When both Daiâs and Sarahâs gazes met, a spark was ignited and a memory of the past started before their eyes.
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-The Rhimbüs, a place where souls wait for Judgment from the Gods, its form varies from person to person depending on their true nature, someone might see a beautiful and endless flower field, while others might see places destructed by countless wars, with even the Emperor, beloved by the Gods was there, waiting for his Judgement.-
After his death, his soul remained in The Rhimbüs, waiting for, what he thought, would have been a quick process, but something went wrong and he had to wait far longer than expected, with his version of The Rhimbüs going from a beautiful city full of people to degrading into a city of pure hatred, where he was the prime victim. He was ready for any punishment because he failed to create a place where humans could be self-sufficient and didnât need any help from the gods in the future, that was his job but a selfish Zonniki ruined everything and remained unpunished. Mixed feelings were filling the Emperorâs mind, from one side he wanted to call the gods, requiring an answer and the immediate death of the traitor, on the other side, he felt betrayed and didnât want to have any contact with them again, but this was quickly being replaced with anger and thirst for revenge. Or maybeâ¦he just wanted to spill blood, maybe those rumours about his past were true, maybe he seriously wanted to kill, make everyone suffer and that war was an excuse to do that.
âWas Iâ¦just lying to everyoneâ¦including myself the whole time?â
That was a recurrent thought in his mind, something that only became worse with time and was going to drive him crazy, to make the situation worse, his surroundings werenât better, with other souls being in a far worse state than him.
He remained there, waiting, waiting and waitingâ¦
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One day, a spatial-time fracture was opened. He thought it was his time to be judged, but, to his displeasure and surprise, 3 Zonnikies and one Wanderer came out of the Fracture. The Zonnikies had their faces covered with completely white masks and their clothing was the same as a human would wear, which was weird to the Emperor since they had to wear something that could diversify them from the ones without powers, but even more bizarre was the presence of the Wanderer since interaction with other beings was prohibited to them.
One of the Zonnikies stepped forwards, he was of big stature, had a low fade haircut and was wearing a work light blue shirt, blue pants, thick soiled beige shoes and a black coat over his shoulders.
âSo, this is The Rhimbusâ¦â he said while looking at every soul and sniggered when his gaze passed over the Emperor, that looked at him surprised.
âWhatâ¦are you doing hereâ¦Samriel?â he asked.
The guy with the mask promptly said âIâm just here to deliver important news. While you were here, waiting for your judgment, we, Zonnikies fought alongside the Wanderers to defeat a common enemy, the Gods! We have done this to free all of us from these useless rules they gave us!â
âNoâ¦this is impossible. Youâ¦â tried to say in disbelief and Samriel nodded, understanding what he wanted to say.
âYes, we defeated the Gods, our creators. They have fallen into a slumber and with thisâ¦â he raised his arm towards the sky to have everyoneâs attention âI announce that there will be some changes to the Rhimbus. It will now be divided into different âzonesâ where other Zonnikies will take the place of the Gods and judge you, butâ¦â he then lowered his arms. â...since our abilities arenât the same as the Gods, it will take some time to apply these changes.â hearing this, the souls started getting enraged and impatient, wanting to return to a normal life, but Samriel's answer was able to calm them down immediately.
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âI know you are angry, I understand very well. Thatâs why, youâll get the chance to start a new lifeâ¦from nowâ After saying that, a bright light illuminated every soul and as it went off, every single of them disappearedâ¦apart from the Emperorâs soul.
âYou will remain here.â Samriel said while pointing at him âBefore you ask with that pitiful voice of yours, itâs because you were with gods and their helpers donât deserve any freedom.â Immediately after, chains came out of the ground and wrapped around the Emperorâs soul, taking away from him every possibility to move and speak.
âLook at you. You were useless before and now you are basically nothing without your powers. I still donât understand why they chose youâ¦maybe because you are an idiot and easy to manipulateâ after a brief laugh, he resumed speaking with a serious tone.
âGoodbye, my friend. Have a nice and long rest.â Samriel saluted and went through the fracture followed by the other Zonnikies and the Wanderer for last, and then the fracture closed.
The Emperor was alone now, he couldnât move, he couldnât speak, he couldnât think or dream about being in other places, but he was all alone for a long time.
âMeanwhileâ¦â
When Wanderers die, their body dematerialises and becomes one and the same with spatial-time flux, thatâs what happened to the Witch after being killed by an assassin sent by Samriel. She knew that it was going to happen but she couldnât do anything because they canât change the future just because they know itâ¦but was it truly right? Couldnât there be an exception? Again, she didnât know and it didnât matter since she was dead. She could feel her body being fused with the flux and all the knowledge was passing through her but couldnât do anything with it, she could just watch as time was passing and her mind was slowly disappearing, that was her fateâ¦but she still couldnât accept it.
She remembered the Emperor, the first friend and boyfriend she ever had, but it was a long time ago, even before being born as a Wanderer. It was when the First World was created, the Godsâ first attempt to create humans that could be auto-sufficient in every way possible through the use of something they already had, the soul and its extension, the aura. But this process had a lot of risks and simply giving away the knowledge to everyone would have killed the world sooner, so they decided the play it slowly and only hundreds of humans became the first Zonnikies. Unfortunately, she wasnât one of them but just a normal human who lived as a soldier in a rural city, working hard to get enough money and buy medicines for her father. But was still happy for having that kind of life, not only because she learned many valuable things from the father, but also because she wouldnât have met the Emperor otherwiseâ¦but she canât remember anything else. The only thing she remembered is when she was reincarnated as a Wanderer and then discovered that the world had been reset because of some problem with those first Zonnikies, one of them rebelled against the Gods for their absurd rule, that person was Samriel; history repeated itself. She couldnât go back in time to my situation to retrieve her lost memories or do anything else, she could only follow the flow of time and wait for her mind to disappearâ¦
âYes, maybe itâs for the best-â
âNoâ A womanâs voice interrupted his thoughts âYou still have a lot to do.â I felt like someone had grabbed my arm and my body was coming together, piece by piece.
The Witch asked âWhoâ¦are you.?â she could only see a bright light in front of her
âThis doesnât matter now. Weâll see each other again in future, but for now, Iâll send you to the Rhimbus, where you'll find who you are seeking so much. But Iâm too tired now, so you wonât have much time, be fast.â
The light blinded her for a second and when she got her vision back, she was in the Rhimbus and, since she wasnât dead, she could see the true form of that place, absolute white, like a blank canvas ready to be used by the souls waiting there, but weirdly enough, there was just one of them and as soon as she recognized it, she started running towards it.
â???âs POVâ
The Witch got closer to the Emperor and once she was close enough, she touched his soul with her black arm to use her powers as a Wanderer and recreate his physical body, meanwhile, the Emperor was looking at her, she looked familiar but couldnât remember. As his body was slowly forming, the Witch suddenly stopped and started coughing blood. There was someone behind her but there was no time to see who he was because the memory abruptly stopped.
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Dai was looking at Sarahâs face as blood was coming out of her mouth and weird lines of diverse colours were appearing on her face. A guy with orange hair and the same weird lines on his face had stabbed her in the back with his fingers.
He sighed âI canât leave you alone not even for a second uh? Well, it doesnât matter anymore. You should have continued acting stupid.â the guy said with a look of superiority.