"Ahh..hh .. huh.!"
A skinny boy woke up in the middle of the night in awe, clearly astonished by his surroundings. He was in a ragged house if it could be termed as a house, with a jute sack as his blanket. He was searching for some non-existent object as the 'room' was barely enough to fit him and probably had nothing else apart from the living skeleton of a boy and a few of his belongings.
"WAIT!!!....wtf is this....!! Sarah ...John ...anyone .." shouted the boy shooting up from the ground in desperation and looking here and there in the dark room where the only source of light was the few streaks of sapphire moonlight entering from the broken window as if to miraculously find someone. "...No ..one.." finally, realisation dawned upon him.
He was not in his house or his mansion. Instead, he was in a small room of a house that was in ruins.
Clearly disturbed, the boy sat down and tried to process the shite that was going on.
oOoOo
Emmanuel Clearwater, one of the great theorists and the researcher who had been the one to guide the fools filled with unnecessary bravado(scholars preferred it this way), who preferred to call themselves Heroes and those money-grubbing shameless Hunters and Mercs. With no 'Gifts' or 'Talents' to back him up he used his brains to achieve all he had (although his IQ exceeded 300 and he refused to consider it as his "gift').
Emmanuel had finished his latest research on self-sufficient artificial towers and labyrinths and was going back home to New Hope a country that had emerged from the Pacific Ocean when the Tower of Purgatory, an underground tower was conquered. It 1.5 the size of Australia and had an abnormally high mana concentration, as a result, major institutes and research centres and commercial sites were built there.No pure residential building was allowed(There is always a back door.).Lately, he has been feeling pretty insecure and a hunch pretty strong told him that he was being watched.
oOoOo
Towers
Huge, Gigantic, Enormous, Magnificent, Horrific, Terrorising.
Pick any or all of these words and you will get a gist of what a tower is.
Their emergence,60 years ago, marked a new phase in the history of mankind and forced humans to evolve and allow them to possess certain abilities that transcended common sense.
They were huge monolithic structures that seemingly sprung out of nowhere. Previously, the pattern was considered random but now it has been discovered that they occur only in those places that have an extreme accumulation of mana.
These towers posed a potential threat to humankind as they had beings of 'other' worlds trapped in them and if not cleared in time will burst open creating labyrinths or huge monster infestations in the mundane realm. Labyrinths can occur in several ways but more on that later.
This gave rise to several organisations and individuals that came forward to protect mankind, known as heroes and some came to fulfil their greed, hunters and mercenaries.
Thus began the era of conquering towers and gaining fame and prosperity. All the political and social structures of the old world were torn apart and built anew.
30 years after the catalytic evolution, a rare genius arose, who without any noticeable abilities made extraordinary achievements in the theoretical studies of this evolution or the 'Cataclysm'. Emmanuel Clearwater, along with a group of 800 researchers, was able to devise a classification to obtain the common characteristics of superhuman abilities.
Three classes were built:-
1) Gift: It was something that was vested upon us by nature randomly.
It can be mental or physical abilities that boke the limits of a human being or elemental powers like wielding fire and other similar ridiculous things.
2)Talents: As the name may suggest, it includes skills that are inherited or gained in due time.For e. g.: A man who can wield fire had a child who could teleport and use fire the same way his father could but the scope or intensity of this ability was lessened. In this case(which is very rare), the teleportation would be the gift and fire-wielding would be his talent. Talent generally include skills such as singing, dancing, leadership, thought process etc.
3)Form: It included modifications in the body of the organism.For e. g.:- WINGS!
This genius, however, died at the age of 35...in a car crash.....
oOoOo
Remembering the car crash, Emmanuel felt a stinging pain in his head. He recalled that the house he was in belonged to a boy named Krishna. An Orphan from the time he could remember he 'earned' his living by stealing on the streets of Kolkata. However, it was surprising to see this boy alive when he lived by the discharge pit of one big chemicals factory's discharge pit as any person of his age would have died with such exposure without care. Also, this boy did not have one bit of infections on his body. To a researcher like Emmanuel, it was confusing. However, a bigger confusion was how was he in the body of this skeleton. What was happening ?
"Is it some sort of..illusion ..."Thinking about it he reached to take the calendar to check the date. It was the year 2030. It was not the first time he was trapped in an illusion trap. His research materials ,especially the unreleased ones, are something that are hard to put a value on...So it's pretty obvious that he has seen most of 'it'.
"Huhh!!.."
A stinging pain , and he was kissing the ground. There was a something electrocuting him...something was on his nape. He tried to reach it only to get another dose of it. Emmanuel winced in pain.
'This ....definitely..is not an illusion..such detailed illusion is impossible.. Even Su kai can't do such a....masterpiece? WTH!' He thought as he got another.
He was suffering and throwing himself around the room to find something to relieve him or atleast knock himself out.
He hit the makeshift desk and fell onto the ground facing the wall, still in pain he raised his head.
'DRINK THE YELLOW CHEMICAL IN THE TEST TUBE TO STOP THE ELECTROCUTION'
A leather box was there...with this note and an open it sign.
Unable to think of anything else, he opened it.
There was a test tube..with yellow fluid. Without any hesitation , he gulped it down.
Almost instantly ,the pain stated to receede . The shocks started to slow down and stop.
'Finally!!!'
"This is not an illusion....I think ..I think I am in some kid's body??!"
Emmanuel said , panting , gasping for air .
'Reincarnation...?'
"Negative.If this date is correct then this is not something as 'simple' as reincarnation. I am still alive and kicking as a 30-year-old Emmanuel in New Hope. Also, a 35-year-old Emmanuel is in the body of this Krishna in India.." Emmanuel or Krishna pondered for some time , trying to calm down and analyse the situation. He started to sweat bullets.
"How am I going to survive in this land...I do not visit know where this is and don't know about its governance and all ... nor can I steal like this boy...I will die of starvation if this goes on...!!"
It seemed s if he was going to have a panic attack when the pain returned....
"AHHHHH...HHH.!!!"
.....and forced him to sleep.
oOoOo
It was a dark and lonely night . The shadows of the trees ,created by the light from the far off city, looked like some crooked beings, further mystifying the night. It was New Moon, thus, the abandoned area where lay a person who had once brought light to others , was almost devoid of light.
Emmanuel or now Krishna had recovered from the headache but could not get over the fact that it has only been a few hours since he transmigrated.It seemed like one of those trashy tropes of now obsolete webnovels. To an advocate of knowledge and rationality, it was irrational!!
Above all, what happened to him‽Was he dead ‽ But how could that be ...a car accident could not scratch the magic barrier set up via his watch.He even had his security following him..
These shits did not match up!!!!! Also ,if you add to it the fact the felt that he was being followed...
"UGHHHHHH!!!!!!...The hell is HAPPENING!!!"
The headache struck back..but this time he endured and maintained his composure.
"Ooof...it is too dream-like..I need to record this."
Reminding himself of his old habit , he turned to find a tablet or recorder but couldn't.
The search ended with a memo and a pen.He wrote on it, whatever he could remember....His name... account number..job...
Strangely enough, he failed to remember much.
"Must be the headache...Man I need a break.. hallucinations!! Really!"
And he dozed off.....