Chapter One
MEMORIES MISSING
"Where am I?"
Dionysus looked around, trying to identify the location that he was currently at. He was currently at a place that felt familiar, but he just couldn't put his hand on where he was actually at.
However, all of a sudden . . .
"Huh?"
Dionysus had a headache that suddenly struck him. His eyes flickered and turned golden for just a bit, and everything hit him at once. He looked to his right, where he remembered there was a mountain with a huge gate that led into a dungeon.
'What am I . . . experiencing?'
Everything looked grey and black. If there was anything to explain what was going on, it might be considered a flashback. Everything was shimmering, it was all burning up. The reality he knew, it was all gone.
GASP
The mountain was no longer there. It was as if it never existed.
"Wait . . . what mountain am I thinking about?"
Dionysus just realized the absurdness that his mind was going through. There never was a mountain in the first place, what was he talking about?
Finally, the golden eyes that were flickering stopped flickering, and his usual silver eyes returned. He had had silver eyes since birth, so it was weird for him to suddenly gain golden eyes out of nowhere.
"Wait . . . why was I looking at myself in the third person?"
Dionysus also realized that when he had golden eyes, it was as if his body wasn't his.
'Something weird is going on . . .'
He couldn't remember anything. He was Dionysus, a man who had been born. He didn't know why he was here, who he legitimately was, and so on. It all felt so . . . vague.
"Hello?"
Dionysus walked around and kept speaking out, hoping to get a reaction of some sort from anything. However, there was nobody here.
'That's weird, the people from the are-!'
It happened again. A memory came to him, but he immediately forgot it. He once again dismissed it as fiction, and continued to look around for a while.
After searching for a thorough half an hour, Dionysus had come to the conclusion that there was nothing to see here. Whether it be people, objects, or something else, there was nothing. Besides, he was just standing in an open field, was he supposed to expect something?
'I guess . . . I'll just start walking.'
--- SEQUENCE 2 ---
Dionysus had been walking since the morning, and the sun had set around an hour ago. While he didn't really know much, he still had his natural instincts. He could tell that he would need to eat, sleep, and so on. Directions just happened to come naturally to him as well, and he had decided to head west.
He didn't quite know why, but he just felt that going west would lead to answers.
He laid down on the ground, and stared at the sky filled with stars.
'It's so pretty . . .'
He had no real experience with the world. It was his first night, and he just wanted to stare at the night sky for as long as possible. He felt that even if he were to stare at it for millions of years, he would never be able to get it down, the reason as to why the night was so beautiful.
'Guess I'll sleep.'
He closed his eyes, and before long he was asleep.
GASP
However, just as fast as he had fallen asleep, he woke with a start. His eyes looked left and right, but he couldn't identify anything that was going on.
That was, until this happened . . .
DING
As if someone had hit a button and the results were immediate, a loud sound rang out and memories rushed into Dionysus' empty head. He finally remembered everything, and then he proceeded to lift his head and look directly in front of him.
There, sitting on a throne made of chains, was the insane chained man. He looked at Dionysus with a smile on his face.
"The first day, how was it?"
Even while saying it, he couldn't stop smiling. It was as if he was a clown that was forced to continuously smile because it was its job. Dionysus couldn't understand anything that was going on, and he continued to attempt to remember everything that happened. He closed his eyes and began to scan his mind for everything it knew.
After a while, he opened both his gold and silver eyes and looked directly at the chained man.
"What've you done to me?"
At these words, the chained man began to laugh like a maniac. If Dionysus didn't know the strength of the chains, he would have thought that the man would break out of them right now with how he was acting.
"What have I done to you? Surely you remember? I cursed you."
Dionysus remembered that his body was somehow interfered with, but he still didn't quite understand what he meant when he said Dionysus was cursed.
"Explain, fully, what has happened to me."
Dionysus stood up and began to walk towards the chained throne on which the man sat on.
SHIIIINNNG
A chain flew at Dionysus, who had the reaction speed of a fool and was most definitely going to get caught.
That is, he would've been caught if it weren't for the silhouette that had lunged forward to take it instead of him. The chain wrapped around the black arm of the silhouette, and grasped him very tightly.
The chained man looked at Silhouette with interest, but then returned his gaze to Dionysus.
We are in an alternate dimension to the one that you call home.
You'll only arrive here when you fall asleep, and you'll leave when you wake.
While here, you'll remember everything in your life.
While awake, you'll forget everything in your life that predates ground zero.
"Soon enough, you'll have a throne made of chains as well. The chains represent the evil side of humanity."
As the man continued to explain the situation, Dionysus only lost more and more blood in his face. By the end of it all, one could mistake him for a ghost if they didn't look close enough.
"YOU BASTA-"
It's time to wake up.
--- SEQUENCE 3 ---
Walking for nearly four days, Dionysus finally found a city that he could relax in. To be honest, he had never actually been to a city, but he just . . . knew about them. It was the same with a lot of things.
'Talking . . . I think I know how to do that?'
This city was humongous, which caught Dionysus somewhat off guard. After wondering why it was so large, he finally came to a conclusion.
'This must be one of those "capitals".'
According to what he knew, capitals were the centers of really big nations. They were full of trade, tourists, politics, and so much more. Essentially, they were the hotspots of the world.
It had absolutely humongous stone walls surrounding it on essentially all sides, and the sides that weren't protected were the entrances of it. There was also a humongous circle with very elaborate patterns floating above the city. It wasn't very easy to miss, as it was quite literally the size of the city and was glowing with a golden color.
'That also looks very pretty . . .'
The city also seemed to be located in a crater of sorts. Dionysus had just emerged from a mountainous region and was walking at the base of the mountains, yet he was standing on top of a cliff and looking down at the city to analyze it. After looking around for a bit, he saw that there was a path down into the crater close to where he was.
Dionysus took the path and arrived at the bottom of the crater. Finally, he could truly see how long the line into the city was.
'Hmm . . . I don't feel like waiting.'
Dionysus just began to cut through the line by walking alongside it. There were many people who would whisper and point at him while trying to conceal themselves to him, though Dionysus didn't really care.
Yet, he most definitely was not going to get very far in his attempt to cut the line. In front of him stood a man with a cropped black jacket and a mohawk. He also had some sort of cover for his eyes, though it definitely wasn't the usual pair of glasses.
"Uhh . . . can you get out of the way? I'm trying to get through the line."
The way that the man in front of him asked this question in such an innocent manner surprised Kyolen. However, it was to be expected that Kyolen would get mad after hearing such an arrogant line.
He walked up to the man standing in front of him and grabbed him, only to throw him onto his back on the ground.
"Ow . . . that hurt, you jerk."
Dionysus easily leapt back up onto his two feet and dusted himself off.
"My name is Kyolen, and my job is to make sure that people like you don't cut the line. Please head all the way to the back of the line, sir."
Kyolen turned around after saying that and began to walk away. After all, that was usually enough to deter the usual delinquent from trying anything stupid.
"What th-!"
Shortly after saying that, he was rolling off into a random direction. All Dionysus had done was walk up to him and grab him by the shoulder, yet all he planned to do was to throw him onto the ground just like he had been thrown onto it.
'Huh, I must be strong.'
With a smirk on his face, Dionysus continued to cut through the line. After seeing what had just happened, almost nobody dared to stop Dionysus anymore.
However, it was almost nobody. The person that Dionysus had sent rolling had his hand on Dionysus' shoulder.
"Sir . . . please back off."
"I should be saying that to you, silly little cockroach."
POUND
Kyolen couldn't even see what happened, but he knew what had happened. He had been kneed by this man into the air, and all the oxygen that had compiled within his lungs had most definitely left him.
BLAM
Shortly after kneeing him into the sky, Dionysus followed it up with a punch to the temple, which led to Kyolen being sent flying. Once he landed, there was a puddle of blood coming out from under him.
'Woah . . . that felt good.'
Dionysus showed a slight sadistic smile before continuing to cut ahead of the line. After getting all the way to the front of the line, Dionysus realized that a majority of the people were scowling at him for daring to cut.
"What, you wanna stop me?"
He gestured at any of them to come at him. Of course, nobody was stupid enough to take the bait, but they still continued to rebel by scowling at him. He stuck his tongue out at the people and pulled on one of his eyelids before walking into the capital.
It was an absolutely humongous gate, and the only reason that that the line was so humongous was because the capital wanted to make sure that anybody who entered the city was safe and registered.
Dionysus didn't know any of this, so it was actually quite the good idea to just walk into the city. Once he was in, the view was absolutely phenomenal. The main road was absolutely humongous both width and length wise, with a stone path and a river flowing through the middle with a bridge above it in the middle, the design was really on-point.
After following the road for quite a bit, he eventually reached the center of the city. There was a humongous fountain at the middle of it all, and then there were seven other roads besides the one he came from.
'Huh . . . it sure does look pretty.'
Dionysus put a smile on his face and continued to walk around. However, he then noticed that there was a wooden platform and people gathering around it near the fountain. With his curiosity piqued, Dionysus joined the crowd and stared at it.
Rule one: The suffering of another can be the blissful beauty of another.
Straight away, right after hearing the loud, echoing voice, Dionysus began to feel pangs of pain in his head.
'What is this feeling? It's exhilarating!'
Dionysus had never felt pain before, and was exhilarated by the feeling. While yes, it certainly did hurt, pleasure did come with the pain of the head.
However, his joy was cut short by many people walking onto the wooden platform that he had been staring at. They interrupted his joy, so he somewhat felt like killing them, but he held back a little.
"In honor of the late Princess Maria, we will hang the man who slew her."
After a young lady declared that, a man with some sort of cuffs for his hand came walking up the stairs on the side, accompanied by what seemed to be guards.
"Fools, you all have no idea about how good it feels to kill another person! The way that the face of their family twists if you do it in front of them, the retaliation you receive, and so much more . . . the feeling's great!"
The man that was handcuffed began spouting crap, though that was only what the majority thought. They all felt disgusted at the man who was about to be hung. To them, his words were a sign of mental illness.
However, there was a singular person who was staring at the man with something resembling stars in his eyes.
This man was Dionysus.
As the man got hung, Dionysus continued to stare at his body in awe.
"So cool . . ."