A sixteen-year-old boy with short red hair, and green eyes grit his teeth as he ran after a horned rabbit with all of his might.
Several children, as well as adults, were cheering for him from the sidelines, encouraging him. They had seen him challenge this trial over and over for the past few years, and all of them sincerely hoped that the boy would be able to pass it this time around.
As the stinging pain in his chest intensified, the young boy's breathing became erratic. Even so, he ignored the pain and ran as if his life depended on it.
Watching him from a distance was an old woman sitting on top of a white hippopotamus. Beside her was a boy of the same age as the one trying to catch the rabbit. He was very relaxed, as he know what would be the result.
"You're mine!" the boy roared as he reached out his hand to grab the rabbit who was now within reach. He had painstakingly closed the gap at the last second, using everything he had in order for his capture to succeed.
Just as his hands were about to touch the rabbit's fur, he felt his world spin for a brief moment before everything went dark.
The boy fell to the ground face-first and all his movements stopped completely.
A few seconds later, the old woman appeared beside the fallen boy and gently rolled his body over so that he could lie on his back.
The boy had several bruises on his head and all of them were bleeding. His lower lip had also been punctured and blood flowed ceaselessly.
"Lux," the old woman felt her heartache at seeing her adopted grandson's current state. "Silly boy, why must you go this far?"
The old lady took out a small bottle from her storage bag and sprinkled half of its contents over the boy's head and facial injuries. It was a high-quality healing potion that she always carried around in case of emergency.
A few seconds later, the wounds had started to close and heal at a rapid pace.
The old lady then sprinkled the remaining half of the healing potion on the other injuries located on the boy's arms, legs, and chest.
After making sure that she had dealt with all of her grandson's injuries, she glanced toward the white-haired boy.
He understood what she meant. He picked him up and stationed himself behind her.
It was at that moment a middle-aged man walked toward the old woman and looked at the boy in her arms.
"Vera, I'm sorry but I can't allow Lux to enter Elysium," the middle-aged man said. "Sending him there is akin to sending him to his death. He is a hardworking and kind boy, but Wildgarde will forever be his home."
Vera sighed and nodded her head. "I understand, Gerald. Thank you for accepting Lux's request to take the trial."
"Viel, I know you cherish your brother a lot, but it has been 2 years since you passed your trial and could have entered Elysium. Yet here you are, waiting for your brother to pass his own trial. Time waits for no one. You should enter now, or are you going to wait another year till your brother tries again?"
Vera gave Gerald a killing stare to which he couldn't help but step back. After a few seconds, she stopped and gave him a brief bow before walking away.
The residents of Wildgarde looked at the red-haired boy in Viel's arms and sighed.
"He failed again this year."
"Poor Lux. He has been training every day, but his weak constitution won't allow him to succeed."
"Yes. But I can help to think about Viel's situation. What a good brother he is."
"That's right. Waiting for 2 years, not wanting to break their promise."
—-
When Lux opened his eyes, he found himself lying in a familiar room.
It was the room where he had stayed up for most of his life and this discovery made him feel helpless.
'I failed again,' Lux thought as he covered his face with his left hand. Not long after, the sound of the boy's sobbing spread throughout the room.
'Why was I born a failure?'
'Why was I born useless?'
'The others were able to enter Elysium when they were fourteen. I'm sixteen now and I'm still here! Just what is my purpose in life? I failed Grandma again. I'm too embarrassed to face her now…'
Lux's tears flowed without stopping as the shame, embarrassment, and helplessness in his heart burst forth like a raging river.
From the shadows of the room, a figure appeared.
"Sorry Lux, I know how hard you have trained and studied. It doesn't matter if you have failed this year, you can try again the next one."
"Big brother, you know how big of an embarrassment it is to fail three years in a row."
Usually, in the stronghold when kids turned twelve, they would officially begin their training regimen in order to enter Elysium.
The Elysium Fields, or Elysium for short, was the world's primary source of resources. Only those that had met the necessary requirements were allowed to enter this special place and help their stronghold expand in that strange, yet beautiful world that was so different from the world in which they resided.
The veteran warriors of the Wildgarde Stronghold would then train these young children to prepare them for their exploration of this new world.
When Lux turned twelve, he too trained alongside his brother and friends. He thought that he would be able to join them on their adventures in Elysium, but reality gave him a hard slap to the face.
He suffered several injuries and injured many people due to his tendency to faint during training.
When he was fourteen he fainted while swinging his sword and sent the weapon flying. Thankfully, he didn't hit anyone, but it had made others refrain from sparring against him. Luckily he still had his big brother, Viel, to spar with.
And things like that happened in each and every training he does.
Although he begged and pleaded with his instructors, all of them shook their heads and politely told him to just train under his Grandma's supervision.
Vera was more than happy to train her grandsons, but because of Lux's unstable condition, there were times when her grandson almost lost his life in the middle of training.
In the end, Vera told Lux that being a warrior was not suitable for him.
But Lux didn't want to hear this truth. Just like everyone else, Lux also wanted to go to Elysium along with Viel. He wanted to make his family proud.
Lux wanted to become a High-Ranker and show his grandma and his brother that they hadn't wasted their time with him.
They were the only family Lux had in the world, and he wanted to show them that he was not useless. So to prove himself, he would train in secret.
Since then, it had become a normal occurrence in the stronghold to see kids dragging Lux's unconscious body back to his house every day.
After half an hour, Lux finally regained his composure. Viel handed him a tissue to wipe the remaining tears from his eyes.
"Maybe I'm not really meant to enter Elysium," Lux said softly. This time, he really felt like giving up.
"You will give up when I give you permission to give up. Until then, you will continue training. You don't want to disappoint Grandma, do you?"
Hearing this Lux frowned. The last thing he wanted was to disappoint his family.
Elysium was a place where one can acquire many amazing things. Anyone who entered this world could gain riches, fame, and glory, as well as realize their wildest dreams.
This was a strange world that had appeared many years ago, right after the Hundred-Year War that had razed the world of Solais to the brink of collapse.
It was a new frontier that had the key to saving their world.
This was why many people young and old wanted to enter and explore this unknown world.
'You need to persist brother. In no time, help is going to come and you will finally regain your memories.'
As Viel was thinking about the future of his brother he heard a chuckle from behind him.
"You've struggled all this time, and now you're thinking of giving up?"
Lux almost jumped off his bed from fright due to the unexpected voice that came out of nowhere. Viel also was frightened, he was in his own world when suddenly an unknown voice came out of nowhere.
They then hurriedly looked around the room to try and find where the voice was coming from.
"Just where are you looking?" the teasing voice asked. "I'm right here outside your window."
They walked towards the window and came face to face with a little boy with short, dark-blue hair and gray eyes, who seemed to be around ten years old, floating in the air in front of him.
"Who are you?" Viel asked as he stared at the little boy he'd never seen before in the Wildgarde Stronghold. He grabbed Lux and put him behind him.
"My name is Eriol," Eriol said with a friendly smile.
"I am the God of Games and I came here to help my best friend, Macuilxochitl, finish the task he started."