1 Recollection

Within a snow-clad forest, where trees towered toward the sky with several tens of meters of height, a young man sat silently before a small crackling campfire, his hand clenching a cleaver.

On him, a rather large and thick coat, seemingly sewed from the fur of an unknown beast was visible, preserving his slim physique from both the bone-chilling coldness that strived to freeze him to death and the icy snow that fell on him from above as if it was raining.

His ebony hair was messy and covered in dried blood, his face pale but also grim with a torn piece of clothing tied around his head, covering both his eyes.

Crackle!

"Sigh... Seems like I need more wood."

Sighing a bit dejectedly as he straightened his back, Neo raised his head toward the sky despite his sight being completely obstructed and remained like that for several minutes. For some reason, he really enjoyed the silence around him despite he usually didn't.

...Or at least, would have enjoyed it if a hair-raising howl of a beast wouldn't have swept through the silent forest just right then.

"A-OWOOOOOOOO!!!"

Lowering his head slowly, Neo turned his gaze toward the side from where he believed the howl came before a bittersweet smile appeared on his face.

"...Great. Seems like I have to take care of this matter first, I guess."

***

A month ago, inside a dark alleyway...

Bam!

With a heavy sound as well as a pained groan, a young man crashed hard into a wall and fell onto the ground, blood rolling down his pale face.

"C'mon man! We still need him. This way you will just kill him!"

A slim guy wearing a loose outfit stepped before the young man and grunted with a complicated expression, his eyes fixed on the person beside him.

Snorting with mockery, the second guy, wearing a tank top that revealed his bulking muscles as well as his coiling tattoos all over his arms, crouched down and grabbed the young man's hair before pulling on it.

"Urgh..."

Letting out another pained groan, Neo clenched his teeth and opened his eyelids, revealing two, azure-blue eyes, each filled with deep dismay and pain.

The muscular guy seeing his eyes and the way he looked at him hummed softly before his lips curved into a cold grin.

"Now that is a lively look, indeed."

Then, he shifted his eyes at the slim guy on his side and raised his free hand, his palm facing toward the clear blue sky above.

"Give it."

The slim guy looked confused, but soon his face became nervous, and spoke;

"Dude, I don't think this is the rig-"

"I don't quite remember asking what you think." the muscular guy stared coldly at his buddy, who had no other option but to sigh helplessly and do as he was told.

"Just don't go overboard, dude. After all, he is the only one who can make that thing for us."

The muscular guy snorted once he got his hands on the small item from the slim guy, then shifted his attention back to Neo.

As for Neo, when he saw the small but rather sharp pocket knife in the hands of the gangster, his face paled even more than before.

He knew way too well what was about to happen.

'I have to run!'

However, he couldn't.

Not only was he on the ground, severely beaten up, but the two also decided to be on both of his sides, cutting off all his escape routes.

Simply put, he was done for...

'Curse this!'

While Neo was silently cursing his fate, the muscular guy glanced at the cold blade of the knife indifferently, seemingly pondering.

"I will give you one last chance. You tell me the process to make that fluid or..."

And when he reached that point, he put the sharp tip before Neo's left eye, stating the obvious.

Neo, watching with a pale face and trembling pupils as the knife was now less than an inch away from cutting his eye, froze motionless, his blood turning ice cold and thick drops of sweat rolling down his face.

"I-"

"Will you really give him what he wants?"

'Huh?'

Surprised, Neo wished to look around and find the one who talked to him, however, a second later he realized it wouldn't be wise to do so.

No...

It was better to say it was needless. He knew perfectly well who talked to him. It was not a mysterious person, a savior entering the alleyway coming to his aid nor another gangster.

It was...

'Do I even have any other choice? They will kill me if I don't.'

Neo sighed bitterly in his heart, only to hear the familiar voice snort coldly.

"Kill? No matter what you do, give them what they want or not, they will kill you either way."

'...I know.'

"Then why don't you do something already?! Wouldn't it be much easier just to... Get rid of them? All of them! Your life would be so much easier, so much... Better!"

Neo almost laughed with scorn when he heard the question.

'Get rid of them? In my current state? And how do you wish me to do that?'

"Fine. Then I will do it myself."

'Eh? Wait... What do you mean you will-!'

Neo was shocked and wished to say something, though, it was already too late.

Even before he could have thought about preventing the seemingly inevitable, his vision blurred, darkened, and a fraction of a second later came back.

However, this time he was not on the ground nor was a knife threatening to cut out his eye. No... Right now he was standing straight, the weapon which was in the muscular guy's hand was now in his, its blade covered in crimson blood.

As for the two gangsters...

"W-What..."

Frozen by the sight before him, Neo took a step back and watched with a terrified eye as the two gangsters now lay cold on the ground in their very own blood, their throats mercilessly split open and their faces expressing utter disbelief and terror.

"No... No... No. No. No. No."

Neo felt the urge to empty his stomach right then and there, but just a second before he could have done the deed a sharp pain assaulted his head, or to be more precise his left eye.

"Argh... The... Huh?"

Raising his hand, Neo wished to touch his eye, only to find out that he couldn't see with it. His left eye was bleeding and... was cut. Deeply at that!

'No, this is not right... This can't be real. This isn't real! I didn't...'

BOOOM!

Suddenly, as Neo was struggling to find answers to his questions, a powerful tremor hit the ground below his feet, causing him to accidentally slip on the blood, fall onto his back, and watch as the sky above him turn... Crimson?

...What was happening?

Watching the unnatural phenomenon with both pain and confusion, Neo groaned and placed a hand on his now-blind left eye.

"Have I finally gone crazy this time?"

As if answering his question, a ripple swept through the air the following moment, carrying a deep and rather majestic voice.

"Oh, beloved by the Heavens! The long-awaited moment has finally arrived! Now, reach for your very souls and wake up from your lengthy slumber!"

"It's time to shine your potential once again!"

And right as those last words fell, Neo watched as the crimson sky lit up with blinding light, completely engulfing his vision while also giving him a feeling as if gravity around him vanished!

'I really have gone crazy, haven't I?'

Neo sighed painfully when he sensed as his body was lifted into the air by invisible hands, pulled toward where the sky was moments ago.

...Or at least tried to pull him there, but weirdly enough, failed.

'Huh?'

Not even a second after as his body was being pulled, suddenly the invisible hands froze motionless, almost like they too were grabbed by another pair of unseen hands, holding them in one place without letting them go!

[Are you sure this is our only chance? I'm sure we can figure out something else, we just need more time.]

[Unfortunately, that is not an option. We no longer have time.]

[That's right, we can't waste any. We have to do it now.]

[Indeed, we can only hope and have faith in him.]

[I have to agree also.]

[...]

[And what if he fails?]

[Then it just means we didn't try hard enough and our world was always meant to be destroyed.]

[...I don't like the sound of that.]

[Me neither, but we don't have much of a choice this time.]

[...Okay. Fine. Let's do it and hope we won't regret this.]

'Yeah, I've definitely lost it this time.'

Neo wished to laugh out loud when he heard the conversation between the various, somewhat robotic voices in the blinding glow, only to feel a heavy pressure slam mercilessly into his chest from above, forcing the invisible hands around his body to let him go.

'Bleargh!'

The pain literally caused him to spit out a mouthful of blood before his vision turned pitch black once again, with the only difference that this time he...

Really have fainted.