1 Fear

"TAKE COVER!"

A shell exploded in the depths of a burning jungle. Multiple soldiers were unable to notice the incoming fire and were caught in the shell explosion. Innards of the soldiers were spilt all over the area.

Some were unfortunate to not die and left with broken limbs and arms near the treacherous heat from the burning of the exploded shell. The Black Monarch troops systematically start to begin their slaughter against the fresh batch of soldiers from the Red Sun Empire.

Haruyuki Sen hid inside his shell scrape when the enemies' artillery fired around the vicinity. His hands were trembling with such fear for his life that he nearly dropped his only chance of fighting back. The most basic bolt action rifle assigned to all new conscripts named Zinger.

The black wooden frame, bronze single barrel Zinger has a six round stripper clip with a range of 800 metres. They were mass produced with the aid of Fate Crystals which this current war was all about.

Fate Crystals. These crystals came out of the ground and even falling from the heavens all around the world approximately 80 years ago. The smallest crystal that appeared were around the size of a mountain, and largest ones may be as large as if it is supporting the sky. People feared it, initially thinking it was some alien invasion or punishment from the gods.

However, scientists and researchers subsequently found out their uses. One of the most extensive uses of the Fate Crystals is to produce an immense amount of electricity with just a little nudge from their existing steam technology.

This significantly increases the capacity for science to expand in various fields. Large mechanical machines to improve daily lives such as farming, transportation, manufacturing. However, the most notable growth is in the military aspect.

War machines such as steam crystal fusion tanks, planes, ships and even giant-sized steam-crystal fusion automaton known as Golems were created.

The urge for various countries to gather these crystals were growing despite the fact that the extraction of the Fate Crystal shards was painfully difficult as it might affect the purity of the shard.

Not to mention, there were instances where these Fate Crystals can ignite the hidden potential of men.

The potential of Magic.

With proven instances all around the world where humans have a chance of using magic once exposed to this Fate Crystals made the elite society greedy. Greedy for power. Greedy for immortality.

This greed became even more evident as the large Fate Crystal which seems to act as the pillar that supports the heavens, also known as the Heavens Tower was situated directly at the epicentre of the three major countries.

The Red Sun Empire, The Black Monarch and the White Republic. The Black Monarch invaded the Red Sun one year ago while keeping its neutrality with the White Republic as they see the Red Sun inferior in size and in military might. Isn't it better to crush the weaker one before fighting the stronger one?

Bullets kept wheezing around furiously in this blood filled forest, but it seemed more one sided as the current skirmish stretches. Sen was drafted two weeks ago from a village near the ever shrinking outskirts of the Red Sun borders. In those two weeks, he and the other fresh conscripts learned the basic concepts of handling their first and probably only 'wife' in their lifetime.

The Red Sun had been suffering significant losses and unable to secure most of their borders with regular troops. They had no choice but to enforce mass conscription to maintain presence along the edge of their territory.

"Breath, Sen, Breath! Remember your training!" a fellow conscript beside Sen was trying to calm him down from the shell shock that happened near them. Sen was still in shock, but he tried his best to breath in and out, as suggested by Lee Feng. In the meantime, his buddy continued to take his shots with his Zinger rifle against the incoming enemies but with disappointing effect.

After which, Sen managed to calm down, and he unloaded his first stripper clip from his Zinger against the upcoming horde of soldiers.

"Damn these Monkies, I swear I will avenge my buddies!" Feng was not calm either and was filled with blind rage. The Black Monarch troops were like an encroaching black shroud that slaughters everything in its path.

The morale of the Red Sun conscripts got even lower.

"Retreat! RETREAT! " The conscript leader who was a mere Lance Corporal in rank hoarsely shouted in fear and decided to run away from the battlefield first.

"What the? Why is our leader running so quickly?" Sen thought, and his fear starts to grab his throat once again. He trembled but he managed to keep his fear in check and surveyed his surroundings once more before he began to run with Feng again.

If things cannot get any worse, the fleeing lance corporal was shot in the head as his back was facing the Black Monarch troops. "Let's move sideways, Sen!" Feng shouted while pointing to the east. There seems to be more forage on the eastern side of the forest which might provide more cover while treating.

"Thank you, Feng!" Sen held his empty Zinger even tighter while running.

"Bro, just keep running!" Feng stopped, turned around once in a while and fire some shots wildly towards his enemies as suppression fire. The scene was extremely chaotic. A nearby conscript tripped due to the forest terrain and got shot.

Another rushed towards the Black Monarch like a mad bull but was ultimately killed without doing much injury to his intended opponent. The Red Sun 89th Conscripts Company were either colouring the forest with their blood or running like sheep escaping from the clutches of the wolves.

-Bang!- -Bang!-

"Fuck!" Feng shouted in agony. Sen stopped by his tracks and looked back with dread as he saw Feng shot at his right shoulder. At that moment, Sen swallowed his breath with difficulty and he was in an unfortunate dilemma of fight or flight.

His body response was flight.

He wants to run away as far from this place as possible, but his heart response was fight. Feng was his lifelong buddy from his home village. They were lucky enough to be conscripted together in the 89th Conscript company and now how can he leave his bro alone.

"Run Sen! Do not care about me! Let me cover you." Feng looked momentarily at Sen and instinctively tried to reload his stripper clip into his Zinger bolt action rifle. "No, No, Feng No!" Sen summoned his strength to fight against the ever gripping invisible hands of fear that had been on his neck for that few seconds to move towards Feng.

"Do not be stupid Sen! Fuck, Sen JUST GO!" Feng's shoulder wound became even more painful, and tears dropped uncontrollably as he did not want to die, but he did not want his friend to die as well. Sen didn't listen and charged forward to Feng without care.

Despite him panting heavily, Sen gritted his teeth and pulled Feng up. For his friend, Sen is willing to die with no regrets. Feng was also touched by Sen's camaraderie and summoned his might to press forth.

And it seems the heavens were willing to listen to Sen's request.

The request to die meaninglessly.

-Wooooooo- -du- -du-

Feng heard a drop and a metallic clink. Sen noticed too, and both their eyes turned wide. At this instant, Sen pushed Feng away and tried to kick the metal stick away. As fated as one can possibly be, Sen missed his footing in the forest terrain and his body came crashing down to the metal stick.

At this point, the metal stick exploded in the middle of his chest. Sen's vision blurred, his mouth and chest started to spew blood as his consciousness faded away.