"Tch! Hurry up would ya!"
"Shut up, leave me alone, you're not the one who has to carry this dead bitch."
"Yeah, well at least you don't have to carry a dead baby! This is gonna give me some serious karma asshole!"
Two tall and gruffy men nonchalantly argued through the silence of the night, their loud and obnoxious voices permeating through the quiet of darkness.
"Hey, who are these two anyway?" The taller of the two men, Paul, who was holding the woman, asked curiously.
"Hmm, I think she was some whore the boss killed after she got too lovey with one of the clients." Dan, an unshaven mess of a man said to Paul as he lifted the baby of the woman they had killed by the foot, allowing the small human child to lull and sway in the air; it was pretty apparent that the baby had been killed.
"Damn, that's unfortunate. Guess that's why no one goes against the boss." Paul shrugged with no visible pity.
The two thugs continued down their path, gravel scattered about from their clumsy steps as tall grass swayed with the wind. Three moons that were said to symbolize the three energy types of the universe permeated the night sky, providing it with beautiful illumination.
In front of the two, roughly a mile away, lay a humongous forest known as the Sword Forest. A forest so big that it would take one their whole lifetime to traverse it normally. It was a well-known fact that the Sword Forest was the most dangerous in all of the Cythium continent. Easily recognizable due to the giant sword which lay enrooted in the center of the forest. Even Paul and Dan, from outside the forest, could see the huge gray-stone sword which towered even beyond the clouds.
This death wish of a forest, which was more like a jungle than anything, was where the two thugs were tasked with hiding the body of the woman and child. With no other choice but to follow their boss's command; they left deep into the night.
"Alright, we're almost there, so let me make this as clear as possible for one last time: As soon as we step inside the forest, we sprint. Run like the wind while watching our steps. I'll go ahead of you as it'll be easier for me to spot any beasts or threats. Once were about one hundred meters in, we dropped the bodies. By sunrise, the bodies should be eaten; hiding any evidence. Quick and simple."
"Understand?"
"Yeah."
Dan was more serious and cautious than Paul. He knew that the Sword Forest was not a joke, and knew that if they let their guard down for even a second, especially in the night, they would die before they could think.
'In and out. If we go in quick and leave even faster, we should make it out fine." Dan inwardly hoped.
...
Finally reaching the edge of the tree line, both Dan and Paul looked at each other as they blew forward. Sprinting down the boundless and seemingly never-changing forest with trees over 100 meters tall eclipsing them. Thistle and thorn tore at their clothes, the scattering of vermin put them on guard, and the pang in their chests weighed heavy on them as they trudged through the forest.
After another minute or two of running had passed, Dan assumed they had run about one hundred meters within the forest.
"Stop!" Dan quietly commanded Paul as they both came to an abrupt halt.
"This is good enough, let's leave these two and get the hell outta here."
"Alright!"
A thud that seemed extremely loud in the silent night rang out through the forest as Dan and Paul, now relinquished of their 'garbage', fled out of the forest.
Making it out of the forest, the duos' figures disappeared into the dead of night, back down the gravel path.
...
An hour after the bodies of the mother and boy were disposed of, a sudden incredibly bright white light shot through the sky at unfathomable speeds.
In an instant, the white light descended from the sky and reached the Sword Forest. The ball of light flashed as light erupted from out of the small mass and covered the entire forest for less than a second. It was so fast that those not perceptive enough wouldn't even register it.
The light retracted just as fast as it appeared when it suddenly flew into the body of the boy who had been discarded and left on the forest floor to fester.
The body of the boy lay in the Sword Forest. Short spastic convulsions contorted his body as bursts of light would randomly emit from him. Suddenly, after an untold time of these seizing bursts of light passed, the boy's body abruptly stopped: 'Huh...Where-where am I?' A consciousness which inhabited the boy's body mused.
The baby's body started to move, trying to enact motions not possible for its extremely underdeveloped body.
'Where the hell am I, and why can't I see anything?' The consciousness was baffled.
'Am I dead...I should be. The last thing I remember doing was using my unique forbidden technique on that bastard Fake God. That's right; that bastard False God. My name was Mason Goldenheart, and my whole life was a string being pulled by that fucker!' The consciousness of Mason Goldenheart finally organized as the deep hatred engrained within his soul helped him recall everything that had happened that day.
'I died to that fucker, or at least...I thought I did? Though where am I now? Is it possible that the holy power which I cultivated had something to do with this?'
All of a sudden, as Mason was trying to determine the way he ended up in this strange darkness, a burst of memories entered his head.
'Huh? So this isn't the afterlife, nor hell, then I guess I was rebor...No this body, it's not mine. It doesn't make sense to say I was reborn, it is more like my soul transmigrated and ended up in this body because it didn't have a soul. This body's original owner had been killed not long after being birthed, his name was Flux and shortly after being born, two men killed his mother in front of him. Though the memories end there...It seems as though humans use a language not dissimilar from some Earthen languages, at least I can somewhat understand it...' Mason concluded.
'Tch. He was just a newborn yet those bastards ruthlessly killed him and his mother.' Mason recalled Paul and Dan and remembered the way they brutalized this body and its mother.
'Though this boy's memories answer one of my questions, I still have no idea where I am, and something strange also seems to be happening to my eyes...why can't I open them?'
'Well if I can't open my eyes, then I will just have to sense my surroundings.'
With the Holy War, came the introduction of the holy teachings, and with those teachings, came the first and most basic and necessary part of cultivating holy energy was the ability to sense your surroundings. Through deep meditation and focus (or just deep focus), one becomes able to sense their surroundings and the surrounding energy.
Using this method required no real power, only deep focus. So Mason, who resigned himself to the name Flux, as he wished to distance himself from his old name, began to grasp his surroundings. By focusing on himself and closing his thoughts, his Sense began to activate.
Flux's primitive Sense—due to his struggle to focus considering his environment—came out fuzzy as an undetailed yet unimaginably beautiful scene unfolded before him.
All around him stood massive trees towering into the sky, with most reaching over a hundred meters, their multi-coloured leaves ranging from minty greens and beautiful ambers to lavender purples. Vermillion red lit up the surroundings as foreign plants illuminated the area. Smaller trees, branches, and bushes covered the area. Giving the forest a bustling vitality. The myriad of colours and life that encapsulated the Sword Forest stunned Flux, who previously lived in a world plagued by war; a world devoid of life and nature.
'This-this isn't Earth...' Flux inwardly concluded with confused wonder.