“You know…” Christopher neared the marshmallow on his stick closer to the fire and murmured, “I really thought we’d encounter at least a fox or something.”

“To be honest, same,” Braun mumbled as his marshmallow melted and charred.

Seeing that his marshmallow had already melted enough, he placed it in between two crackers laced with chocolate and created himself a delightful snack. Biting into it, a burst of cracky crackers, mallow marshmallows, and chocolatey chocolates exploded in his tongue, creating a delightful mixture of tastes and textures in his mouth.

“Don’t expect anything like that to happen anytime soon,” laughed Albert. “The local government treats this forest as a prime tourist spot considering it looks nice, so they do their best to get rid of any potential danger to tourists like wild bears, wolves, et cetera.”

“Sigh… what a greedy society we live in…” Christopher sighed.

Braun silently grinned as he took another bite from his smores. Greedy… What a joke. If everyone was as rich as you… Hah!

“Welp, at least we got a big haul of fish for today!” Christopher eyed the fishes smoked on top of the campfire and licked his lips. “Hehehe.”

“Those don’t taste very well. You should dip them in some sauce like soy sauce if you want them to taste good, and also some rice to balance out the sharp taste of the soy sauce,” Braun commented based on his experience.

“You’ve already eaten them before?” Christopher asked with a surprised look.

“It’s a common fish sold in the market…” Braun answered with a smile. I’m not even surprised you’ve never eaten this before. Rich people and their luxurious meals.

As he mindlessly waited for the fish to continue cooking, Braun suddenly remembered the news he had read in the morning and decided to bring up the topic.

“So, do you guys know about the meteor shower that would happen tonight?” Braun asked.

“Meteor shower?” Christopher raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Albert nodded his head and crossed his arms. “I heard about it. We should be able to see it tonight, although we don’t know the exact time it would appear.”

“Why didn’t you guys tell me about this earlier?!” Christopher widened his eyes from the betrayal. “What if I had slept early tonight and missed this cosmic event?!”

“That’s why I brought it up, idiot.” Braun rolled his eyes.

“Well then… When do you two think the meteor shower will arrive?” Christopher asked.

“I don’t know.” Albert shrugged his shoulders.

“Just expect it to arrive tonight, maybe past midnight if we’re unlucky,” said Braun. “So, we should drink coffee to combat our sleepiness!”

“Oh…” Christopher squinted his eyes at Braun. “Are you sure you aren’t saying this just to satisfy your coffee addiction?”

“Me? Manipulating you into giving me coffee? No way!” Braun shook his head and waved his arms. “I just want us to be awake till we get to see the meteor showers!”

“Fine, we do need coffee anyways… But it just goes against the camping spirit to be drinking coffee!” Christopher murmured with an indecisive tone. “Well, this is only a once-in-a-lifetime cosmic event… You know what, you’re right!”

“Shall I get the coffee ready, young master?” Albert asked and stood up from his seat.

Christopher nodded his head.

Yes! Coffee! Braun smiled maliciously inside his head while keeping a cool demeanor on the outside.

Then, as Albert went back to their van to prepare some coffee, Braun fiddled around with the sticks that pierced through their haul of fish and saw that they were already cooked to perfection.

“They’re ready,” said Braun. He then took them all and placed them on a nearby tray, before taking one for himself to eat.

Christopher hastily took one for himself too and blew at it to cool it down. Inhaling its smoky, fishy fragrance, Christopher licked his lips and chomped down at its meaty flesh, and closed his eyes to savor the taste.

“Hmm…” Christopher furrowed his brows as he inspected the taste with each bite. “It’s…”

“It’s got a nice flavor, to be honest. The fish is chewy and soft, the skin is kind of crispy, and the smoky flavor complements the natural taste of the fish. It would have been better if we added some sort of sauce to it though,” commented Braun.

“It’s tasty,” Christopher praised. “And I do agree that this would go along well with rice.”

“Told you so,” Braun said with a smirk. Then, as he took another bite of his fish, he looked up at the starry night sky and murmured, “This day has been kind of exhausting.”

“But fun, am I right?” Christopher added while wearing a stupid smile.

“Yes… It’s fun,” Braun agreed with a soft tone.

“It’s ‘just fun’?” Christopher raised his eyebrow.

“Okay, fine, it’s more fun than I had expected.” Braun rolled his eyes. “I honestly thought this idea was stupid and dangerous, but it’s been going well.”

“Let’s go!” Christopher pumped his fist and wore a smug grin. “Common Christopher Divus W!”

“Shut up, just eat already. Who knows, maybe the meteor shower would arrive now if you keep yapping,” joked Braun.

“As if.” Christopher pointed his smoked fish to the sky and said with a confident grin, “There’s no way they would appear all of a sudden just because I was talking.”

Out of nowhere, the dark night sky lit up with a burst of bright lights tearing through the clouds up above.

The two paused as they felt a strange sensation course through their whole body, causing the hair on their skin to stand erect. They felt their hearts palpitate as if a mystical wave of energy just came sweeping down from above, causing their muscles to constrict and tighten.

“This…” Braun murmured, his eyes dazed as he looked at the grand scene of raining meteors.

“That’s…” Christopher opened his mouth wide, unable to speak out his thoughts from sheer awe.

Their surprise wouldn’t come to an end any sooner though, because out of the various colorful lights striking down from space, one particularly large meteor diverged from the rest, heading down closer to the ground… towards them!

At breakneck speeds, they saw the meteor silently crash down against the canopy of trees before hearing a loud boom echo less than a second later. The meteor disappeared into the dense forest, with light faintly shining from a distance like a lighthouse in the dark sea acting as a ray of hope for lost ships.

Their eyes interlocked for a split second before the same thought entered their mind.

Go to the meteor!

Albert, who was busy preparing coffee, also heard the sudden loud boom from outside and almost dropped the mug of coffee he was holding in his hand. He managed to stabilize himself after the little jolt and made sure that no coffee spilled to the floor.

After carefully placing the freshly brewed coffee on the table beside him, he rushed out of the van to look outside and see if the two were safe, but only found an empty campsite with the two nowhere in sight.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Fuck…” Albert’s eyes widened with worry as he quickly realized what happened.

With his understanding of those two boys, especially his young master, he knew for a fact that they were headed to where the sound came from. And if the faint light in the distance doesn’t prove him wrong, he could assume the meteor did indeed strike near them.

“Don’t they know it’s dangerous! A burning flame could already be swallowing this forest!” He cursed and ran into the dense darkness of the trees, disappearing amidst the strong winds.

…

Christopher and Braun ran as fast as they could with Braun lagging slightly behind.

Christopher ran with graceful ease, his body akin to a finely tuned sports car capable of moving with extreme precision and control. He dodged the branches in his path and hopped over bushes without even having to think much over the way he moved.

His athleticism was shown in full view as he ran like a wild cheetah, with speeds that would guarantee him a ranking in a track and field competition.

The more distance they covered, the wider the gap between them became. An unexplainable feeling of helplessness and envy started to blossom in Braun’s heart again at this literal gap growing and he couldn’t help but curse in his mind.

God fucking damn it. Braun clenched his fists as he continued to run. He tried to close the gap but it just continued to grow, proving his efforts futile. The world really just had to give everything to this guy, huh?

Is he some protagonist blessed by the heavens? He has everything I could ever want. Perfect looks, monstrous genetics, wealth that would never end, endless talent at one’s disposal… Braun sighed, his eyes showing a look of defeat and acceptance, a feeling he had been growing used to over the years of friendship he had with Christopher.

Life’s just so unfair… Fate is so unfair. He slowed down his pace and maintained a bearable speed, conserving his stamina so he wouldn’t pass out by the time he arrived at the crash site.

As he focused back on reality and out of his thoughts, he noticed that they were surprisingly near the crash site already with Christopher standing still at the circular boundary of broken trees.

The bright light they had been chasing after all this while seemed to take on a solid form at the bottom of the crater, shining brightly with different intensities and colors. The light changed from red, to then orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, pink… it was a rainbow of never-ending colors.

A glowing meteor? Braun stared at the ginormous rock at the bottom of the crater, dumbfounded. No, a crystal?

The large crystalline mass from outer space seemed to hold a mystical property, with a single glance causing his eyes to strain with strange visions playing in his mind. It was as if certain parts of reality were dissected so that his eyes could perceive them.

Space twisted and warped, and time turned fragmented and sandy.

As the two silently looked at the crater, Braun, who was feeling apprehensive and wary of the strange extraterrestrial material, nearly leaped back when Christopher began to walk down the slope toward the crystal.

“W-What are you doing?!” Braun shouted out in his panic, grabbing Christopher in a vain attempt to pull him back.

Christopher kept marching down the slope, with Braun futilely holding on to his dear friend’s arm for his safety. He didn’t listen, as if he was entranced by the crystal.

Braun widened his eyes at Christopher’s apparent stupidity, but he wouldn’t give up just because of this. Whatever was happening, it was definitely not normal, and the strange visions he saw made him sure that Christopher must have been influenced by some sort of dangerous radiation and was out of his mind.

“LISTEN TO ME, DUMBASS! WHY ARE YOU GOING THERE?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR DAMN MIND?!” Braun shouted into Christopher’s ears as he continued to pull.

“Braun…” Christopher spoke softly, his eyes regaining focus.

“You’re finally sane…” Braun sighed in relief as he let go of his grip.

Christopher then laughed, replying, “Of course I’m sane…” and then continued to walk.

“W-Woah! Why are you approaching the meteor again?!” Braun stepped back, eyes wide.

“Don’t you hear it?” Christopher continued to walk as he pointed at the crystal. “It’s calling out to me… It’s saying I need to touch it.”

“Hear it?” Braun murmured as he began to harbor doubts over Christopher’s apparent sanity, but as he then looked back at the crystal, with all its shining colors, strange properties, and mystical origin… a certain thought appeared in his mind.

It was a dangerous, most whimsical, and least sane thought he could have thought of at that moment, but in its insanity lies a god-forsaken truth.

A meteor fell from space near the campsite of this world’s protagonist, a meteor made out of a crystal with seemingly supernatural properties that can call out to a human, more specifically, to Christopher Divus.

“No way…” Braun murmured. His body moved on its own, taking a step forward as his fear began to turn into desperation.

Christopher was already mere steps away from touching the crystal, but there was still hope—an insignificant, tiny, minuscule ray of hope given to him by this cruel world.

Christopher was the man closest to the definition of a protagonist, with the perfect background, perfect talent, and perfect personality.

Braun was a great side character, a sidekick to the protagonist, the smart friend to the dumbass hero. At most, if life was a mere story in a book, he would just play a minor role in the grand scheme of things.

And things were beginning to grow more and more fictitious, and the more wack reality was, the more the reality of him being a side character would become true.

If this meteor is what I think it is… A meteor that would allow him to become the chosen son of fate… Braun’s thoughts went wild as a fire burned brightly in his heart—if he could somehow get to that meteor first; if he could somehow grab hold of that unlikely whimsical destiny of becoming this world’s protagonist…

That thought made him move at speeds that broke past his limits. His legs exerted strength beyond what he could possibly achieve as he stretched out his hand, leaping down from the slope to try and touch that meteor before Christopher could.

His finger neared ever closer to the meteor, inching inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter until only a slight gap was left… a gap too many.

The meteor released a burst of bright iridescent light, releasing a wave of force with it as the epicenter, launching Braun back and causing him to slam against the ground. He coughed out in pain and hunched his back, but his eyes remained wide and focused.

He stared at the place where the meteor used to be, his vision blurry from the previous wave of energy. The moment he did so, he noticed the meteor was missing, with Christopher lying on the ground, unconscious and encased in a strange embryo of warped space and light.

Currents surged through his body, discharging colorful electricity that would electrocute anyone who tried to approach him.

Braun stared mindlessly at Christopher, his lips dry and his whole body trembling with an extreme bundle of inexplainable emotions.

“Damn it…” He murmured, his fists clenched, his knuckles white, and his palms bleeding. Tears welled up in his eyes as he shouted loudly, “DAMN IT! DAMN IT! WHY HIM?! WHY HIM?!”

He smashed his fists to the ground without care for the consequences. His repressed rage, envy, jealousy—all of the hate he had, all of the regret he had, all of the envy he had, all of the pain he could feel, he slammed it all to the ground as if he was punching the world and reality itself.

“WHY?!” Braun cried out, tears welling in his eyes. He was once again thrown to the side, his fate solidifying as the side character with Christophe continuing to shine brighter and brighter.

Life is unfair.

Fate is unfair.

Reality is unfair.

The moment he was born into this world, his fate was predetermined. He was bound to reality, forever restricted and tied to the illusion of free will. No matter what he does or tries to accomplish, as long as he was merely a side character, he’ll never attain the freedom he truly desires.

He looked up, eyes red and bloodshot. He looked back at the place where the meteor used to be, his vision clearing up and allowing him to look closer and clearer.

“This…” He felt his whole body freeze as he saw something strange in the far distance.

It was a tiny green flame glowing brightly with inexplicable intensity. It floated in the air, like a ray of hope that shone the brightest in his darkest times.

The pain in his hands and body disappeared and was muted out. Every fiber of his being was focused onto the green flame that illuminated the darkness of the night.

“This…” He repeated his words.

Before he knew it, he had already stood up and began walking towards the green flame. He walked towards the flame slowly as his eyes turned clear and calm. Even though he didn’t know what it was, he instinctively felt that it was just right.

There was a sort of strange resonance he had with the green flame as if it was… Calling out to me…

He almost laughed at the words he almost uttered as he stood in front of the green flame, with it still burning ever brightly with its mystical glow.

The whole world turned silent as he slowly reached out his hands. For a moment, every memory he had in his mind replayed in an instant, from his birth to his childhood, to then his adolescence.

Throughout it all, there was one recurring theme of his life that was most obvious—his repeated lack of freedom—

What was freedom?

It’s the ability to achieve whatever one desires! Braun grabbed the green flame, causing his eyes to burn with the same green color.

An intense pain overwhelmed his every sense as the green flame erupted all throughout his body, from his skin to his muscles, bones, organs, and every single vein in his body.

His body was destroyed by the green flame. His mind was ravaged by the green flame. His soul was torn into smithereens by the green flame.

He was broken down beyond repair, burnt down into ashes.

SO WHAT? He cried out in his mind, enduring through the relentless pain devouring him whole. Compared to this worthless life that I had lived through now, living in the shadows of the one chosen by fate, forced to contort to the life I had been given with no way of changing the course of my story… HA!

“I’D RATHER DIE THAN LIVE ANOTHER SECOND AS A PATHETIC BASTARD!” He screamed out his rage, his hatred, his grief, and the last bit of pride he had left over his existence—his pride as the man known as Freidrich Braun.

The flame swallowed him whole, turning him into a bright green torch, silently burning, silently enduring. He underwent destruction, destroying every last bit of his pathetic self, burning it down so that he could be reborn anew—for only by destroying every last part that shackled him could he attain the freedom he had been longing for all this while.

A hand burst out of the green flames, and slowly but surely, the green flames disappeared, receding into Braun’s body.

He stood there silently with a grin, a genuine smile plastered across his face.

“This… is rebirth…” He clenched his fist and stared at Christopher’s body.

A strange feeling was evoked from his heart, a feeling he knew all too well—it might be because of the flame, it might be because he was just evil, whatever it was, there was a voice that continuously spoke in his mind.

“Kill Christopher.”