Every legend started somewhere.
Every order had its beginning.
The multiverse isn't a kind place. It's without a doubt beautiful. A collection of possibilities brought to life in the most incredible ways. Some planets are raging fires, an inhospitable raging inferno filled with gemstones and molten metal. Others are a high rise metropolis filled with diverse technology.
Despite its beauties, majorities of these worlds are under siege. In fighting and struggle ended the world, the battle for power destroyed all that's good and true in the planet. Meanwhile, the world-destroying enemies encroached and consumed the world, leaving only a desolated rock.
This is not a tale about those tragedies. This is a saga about how the multiverse-consuming evil ate a blow so mortifying that recovery became impossible. I was a glorious counterattack of good; an origin of the greatest organization ever graced the multiverse.
That miracle started when a certain world merged with the nexus of the multiverse.
...
'Hello the beautiful people of Earth,' said the disembodied voice in the sky. It was a very definition of vainly beautiful. Sweet, light, and yet too little. The speaker's tone was weightless vanity. Ridicule oversaturated the voice. It was the song of a goddess who had no goal in life other than being a living pain to all those around her.
It was often said that heroes were never perfect. At least they never started out as one.
In the canyon that was as empty as the surface of the moon, a single sixteen-years-old boy with grey emptied eyes was talking to himself. The boy looked ordinary except for his eyes. But in spite of that emptiness, a flashed brighter than hope flashed through it occasionally.
In that bizarre situation, the boy was not feeling distressed. No, his posture looked tired and worn as the sand of disappointment and reality chipped away at him. That lean body of his was swaying and threatening to collapse at any moment.
Alas, despite the pain, he kept bitterly standing.
"Well, it appears the world screw us up," the boy said. It was a carefree statement mocking himself and the very world that condemned him.
'Nope, we are only screw if we are dead,' said another boy with the same brown hair and grey eyes. He was a clone of the boy de-aged to be ten years younger. His voice lacked the passion of life like he was a doll without any purpose.
"Which will happen in three days unless someone sane found us," the boy, Rem Breaker, tried to think happy thoughts. The sole inspiring thing he came up with was the plot of his second favorite movie. An alien invasion that concluded with the united front of humanity overcoming their genetically ingrained stupidity long enough to repel the invader.
But that couldn't be compared to the once in a lifetime marvel that was Superman the movie. No one could replace a legendary masterpiece. Not with those knockoffs featuring men who maybe, just maybe, workout way too hard. Rem sighed, people these days have no aspiration for the classic.
That was the moment the embodiment of annoyance spoke.
'To everyone on Earth. Welcome...what?! They are panicking! Come on! Grow a pair! You stupid piece of...What the hell? American's president is threatening nuclear escalation?! You must be kidding me! Stop this at once! I order you to stop! Athena! Get Lord Zeus to do the lightning run! Those stupid mortals refuse to listen!'
The voice of the goddess yelled panickily and childishly in the sky. Unsurprisingly, this didn't lift his opinion for the gods up at all.
'The moon...' a much-subdued voice replied. The voice didn't say much, but the implication was crystal clear. Everyone in heaven went silent as a series of terrible memories of an unbeatable beast from beyond had been conjured up and kicked them into obedience.
The goddess ground her teeth on her mike.
"In my glorious name, I will not stand for this digression. By my authority, I ordered you stupid fucking mortal to stop the fucking riots, disarmed your stupid nuke and listened to me. I am the fucking Ishtar! You either listen to me, or I will force you into ten years of labor building my monument!'
The voice of tyranny continued but failed to gain any dime of respect.
"Poor goddess, " Rem said, throwing her bundle imaginary flowers. His annoyed voice was mixed with sincere sympathy. "Anyone stuck with the honor of uniting the most stupid race in the universe deserves my sympathy."
'They are not that stupid,' the boy said jabbing his finger upward in an attempt to invoke wisdom.'They are smart to create law, sent men to space and composed a musical masterpiece. That is pretty smart for a race decent from monkeys.'
It was a statement of compliment mixed with absolute mockery; a half-heart praised that rang true but incredibly grating at the same time.
"Oh please, " Rem replied, pointing his finger down to the ground. "Humans are so stupid we once spent years fighting in the ditch to move past the land the size of football field. Can you identify any other race that threw a plane into the side of building in the name of God? No, for a race decent from a docile monkey, we are outright evil."
The replied was cynical and full of disgust. But there was no hatred, only disappointment. It was a scathing remark of a concerned teacher who had tried to have faith but was fed up with the student inability to come clean.
The figment of illusion and Rem glared at each other.
"Let agree to disagree, " Rem said.
'Ditto that.'
That was the moment the goddess came back.
"Finally! Did the Nikes get every one of those idiots in North Korea tied up yet? Good! Let me begin again. Welcome to the plane of the limitless world, my beloved Earthling. Your planet has reached the required history and civilization to surpass the Casualty limit and merge with Phantasia. Welcome Humanity! For now magic walked among you!!'
The sentence implying the captured of an entire capital of a country finished with the end of the world as humanity knew it. To make thing worse, the message just got to be delivered in the most murder-inducing delivery possible. Without a doubt, this speech should be filed as a failure.
"Humanity calling goddess," Rem stated flatly and emotionlessly.
"Humanity want a refund."
It didn't take six minutes for the metaphorical ax to fall.
'Eh, what do you meant another riot start in Rome?!' The goddess screamed in a horrifically hilarious manner. 'What do you even mean when every nation on Earth just declares a martial...wait! Where are you dragging me?! I demand explanation Artemis!!! What is it about sexual-equality protestor rioting on the internet?! Hey!!'
Flatline followed...good luck goddess.
'Wow, do you have
"Not really, " Rem said dismissively. "This just reminded me of that time."
'That time' referred to the time Rem's class got lost in the forest during the school field trip. It began innocently enough. An Earthquake and subsequent landslide scattered the students in ten minutes of blind panic. Despite the odds stacking sixteen meters against them, the class managed to regroup in a sweet miracle of unity. But they soon became aware that they were totally lost. It was then that any prior existence of teamwork fell into a puddle of death as if it was never there. The entire escapade soon descended into Lord of the Flies-style anarchy. An unsupervised power struggle broke out between the most popular girl in the school and the class bully over who should take charge of the class's leadership. The battle was intense and bloody with yelled loud enough to give a turtle brain damage and reasoning so childish it sapped away all faith in humanity. The final straw finally snapped when the class president, the school sanest yet sadly the most inadequately uncharacteristic man, got knockout with an Aluminum bento box to the head. The class united once more set aside their grievance to tied the class president to the tree before starting a fist-fight to end all fist-fight.
It was sadly fascinating to see how fifteen minutes all out brawled between two groups of hormone-addled teenagers managed to commit more trauma and bruises than the combination of the previously mention disasters. The kid even managed to set the forest on fire to round up more property damage.
Rem sighed. Maybe such a thing was how life works. Humanity was simply its biggest bane.
'How did the fire got started again?'
"Jeane set the forest on fire." Rem replied, remembering the critical mistake of using sarcasm on his cousin. The girl wasn't good at anything, but finding ways to date three closet Neo-Nazi in a row must be a prodigious talent. Her taste in men was a legend for a reason.
'Hello everyone, ' a more subdued and controlled sound resumed the decree from the sky. The voice was wise, yet unforgiving and stern; too stern was an understatement.
Rem compared it to a block of concrete chiseled into a beautiful sculpture and imbued with all the knowledge in the world. The statue might be beautiful, but its heart was stone cold.
'Ishtar need a timeout. I am Athena. Soon you will receive your Status ID. It will serve as your proof of identification and the record of your ability. Don't worry about losing it because it can be summoned back with a word. Now there are some of you who were lost during the world merge and find yourself deposit elsewhere. Stay put. Personal was sent to guide you to the awakening. Good luck and welcome.'
"Guess I am one of the lost one," Rem sighed, looking around in the middle of the desert. Empty and nondescript the desert was. Several dunes could be seen from the horizon, but it was not that important, at least not in the current situation.
'Yep you are, but you know what's the most disappointing thing about you.'
Steams finally stopped rising from that cup of noodle. The boy joyfully slurped the noodle in slowly, hungrily and greedily like some sort of beast.
"Do tell. I already got used to being a disappointment?"
'Remember that forest?' The boy said amusingly. 'You could have done something.'
Rem's eyes widened. What he was feeling about the wrongness of the situation began to click at last.
The prospect of it petrified him.
'Claire knew you won't hesitate to punch her. The rest of her groups knew they are paper tigers. Cassidy? He is still too afraid to look at you after you forced him to literally swallowed dirt. The only thing you'd to do is walked in there, freed Justin, punched Claire in the face and ordered Cassidy to stop. You could have solved everything if you tried.'
Rem glared at the boy who pulled out a card. It was a silver card with white etching. The card's surface glowed with ethereal moonlight. A feeling of artful reverence permeated the air.
'You ignored everything and went into a forest to hide,' the boy slurped the noodle and threw the card at Rem. 'I don't know whether you don't care or simply are a coward. Either way, you are just like the rest of humanity don't you think?'
Rem caught the flying card and, much to his surprise, the card was real. It was warm to the touch with a soft and dainty surface. He instinctively felt the incredible raw potential in that one card alone.
"What are you?" Rem said, puzzled by the thing in front of him. His voice was calm and collected, but his face was contorted with the gravity of the unknown.
Rem's eyes, on the other hand, had nothing; not even the fear of death.
The boy sneered sinisterly as he dispersed into clouds of golden dust. The shining sand swirled in the air and fell to the floor among the vast expanse of desert.
That disappearance left Rem Breaker alone and friendless like he always was.
He looked at the card.
...
Remus Breaker
Stat
Str: 30[E]
End: 29 [E]
Mag: 38 [E]
Wis: 101[E]
Dex: 35[E]
Skill
Active
Arrival of Dream [N/A]
Passive
Reality Breaker[Ex]
The Way of Optimism [N/A]
...
Crash!
A loud noise started and followed by an impact. Eye-crowding plume of dust rose as something smashed down toward him from the heavens. Rem shielded his eyes from the irritating particles pricking on his skin but soon found himself looking over a massive crater.
Rem peered over the edge of the massive crater. A mountain bike
was buried at the center of the disastrous landing.
Despite the brush with death, Rem only felt calm. Once you thought about life hard enough, the prospect of getting crush by falling bike ceased to be as terrifying as its sound. In the end, Rem would either be sent up to spend an afterlife chilling with Micheal Jackson or, assuming that the atheist was right, he would face vast unexciting void free from the pain of any kind including, but not limit to, boredom.
Against such an inhuman response to the concept of oblivion, one voice resounded. It was not fearless nor brave but shrilly like a girl's scream.
No, in every sense of the word, it was not only a girly scream but a girly scream to epitomize all girly scream.
"I am going to die!" Said a tide-up blonde-hair girl on the bike.
"Shut the hell up useless goddess!" A furry animal dropped from the bike's driver seat. Much to Rem's surprise, it was a talking honey badger with a strangely clean bark-color fur. Rem groaned internally. Goddess existed, so he guessed talking animal was par on course.
"If Athena didn't force me, I wouldn't even be here. Just because you are Artio's niece and the snake goddess's student doesn't mean you can act like a spoiled brat in front of me."
"Shut up you honey badger," the girl yelled in panic as if she just risks her life and limbs a minute prior. "I will tell aunt Artio about this. Master and grandma Gaia will know about it too."
The badger pulled a plastic ball out of nowhere and forced it into the girl's mouth. Then she took out a large, black and unforgiving high-carbon steel frying pan.
Rem witnessed the tragedy. Another piece of him died that day.
The boy tucked away his Status ID and stood up. He had no internet, no connection, and no cloth aside from his pajamas. Common sense was dead and won't be returning no matter what he did. This was time to just ride this bizarre rapid and see where the strangeness led him.
"Excuses me, sir," he looked at the duo while trying to look, sound and felt as dead-to-the-world as much as possible. "Where can I find the information boot in this canyon?"