Chapter 1: 1. Save Us

1. Save Us

Voices echoed from all directions, the sounds of disruption and violence, corruption and hatred. A group of men woke up to reveal a sight of bewilderment and an overwhelming rage coursing through the air. They focused their gaze on the rhythmic chanting of the people all around dressed in flimsy and tainted clothes.

One of the men glanced at a young boy among the crowd that looked like they were in their mid-teens. He wore torn clothes, had unclean skin, like flesh tossed around in the mud, and gave a stern look towards the men.

He glanced at another person, a woman specifically. She wore misshapen clothes coated with debris - blackness like smoke. Her face had patches of dirt and she expressed emotions as if a demon was in front of her.

The list goes on and on. Wherever the men looked, ten of them, there was nothing but rows upon rows of men and women crowding together to throw words of wrath and their sense of justice.

As some attempted to move from this situation, they realized they were locked in place. Their hands and feet got bound by a sturdy rope tied behind their backs which gave a burning discomfort on their wrists and ankles.

Standing on their feet, they rested slightly at an angle on a wooden plank, hands wrapped around it, and their foreheads attached to the surface swaddled by a long piece of fabric.

The men were elevated from the ground on a large platform that provided a base for standing. Though this platform elevated the men roughly three meters high, they could see the faces of thousands engulfed with anger below them.

In a circular formation, the ten men could only look around them with the movement of their eyes.

“What the hell,” one of the men said. “What is this place…? What is happening?”

Their mouths were free of captivation, enabling them to speak their minds and even shout like lost children devoid of knowing what was happening.

“Hey,” another man among the ten shouted while attempting to shake free from the ropes. “Anyone, what’s going on!? Can someone tell me- The fuck is everyone standing around like that for!?”

One of the last unconscious men opened their eyes to the sudden revelation of his current situation. There was no sun, a ray of light that the man always recognized around this time. But the warm light in the sky he always remembered was instead covered in a layer of gray that stretched beyond his comprehension.

Like otherworldly, the sky above them didn’t tell the men whether it was day or night. It was purely gray as if a layer of metal and rocks enveloped the sky hundreds of meters above.

Looking closer at the gray filling, it had thousands of large rectangular structures - like gigantic boxes - jutting downwards, forming a ceiling of a deformed blanket of solid mass. These massive lumps defined this layer of dark ambient color that stretched miles far until the thick fog and the air disturbance limited the man’s ability to see the full scale of its size.

But then, as he glanced around his surroundings apart from the ceiling, he saw buildings towering abnormally high. Some buildings reached so high they connected to the ceiling above.

The men were distressed by how different their location was from their previous whereabouts and the sheer sizes of the structures that they’d never witnessed in their whole life. Let alone, the expressive manners of rage among the crowd below them raised fear and anxiety for the men.

Without any of them talking back, they could only listen and hear the screams of men, women, and children while imprisoned and hated like criminals.

“Kill them,” the crowd chanted. “Kill them! They do not belong to this world!”

“These people need to die,” one of the women just below them said with a voice cold enough to send fear down the men’s spines.

“Kill them! Justice is in our hands! Kill them!” The chanting kept going with no end.

With each passing second, the men’s heartbeats raced ever so faster. By now, they knew their predicament and fought more persistently to be set free.

“You crazy sons of bitches,” one of the men cried out. “What the hell are you guys doing?! Please, let me go!”

Another man whispered in hopelessness, mustering words of surrender and fear.

The ten wore simple clothes: a plain white shirt and plain white shorts, but with red stains all around the collar.

The last man who gained consciousness showed mild panic as he knew his unavoidable fate. Riley was his name, a man that was still in his youth.

He looked to the right and, in the corner of his eye, saw another man quite older than him with a lot of facial hair. He jerked with full force, squealing in desperation while violently shaking his head in an attempt to free himself from his restraints.

“Hey, give it up. It's useless no matter what you do,” Riley called out to the man, his voice low and steady, devoid of meaning and hope.

With his head locked in place, the man looked back only with teary eyes as if there were no bounds to the amount of terror he was feeling right now. His face was drenched in sweat as he ignored Riley before returning to his futile struggles.

“Why aren’t you listening?” Riley continued.

“Don’t give me that crap! I have to break free,” the man cried. “I need to go back to my daughter! I have to go back to my daughter! She’s waiting for me!”

With all the chanting in the background, Riley couldn’t see any difference between the man crying next to him and the people shouting in unison.

To his left was another man who was younger than him. Somewhere in his teens, the boy closed his eyes with tears squeezing out of his eyelids and down to his cheeks. All he did was whisper in hopes that everything would be alright.

Is this how I’m going to die? Riley said in his mind. I wonder how I ended up like this - How I got separated from my family-

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Suddenly, there was a burst of flames emitted in the distance from where the men were. As it grabbed all the attention around, a small figure revealed itself from inside the burning flames and out from the crowd.

A masked man revealing only his eyes levitated high into the air and the large flames followed after him like the tail of a meteorite. He wore a dark brown robe with its collar glistening in orange and, like vines, flowed and branched out in small strands all over the dark cloth. The interior was orange which matched with the collar as seen when the man rolled up his long sleeves, revealing the bright colors underneath that contrasted with the brown exterior. And the flames surrounding him didn’t appear to burn his light skin, black hair, or his robe.

The man flew high in the air until he was seen as a small dot of bright orange from below. He then remained there effortlessly without falling with the robe waving gently and majestically from the wind blowing past him on the side.

He observed the men for a considerable amount of time with his glowing orange eyes as if they had scorching flames inside them. The people around looked up, but only the men questioned who the man dressed in robes was.

Ah, that’s right, Riley said with an epiphany. I remember now.

The fire around the man in robes suddenly flowed downwards. Like a gentle river, the flames reached down to the people below, covering them from above like a silky blanket.

Every person felt the strength coming from the single man above, a feeling of utter supremacy and dominance. They felt the warmth of the flames flowing close to them, the man dressed in robes being the epicenter of the connection with the lines of fire.

“For the sake of our land,” the man spoke. But despite him being elevated dozens of meters high, everyone, even the men on the platforms, could hear his sincere and direct tone like he was speaking to them face to face.

“For the sake of our people,” he slowly raised his hand above his head. He never looked away from the men, not even blinking.

I remember why I ended up like this, Riley thought while the man kept speaking.

“For the sake of prosperity of the people below and the prominence of the people above,” suddenly, something began to burn brightly above his lifted hand. Small orbs formed and gradually grew until ten glowing yellow orbs were visible to the naked eye.

I was too greedy, wasn’t I? I thought if I followed what the tale had told me, I would’ve seen the light we’ve been searching for.

“In the name of the respected families and their unblemished, flawless contributions,” the orbs on top of the man’s hand slowly morphed into little shards. They glowed in orange as small amounts of smoke were released from their gleaming and scorching surface.

My story ends here. But I believe that what the tale has said is true: I am just a mere soul that serves to paint the big picture.

“Before us, ten men shall offer up their lives for the deeds they wrought in the lands of the Dominant League,” the orange shards began to rotate faster and faster, spinning so quickly that they looked like an orange blur.

I believe that a chosen boy will come into this world.

“These men violated the separation of lands implemented in this city.”

I believe that the boy will grow up and become strong, the strongest alive.

“These men lurked in shadows, spreading unredeemable scandals that damaged our systemic society.”

I believe that the boy will kill the corrupted rulers.

“These men revealed the blusterous half-hearted truth of the past righteous rulers, complete scoundrels that trapped us in an inescapable wall.”

And I believe…

“And here I put forth…”

The boy will free us from this world and give us the life we desire. All is said in the tale, and I will always put my faith in its words.

“The judgment for which I shall bear my hands on the blood of our enemies - for the sense of justice is in our hands and ours only!”

The crowd roared, screaming and shouting at the top of their lungs, shaking the atmosphere and the ground around their vicinity.

The man in robes then aimed his raised hand down to the men below, causing the ten rapidly rotating shards to shoot straight at them. Each scattered in different directions as each targeted a different man.

In every direction, the people and the men could hear the shards screeching from their incredible speed, ripping the air around them as they hurled towards the ten aiming right on their neck region with heads locked in place.

Riley, who was composed until now, shed a single tear, knowing that this was his inevitable demise. Closing his eyes shut in anguish, he prepared himself for a shard coming straight at him. With only moments before the shards met their bare skin, Riley said his final words.

“Boy, you better live. Promise me. Promise me that you will free humanity from this-”

And a sound like the blade of a knife striking the wooden surface, ten bodies instantly came still, and silence filled the air.

 

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