CHAPTER 1 ; KRITIC

Chapter 1;

  KRITIC

'And so the Angel descends,

"The ever high, becomes the fallen one

And into my body, I ascend

To all emotions, his power makes me numb'

In his eyes, I saw it, I saw; 'ZABANIYYAH'. The chilling cold from the heat of hell, the smell of skin burning just as fast as it heals, its bright blue flames and overwhelming power; that was what I saw in his eyes, that, was 'Zabaniyyah' the first gate of hell.

"Hmm". the man clad in black said as his hands held my collar firmly against the wall that I had been flung onto.

"So, you're a fateless too." he smiled as he continued to look into my eyes, deeper than before and just like before, I saw so many incomprehensible things that I could shockingly, comprehend....[we'll get back to that later].

With one movement, he took his hands off me and punched me in the torso, from the force of his punch I could sense the wall behind me break as my already damaged back was now completely broken, causing me to lose feeling all over my body and even my face.

"With that, I'm pretty sure I broke your spine, so you shouldn't be able to feel anything…now, i'm going to trap that bastard in that body of yours." The man said to me,[like he needed my fucking permission]. It took no less time for me blink than it took for me to see a figure immediately begin to claw its way out of my body, the minute he uttered that statement.

"Ohhh, so now you choose to show yourself…huh, Kritic?. Well, its too late, I found the perfect prison for you, luckily, he's also the perfect lightning rod, so you wouldn't feel too lonely." The man said as he stretched his arm forward and commanded,

"Bind and free as your soul wishes, I…Kane, by the power of the keeper orders you!" A stream of red and golden aura surrounded me as my body levitated off the ground and my head tilted forward, from the light that surrounded me, I could see the creature that had been struggling to gnaw its way out me, from what little I could make out of it, it was completely white, with streams of black around it, its body looked like it was made out of pure light, and its face was nowhere to be found…. just like the man in front of me, it was certainly beautiful, but, in a completely different way; in a purer, more 'Saint-like' way.

My body began to heal itself as my bones cracked back into place and I could feel my body again, what followed was an overwhelming pain.

"AHHHHHHHH!!!" I screamed, as I felt what I could only describe as a part of my own soul ripping itself out of me as the pain only grew, more and more and before I knew it, my body could do no more than to drift out of consciousness to prevent the pain from killing me.  Just before I completely fell unconscious, I could hear the distinctive voice of the man clad in black as he laughed from beneath me "A fateless, and the fallen, yet another Abomination….this...this is going to be interesting."

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I woke up in the bedroom of my house the next day, as I quickly scrambled around my body to make sure there really wasn't a fucking 'Angel' gnawing its way out of me, as I did that, I came to realize that although I was scrambling around my body like a crazed maniac who was supposed to be in fear, the expression on my face, was surprisingly calm, [I had been depressed from months now, but today I felt…nothing].

No anger, no sadness, no happiness, nothing...I felt absolutely nothing.

And so, since I felt no more negative emotion, or rather, no emotion at all, I decided to give my normal daily routine a try.

I went to my fridge and scooped out some ingredients for a protein shake as I prepared to go to my gym. On entering the gym room in my mansion, I walked across the mirror and took a little peek of myself, before stepping backwards to make sure I didn't see wrong.

I stepped closer and did some movements in front of the mirror to make sure I was seeing correctly; just before the Olympics, I was 177cm tall, had a lean but not muscular figure, extremely fair skin and dark eyes that complimented my dark hair with what people described as a face with many delicate features, but, what the hell was I seeing in this mirror.

I had grown to at least 190cm and my short cut hair was now long, long enough to touch my butt, and it wasn't just that. My hair was now white, with slivers of black all around it, my skin had become a bit tan and my so called face with delicate features, was quite literally gorgeous, I was still recognizable, facially but I now looked like a more handsome brother of myself or something. Lastly, I don't know why I didn't notice this in the morning, but I was absolutely ripped, I'm sure I gained some weight in the months that I did nothing, but now I was in just as good a shape as a Mr. Olympia contestant.

Just as in the morning, although I was a bit startled, I couldn't say I was shocked, so, quickly I moved on to exercise, but I stopped just as soon as I started. I had weights, up to 300 kilograms in my gym but no matter how much I lifted, I didn't struggle or even feel the impact of the weight at all, naturally I blamed it on my unusual growth sprout [that just so happened to me at the age of 25] and moved on, rather than why I had superhuman strength, what bothered me the most were my lack of emotions, or rather, how dull my emotions felt, I was now sure I could at least feel something, after getting startled in front of the mirror back in the gym, but, that feeling was just way too dull.

As I got buried in my own thoughts, I arrived at the track field that was my front yard and proceeded to try out a light jog, to test if the theory in my head was right; the theory that my 'growth sprout' had fixed the problem I had, the 10-second barrier problem I had.

My legs buried themselves deep into the earth as I put on some music and got ready to start. Once I was ready, I took to my heel and moved forward, my leg muscle buckled with hope as I tightened my arms lightly around my chest and moved as I would during a normal jog, to my surprise I moved forward fast, maybe a bit too forward and a bit too fast, forget one or two meters, in the span of a second, I was in the middle of nowhere.

I looked at my body and I could no longer see my clothes or phone, I was completely naked around the mass of ice blocks and icy rivers that surrounded me in this deserted place I could only assume was Antarctica.

Luckily, I knew what direction I came from, and knew that all it took was a one-step movement to get here, so it should be the same to get back, once again as I thought this, I became worried that I could even think at all, because not only did I travel kilometers around the world and was now stuck in the evening time with no human around me or even clothes to keep me warm or a phone to call for help, I felt no cold, no panic or even fear, and I was very composed, too composed for the moment.

I decided not to put too much thought into it and proceeded to begin my short journey back home.

I had gotten in posture to run and began, unlike before, I could see the world slowly as my one movement shot me forward, only for me to crash into what felt like a giant block of steel.

I moved backwards a bit as I looked up in confusion too see what I could only describe…as the fucking devil in front of me.