{Prologue}: How To Move On

The shop was thrashed. Micah had his face buried in Rufus's chest, waiting hopelessly for the impossible. His only family, his father who sheltered him had just performed the ultimate sacrifice. Any decent parent would lay their lives down for their children, and this bakery owner was no different. When push came to shove, he showed Micah what it meant to be a family.

"What am I supposed to do now? You never taught me how to survive without you." With tear-stained eyes, he raised his head and looked around the shop. Daylight had started leaking in from the windows, which meant he had already sat there crying over his father the entire night. He hadn't noticed the hours passing him by, to him the world wasn't moving. All he saw was darkness and the blurry image of Rufus through his tear-stained vision.

"You, and you, check those buildings for any survivors." A deep thunderous voice outside the building woke him up and he quickly peaked out the window. 'Those aren't bandits. They look like knights.' He saw a few of them coming towards his building and panic began to set in. He was sure they weren't bandits but doesn't mean he will trust that they will treat him with any decency. He sprinted over to Rufus and picked him up on his back. There was no way in hell he would leave him for them to find. No one would lay a hand on his father.

The backdoor of the building led out into the alley which was still partially covered in darkness as the sun had just risen and the fog was still lingering around. Without examining his surroundings he ran as fast he could while carrying Rufus. If his village was crawling with those knights then he had only one goal in mind, get out of the village. There was a spot in the forest where they used to go camping when they had some extra money to spare. It was his favourite spot in the whole world.

Surprisingly, after only what he guessed must be twenty minutes he reached the edge of the forest, this would normally take him and Rufus about an hour to walk. He had run here with Rufus on his back, while also taking a long detour to avoid any possible encounter with the knights.

"What's happened to me? I'm not even tired, I feel like I can still run for days." Since this wasn't the time to find those answers, he made his way inside the forest. Entering into the dimly lit and eerie-quiet forest seemed a lot less frightening when Rufus would walk beside him and tell him stories of his childhood. Just thinking about it made him tear up, and it didn't help that he was carrying him. Now the tears wouldn't stop coming. He left a trail of wetness where he walked and he allowed them to fall freely until he reached a little clearing with a small lake.

"Look, it's our favourite spot. We finally made it here and if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have been able to see it again." He gently placed Rufus down on the ground. He showed the greatest care in doing so.

He sat down next to the body and gazed out over the water in contemplation. What was he to do now? Apparently he had gained some form of a boost in physical prowess, otherwise, he would not have been able to carry Rufus here in less than twenty minutes.

Suddenly he felt overcome with drowsiness and out from his chest flew a mass of blue particles that manifested into Blue, the woman who had stopped time back at the shop. She sat there on her knees in front of him with a sorrow-filled smile. Anger immediately took him over and he curled his fist and punched her in the face, but his fist passed through her head like she was an illusion.

"My condolences, Master. I descended too late to save him."

"You have no right to talk about him!" Another punch but once again it went through her head.

"When we bonded I left my physical body, you can not touch me."

"You said I could save him, you promised!"

"No such promise was made, Master. There was a chance that you could save him if you accepted me. Unfortunately, your power was not enough." Blue smiled sweetly but that did nothing by anger Micah further. He hadn't noticed his fingers digging into the ground and ripping out parts of it.

He looked at her. "What do you mean with my power? It's your power! Your power that couldn't save him!" He had already blamed himself more than one person should, he needed something else to blame so that he wouldn't go crazy from the guilt. She was the perfect one to blame, and there was nothing stopping him from doing so. His mind was mostly in shambles so he wasn't thinking clearly.

"It was once my power, but it is no longer mine. You are the concept of Faith and all the powers I once possessed you do now. Your body is too weak so you can only summon a tiny fraction of it and that wasn't enough to heal the fatal wound he received. His old age also contributed to his demise."

"Faith? What's that and what the hell does that have to do with anything!"

"I need you to calm down, Master. To understand who you have now become you need to be clear of darkness, empty your mind so I can fulfil my duty."

"Calm down? You want me to calm down? THEN GET THE HELL OUT OF MY FACE!" He swiped his hand through her head once again. Blue let out a simple sigh and started turning into light particles.

"When you have calmed down, call for me Master and we shall begin." She got absorbed into his body again and that same drowsiness came over him. It dissipated quickly enough, but the same could not be said for his anger. He was at a level of anger where he looked eerily calm because he couldn't process how to let out all that anger.

"It's my fault that you're dead, if I just didn't freeze up I could have helped you. We could have run together and made it out. It is all my fault."

Micah knew he had to get moving, so he started digging a hole next to the lake. He dug with his hands and he knew it would take quite a while, but if what Blue said was true, that he had inherited whatever her power was, maybe he couldn't run out of stamina or something. So he got to digging.

It took about an hour because of his relative small hands. "You said a father should never have to bury his son, but how is this any better. No son should have to bury their father." Rufus was placed down in the makeshift grave, and the only thing that made this even remotely okay was that Rufus was now buried next to his favourite spot in the world. Micah looked down on him and the one thing that kept popping up in his head was the smile on his face back at the shop. That smile was the best and the worst thing for him to remember Rufus by. On one hand, it was the most peaceful smile Micah had ever seen, but on the other hand, that smile would haunt him forever, acting as a constant reminder of the guilt he felt.

"You were the best and only thing that mattered to me. Despite what I said about wanting that stupid shop, it didn't mean anything to me. And I'm sorry for insulting your treasure, but it's true." Micah stood at the edge of the grave. "You were the reason I stayed. The reason why I am alive, both back then and now. You took me off the streets and you died to protect me." Micah closed his hands and eyes and said a short and quiet prayer. He wasn't a believer in a God or a higher existence, but this just felt right. Maybe he did it because everyone did this when someone close to them died. He stood there with closed eyes for a minute before opening them and began filling the hole.

'Are you ready to talk, Master? It is quite urgent that I inform you of your power and duty.' Blue's voice sounded off inside his head, which startled him a bit.

"So, you're in my head now as well?" He said out loud. He felt awkward about the idea of having a conversation inside his own head. Blue came out again and kneeled down beside him.

"I am ever-present, Master" Blue said.

"Stop calling me Master, I am not anyone's Master."

"False! You are my Master, now, and till the day you die." The response was instant, almost like she had predicted his response beforehand.

"Annoying.." Micah rode the wave of emotion and it triggered another punch, and just like the last two, it went through her head. "That's really annoying. You have no idea how much I want to punch your face."

"False! I am connected to you, Master. I know the precise amount of frustration and anger you feel toward me." Blue's tone was stoic, but her eyes displayed sorrow and understanding.

"Fine! Since you keep insisting on it, do tell me what this is all about." He sat down in front of the water with his back turned to her.

Blue smiled and nodded like she was a little kid finally getting candy after hours of nagging. "Master, in the multiverse there are four basic concepts that have existed since the beginning of time-"

"Hold on a minute, multiverse, what's that?" Micah interrupted.

"To explain it in simple terms, it's an infinite amount of worlds. This planet that you live on is just one among many. Countless worlds die and are born every second. There are so many that not even I, a concept of the multiverse knows them all."

Micah's jaw dropped and he sat awe-struck for a moment. He came back a few seconds later, with a slight smile on his face. "I don't like you, but now you certainly have my interest. If what you say is true."

"Naturally. I can not lie."

"Then continue!"

"As I was saying, one of the building blocks of this multiverse is the four concepts, which I, and now you, is one of. I am Blue, The Concept of Faith. The other three are Red; The Concept of Power. Green, The Concept Of Growth. Black, The Concept Of Authority. We reside in a place called Paradise in the centre of the Multiverse. Can you process this information properly, Master?" Blue said, and she had that look in her eyes like she was explaining complex science to a five-year-old.

"Yes..." Micah noticed the look and his annoyance for her grew even further.

"Then I shall continue-"

"Before that, why Paradise? Why that name?"

"Simple. It sounds appealing to most mortals. Any more questions before we continue?"

"No, go ahead."

"At the beginning of time, Paradise was created out of the necessity of the Multiverse's survival, but the throne of Paradise was empty. We Concepts can not sit upon it and rule Paradise. Only someone who can inhabit all four concepts can take the thrown. And in the early era of the Multiverse, it had already shown signs of decay, and we knew why. Paradise had no ruler. This is when we started inspecting you mortals, beings without any divine energy. What we found then was that a select few mortals had the capabilities of mastering all four Concepts and having them live inside their bodies in true balance." Blue paused to check Micah was keeping up. "It was then that for the first time Paradise had a ruler, someone to sit upon its throne and uphold balance in the multiverse. And since that time, whenever the ruler would succumb to death, we Concepts separate and go out into the mortal realm to find the next mortal with potential for being a Master."

"I can't say that I understand this whole thing, but I think I get the most important bits. So, let me ask you another question. Why does Paradise need someone to rule it."

"It's fully natural that you do not understand. I told the short short story of the beginning, there was so much more to the birth of Paradise and this multiverse. Anyway, let me continue."

"To explain this, I will use a mortal reference. The multiverse is the machine and Paradise is the engine. Paradise powers the multiverse with all it needs to exist, and the Concepts, {Faith}, {Power}, {Growth} and {Authority} are needed for Paradise to exist. We are its engine. But herein lies the problem. We are not designed to live outside on our own for long, we need a vessel, for lack of better words, to channel our powers to Paradise and in turn to stabilise the multiverse. I do hope this makes sense to you."

"Not really, but from what I've gathered so far, I need to collect these Concepts, or whatever?"

"Yes. Don't forget you also have to defeat their hosts as well." Blue said casually.

"What!? I have to fight people?"

"Yes! Just like me, the others have also chosen a host. The four hosts will be drawn to each other through fate. It is inevitable that you will meet them all. When you do, you have to kill them or make them surrender their power to you. Easy as that."

"Easy!? Can I decline this whole thing? I only accepted because I wanted to save a life. I don't wanna be some multiverse fighter."

"You cannot! Ones you accept a Concept, you can only lose it to another host. Or if you die, of course. Then I will move on to another host, but I do hope you will succeed since you are quite astounding. Your compatibility with the four concepts is very impressive. I have not seen a mortal like you in many years."

"Not that that matters to me. By the way, how many have ruled Paradise at this point?"

"A few million. This multiverse is very old, for a mortal that is." Blue showed a lot of facial expressions, and she seemed to have emotions, but her tone never changed. It was always stoic, which bothered Micah very much. Her voice simply didn't match her appearance.

"million? I don't even know how to count that high."

"That's because you live in a very primitive world. This world is far behind most others in terms of technology. Because this world is ruled by magic, other fields have been on the decline for many years. Something you could change if you accepted your duties properly." Blue said.

"What do you mean?" Micah tilted his head in slight confusion.

"If you embrace my power and choose to accept it, you will, with some training become cosmically powerful. And with power, you automatically get a say in how to change a world." As she said this, you could see the gears in Micah's head, turning. A new type of flame was lit ablaze in his heart. He knew now how to pay Rufus back for saving his life.

"I will help the world! I will master this power, and I will make sure no more villages have to burn because of human greed."

Blue nodded to him, but as she had been with many Masters, she always asked a specific question pertaining to her Master's goals. "What if you can't stop this world's violence, Master? Chasing something that is fundamentally impossible could drive you mad. I have seen many previous hosts go mad from trying to accomplish a goal which is simply impossible. Eradicating violence would mean changing mortal nature which isn't something easy to do."

"If I can't eradicate violence, then it would be enough for me to know that I did something for a brighter future. If I have to master these powers, then you can be damn sure I will strive to improve the world." Micah wore the look of determination. The fire in his heart had become a blazing inferno. He made a vow to change the world for Rufu's sake and everything that the man stood for.

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End