Fallen Light

Chapter 1: Genesis I guess the saying goes that your entire life flashes in front of you when you're about to pass away, and that's what happened.

My entire life flashed in front of me.

I was out of energy, I couldn’t breathe properly, I was on the verge of breaking.

My enemy was still in front of me, still unhurt.

I turned my head to the left to see my subordinate; she had already fallen.

I was on the verge of death. The entire mankind was at the end. The person in front of me was the cause of this, and he must be destroyed. I am the only one capable of doing so, or at least that is what I thought. But he is too powerful, more powerful than anyone I've faced in my entire life. I didn’t know what to do.

My life, for some, was a story of a hero, and for others, it was a story of villains. What was I? A hero or a villain? I didn’t know; that goes unanswered.

The only thing I know is that I am Horito, ‘THE CHOSEN ONE.’

I remember everything that has happened to me from my birth.

I was born on March 14, 2006, a date that represents the infinite number of realities and the mystery of the universe. Was it a coincidence? I don’t think so.

[March 14, 2006]

I opened my eyes for the first time on that day. The first thing I saw was my father, dressed in a blue tailored shirt, and my mother, who was beside me, sleeping in the hospital bed. I was their firstborn son, and from my birth, I was blessed with the ability to remember everything I see. It was a “blessing,” that's what my parents said. For me, I saw it as a curse. I could remember everything that has happened, even the parts where I got betrayed by people.

But my true story started when I was 16. It was January 1, 2022.

[January 1, 2022]

I woke up late on that day and had to rush to school for a special program. I reached my school just in time; our school had a picnic set for the kids to enjoy. I and my friends went along.

We reached there after a 30-minute travel, then we started to set up our tent to enjoy our time. I was enjoying the sunlight and the wonderful scenery, while my friends were chatting with each other.

The chirping of the birds sounded like a melody to me. Then someone called my name to talk to me. I turned my head to check it out; it was my friend Aiko. But inside my heart, she was more than a friend to me. But I kept that to myself.

"Hey Horito, don’t slack off so much, pay attention when others are speaking," said Aiko in a playful and funny way.

I responded, "Oh! I am sorry, I didn’t mean to," feeling shy and funny. Aiko, with a beautiful smile, asked me, "Are you going to the waterfall with us?"

Without a second thought, I responded, "O-" But right as I was about to answer, the playful breeze morphed into a howling gale. The sun dimmed, replaced by eerie twilight.

The sudden change in weather worried us.

Just as I was about to suggest canceling the plans, we heard a sudden blast; the sound frequency made us fall down in terror.

But there was no fire or casualty nearby. I looked around, but nothing had happened.

Then a sudden loud scream started to play, that made half of the people faint. In the friend group, I and Aiko were the only ones standing. There was no one else standing in the entire school; it was only me and Aiko.“What Is going on, these is strange. Why did our friends faint” said Aiko, She was worried and left in shock after what she say.

To reassure her, I reached her hand and said “Aiko, Come out of it. Nothing will happen to you. Whatever happens, we'll face it together. We've always been a team, and nothing will change that”Aiko relieved said “Yeah.”Aiko said, "Is this some kind of prank? If it is, then this is going too far," with a worried expression.

As I bent to check on my friend Yui. I said “I don’t think it’s a prank. Lend me a hand to check on our friends”. Yui had fainted. I checked his vitals; he was still breathing and well, but no matter how much I tried, he didn’t get up.

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I said, "It doesn’t look like a prank, but the good part is that they are still breathing and well," in a cold and bold way. I wasn’t scared; rather, I was trying to search for some clues and took Aiko's help to see if anyone was still standing.

Then suddenly, we both heard a voice. A voice that sent shivers down my spine. The voice was so deep and creepy. It was as if there was someone behind me.

I turned around, but to my shock, there was no one.

Then the voice said, "So, the prophecy is true. Huh!?"I looked at Aiko in shock and disbelief and asked her “Did you hear that voice??”Aiko responded “Yes…. Did you?”She continued “What is this prophecy, he is speaking of?” I Didn’t say anything , I was as lost and clueless as her.

Then again he said, "Seems like you're clueless about what is going on. Am I wrong? FALLEN LIGHT."

Fallen Light, I never heard that anywhere. After hearing this voice, Aiko was scared, and she held onto my hand.I said “Aiko, Are you okay? Don’t worry nothing will happen to us”. Then suddenly, my body didn’t move anymore. I tried with full force, but I couldn’t move an inch. Was I scared? No, I wasn’t scared. Aiko couldn’t move either.

Then the sky started cracking. This sort of phenomenon can't be explained with science. Even for me, a person with blessed memory power and even after reading countless books, I couldn't figure out what was going on.

“What is going on, this looks like something from a video game.” Said Aiko

From the cracked sky, monsters crawled out. Monsters covered with darkness.

I could move again; I tried to run away. But as I tried to grab Aiko’s hand to run, she didn’t move. “Aiko we need to go, run ” , but she didn’t move an inchI looked back at her; she was glowing with white light, and then suddenly she had angel wings.

She came out of her trauma and looked at herself and was shocked, but she looked like she understood what was going on.

I was clueless; I was scared for the first time. Then I shut my eyes for a millisecond, and when I opened them, I was in a room that seemed to have no boundaries and was covered with white light and darkness on the other side.

In the center of the room was a man standing in a black long cape that seemed like it was 1000 years old; his face was covered. I blinked, and he was right in front of me.

I got scared and stepped back; then he laid his hand on me and reassured me it was okay. He said, "Welcome, Horito. Don’t be scared. This is your inner realm, and I am your powerhouse."

In shock, I asked him, "What are you? Are you a person or a soul or something like that?"

He said, "You will understand that in the journey with us. For the time being, know that we were a living entity before, but not now."

I asked him, "What do you mean by BEFORE?"

He said, "80,000 years ago."

I was shocked and lost in thoughts, but as I was thinking, I came back to the picnic spot again. Aiko was in front of me, but something was different with me. I felt an endless power inside me, and I saw my hand; I was carrying a sword, a black sword that had no spots of light. And I had wings, but they were not the same as Aiko’s; my wings were GREY.

The monsters were rampaging the city, countless people lost their lives. I wanted to help anyone possible; Aiko had the same motive. So, we both tried to fly to the monsters.“Aiko, we need to save our friends. Give me a hand in this war.”Aiko replied with “Lets do this, its finally getting fun”

As we tried to fly, a transparent window came forth. We both stopped to see the Window, the window called itself the ‘System’, it seemed like something I read out of a novel. The System had our entire details, from our name to our skills and stats.

Both me and Aiko had only 10 skills, but both of them were the complete opposite. My first skill was Punch of the Shadow whereas Aiko had the skill Punch of the light. But the thing to worry about was our stats, in the novels I read the stats usually start from 1 but our stats were XX, they were not defined.

We didn’t get much time to think out it and we had to keep going or there will be more casualties.

As we flew high into the air, we faced our first group of monsters. The monsters looked like Humanoid Bats, but their small wings were covered with a Dark type of matter.

The group of Monsters were recognized as Dark Bats by the system, the system usually classified them as B rank Monsters, but when they form as a group they become A class.

We didn’t know if they were a big threat, the only thing we had in mind was to save the city from this growing monstrosity.

The Monsters launched an attack towards us, they shot black sharp features against us, the system warned us about possible poison from them. When they launched their attack, it felt like the time slowed down and my senses became more sharp cause I dodged everything with just pure reflex.

The sword in my hand was emitting a black aura, the sword seemed to have a soul of its own. The monsters tried to fly near us to attack with their swords but Aiko responded with her skill Arrows of Light, a skill that can launch arrows made out of light and with full power can travel at light speed.

The arrows took down half the monsters, I launched forward and used a skill called Sword Aura, this is a skill that uses the aura around the sword to make Slashes in the opponent. With that attack, the Bat Monsters were done for. We had to move on and go to the center of the city to avoid more casualties.

As We landed on the ground, we didn’t see any humans or monsters. It was surprising because there were thousands of monsters swarming down the crack.

Right Then we heard the same voice again, the voice that spoke to us when the sky cracked. The Voice said, “Welcome Again, Fallen Light” Still confused, I shouted out “If you want to fight, come out, Coward” I instantly regretted my words cause we were teleported to a Dark Cave-like structure, In the center of it, there was a ray of light and a seat facing the other side.

The Seat slowly turned to us, but the person in it was not visible. Then the light ray slowly uncovered the Person. The person sitting in the chair was Me.

End of Chapter 1.