Chapter 1: Forsaken Hero
A crow flew in circles, intently watching the harrowing scene below.
One man wielding a sword. Another succumbing to its strike.
"Lu... Lucas... Why does it have to be this way?"
With not enough strength to hold up his head, Axel’s gaze descended upon the merciless sword embedded in his chest — a cruel reminder of the betrayal that had brought him to this bleak moment. Crimson blood flowed from the wound, cascading down his body.
Lucas brought his hand to Axel’s chin and tilted his head up, meeting Axel’s eyes with an impassive expression.
But Lucas’ stoic countenance swiftly revealed itself a facade as a solitary tear formed and trailed down his cheek.
The sorrowful man spoke with a voice bereft of its usual playfulness:
"I apologize, Axel. There was no other option. If only those fiends hadn’t planted that demonic seed in your soul."
Axel’s vitality was ebbing away; he became a marionette, held upright only by the sword lodged in his chest. He wanted to reply, whether to forgive or beg, he didn’t know. However, not a single sound escaped his lips other than an inarticulate gasp.
In one fluid motion, Lucas withdrew his sword and caught Axel, then gently lowered him to the moist dirt.
A chill wind blew over, as if nature itself mourned Axel’s doomed fate — a fate he’d done nothing to deserve.
He didn’t even have the strength to change his facial expression, but on the inside, he raged.
’Why did they do it?! Why did they have to do this to me?! If you know you screwed up, then screw up alone! Why drag me down with you? Was there really no turning back?! Why couldn’t you two monsters just die alone in some godforsaken corner of the world?!’
Another man stepped into the corner of Axel’s failing vision, interrupting his one-sided plea.
A one-armed man he knew very well.
The wickedness he exuded was palpable. The twisted sickle he held reflected his twisted nature. A dark miasma radiated from every pore of his body — a dark, disgusting purple that fit him all too well.
’Bastard.’
The third man’s voice filled the air, each syllable he spoke resonating with the weight of his malevolence.
"To witness the hero of humanity condemned as a monster... All because of my mistake..."
He paused for a second, then continued:
"...It’s poetic. Truly, poetic."
The third man began laughing as he stared straight down.
’Bastard!’
Axel had an unquenchable desire to kill him, to unleash upon him the condemnation he so rightly deserved. Yet, his vocal cords betrayed him, refusing to yield any sound other than a sharp and painful gasp. His lungs had collapsed, and the only thing keeping him alive was the minuscule amount of Aether he used to pump his blood.
In spite of his condition he wanted to, no... he needed to scream at him. To tell him how much he deserved to die. If Axel had the chance, he would tear his throat out without hesitation.
’Screw it.’
"I... will kill... you."
Weakly, he spoke, having used the remnants of his waning power to repair his lungs momentarily and project his voice.
Succumbing to his hatred, he’d thrown away his only chance at life to curse at this wretched man.
A curse that was as weightless as air. A curse that had no hope of ever coming to fruition. A promise of something impossible...
Nonetheless, it was a curse he threw at the cost of his life.
The bastard’s maniacal laughter abruptly ceased, giving way to a dreadful silence. Lifting his gaze from his palm, the wicked man locked eyes with Axel, revealing a tear-streaked face.
Tears that made no sense. Tears that should be reserved for the tormented, not the tormentor.
Yet, they adorned his face.
The face of the man whose refusal to accept reality and desperate clinging to a meaningless vow had tormented the entirety of humanity.
’I should have let him end his own pitiful existence. If only I hadn’t let him teach me that saving someone could create a memory that outweighed being saved. If only I’d never saved him. If only I’d never saved him. If only I’d never saved him...’
What’s done was done.
There was no changing the past.
As Axel’s consciousness faded, the bastard’s voice resounded throughout the air — the voice of his closest comrade turned formidable enemy reaching Axel’s ears one last time.
"I wish... I wish it were possible, my hero."
His soft-spoken words carried an unknowable sorrow that betrayed every action he’d taken.
From the cold ground, Axel watched as the two remaining men stood with their gazes fixed on each other. Both of their eyes filled with tears and rage.
Axel wanted to cling to life for even a second longer, but his vision eventually faded until he could see nothing but memories. The image of that psychopath crying seared into the back of his eyelids.
But at least...
’At least now I can forget.’
No more need for saviors. No more need to save.
He could finally... forget.
Following his vision, the rest of his senses faded.
After all his senses were gone, he felt as if he were falling.
Falling, falling, falling.
As he fell, it felt as if he were losing a part of himself.
In the span of a second, visions of himself in a world with a violet sky fighting Spawn, Wretches, and other Forsaken flashed through his mind.
The last image he saw was his head being crushed in the disgusting maw of a Spawn with four horns.
The visions disappeared as quickly as they came and left him floating in an endless void.
His memories jumbled for a bit, then quieted down and corrected themselves.
Floating, Axel couldn’t hear, see, feel, or taste anything — he could only think and remember. Thoughts of what went wrong. Thoughts of what went right.
Lost in his thoughts, time became an enigma.
It became impossible to tell how much time had passed. A minute became an hour, and an hour became a minute.
Eventually, time as a concept had lost all meaning.
He simply... drifted. Forever waiting.
No body. No feeling.
One could only describe him as a collection of thoughts — both good and bad.
But the good thoughts ran out before long, and Axel surrendered to the emptiness that engulfed him.
He no longer reminisced about what once was, but questioned:
’Why? Why? Why? Why, WHY! Why did people betray?! Why do I suffer?! Why can’t I forget?! Why was I the one who died?! Why can’t this all be a dream?! Why will nobody answer my questions?! Something has to be listening to my mind, right?! So answer me, goddamnit! Why? Why did my consciousness have to remain... If you were going to take everything from me, take everything. Please don’t leave me with memories. I’m dead, so let me rest... I beg. Please, just let me forget.’
His plea fell on deaf ears.
...
’Everything is unfair.’
It was all so unfair.
The gods bestowed hope upon them, only to limit their power out of fear. They had selfishly abandoned and doomed Axel and all of humanity.
’Shit.’
It was all bullshit.
Axel wanted to change it all. Stop them from ever finding that damned book. Stop them from ever forming that damned cult. Prevent them from infecting him.
’Damn it... damn it all.’
If only those two had never existed, humanity would have stood a chance against the Forsaken.
Ruby, Ryon, Shen Xiao, Bamber, Olivia, Connor, Scarlett, Jarlock, Cali, Raj, Julia, Tevon, Didier, Valentino, Aldin... Leora... and so, so many more wouldn’t have had to die.
’Just... someone, something! Please fucking tell me—’
"Why?!"
Axel shouted, something he’d forgotten he knew how to do.
He felt a rhythmic heartbeat. The sound echoed in his head over and over, the thumping steadily increasing.
Before he could process the sudden return of his hearing, an onslaught of blinding light fractured the void, assaulting his eyes with its brilliance.
Axel recoiled and covered his eyes with hands that seemed to spawn from nowhere.
When he finally adjusted to the light, he instantly recognized the arm he held up.
It was his own.
Furthermore, he knew exactly where he was...
How could he forget?
’It’s the place where the damn shitfest started.’
A wave of Soul Sickness took hold of his body, but he was accustomed to it, so it quickly vanished.
"Huh?"
Looking around, he confirmed it.
He was truly back where he and the others were first summoned to the trials. There was no mistaking it — with his perfect memory, there was no way he was wrong.
Axel took a long inhale, then exhaled while slowly gathering his bearings. Finally, he laughed.
"Ha... hah-hahaha-ahahahahaha. I see."
It seemed to Axel that his earnest desire to redo everything had prompted this dream — a false reality crafted by his perfect memory.
Just another damned vision forced onto him by his curse.
Axel clutched at the dirt, took a clump of soil in his hand, and mashed it together, letting the grains separate and fall helplessly back to the ground.
’But still... Even if this is just a fabricated reality, I can do it all over again. I can set things right. This might be just an illusion; but I don’t care. If I right my wrongs, can I settle my heart and finally rest in peace?’
He could fulfill his promise... Yes! He could end it all before it began.
He could save everyone.
’I can save... you...’
First, Axel needed to formulate a plan of operations.
But, no matter how much he tried, no intricate thoughts seeped into his mind. However, intricate thoughts were not needed at the moment. His goal was simple: find them. He wouldn’t kill them yet; there was a time and place for everything, but he needed to take note of them.
Then, he’d convince everyone to stay put because that damned false angel was going to forget to give them the Relic...
’Humans make errors, after all.’
Blue lights rained down from the sky, and after each light cleared, a new person appeared.
Axel searched desperately, waiting for the target of all his suffering. As he searched, he tried to ignore the panicked faces of the freshly summoned, but some faces he caught reminded him of their gruesome deaths he once witnessed.
Pushing past these damning memories, he continued his search.
One after another, more and more lights shot down, revealing new arrivals.
Then, he spotted one of the heinous bastards.
"There you are, you son of a..."
[Interference in memory detected. Skill [Perfect Memory] activated]
A dazzling blue screen interrupted Axel’s train of thought.
He hated this screen. He especially hated the rugged male that accompanied it.
A screen and voice that tormented him, reminding him of how much he had relied on them at one point.
Of course, the curse caused him to lose the system... But in all the years Axel had dealt with the screen, nothing like this had ever happened.
[Skill [Perfect Memory] failed, overridden by Affliction [Memory Suppression]]
Axel began pleading with the screen.
’Huh? Wait. No. This isn’t fair. Stop!’
’Why?!’
’This is a fake reality!? Why is my mind rebelling against me?!’
’No... no, it couldn’t be!’
’Don’t tell me! Is this all real?!’
’Stop!’
Axel had wanted to forget everything before, but not now! Now that he could do something good with his cursed memory!
’Screw you, you damned false gods! Having my memories would only benefit you! So why rip them from me?! You damned beings make no sense! Just let me become the savior you want me to be so badly!’
Tears streamed down Axel’s face as he dropped to his knees and begged:
"Please, just one of you gods, goddesses, demons, or whatever, have pity on me. Don’t let this tragedy happen again. Why condemn me to this fate?!"
It felt as if a screwdriver was being run through his skull. He wanted to double over in pain, but as much as he wanted to grovel, he couldn’t.
He simply could not forget.
If it so happened that it was his fate to forget and walk the same bloodied path, he would refuse it.
He would refuse it by any means necessary.
Axel jammed his finger into the grass, but sensed he didn’t have the time to carve out the message he needed to relay. Panicking, he picked up a nearby sharp stone and jammed it into his arm, causing a stinging pain.
But the pain was negligible compared to the future that awaited him if he failed to send the message.
He shakily began his engraving, but barely crafted a crude message before another window popped up, clouding his vision.
[Skill [Perfect Memory] helped retain some memories. To cure Affliction [Memory Suppression], find memory fragments]
[Fragments recovered: 0/10]
’No! Please! Just another second!’
’NOOOOOO! Noooooo... no?’
’Where the hell am I?’