The End of the Beginning

The sky was still dark. In fact, there was no sky nor earth. Everything was covered in absolute darkness. No daylights had penetrated the thick screen of the night's darkness yet. A man stood within the dark, below him was darkness-covered ground, and above was a sky that couldn't be separated from the ground—everything was almost pitch black.

The man had seen countless days begin and end like this. Yet even so, today was special. What could be more special than birth and death in the life of a man? And what could it be if not death, since the man was already alive?

The night's sky was without a single star. There wasn't a moon nor any moonlight either. There were no nearby sources of light on the ground either. The man stood still in the darkness, his form was indistinguishable from the darkness itself. Nature was about to bring him to completion with the beginning of a new day and the first rays of light, yet the man was calm. He knew that today's sunrise would be the last sunrise he would ever see, but his mind was not agitated. It was still, just like his figure in the dark.

No matter how calm he was or how enlightened his outlook on life and death was, he should've still felt something in this situation as he awaited his last moments of life, even a little. But he felt no such thing.

This peculiar 'thing' was what he had 'gained' after losing everything to the ravages of time.

The many years that brought him from being a healthy young man brimming with excess vitality to an old man with a failing body had transformed more than just his body. This "special" change was not physical. In his advanced years his body was painful and uncomfortable and his mind hazy and dull, no longer blessed with the acuity of his earlier days. Whatever cultivation or power he had also left him. He could no longer even sense his own soul, but he was sure that it too would leave him in time.

Of the many things that he had kept track of mentally, none had remaining. The various things he had cultivated, the various techniques, skills, and powers he had. He had not thought of them for a long time, and they had ceased to exist as well. He no longer had anything left to lose.

He remembered that he was once a cultivator that strove to defy this natural fate of life, like all other cultivators before him. But why resist nature? And now that he was already like this, what did it matter?

Even though everything that he had once possessed and understood vanished, he had obtained something intangible that he had not possessed even when he was in his prime. Something that no cultivators had. He had no words to describe this gain, but it existed. Its intangible and formless existence completed something within the man.

"I have... not lived in vain after all," Shura's old and hoarse voice broke the silence of the darkness.

The complete and absolute darkness vanished abruptly. There was light. A gentle and soft light appeared at the edge of the horizon. The light quickly increased in intensity as an enormous sphere of light rose up from the horizon at a perceptible speed.

The previous world of darkness was nowhere to be seen. The sun slowly rose on the horizon. The beautiful blue sky was vast and limitless. White clouds floated gently above, the endless ocean below reflected the rising sun and painted half of the view a somber orange.

'I have no regrets or wishes left. But if I were to walk the earth and soar among the skies once more, everything would be all right this time.'

That was the last thought that Shura had. He crumpled down on the soft sands of the beach.

Immediately afterwards the scenery changed. The blue and orange was immediately overwhelmed by a brilliant ray of rainbow light that appeared in the middle of the sky. The source of this light was not of this world and it immediately converged on Shura's body. Both of his body and soul was engulfed in the light and disappeared.

The Sun had now risen above the horizon. The blue sky and ocean was half painted in an orange tinge again. But Shura wasn't there anymore.

...

Shura opened his eyes. He felt like he had slept for a long time. His mind no longer felt as if it were traversing a muddy swamp each time he thought something. His body also felt light, almost imperceptible. There weren't any paint or discomfort.

Shura held up his hands, they weren't wrinkled and skinny to the bones. They were healthy and like a young child's.

He was alive. He didn't die.

He was inside a small wooden room. It was dark except for the small amount of sunlight the entered through the small slits between the door and the wall.

Shura could hear footsteps behind the door. At first it was distant, but then it became louder and louder as it neared. Shura could tell from the sound that the person was someone who weighted a lot and was strong.

The door swung open and the dark room was flooded with light. The figure standing in the doorway, however, was quite 'dark' in contrast to the light-filled background of the other room. A man wearing a black robe stood at the doorway. The distance between the doorway and the bed Shura stood on was no more than the distance of four steps. The man's face was bony and pale, a stark contrast to his large frame. He was a figure out of children's nightmares.

The pale man held a large butcher's knife in his hand. It was bloody, and it wasn't an animal's blood.

Shura observed this man and the man also looked at Shura. there was a crazed look in the man's bloodshot eyes. Saliva was dripping uncontrollably from the man's mouth. What sort of messed up and ridiculous situation had he been dragged into now?

The pale man leaped at Shura and swung his knife madly about. Shura deftly dodged the swings of the knife but one had managed to scratch him on his right arm. The wound was light and wouldn't get in his way for the time being.

The pale man crashed onto the bed and Shura seized the chance to jump out of the room. He pressed his right arm with his left in order to stop the bleeding. He could feel the warm blood. It was only at this moment that he had truly felt alive.

The pale man behind Shura shrieked an inhuman sound that no human's throat should be capable of creating.

Shura had been through much. This change of destiny for him was unexpected, but not impossible. He didn't know if he would have another life after he died again this time or not, or if he would have any more chances in the future. He decided at that moment that the current life would be it, it would be the life that he would live. He would do his best to stay alive and live well.

He could feel the man following after him. He didn't look back and ran with all he had.

Shura heard the faint crying of a baby as he ran through the spacious wooden home. Finally he came across a door to the outside. The sound of the baby was coming from beyond there. Shura immediately opened the door and leaped out of the house.

Although he wasn't expecting much, he had not anticipated such a sight either. There were two rows of wooden houses of various sizes lined up facing each other. The earth was still damp from the recent rain and there was a eerie fog in the air. There was a hill so tall and steep facing both sides of the wooden houses that he couldn't see the top. This looked like a small village isolated and enclosed by a very deep valley, one where he couldn't even see the sky.

The crying picked up in intensity. In the center of village he could barely see a tall pyre burning at the bottom and picking up speed. At the top of the pyre was a bundle of cloth and the source of the crying.

'These monsters are going to burn a child!' Shura thought. He immediately sympathized with the baby. They were both in such a mess. He had to save the baby on matter what, and he had to do it quickly. The man would catch up to him very soon.

Around the pyre were at least ten cloaked figures. Shura ran with all the speed he had toward the crying baby.

Shura heard another inhuman shriek behind him. The other cloaked figures turned in his direction and all unleashed equally disturbing shrieks of their own as they approached him.

If he could just kill them, all of this would be very simple. How could he kill these monsters?