Chapter 6: Dream and Hate

As Borj fell into the temple, he dreamt.

He was back in his youth, back to the origins he couldn't remember.

"Mom! Look! I found one!"

"That's really good! You can add it to your collection, right?"

"Yeah! Will you help me put it there?"

"Of course, darling."

A young Borj, barely six years old, walked into his mother's room barefoot, carrying an iridescent rock. He was dressed in opulent robes, making him look somewhat out of place, what with his lack of boots. The robes were speckled with dirt and mud in several spots; his face was marked with it as well.

He sported an ear-to-ear grin, showing the few teeth he had. The rest had fallen out to prepare for the permanent variety.

He looked at his mother, running out of the room chuckling. With a smile, she followed him to his rock collection, an assortment of various rocks arranged in a way that resembled mountain ranges....

Borj was twelve now, looking at his mother's shaking hands. She sat in the bench which he was at now, looking down.

She was muttering something.

"Mom? What's wrong? Are you cold?"

"No dear, I'm...just... really tired. I just... had a bad dream."

This had been the second day in a row where she had nightmares.

During the first night, she had screamed, shrieking madly and falling off her bed.

She had cried the whole night.

She couldn't tell Borj when he later asked, attributing her unease to lack of quality sleep.

She had, in fact, seen The End.....

She had noticed something wrong with her son, and as she watched him grow, her health deteriorated the more she thought about him...

...

Borj was now 20 years old. He had learned all he could in libraries and from teachers, reading the books over and over again, trying to look for something to cure his mother.

Ever since she started having nightmares eight years ago, he had devoured books in a bid to fix his mother.

He had suggested becoming a Sorcerer to take his mother's pain, but she had vehemently refused.

He was left with reading history and psychology in a bid to look for something, anything, to help her.

She was now bedridden, unable to walk due to trauma.

What had she seen? What happened to her in the dreams?

Borj would ask himself these questions, always coming short.

In all his attempts to help her get better, he had always fallen short.

He spent many days trying to talk to her, trying, so madly, to make her well, trying, with tears and blood and effort, but failed.

He failed in saving his mother.

He failed miserably, because one fateful day, as he was talking to her about the cakes they used to bake, holding her hand, she looked outside, the fear dripping from her tired eyes. The sky had darkened.

It was dusk.

She told him something that would stick with him, at least until he had his memories wiped;

"Borj, do not live your life in hate. It's not your fault. It was never your fault. Please, please, for my sake, don't live in hate. It's not your fault."

She gripped his hand tightly, looking outside one more time.

Borj looked outside this time as well, out of the ornate floor-to-ceiling window, trying to calm his mother down, but it was too late.

Crack!

The whole world shook, many buildings collapsing.

The room in which Borj and his mother were in had been sliced clean in half diagonally.

He had not realized that at some point, his mother had pushed him away with enough force to make him fall flat on the ground; the ground shaking was too violent.

He hurriedly got up, but froze in place. His mother's torso was still on the bed, but her intestines had been spread out on the bed and ground, her upper body looking up to him.

She had been cut in half.

"..."

She was trying to tell him something, and Borj, legs giving way, fell to the ground beside her. He laid next to her, looking into her eyes.

"... It's n-not...your fault..."

She was saying it over and over again, but Borj didn't hear the rest of it. He cried, laying next to his mother, her body growing colder by the second.

Soon enough, there was only silence.

Borj screamed. He tried getting up, his legs weak and seeming like they were withered and dead. With much difficulty, his body wracked with sobs, he got up, looking at the sky instinctively.

Borj then saw 'Him.'

He knew the being was a 'Him' because he exuded too much oppressive aura. Floating up in the sky, a being far away from him but seemed like 'He' was right next to him.

He heard a voice that made his mind crack; as if it had been cut in half, no, innumerable pieces.

"There you are, Coordinate."

Borj closed his eyes. Prostrating himself to this being, he said, with much conviction;

"Please, Great Lord, let me bury my mother before you kill me. As you can tell, I'm not even a Sorcerer, so please let me have this one opportunity. P-please."

"Fool,"

He heard that, before everything shattered.

.....

"Is existence a dream, such that some moments are taken for granted because of their fleeting nature?

"Is that the nature of reality and dreams, there being no difference in them, other than their permanence?

"There are many types of monsters. Those who separate families; those who take children away; those who eat dreams.

"What are you? Boy?

"You are The End, and you have to understand that your existence is a curse.

"You are the convergence of all Coordinates, all the Negativity will end when you do.

"You are The End."

Borj saw many illusory lines coming from him, tainted with stars as infinite as the universe itself. They connected to many sources, and Borj saw all of them.

The Mad King, a being whose natural order is so much higher than that of all others, 'He' can destroy worlds with just but a thought...

'He' can see me, but doesn't know where I am... 'He' will find me, 'He' knows me...

The Color of Colors, The Supreme Lord...

He sent the monster...He's looking for Calidi, but why?

Fate watches my growth, but is unable to locate me... Beneath 'Her' is the universe, she is looking for a certain illusory book...

The Dead General waits for 'Her' successor, the one to rule The Heavens with an indestructible rod...

I see a World Ender, a shaper of galaxies, God of Division. 'He' who carries with 'Him' the Soul Sword, shrouded in black fog...

They all wait for me, they all watch me, but can't find me, why?

Many are looking for me, because I'm The End? Because I can end all Negativity with my end?

Am I this despicable? This deplorable?

"Do you see, boy? I have found you. I can finally be rewarded greatly, because you are highly sought after."

"And you will allow it, because you hate yourself."

"I...hate myself? I hate myself. I hate myself!"

The monsters swarmed at Borj, having found him. His brief thoughts of hate had showed them where he was. He was all alone, and now he was going to die.

"If there is no difference between reality and dreams as you say, then this is not real."

Immediately, the monsters paused.

They slowly backed down, noticing that the boy they were attacking had become something and nothing at the same time.

A Paradox.

A contradiction.

"This is your temple of hate, right?

"What if I take your place as the owner, then what? What if I give up my sanity to defeat you?

"Can you take my hope? My will? My drive to keep on living, even when Gods want me to die? Can you take my courage, my sanity, my humanity?

"Can you take the malice that is deep inside me, like an infinite abyss? Can you take my indomitable heart, my pained memories, my f*cking exhaustion?

"No, no you cannot.

"I dare you to come. You might have potent powers, but you cannot measure up to me."

"I..."

With this he paused, evidently in mental agony.

"I am fucking Borj Maximus, the last remaining of my kind, and I will not rest until I have destroyed the order of this existence, until I have wrenched my fate away from them with my own hands!

"You are just an insect that cannot even use his powers properly. Why did you think showing me those memories will make me feel overwhelming hate? Are you stupid?

All I have is rage, rage that flows in me like the Infinite River of old lore, rage that gives me purpose. And that is the purpose you cannot be able to take. That is the purpose you cannot handle! That is me, The End!"

The Emissary of Rot screamed, as it seemed to be pulled towards the mass of both something and nothing. It had gravely miscalculated, thinking this boy had despair in his heart. How wrong it was!

The monster watched as Borj opened his 'mouth' causing various speckles of light to fly out of its body into him. Identities seemed to be exchanged, and after some time, Borj took form again, his dark skin glowing with a obsidian sheen. He had taken the Emissary of Rot's identity and powers, exchanging it with his previous fate.

Immediately, the rest of the monsters swarmed the former Emissary, tearing at its flesh and killing it within seconds.

Now that their new lord's will was much stronger, so were they.

Borj was now a Sorcerer.

Borj was his scars, and now that he remembered them, he remembered his purpose, his reason for existing. With a thought, the temple disappeared, with him appearing at the edge of a now destroyed ruin.

The illusory book opened, outlining words that only Borj could perceive and see:

Congratulations, you are now a tier 6 Sorcerer, having tamed the Kuar' with your will and performance. You are now the new Emissary of Rot, and have completed the ritual to accommodate me partly.

There is much to do Omoru Otti, many enemies to slay. This is but the beginning, the bottom rung in the ladder to your destiny.

Borj inhaled and exhaled. Of course, realizing that his mother had been killed because of him hurt a lot, and he wished to go back to her to give her a proper burial.

I'm sorry.

Borj paused as information drilled itself into his mind, letting him know of the powers he had obtained.

His Root Principality, his basic power, was Exchange. For now, it could exchange situations temporarily, but it would be permanent if one of the situations being exchanged couldn't be returned or changed any further. For example, killing someone whose identity he stole would let him own that identity permanently. Of course, this power had the potential to grow.

He had used this power to kill the previous Emissary of Rot.

Next, he had obtained the cores of the Absorber pillar and Eye pillar, sub-group; Kurlour.

He winced when he realized that the Absorber pillar was native to his race, and he had sadly learned that they had been wiped out by a very powerful being. It allowed him to steal and own the powers, memories and abilities of others, but for now it was limited to only two powers. The spots were filled, with the power of 'Clairvoyance' and 'Accelerated Wisdom.'

The 'Accelerated Wisdom' immensely speeded up his thought process, while the 'Clairvoyance' enabled him to perceive future events.

The latter was highly limited, and it was limited to a single use in a lengthy period of time.

The 'Kurlour' powers allowed him to see and use people's emotional states to control them, so long as they did not come in contact with him, otherwise the powers would affect him too.

They also allowed him to create a concealed world in the form of a Painting.

Lastly, he had gained the ability to cause the decay of living things.

Having learned all this, Borj slowly walked back to the jungle encampment.

He wasn't in a hurry.

At that moment, he finally had a purpose.