Unease is heavy in the air, and yet everyone walks around as if nothing is amiss. Winds, for the first time in what must be a decade, are beginning to pick up once more. Over months, things start happening. A group of travelers got lost in a walk through Gan’la, then someone feels ill after walking through Fael. The stones in Chzmlz get a little too wet and someone slips down. No deaths, just… uncertainties. Immediately, every reason under the sun came out. Fake actions for political gain, some said. A conspiracy to stop families from traveling, others said. There were no discussions as per usual, just the head-banging of two sides too deep in their own ideology to ever change or see reason. It is this mentality that drove the world into a state where we have everything, and yet we cannot thrive together. I can see it clearly – a storm is coming. Do I voice my concerns with anyone? I was told that if the gates ever opened, I would be called back and yet no such calling has taken place. By Gan’la, if the guards could see what I’ve done, they would lock me up for good. I have done it all, outside of touching a Dreg weapon. Outside of killing. What can I do in a world where my skill set is useless? All I can do is sleep in my small house and feel claustrophobic the moment I walk outside. Bakery? I have forgotten any recipe I once had. No matter how much I want to give up on the world, I still… I still feel loyalty to those who gave me so much. To the guards who gave me a reason to live. I take a backpack with food, my journal, and water. I have no need for another change of clothes, for I will either be thrown back in this jail, or I will be given armor and set into Langnet’s road.

People smile and chat, but I can see in their eyes that they know something is wrong. Their breaths are sharper than usual. One extra look over the shoulder. An extra tight hug – yet no one acts. I walk by the gang and everyone is sitting in silence, staring at me as I approach.

“Gan, you feel that don’t you?”

“I… I do. Uneasiness. There is a storm coming – have you seen the painted messages?”

“Painted messages? Ah yes, they keep getting covered up by someone, but a couple of us did read the message. What of it? It has been so long, who cares? A child is better armed than the richest warrior of old. We have armies – a war with monsters will be short and sweet if it comes to that but-”

“Gan!” a teenager pipes up, “I’ve heard that this is all a way for the opposition to overthrow the current government – that this is all a conspiracy theory! I'd believe it, although some are talkin’ about how this is actually the government trying to take our Dreg weapons away.”

“How would that happen?” I am confused to my very core.

“Simple! They tell us there is a war, then they come and take our weapons for the army as backup, then the army attacks us when we cannot defend ourselves. A tyrannical government we have, huh?”

I rub my temples, unfortunately, there are many people nodding along with this insanity, “You know, if the government wanted to attack us or take your Dreg weapons, they could just do it. Tell me, what is the average person going to do against a trained fighter?” I let out a sigh and turn around “This is foolish. Stay here and believe in your conspiracy theories. I am going to uphold my bargain.”

“See ya, Gan! It’s sad you don’t see the truth, but soon you’ll realise what they are trying to do.”

‘What they are trying to do’, huh? If only they knew how close to reality that is. If my dreams are anything to go by, when they pop up, Fa is looking over the world in tears. Nothing has been said, yet the knife is waiting hungrily for a decision to be made and the Watcher is pestering Fa for his response. Fa did say something inaudibly a few months ago, and then the world started changing. Poor fools, people have forgotten about how terrible Fa truly was. He is remembered and reported on. His disappearance created all sorts of ideas about what happened, and why the road was locked on his last day being sighted. Some people over the years came up to me, asking about Fa. I told people what I knew – why lie? They’ll just take quotes out of context anyway. It does sicken me how people fetishize him. There are many who look up to him as an icon, wishing they had met him – they cannot know what he was truly like if anyone has that opinion. But… who am I to speak now. I am… a sheep in monsters clothing now. I walk into the lion's den as its prey, hoping that the Shepard will let me sacrifice myself for the greater good. Greater good, huh? I stop walking. It will only take a few more minutes before I am at the entrance here. A few minutes before guards will intercept me.

Do I really want to do this?

What has humanity done for me? I was cursed – sacrificed in order to protect the world. I caused chaos and sadness in the hopes of ridding the world of Fa and… the knife. Yet it took over my life. The world is a cruel and twisted place, huh? Never will I get acknowledgment for my deeds, nor would I be alive if not for crime right now. I am forced to live as someone society ostracizes, but I am here to save them? Is this really what my goal is? Who fucking cares. Why should I care about society and humanity any more? What, if I die and everything continues, people will just keep racking up enormous amounts of Dreg while those without anything starve, die, and resort to crime, which in tern gets them arrested and removed from any potential chance of them turning their lives around. It is a cruel, endless system of torment. At least when Fa was a killer, you could blame him for his horrid actions. Now, I am forced to blame every person who stands by and does not act when people are screaming on the side of the road. Not their problem, huh? Only want to invest in something that will give a return, huh? They are successful because they are frugal? Cowards, the lot of them. I… still need to return my debt. I made a promise and I will fulfill it. I walk forward.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

A few minutes pass, but no guard is there to greet me. I keep moving towards the entrance. Still nothing. I can see the door – the chains are loose and rusty, unkept as time went on. There is a dreg fence around the door with a locked door – or what should be a locked door. There is no door. The entrance to Langnet’s road is half open. The chains have broken. There are still no guards. This is it, time to finish this stupid promise and get home. Or die. No one will trouble over either outcome. I walk through the door and… there it is. A long black road. A faint purple hue in the air. I close the door behind me and take a deep breath. The air tastes the same as it once did.

“Watcher! Fa! Knife! I am here to ask why the entrance is open!”

A burst of purple fire explodes a paper width from my nose – shit! I stumble back –

“Gan, my old friend. How are you?” Countless purple eyes stare down at me “You look a little worn there, friend – and we were so nice as to reduce your curse to basically nothing.” By Gan’la I can feel its smirk

“I am… well, why the fuck would I lie now – not happy with the world yet here to save it.”

“You are here to save the world, huh? Does it deserve saving? Fa originally promised Savra and I that humanity would find a way and yet, the rich are terrified of losing everything and the poor are terrified because they have nothing.” There’s that twisted chuckle once again “every day he got quieter and quieter until he started crying and now this is where we are. Tears for a good year is pretty impressive, not going to lie. So tell me, why does the world deserve to be saved?”

“It's…” fuck, why? We have everything we’d ever need and yet there is nothing but torment and sadness. “There are many people that are… happy.” Are there? Sure, there are a lot of people who are happy, but so, so many who live in agony.

“You sound unsure about that, Gan. Tell me, if you were to remove someone, who would it be?”

My answer is immediate“The rich bastards who never act even though they can do so, not unless it is for their own gain. Then the people who keep coming up with conspiracy theories – not because they believe them, but because they can make money off how gullible people are. Then the people who are in charge of twisted political groups who care not about morality or being for the people, but for power and gain. They laugh and eat lavish meals in clothing that cost more than what some people earn in a year while spitting on the people who got them there.” I take a breath “Then, the people who rob for the sake of hideous clothing and jewelry that acts as a status symbol and nothing more, then the people who are so stuck up that they cannot admit they are wrong, then the people who flaunt their wealth over people to push them down, then-” I stop myself and drop to my knees, crying. “There… is enough for everyone. We have medicine for all, yet those who make it only want dreg. We have more than enough food, yet there are obese people walking over the corpses of those who have starved to death. I… I am here to save humanity and yet… fuck.”

“Gan, Gan, Gan. You are here to save humanity, indeed, but what did they do for you?”

“They gave me a house. They gave me a sendoff. They gave me Dreg before it was robbed – what happened to the guards and the Dreg that was meant to surround the entrance?”

“Ah… just a test.”

“A test?”

“A test. That matters not. So, Fa! What do you think?”

A white flame weakly comes to life nearby. It has no heat, no fuel, and is truly drained.

“I… was hopeful that you would be treated well. That all would be, yet I could see the world through your eyes.”

“-and I could see you in my dreams, Fa.”

“Indeed. I wanted to see a happy, peaceful world but… that was not to be. No matter how perfect the world was for them, nature is just being torn up more and more in an endless expansion of dreg. Gan, do you know what dreg is made from?”

I shake my head.

“From the dregs of society – those who walked through this road and killed with their dreg weapons. They meld with them and create even more dreg. Once you have killed with dreg, you are bound to the weapon. You cannot leave it unless you have an extraordinary mental strength to do so.” There’s a deep breath. I can hear it in his voice – Fa is coming to a decision. “When I came here, I was tasked to give justification for revenge. In life, wanted to be redeemed, although I would never get redemption. That was my curse, and in the shoes of society, they would be fools to believe a word I said. Instead, I took away everything that held humanity down. I gave humanity a chance to prosper in this twisted world. Now, I am here to give my decision. If I decide humanity is broken beyond repair, then I will give an order. If I give it, then humanity has no hope, and all the torture and torment we inflict will not be denied. Everyone will realise the truth, for that will be their curse. Anyone who has killed with Dreg will be cursed. Everyone. Save you, you have a chance to join us. You are the decider – will you back humanity and leave this place, or break their back and join us?”

I stand, bewildered. I can’t speak – can’t think – no, I can think more clearly than ever before. This humanity needs to go.

“Fa, Watcher, Savra; humanity has abandoned not only me but itself. There is only one way that I see the world growing, and that is if they are broken down so heavily that they’re forced to regrow and reconnect. Let only the most heroic effort and deeds be their salvation. We shall be the beacon that heralds the end of this current age and bring in the next. A world where only the fit and compassionate survive.” I take a deep breath. My last breath.

“I will join you.”

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