[Eternity awaits.]
That message again.
Zayne stifled a yawn as he dismissed the message with a wave, then went on about his day in the quaint little town of Burg. For a coreless, the sight of a message box appearing in one’s vision sounded like a cruel joke played by lady fate; a teaser for things he would never see, a whiff of a meal he would never eat.
The clouds gave way to a gentle caress of the morning sun, trailed by a light breeze sweeping the colorful bushes near the fences outside people’s homes. The trees waved hello to the passersby shadowed by their long barks and tall leaves, birds chirping and critters of all sorts trilling and quavering their little unique voices. Zayne took a second to appreciate the scenery; Burg might be a town located near the end of the outer western continent, but it had—in his opinion, the most peaceful atmosphere anyone could ask for. Such was the boon of a town far and away from the vicinity of a monolith. Monsters were a rare sight, and those who appeared tended to be weak enough for a group of coreless to manage.
Whilst considered a remote town, Burg had its share of folks who loved what it had to offer; from farmers to carpenters to alchemists and blacksmiths, down to those elected to spend the rest of their lives here in peace, away from the busy lives elsewhere.
Zayne rubbed his hands together and walked.
His walk to the academy was peppered with cordial greetings from the locals. Everyone appeared to be in a great mood today, from the mirth of their walk and the smile that never left their faces; he attributed their pleasant disposition to the bazaar set to happen tonight. The mood surrounding him lifted his spirits a little, knowing that he had something to look forward to.
But soon, it would all end. His academy years were days away from being over as graduation loomed near, and his blighted fate brooded closer still. A shadow of somber grievance clouded his face as he stumbled past the academy front gate, missing the greeting given by a local guard, then stepped into the shade of the interiors of his academy. It’s about time. For a coreless, his path for the future had been set; either allow the kingdom to delegate a job he wouldn’t like and he’d work his life in that field forever until his back gave out, or carve his own path as long as it didn’t involve fighting. Or I’d just skip the whole process entirely and stay in Kate’s inn.
He breathed a lungful of air and steadied his gait, then entered the training gym where a bunch of familiar faces sparred against one another with steeled, almost unfriendly expressions on their heads. The stuffy air—a mix of closed-off space and intense physical activity—permeated all around, a distinct odor he had grown to tolerate. Sweat glinted under their forehead. Beads of water burst asunder when their strikes collided, staff against shield, wooden sword against spear. Zayne watched their movements with a dutiful interest; Agil swung a little bit too wide, then Laura proceeded to tenderize his sides with a quick jab of her staff to his abdomen, and he slammed his head on the ground with a yelp.
The sun had fully risen by that point. Fingers of its light spilled through the holes of the training gym through the opening right below the ceiling of the hall. Zayne set his bag aside near the weapons provided by the gym. Everything looks in order. He thought as he walked closer to his collapsed friend.
“Zayne… Help…” Agil muttered a pained hello when he noticed his approach.
Zayne forced all his dark thoughts away, opting to focus on helping Agil and the others to pass the yearly adventurer’s license test commencing in the next two weeks. “Sheesh, that looks painful,” Zayne said with a smile, extending his hand toward Agil’s clutched figure. “You left yourself too open there. Come, let’s switch.”
Agil scratched his brown short military-approved hair, wiping the dribbles of clear sweat gleaming underneath. As its students, they wore the training outfit with pride; a set of tight-fitting gray shirts with beige trousers below, simple, unassuming, and resistant to tearing; good for training and most purposes within the academy, and to some extent, the world outside.
He scrambled his way up as he massaged a swollen, bruised part of his stomach, “Look at this! You don’t have to hit that hard, Laura,” He whined, yet his mouth curled upwards to a grin, “I can’t even touch you. Zayne, tell her to chill out, man, she won’t listen to anyone else!” Agil tip-toed behind Zayne’s back, peeking over his shoulder at Laura with a mocking pout.
“You only learn things the hard way,” Laura, the top candidate in their class, shook her head from side to side, swinging the light brown tail of her hair sideways. Her light blue eyes glimmered under the light, a feature Zayne noted as she smiled, “So I had to do the courtesy of helping you remember.”
“She’s right.” Zayne shrugged. “A mistake is a mistake. You do that in the license test, you might just end up waiting another year.”
“Tch. You two are always in agreement.” Agil pouted and stepped aside. “Well, I guess I gotta go and get this fixed. See you two later.” He jogged his way outside, leaving Zayne and the best student in his class alone to their devices. Zayne and Laura shared a funny look.
“The usual?” Zayne turned to Laura and picked up the staff Agil left behind. “I have to warn you, your strength is a little hard for me to handle. Just don’t kill me if you sneaked a strike past my defenses.”
“Heh. I’ll keep that in mind.” She smirked, their spars were the favorite part of Zayne’s day, and he had hoped she felt the same way too. “This time, I’ll take it easy on you.”
“I welcome that…” Zayne rested the end of his staff on the ground, leaning on it as he warmed up. “On a scale of one to ten, how confident are you about passing the test?”
Her expression tensed, “Four? I don’t know… honestly, I don’t feel good about it. I barely scratched level 9, and… most begin their test at 10. The more competent ones are even higher. There’s no chance I’d grasp the top spots, no way…”
“Well, I don’t know about reaching the top, but passing the test? Come on, surely, you can do that. If you failed, then all the graduates will have to wait for another year.” Zayne jested as he readied his stance. The staff felt heavier in his hands than he remembered. “One hit and we call it quits, okay? You have a lot of things to do later. And, also… I don’t want to end up in the sick bay for a week, like last time.”
[Eternity awaits.]
“Tch.” He squinted as he averted his gaze. Not now.
Laura shot him a questioning look, choosing to ignore it as Zayne resumed his stance. “You’re doing that again.” A smirk and a shrug later, she squared her stance, preparing to strike.
“Sorry…” Just a cruel joke, Zayne cursed. He’d tried to explain what he saw to his friends once, but all they gave was a simple shrug and a lot of I-don’t-knows. He reckoned they thought he’d gone mad or was looking for attention. Either reason discouraged him to explain what he saw.
Their first strike clashed amid the training area, Zayne had predicted that he’d lose the initial contact, so he tightened his grip and swerved his body to the side, avoiding the thrust that came after Laura’s assault. She’s getting even stronger, He thought as he repositioned and tried to claw his way to her right, but she reacted cleanly and shoved his staff away with a sharp swing.
Five years ago, he matched Laura in terms of power, despite the differences in their build. Now, he was but a child compared to her, as his hands scabbed from the rough shuddering resulting from the clamoring of their weapons. Every strike from Laura pushed his staff away, nearly propelling it off his hands if he didn’t grip it with his dear life. “Good…” he muttered as he rolled to avoid an overhead swing from Laura, then countered with a sharp jab toward her shoulder. Laura responded with a swaying of her torso, narrowly avoiding Zayne’s stab, then her figure leaped past Zayne’s head, striking from above—an acrobatic maneuver, cool—which also caught him off guard. It was a feat Zayne could only dream about, but for her, that feat came as a second nature.
Her strike halted just before her staff almost ripped his head in half, and she landed with a silent thump. “I win?” She said as she got up, “I… think that’s unfair of me to do that. You’re-“
“It’s fine. Everything’s fair in a real fight,” Zayne plopped his ass down to the matted floor, gasping for air; that stroke of hers almost left him breathless, “Well, that’s how the saying goes, right? Well, anyway, don’t sweat the details. You won fair and square.”
A bitter smile crept up Laura’s lips, “You know, you would be the star of our class if you had a core.” She played with her staff while sitting behind him, “And honestly, you deserved it more than any of us. You worked like... two, three times harder than the rest of us. Learned to use all the weapons, even the boring ones like the bow-” She tilted her head aside to a few feeble-looking men aiming with one of their eyes closed, “-Honestly…”
“I loathe being this...” Weak, he wanted to say that, but saying it out loud ripped his heart just that much more. “-never mind, It’s just my stubbornness to accept my situation as-is. Nothing else.” Zayne replied with a stiff curtness slipping from his agony. Hard work came as second nature to him; He did what he could to not fall behind with his unfortunate situation in mind, but even diligence could only bring him so far. At this point, he’d conceded the idea of excelling over the others, but that took too long for him to understand.
He felt Laura’s tense gaze on his back. Sighing, he kept his face away to hide his expression—he had to. Laura breathed a stiff laugh, “That’s commendable. I wished Agil shared that spirit of yours, that guy only relies on his brute strength to get anything done, and, well, you saw how it went. Openings left, right, and up and down, you can abuse his brutish attacks anytime, anywhere. It’s almost depressingly laughable.”
Zayne cracked a laugh, the stiffness in his brow relaxing, “Yeah…” He tapped his knees as he grunted himself up, “Let’s do other weapons. Swords next?” He extended a hand to her. Perhaps he’d do better this time. “Then, we’ll try daggers and shields.”
###
The tranquil street near Kate’s small tavern instilled a sense of peace as always. The people from the village, farmers, guards, merchants, and the occasional travelers sought relief from their routine lives on this street. Adventurers were a rare sight in Burg; evident from the desolate adventurer’s hall erected near the north—most adventurers Zayne saw were either on a quest or here to visit their families and old friends.
A warm cascade of bright sunlight bombarded the streets below, breathing life into the quiet scene as the grasses were trimmed neatly aside the dirt road. The occasional flowers of different colors livened up the scene with their vibrant petals. The clanging of the local blacksmith, Noel, could be heard over the distance, along with the murmurs from the light crowd and the occasional gathering of children and parents alike. Although, Zayne preferred when things were a little quieter; today being the bazaar day, he was willing to endure the noise of people setting up their stalls in the town center.
The insides of Kate’s inn muted the voices from outside. The sun seeped in through the occasional windows near the walls, granting her tavern a yellow, rustic look. Tables were set neatly near the windows, the display of the streets visible for those interested in the bright sunlight and the tranquil life outside; her food, while simple, provided comfort for those seeking a familiar place close to home.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Kate’s face glimmered when she saw Zayne on the doorstep, “Oh! Are you finished with training? Come, I just brewed a fresh batch of coffee, try it out!”
The years had been kind to Kate. She took Zayne under her care after the tragedy about his parents outside the walls, a memory he’d rather forget. Since then she had treated him as well as any parent or a family would. “Thanks,” Zayne said, noting the light haze whiffing off the warm coffee on her oakwood table, stretching a few steps off the entrance to the ends of her dining hall, which was empty, to his surprise. The scent of her fragrant coffee piqued his interest and he sat athwart where Kate leaned on the table. “New batch?” He asked, “For the bazaar?”
“Well, I’m expecting a few new faces here today, the bazaar tends to bring fresh people into Burg.” She spoke with a hint of a smile, turning her head toward the outside, “We’ll have a busy night ahead of us. The rooms upstairs needed light brushing, and a few errands needed to be finished before sundown.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Zayne sipped on her hot coffee, the tartness of the coffee grain caressed his taste buds. “Wow, this is… great. Even better than usual.”
Kate planted her hand on Zayne’s arm, “Before you do your thing,” her eyes blinked, and a melancholic look cast itself on her face, “Aren’t you planning to leave?”
Zayne pinched his eyes and avoided her intense stare, “We talked about this, Kate. Let me help you out here, I don’t need to see what’s out there. It’s childish.” He spoke with bitterness in his voice, “I… I’m happier here.”
“Childish? Look at you, acting all adult now,” She jested, “Don’t fool me, I’ve taken care of you for almost a decade now, I can see the lies from the creases in your eyelids.” She said, grinning a hollow smile, “Young kids like you need to experience the world out there, don’t limit your life inside this barren town near the corners of the world. At least see a monolith, Zayne, it’s-”
“-an incredible sight, I know…” Zayne replied, his voice sharper than he intended to, “-sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude.”
A sad look washed on both their faces. Both understood what each other wanted, and both wanted what was best for one another. “Go to Basin with your friends once the bazaar ends, see what the world is like, then return if you feel like living here is the best for you.” Kate reiterated her point, pumping a squeeze around his arm, “I’m not forcing you to leave. I just want you to… expand your options.”
Zayne took another sip. And then another. Once the warm liquid reached the bottom of his cup, he smiled at her, “Okay. I’ll… I’ll do it.” At no point could Zayne refuse Kate’s wishes, after all, he loved and owed her a great deal. Of course, he wanted her to be happy. “So, what errands do you need running?”
Kate released her grasp, then took note of the stock behind her kitchen counter, “A few slabs of meat, uh… Kaitlyn?” She called out to her helpers manning the kitchen, “What else do we need?”
“MUSHROOMS, SALT, MEAT, and PEPPER!” A womanly shriek blared past the tiny holes of the door leading to the kitchen, “AND SOME WINE WOULD BE NICE!”
Kate giggled, “Well, you heard her.”
###
The marketplace bustled with life when Zayne rested his feet behind a meat stall. He didn’t love to haggle, but prices were set with expectations of some level of negotiation being done.
A portly man butchered meat from a dead ox, the occasional flies flying about here and there as Zayne waited, staring at the other stalls beside him. Colorful tents and wisps of cloth sailed with the wind above, painting the streets beneath with the hue of a rainbow, sheltering the people beneath with its variegated shadow. The marketplace had the fragrance of stale meat mixing in with the flowers and lilies from outside, and the sporadic perfumes the merchants and the rich wore as a mask for their inner stink. The smell of opulence.
Then he saw that man. It was brief, but how did the others fail to recognize his figure baffled Zayne’s mind. A large man, almost two heads taller than him, wearing a full suit of black armor, cloaked with a large brownish cape that flowed with the gentle breeze. Zayne tried to study his face, but the intense shadow made his face unreadable.
“Here!” The butcher said, groaning, “Take it and leave.”
Zayne placed the meat in his basket, then resumed searching for that man, but he was nowhere to be found. Strange, he thought, but he put his worries aside and headed back to Kate’s inn.
The appearance of the man lingered in his mind. He kept glancing back every once in a while to ensure he wasn’t seeing things, but every time he did, his eyes saw nothing but the greeneries and plasters of house walls. The basket creaked as he laid it inside the kitchen, then zoomed to the dining area to perform his usual duties. He’d hoped that his usual task would take his mind off things.
Smokes of dust bathed in the intense sunlight from Kate’s broom as Zayne wiped the tables in silence. He found the peace soothing, he realized, as sweat dripped below his brow, and his arms ached from the constant moving, but he kept a smile. This life might bore him, but he’d grown so used to it. He knew what he truly wanted; a core, and the chance to explore the expanse of unknown life and adventures out there. However, that was just an empty dream; a piece of gold nugget always close enough for him to see, but no matter how far he stretched his arms, he’d never reach it.
“I’m… scared, Kate.”
Kate’s broom froze. Her brows cocked upward, confused, “What do you mean, scared? You are scared?”
Zayne kept his eyes on his task, “Scared that my envy will consume me. You know what I mean…”
Kate rested on her broom, “Well… I’m a coreless too, so I understand how you feel. To be denied all the adventure and life outside, and live in constant fear of monsters…”
It was then that Zayne stopped. His arms clenched the stained cloth in his grip, unwittingly wringing it dry, “Yeah… and… I’m not as patient as you are…” His mind turned to Laura and Agil, and their excited talks about the future, the license test, the monoliths, and everything else in between. They were his friends for God’s sake, and he wished them nothing but the best, and yet- “I’m jealous of them. I fear that if I left and saw-no, lived all the things I can only dream of…”
“Then you’ll have to learn to live with it.” Kate placed a hand on her hip, “You’re still fifteen, Zayne. To feel those things, it’s… expected. There are things in this life you have to just learn to accept. But what’s worse than that is to never know what life truly is. Trust me. You’ll regret it either way in the end.” She made her way beside Zayne, gently rubbing his shoulder, her eyes mellowed, almost melancholic, even, “I’m sorry for pushing you so hard. I did that not to torture you, I pushed because I know you’ll come back stronger. And…” She paused, “You deserved it. You deserved to see the world out there at least once.”
Zayne flashed a bitter smile. “Thanks…” Even if she wasn’t his parent, in his mind, he’d already considered her as such, be as tough and loud as she could be at times.
###
Night came like a storm.
“ANOTHER STEAK! GET IT READY!”
The yells of the crowded inn snuffed Kate’s screams as she struggled to get her order across the dining hall. “DO YOU HEAR THAT? KAITLYN!”
“YES!”
Zayne busied himself by wiping off the dirty tables the customers left behind, noting the weapons on their backs that they carried, and a bright amulet dangling below their necks; adventurers from another city, he assumed, but the tavern was so packed that he had little time to think.
Kate’s face flushed with a temper as she hurried between the counter and the kitchen, her food tray was almost always filled with plates of meat and bread, mead and wine, and the never-ending orders piled on the list of things Zayne had to remember; two-steaks for the group of merchants near the corner of the hall, five pints of mead for the boisterous group in the center, and then, a single cup of water for the brooding gentlemen near the entrance, clad in a full set of dark steel with a cloak that flailed with the wind, sitting with his arms crossed in his table. Everyone seemed to make their way around him as if they were in the presence of a void.
Drowned in the noise of the crowd, Zayne simply turned off his mind and did his job dutifully. Once he was done with the night, he co-
[It’s coming.]
A new message caused his heart to skip a beat. The tray of cold mead stopped dead in his hands and almost collapsed as he froze in his steps, his eyes widened with intense worry. Why did the message appear now, and… it had changed?
Instantly, his eyes darted to the lone cloaked figure he saw before, but his face paled when the seat and table were empty. I’m just seeing things, he steeled himself as he distributed the glasses with his mind on the disturbing message, Just ignore it, like how you always do.
[Can you find the truth of this world?]
Yet, the messages continued, bombarding his mind with queries after worries. Now, the messages turned from a curiosity to an enigma. Shut up. He whispered to himself, then picked up the empty plates and dishes on an empty table; the table where the cloaked man used to be. Since where there are empty plates over here? He questioned, looking around to see if he was the only one that went mad. Perhaps the night had overwhelmed him up to the point he hallucinated.
A cold grip tapped his hand. His eyes froze.
[Don’t you wish for power?]
A thunderous boom clapped the skies above, and a flash of lightning crashed near the street outside Kate’s tavern, its bright, almost blinding light ruptured everyone’s eyes, and Zayne saw stars for a few seconds before his vision returned. Everyone had their heads up in confusion, some even elected to leave to see what the commotion was outside, only to witness the chaos in the skies.
Yet, none noticed the man holding Zayne’s trembling hand. A cold sweat dripped past his nose tip when he willed himself to look at the face of the man across the table. The visage of an outlandish, yet handsome man was reflected on his irises, hidden under the cloak, clad inside his dark-steel helm, but somehow, Zayne knew exactly what he looked like. Human-like, or is it? His face appeared to shift with every blink of his eyes, at every heavy breath his lungs exhaled, from each bead of sweat trickling from his chest.
Monsters rained upon Burg. Creatures of different levels decimated the bazaar and the adventurers outside while the tavern erupted in pure panic and chaos. Those who held weapons drew their arsenals and marched outside, leaving those weak and coreless behind. None of those commotions shook Zayne off the glare of the man in the cloak. He could taste the fear on his lips.
A loud slap woke Zayne off his trance, and he turned back to see the whitened face of Kate, her eyes almost pleading for a sense of assurance and safety. Her cheeks and lips trembled as she pointed outside, where the skies had turned red, and a barrage of unknown things fell from a hole in the center of a swirling hole. Clouds seemed to gyrate around the midpoint, where a point, darker than black, appeared to expand every passing second.
Zayne turned his head back; the man had now disappeared once more. He had heard of such an event before and the tsunami of death that followed; A monster invasion.
“We-weapons,” Zayne whispered to kate, his voice barely louder than a steaming kettle, “Kate…”
Kate didn’t respond. Her shocked eyes were awed at the impossible sight outside and the splatter of blood between the adventurers and monsters threatening to destroy everything semblance of peace Burg was known for. Zayne shook her shoulders furiously, “KATE!”
His shout shook her awake, and she pointed at the cellar. “Th-there… I kept a spare… from your parents.”
Zayne trudged past the dumbfounded faces of the people in the dining hall, smashed the door of the cellar open, and retrieved a set of well-maintained steel; a sword, and a shield, paired with a short spear that stood about three-quarters his height. Clasping the shield on his arm, he rushed his way down, only to see the walls caved from the force of a mighty creature.
Screams of terror shrieked from below just after he fastened the grip of his shield, but by then, the dining hall was slashed with the dye of scarlet, of tears and pain, of guts and bones.
“KATE!!!!”
Only silence returned his call. Kate’s head rolled- No, It wasn’t her, it couldn’t be. Zayne’s eyes avoided the stare of her head, disbelief, stricken with nothing but pure panic and rage. It’s not her. It’s not her. She must’ve left. Yes, that’s right. She left.
A creature larger than life blocked the entrance to the outside. Zayne kept his head up, unwilling to look down at the sea of bodies below. Two twisted horns extended past its skull above its eyes, which were tinted in pure red, contrasting its ebony skin and black fur. Its arms were the length of its body, with its slightly shorter hind legs crashing the timbered floor with each tiny stomp of its arms. Holes tattered its torso; wounds collected from its fight with the others before it met him. Kate’s outside. She needs my help.
“FUCK OFF!” Zayne roared as he charged. The thing steadied its stance and simply cocked its head, unafraid of Zayne’s incoming assault. A hot breath smoked past its nostrils, and it bared its teeth—looking like a set of crimson blades as it heaved and swung one of its arms against him. Zayne knew he was no match for this thing, even if he had a core, but at this point, he couldn’t care less.
A strike as strong as a swinging log rattled his shield arm, and he flung, smashing against the brick wall to the side of the inn, leaving a nasty, bloodied impression of his figure. He slid and plummeted, his consciousness leaving him as he sagged on the floor, unable to propel himself up.
There, he was forced to acknowledge the hard truth. Settled on the ground beside her half-chewed, mangled body, Kate’s head rested with her eyes staring straight into his soul. His teeth grated with an unrelenting force of regret, his chest caving in from his imploding emotions. His arms convulsed, then shivered like he was naked on a cold snowy night. He reached his trembling hand toward her head, wishing that she’d stop staring at him with her judgmental eyes. You failed me, Zayne. You’re a waste. Always will be. He heard her lamentations loud and clear.
The Gods granted his wish, albeit, he wasn’t sure if it was any better. The thing grasped her face, and with a single chomp, left nothing for Zayne to remember her by.
Then… cold took over. Viscous blood had left his body in pints. All muscles and joints refused his will.
[Eternity awaits.]
Clamors of a steel foot roused his ears, and he weakly turned his gaze behind. Another hand rested on his back.
[Do you wish to get stronger?]
“Y…. Yes..” He replied, half his mind had gone to mush from the influx of swelling pain and deep sorrow. His limbs turmoiled, reaching nothingness. “Yes… damn-it.”
His voice trailed into silence, and only the sound of meat being chewed resounded inside the broken tavern. It seemed to echo inside Zayne’s head, but at that point, he had heard nothing but the deafening sound of silence.
“Finally.” The unknown man said as the black creature left the inn. “I can put this inside of you. Die faster next time, will you?”
[Core implant completed.]