helpless, just like he was.
“I said stand.”
“I… I am…” his voice barely held together.
A sharp crack split the air.
Pain exploded across his back as he collapsed again, breath knocked out of his lungs.
Pathetic.
That word didn’t need to be spoken anymore. It lived in every strike, every glare, every silence that followed.
Above him, the sky rumbled—dark clouds twisting like something alive.
Rain began to fall harder now, each drop stinging his skin.
“You were born weak,” the man said coldly. “No Path. No talent. No value.”
Jesse didn’t reply.
He had learned long ago… speaking only made it worse.
Another blow came.
Then another.
And another.
But the pain… wasn’t what broke him.
It was the memory.
Warm hands.
A soft voice.
A smile he could never forget.
“Jesse… no matter what happens to you in this life… don’t ever succumb to the darkness.”
Her fingers had brushed his cheek so gently, as if he were something fragile… something worth protecting.
“You too can be the light.”
That was the last thing she said.
The last thing he ever heard.
A drop of water hit the ground beside him.
Then another.
Then another.
But these… weren’t rain.
Tears.
Jesse clenched his fists.
Light…?
What light?
Where was it when she died?
Where was it when he screamed for help?
Where was it now?
Another strike came down—
—but it never landed.
Something… shifted.
The air froze.
No—
It didn’t freeze.
It stopped.
The rain hung in place, suspended like glass beads in the sky.
The sound of thunder vanished.
The world… went silent.
Jesse’s breath caught.
“…What…?”
Slowly… shakily… he lifted his head.
The man in front of him stood frozen mid-motion, eyes wide, expression locked in something between anger and confusion.
But he wasn’t moving.
He couldn’t.
And then Jesse saw it.
Not with his eyes…
But somewhere deeper.
A space.
A vast, endless… nothing.
No light.
No darkness.
No sound.
No existence.
And yet—
It was there.
Waiting.
Watching.
Calling.
Jesse’s heart began to pound.
“What… is this…?
The moment his thoughts touched it—
Something answered.
The suspended rain… vanished.
Not fell.
Not moved.
Vanished.
Erased.
As if it had never existed.
Jesse’s eyes widened.
“No… that’s…”
Impossible.
The man staggered backward suddenly, as if something unseen had shoved him.
“What did you—?!”
His voice trembled.
For the first time…
He was afraid.
Jesse slowly rose to his feet.
His body still weak.
Still broken.
Still trembling.
But something had changed.
Something fundamental.
I didn’t do anything…”
His voice was quiet.
Too quiet.
Like it was being swallowed before it could fully exist.
The air around him distorted slightly.
Like reality itself was unsure how to behave.
Jesse looked at his hands.
“…I didn’t… cast anything…”
No mana.
No circle.
No incantation.
So what was this?
A whisper echoed—not in his ears, but in his mind.
' You have no Path.
So you shall walk… beyond them'.
The world trembled.
Just for a second.
But that second was enough.
Far away…
{}{}{}{}{}{}{}
Deep beneath the most prestigious
academy in the country…
An ancient mechanism—one that had not reacted in centuries—
Activated.
And in a quiet study lined with countless books, a man paused mid-sentence.
Chris Merlindec slowly lifted his gaze.
“…Interesting.”
{}{}{}{}{}{}
Back in the rain—
Jesse stood alone.
The storm resumed.
The pain returned.
The world continued.
But nothing… was the same anymore.
And somewhere, in the space between existence and nothingness—
Something had finally found its vessel.
- Writer
