It was the next day and the sun had just risen. Kirveas was walking through the area Marrow and Yuga had fought a battle to the death the previous day. Passing by large craters and chasms they had made. He saw the divided body of the man he recognized as the opponent, surrounded by smaller bits of flesh. It hadn’t started to rot and remained as it was the previous day, the cold had preserved it. He’d observed the entire battle up until the opponent was killed by the transforming creature bearing his form. Yuga had performed very much impressively even if he didn’t win.

He was heading down to the mountain Yuga was to see the aftermath. He got to cave from larger opening Yuga had made. Yuga was sitting cross legged, cradling Luke’s body in his arms, staring at nothing in particular. The boy was dead, he could easily tell that. A very sad fate. Yuga’s back was what faced Kirveas so he couldn’t see his face.

“Kirveas.” called Yuga, his voice devoid of emotion. His hair had regained its colour now, though he’d never noticed the change.

“Is there anything that you need from me?” asked Kirveas in reply.

“Where were you?”

“Searching.” Kirveas replied, calm as usual.

“If-” Yuga began but cut himself off “No, this is pointless.” And he became silent again.

Kirveas looked around the area for a bit and decided he’d seen enough and was ready to leave. Before he left he paused and spoke. “I am no saviour.” he said before moving forward.

“I’m taking him back. To his family.” said Yuga.

“Do as you please.” Kirveas said and walked away.

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With one last shovel throw of sand, Yuga was done covering up the grave again. He’d taken Luke’s body back to the log house to be buried. He dug up the grave Luke had laid his family and placed his body in the middle of them, just as he would’ve loved to be.

When he finished, he sat down, crossing his legs and looked at the grave, a solemn expression on his face. Luke had died but hopefully that meant somewhere right now he was with his family. Maybe cutting logs to his hearts content. He had also brought Luke’s axe back here. It lay on the ground next to him. He got up from the ground, picked up the axe and drove it into the grave. And with that, he left.

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Day after day, Kirveas had scoured Lehrone in his search. Progressing slowly so he could thoroughly check for leads. Every house, building, forest mountain or cave, he’d inspected to the smallest speck. And every day he had retired finding nothing at all. But today was different, he had found something, a small clue but it was something to go off and his search finally had a direction in which to head. A blizzard had started again. Frigid winds blew and snow fell furiously, dampening visibility till one could barely see beyond a meter in front of them. But that wasn’t enough to faze Kirveas and he slowly made his way through the blizzard placing one foot in front of the other.

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Something he felt caused him to stop in his tracks. There was a danger zone in his path and it surprised him because his gauntlet didn’t have it registered. He only had his right foot in the danger zone so far. This was unchartered territory, he wouldn’t know what to expect from this zone but he had to go through it, there’d be no gaps in his search. He stepped into the zone and that familiar eerie feeling enveloped his entire body now. He scanned the area for beasts but there were none to be found yet, which meant that he could expect the zone to affect his body directly in some way. So far he’d felt nothing and kept moving forward.

After he’d walked over a hundred meters into the danger zone his movements started to slow. The effects, whatever they were, had kicked in. His body felt heavier and moving forward took a lot more effort, like he was walking through thick jelly rather than air. Aside from moving becoming a much harder ordeal something else had been bothering him for a while. He’d paid it little mind but it was prominent enough to catch his attention now. His ears felt wet, but it wasn’t just his ears anymore, his eyes and nostrils felt the same now. He put a finger to his ear then brought it to his eyes. His finger was now stained red with blood. He put a hand to his neck, it was covered in blood on both sides and somehow he hadn’t noticed until now. At the same moment the blood that had gathered above his upper lip, streaming from his nostrils trickled down his face and fell to the snow.

He’d been dying and hadn’t been able to tell. Not long after, he passed out.

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I’m alive. This was the first thought that came to mind the moment Kirveas regained consciousness. He still had his eyes closed. The second thing was how odd he felt. Actually, he could barely feel at all. From his head down to his toes he felt numb. He opened his eyes to observe where he was. It was a house, smaller than most. He’d been placed on a bed that was nearly too small to contain him. Who had brought him here? He didn’t have to look too far to get his answer. Just a few meters in front of him was Yuga.

He was crouched on the floor, looking over some objects in contemplation. Fruits.

“I think I’m getting better at guessing which ones taste good” said Yuga.

Kirveas was stirring which caused Yuga to look up. “Oh, you’re awake. I found you unconscious in the snow. Never expected to see you in a condition like this. Didn’t believe it till I checked with my eyes.”

With a more serious expression he asked “What did this to you? What was in the zone?”

He got as far as I did yet wasn’t affected? Or had the effects just not kicked in yet? Kirveas thought, surprised that Yuga didn’t seem to have been affected.

Kirveas didn’t reply.

Must be too tired to talk thought Yuga and didn’t ask again.

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It was much later now, Kirveas had just woken up. When did I sleep off?

Yuga wasn’t there anymore. Although he was numb he could tell that his condition was even worse now. His body weaker and his vision was blurring. Not long after he woke up, Yuga entered the house, carrying a pile of wood. He drops them and starts preparing a fire by the chimney. Every house here seemed to have one, probably because Lehrone was always cold.

“How long have I been asleep.” asked Kirveas.

“About a day now.” replied Yuga, still setting up the fire.

“What is the fire for?” asked Kirveas curiously. Voyagers didn’t need the heat.

“For you, you were freezing up.”

He was freezing? Kirveas’ condition was worse than he’d imagined. Death wasn’t far.

“I’ve tried healing you but there was no change.” said Yuga, his expression bleak. “Your condition just declines. At this rate, you’ll die soon”. He picked up a piece of wood and started carving it.

“You’re rather tame about my condition, almost like you’ve accepted it. I imagined you’d motivate me to live like you did the boy.” said Kirveas.

Yuga looked at Kirveas for moment. Despite his deteriorating condition he still looked unfazed as he usually did. Like he couldn’t be bothered with even his own death.

“People go through hard times and their spirit wavers but somewhere inside there’s a will to keep living. But not you, there’s no will in you. You just kept on living because the end hadn’t come.” answered Yuga.

“I see. Perceptive aren’t you?” said Kirveas and he drifted into sleep once more.

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“You’re still here.” said Kirveas. He had just woken up from what he imagined was days of sleep. His skin was pale and eyes were bloodshot. His body was at its worst and the end was near. “I’ll be dead soon, what keeps you here?”

Yuga was sitting on the floor across from him chewing silently, a half eaten fruit in hand.

“I might not know much about you and even with all the time we’ve spent we’re barely closer than the very first day. But you helped me a lot so the least I can do is make sure your body is buried.

Kirveas went silent again. They remained in silence for a few minutes before Kirveas spoke up again. “I can barely see now and there’s hardly any life left in this body. Would you get me my sword?”

The sword was hanging on the wall by a cloth tied to a nail which was also tied to the handle. Yuga got up and brought it down from the wall and handed it to Kirveas. He held it weakly in his hand by the handle then turned it around and held it by the blade.

“Hold the sword by the handle.” instructed Kirveas and Yuga did as he was told. “Send drive energy into the sword and I’ll do the same from this end.”

As Yuga powered the weapon with drive he first felt resistance from the weapon. It felt like it didn’t want his energy and his hand hurt as he held it. But as time passed his energy flowed more freely and the pain ebbed.

“With this, this weapon is yours to use. I will soon die and it’d be a waste if it went with me.” Kirveas explained. He let go of the weapon and his hand fell limp.

Then Kirveas did something Yuga found weird for Kirveas and even more weird in the moment. He chuckled.

“You woke up on this planet having no memories, bearing an appearance unlike any other, possessing talent that could put even clan leaders to shame and somehow befriended a creature even more strange than yourself.” Kirveas recounted “Not long after I entered the danger zone I fell to its effects and now I’m at the end of my life. You went as far as I did into the zone and brought me out of it. There wasn’t anything in the zone, merely walking into it was what caused this. A voyager of my caliber fell to its effects but here you are, completely unscathed. You’re as strange as ever.”

Kirveas went silent and Yuga stood unmoving, watching as he got more pale with each passing second, wondering what moment would be the last.

“One more thing.” said Kirveas suddenly, breaking the silence. He pulled out a small object, small enough to fit in the palm and handed it to Yuga “Here, take this. Maybe by some luck you’ll meet someone who can recognize it.”

Yuga took the object and examined it, looking at it from different angles. Then he looked up to ask “What’s it for?”

But Kirveas didn’t reply. Kirveas was gone.

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Yuga didn’t know where Kirveas was from, or much about him in general, so he had no idea where and how he would’ve liked to be laid to rest. He most likely wouldn’t have cared. Yuga decided to bury him on a hill because it was easier to find just in case he (or someone else) would need to find his grave.

After he’d finished burying Kirveas he laid down on the ground with both hands behind his head, lost in thought. A long time had passed since he woke up on this planet with no memories whatsoever and up till now that hadn’t changed. He’d followed Kirveas around because he needed training and didn’t exactly have where to go. But Kirveas was dead now and so was Luke. He also hadn’t seen mimic since the night Luke died. Maybe he wouldn’t come back this time.

He was just as he was now when he had woken up, alone with no memories and no where to go. What would he do tomorrow?

He got off the ground and walked down the hill, back to the house he was currently living in, the one where Kirveas had died. He had come back here to get Kirveas’ sword, one of the two items he’d taken from him. The second one was his gauntlet. He had tried using it but it denied him access to most of its functions save for very few but it could still be useful to him.

He took the sword from the wall where it hung and stepped outside. Holding it in his right hand, Yuga took a sword stance and concentrated. He let drive energy flow into the weapon, making it come to life and the patterns etched on the blade glowed. Like a taut string set loose he swiped the blade through the air with incredible speed and force. The result was powerful shockwave that traveled through the air, renting the earth as it progressed till it got to a far off hill and split it in two.

The sword was more powerful than he had imagined which also meant it was way cooler. He went back into the house to get cloth which he used to wrap up the blade and tie it to his back. He stepped out of the house for the last time. It was early into the day, the blizzard had stopped the previous day and the sky shined a bright blue. He was ready to leave.

What would be do tomorrow? The answer was clear. Just keep moving. And he walked on with no particular destination in mind.

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LOCATION : THE FINAL VANTAGE

The final vantage, a place in the universe from which one could observe all that occurred within it. A place inaccessible to most beings.

Four entities currently resided here. They bore forms quite unlike any other in the universe.

One of them spoke “Our candidate has awoken.” it said. It had been watching Yuga’s progress ever since he woke up.

“Do you think he can make the bridge?” asked another.

“Maybe, maybe he can’t. Maybe he can” the first who had spoken replied. And it continued to watch Yuga’s progress.

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Somewhere else in the depths of space…… A storm was brewing.

PROLOGUE : END

MAIN STORY BEGINS : TEN YEARS LATER