CHAPTER 2: "IRREVERSIBLE"

... I saw him, his body partially covered in ice armor, facing almost the entire village... I saw him, the old man.

"Leave him be! He has done no wrong, he's just trying to live the best he can," he said to his opponents.

"Shut up!" "Let us go get him." "He's the devil himself," replied the village.

Feeling guilty for what I was subjecting the old man to, I decided to approach him and ask him to stop what he was doing. Step by step, trying not to slip on the ice-covered ground, I moved closer to him. I leaned against a spike of ice formed around the door and said,

"Please, stop this. They're after me, not you... I'll surrender to them, and it will all be over. You can live a peaceful life without any trouble."

I passed by the old man and faced the nearest young man, or rather, the group of young men closest to me. There were three typical youths, probably around my age, who had likely beaten me before.

As I walked towards them, I felt something grab me, and in an instant, I was sent crashing into the back of the living room. I realized it was the old man who had prevented me from approaching and used his ice to grab and push me away from the group.

He barely turned towards me and shouted:

"ARE YOU INSANE? YOU WANT TO DIE OR SOMETHING? I'M PROTECTING YOU, AND YOU'RE THROWING YOURSELF INTO THE WOLF'S MOUTH! STAY WHE—"

He didn't have time to finish his sentence before one of the young men delivered a blow to his ribs, instantly breaking half of them.

"Shut up, let us pass, and nothing will happen to you."

The old man straightened up, repaired and reinforced his ice armor, and created a freezing current to push the young man away. He smiled and looked at the group.

"Do you really think I'm going to let you do this? You fools, this kid is like my son. If you want him, you'll have to kill me."

As soon as he finished his sentence, a row of ice stalagmites formed rapidly towards the young men. It was then that the closest one broke through the attack and retorted:

"You should come to terms with it; you won't defeat us. I'll give you one last chance: surrender, and we won't harm you."

"Not in your wildest dreams." As he replied, a helmet of ice formed over his head. His gaze was as cold as his attacks; he seemed determined.

"Too bad, I warned you," the three young men lunged at the old man, slicing through his ice as if it were nothing. With each blow the young men delivered, the old man rebuilt his armor and pushed the youth back with a spike of ice.

"You're not so bad for an old timer," one of the young men said.

"You're not so bad for a snotty kid," the old man retorted. "But if you think it's over already, you're sorely mistaken."

With that, the old man created what looked like an ice axe and gripped it with both hands. "Come on, I'm ready for you."

The old man hurled his axe towards his opponents with a powerful swing. As they dodged, the old man positioned his arms to the left, creating a gigantic gust and sweeping his arms in the opposite direction, redirecting his weapon towards the group. They dodged again, and the old man redirected the axe in the same manner until one of the boys grabbed the weapon.

The old man smiled and said, "Hop hop hop, what do you think you're going to do with that?"

Suddenly, he exploded his weapon into a burst of sharp ice, slashing one of the young men and embedding pieces of cold blades into him. The young man fell to the ground, trembling, and was forced to stop the fight.

The old man sighed, as if exhausted, and said, "Come on... Just two more…"

He raised his head and said with a confident but strained tone,

"So, who's next?"

The two enraged youths began to speak among themselves.

I looked at the old man, noticing that he was out of breath.

"Come on! You can do it! You're the best!"

Thinking to encourage him, I cheered him on, but then he replied, his breath halfway caught,

"Damn it, why are you still here? RUN!"

But I didn't want to. I stayed back, telling myself that I had to act, but I couldn't muster the courage. Indeed, the rest of the village was watching the fight, and I was too afraid of getting caught.

One of the young men charged towards the old man headfirst, and as the old man retaliated, the second one appeared behind him and broke his last ribs. Then, the two youths beat him mercilessly amid the cheering of the village.

The old man fell onto his back, coughing up blood.

The two young men stepped back and went to check on their third teammate who was writhing in pain on the ground.

Shock coursing through me, I ran towards the old man and shouted,

"NOOO! THE OLD MAN!"

I leaned over him, wiping the blood he kept spitting up in a loop.

"NO NO NO NO, YOU CAN'T LEAVE LIKE THIS, NO."

Unbeknownst to me, tears streamed down my face. With trembling hands, the old man, even as he lay dying, wiped away my tears. Then, in a weak voice, he said to me:

"Listen to me, you couldn't have done anything. I knew this day would end like this; everyone in the village was talking about it. But I wanted to fight to the end, for you."

"Damn it, shut up, you're going to die, don't talk anymore, you're exhausting yourself, please," I begged.

He placed his hand over my mouth and continued,

"Don't worry, it'll be alright. Look, do you see the living room table? I left you a gift. From today onwards, your adventure will begin. You're a big boy; I'm sure you'll succeed. I believe in you."

My gaze filled with anger and sadness as I looked at those who had attacked him. But then, as his voice weakened, the old man resumed:

"Stop, don't do anything. I don't want you to have blood on your hands. I know you didn't do anything to your parents, so don't prove them right about their view of you. Just run, I'm asking you as if you were my son, run far away from this village, all of this is part of your past now. Promise me…"

I tried to wipe away my tears, but it was futile, and I forced myself to respond with a smile.

"I promise you."

His gaze filled with a love akin to that of a father for his son. And with one final breath, he said to me:

"I love you, Naboru..."

Suddenly, his body stiffened, a final smile graced his face, and his breath ceased.

My smile slowly turned into an empty expression.

"The old man? Hey, old man??"

I shook him.

"No, no, answer! The old man!"

But he didn't respond. Realizing that I had never called him by an affectionate name, even though he had always been there for me, always believed in me, and even sacrificed himself for me, intensified the despair I felt and made it explode in a wave of sadness.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

I cried bitterly, laying the lifeless body of my savior on the ground. The two young men turned towards me with shocked expressions, even though I had done nothing.

With a defeated look, I picked up remaining shards of ice around me and threw them at them with the little strength I had left. But I was pathetic; my projectiles didn't even reach them. Lost in my despair, I begged them.

"Give him back to me... I beg you, bring him back, please..."

The two young men approached me with the determination to kill me. Their steps were slow.

Like a broken machine, I continued to hurl ice while crying.

One of the young men, likely annoyed, reached out and pointed his hand towards the sky.

"HUP."

In no time, I was pushed back towards a spike of ice that shattered upon impact. Still desperate, I continued to cry while throwing projectiles into the air. The closer the men walked, the weaker my throws became.

And as I began to resign myself to the idea that I would soon join my family in paradise, I realized that once again, I had abandoned those I cared about.

-Hehe... I'm truly pathetic, I should end up in hell just for this...-

The young men continued to advance, and still without reason, I dropped pieces of ice, or rather let them fall, without even shouting anymore...

Time seemed endless, but it was when my trembling arms decided to stop randomly throwing what surrounded me that the one who had thrown me against the spike, aka the one who killed my savior, stepped on the corpse of MY old man.

My face rose, my gaze became empty, and I stared at him with a lifeless expression. I grabbed a whole spike of ice and hurled it with all my might.

At the moment of the throw, the spike made a sound like a gunshot in the air. At the same time, I began to scream, expelling the air from all my lungs, making a noise that scared off the birds.

"GEEEEEEET OOOOOOOOUUUUT"

And as my scream ended, the spike impaled the young man, tearing through his body and spilling his intestines out of his back. With a sharp jerk, he fell to the ground, the spike pinning him against the earth. He didn't have time to agonize for long, just enough to look at me as if I were a monster.

The whole village fled, and his friends, even in bad shape, left, leaving his corpse alone with me and that of my protector.

I returned to reality and realized what I had done. While I had made a promise to my defender, I had already broken it.

-I had blood on my hands...-

I returned to the corpse of my savior, took him in my arms, and began to cry over him.

"Forgive me, I'm the worst... No, I'm a true monster, you must be so ashamed of me... I'm sorry... You should have abandoned me, handed me over to the village... they were right, I should never have lived…"

To be continued...