I had a dream.

A strange dream.

I dreamt of the past. Before I became a cultivator.

"STAY IN LINE! SPEARS AT THE READY!" I stood at the forefront of an army in the middle of a line of soldiers. There were rows and rows of soldiers to my left, there were rows and rows to my right, and rows and rows behind me.

"READY!"

There was no place to go but forward, and forward was through thousands of angry monstrous men.

I looked down and noticed I was shakily lifting my spear. The tension in the air was palpable and hot and seemed to move with the flow of the wind. A general or leader of some kind was making a dramatic speech behind us, but I don't remember anything he said. I was more focused on the horrible beast in front of us. My heart was pounding so quickly that I was unable to calm the shaking of my spear at all.

"Raughhhhhhh!"

The roar of the enemy army was so loud it shook the bones in my body like a clapper banging inside a bell.

How did I end up here?

Where was I before this?

Who was I fighting for?

None of these questions mattered, which was why I couldn't remember the answer to any of them.

The shaking of the earth was so fierce I could barely stand on my own two legs. The ground rose up and rolled as though it had become the raging waves of the ocean, and the bloodlust in the air became so thick it permeated the air like the smell of the sea.

The wave crashed.

The world was silent through the screams and shouts as a man charged at me with the momentum of a terrible beast. The very world itself grew slower and slower as a raging bull of a man got closer and closer. I lifted my spear, lowered my legs, and stabbed forward with every ounce of strength my body could muster.

Everything changed. The moment my spear entered the body of the enemy soldier I screamed, "Rawwwww! Die!" At some point, the world became muddied and blurry. The man in front of me fell over only to be replaced by someone else.

I was stabbed, but there was no pain or fear.

I was hit in the head and fell to the ground, but quickly got back up.

I became something different, something inhuman; devoid of fear, hate, love, or any emotion whatsoever. There was just me, and the people charging at me. Either I died or they did.

At some point during the battle I was incapable of lifting my arms, so the only course of action I could think of was to use my teeth as I bit into the soldier in front of me. The man shouted and shoved me to the ground. It happened very quickly; in the blink of an eye, everything was over. I was kicked in the head and slowly lost consciousness.

As I lay on the cold ground I could see someone fighting behind me. The man was surrounded and fighting all alone in an impossible battle. He looked just like my father with flaming spears in both hands swinging in every direction.

He looked so tired.

Why was he here?

"Young master it's time to get up! Your mom is getting ready to leave!"

What's going on?

"Darius! up up up!" I wasn’t fully awake yet. I could feel the change in gravity as I was lifted in the air and carried off. My mother and Rhea were speaking about something, but I wasn't conscious enough to understand what they were saying. While going in and out of consciousness I could feel the momentum of the carriage stop.

"Let's go, Darius!"

"Dad?"