Clang—!
The harsh clash of two sharp metals rang throughout the forest, two young men crossing their swords until sparks burst from the friction of sharpened steel.
One of the young men gripped his blade tightly.
He shouted and clenched his jaw hard. "Raven! Aren't you my friend?!" His gaze was piercing, veins tensed at his temples. It was clear he had been consumed by deep envy.
The stronger the push of the sword, the other young man only held back the force of the one who had once called him a friend.
His voice was strained, yet still clear. "Cel—dric!" His breath came in gasps, struggling as hard as he could to withstand the strikes.
They were friends—at least before they pointed their blades at each other.
The one shrouded in spite was Celdric Alvain, and the friend was Raven Morcant.
"RAVEN!" Celdric kept shouting the betrayer's name with fury.
His heart burned, hatred wrapped tightly, the fire of vengeance growing, consuming the foe before him.
The blades still crossed, the sunlight reflecting off steel stabbed directly into Raven's eyes—the dazzling glare broke his focus. In an instant, a strong kick slammed into him.
"Eugh!" Raven staggered and fell, groaning in pain.
Time seemed to slow as a sword swung toward the one flung not far away.
Raven's mind drifted back to everything that had happened in the past, to an unexpected encounter.
It shouldn't have been like this.
That year, he never imagined that memory would be the starting point of their meeting, and the meeting with the stranger who had now become his comrade.
Fragments of memories flashed in Raven's mind, pointing toward the girl who had once stolen his heart.
The girl came from the same village.
Aira Rowen—Raven's former lover.
If only Celdric hadn't been Aira's lover, would our meeting still have happened...?
That swinging sword pulled Raven back into memories he should no longer recall.
Zrakk—!
Raven tried to dodge, but the swift slash could not be avoided.
"Celdric... Forgive me..."
Celdric slashed the shoulder of the betrayer who had collapsed. The blade pierced from shoulder through half of Raven's chest, blood pouring heavily onto the damp forest floor.
"Raven... Weren't you my friend...?! On the very first day we met, I should've been suspicious of you and Aira! I regret ever meeting you!"
Raven gasped harder, his body lying in the growing pool of blood.
But Celdric kept spitting hatred, pressing his foot onto his enemy's head.
"I should've listened to the adventurers at the guild, about you!"
Raven wanted to answer, but his throat was already choked by ragged breath.
His heart spoke.
Forgive me, Celdric. I loved her too.
Until his consciousness truly slipped away.
---
"Argh!"
Raven awoke, his eyes sweeping the surroundings. Darkness yet light, emptiness yet calm.
"What is this place?!"
Thousands of stars surrounded this unknown realm, the last thing he remembered was Celdric's sword cutting into his shoulder.
"Am I dead?!"
Shocked, yet not panicked, it felt calm, not terrifying.
The air was cold, yet warm.
Raven couldn't explain what was truly happening—what he was truly feeling.
Thousands of stars glimmered beneath his body and above his head.
The moon he had gazed at so many nights appeared in hundreds, larger than the moon he knew.
The moons and stars lined up, from the smallest to the largest.
"But this isn't like heaven or hell as I knew them."
"Besides... What actually happened to me?"
He was surrounded by screens that appeared from nowhere.
They showed Celdric and Aira inside them. Like fragments of someone's life, and he was all too familiar with what they displayed.
"Celdric? Aira? What is this?!"
"What are these things?! Why do they show what I've already lived?!"
His eyes widened at one screen where Celdric looked panicked, as if seen through someone's memory.
Raven touched it.
Raven...! Don't die...!
Celdric's voice echoed in his mind. Flowing along with a memory once lived.
"Ahh...! This is my memory."
"This screen... it's when Celdric saved my life during our journey across the last land of Arden."
He turned to another screen and touched it again.
Mpph... I love you, Raven.
This time it was Aira's sweet voice, from a day before Celdric was consumed by spite.
"Ahh... This is the breaking point."
Raven touched each screen in turn, watching the entire track of his life—even one showed him inside his mother's womb.
For the first time in his life, Raven could hear the voice of the woman who carried him.
Her voice sang beautifully.
Oh light of my life... Within my womb a world is made... a place where you'll meet love... I am here waiting... welcoming you with a rainbow...
As the voice lulled, his heart longed for the figure he had never met.
Raven never knew the love of a father or mother, raised instead by his late grandmother since birth in their village.
"...Warm."
But Aira had brought back the warmth he had lost, keeping him sane in a merciless world.
"After my grandmother passed, only Aira pulled me out from the abyss called solitude... That's why I loved her."
Raven guessed how much time had passed—maybe half his life had already slipped away in this strange realm, all the while absorbing the memories shown on the screens he touched.
His body simply floated in the incomprehensible realm, until Raven felt as if he were an eternal soul.
"I don't know how long I've been here... I don't feel hunger, nor sleep. And this is the final screen."
But when he had seen all his memories, his body trembled, his breath ragged as if reliving the day he died by Celdric's hand.
A voice thundered through the realm, heavy and terrifying.
"Son of Adam with the soul of Adam. You should not be here."
"Argh...!" Raven screamed. The voice surged in his mind, whoever spoke made his head throb with agony.
"Son of Adam with the soul of Adam... You are not permitted to die before your time..."
Every word stabbed painfully into his head.
As if his brain were crushed by a massive hand, sliced by rusted steel.
"Son of Adam with the soul of Adam... This death is but brief... Feel death before life begins anew."
His body convulsed as if struck by a thousand bolts of lightning.
"This is my vow to Adam... To grant a second chance to man with the soul of Adam."
Raven couldn't understand why he was called the soul of Adam, all he knew was the agony beyond death.
"I—I don't understand!! It hurts!" Raven choked as he screamed.
The worst pain he had ever felt, worse than Celdric's blade or a dragon's bite.
"Barq... Carry the son of Adam with the soul of Adam back to his time."
"...Barq?! Who is that?!" He clutched his head, pressure building, about to burst.
The pain ceased when a creature approached from afar, racing toward him.
It looked like a horse or donkey, but far more majestic and swift.
Its back bore glowing wings, white-feathered, with a single horn upon its brow.
The creature called Barq carried him away at a speed beyond light.
In less than a second, his vision went dark.
Where are you taking me...?
Before his eyes could even blink, Raven only wished the sins of all his life's memories would be forgiven.