2 A New But Painful Beginning

Huff!

A red-haired youth barely up to sixteen years old yanked his eyes open, his face drenched in sweat. His breathing was irregular, and his chest heaved extravagantly as he struggled to get in more oxygen.

'What is this, ain't I supposed to be dead?'

Louis wanted to speak, but he couldn't talk. He opened his mouth, but he couldn't make a sound and his body felt too feeble to move. This left him wondering if this was truly his body or if was he still in the process of dying.

'That's impossible!' Louis concluded as he gazed at the white ceiling directly above him.

At this point, he already realized he was not in his private jet, but that left him with a very important question.

'Where am I?' he couldn't help but ask himself.

He wanted to move his neck, but he felt his body paralyzed from the neck down, and this left him wondering if this was the outcome of the explosion which has left him crippled.

However, it was at that moment that his vision blurred and then fragments of memories began flowing into his mind rapidly, but they were all distorted and scattered, leaving Louis with no choice but to piece them together himself.

For what seemed like forever but lasted for barely a second, Louis saw a portion of the memories of his current body, but these memories were something he found hard to believe.

Well, from the memories he gained, the owner of this body is a kid, Sol Ark, son of the deceased and disgraced former chieftain of the Ark family.

From what he could remember, the Ark family was one of the four alpha families residing in Aetheria which was at the top of Hallow Mountain.

Why his father was disgraced and killed was unknown to him. However, Louis was not biologically related to the man, so he couldn't care less.

'Wait, hold up! I'm in another person's body?' 

The revelation left Louis confused and shaken, but he didn't have time to dwell on the thought.

Thud!

Louis heard footsteps approaching, but he was certain there was no one in this room with him. 

'It must be coming from outside, but when did I gain such good hearing?' Louis couldn't help but ask himself.

His body was paralyzed so he couldn't even turn his head to observe the room he was in so he wasn't sure how far the person was but after waiting for over ten seconds, the doors of the room finally opened up.

Bang!

The sound of a stainless tray falling to the ground echoed around, forcing Louis to squint in pain. It felt like a blade was getting stabbed into his ears.

'What the hell is this and how do I turn it off?'

'More importantly, who is the clumsy fool that dropped the fucking tray?'

So many questions plagued his mind, but there was no one to answer. Whoever entered the room ran out, probably due to shock. The person had entered the room and upon seeing his eyes open the person dropped everything and ran out, probably to inform others.

'It was either a woman or a child.' Louis concluded after giving the matter some thought.

However, the gender of the person was not important, what Louis needed to confirm first was if these people were friends or enemies. Luckily, it didn't take long before the footsteps returned, but this time there were a lot of them.

Louis lay there, knowing fully well he had no means of resisting or protecting himself. He just laid there with his eyes wide open, refusing to pretend to be asleep just to escape some people who may or may not want him dead.

'I have died before, dying a second time won't change a thing!' Louis declared and waited for the worst to happen.

The door to his room was clearly not opened properly, as a banging sound could be heard through the door and numerous figures raced into the room, but only one approached his bead.

"Is that really you, my lord?" A shaky elderly voice could be heard. "Seeing you have awakened, the heavens must be on our side!"

The old man's question made no sense, but instead prompted more questions, which Louis couldn't ask because he couldn't speak.

He waited until the man was standing next to his bed, his bald wrinkled face decorated with gray eyebrows and mustache came into view. 

The worry on the face of the man looked genuine and for some reason, Louis felt his body relax upon seeing the man, as if it felt safe. He wasn't sure why, but he could feel emotions steering within him, but he was certain these emotions were not his own.

These were emotions from the body he was inhabiting right now, but wasn't the owner of the body dead already?

Buzz!

Louis squinted in pain once again as he felt a dreadful pain at the center of his chest, mixed with a strong headache. Unknown to him, on his body were blood-chained images appearing all over his body.

"Gah!" Louis finally made a sound, but it was a cry of pain

His chest area jerked into the air before collapsing on the bed while his eyes turned bloodshot. He could feel something in his body trying to crush his beating heart, and while it couldn't succeed, it didn't discourage whatever was harming him from trying.

Compared to his death in his private Jet, this pain turned out to be far worse. For a moment, Louis wished he could get back on that plane and die all over again rather than go through this.

"You must endure, young master!" The elderly man said while holding his chest.

"If you die, who will lead the Ark family? " The elderly man asked. "Who will avenge your dishonored parents?"

'Th-ey a-r-e n-o-n-e o-f m-y busi-ness!' Louis cried out, but he couldn't let out a word.

Bam!

Louis' body dropped to the bed as the pain vanished. His face was covered in sweat, while blood ran down his nostrils and ears.

The blood chain tattoos slowly faded from his body and were replaced by pulsating black-green veins. Louis instinctively moved his finger and to his greatest surprise, it moved.

"I-I can move." He said with a crazed smile on his face.