Chapter 1: Chapter 1 – Introduction

On the roof of a school in the city of Nash, a high school student sits and looks out over the landscape full of buildings and houses.

Loy Sofen. A 16-year-old student.

His long hair reaches almost to his eyes. His eyes are the color of his hair, nut brown.

From the cityscape, Loy looked up at the sky at the sun's warm rays. "What am I here for...?" he asked himself gloomily.

"What was all this for? What.. am I living for..?" Loy asked himself looking up at the bright sun.

With a disturbing narrowing of his eyes, suddenly, a black silhouette of a human-shaped figure appeared in vision before Loy's eyes.

Despite her proximity - within touching distance of him, she was blurred, and no detail of her identity was revealed.

As quickly as she appeared, she was gone, just as Loy was trying to peck at her.

"Again...!" Loy put his hand on his face surprised.

A moment later, his surprised look changed to despair again.

He looked up to look at the sky with depressed eyes when the school bell rang.

Entering the classroom, Loy sat down at his regular desk in the last row, where he was hidden from the eyes of others.

"Once again I'm sitting here.. Another day that passes.. Why have I even come here?" he asked himself in annoyance, facing his personal desk.

"For the academic content, it's sure not. Even if I had listened, what would I have done with it? On second thought, what can I already do? What should a normal child of my age do at this age?" he asked himself.

He looked away from the desk to the classroom window next to him and spent his time staring out of it until the next bell rang.

When it arrived and the students of the class gathered their belongings, Loy remained motionless.

After everyone left, he got up from his desk and left the school. He started walking to his house in the nearby small town, a walk that took almost half an hour.

When he got to his room, he lay down on the bed and looked at the wall clock in his room.

For several hours, he watched time pass.

When he felt that he had enough of this exciting activity, he went outside to loosen his bones.

As he walks the streets, different groups of people recognize him.

Teenagers. adults. Sometimes, even children.

Fingers are pointed. Frightened and surprised looks. Ridicules and whispers.

He already got used to everything.

"What am I..." he asked himself, looking at the crowded street.

"A ghost. After all this time.. nothing has changed.

Today… it's even worse than it was when I was a kid.

They don't care about me.

Nobody cares about me.

If that's the case, why should I care about them?" Loy asked himself looking at the crowd of people who thought he wasn't paying attention to them.

"You are a coward" Another voice was heard.

A high voice that spoke his language, but it had another element to it.

Almost beastly.

Loy quickly opened his eyes wide and looked down at the street floor.

"You understand it in your mind. However, you do not act. You are the most cowardly person on earth." the voice teased him.

"What do you expect me to do?! Kill them all?!" Loy replied in a voice full of anger.

"If that's what it takes, yes," answered the voice calmly.

"And what will that help?!" Loy asked furiously, gritting his teeth.

"What good is what you're doing?! Huh?!" resented the voice back.

Loy flinched back.

The passers-by on the street looked at him suspiciously.

He recognized their looks.

"Did you swallow your tongue?" asked the voice cheekily. "You know I'm right. Stop defending yourself. At least admit it to yourself, that you're a cowardly piece of trash. Then at least, there will be progress" the voice stated.

"Shut up" Loy answered sharply.

"Go back to where you belong." Loy replied imperatively.

"Again… when… when did he get in?" Loy asked himself as he looks up to the wooden walls surrounding the town, right in front of the green fields of his childhood.

-------

"Nobody cares. Everyone's dealing with their own shit." thought to himself Ruan Vanclief, as he lay on the street floor littered with cigarette butts, liquor bottles and syringes.

The location was in the city of Saraf, Bintesch Street.

Ruan, a 16-year-old boy who dropped out of every possible framework.

His hair is black, flowing symmetrically to both sides of his head.

His eyes are brown as the color of the earth.

Ruan got up from the floor and didn't bother to clean his clothes from the dirt that stuck to them.

Dusting them off won't hide the stains and holes that stand out in his pants.

Some will even claim that in their eyes, this is the latest fashion.

Ruan began to walk out of the street where he lived and towards the main streets of the city.

On the way, he encountered the usual spectacle.

The homeless are begging on their knees, some even holding the clothes of passers-by at the station for money.

"It's every man for himself. That's the world we live in. That's why it got to this point" Ruan argued to himself as he watched a man shake off the grip of the beggar's hand holding his fancy business suit.

"When the first person sat on the floor and raised his hand to ask for alms, it was seen as unusual.

So, people stopped and asked, why is he sitting on the street floor? Is he okay? Does he need help? But today, this is the norm." Ruan summed up to himself the reality he was looking at.

"We have reached such a low level that it shows in the purest form the nature of our world.

Each to himself." Ruan determined by himself.

"Money... please...!" An old beggar begged Ruan as he put his hand on his shoulder.

Quickly, a punch hit the old man's face and he quickly fell to the floor.

The apprehensive passers-by were afraid to intervene, due to Ruan's violent appearance.

"Are you an idiot or senile huh?! Do you have eyes?!" yelled Ruan angrily.

"Do you even see what I look like?!" Ruan shouted at the old man as he held his torn shirt in his hands.

"I'm in the same situation as you, you idiot!" said madly as he crossed the older man's face.

Walking quickly, Ruan passed in front of the businessmen of the business companies in the nearby building while noticing their evasive gazes.

Examining their clothes. smelling their fragrance.

He was jealous of the shine radiating from their shoes and well-kept hair.

"Those wealthy people... will turn worlds upside down for their smallest problems, but they won't even look at me. It makes me sick" stated Ruan filled with anger.

"They shoved us in there, with all these pathetic losers.

It's their way of cleaning up the city.

Bintesch Street.

One street, which is the dumpster of everything they don't want to see.

Fist fights. Drugs. Drunks. Poverty. Insanity.

They created Another community within them that lives a complete reversal of everything they know.

And I, live in the middle of all of this." Said Ruan to himself furious.

"But, they still don't understand. I'm not like the rest. They are not on my level." Thought Ruan filled with determination as he clenched his hand into a fist.

"Those in power think they are smart. They think it will go their way. But.. not for much longer." Ruan said decisively with eyes shining full of revenge.

"Soon.. they will get what they deserve. And it's all because of you, grandpa." Ruan cherished, as his grandfather's image appeared in his mind.

"Until then, I'll keep fighting for you. I will continue to do everything in my power to make you achieve your dream. A dream that will take both of us out of this disgusting place and change our reality and the reality of the entire world, forever" hoped Ruan with the fire of faith in his pupils.

------

That evening, after dark, Ruan entered his home.

Suddenly he heard strange noises.

He knew they were strange because he had been the only one living in his house for quite some time.

"who's here?!" Ruan asked firmly as he pulls a knife from his pocket and approaches his grandfather's room.

Looking at the beam of light emanating from the room. When he got to the door, he saw him rummaging through the drawers.

His grandfather. Mada Vanclief. 51 years old. Scientist.

Most of his head hair dropped out along with his grandson from school.

To the sides of his head, from what was left of it, white hair that holds tight with the rest of his strength.

"Huh?! Grandpa!" Ruan exclaimed in surprise, "What are you doing here?! Are you looking for something?" asked Ruan.

His grandfather continued his search without an answer.

"You haven't come home in a few days. You're sleeping again on the lab table huh?" Ruan asked but again no answer was heard.

Mada, ran in his room from side to side, among the various paper forms placed on the tables scattered in his room.

"What are you eating there anyway?" Ruan asked.

"Real scientists, are the foundation of the future!" Mada read out loud.

“Here it starts again…” Ruan rolled his eyes.

"The power within us, the "Energia", is one of the most powerful tools in the arsenal of human beings.

It is what helped humans get to where they are today. Energia is used everywhere. In fighting. At work. In transportation. In fitness.

It is a necessary force humans have learned to utilize in order to take our potential to the maximum.

Simple logic says that we must understand exactly what it is in order to take full advantage of it.

But no!" Mada got angry and punched the table in his room.

The plastic cup that stood at the end of the table and contained pens and pencils, fell to the floor.

Ruan raised his eyebrows in wonder.

"Has he completely lost it or what?"

"They banned it! Those scoundrels in the government! Hundreds of years ago! Think where humanity would be if they hadn't done it!" shouted Mada angrily while waving his fist in the air as Ruan collected the writing implements back into the cup.

"They banned any research on the Energia and any component that could be related to it!

Those who oppose, are persecuted by them.

They do what they can to break us.

It's not just that throughout history the punishments for this have only gotten worse.

Today, it has reached such a serious level that if they tie my name to Energia research, it's a death sentence.

I can't accept it! It's absurd!" yelled Mada furious.

"This law in itself is illegal! The same force that carried us throughout history, is allowed to be used but not to be researched. Not to be understood!" conclude Mada as he slam his hands on the wooden table.

"Tell me something another thing every kindergartener knows." Ruan scoffed to himself, trying to think how many times he had already heard that speech.

However, the thought that he was the only one whom his grandfather was willing to share it with made his heart able to contain any new nonsense that he came up with.

"But... it's clear to me. They wouldn't do it without a reason. It was clear to me that they were hiding something.

Until I realized what when I saw it with my own eyes.

I won't let them ground me to the ground.

I won't let them close my eyes in the desperate attempt to keep me a fool.

The curiosity of humans will never be curbed!" yelled Mada with excitement.

"No matter what! Our nature is to break out beyond our familiar boundaries!" Mada shouted filled with motivation as he held the piece of paper he was looking for in his hand.

"Back to the lab huh?" Ruan asked.

"Of course." replied Mada.

"Do you need something?" Ruan asked, trying to get his grandfather's attention before his mind once again blossomed into fiddling with formulas and diagrams in his head.

"No... just time. Not something you can get me... you already know.

The deadline. Two more months.

I have to do everything I can." Mada replied as he looked at Ruan, his red eyes signaling how severe his lack of sleep was.

"I know... I'll do what I can to help as much as possible" Ruan replied.

"I have to go back. See you soon" Mada said quickly as he walked towards his rusty car.

A piece of junk that looks almost as old as him.

The only vehicle that, even on such a street, no one will try to rob.

"So at least another week huh?" Ruan muttered to himself, watching his grandfather's vehicle disappear into the horizon.

"Always the same speech..." Ruan mused to himself.

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But he knew his grandfather's condition, so he tried to disturb him as little as possible to avoid interrupting his train of thought.

The massive lack of sleep that he had suffered in the last few years gave its signs on his body and mind.

Although he was in his fifties, as a result of the enormous stress he was under, he sometimes felt as if he were ninety.

Frequently he would not remember his actions. For moments he would forget what had already been said.

Sleepy from fatigue, but nevertheless with a complex mind and always remarkably sharp in all that had to do with his research.

"They say that once in a generation, a man is born who is revolutionary" Mada spoke to himself as he made his way to the lab located outside the city.

"I am that man. I will break through beyond what is known and reveal the secrets of our reality. I will be the person who will reach the end of the pyramid of humans and history!

And I will do it… with the help of this." Mada said to himself as he smiles a huge smile from ear to ear as he opens the car's glove box.

From there, he took out a small diamond stone, half the size of his palm.

Rhombus-shaped and blue in color, he held it in his gloved hand.

-------------------

-Three months ago-

Two in the morning.

On the roof of the tallest building in the city, sits a man with a white hood.

The hood completely covers his head and face, and slightly his shoulders.

The hoodie-like design has two black stripes, one for each shoulder, and on the top, coarse stitching with a green thread.

Under the hood, a black suit was all over his body.

Sits on the highest building, it was surrounded by its Energia particles.

Suddenly, he recognizes something. With tremendous speed, he disappears.

An unknown man with long hair was standing on the edge of a high cliff.

It overlooked the landscape of the nearby city separated from it by a deep sea and a long bridge over it.

Riff, 31 years old. Retired from his job after his wife left him.

His foot, part of it on the edge of the cliff, part of it in the air.

Small stone particles detached from the cliff and fell downhill slowly.

The height of the cliff leaves no room for doubt.

If he jumps, his death will be short and quick.

"I've been in your situation before" said the hooded figure.

"Huh?!" shouted Riff as he startled, almost tripping off the cliff by mistake.

"W-what? Wait, what?! Who-?!" Riff stammered, surprised at how the figure sat on the high cliff next to him without him noticing.

"I'm not here to hurt you. I'm not here to stop you either.

It's your choice how to live your life, and when to end it.

However, I'd appreciate it if you reconsider your steps." said the figure.

"Who are you?! How did you get here?! What do you want from me?!" Riff asked stressed and panicked.

The hooded figure was silent.

"Answer me!" frightened and confused Riff demanded, "Are you good or bad?!" he asked in sudden panic.

"Good? What is good?" asked the figure as he continues to look at the horizon, avoiding looking at Riff.

"Who am I? Nobody. What do I want from you? To help you." The figure answered calmly, looking towards the wide sea spread out in front.

"Help me? Who are you? A soldier in an elite police unit or something?" Riff asked confused.

The figure didn't answer back.

Riff looked with him to the horizon. His long hair flutters in the cool open air.

"Thanks, but you can't help me. You won't understand my pain." Riff said with a depressed narrowing of his eyes, "I've lost everything I ever had. There's no reason for me to live anymore." Set in his words Riff.

"I was in your shoes. Me too, lost everything I had." replied the figure.

Riff looked at him in surprise, trying hard to detect any small hint of his identity, but her long hood hid everything grossly.

"I lost my meaning, and I became lost. But, if I jumped to my death, I would not only end my present but also my future.

And the future - is unknown." The hooded man said.

"Will I find a new meaning? A reason to live?

Sometimes, everything seems so empty.

But my inner feeling tells me that there is still a chance. There is still hope." said the figure holding the hoody of her head with her right hand.

-"You are naive." Riff stated, looking back at the horizon.

"Your life won't get better. It never does." He answered by shaking his head in denial.

"Our reality... is suffering. What do we even live for? We put all our effort into building something.

Hoping to find someone to love, until it all comes crashing down before our eyes.

And the circle turns again.

If she won't leave by her own choice-" said Riff in despondency, remembering his partner in the dark street corridor, a suitcase in her hand.

"-Time will take her away." whispered Riff, imagining himself in another reality, separating from her aging body as they hold hands at deathbed.

"Nothing lasts forever.

I'm sick of it. I can't take it anymore.

I'd rather end my life on my own terms, with my hand as the upper hand."

Riff looked towards the figure who continued to sit motionlessly and indifferently on the edge of the cliff.

"At least once in my life. For the first and last time." Riff said firmly.

"It's your choice." said the figure as he bent one of his legs to hold his knee in his lap.

"It's your view of reality.

But, time shouldn't be a factor in why you choose to give up in the first place.

Most of us try to steer our lives in a certain direction. Will we end up where we're aiming? I don't know.

I ask myself the same question.

But, if I don't try, how will I know?" The figure asked Riff as he slightly looked in his direction.

Riff watched the small gap that existed between the wide hood and the figure's face beneath it, but the darkness of the night prevented his plan.

He quickly looked back towards the sea and the lights of the nearby city as he opened his eyes wide with a loud cry.

"Ha! You speak like someone with confidence! Like someone strong! However, you choose to hide your face! What are you so afraid of?" Riff asked the figure with a pointed look.

The figure stayed silent.

"I knew it." Hasten to determine Riff and looked away from the figure.

"I'm not a stupid person myself so I know to detect a smart one. You're lying." Riff said with a sad look in his eyes, looking at the hard ground lit by the streetlamp at the bottom of the cliff in front of him.

"You also know that there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Life is a race to nowhere.

One way or another, we will all end up in the same place.

I'm just taking a shortcut.

Don't hate me for that.

Not everyone is born strong.

Some of us are born weak, and that's okay To be weak.

It's okay, to let go..." Riff said as he closed his eyes when a moment later, his eyes' tears flowed up his forehead and cut off into the air.

His hair is flying from side to side wildly.

He falls fast.

The figure grumbled tiredly. He got up from the edge of the cliff slowly, looking at Riff rapidly falling.

Suddenly, a powerful thump was heard from the bottom of the cliff.

The figure held Riff on her back.

Breaking the fall caused a heavy gasp from Riff's lungs, which he himself was unaware he was capable of producing.

Slowly, the figure crouched down, with Riff on its back.

Riff could feel the pressure concentrated in his thighs, like a cannon shot whose short fuse was about to release the shell at any moment.

A huge pound was heard as in one jump, the figure returned to the spot at the edge of the cliff where it had been standing a moment before.

As a result of the shock he was in, the figure drop him off his back himself.

Riff looked at the view, stunned.

"What.. happened here.." Riff asked himself, confused.

"You.. you saved me..?" Riff asked the figure shocked.

The figure did not answer once more, avoiding direct gaze.

"You... You piece of scum! Until I was finally ready! Why did you do that?!" asked angrily Riff, boiling from anger.

"Being strong is a choice." said the figure.

Riff was surprised and his line of thought was interrupted.

"Being strong is not a gift, it's a path you choose to take.

A path you choose to take by choice.

In our lowest moments, we can see reality in its clearest form.

So, I gave you a glimpse." The figure said, looking in Riff's direction but holding her hoodie in her hand so her face stays hidden.

Riff's eyes opened wide as his pupils narrowed.

This was the first moment he noticed that there was truth in the character's words.

Truth he still didn't have time to digest yet.

"In your last moments, what did you see?

The significant moments of your life?

Your biggest disappointments?

Childhood memories?

Maybe you didn't see but you felt?" The character asked in interest,

"Did you feel desperate? Scared? Happy?

Maybe even, love?" The character wondered.

Surprisingly, Riff was silent, concentrating on the vision of him embracing his wife in an empty space that was only theirs.

"In these moments, we are able to learn the most about ourselves.

To examine what we really believe.

I don't have all the answers to give you. I don't know enough myself.

But, I have faith that no matter what happens in the future, I will do my best.

And in the end, it will be good.

As hard as it is for me to believe it right now, this is what I want to choose to believe in.

Even if today, it seems almost impossible to me." said the figure and turned her gaze to the side, to the great sea.

"I want to believe-" said the figure as he looked up at the sky. Watching the moon and the stars illuminate the night.

"-The future will be bright." said the figure.

Immediately after, the figure lowered its gaze to the ground and advanced to the edge of the cliff.

"You are welcome to go for it. This time, I won't stop you.

If you still want to jump, it is in your hands.

You will land on the hard ground and that will be the end.

Or, you will choose to live one more day and try to see beyond what you see from your perspective today.

If you choose not to jump, in the race of time, you may find that you made the right choice not to jump.

Or, you may find that you didn't.

What will you choose? The choice is your hands" said the character as he jumps off the edge of the cliff and holds her hoody in her right hand so that it doesn't fly in the swift air.

With the sound of a tremendous bombardment, the figure landed on its feet again at the bottom of the cliff.

Riff looked at him from the top of the cliff.

He looked at the figure at the bottom. "A.. amazing." Riff thought to himself with a surprised look, which quickly turned depressed.

"But… it just shows how different we are... I don't believe that I can ever be like you..." thought Riff.

Immediately after, a powerful impact was heard behind the white hooded figure at the bottom.

Splashes of Riff blood flew everywhere as they are almost hitting her.

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