Arc 1: Call Of The Tragic Hero

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Part 1: The Mind World

Blood... Screams of terror... 

Rage... Demons...

Angels... Devils...

Deities... War…

DEMON BEASTS.

A mountain high of corpses. A wasteland—infertile and stained with death. Black ravens perched atop regrets—the power of war and unlimited chaos. Heroes are fake. Villains are real. Opposing ideals… blistering emotions—an explosion of turmoil.

PAIN. PAIN. PAIN. PAIN. PAIN. PAIN. PAIN. ENDLESS PAIN. A CHANCE. HOPE. 

PEACE.

"I'll see you, my love."

GOODBYE.

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"Nathan!!"

Nathan gasped, a rush of recycled air rushing into his lungs. A shrill voice suddenly kidnapped him from his sleep. He jumped out of bed painfully onto the unpolished wooden floor with a thud.

"Urgh!" He squinted his chocolate-tainted eyes, filtering the sunlight that peeped in at him through an uncovered window. A 13-year-old girl dressed in fuzzy pink pajamas met his blurry gaze. She had mousy, drab, mid-brown hair and pale brown eyes like some ancient princess. 

"Liz? What the heck are you doing here?" He mumbled in a fit of confusion, his voice like a drowsy prince.

"What kind of question is that? I live here, dummy! You overslept, which is pretty unusual for you, so Mom sent me to get you. Today's your birthday, after all!" Liz cut her excitement short as a worried expression crept onto her round face, "Are you okay?"

Nathan brushed his hand gently against his face. "No, my head hurts… I feel like I was dreaming… It feels like a lifetime has passed. Why is that..? I can't seem to remember…"

"Are you crying?"

Nathan blinked as a lone teardrop escaped his eye and streamed down the side of his pale cheek. His eyelashes fluttered like the wings of a lonely butterfly, and he failed to comprehend why. His dream left him a hint of fleeting emptiness deep inside his chest. It felt like the world had fallen silent, wrapped in the empty color of stainless steel.

"Nathan?" Liz called again, her worry growing even more.

Noticing the worried look on his little sister's face, he quickly wiped away the tear. "That's strange!" He said with a chuckle. "I'm just a little tired today, don't worry about it. My eyes get watery when I'm sleepy."

"Come on! Get up, then! It's your special day! I wanted to be the first to sing you the birthday song! HAPPY BIRTHDAY—"

Nathan quickly covered Liz's mouth, not wanting to hear that awful celebratory song. It always littered his skin with goosebumps.

"Not to kill your vibe, but you know I'm not a fan. Birthday songs make me awkward. I'm not trying to get a second headache here."

"Wow! So rude! You're such a killjoy sometimes! You'll never get a girlfriend with an attitude like that!"

Nathan sighed as he picked himself up, "It's not like I need one anyway. Relationships are a pain."

"Denial isn't good for the soul, you know. Besides, it's not like you've ever had one, so what would you know about having a girlfriend?"

"I've seen how it's turned out for others, and I don't want to go through all that stress. I'm peachy."

"Yeah, yeah! Mom's waiting for you downstairs with the biggest breakfast I've ever seen! Come on down when you get cleaned up!"

"Thanks for waking me up. I'll be down in a minute."

Nathan yawned and stretched his skinny arms, shaking off the sleepiness. A bitter taste lingered in his mouth, a remnant of his vague dream.

An ocean of the god's wrathful wine. One life for many. A savior none desireth, yet all hath need of.

A woman's voice, calm yet agonizing, stretched across his thoughts in a whisper. His headache amplified alongside the screeching sound of tinnitus in each ear. He sank his nails into the crown of his head, almost tearing his scalp away, and sweat poured from his skin as if he were cuddling in the arms of the sun. 

"W-What the hell?" He muttered, quickly stumbling to the nearest bathroom like a drunken soldier. His fingers wrapped around the edges of the bathroom sink—his gaze fixed on his blurry reflection in the mirror. "Today's not the day to have a fever, damn it!"

He cupped a handful of cold water from the bathroom sink before splashing it across his face. Slowly, he began to feel just a little better. He sucked in a breath of air and took another look in the mirror—the blurriness in his vision starting to fade.

His smooth brown hair, shaved in an undercut style, complimented his luminous brown eyes, which gazed back at him. This balanced his perfectly average physique. He was like Prince Charming with the body of a twig.

"Haaa!" He exhaled, blowing at a lingering strand of hair tickling his forehead. "Sixteen years since birth and nine years since I last saw your awful face. Isn't that right, dad?"

The bitter tang of his past clung to his thoughts. Goosebumps prickled his skin, and a shiver raced up his spine. "No! There's no point dwelling on the past. It's gone, Nathan. It'll stay gone."

After quickly cleaning himself, Nathan emerged before his mother and little sister, clad in a thick red and white jacket, black jeans, and sneakers. He almost looked like a young teenage singer with a crazy fanbase on social media.

"Happy birthday, dear!" His mother greeted cheerfully. Her aging silver eyes gleamed brightly with happiness. The man of the house had leveled up by a year.

"Thanks, Mom. But wow! Liz said you prepared a feast, but this is enough to feed a country!"

Nathan sat at a table filled with exquisite food. Their usual modest dining table had transformed into a royal banquet, laden with golden stacks of fluffy pancakes, gleaming white boiled eggs dusted with salt, vibrant bowls of ripe berries catching the morning light, and pitchers brimming with rich coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice. And still, there was more. 

"Mom's just trying to fatten you up, big brother!" Liz mocked, rolling her eyes, evidently still annoyed with him for interrupting her birthday song. "We've been thinking we've never seen you romantically involved with women. So Mom and I concluded that you had no game because you're so skinny! So maybe after today, you can actually be a BIG brother, you know?"

"Sigh… Can you stop making it look like I'm desperate for a girlfriend? It's getting old. Maybe you should learn to be a bit less annoying."

"Okay, enough!" Their mom interrupted with a clap of her aging hands—her stunning black hair blowing back momentarily from the resulting wind. "Elizabeth, stop teasing your brother! And Nathan, try to be nicer to your little sister! We both know that you care deeply about her despite the way you act. Remember that time you thought she was getting bullied at school, and you ran faster than I could drive to confront the bully? Thank goodness it was all a misunderstanding, or you would have bashed that poor kid's skull in!"

Nathan averted his gaze with cherry-stained cheeks of embarrassment. Meanwhile, Elizabeth chuckled at him with a victorious look in her eyes.

"Listen, you two," their mom continued, resting her scarred hands atop theirs. "This here is all we have. It's just the three of us against the world, so let's make the most of it. We can't afford to fight amongst ourselves, not when we only have each other. Your father's gone, and we need to be happy, no matter what. I love both of you, so no more fighting, okay?"

The siblings nodded, almost regretting their actions. The words never came, but their eyes had apologies written all over them.

"By the way, hun, what are your plans for today?" Their mother asked Nathan.

"Well, Sindy and Andrew have a lot planned for me today. I think Andrew decided that we'll see a movie first."

A smile crept onto her timeless lips like a delicate crack in ancient porcelain. "That's comforting. I can always depend on those two to have your back if anything happens. Those two are the only friends you need despite what the other kids say about you at school."

Sindy and Andrew were Nathan's lifelong friends. The other teens at school often referred to them as the 'three stooges.' It was nothing short of a pain having to live through high school with such an awful nickname.

"How's your head? Do you still have a headache?" Elizabeth asked concerningly.

"A headache on your birthday? That's never a good sign," their mom dreaded.

"I-I'm fine now!" He lied, touching his forehead. "I bounced my head when I woke, but it's all better! I promise!"

"That's good. I don't want your big day tainted by illness. Sixteen is an important birthday for teens!"

Nathan smiled. His mother was the sweetest woman he knew. She was always there for him and would do anything to make them happy; that was exactly why he didn't want to worry her. She was the definition of an ideal mother. If he lost her, he would surely lose himself, too. If Superman's weakness was kryptonite, Nathan's was his mother.

Fifteen minutes later, Nathan had his share of breakfast and was ready to leave to meet with his friends. His taste buds celebrated the delectable sweetness of the combined foods lingering in his mouth.

"Okay, I'm heading out. The movie starts soon, so I should hurry and meet up with those two before Sindy chews me out for being late..."

"Okay, be safe out there! Remember to get home before five! We're going to celebrate with a small party!" His mother reminded him.

"Mom, what about—"

"Shh! Shh! Shh!" She quickly hushed him, waving her finger back and forth. "I made sure to budget myself this month just for today. You don't need to worry."

He nodded in acceptance before turning around and waving goodbye. "I love you both," he muttered softly, too embarrassed to say it any louder.

"He seems a lot happier these days, Mom. Do you think he's doing better now?" Elizabeth asked.

"It would be best for all of us to get over the past, Elizabeth. We should be thankful not to have that monster in our lives anymore. We escaped. We can be happy now."