On His Own (1)

'Ah what the hell…'

Hope at the moment was leaning against a bloody carcass he climbed out of a little while ago.

Even as Hope drew in a lungful of fresh air, the stench that clung to him reeked heavily of rancid milk and spoiled meat.

Hope was staring tiredly off at the blooming horizon. Then he glanced behind him where the carcass was resting at the bottom of a cliff.

The carcass was actually an awakened beast he fell into off the trackway down a small cliff. Some sort of hybrid between a spider and a snake? He supposed he was lucky that he wasn't vulnerable enough to be sighted by other monsters, although he wished for a different scenario than this.

But now that dawn was approaching and the fog from the night before had lifted, he could finally see his surroundings.

He was in a rocky gray terrain with bumpy hills and steep cliffs. Sprinkled here and there were bones and corpses of Nightmare Creatures and soldiers. None of whom Hope recognized from his team or unit. 

But amid the bodies and formations, there was the main trackway that winded around the slopes trailing up and down towards the western horizon. The direction he and the convoy were headed to.

The trackway he and the convoy should've taken on. Not whatever this unstable route that they traveled on instead.

As he recalled, the encounter with the Category-Two Gate cost almost all of their convoy's lives.

Hopefully, the rest have reached to safety in time.

"...Ah…I'm shaking again…"

Hope blinked in a daze as he looked down at himself.

He slowly brought his hand up in front of his eyes and he could see the tiny tremors from it. It reminded him of the old man. Back when they traveled through the dark tunnels in the Nightmare. How that suffocating aura and echoing screams were all overwhelming for them to the point that-

"Erg!"

A series of images flashed across his vision.

Hope groaned as he clutched his head, a splitting headache throbbing from the memories. His grip hardened till he felt his nails dig into his scalp. Slowly the pain brought him back to the present.

How strange...

Was he still recovering from his Nightmare?

"Tsk."

Hope lowered his hands as his mind seemed to have calmed down.

Maybe he shouldn't think back on it.

In fact, he didn't want to.

Hope didn't want to remember any of it.

Hope looked up at the sky and took in a deep breath, the coldness scratching his throat, the rotten flesh filling his nose, the dried grime tightening on his skin.

Nothing better than to focus on the present.

However, his fingers were still trembling, and his legs were slightly buckling. Maybe he could force his mind to block out the memory to a certain extent, but his body could not as easily.

What was that saying? Hope remembered someone mentioning a phrase similar to that thought.

'What the mind may for-

-get, the body remembers.'

Hope flinched. The voice from his memory spoken a lot louder in his thoughts.

'The hell?'

...Hope remembered the memory a little too clearly. Almost as if it were whispering right in his ear. He then pulled on his ear as if to clear the ringing out. 

But the faint voices continued to echo softly in the back of his mind, refusing to leave.

This was becoming more strange.

"…Damn Spell."

Hope shook his head and banged his head slightly with his palm.

This wasn't the time for stalling though. Especially when he was out in the middle of nowhere, he had to keep moving forward. 

In need of a distraction, he tried to wipe off the rest of the grime and blood from his armor. His hair was the worst of it all. It was so stiff and gross when he pulled out black muck from the strands. He knew the stains on his face weren't any better; even tiny pieces of flesh were littered in his mouth.

He couldn't see what he looked like, but probably someone who rose from the dead.

In the meantime, the sun started to rise higher behind the distant hills and fill the world with its warmth light. Hope felt its gentle rays resting on his skin as it did so, a short comfort of its warmth just before it reached the low hanging clouds. Its light began to dim behind the sky's shroud and the cold accompanied him once more. Nightfall would be even worse, which meant that he had to close the distance between him and his next destination as much as possible. 

"Pleh!"

Hope spat bits of monster's flesh onto the ground.

'First things first, which hasn't changed much: Survive…again…'

As much as one would want to rethink their whole Nightmare adventure and…attributes…Hope had to devise a plan on what and where he was going to next. 

There were a few destinations in mind, although he already had an idea of where to go.

The city he just departed from, the West Base, was too far for him to travel back to. The convoy was already three-fourths on the way to the port city, also known as Acheron, so it was an obvious choice to continue his way there.

That sounded closer than it actually was.

By car he would get there in no time.

On foot? Around three to four days probably. 

But before Acheron, about fifteen miles away from the coast, was a neighboring slum city. Some call it the Mirror City due to its mirrored architecture. Hope did not know what went through the people's minds before the Spell to have built such an odd thing. It was certainly an interesting sight to see what mankind were capable of building at that time. A few remnants from the past of what the world was like before.

But nowadays, after the Spell's arrival, those who weren't lucky enough to be accepted into Acheron made settlements in the Mirror City.

So, it became a place of 'survival of the fittest.'

There have been many skirmishes in between those settlements though. Always fighting for some sort of power with the limited Awakened they have. The government didn't even bother to get involved. They only cared about the main road being available to travel through for their convoys and carriers.

At least that was what Hope presumed. It was not Hope's job to know every reason behind the government's action.

Hope would have to go through that location before he could reach the port's Naval Base. 

But also, to get a damn shower.

Hope flicked a piece of flesh he gathered from his fingers. 'Acheron huh…'

He had never properly explored the area. That was mainly because he had no business too and was ordered to always head straight for the Naval's Base.

But Acheron was quite an exclusive society with a strict entry process and an expensive identification membership.

Before becoming the great port city that it was now famously known for, Acheron used to suffer constant sea monster attacks along its coasts. Luckily, the Awakened have won it back and it became a place known for hunting and harvesting sea creatures. They've used their carcasses for meat, armor, oils, weapons, etc, not leaving anything to waste.

One may think it safe enough to voyage then with all the progress they've made.

Well, not exactly.

It was one thing to have monsters by the coast, but it was another thing when crossing monsters out at sea.

There were numerous unknown category gates beneath those waters that have been corrupted and unexplored for many years, barely anyone had a clear idea of what they could be facing.

It was rare for people, especially for Quadrant I, to have a sufficient enough Aspect to traverse through those dangerous waters.

It wasn't impossible though.

Those rare exceptions with a special enough talent do voyage out at sea to transport and receive supplies to and from Quadrant III, although a very long and arduous process. Luckily the Arks the government had built were heavily fortified for such an adventure.

'To Acheron then…well the Mirror City and then Acheron.'

Forgotten or not, maybe his soldier identity would be of use to get inside. It felt logical that the first thing he must do was to find a secure compound to hide in.

Although, Hope must admit that he felt a little strange. 

Not just because of his situation, but because he was separated from his unit.

Broken contact from his command.

Mission removed from his hands.

He usually saw things through to the end no matter what. 

As a simple soldier, his life was dedicated to those simple tasks: Transporting cargo; Patrolling city walls; Taking post and shooting any rogues. People were encouraged to take on duties for the sake of peace and security of their cities. 

Although most did not have activities as grand as an Awakened's life, but a duty nonetheless to serve society.

So, Hope couldn't help but feel out of place when he didn't carry out his current mission properly, even if understandable circumstances crossed his path that hindered him to do so. It felt out of place.

But other than that feeling, he was complacent if it just meant surviving on his own for a little while before regrouping with the others. 

Hope sighed as he bent down to pick up his rifle gun which was thankfully still intact.

His helmet was not.

Chk.

Empty magazine as well...

Hope frowned as he turned around to look down at his broken helmet.

It was protocol to not remove one's helmet when leaving the compound. Safety first he supposed. But it was annoying when it would get stuffy overtime.

And he wasn't putting on a helmet soaked from a monster's innards to follow that rule. It didn't feel that urgent.

"Dammit." Hope slapped the magazine back into his rifle gun.

He rolled his shoulders back, his muscles still tight and sore from the fall.

Hope sighed. He wished his teammates had the reflex to catch him because that was a nasty fall he took off of the trackway. Huh. That memory was playing a little all too real as he was recalling back on it-

"Ack!"

Hope's body jerked forward as if something had shocked him.

Hope stumbled and quickly turned around to see what threat could have caused it. 

But nothing was there…

He touched the back of his head and frowned. 

'Strange…'

"…"

What was he thinking again?

Right. Of course. When he was back on the carrier but then he slipped off. His teammates though had found something when they opened the cargo. Even as he fell, he could clearly recall their ringing voices mixed with the howling wind before he entered his slumber. Well, before that sudden pain from when he landed-

"Ackkk! Fuck!"

Hope's body jerked again, and he spun around.

Still nothing else was in sight but slabs of stone.

'What the hell?' 

There were no monsters. No tracks or hints of some invisible creature. 

Just himself.

"..."

'There's...no fucking way...'

Hope looked down at his hands and slowly his thoughts led to a frightening possibility.

He didn't want to believe it, but it would make sense for it.

Every time he thought back on the incident in little too detail, he would get shocked…but why?

No. His instincts were telling him that he already knew.

It happened when he was inside the carcass too. His memory was clear, too clear of what he went through that night. The same biting wind, the same shrills, the same shakes from the explosion, and the same pain when he fell just before-

"Aaarg!"

Hope's body lurched forward. He quickly regained his footing. But his eyes began to tremble.

'…I don't just have a good memory…I'm…actually reliving my memories…?'

"..."

'That's how hardcore that memory attribute is?!'

It wasn't like recalling back through some picture book like before. But he was feeling things as if firsthand when he remembers them for too long.

All of his senses were highly attuned to the memory. 

If that were really true, then he shouldn't think about…

"..."

Hope froze in place.

"…you know what. I don't even know what I was thinking about. Completely left my mind. What was it again? Tsk. Yeah, I don't remember…"

Hope quickly tried to think of a random string of words. 

Blood. Carcass. Dawn. Sky. City. Port. Monsters. Gods-

Oh the gods.

The gods…

'The damn gods…!'

"Tsk! That damn Heart God." Hope rubbed his face.

True it was partially Hope's fault for consuming the sacred water. But it wasn't like he chose to…That damned beast practically threw him into it.

And he couldn't even swim back up!

"Mother- aacckkk!!"

Thud!

Hope fell backwards onto the ground. 

He thought about the damned beast and their stupid brawl.