Once there was a child, borne with a tremendous amount of magic. He declared by everyone around him that he would bring salvation to the damned world infested with darkness.

Since he was young, he was strictly trained to perfection in all aspects.

"You will be the chosen hero that will save this world."

"The hope of mankind."

"The salvation of the damned."

Phrases and words that had been engraved in his head, heart and soul. The path he would walk was clear and absolute. The path of the chosen hero.

Cracked.

In a snap of a finger, the absolute path shattered. The genius and perfect child, declared by everyone to become a hero, was not the chosen one. But someone different. Another child, who had a carefree life that was not even molded and trained to perfection like him. And someone who always called him a friend.

Cracked.

The child, who had spent his entire life striving to be a hero, was lost. The path he believed was unbreakable broke. Up ahead, he could no longer see which road to take.

Cracked.

There was no more road for him to walk upon. Only darkness. Endless of it, filled his vision. That was when he realized.

Cracked.

His path was not that of a hero. Memories of a distant past filled his mind. The world he currently lived in and everything in it was nothing but a game. He was the last boss of a game he played in his previous life. A game he couldn't even remember the name of.

But one thing was certain. He was the last boss. The last boss who was doomed to perish at the hands of the true chosen hero. Everything rushed into his head like a torrent of rain. When the true hero's blade pierced clean through him. To his still-beating heart had grown cold in the face of the reality that faced him.

Everything in his life shattered. However, from the broken shards of his life, he could clearly see his pathetic self along with the pathetic face of the true chosen hero who looked so hurt as he pulled the holy sword, away from his heart.

"Why? Why Callum? You are my dearest friend and sworn brother. Why did you become like this?"

Callum Gallagher, the last boss of the long-forgotten game fell on the ground. He coughed out blood as he held his bleeding heart. He looked at the hero one last time. A smile of relief blossomed on his lips.

On his mind... there was only one thing.

'Finally. It's over.'

And the hero, who just realized as Callum fell on the ground, lifeless. No one had really reached the heart of his friend. No. In the first place, Callum never considered him as a friend or brother.

Callum Gallagher's heart never opened to everyone until his last breath.

***

"Isn't he too pitiful, Neveah?" Eleanor Moran never drew her attention away from the torn piece of paper in her left palm. The scrap of paper from a long-forgotten novel she had read. Something she had never lost and had read billions of times.

A single scrap of paper, a page ripped from a book containing Callum Gallagher's tale. The antagonist and last boss that the hero of a forgotten tale must vanquish.

"Eleanor, whenever I visit, you only talk about that character," Neveah pouted.

"But somewhere out there, Neveah..." Eleanor glanced at her one and only friend who had been at her side for billions of years. "The world from this ripped page, and even Callum, he exists right? He exists amid those billions of stars in the great cosmos."

"That..."

"Neveah, how long have I been living? For each book... each story that was created, a new world somewhere out there was born."

Neveah sighed. "Yes. It exists," she agreed in the end. "But what are you planning to do? You know, you can't leave this place even if his world exists right? There is that one way, but it is extremely dangerous..." Her gaze never left her friend.

"For one last time, I want to do one act of being a hero, before I retire."

Hearing Eleanor's words, Neveah's eyes flickered with anger. "You, don't tell me, you intend to go to that torn page's world, right?!"

However, much to her disappointment, when she saw Eleanor's fading smile, she understood that the answer to her question was already decided.

"Neveah, this is my last wish. You know that I don't have much time already..."

"But if you stay here... you can live for another two millennia and have a chance to restore yourself again! Why do you need to toss everything for the person in that single torn page?!"

"A chance you say?" Eleanor stood up, the golden chains that bound her wrists and feet rattling. There were only four sources of light amid her surrounds' unending darkness.

The first two were Neveah and Eleanor herself. The third was the shackles that bound Eleanor, which were linked to the fourth, a mysterious and glittering tree behind them. Its leaves were the rainbow's seven colors. Eleanor lifted both arms, which had noticeable fractures in them. When she moved, a portion of her flesh was ripped apart and turned into dust, which vanished into the darkness.

"You know that I can't be fixed anymore. Once the Tree of Life absorbed all my essence, I will become one with the new world."

Neveah's face contorted in grief and sadness.

"Don't look at me like that like I'm already dead." Eleanor faintly smiled.

"I-I am still trying to look for ways to save you! If you stayed here I can definitely find a way, Elle!"

"It's okay, Neve. I chose this, and that's why I have no regrets, even though I know it will lead to my end, but Neve..." she advanced towards Neveah and came to a halt in front of her. Eleanor grabbed both her hands and gazed into the eyes of her one and only friend.

"I want to save this person."

"Why-why are you so determined to save him?! If you leave this place, the absorption rate from the Tree of Life will increase! I-I want to spend more time with you, I'm sure I can find a cure!" Neveah knelt. "You're... my only friend and family... why can't you be selfish for a moment and consider the well being of your life?"

"Neve," Eleanor knelt to match Neveah's position. "I'm being selfish right now; could you help me grant one last request of mine? You're my only friend who can help me; please?"

"How-how can I say no to you?" Neveah's eyes welled up with tears. "Especially when you phrase it that way, Elle."

"Thank you, Neveah," Eleanor said as she hugged her one and only remaining friend from the world she once knew.

"Your-you're so unfair like always..."