In a cold forest somewhere, the snow kept falling.

< "Poor thing. How? And I came thinking about the New Year. How meaningless." > Ben sighed.

He was warmly clothed since it was below zero outside. A white bag hung one meter below his shoulder, suspended by a long strip. Inside the bag was a container shaped like a can of paint, a round cylinder. And in his left hand, an apparatus dangled down from chains interlaced around his arm.

Due to the excessive snow, Ben used specialized shoes to walk around.

However, in front of him, a creature didn't.

This wolf-human hybrid was very seriously wounded. Behind, a trail of red painted the white snow. While this creature was stationary now, it had kept wandering in this snowy forest, despite being hurt.

However, once he reached a huge tree trunk, he stopped. It looked like he tried to keep moving but only entangled himself more.

Maybe it was because he stopped, and the tiredness overcame his instinct. Or maybe, it was the cold that froze his lower body. Or perhaps, it was something else, but Ben wasn't sure. The only thing he was clear about was that this creature was now dying.

Above the tree trunk, the creature didn't move. Only its eyes rolled around, filled with anger and madness.

Deciding something, Ben searched for a solid surface that the creature could easily observe. Once he selected it, he took the cylinder from the side bag and put it on the surface.

Once Ben triggered something with it, he ran towards the tree trunk and stood on the wounded's left side.

< "A New Year for us!" > He yelled.

A series of fireworks went off.

The container was small, and so were the fireworks. However, they perfectly resembled a miniaturized version of some traditional colorful new year's firework show.

They kept going on and on for around three minutes.

Once off, the cold forest regained its silence.

< "I thought you would be living in some village around here. I was looking forward to putting on a show before we could talk a bit. Maybe about our lives. Or perhaps about the future. Or even about fireworks." > Ben's cold voice broke the silence.

Unfortunately, the hybrid on the ground couldn't respond, even if he wanted to. However, his eyes still became more intense. Anger, madness, despair, and unwillingness filled them. A mix of emotions Ben would rather not see in the eyes of anything.

< "I can't save you." > Ben looked at the curtain of arrows sticking on this creature's wounded back. Next, Ben looked at the frosted face. Then, at the signs of mutation and deviation, all mixed. Last, Ben looked at the red snow around the body.

He could only sigh.

< "Sorry. I feel like crying but can't since my body isn't working. I could've fixed it, but I was too excited once I made this artifact work. And surely, I found you, but what now?" > Ben said as he moved the apparatus in his left hand.

< "I am a monster, myself, but I don't think I can understand your pain." >

Ben's right hand began ripping out the chains on his left arm.

< "Would I despair in silence? Leaving no marks behind?" >

His blood and flesh fell to the ground.

< "Would someone refine me into an artifact? Maybe some medicine?" >

He kept ripping them mercilessly.

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< "Maybe you don't care about that. Maybe you only want to live." >

The chains hung from his right hand, with the apparatus now hidden below the red-painted snow.

< "I wonder if it is worth it. Do you think it is? To live, to suffer, to ask, to seek, to wander, to wonder. To die." >

He took a deep breath.

< "Sorry. I can only send you off. I don't know who is the fucker who is sending us here with those fucking memories, but I'll try to keep those. AH... How ironic of me, such hypocrisy." >

< "What I treasure the most... Am I wrong to think you've nothing worth keeping? That, maybe, you can be born somewhere else, but without all this baggage of dying, killing, and tragedy." >

Black marks appeared on Ben's face and body.

The chains began breaking, and lines of energy flowed toward the injured.

< "For you, that may keep on living. I can't save you. I seek, but I don't have answers either. Chained I am, but you may live. If you retrieved this, I took the karmic bullshit. And for this new year, I hope you can build memories of a life worth keeping. So, happy new death." >

The chains all broke into small pieces and flew toward the fallen.

Ben walked toward the wounded and put his hand on his head.

After much effort, the one lying still opened his mouth, but soon he relaxed.

Time passed as Ben worked on the soul and memories before him.

Eventually, the intense eyes became unfocused, giving this soul some peace.

After much work, the black marks on Ben melted partially. The dull black liquid slowly ran down his skin before being pulled back into place by an invisible force.

Finished, he stood and picked up the cylinder, putting it back into the bag.

Then, he went before the now-dead body and opened his winter clothes, exposing his chest to the cold.

A black mark on his skin shaped like a flower with five petals wriggled slightly until one of its petals disappeared. Before Ben, lava began to drip from the emptiness above the dead body, falling on it and burning everything.

Ben walked back to a safe distance but still stayed around to look. He saw the lava burning the body, the snow, and the tree trunk, before digging its way into the ground, leaving only a hole behind.

< "That's what I would call an expensive send-off, my fellow lost soul. I can't. I..." > He sighed.

< "Live on." > After a moment of silence, Ben only left those words behind.

Walking away, his hand slowly regenerated, but the blood dripped from it for quite some time. However, when he wasn't in sight anymore, the blood on the ground began to evaporate. The marks disappeared, leaving only the indentations where the blood was behind.

But while both were gone, the snow kept falling on this cold night in January.

---

"Sir?"

"Sir! Are you alright?"

"SIR!?" Dinna yelled.

After being repeatedly called by Dinna, Leo's mind broke from its trance.

He found himself lost momentarily. Hence, all his muscles became tense, and his mind sharpened. And he instinctively moved his hyper-focused eyes around while trying not to make sudden movements. Soon, with picturing of his surroundings completed, his wariness wore down.

'Did I forget something? Why now? Why so soon?'

Instantly, Leo knew that something wasn't right.

He felt cold, despite being inside a temperate controlled room. Moreover, he felt an intense sorrow, the kind of distress he hadn't felt in a long time.

Thirdly, he felt some extreme psychological pain in his left hand. Besides all that, he also felt this unforgettable intense anxiety about something missing. Unfortunately, this wasn't the first time he felt such a thing, so he quickly predicted what had happened.

"Sir?" Dinna called, afraid.

Leo slowly moved around and saw the young woman. Once the distinctive appearance entered his eyes, he remembered that a conversation was going on.

After some details finally returned to his mind, he felt grounded again. His presence of mind resurfaced as he regained an understanding of where he was and when.

'Death, Trade, Poison, Time. Purple...'

A smile appeared on Leo's face as he responded: "Sorry. I got lost in my thoughts for a bit. What were we talking about?"

Dinna noticed the first-ever forced expression on this elderly before her, but she restrained her curiosity.

"Arrays? Surviving?" She answered.

"Ah, right! The past. I'll stop talking about the past. Oh, what was that? I think I've one last piece of advice ready for you. It's escaping me..."

Leo looked around, his eyes temporarily stopping at the projects above the tables. He scanned everything, trying to remember, and then looked at Dinna. He looked from her toes to her head before stopping at her eyes.

'Why daydream now... I need some time alone, but at least I should give her one last piece of advice. For someone talented like her...'

H stared at her deep purple eyes before saying slowly: "Don't listen."

Despite feeling hurried, he still waited for her response.

She pondered before asking: "Isn't that contradictory?"

"Only if you take it or anything else in absolutes. Don't listen. Look around carefully, and ask yourself, who did you listen to so far? And, should you? Should you listen to me, to them, or even to yourself? Question it. Because time passes, you grow up and collect a bunch of knowledge and experience, and then what? So, develop your mind not to be so limited. Rob every bit of experience and knowledge you can, look at the world and observe everything, but don't abide just because."

Once he finished talking, Leo readily turned around and walked towards the table with many animals' remains.

However, he didn't pick a bone. Instead, he chose a small amber stone. This amber was about the size of a closed fist but smooth and flat rounded. Within were two different leaves, one silk and one serrated.

'What's he going to do?' Dinna became deeply curious.