Half Prologue V Hopeless

Ulao Henen was tall for a 13-year-old. His build was developed, and his face was recognized by almost everyone in the school.

He was known as the 'Terrorizer' for how much fear he instilled within the losers of the academy.

Unlucky for Sol, he was the number one loser that Vanathril had to offer.

With angry and fast stomps, Ulao neared Sol's table.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Etherless rat! Eating food from the money you owe me!?" He sounded genuinely pissed off, yelling loudly.

Many kids nearby quickly noticed what was going on and turned their attention to him. A good amount were already engrossed in what was going on.

"Looks like that Sol kid's gonna cop a beating again... che!" A kid laughed with his friends.

"Man... what a loser. If I had his life I don't know whether I would be able to keep living or not." Another said as he chuckled with his group of friends.

Sol happened to hear this, saddening him a bit. However, he couldn't focus on anything else except for Ulao right now.

"I-I'll have the money by tomorrow! I swear it!" Sol spoke without thinking, driven by fear.

"Huh!? Are you saying you still don't have the money you owe me? How the hell are you eating then? Couldn't you not eat for a few days to save up to pay me back? Don't piss me off!" 

Ulao suddenly grabbed onto Sol's collar, lifting him up into the air as his forearm veins popped out.

Sol winced slightly, his feet floating off the ground. Surprised noises rippled through the nearby crowd.

"What money does he owe Ulao?" A kid whispered.

"Ulao asked Sol to buy him a cold drink. Since Sol was a few minutes late on getting it, the money that Sol spent became Ulao's, and he has yet to pay it back." A kid nearby whispered back, answering the question.

"Or at least... that's what I hear through the grapevine."

Ulao didn't stop harassing Sol, "Are you going to spill the money or not!? Do you want me to pummel you to the ground? You know you can't defend against me, just like last time..."

"I-!" Sol tried to speak but was abruptly cut off.

"I don't care about excuses!" Ulao violently shook Sol by the collar, as he exclaimed with a deadly serious glint in his eyes, "You're a bastard, but you still come from a noble family. You gotta at least have a few bucks in your wallet. Give it to me now, or get what's coming to you."

At that moment, Sol was too afraid to talk. The words which he heard before reentered his mind like a series of flashes.

'If I had his life I don't know whether I would be able to keep living or not.' These were the words that appeared in Sol's mind.

His body went limp momentarily. For the first time in a very long while, he felt as though he had lost hope.

"I-im sorry..." Was all he could muster to say with a faint voice.

"Ergh..." Ulao grunted, cocking his fist back before launching it at Sol's face.

With a loud crunching noise, a wave of silence brushed through the room.

Silent gasps of astonishment and noises of awe and confusion began to resound.

Ulao retracted his fist. What was left of Sol's face was a crushed that was bleeding profusely.

His eyes had rolled back into his head, as he was knocked unconscious almost instantly from the punch.

Ulao let go of Sol's collar before walking away. "Tsk... useless." He grumbled under his breath.

After he left, Roan and Isol quickly rushed Sol to the medical center.

He was taken to a small room beside a window and laid out on a stretcher. There, he was treated by a nurse.

Roan and Isol explained what happened to him as the nurse worked.

In the nurse, the nurse exclaimed in worry, "This injury isn't normal. Ether Energy must have been used since even his skull has been cracked."

Roan and Isol couldn't believe what they were hearing. They were left speechless.

"It seems that he's fallen into a minor coma. It may take weeks for him to wake up." She exclaimed with eyebrows curled inwards.

"What!? B-but... the finals! He's going to miss them. Doesn't that mean he automatically fails?" Roan couldn't help but exclaim.

"Unfortunately, that is the case."

Both Roan and Isol were taken aback on hearing this. "...I see," Roan said, as both he and Isol soon left Sol on his own.

Right now, Sol was nowhere else but his own mind. In this state of coma, he felt he wasn't fully conscious.

Instead, he was seeing memories of the past. Memories that were etched into his mind as though carved by a rusty knife. Memories that would never leave him.

Only a year ago, Sol had been falsely accused by his brother, Etos. Etos claimed that Sol attacked him, but Etos was the one who had started the altercation.

It was a time when Sol had decided that he had had enough of the torture, and wanted to defend himself from the abuse.

However, when he pushed Etos back, they quickly got into a brawling fistfight.

Of course, since Sol wasn't able to conjure Ether Energy, he was beaten to a pulp. His face resembled an avocado more than a normal human head.

When explaining the situation to his mother, Etos claimed that Sol had attempted to attack him, and he simply defended himself by beating the Etherless boy up.

These words infuriated Sol's stepmother, prompting her to act out in rage and punish Sol severely.

Sol's words of rebuttal were all null and void, and he was forced to become a working slave from that day forward until the day he died.

This meant he was even lesser than the butlers and maids, and was forced to do heavy loads of chores around the house.

This specific memory of Sol's was what led to the greatest downfall in Sol's life. 

It wasn't even the death of his birth mother, as he was too young to comprehend that event anyway.

Ever since that day one year ago, Sol had gradually lost his will to keep going.

Now, in a state where he was barely conscious of his own thoughts and memories, he couldn't help but feel overwhelming despair.

Even though he was in a coma, Sol's eyes tear up. Small beads of tears began trickling down the side of his face, soaking the pillow underneath his head.

'I... can't do it any longer. I don't want to continue living a life like this. I don't want to continue living.' He said in his mind, having finally lost all semblance of hope.

Just then, at that exact moment, a sharp pain stemming from the top of his head jolted through his body like a bolt of lightning.

The excruciating pain didn't show any signs of subsiding. He couldn't control his limbs, but his body shook uncontrollably from the horrible feeling.

It was as though he was being cut open from the inside by a series of tiny yet sharp blades.

'What is going on!?' He screamed inwardly.

Then... he heard a voice reply to his desperate queries. "This is the body huh? It's not ideal, but it should be good enough."