Chapter IV – The Mask Beneath the Sun
That night, Ashenix lay down on his bed, the day's exhaustion finally taking hold. He stared at the ceiling of the small dormitory room, his thoughts a storm of questions. If I'm a color, then what am I? What truly matters? Strength? Morality? Companionship? Or something else entirely? He had one week until the journey. What he did care about, however, was the looming exam.
His thoughts faded as sleep took him...
Screams.
Fire roared across a blood-soaked ground. Ashenix stood frozen, unmoving amidst a field of death. Faces twisted in agony, buildings collapsing, voices crying out in pain. A woman's wail, a child's sob. A world ending in suffering.
"You could've saved us!"
"Why didn't you act?"
"Are you better than us because of your power?"
"Did we deserve this agony?"
The voices grew louder. Closer. Accusatory. Echoing until they became a singular voice, booming and relentless.
Ashenix clenched his fists. His body refused to move. He screamed:
"STOP!"
Silence.
A blink — the scene shifted.
Now, he stood in a boundless desert, colorless, like a realm of pure void. Before him appeared a monstrous being, constantly shifting in hues — its primary glow a deep, glowing azure, its flames tinged with greenish-blue.
"Stop restraining me... Let me be free."
The voice came from within him and the creature both.
The beast charged.
Ashenix woke up, gasping.
Ashenix sat up, clutching his head. "Peace... seems out of reach lately."
He glanced at the window where pale morning light streamed in. The journey to the city awaited. So did answers.
He rose from his bed, donning his worn clothes — a blue shirt, matching vest, and black trousers. He picked up his sword.
He stopped.
Behind him — something.
He turned slowly.
There it was: the mask.
He hadn't placed it there.
Its horns seemed longer now. Under the yellow sun that streamed through the ceiling window, the mask looked more alive — more ancient.
Ashenix raised a strange spherical object in his hand. "Gluttony."
The mask dissolved into vapor, as if swallowed by the object. The golden light highlighted the swirling dust that remained before it vanished entirely.
With a sharp breath, Ashenix stepped out. His roommate hadn't returned since yesterday. Not that it mattered.
Time to move.
Elsewhere, a girl sat alone.
White-haired. Blue-eyed. An elf. But unlike the rest of her kind, she never felt prideful. Never arrogant. She simply was curious
She sat on a wooden chair, reading a book in silence, in a room where time moved slower.
Yet her eyes occasionally lifted — watching. Searching.
Was she observing someone? Or something?
Suddenly, her eyes widened.
A massive frozen aura burst behind her — like a glacier born from nothing.
"I found you," she whispered. "Finally... after all this time."
Ashenix walked through the mountain path. Before him loomed a city unlike any he had ever seen — built in the Victorian age, it clung to the mountainside like a stubborn relic of old. Its structures stood proud and sharp, full of gothic arches and narrow roads.
They called it: The United Kingdom of Elves and variant elf
A democracy, they said.
"Tell that to the starving," Ashenix muttered, eyes scanning the cityscape.
Class division bled from every alley and stone.
He remembered what they taught in the books: Elves founded this place, claiming themselves the superior race. The orcs — the muscle. Laborers. Dwarves — craftsmen and engineers. And humans... the bottom rung. Powerless. Voiceless. Many enslaved.
Even the legend of the First Celestial Demon had been altered. The elves claimed he was one of them — not a human.
Ashenix smirked bitterly. "Their truths are lies wrapped in pride."
He didn't care for their myths.
He only cared for power.
He reached the marketplace. Magical toolsmiths lined the streets. He needed components.
But before he could step forward, his body froze.
A strange pressure.
He looked up.
Towering over the district was a grand temple — Church of the Light Deity, the Elven goddess. Its golden tower pierced the clouds.
His instincts screamed.
His skin crawled.
Primal fear.
No one else seemed to notice.
He shook it off I would deal with it later.
He hadn't even reached the gate.
A long line had formed — divided by race. Elf first. Then orcs and dwarves.
Humans last.
Ashenix, being human, sat on a stone bench, resigned to wait.
Why am I here? he wondered. Do all people have a purpose? A destiny? What about me?
He recalled a phrase once carved into a massive stone deep in the mountain:
"Because Hardshipsstrengthens resolve."
He didn't understand it back then and even now. Maybe he would in the future.
His thoughts broke when he saw it.
An elf slapping a starving child.
"You filthy human thief!" the elf shouted. "Why haven't we driven them from our city yet?!"
The child sobbed. "I only wanted bread... for my sister..."
Rage burned within Ashenix he want to kill that elf and save the boy he almost draw his sword.
Then it vanished.
He muttered under his breath, "Why should I care...?"
His expression turned cold. His body stilled — emotionless. A beast without empathy.
Just as the elf raised his hand again —
"Enough."
A soft, powerful voice cut through the air.
Saintess Linda.
She stepped between them, her radiant light pushing the elf back.
She paid for the bread.
Then, beneath the gaze of dozens, she lifted the boy in her arms and began treating him.
Whispers broke out.
"She touched that filth... with her holy hands?"
Ashenix's eyes scanned the crowd.
"I remember now," he whispered. "Why I was named Ashenix in the first place."
end of chapter 4