Regrets: death is the only true path to life

"SILENCE," "TOTAL DARKNESS." These were the thoughts in his mind as his consciousness slowly drifted away, taking along with it his dreams.

He couldn't help but reminisce through his past in a jiffy, everything displayed before his eyes.

He sighed within himself in anger. It wouldn't have come to this if he had just listened to his father's warning.

Having grown up in a family that isolated themselves from the world around them, he thought it was just old people being paranoid over past hurt or something.

Pushing those precious warnings away as a mere talk to scare curious kids from adventuring far from the family, one of those types of everything new is bad kind of thing.

Never did he in his life think he would treasure such warnings at this point in his life, "damn regret sure is the brother to Mr too late.

Death sure is a beauty, his Knight in shining armor that's setting his pitiful soul free from all the regrets."

For the first time he felt the truth in those words as there is nothing more relieving than dying at this moment.

Slowly his consciousness fades away into the infinite darkness and silence, granting him his final wish of peace and rest.

"Where am I?" A voice sounded from within the darkness, no not a voice but a thought, the voice was just in his head when he reawakened to this silent darkness once again.

His reason for asking this question was none other than the torment he had been going through for what seemed to be eternity.

He seemed to have undergone death over and over again to the point he had died every possible way one could think of dying.

Having experienced this torment and torture for heaven knows how long, in a place he couldn't even call hell, as hell would be considered a paradise compared to it.

This darkness felt like heaven to him – the peace, quietness, and freedom were just too real to be considered a dream.

Savoring this feeling he had missed for ages, not wanting to get to the end of it, he tried to move his limbs, only to realize he couldn't properly feel things by touch.

He sighed to himself, his body must have been stagnant for too long it had lost its sense of touch.

He couldn't help but wonder how long had passed, most importantly how is he still alive.

Wasn't he killed, didn't he die and was sent to whatever that place is to suffer for his crime of disobedience to his father's warning, a sign of karma as he had presumed it to be?

Did he somehow survive and those torments were just fragments of his imagination, did his sister survive too?

These were the nagging thoughts in his mind at the moment, he couldn't wait and hope to see Alexa's precious smile and troublesome attitude.

He'll give anything just to watch her nag over something in a bid to get his attention, he couldn't stop imagining all this to be a bad dream and him waking up to see his precious sister by his side with a bright morning smile.

The Relzar family, an ordinary-looking family from the countryside when you look at their standard of living.

Owning nothing and living like the world is a borrowed place, he had grown up in this kind of family setting along with his younger sister.

Everything they knew was taught to them by their parents, including the Relzar family bloodline trait – weapons proficiency.

A weird thing about the family he never seemed to understand. They had a good grasp and mastery over any and every weapon of choice they desired within a short period and could be considered gurus in it.

He hadn't really seen any necessity for this so-called talent, even after his parents' sudden death in an accident.

Leaving just him and his sister, with no one else to care for them, they moved into town and slowly befriended the people there and blended in.

Seeing how friendly these people were made him wonder why his parents had kept them away all this while.

Things were going well for him at 15, and his sister at 13, both doing menial work to earn a living.

Life was good for them until disaster struck – an unexpected invasion overtook Earth and its inhabitants.

These beings were so powerful that the world's most potent weapons were useless against them.

Not to mention the world had advanced a great deal with powerful firepower and arms readily available but still they were all useless.

Nuclear bombs, biological and chemical weapons, drones, nuclear ballistic missiles, etc.

The world was plunged into a near Apocalypse state with destruction and death going on everywhere.

Humans died in hundreds and thousands at the hands of these beings, the once-thriving earth was at its breaking point.

No one knew where these beings came from or how they got here. All they knew was that a kind of portal or wormhole was made at different spots, through which these beings came to Earth.

When things were dire, a miracle happened. Special beings known only to exist in movies and novels came out to help humans.

It turned out they had been living amongst us all this while, but were subtle enough to keep the humans oblivious to their existence.

In a more literal way to put it, they were all earthlings too, who had been here since the beginning of this planet's formation.

Due to the desperate situation at hand, humans had no time to ask questions but gratefully accepted their help.

A help that taught humans how to awaken their innate and deep potential.

A potential that was later called abilities. Being young and at the right age for the awakening ceremony,

he came out too to check if he could be one of the awakened, but luck wasn't on his side as he wasn't.

Still, he didn't give up his pursuit to be of help, and his family bloodline trait came into full play.

Especially with the new kind of weapon made called beast weapons, with the joint force of the newly awakened humans who were all at the age of 13-15, and the other race.

They fought back against these invading beings. Since his sister hadn't awakened either, just like him, he convinced her to fight alongside him with her perfect weapon proficiency too.

Slowly but surely, they pushed back the invaders, closing up all the portals they could find.

The last and main portal was problematic to seal, especially with the source of this whole thing present.

A human with a special ability like the awakened, having an ability that allowed him to open and connect bridges to different dimensions.

The battle wasn't easy, but with the help of his weapon proficiency, the group of humans took care of the human boss while the other race took care of the strange being.

They won with a timely shot at the human known as Louis before he could escape through a portal, killing him on the spot.

This would have been his big moment – a kid without ability took out the final boss, a feat even those with abilities couldn't achieve.

Because with Louis dead, the portal closed up on its own, having lost its source of sustenance.

The other race could finally finish off the rest of the beings on this side with peace of mind.

Unfortunately for him, he had trusted way too much and didn't see what was coming next.

The thought of this alone fueled a powerful rage inside of Arthur. He felt a pain worse than he had ever felt before, an eternal torment and torture.

It was a pain he couldn't describe. It was the pain of betrayal and the thought of the saddened look his parents must have on their faces at that moment, staring down at his dying corpse.

Yes, dying corpses. He was betrayed by the leading figure of the awakened humans, who wanted to steal his thunder of fame and fortune as the one who killed the final boss.

Being the strongest, no one dared oppose him as he stabbed Arthur from behind. Alexa, who was taken aback by the sudden change and the sight of her brother being stabbed, rushed over in an attempt to help. But only her head got to Arthur's wobbling feet.

Morphis had beheaded Alexa in cold blood. And he had a smug look on his face when he did it.

Seeing his pitiful and weak state, Morphis' pride skyrocketed.

"You are just a weak unawakened human and you dream of having the fame that belongs to the awakened.

You want the world to think being awakened is nothing special, nothing important. You want to give weaklings hope that they too can be seen as equals with us. Make them see you, an unawakened, as the hero of the world while the powerful awakens couldn't hold a candle to you. Dream on." Morphis spat on his face in disgust before finally ending his pitiful life, giving him a chance to join his sister.

Embracing the darkness with regrets, there was only one word that kept echoing in his mind.

"Son, the Relzar family isn't special, but we aren't ordinary either. We have a lineage secret, one so powerful it would shake the world if unleashed. But the cost is like a curse, a curse passed down to the first male child, just like I'm doing right now.

No matter what happens, you should never think of using this secret." His father's voice sounded so serious and stern.

He was sure that if it weren't for the rite of passage, his father wouldn't tell him this secret.

After many stern warnings and admonitions, his father finally told him the secret of the family, but it was even more confusing than when he didn't know about it at all.

"DEATH IS THE ONLY TRUE PATH TO LIFE." These were the words playing in his head before his consciousness faded away.