“We were drowning in our own ego, believing ourselves to be invincible, we were little krims at the bottom of the food chain, that is why the devastation was so unexpected and the destruction so hopeless” – Extract from Grand Master Talkmak's diary

Foreword: a death foretold

Alberth slowly regained consciousness after what felt like his entire life at this point, he first tried to feel his fingertips and move them, of course at this point he wasn't able to do that anymore, he couldn't move his legs either, actually technically he shouldn't feel them, but they still dazzled little flashes of sensitivity from time to time.

"I see you've woken up, that's good" a somewhat harsh and old but comforting voice sounded to his left, along with the beeps of the machines his body was connected to to collect the data they would use to tell him what he already knew.

"I felt my legs again for a moment," Alberth said, his voice so flat and monotonous that it merely indicated the fact and not a hope in the data, that had long since been lost.

"They are phantom reflexes, as you well know, now please open your eyes, I need to examine you"

Contrary to his earliest memories, the room was not a hospital room, he had not visited them for a long time, the doctors had sent him home, he was in his parents' house, the white ceiling, the walls covered with dark wood, the second-story window overlooking the city park, the painting of his parents kissing on his grandfather's tractor in the middle of a field of half-harvested wheat.

Everything was intact, clean and still, Alberth felt empty. The middle-aged man had been checking his eyes, reflexes, and a growing list of checks. “Well, once again he has continued to progress, you are even thinner and your reflexes are getting worse, you will still be able to walk, but I recommend you use a wheelchair and I recommend that if you want to visit some place or do something, do it soon. ”

Alberth sighed almost imperceptibly, it had been a very long 5 years since the test had come back positive, only 3 months after his mother's death, 1 year after his father's. The family savings had gone down the drain the farm, investments, land, cars all sold, the last thing left was his parents' pension with which he paid the daily expenses and the girl who took care of him during this last year in the one that the hospitals had sent him home to die.

"Thank you Lucas, but all the preparations are already done, even so, I appreciate the advice" The man looked at Alberth with eyes full of pity and commiseration "Then I'll leave you" he said as he collected his notes, and the machines he had brought to observe him . As he left, a 20-year-old girl with bluish-purple hair greeted him as he entered with Alberth's food.

"He's more grumpy today" Lucas said as a last farewell.

"Good morning Albert"

"Good morning Jasmine"

After an uncomfortable feeding session and being bathed by a young woman who could easily be Alberth's daughter, Jazmín took him to the living room of the house, where a wheelchair was waiting.

"Where do you want to go today?" She asked, "I want to go to the basement."

"Your father's memories again?"

"Yes" It was the simple answer, short and yet so charged with emotion that the young woman couldn't stop her eyes from filling with tears.

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The stairs in my parents' house had been remodeled into elevators a long time ago, my father had needed a wheelchair for 3 years, so it was one of the first renovations that was done to the house. Slowly guided by Jazmín we crossed the room to the elevator, he could walk, but only with help or crutches.

“Do you have any cravings for dinner tonight?” Jasmine's soft voice brought me back to reality after getting lost in memories. "Russian salad, and meat in sauce" I knew she had asked it more to wake me from my thoughts than anything else, but the least I could do to keep the poor thing from drowning in my own misery was to give her something to do outside of trying. maintain a body that had already bought its next place of residence which would be forever.

When we got to the basement, I went to the pile of books, "you can leave me here and go prepare dinner, I'll be reading for a long time"

She just hummed in agreement and left me with my father's books, actually this was a collection that would easily be worth half or more of all the property and items we ever owned, many of these books were signed by the authors, they were original copies or sketches or texts so old they probably should be in a museum.

Of course a farmer should not own such a treasure—this was mostly my grandfather's inheritance from my mother—but the one who had cared for it and protected it from various attempts to burn or sell it by my mother was my father, so fact, now that she thought about it most of the time was avoiding the first thing.

My mother had never had a good relationship with her family, but especially the atrocities done in World War II by Grandpa were enough for those who knew the story to consciously seek to stay away from a man capable of such acts.

I stretched out my hand taking the next book in the small library, I had been reading each book in order during the years of my illness, although at first it was an idea to entertain myself it had become my own farewell rite, it was in the end the last legacy familiar that we owned and in death would be donated to museums and conservation rooms depending on what they were.

The book that I had taken was actually a set of manuscripts and what looked like a contract, all probably made on the skin of some animal, the style of the outer book was Western and the inside was in that strange made up language that my family's mother liked to use whenever they could. Of course he had learned it as a child, although at this point he was unable to speak it properly, he could easily read it.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Before I began to fully delve into what was written, I saw Jasmine's hand placing some tea and some cookies. Of course she knew how to do it silently and she was clearly getting better at doing it so that she wouldn't notice, that wouldn't stop her from doing what she had to do right now. "Thank you Jasmine"

"You're welcome" she left with a small smile on her face, more for almost getting away with hiding her small gestures of kindness than for my thanks, she was not ignorant of her feelings, nor was she ignorant of love and all. his pleasures, but no matter how optimistic he wanted to be, the reality was that he would probably die any time this week or month, even if the last date Lucas had given was 3 months away.

Having tea and cookies I began to read, the manuscript told the story of an aristocratic family the creator of the family according to legend had been an almost mythical being, the story spoke of how it could speak to the gods, how it fought against mythological creatures and even more fables, after the death of the founder of the family things had been relatively good, and over time the family had acquired a contract among the founder's belongings.

The contract stipulated several clauses where the founder had to stop a cataclysm at any cost and in exchange an entity or group promised to protect his family, as well as his kingdom for a thousand years, they also promised to send his belongings intact to his place of origin specifically to a son who he seemed to have had before founding the aristocratic family.

Alberth stopped at this last part, the contract named the son as Josep Hastings, the name and surname of his great-grandfather. In the midst of his musings, a soft hand rested on his shoulder. "Alberth, can you hear me? Do you want me to call the doctor?” Looking up he could see Jasmine looking at him with concern.

"Sorry, I really got lost in this book, what were you saying?"

"Food is here, are you really alright?"

"Yes, don't worry, let's eat, help me carry this book, I'll read it later"

After a dinner that I don't remember much about, Jazmín got ready to sleep, I didn't know how, but I had gone from being in the middle of the day to being in the middle of the night, however, the memories of stories, of strange languages of hobbies that lingered in the My mother's family now seemed to make some sense, most likely my great-grandfather would have either bought or created a halo of mysticism about him and the family with this manuscript.

Once again he read the manuscript again looking for coincidences about why his mother's family had been so "particular" and soon he found many coincidences, in the manuscript practically all the hobbies that my mother's family had, worse still the The reason why my mother rejected them so much, the fascination of their eventual disappearance and death came from the contract, which specified that if Josep or his family wanted to travel to this place where the founder had been alone, they had to pay the price of dying.

Alberth threw the manuscript angrily, or at least he tried to, actually what he did was throw it less than a meter away from him, letting it fall right over the edge of the bed.

Anger at her grandfather's suicide attempts and atrocities with the bastards he had sired from rape during the war, as well as what he had done to her mother, turned to anger at her inability to express it. Her mother had suffered such torture during her childhood that diseases had piled up one after the other and her father under the stress of trying to care for her and looking for new doctors and paying for every possible treatment had been demanded to the point that a hereditary disease had awakened. and consumed it in 2 years

All the destruction, pain and anguish of his family was reduced to his great-grandfather's delusion of believing himself to be the son of a supposed mythical being. The tears of frustration, pain, impotence, anguish... the dam of everything she had been containing opened and when Jasmine walked through the door, she only made it worse by adding shame to the mix of emotions.

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The sound of something falling in Alberth's room woke me up from my attempt to sleep, I quickly got up without caring that I was in my nightgown or how my face looked, I just wanted to go into his room and check that he was okay, it wouldn't be the first time that he tried to get up by himself or worse still make use of that damn window.

However, what I found when I opened the door was not a man who, despite the fact that the universe seemed to actively seek to destroy him, was trying to get back on his feet, nor was I the strange man determined to choose his own destiny instead of being forced to do so. one that he foolishly considered more suitable.

What I found was a man who had broken down, his face puckered and twisted with incomprehensible force, tears streaming down his face and soaking his shirt, his hands clenched into fists and the force exerted in the grip had been enough. to draw blood from his palms and let it fall to the ground. My heart skipped a beat and a physical weight lodged in my stomach when I saw Alberth's condition.

Running in a hurry I approached him, looking for any wound or trace of whatever had caused this state, in my carelessness I slipped on a book scattering the pages everywhere. Ignoring everything that wasn't him. I took his face in my hands "Alberth, what's wrong?" I stupidly said the first thing that came to mind.

"Jasmine" His voice sent chills down my spine, not only was it hoarse and low, as I remembered, it was still hoarse, but now it exuded a cold sensation, as if an abyss had opened up and consumed everything inside. Do not hesitate after having checked his body so many times, I knew that what was happening to him was not something physical so I extended my arms and hugged him with my whole body

"It was all because of the stupid story," she said, her voice cracking with tears and what I detected as anger and frustration. I started stroking her back and humming the song from the music box under her parents' painting. In a short time I felt his body go from being tense to slowly giving way and relaxing.

"Tell me" I said simply

Oh god I shouldn't have asked, he told me everything from beginning to end, what I had asked him to tell me about, what I foolishly believed was the reason he was modestly ignoring me. Simply the definition for what his lips pronounced did not exist.

He spent a lot of time telling everything, until he slowly fell asleep in my embrace, the tremor in my body knowing his story hadn't finished yet, but at least now he had achieved enough peace to sleep.

I slowly fell asleep next to him.

The following week became a strange moment, after that night that allowed me to sleep next to him, the next morning after cleaning his room and ordering the manuscripts that he had scattered around the room at night, I discovered one that had stains on it. from what I assumed was his blood since he was the only one left right next to the bed where he had held his hands together.

That morning he told me his stories of his childhood and youth and I understood that he did not remember me, of course I knew for a long time that he did not recognize me, but I did not know that he could not even doubt or make the association.

We had met when he gave his first classes in high school, because of his talk most of my classmates and I fell in love with science, with nature... and of course most of the girls and I fell in love with him. I simply did not forget it and it was not a passing thing.

During the mornings this week we had been going out to the park, and we even visited Alberth's father's farm, although he had sold it, who bought it was a family friend and he happily received us. In the afternoons we looked for more manuscripts like the one that had allowed him to understand the family from his mother, but that was the only related one, although not the only one written in that strange language.

But above all what I enjoyed was watching him sleep, of course I knew that it would pass in a few months according to the doctors, Lucas and I on the other hand had a different idea, his body was weak yes, but the willpower he possessed was so absurd that his body and mind seemed unaware of the fact that he had a terminal illness.

He should have died according to science 2 years ago at best, yet he was here, and able to stand, the wheelchair in the room had been there, waiting for him, but he had refused and walked down the hall. By himself, of course, without help he would depend on crutches, and the insensitivity of his legs would prevent him from knowing if he was hurt, but God knew that when he slept his body seemed unaware of its state because during the week that he had allowed me to sleep next to him, he had not there was a minute in her unconsciousness of the dream that her body did not make it clear to me what her lips did not want to tell me.

But all good things have an end.

At the end of the week his body had given way, I really didn't know if he was aware of how much time he had left and in a fit of indulgence he had allowed me the week as he had given it to me. I only knew that 8 days after that night when I woke up he was gone.

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I slowly regained consciousness, however, the expected environment of my bed in my parents' house was not what I expected, instead I was in a dark place, almost an absolute void where an absurdly gigantic tree of multiple colors extended its arms. branches to what my vision seemed to be infinity, below the tree colored flames encircled the tree in ever smaller circles until they reached its roots where they climbed up the tree and traveled through the branches of the tree, in the process of traveling from the outer circle to the branches, the flames had lost their color, turning pure white.

"Where the fuck am I"

At my question in my mind, suddenly a scroll made of skin was revealed before my eyes, it was the contract, before I could do absolutely anything, or even think about anything, the contract caught fire in an instant and its flames they consumed me, rendering me unconscious.

I slowly regained consciousness, frowning at the déjà vu , however, this time I was not in a vacuum with the tree, I was in an extremely humid place, I felt face down with the pressure of gravity pushing my naked body.

Wait…

Why was my body naked, why was it in such a humid place and why did I feel so tight, my questions had not finished being formulated when a dim reddish light dazzled me and little by little my body was brutally forced out of the room. cavity in which it had been.

My whole body tensed, the absurdity of the situation was not something I could process and all reasoning or thought was blocked, some gigantic hands that covered my entire torso and part of my head had finished taking me out of the humid cavity, in my stomach a cord of skin stretched up the body of an equally gigantic woman.

I...

Had he died and been reborn?