A Fleeting Life

< Year 137 of the new Sukate empire >

In a dimly lit small wooden room with a pungent odor of dried blood and damp bamboo floor A 15 yrs old boy is lying on a pile of dried weed with rags put on as clothes.

The boy is breathing very weakly and his body is also cold, if it were not for his skin gradually getting a tiny bit of rosy red color you would consider him as an unfortunate dying kid.

Periodically there are water droplets splashing on the floor which were falling from small cracks of the roof, indicating it is raining outside.

The boy would shiver occasionally due to cold and lack of proper clothing which exposes his sickly pale skin which is covered with numerous scars and wounds and the medicinal paste applied on them.

Suddenly the door is lightly opened and an old man that appears in his late 70s enters with a concerned and anxious look on his face with who appears to be a doctor.

" Lord Luke this is the kid I was talking about, please save him"

" Don't worry old man I am this town's greatest healer" said lord Luke arrogantly.

Lord Luke came over to dead boy and watched the medicine applied on wounds disdainfully and swept his right hand over the pale and slender hand of the boy while saying to the old man" Hey old man be grateful that you had a piece of purple divine wood otherwise your grandchild would have died even if you had used this so called medicine of yours"

"I will forever be indebted to Lord Luke for this grace" said the old man with a crestfallen face.

This old man is a carpenter of the Zester town and runs a small mill. The folks of the town call him Jake the carpenter. Jake has a full head of white hairs and wrinkled skin all over the skin. Their is a look of worry, kindness and pity when looking at the lying boy on the floor.

' Fil, my pitiful child, will you be alright.'

After taking a long look at the sickly pale Fil jack returned his attention to lord Luke.

The healer took out some green powder from his leather pouch and sprinkled it on Fil and started chanting some tongue twisting words and making elegant hand signs with both hands which seemed to leave a trail of light in the air, upon closer inspection this trail of light seemed to direct the green powder in a phantom image of a tree leaf which gently touched upon the badly wounded and cold body of Fil and started being absorbed by his body as by sponge.

After a few moments Fil's body trembled and healthy sheen rapidly started appearing on his sickly pale skin and his wound started healing rapidly which can be seen by naked eyes, a green vapor started coming out of Fil's body making his temperature stable.

After some time there was a look of relaxation with a bit of rosiness instead of previously pale face of suffering and Fil started taking deep breaths and fell into deep sleep indicating his weariness of past days.

After healing Fil, Luke turned around and walked out of the wooden room in hurry and chanted a cleaning spell on himself and muttered - "if I could have somehow stole the divine purple wood, I would not even bother to come to such a dirty place to save such a sewer rat", with a harrumph and an amiable smile on his face Luke left the old wooden house. While there may be raining on outside but before any drop could touch Luke, the pale light covering him would stop it from doing so.

After lord Luke left Jake came and sat near sleeping Fil and leaned over to touch his forehead. Upon touch he found that Fil was starting to sweat all over while muttering "Father, Mother; I will kill them", "I won't disappoint you.", "I will.....uhh". while muttering some other indistinct syllables his eyelid became wet and tears started flowing out of his eyes.

After seeing sleep crying the boy Jake had a face full of pity and shook his head while taking Fil's right hand in his one hand and stared ruffing his hairs with another. After some time Fil returned to normal indicating the comfort provided by Jake in lifting his nightmare for the moment. Jake also had weary look on his face and softly muttered to Fil before sleeping near him " boy the world is a cruel place and you are like a soft leaf struggling to remain in the torrent waters, may these old bones provide you some assistance." While saying so Jake remembered his late son who was also killed in young age in this heartless world, soon after his wife also died out of shock and disease. If not for the the promise to his wife to live on Jake might have killed himself out of grief. Later he started working like a bull day and night in his mill to forget the loss.

One month ago Fil came to Jake's shop to buy a wooden bow. Jake told him that he do make weapons but after noticing the eyes filled with grief and desire to revenge, Jake could very well see his past self in the boy. And while doing so remembered his son who might have been a bit older than the boy now. After heaving a sigh filled with sadness and shaking his head over his wishful thinking Jake gestured for Fil to come inside his rundown mill. Though Jake has earned enough money to sustain him and his mill but since he donated most of his income for poor children and orphanage, he lives in poverty. After taking a seat over the counter Jake asked

"Boy what kind of bow would you like"

"A bow that can shoot an arrow to kill."Fill said with a murderous glint flashing in his eyes. Upon seeing it jack shook his head and took out a slender looking gyperus tree branch commenting "this gyperus tree branch may look weak but it is light and resilient and hard to break, perfect for a bow don't you think .. umm boy."

Upon seeing the friendly and easy going attitude of shopkeeper, Fil nodded while mentioning his name as 'Fil'.

"By the way old man how much would this cost." Jack asked while touching his leather pouch in shame. Indicating his lack of money and the main reason he could not go to the weapon store as things there cost too much.

watching this Jack smiled and said

"well, I had not found the use of this piece of wood for a long time and it would be a waste not to turn it into a bow for a brave boy like you, I guess 2-3 copper coins should be enough" said jack while smiling kindly.

"Ha, by the way people call me carpenter Jack, so maybe you could call me Grandpa Jack hahaha."added Jack.

Upon hearing it Fil became surprised at the kindness and warm behavior of Jack and nodded.And unconsciously his tense mood got lighter as if he had seen a ray of spark in the dark room.

After having some small talk with Fil, Jack started bending the wood branch using some tools and asked "kid, do you have some specific requirement for the string."

"Use this."saying this, Fil took out a metal wire which was dark brown in color.

"This...." "This is divine iron, ...Kid do you really want a string made out of it"exclaimed Jake.

"mm"answered Fil.

"sigh, this divine iron might be of the low grade but it is 10 times more tougher than common iron and it is that much more difficult to pull when used as a bow string."commented Fil.

"But it gives the arrow that much more power."said Fil resolutely.

"well you can look it at that way, also it seems to perfectly compliment this piece of this gyperus wood."

After taking the bundled string he tied it to the ends of bent branch then took the newly made bow to the fire source and slowly started heating up the ends which made the joint of string wood better. Later he used fur of mehuk bird's tail to tie up the grip and threw the newly made bow to Fil.

"Kid I hope this you can make good use of it."Jake said looking at Fil in the eyes.

"I will."said Fil while pulling out 3 brown dirty looking pieces of metal and put them on nearby table while standing up and walking out of the shop in a calm manner.

"What a lonely kid, hope the goddess Gaia show some mercy at your pitiful self." muttered jake while praying toward the earth.

It was morning in the outside and Jack opened his eyes and noticed the except him there was none in the room.

"sigh, I guess you are destined to suffer."

When he looked to the side he noticed a leather a folded paper and some copper coin on top of that. Shaking his hand Jake took the paper and unfolded it. The paper was filled with a few characters that looked like entangling snakes that read ' Thank you grandpa Jack, I will definitely repay this favor in the future : Fil.' while keeping the paper and coins in the fold of his jacket he muttered"don't burden yourself kid." And a kind smile appeared of the wrinkled face of Jack.

< Year 193 of the new Sukate empire >

The sky was dark and cold wind howled bringing dust and smell of burning, rotten corpses mixed with fresh scent of blood and gore. There are various corpses of humans and other creatures scatted around in a disfigured manner, some are new while others are one or two day old. sounds of maniacal laughter, curses and explosion could be heard even from far away.

There are some twenty plus men and strange human like creatures who appeared to be of different race had surrounded a man who appeared to be in his 30s. The man is surrounded by colorful lights of various magic spells, which appear beautiful but the man had no time to appreciate this beauty.

The man has various wound and is covered in blood from head to tow. Strangely the eyes of the man had a silver hue to them matching his hair long hair which were also silver before the blood made them crimson. The man is thinly built but has various scars all over his body indicating the tough life he had lived. Currently the man is chanting a tongue twisting chant and waving his left hand to draw magic circle in the air while using an almost broken sword with his right hand and swinging it in a half horizontal circle in front of him and waving his left hand to his back, after doing these he appeared even more exhausted than before coughed a large amount of blood from his mouth with his face becoming paler.

A boom sounded out and the man was pushed to fall of the ground from the explosion of various spells. A man clad in white robes shouted at the man from some distance-

"Zed arn Wifilia surrender your life for the peace of this world and accept he punishment for your crimes."

"What crimes."said Zed hysterically."It is you people who should pay for fooling the world in the name of your so called righteousness and hypocrisy but actually colluding with dark magus and demons for some benefits."

"hahaha haa"laughed maniacally a man who had to horns jutting out of his head and black skin all over his body which was covered with snack like small scales."well who said we demons do not want peace, if it is in the form of a saint ranked magic treasure, huhuu hahah."

"Shut up Ephal and focus on the job at hand, that kid is even more slippery than us demon."said another demon sternly who appeared to be some elder of Ephas.

"That bastard sure is slippery and vicious like a snake otherwise we wouldn't have lost so many demons at his while chasing him."said Ephas gritting his teeth at the thought of losing so many demon soldiers at the hand of Zed.

The demon from before turned his head to side and said to the man in pure white robe " Aspro I hope you won't go back on your word."

Aspro looked the demon in the eyes and reassured " obviously lord Suren, My maser will definitely compensate for our loses and pay for your services with a saint ranked magic treasure."

Upon mention of the 'master' of Aspro, Suren had a solemn look on his face.

"Alright lets attack ones more that bastard seems to on the verge of death and needs just a little push."said Suren preparing for the fine attack.

As the surrounding men were just about to start chanting spells ones more the air seemed to become solid like cold iron even breathing became difficult. As Suren tilted his bloodshot eyes to the ground he noticed that Zed had took out a black bead which has white inscription on it which seemed primitive at a glance. Just as Suren glanced at the pitch black bead and the white patters on it he felt himself losing in a maze even as the pressure mounting him increased several-fold. His eyes, nose, ears and mouth started bleeding and his body sarted trembling as a deep fear of soul assaulted him.

Immediately he heard Aspro shouting with a hoarse voice "You knew how to undo the seals"

After saying this Aspro coughed blood and said with even more difficulty "what a evil bastard, you want to even forsake the cycle of reincarnation just so this treasure does not fall in our hand"

"What use is the reincarnation if I can not kill enough of you bastards."Zed said while coughing more blood from the backlash of using a treasure more powerful than he could handle.

After great difficulty he took out a bow and pendant from his spatial ring. the pendent was very beautiful and made of white ethereal silver after glancing at the pendant Zed muttered with misty eyes "Mother, Father guess I will not be coming to you and can't become your son in the next life, guess this is the goodbye."while saying this he wore the pendant on his neck and looked in the sky as if piercing the clouds and looking directly at the place of afterlife.

But after a moment Zed shook his head"well we don't even know if the place of afterlife and reincarnation does even exists or not."

After some pause and reminiscence of the past, Zed picked the bow in his hand. The bow appeared very old and on the verge of breaking but resilient nonetheless. While caressing the bow he muttered " Grandpa Jake I think this is also a goodbye to you"

This grandpa Jake was the same person who made this bow for Fil. And obviously that Fil was Zed in his teenage using a disguise to hide from the constant chasing danger.

After putting the bow away Zed chanted a syllable for 'ka' and pointed his finger towards the now hovering bead channeling his remaining life force into it.

The bead sucked his life forced like a black hole and started emitting a dim black light which dispersed in a circle, after some time there was only an eerie silence on the battlefield, the mighty warriors of the various different races has become shriveled corpses without any mana and blood remaining.

After using the bead Zed was also lying on the ground, eyes shut close and on the brink of death.

While Zed was taking long breaths to keep his bodily function run for a little long so that he could reminisce about the past and remember the faces of his family and friends for the last time.

As Zed was reminiscing some disturbing scenes flashed in his mind. Scenes of his mother, father and sister dying at the hands of dark mages and their summoned demonic creatures. His close friend who was also a grandpa like figure Jake whose house was burnt because of the some grudges Zed had created in the past.

When Zed was lost in his thought a person clad in golden robes flew down elegantly from the sky. He came to a stop in the mid air and looked at Zed angrily " You dare use this evil object to kill not only people of my faction but also my dearest disciple, now not even afterlife awaits you."

Hearing the righteous voice of the man Zed opened his eyes and his lips curled up in a mocking smile, as if to laugh and mock the man for his hypocrisy, as he was the one who sent his men and disciple to taste waters and judge if the bead was not capable of harming him in the slightest.

The man in the gold rob then looked at the black bead with white patterns on it, as it lay on chest of Zed near his heart and instantly his eyes shone with greed there was not even an ounce of remorse on his face, just as the man was about to wave his hand pick up the bead, Zed picked it in his hand and threw it in his mouth.

Upon seeing this the man in the golden robe looked nonchalantly as if not bothered by the antiques of a dying man an waved his hand in a grasping motion towards Zed, and Zed flew from ground to the hand of golden robed man, who held him by his neck.

"Why struggle before absolute power just like your parents, it should be your duty to serve me wholeheartedly as your king."

Upon mention of the name of dead parents Zed's eyes became more bloodshot. 'How could he say that when they were there for his every command to obey.'

Seeing his reaction the golden robed man who was the king of 'New Sukate empire', explained "well a servant must not stick his nose in the kingly matters." Saying this he tightened his grip on the neck of Zed.

Zed had his eyes bulging and chest tightening with veins appearing all over his body but a look of hatred appeared in his eyes and he began channeling the remaining bit of life and soul in the bead in hopes of a miracle happening and making his new enemy suffer even a little bit if possible. Seeing the struggle Zed was putting the king channeled some mana to his grip and with a crack Zed's neck broke even as he started shriveling due to black bead suck his life, just as the king was about to pierce Zed's stomach to get the bead out he notice the bloating in the corpse of Zed, surprised by the unexpected development he threw the corpse away and flew away rapidly from the corpse.

Just as he flew a few meters he heard a soft bang and turned to see that the corpse of Zed had exploded and was being sucked in by the bead. As the process of absorption was complete the bead started humming and the space around it started trembling. Seeing this the golden robed king had his eyes popped out and mouth hanging open as he muttered " this... this is spatial manipulation of the legends." After muttering this he felt his scalp numb at power of the bead and watched like a statue as the bead disappeared in a space rift.

After seeing no further activity in the surrounding the king turned around and flew towards his palace as heart was bleeding at the losses but ultimately heaving a sigh at his own safety. After calibrating over something his face became expressionless and he disappeared in the horizon, leaving the gruesome site of the battlefield.