1 Birth of the Red One

The world of Etern had always been an enchanting world of both natural and man-made wonders. Its majestic landscapes stretched as far as the eye could see, adorned with vibrant colors, exotic flora, and extraordinary creatures. Mankind had flourished on this paradise, and their advancements in technology were nothing short of remarkable.

However, beneath the veneer of progress and beauty, Etern harbored a dark secret – the practice of all detestable things, the importance of companionship, trust, loyalty, honesty, understanding and most especially, Love, had been forsaken. In a world where physical ailments were virtually nonexistent, the value of these connections had been forgotten. It was a paradox of eternal life without the essence of love. A detached limb would regenerate over night and skin-related injuries would heal without a scar.

It was the 11th day of the Post-glacious season, the first month of the year.

In room 42 of the Nirvana birthing chamber, a black-haired woman screamed out in pain with her legs wide open whilst squeezing the bed rail.

"Almost there, keep pushing". One of the mid wives said while placing her hands to support the incoming child's head.

"AARGGHHHH!"

After a painful long push, the baby came rushing out into the mid-wife's palms. They immediately covered and cleaned him with a towel as he let out a loud cry.

"Woahhh, he's one healthy boy, he's likely to be full of energy, congratulations ma'am".

One of the mid-wives said as she handed the new born to his mother.

Sweaty and fatigued, she received her babe with anticipation.

She immediately smiled and started playing with him.

"He somewhat looks like me". She said as she looked at him closely.

"Its not surprising, you have strong facial features". One of the mid-wives said.

'I wonder when I'd have my own babe'. One of them whined silently with watery eyes.

They went to call the father as the mother continued to play with her new born child.

The father placed his two hands on his head as he sat patiently for the result.

"You can come in now sir, your wife has finally put to birth".

Hearing this, the babe's father ran into the birthing room. Opening the door, he shone is eyes as he saw his wife playing with the babe with a warm and gentle smile. He was struck with goosebumps and tears rolled down his face.

He went to them slowly with his mouth open.

"Oh darling, look at your little one". The mother said.

Not looking at the babe, he gently wrapped his hands around his wife, giving her a warm gentle hug.

"I'm- I'm sorry I wasn't here for you! I was scared! I didn't want to see you scream out in pain! I'm sorry! I'm pathetic". He blew his watery nose as tears kept rushing down his face.

Sweating rolling down the mid wives faces, they were confused.

"You haven't changed a bit, it's alright, just look at the babe". The mother said.

"O-Ok"

Looking at new born child in his wife's arms, "It's a girl?".

"Come on, we both know the scan result said boy". She closed her eyes.

"Oh true, lucky you, he took your looks". He said as he smiled while looking at his son.

"And I bet he's as caring as you". The wife looked at her husband who was completely melted by her words.

He chuckled, "You almost made me cry again".

"I've just thought of a name for him, Valorin, since he gives me hope of a better world". The husband said.

"Its similar to my name, I'm already giving you hope". The wife said with playful anger.

"Oh right, what do you suggest ma'am". He looked to his side.

She giggled,

"I was joking, we'd had it to his names. I name him Cecil, it's simple and short. That way, we don't impose any burden or duty on him".

"Alright then, Vincent Valorin Cecil it is".

After a little talk, the wife fell asleep. After two days in the birth chamber, she was discharged.

Cecil's father had to double his work as his wife suspended her job to take care of Cecil.

5 years before Cecil's birth, an incident took place in Etern's world summit in the metropolitan city called Nexus Stellar. It was the most well-developed city in all of Etern. Having underground, On-ground and Airways transport systems, all fully functional, it was in another league of futuristic design.

In this city's tallest building, the world summit, stood a man in a corporate gray suit with brown hair, looking at the beauty of the cityscape through the extremely transparent window. His was known as Eldric.

"How many centuries has it been since I last reached the 50th floor?". He said with his hands behind his back.

The world summit had exactly 100 floors and Eldric resided in the 100th floor.

"Beats me". A blond man in a tech suit worked up to him with a bottle of champagne and two glass cups. His name was Caelum.

He poured the drink into the two glass cups and put the champagne on the glass table.

"Here".

"Thanks". Eldric took the drink.

"You still got eyebags, no improvements on your sleep?". Caelum said, sipping from his glass cup.

"Sleep huh? I wonder when I'd have time for that. Insects crawl up me when the vision of my work crumbling flashes before me while I attempt to sleep. It's more like I've become the heart of this city". Eldric replied, looking at his drink.

"You're being too hard on yourself. Aren't you seeing it? It's just what you wanted. The maximum utilization of our resources at its finest. You've clearly won, my friend. Cheers". Caelum said, putting his hand on Eldric's shoulder and hitting his glass cup with Eldric's.

"But at what cost though?". Eldric asked, facing the glass.

"Oh please, everyone knows Vion the fourth was a spoiled and privileged dummy. This improvement wouldn't exist if you didn't take his place as monarch". Caelum walked to the comfy seat and sat down as he poured more champagne into his glass cup.

"I…. can't deny that". Eldric said, pinching the corner of his eyes.

"Sheesh, you need to start giving yourself credit". Caelum said, putting the cup in his mouth

"How're the people?". Eldric asked while still looking at the glass.

Caelum gulped down his drink, "Haven't been civil in a while, too busy ensuring progress but from what I've seen, they're good, at least they're comfortable".

Meanwhile, at the entrance to the world summit building, a hover car(a car without wheels that moves with the concept of magnetism) stopped. The door opened "Stomp!" A leather boot stepped outside the car.

"What about heard?". Eldric asked as he turned back to look at Caelum.

"Oh, well, the workers and law executives don't talk much, everyone keeps their personal stuff to themselves". Caelum replied, pouring more champagne into his cup.

"I want to know if I was able to impact people's lives positively, that my effort wasn't in vain". Eldric added

"Trust me, it wasn't". Caelum said, looking at Eldric.

After a brief period of silence, a law executive entered the room, "Sir, there's someone at the entrance who might be looking for you". He said.

"Who could that be? I thought the meeting was in two hours, this' just 2pm". Eldric said while walking towards the door.

"KRAAAAK!" A loud sound followed by strong vibrations were felt in the room. Caelum immediately got up from his seat and looked through the window. He shone his eyes as sweat rolled down the side of his head.

"What? What's going on?". Eldric said while holding the edge of the entrance to the room

"Phishhh!". The bottle of champagne rolled down the table and fell on the floor, shattering into pieces.

"You and your colleagues should evacuate the building as soon as possible! It's falling!". Caelum said as picked up Eldric.

"PHISSHH", he jumped through the glass with Eldric on his shoulders. He landed on the rooftop of one of the buildings. "CRASSHHH!" They watched the world summit collapse violently on other buildings.

Eldric started breathing heavily as he squeezed his chest and shone his eyes. "But…. Why?".

Immediately Eldric fell to his knees, an explosive shell from an unknown location came flying at them at full speed. Seeing it, Caelum shone his eyes instantly.

"Shit!" He picked up Eldric on his shoulders and jumped away from where they were. "BOOM" the explosive shells destroyed the top of the building, sending forth metal scraps, broken glass, wood and debris. There was huge panic among those that were around that vicinity.

"Thump". Caelum hopped on buildings looking for a safe place to drop Eldric. He sighted an active underground shelter and headed for it.

"Brace yourself brother! This would be a rough landing".

"CHUCK!" In an instant, a long pointed blade pierced through Caelum from his back. Blood spewed from his mouth as he shone his eyes in shock. It was far from over as he was yanked with the chain connected to the blade across buildings, destroying them while being pulled backwards.

Eldric left his hold during the pulling and so he crashed violently into the panicking traffic, falling on a car and rolling on the ground. His eyes became blurry as the sound of his heartbeat filled his ears, he could also hear high pitched screams and commotion in his vicinity.

"Crash!"

"Crash!"

"Crash!"

Caelum was dragged across buildings. He gritted his teeth and punched the pointed blade out of his chest and held the metallic bar of a building he crashed into. Spitting out blood from his mouth, he looked at where the weapon went to determine the user's location.

'Found you, you bastard!'

He leaped to the top of the building to get a clearer view of any attack coming his way and to counter or defend. His eyeballs moved down slowly as he watched the person jump down from the building he was on.

"What is he planning?"

Caelum ran to the edge knowing it was mostly an attack below. He shone his eyes as he saw two chained cross-like weapons being wrapped around the building he was standing on. After 2 seconds, the chains started to glow red hot.

"YANK!" the person forcefully pulled the chains from where they were as it split all the buildings inside the hold of the two chains from below. Up to four buildings including the one Caelum was standing on collapsed violently.

Meanwhile, Eldric managed to crawl to a nearby building since he couldn't make it into the underground shelter as it had already closed. The news about the sudden occurrences was casted on a billboard above him with a female's voice. He slowly reached for his phone in his shirt pocket and tried calling Caelum but to no avail.

"BOOM!" A black titanic medieval armor over 9 feet with a right shoulder cape and a greatsword landed in front of him causing the emergence of dust and debris.

The medieval armour had layers of crest-shaped iron on every immovable parts of the body while a black flexible metallic clothing which allowed the flow of Regeni (a form of energy in Etern) was underneath the dark-gray layered iron crests. The black cape ran from the right shoulder and concealed the right arm, touching the ground. The armour on the fingers were sharp and pointed, resembling claws. The helmet was pointed at the back with a black ponytail extension. The armour landed on one knee facing down and holding the greatsword that was pinned to the ground.

The armor's chest opened and a man in black jacket on black trousers and black leather boots came out of it. He had deep brown hair, light gray iris, almond hunter eyes and pale looking skin. Around his eyes were darker than normal.

He dusted his clothes while walking towards Eldric. As the dust cleared, Eldric saw three other people behind him in the law executives' uniform.

One was over 6 '9 with a long white jacket on his back and a high tech overall mask indicating Admiral status, he was spinning an explosive shell on his finger.

One was a female with short dark-red hair and cobalt blue eyes that seemed to look astray. She was wielding two chains attached to two cross-shaped blades. She was sitting on the top of the building in front of Eldric with one of the crosses dangling close to the ground in a pendulum motion.

The last one was a black haired man with a black face mask on, leaning on that same building as the red-haired girl and folding his arms. A composite glaive was strapped across his back and his eyes were closed.

The man who got down from the medieval armour and was walking towards Eldric stopped and looked at him.

"I'm afraid this is your climax.. and this is my beginning."

This event marked the start of a brand new era.