PROLOGUE
The seven deadly sins usually are the causes for human crime. Whether it would be greed, envy, pride, gluttony, wrath, sloth or lust- each of these sins spurs people to advance. So this advancement might be equally good and bad. Yet wrath is the only sin that brings nothing more than destruction. Wrath is like a fire that doesn’t differentiate between arsonist and its victims. Wrath burns everything till the end.
*****
A boy with reddish brown hair, sky blue eyes is walking down a street. He is no more than 7 years old. Today was just another day at school, so he is jumping from one tile to another. Of course he is avoiding to step on cracks. Since he is alone on the street he suddenly stops and crouches, then boy grabs on his sports cap while still keeping it on his head and does a 360 (more like 250) spinning jump. Why did he do this well of course for safety mesures. His dad said that there’s no shame in being safe. So all that’s left to walk is two right turns and a left one.
As boy turns right he starts to think how nice it is to be a grown up. After all he started to go to school so he doesn’t let his parents treat him like a child anymore. He himself is walking home from school. Sometimes he gets to sleep over at friends house or friend sleeps at his. ‘What was that?’ he asks himself. Then a boy does fast piruet on one leg to check if there’re any evildoers that threaten him. ‘So there’s no one huh’. Still for safety he picks up a pace a bit.
As boy turn right again he notices some black smoke coming from his home direction. Probably in all his short life he did not feel shivers as cold as these that just ran through him. ‘There’s no way right? No way, that happens only in movies’ he thinks. So a boy picks up his pace even more. Half way the street he can’t handle it anymore and starts running. At first slightly, but soon like mad. ‘No way right, no way’ he keeps thinking as a turn to the left approaches.
Boy turns right and sees his home clad in red. He stops still being unable to believe what he is seeing. There’s only fire, so much fire that to boy world itself seem to be made from nothing, but fire. As hot gust of wind blows at boy his sports cap falls down. Kid doesn’t seem to notice that his cap fell down. Now even his brown hair seems to be one with fire. Boy stand there looking at his house as firetruck and ambulance drives near. Fast firemen starts pouring water on his home and few run in. After what seemed to be eternity they come back with kids parents in hands. Of course then parents are carried to the ambulance.
As ambulance drives of one fireman goes to a kid and asks:
“Boy what are you doing here, go back home.”
The boy looks at him with empty eyes and says:
”But my house is burning.”
The fireman gets startled and says:
“Then maybe you know to whom I should phone so they could take care of you?”
After a while boy just mutters:
“Grampa”.
*****
The fire was caused by few teenagers. It was supposed to be a prank, but it got wrong. When the news broadcasted this incident it was all blamed on gas leak. Why you might ask, well because teens had influential parents. They were sons of so called higher class, so all that they suffered were some harsh words or spanking from their parents. They got their slate clean mostly through bribes, so evidence was mysteriously mishandled and either contaminated or lost.
*****
What happened to a boy? Well since his parents were severely burned he started living with his grandparents. His mother thanks to burns got into a coma and father somehow recovered but still is in dire need of constant supervision. Well one good thing (as good as it can be in such situation) was that insurance paid without a lot of problems.
A boy is siting shut in his room. It is a sixth day since the fire and he still hasn’t left his room. Someone knocks on the door:
”Can I come in?”.
Boy doesn’t answer. Again there a knock and same words:
“Can I come in?”.
Still no answer from the boy. Eventually there’s another voice shouting:
“Stop it Martha. Just let me though”.
Doors open and boys grandparent comes in. He sits down near his grandson and says:
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“Hey boy I know it’s hard. So don’t keep it all bottled up inside yourself.”
Boy shifts his gaze toward grampas face. His eyes, they are like glass- empty without any fire or desire.
Grampa just sighs and says:
“I know it’s hard and it’s a challenge that is not meant for kids your age. But you got it. So at least don’t give up. Try, struggle, move forward. I know you lack motivation to move, but then think about those fucking twerps that burned down your house. That hurt your parents and pretty much destroyed you childhood. Think about them”- as he said these words he shook his grandchild.
Boy started to listen.
“Martin don’t misunderstand these words, but hate those twerps and move with your hate if you can’t move any other way. After all your name means: dedicated to Mars (Aries)- roman god of war. He is different from Minerva (Athena), she is goddess of tactical warfare, but Mars is god of battlefield madness and bloodlust.”
Martins eyes weren’t so vacant anymore. They started to see.
“Still Martin you have right to feel wrath, but don’t let it control you, use it to move and not be dragged by it. After all anger is like that fire that destroyed your house if mishandled it leads to ruin.”
Finally with glittering eyes boy looked at his grampa and said:
“Okay grampa I will move, and if I get the chance I will beat those… those… those evil guys.”- now with a new look fierce and intimidating he said: “I will beat them until I will feel satisfied”.
*****
Approximately 9 years later.
There’s a teen. He is tall, yet clearly he’s still not out of his growth period. He is standing in the attendance hall like every other first year. Today starts his first year in high school.
Then there’s an announcers voice:
“This year for first years speech will be said by Martin, he got a perfect score from our written examination and to mesure it, we can say that perfect score hasn’t happened for last five year. So now please applaud.”
In the hall it’s heard a lot of disinterested applauses as always. And a teen with reddish brown hair and sky blue eyes is walking towards a stand. He is wearing suit that is too big for him, but that does little to diminish his demeanour. As he walks people stop clapping and simply stare at him. Finally when he reaches a stand he looks over the hall and starts his speech:
“Today is a new day in each of our lives. What we gained and lost in past years stays with us, but also the following years presents us with enormous amount of new possibilities. We are new generation and we should not be too hung up with that, because there’re other generations here with us. So people lets be proud that we got in one of the most prestigious schools in country. And let us all try to achieve our dreams. To all of you I wish a lot of luck.”- He said with a grin. After his words stopped there was silence. Then there were some silent claps that grew and suddenly all of the student body was clapping.
Since it’s one of the most prestigious schools in the country there’s still a month until school year starts. Today is just an introductory celebration. After it ended Martin got home. His dad said that there a new game that he recommends. It boasts in 99% realism. It’s so called VRMMORP. ‘Well since dad is playing it I might as well try it to.’- he thinks.
“Grampa I’m going to play a game, you know that one that we got installed yesterday.”
“Okay, just don’t forget to eat. You are making dinner tonight.”
Martin enters his own room and stares at the capsule. ‘Okay I know this game is said to be revolutionary and it’s been out for 2 years, but really, c’mon it’s just a game’. Martin enters the capsule and there’s a message:
[p=center]Connect to Royal Road[/p][p=center]Yes|No[/p]
After some hesitation Martin shouted “Yes!”.