Phantasia used to suck—dictators on the left, warlords on the right, rabid monsters from behind and let not forget the gods who had the average maturity of a rebellious teenager.

It sucked so badly the Liberator once considered supporting a rabid rebellion of Tai Hua Tianshang. But that is another story involving internet trolls, multiple raids, a world-war, and an Italian hit song.

Instead, this report will feature the Horizon Dawn. They have held many names before the fateful Day of Miracle — Knights of Charity, The Savior, They-who-shall-not-be-named, The Plague, The Black Blight. But let's be honest here, we all know what people called them.

The Guardians of Peace and Justice.

In this world of chaos, the greatest band of heroes the multiverse had ever known came to be when a boy finally got sick of one beauty goddess's speeches.

That day, Ishtar screwed up more than she realized.

…

The sky was gentle and cloudless during that promised day, but that didn’t mean it was peaceful.

'Hello, beautiful people of Earth,' said the disembodied voice of a woman in the sky. The voice was sweet and light, like nectar from heaven. It was an enchanting sound until people started thinking about the duplicitous nature of those who loved using flowery speech. Suddenly, that voice became downright foreboding.

It might be paranoia, but the sixteen-year-old boy sitting under that blue sky knew better. The surrounding canyon was as empty as his lifeless eyes. The world crushed those eyes far too early. Now only dimmed life of loathing kept it alive.

Tired, he got up and considered flipping the bird at the god above to get himself smote. Ah... he could almost taste the sweet release of death. But no, if he died, no one would remain to torment his cousin.

Suddenly, he heard a footstep. He turned back to look at the newcomer and groaned.

“Ah geez,” the boy said. “You again.”

The boy was facing a mirror image who effortlessly passed as a much chirpier thirteen year's old version of himself.

Unlike the older version, the younger one was smiling insidiously.

“Come on,” the younger self said. “Try to do something. You are in the middle of nowhere of another world with only teddy-bear pajamas and nothing else. Any other fictional protagonist in our situation would be wholly screwed.”

The boy wasn't amused.

“Sorry, I don’t read trash,” The boy replied sarcastically. “Who do you think I am? CNN? There is nothing we can do in this situation unless someone sane finds us. Shame I am missing the internet. This would be an excellent time to re-watch Superman: The Movie or Independence Day. Geez, People these days have no taste in movies.”

“You know you are offense to humanity just by existing,” the younger self said. “Some of them might be crying right now? But you never care, do you? Oh, great Rem Breaker.”

“Do I have to care about a race genetically ingrained with stupidity?” Rem retorted. “You’ve seen my cousin, right? The world, especially the loudest part, are a bunch of imbeciles.”

That was the moment the embodiment of annoyance returned.

'To everyone on Earth. Welcome... what?! They are panicking! Come on! Grow a pair! You stupid piece of... what the hell? American's president is threatening nuclear escalation?! You must be kidding me! Stop this at once! I order you to stop! Athena! Get Lord Zeus to do the lightning run! Those stupid mortals refuse to listen!'

The voice of the irritating goddess yelled childishly in the sky.

Rem smugly smiled at his younger self as a declaration of victory.

“Fine,” the younger Rem gave him a stink-eye. “You’ve got the point. The world is full of idiots.”

'The moon…'

A much-subdued, much more godly voice echoed in the sky. The implication was crystal clear. Obedience returned in an instant. Then a statement followed with a grinding of teeth.

The irritating goddess entered a fit.

'In my glorious name, I won’t stand for this digression. By my authority, I order you stupid fucking mortals to stop the fucking riots, disarm your stupid nukes and listen to me. I am the fucking Ishtar! You either listen to me, or I will force you into ten years of labor building my monument!'

"Poor goddess," Rem said, throwing the idiot in the sky bundle imaginary flowers in a mix of annoyance and sympathy. "Human barely unite most of the time. She should just quit and retire to grow potatoes. Or maybe radish, given that the market is prospering this quarter..”

“They are not that stupid,” the younger self tried to invoke wisdom. “Isn’t the world more united and accepting than ever? It is just a vocal minority that created the problem. The rest of humanity is fine!”

"Oh please, " Rem replied, his fury engulfed the psychological void. "Sure, we learn something, but don’t pretend we are good and comfy. You are ignoring a solid problem. Do you even ask yourself that maybe that vocal minority might have a point? Hell, maybe you are just deluding yourself into thinking they are the minority. How is shutting up all dissent and covered it up with your rainbow-color dandy world an act of unity? Do you even know what is justice anymore?”

“It is the pursuit of the right thing!”

“It is the pursuit of truth,” Rem retorted. “So that both sides are held accountable for their actions. Justice is not a tool to enforce your stupid world-view. It is for enforcing fairness.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The two Rem Breaker glared at each other.

"Let agree to disagree," the younger Rem said.

“Let keep it that way.”

That was the moment the goddess got her fit sorted.

‘Finally! Did the Nikes get every one of those idiots in North Korea under control yet? Good! Let me begin again. Welcome to the plane of the limitless world, my beloved Earthling. Your planet has reached the required history and civilization to surpass the Causalty limit and merge with Phantasia. Welcome Humanity! For now, magic walks among you!!’

Rem was unamused. In one debate, a goddess just conquered North Korea and maybe the USA before announcing it in the most murder-inducing way possible. Who thought this was a functioning idea?

"Humanity calling goddess," Rem deadpanned. "Humanity wants a refund."

It didn't take six minutes for the metaphorical ax to fall.

'Eh, what do you mean that another riot started in Rome?!' The goddess hilariously screamed horrifically. 'What do you even mean when every nation on Earth just declares a martial... wait! Where are you dragging me?! I demand explanation Artemis!!! Who is this Tumblr you are talking about!? Hey!!'

Flat line followed... good luck goddess.

“Wow, do you have [Clairvoyance (Ex)] or something,” the tiny Rem couldn’t help but feel impressed. “You are spot on about the refund.”

"Not really," Rem said dismissively. "This just reminded me of that time."

Rem referred to the time his class got hit by a disaster during the field trip. That disaster was an earthquake followed by a quick landslide. By some miracle, the students regrouped after the initial catastrophe in a brief act of unity. However, the moment the hormone-addled teenager knew they were alone with no supervision, any existing alliance fell into a puddle of death, and in its place rose the Lord of the Flies. An unsupervised power struggle broke out between Claire, the school council president, and Cassidy the bully over the mantle of leadership. The tension finally snapped when Justin, the school council vice-president and the resident doormat, got knocked out by an Aluminium Bento to the head. Three minutes later, the entire school body started a holy war over the unconscious body of the crucified Justin.

It was sadly fascinating to see how fifteen minutes all-out brawl between two groups of bored teenagers generated so much collateral damage. Someone even set the forest on fire for more injuries and special effects.

'How did the fire get started again?'

"Jeane set the forest on fire." Rem replied in shame, remembering the critical mistake of using sarcasm on his cousin. The girl had apocalyptical common sense and legendary awful taste in men.

Then the voice as cold as brick rang from the sky.

'Hello, everyone.’

It was no wonder Rem felt the absolute control from the voice the moment it interrupted goddess of cringe. This goddess’s sound like a sophisticated concrete sculpture. Her voice was as graceful as it was hard and uncaring.

'Ishtar needs a timeout. I am Athena. Soon you will receive your Status ID. It will serve as your proof of identification and the record of your ability. Don't worry about losing it because it can be summoned back with a word. Now, there are some of you who got lost during the world merge and find yourself deposited elsewhere. Stay put. Personnel was sent to guide you to the awakening. Good luck and welcome.'

"Guess I am one of the lost ones," Rem sighed, looking around in the middle of the nondescript sand.

'Yep you are, but you know what's the most disappointing thing about you.'

“Tell me. I already got used to being a disappointment.”

'Remember that forest?' The boy said amusingly. 'You could have done something.'

Rem's eyes widened. He finally realized what he was talking to, and it scared him.

'Claire knows you won't hesitate to punch her. You never care about her title, do you? Cassidy? He is still too afraid to even look at you after you forced him to swallow the dirt, literally. And Justin would rather jump over the cliff rather than talk over the great and terrible Rem Breaker. You could walk in there, freed Justin, punched Claire in the face and ordered Cassidy to stop. You could have solved everything if you tried.'

Rem glared at the boy who was showing him a card. It was a silver card with white etching; glowing with divine moonlight.

“But you ignored everything, and went into a forest to hide,” the boy threw the card at Rem. “You were the only one who emerged unscathed. Guess even you are like those cowardly humans, Remus.”

Rem caught the shining card. It was real; tangible in defiance of the law of insanity. The ID's surface was silky and starry. Rem felt like he was holding a piece of the universe mystery in his hand.

"What are you?" Rem looked back at the boy and found nothing.

The boy vanished liked he was a random figment of the imagination.

That disappearance left Rem Breaker alone and friendless like he always was.

He looked at the card.

...

Remus Breaker

Stat

Str: 30 [E]

End: 29 [E]

Mag: 38 [E]

Wis: 101 [E]

Dex: 35 [E]

Skill

Active

Arrival of Dream [N/A]

Passive

Reality Breaker [Ex]

The Way of Optimism [N/A]

…

That was when it happened. That day many things could go horribly. It might rain, or the bike might move a bit too much to the left. Another team might have founded Rem Breaker and ended the dream before it began. But none of those happened; fate and the universe tipped the dominos to start the end of that world where only the strong could triumph. That coincidence was why bike fell from the sky and crashed next to Rem Breaker.

Crash!

The impact was loud and large, to no-one's surprise. A plume of dust rose like an explosion had gone off. Rem got knocked off his feet. The boy got up a moment later, shielding his eyes from the irritating particles.

In front of him was a massive crater.

Rem peered over the edge of the hole. In the wake of that disastrous landing, the bike laid, buried under the sand. Despite the brush with death, Rem was calm. In his view, once you thought about life hard enough, the prospect of getting crushed by a falling bike ceased to be as terrifying as its sound. Either way, Rem would be sent up to spend an afterlife chilling with Michael Jackson or, assuming that the atheist was right, he would face vast unexciting void free from the pain of any kind, including but not limited to boredom.

Against such an inhuman response to the concept of oblivion, one voice resounded. It was not fearless nor brave, but shrilly like a girl's scream.

No, in every sense of the word, it was not only a girly scream but a girly scream to epitomize all girly screams.

"I am going to die!" said a tied-up blonde-hair girl on the bike.

"Shut the hell up, useless goddess!" A furry animal dropped from the bike's driver seat. Much to Rem's surprise, it was a talking honey badger with a strangely clean bark-color fur. Rem groaned internally. Goddess existed, so he guessed talking animal was par on course.

"If Athena didn't force me, I wouldn't even be here. Just because you are Artio's niece and the snake goddess's student doesn't mean you can act like a spoiled brat in front of me."

"Shut up, honey badger," the girl yelled in panic, unsurprising, given she just risked her life and limbs a minute prior. "I will tell aunt Artio about this. Master and grandma Gaia will know about it too."

The badger pulled a plastic ball out of nowhere and forced it into the girl's mouth. Then she took out a large, black and unforgiving high-carbon steel frying pan.

Rem witnessed the tragedy. Another piece of him died that day.

The boy tucked away his Status ID and stood up. He had no internet, no connection, and no cloth aside from his pajamas. Common sense was dead and won't be returning no matter what he did. The only thing he could do is see where the strangeness led him in this bizarre water rapid.

"Excuses me, sir," he bowed at the duo while trying to look, sound, and felt as dead-to-the-world as much as possible. "Where can I find the information booth in this canyon?"

....

That was the beginning of Horizon Dawn. The crossing between the boy and the goddess that would bring forth the heroic legend, discoveries and internet terrorism the like Phantasia had ever seen.