Prologue-4

Humans change. They change forever. When they feel true dread. An experience of such a degree, that it will be impossible to forget.

Arsh felt such a level of dread at the moment. Seeing the 5 people in front of his house. They had white robes on, making them look like some kind of emissary.

Arsh was on his knees, his mind disoriented from overwhelming feelings. Confusion, Rage, and sadness so severe making impossible for him, to even try to look away from the horror, in front of his eyes.

One of the intruders came forward. A beaming smile on his face, and Samantha's head in his arms.

"You are late to the party kid."

Their robes had different symbols embroidered on them. But Arsh didn't care about any of it at the moment.

Arsh hollowly looked at the smiling person in front of him. He was confused. He was enraged after seeing his mother's head in the man's arm. But more than anything he was just sad, extremely sad.

Nothing made sense. He woke up like usual. He was gone to cut wood like always. Then why his mother was not here?

Why were there 5 people at the entrance of the house? With his mother's decapitated body.

Arsh fell into the very pit of despair. Losing the only thing that mattered to him. Made him hollow, insignificant, of no worth.

"Don't look at us like that. You made it look like we are the bad guys."

The smiling man grabbed Arsh by his hair, dragging his face in front of him. He looked straight into Arsh's eyes. His face was contorted into something akin to real sadness.

"You are the reason we have to kill our sister in the first place. You are the sole reason for every massacre, we committed in the last 14 years. You - CURSED CHILD OF UNKNOWN... Just Die."

Arsh got plastered into the nearby tree, suddenly, thrown by the robed man. The man's eyes shone filled with complete hatred. With every step he took near Arsh, the more his face contorted. The man stood up in front, unsheathing his sword.

Arsh didn't care about anything right now. He looked at his executioner with no emotion in his eyes. He felt strangely relieved. Relieved by the fact he was about to die.

Finally, he was going to the same place, where Samantha went.

"NOW"

A loud thunder fell on the five intruders. And a bunch of the villagers came into sight suddenly. Every single one of them carries weapons and armor.

Ambushing the intruders from every direction. In less than a second, spells began to fly. Making it look like a natural calamity just struck the earth. Dust and smoke rose everywhere near the intruders.

But a fact became clear, with the smoke. They were not nearly enough to stop the robed intruders.

The intruders were not appeared even scratched by the thunder. In the next moment, they dispersed in every direction and showed Arsh what a real massacre looked like.

The brown man Arsh greeted yesterday, got diced in half by a single strike. Snuffing the life out of him, in mere moments. The villagers were dying, so fast that you can't even call it dying.

Arsh looked at the very villagers he spent his life with, getting massacred in front of him. No particular emotion on his face.

Arsh didn't care about any of them right now. Neither the intruders nor the villagers at the moment. His eyes were still glued to his mother's head in the hand of the maniacally laughing intruder.

"Save the Kid, Edward. Now!!"

The village chief shouted at Edward.

He was blocking 3 of the intruders all alone on the frontline.

"Take care of this one. I'll take the kid."

Edward's body sparked with tendrils of lightning and he disappeared, appearing just behind Arsh. He picked Arsh up from the ground and chanted the spell again.

They reappeared in the middle of the forest. Edward took a quick look around, running toward the highest mountain range in the area.

Arsh can now see the veil of fog more clearly from height. A veil of dense fog surrounded the village from every direction.

They moved past the fog. Edward still running frantically in the direction of the highest peak.

"You alive there, kid?"

Edward asked, his voice dry. but, he didn't get any kind of response. He knew Arsh was alive, due to him breathing in his hold.

Edward gritted his teeth and grabbed Arsh by his throat. But, Arsh was still clearly out of it. Edward slammed him onto the ground looking directly into his hollow eyes.

"Whose fault do you think it is that they killed Samantha? Huh? Stop mopping this damn moment. Before I kill you myself!!"

"She went against their will just for you. She just had to abandon you. She could have lived an easy life. But she didn't, alone facing them for the last 14 years. Only because of you."

Edward slightly loosed his hold on Arsh. Touching Arsh's head with his own.

"Don't let them live, Arsh. After what they did to our home. Our people. I am going to make them pay. Even if it means suffering till my last breath. They have to die a thousand death for what they have done to us."

Edward hugged Arsh with tears dripping from his both eyes. Something clicked with Arsh at this moment. He hugged him back. Edward added in a low voice, tightening his hold.

"Be alive Arsh. That was Samantha's last and greatest wish. She always loved you for what you were. Don't you ever forget that."

Tendrils of blue lightning appeared again. Teleporting them to the top of the mountain.

A beautiful temple came into view. Edward released Arsh from the hug, in front of the gate, of the majestic temple. Edward's breath was ragged. He hurriedly took a deep breath to compose himself.

"Listen! What I am going to tell you might sound like complete bullshit. But, It is the only sure way to save Samantha and the villagers."

Edward grabbed Arsh by the shoulder peering deep into his crimson eyes. Trying to show him the gravity of this conversation.

"You have to pray to the god inside of the temple. The being inside is not benevolent. No god is. Just plead to him, he is the only being that can help us now. Make him help us. Do whatever it takes to persuade it."

Arsh nodded silently and entered the dark, majestic temple. Edward looked at the disappearing silhouette of Arsh, running back toward the village, or whatever was left of it.

Arsh was walking silently. Just with a faint glimmer of hope, for his mother to be saved again.

He walked alone, in the silent corridor of the majestic temple made of black marble. Perfectly devouring every bit of sunlight coming to it.

Arsh looked inside for some time, moving to the crest embroidered on the wall, at the very end of the corridor.

It was terrifying to look at. It contained a face that was certainly not human. It had 4 half-open eyes, and hair covering the sides of its face.

It looked like an ancient painting of some kind of Monstrosity. A being that can be hailed as a merciless god. Or merciful as they like to describe them.

Arsh denied his inner fear creeping inside and started pleading to the crest, shouting his lungs out.

"Please save my mother... you can take whatever you want from me. I don't care if you are benevolent or not, just please save my mother."

Arsh pleaded to the silent carving of the Monstrosity. He kept pleading for hours, his legs going numb. Even then he didn't stop pleading.

He was not ready to move back to a world, where his mother didn't exist. A world like that holds no meaning for him.

He still vividly remembers his mother caring for his tiny self, however, many years passed. His mother was constant, the only source of light in his life. The only cause of making his life beautiful.

The light around Arsh started to dim, and his vision turned completely blurry. Arsh never felt something like this, but he knew innately what this feeling was -

He was nearing his death.

'So, this is how it all ends huh?'

Everything around him turned dark. It was peak afternoon, the time for the sun to be brightest. But it was completely dark inside the temple, with no light reflecting inside.

'I can't die yet. Not yet. Not just Yet.'

Arsh didn't want to die like this. Not until those 5 are alive. He ground his teeth and jerked himself awake, from all the tension pent up inside of his body.

He can't die. At least not yet. Not until there was a single person alive, who contributed to his mother's last moment.

[Death is eternal. Even I, the death god, can't go against the order of nature.]

Arsh heard a clear voice. The voice seemed just in front of him, but at the same time from a different dimension. Arsh lifted his head, trying to see the source of this ominous voice.

What he saw was two pairs of eyes, looking directly at him, from the utter darkness. The Eyes of a Deity.

It was at that moment, primordial fear took hold of Arsh. His very body was compelled to bow, in reverence to the ominous being.

Arsh tried to speak but it didn't work, his body was frozen stiff with fear in response. Arsh thought back to the conversation he had with Edward. The only other person who meant anything to him, after his mother.

"My mother always loved me..... Even though, I always am so useless."

Arsh's hollow red eyes regained light again. A bright tint of crimson flaring, he looked into the somber darkness.

"What do you mean you can't save my mother? You are a god, you created this whole universe. We, humans, revered you for centuries, there is nothing impossible for you."

The four eyes blinked together one time, the darkness remaining quiet for some moments. Then the temple rang ominously.

[Let me rephrase it then - I won't help you. Whatever you are ready to sacrifice. I don't need it. Go back to the other side of the mountain. Go and live there. For the rest of your life, away from the eyes of the other god.]

The ancient temple was eerie and silent everywhere. No lights inside, making it difficult for Arsh to see his own hands.

It was like death, itself, had descended there.

Arsh looked down at the ground, but nothing was visible. Not ground, not sky, not anything. There was nothing in the space.

"What did you just say?"

The temple rang again. But this time it was due to the voice of the Arsh. Which contained enormous hatred and rage.

"Edward and mom were right. Gods are not benevolent creatures at all."

Arsh stood up from the ground. A tear rolled slowly down his face. From his eyes to his cheek and finally falling from his chin to the ground. Making an audible sound, in the space of nothingness.

Arsh was not afraid of nothingness. He was more afraid of the world without his mother.

"The crest carved on the clothes of those intruders. I saw it countless times in all of the books my mother gave me all the time."

But he has to live. Live and find every single person responsible for the death of his beloved mother.

"Now I know why Mom always hated every God."

"You are our enemies from the start. You are the reason my Mom died that gruesome death. You are the reason for all the misfortunes fallen on the villagers"

To give them a grueling death. That no being can even imagine.

"Also, I was the reason. I was too weak, to protect what was important to me."

Arsh took a deep breath and lifted his head with determination. He accepted the fact that his mother was gone now.

He stared God of very darkness directly into its four eyes.

"I am going to kill every single one of you. Mark my words."

"You are playing gods from above, doing whatever you please. I don't care what any of you are, demons, myths, or the god itself."

Arsh was not blabbering for the sake of relieving himself of pain. He was taking an oath, promising them death, in front of the very guardian of it.

"I am going to live, and butcher every single one of you. I swear this on my mother's name. I'll kill the death itself if it means killing you."

Arsh didn't blink once, Never stammered, never stopped. He looked into the eyes of death and announced.

"You can try to stop me now, I am coming for every single one of you."

The 4 eyes stared at Arsh in disbelief. The dark voice chuckled, ringing again throughout the entire mountain.

[Death is eternal]

[Beginning is the start of the end]

As the darkness started to fade from the temple, the whole temple started rumbling.

Arsh heard a loud sound and the whole temple exploded in the next moment. Flunking Arsh into one of the rivers flowing through the mountain.

As Arsh was drifting in the cold river, he opened his eyes again. Now his eyes were not hollow; they contained meaning, rage, and Tenacity.

He had an Aim now. Not a dream. But an Aim.

As Arsh drifted into the cold river, his consciousness started to wash away. Arsh looked at the sun for the first time in his life, again declaring in a low voice.

"I s..w...ear I a...m gonna kill ev...ery sin....gle one of you."

[Prologue--End]