In a wide grassland that stretches to the horizon, a white haired and a black haired men are standing against each other.
The only difference is that one of them is caged in a translucent barrier and the other is not.
Wearing a white robe and a gentle expression, the white haired man outside, stares at the cage.
Touching his small white beard he asks,
"Celtic, you have used all of your Clates. It's about time your life force becomes ours."
Wearing a grey robe, Celtic answers with a sly smile,"I still have one Clate left, Algos."
Algos' eyebrows furrows before recalling something.
Soon his brows relaxes and he speaks,
"It's just a grey Clate. With that trash quality, all you can call is a human at best. Haha, is that how you will get out of this situation? That's not even funny, you know."
"I have this too," speaks Celtic as he takes out a purple paper.
"Hmmm...So you want your champion to be someone specific, huh? I wonder who is that unlucky guy who will die this time," speaks Algos as he smirks at Celtic.
Celtic ignores him and speaks,"call my servant."
Aldos sighs as he answers, "all right, even if you are lucky, this should fetch you another 50years or so."
Soon another grey robed young man comes.
The young man gets closer to Celtic and Celtic speaks something to him.
The other man's eyes widens.
"But master, he won't forgive us. And he won't like this at all. You know how he was back then," speaks the other man terrified.
"Just do it. I don't have a choice or else I would have never suggested this," Celtic speaks in a tensed voice.
Looking at the exchange, Aldos' interest piques.
The young man then turns to Aldos,
"Please, give me permission to say sorry to him, its not against the rules," he pleads.
Clearly he looks scared.
Aldos stares at the man for a few seconds before speaking, "it will cost you a 100years of life as payment. But I must warn, if you give him any crucial information or helped him in anyway, your lifeforce will be immediately sucked out by the federation."
The young man sighs in relief then bows and leaves the area.
Aldos looks at Celtic then shakes his head before leaving.
After he left, Celtic's expression changes from nonchalant to nervous,
"Aether, I am sorry. I hope you can understand that I have no choice but to do it. Please...please..." Celtic looks genuinely scared as he continues,"...please don't end up destroying this world."
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....
SOMEWHERE ON EAR*H
11:30 PM
Outside a massive City Hospital
Two men are standing near the outer gate beside a car. One of them is bowing while the other one looks like he is trying his hardest to stop the other from doing so.
On closer look, the man who's bowing looks old, maybe in his 60s while the other one is a good-looking guy in his early 30s.
"It was just a small surgery. Nothing big, anyone could have done that with enough expertise," says the good-looking guy with a humble smile on his face.
Old man's eyes turns red with tears as he smiles like it is the happiest moment of his life.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" says the old man grabbing the middle-aged man's hands crying, "If it weren't for you sir, my son would have died. How can I ever repay you? It's not just the surgery. You didn't even charge a single penny. In these difficult times, how could anyone...." the man's voice trails off.
The middle-aged man stands tall holding a smile on his face.
He sighs as he removes the old man's hands and speaks,
"To be honest, it is my daughter's birthday tomorrow, I just did a good deed in exchange for her happy life. Just building some good karma and even if I hadn't saved your son, someone else might have. If you feel so indebted about it, just help me out if I ever need your help, will you? That will be enough."
The old man nods happily at these words,
"Yes Sir Aether, if you ever need my help and as long as I am capable of doing so I will-" as the old man is speaking he is stopped by Aether.
"I would love to talk more but I really have to go home now. My daughter is waiting for me, it's almost time for her birthday and it's getting late. So I will be leaving. See you around," says Aether as he runs away from the conversation...
He sits in the car and drives away.
"Thank you again, sir," bows the old man with a look of admiration towards Aether.
12:30 AM
'It took more time than I thought to buy the gift, I hope she likes it,' Aether mutters as he walks towards his house.
He reaches the door and clicks on the doorbell.
*ding-dong*
*click
Calling her beautiful would be an understatement, poised against the doorway her long black hair treds against her curvy body. Her rectangular glasses bring out the true beauty of her navy blue eyes.
Wearing a white dress she looks like an angel.
But for Aether, she looks like an angel of death who will punish him for the crime he has committed today.
"Hey, Elain.....Sorry I'm late.....um....how is Aisha?" says Aether as he glances with fear at his wife, Elain, poised against the doorway with *today is her birthday so why are you late* expression.
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.
20seconds later
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40seconds later
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"No food for you till you are forgiven...she is in her room," declares Elain as she walks away from the door with an expressionless face,
Aether stands there for a few seconds,
"Okay,"he says in a low voice.
Taking his gift in his hand he despondently walks towards his daughter's room.
.
He reaches the front of her door and knocks
*knock knock*
"Aisha...." he speaks in a low but audible voice.
No reply.
Music can be heard from the room and someone speaking rather loudly can be heard too.
He knocks loudly.
"Who is it?" someone asks from the inside.
The sound of the talking suddenly comes to a halt.
"It's me," Aether answers.
Silence prevails for a few moments
"And?" the same person cynically soeaks.
'I must speak the right words,' Aether thinks as he speaks,"sorry dear...daddy didn't forget. Nope, he just took more time to select the best gift for you."
"And?" Asks Aisha with an emotionless voice.
"And he decided it won't happen again..." continues Aether.
"Promise...?" Asks Ayesha innocently.
"Promise," replies Aether.
*click
The door opens...
An 11 years old girl with similar features to Elain comes out of the room.
Aether gets on his knees and hugs his daughter, "Happy birthday sweetheart....it was difficult to choose between so many things, at last I decided to get you this. I hope you like it," says Aether with anticipation.
Aether gives the gift pack to his daughter.
She quickly opens the gift and finds the latest smartphone which was launched a few days earlier.
Looking at her expression, she likes it. Her smile is as wide as it can get.
"Thank you," she says with a joyous expression and hugs Aether.
" Love you, daddy," she says.
"Love you too sweetheart," replies Aether.
Soon Elain joins the party, a tray of chocolate shakes in tow.
The party continues for another hour before her friends went home.
3:00 AM
*ring ring*
The mobile phone rings
*ring ring*
*click
Aether picks up the call
"Hello," a voice comes from the mobile phone.
".....who is it?" Asks Aether sleepily.
"I'm sorry," says the voice.
"Why?" Asks Aether getting confused and serious.
"I can't go against it. I didn't think he would use it for something like this," continues the voice.
"What are you talking about?" Aether asks, getting more serious.
"And I am sorry for the future too cause I can't interfere with the world balance"
*click
Aether cuts the call. He looks a bit irritated.
"Who was it dear?" asks Elain.
"Some weirdo," says Aether.
He then kisses her and they both go back to sleep.
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IN THE SKY ABOVE AETHER'S HOUSE:
"That's all we can do. Let's start," speaks a man.
A few grey robed men stand in a circle as they start chanting around a Clate covered with a purple paper.
Soon a bright light shines and moves toward Aether's direction and hit him.
Lighting up the area, a bright arrow of light darts to the sky.
"A storm is coming in the world of Visca," one of them speaks as he watches the light moving.
"A storm indeed," the others answer with slight fear in their eyes.
Then they vanish from the sky as if they never existed.
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The light soon reaches Visca.
After an unknown amount of time.
Aether wakes up.
AETHER'S POV:
??:??
'.....'
'where.....am....I?'