11/29/079 DC
The world is dying!
The world is dying—a slow, painful death!
Its death, caused by a parasite that slowly sucked the life out of it and its inhabitants.
The world is ending due to the death cloud.
A condensed cloud of highly toxic and radioactive gaseous substances that continuously reaps life from anything that it comes into contact with.
Details of where it came from and what caused it are unknown.
The 'DEATH CLOUD' exists just like a cursed clock, which, with a movement of its dial, slowly pushes mankind towards extinction and death.
The death cloud has tormented humanity for seventy long years. Seemingly aware of the passing of time, it has moved seven times for every decade since its appearance.
Each one of its movements covered ten percent of the planet's area, resulting in the death cloud covering almost seventy percent of the world.
Any piece of land or life that comes into contact with it is immediately reduced to ashes. Its impact on the planet is disastrous, as wherever it passes, the world falls into chaos.
Natural disasters of all forms occur, slowly destroying the planet. Earthquakes of disastrous magnitudes, glacial melting, floods, and volcanic eruptions are wreaking havoc all across lands infested with the Death Cloud.
Ever since its first appearance, the number of lives it has reaped has totaled almost 15 billion. Human life in this day and age is worthless, not to mention animal life.
Today, here I stand. I, Fritz Kingcaid, stand here awaiting my death!
Today we will be joining the statistics of all those lives it has snuffed.
Today marks the last day before the eighth cyclic death cloud movement that would send us all living in Sector 8 to our deaths.
With the eighth cyclic movement occurrence meaning that eighty percent of the world is being destroyed and being twenty percent shy of total destruction,.
Only a day stands between us and Doomsday.
It would be a lie to say that I do not have any regrets, but my father taught me well.
I mean, how can a thirteen-year-old boy like me have no regrets? My only regret, I guess, would be that I couldn't see my old man one last time.
He always told me that I was special because I could see the unseen. I guess if it weren't for him, I would probably have thought I was crazy.
The World Council told us that any piece of land that has come into contact with the cloud is a death zone.
Yet sometimes I could glimpse beyond it, seeing visions of mind-bending sights and supernatural phenomena.
But since only I could see it and my father believed me, I guess it wouldn't be wrong to say that the two of us are crazy.
Wherever you are, Father, I love you.
Your son is about to go meet Death.
…
In the highest tower located at the center of Sector 8 stood the lonesome figure of Fritz Kingcaid. From the window of the governor's tower, he observed the rumbling black cloud heralding their demise.
Despite the impending disaster, his thoughts were preoccupied by the disappearance of his father just a week ago. A slight sigh escaped his lips as he calmly stared at the death cloud, which slowly absorbed anything that it came into contact with.
His eyes remained steady on the approaching cloud, ignorant of the commotion below as countless residents of Sector 8 scurried to and fro in fear of the coming harbinger of death.
Some prayed.
Some ran.
Some hid.
Some gave up.
A minority calmly accepted their reality.
Fritz stood at an impressive height of 5'8 despite his young age. Above his head rested abyssal black hair that fell a few inches below his ears.
His face was carved symmetrically, giving him the perfect jaw.
The most distinguishing feature about him was his luminescent purple eyes that shone like a thousand stars; his eyes rested below sharp sword-like eyebrows.
This made him appear colder and sterner, despite his young age.
RIP!
Drawing him from his thoughts was the condensation of space near him that slowly ripped apart. From the tear in space appeared a beaten and bleeding three-meter peacock. It had seven colored eyes on its head.
Stunned by its appearance, Fritz failed to react as he stood rooted on the ground.
"Y-Young… Master, take these," laboredly spoke the monster.
From the peacock's body fell out three things: two rings, one black and the other white. There was also a gold-plated chest the size of a small diary.
Waking up from his reverie, Fritz jumped backwards as he carefully observed the monster. Seeing it remain motionless after a few seconds, he walked towards it.
"Hello" greeted Fritz as he moved around the monster. Instead of receiving a response like he thought, the monster remained silent and stationary.
From below it, a golden liquid slowly formed a puddle that came from the numerous shocking open wounds on its body.
'Is that blood?'
He moved closer towards it and sent a light kick at the monster, yet it remained motionless.
'Is it dead?
It must be dead; look at its blood. Wait, it called me Young Master! It told me to take those three items.
What are they?
Where did they come from?
Are they from Father!?'
If he were its young master, then wouldn't that obviously mean that someone related to him had to be its true master? When he thought about any relatives he had, he couldn't think of any except his father.
With the thought of his father, he immediately dashed towards the three items, throwing away his prior caution for the monstrous beast before him.
Firstly, he picked up the two rings and intensely scrutinized them for a few minutes. While observing the two rings, his face scrunched in frustration, as he couldn't discern anything useful from them.
Begrudgingly, he decided to put them aside and focus on the gold-plated chest. He wore the two rings on his left hand, and the moment he did so, a piercing pang of pain assaulted him.
This shot of pain prompted him to focus his attention on the two rings again. With his focus directed into the rings, he could observe a faint light forming above them, with the white ring's light growing brighter while the black ring's dimmed.
The light emitted by the white ring shot towards the corpse of the peacock below, magically sucking it into the ring right before he followed suit.
A momentary blankness covered his senses as, after he recovered, he woke up in a new place, space, or dimension. Instead of him being sucked into the ring, it would be appropriate to say that his senses were.
In front of him stood countless rows of boxed, empty shelves that stretched for a few kilometers.
In one of the boxes, he saw the corpse of the monster peacock. Deciding to explore the place a bit, he felt the suction force pulling him back to the outside.
'Just what the hell is happening?' thought Fritz in confusion.
When he returned to the outside of the ring, Fritz unsteadily failed to maintain his posture. This lasted for a few seconds before he regained control of his body as he approached the chest.
Since he failed to find answers from the two rings, he was determined to know what the chest held in store for him.
Just maybe he would find answers to why the monster peacock addressed him as its young master.
Holding the chest in his hands, he admired its sleek design. The chest had been gold-plated, with lines of black running along the edges, accentuating its beauty more.
Flicking open the lock cover, Fritz found a singular, sharp needle without the key hole or any mechanism he was expecting.
'What is this?'
His frustration grew stronger as he couldn't understand just how he would be able to open it.
'Does it need my blood?'
With this idea, he decided to trust his instincts as he brought his thump towards the nail and pressed lightly on the needle.
A slight jolt of pain shot through his finger as a small puncture formed on his thumb, allowing blood to leak from him in miniscule amounts.
With his blood drawn by the needle, the box automatically opened.
Excitedly, Fritz peered into the chest, wherein he saw a folded scroll with fresh ink marks, a whistle attached to a black envelope, and a white crown flashing with mystical light.
A natural attraction and a yearning rose in Fritz's body the moment he saw the crown. His senses were pushing him to grasp it and adorn it on top of his head.
Shaking his head, he grabbed the folded scroll to peruse its content. Luckily for him, it was a letter, a letter written to him by his father.
Anxiously, Fritz sat down on the floor and immediately started reading.
'My son.
If you are reading this...
.