The bright sun shed light upon a red desert filled with broken skyscrapers and massive monster bones.

Urist stood atop one of the many ruins, scanning the horizon. No matter where he looked, he saw not a single living soul within the blood red desert.

“Where am I?”

“You really don’t remember do you? That’s perfect.”

A confident yet sarcastic voice filled the air.

“Who?”

Not expecting a response, Urist whipped around, looking around for the source of the voice but not spotting anyone.

“What did you expect? Getting killed in that way tends to do that.”

A decrepit voice spoke out, filled with deep sorrow.

“Where are you two? What is this place? You know how I died?”

“U-um... Y-You shouldn’t bully him like that, guys! I-it’s b-basiclly his first time here s-since the i-incident.”

A timid and shaky young voice tried to give his opinion.

“SHUT UP YA LITZ SHITZ! I”M TRYIN TA SLEEP!”

A drunken middle aged man's voice, filled with fury, reprimanded the younger voice.

“E-ek! I-I’m sorry!”

“Hey, you shouldn’t talk to him like that!”

Urist frowned and yelled at the middle aged man's voice.

“Heh, gitz a load of diz guy. Whut a riot!”

“Enough, all of you leave. I’ll speak with him this time. We don’t have much time anyways.”

A calm and collected young man's voice rang out.

“Tch. Finez. Go do yaz thing boy. See yaz laterz.”

“We’ll leave it to you then.”

“O-ok... I-I’ll see you l-later then!”

“Ha, you? Oh man, I wish I could see you screw this up, but just this time I’ll leave you be. Later scrubs.”

“Wha?”

“So sorry about them. They’re just excited to see you again. It’s been a long time, after all.”

“Who are you? Am I just going crazy?”

“Ah, right you can’t see after the... So sorry. One moment please. There. Turn this way please, master.”

Urist turned in the direction he heard the disembodied voice from and finally saw the person.

The man wore a gray ivy cap, a casual long sleeved white shirt, a striped black and red tie, black slacks, and leather shoes.

He had a calm appearance of a young caucasian adult, and despite his jade colored hair and ice blue eyes, the rest of his features were plain. The man smoked a cigarette while Urist looked him over, as he was studying the dwarf as well.

The young man put his hand in his pants pocket and pulled out a packet, shook the container around until a cigarette came halfway out, and offered it to Urist.

“Want one? This was your favorite brand.”

“Thanks?”

Urist grabbed the cigarette and put it in his mouth. He subconsciously pat his pockets only to stop midway and turn to the calm young man.

“I don’t suppose you got a-”

“Light?”

The man already had a lighter in his hand, held out for Urist to take.

Urist took the lighter and ignited it with a click. He held the flame up to the end of his smoke, closing the lighter with another click once it ignited, and inhaled. For a moment, Urist was in absolute bliss.

“Black Cherry... man, it’s been a long time.”

“Now that you've relaxed, come sit with me so we can talk.”

Woken out of his daze, Urist turned to see the young man sitting on the edge of the ruined building.

Urist, not really having a fear of heights, joined him.

Before Urist could start asking questions, the calm young man began talking.

“I’m sure you’re wondering things like what is this place, how did you get here, who you are, who the other voices are, and a bunch of other things. But we don’t have a lot of time to talk and I can’t say some things as it’ll awaken something that shouldn’t be awoken. So please be silent and listen.”

Urist thought for a moment, opened his mouth, then sighed and took another puff of his cig.

The young man smiled for the first time.

“Thanks for always being so easy to talk to, Master.”

The man gestured, “This… is your soul world. It used to be filled with beauty with thousands upon thousands of soul fragments living here in harmony. At least until the ‘Monster’ came and began devouring the inhabitants. It took us, the strongest of the remaining fragments, to capture him and chain him beneath the sand. Even now he remains there, trying to break free.”

“We brought you here for two reasons. One is for you to repopulate this place with soul fragments. And the other is to have you FORGET your past memories forever. For everyone's sake, and that includes your new family.”

‘Family? You mean.’

The moment Urist heard the word family hiss brain ached painfully and a faint memory surfaced. For the first time he was able to see his mother's undistorted face. Her eyes were a beautiful blue like the ocean, her skin tanned the color of caramel, and her silky brown hair flowed like waves. She had a cute button nose and full, pinchable cheeks.

THUMP

The whole world shook with a single thump that resounded like a heartbeat. The force was so strong that Urist almost fell off the ruined skyscraper’s edge and a building in the distance collapsed completely.

The sound vanished just as quickly as it had appeared, leaving Urist bewildered.

The previously calm man grabbed Urist by his shirt with anger written all over his face.

“Do.”

“Not.”

“Remember.”

Without another world the man pushed Urist off the edge of the building before he could even open his mouth.

“Haha, told ya you would fuck up!”

Urist heard someone laugh before he smashed into the ground.

***

When Urist opened his eyes, he found himself within a white room. Urist looked down at his served arm only to find that not only had it somehow been reattached, but his body had also turned transparent. He was even floating in the middle of the room!

“Am I dead?” Urist wondered.

“No. I saved both you and your warrior.” A charming male voice rang out before Urist could panic.

“Who are you?” Urist asked as he glanced about warily, searching for the voice’s owner.

“My name is Lin Tassian, and I am the son of the man you just murdered. We have much to discuss. Urist.”