After finally paying off the debt owed to the monarch,Omar set off home using only the broken street lights as a source of guidance.
He lived in a small cobblestone house with his sister,Anna. And the place was only big enough to accommodate a family of three. Even though it looked decapitated,it had yet mustered enough memories that were capable of making Omar go poignant.
Anna opened the wooden door. She was now sixteen but too defiant and stubborn for a girl her age. She stood with her long wavy black hair falling down to her waist and her silver eyes shining in the pale light as though they were diamonds in the sky.
"I was starting to get worried about you." Anna told Omar just as he came through the door carrying dinner.
"You should be in bed by now."
Anna giggled, finding her brother's words funny. But it took her a few seconds to realize he wasn't joking.
She rolled her eyes at him with a grim.
"I am no longer ten anymore,you know?"
Omar ignored her complaint, restraining the urge to argue today. He walks to the broken furniture to keep the hard bread he carried as dinner. Anna joins him a little while later, helping by setting the table and then dividing the loaf in two.
Almost immediately,Omar began to devour his meal, gobbling it down just like the way a greedy urchin would. Anna contemplated him, barely touching her on meal as she impatiently waited for him to finish.
"Not now." She silently mumbled to her self, trying to keep calm.
But when Omar finally shoved the last piece of bread in his mouth,Anna couldn't barely restrain herself anyone.
"Omar," she called, almost in a whisper as she was finding it difficult to broach. Her brother raised his head at her and she suddenly felt her heart being hammered,yet she was determined to speak.
"I am sixteen years old now,so I believe I am old enough to make choices and decisions I feel are good for me."
Omar gave her a demanding look and asked:
"What choices?"
"I have decided to runaway from the outskirts."
There was a discomforting silence between the two and Anna kept squirming in her seat as it stretched.
"What did you just say?" Her brother finally broke the silence wearing a baffled look.
Anna boldened up.
"We've found a secret passage that leads to the other side of the wall. We believe we can escape without the Maronos having the slightest clue."
"We?"
The look on Omar's face almost made her demeanor fade away, however she was already equipped for have such a conversation with her brother.
Anna sat up straight and gave Omar a look in the eye.
"I and some of my friends. We will be leaving tonight,you can come if you are willing to."
Omar was mute, drowning in a bottomless river in f thoughts. Anna was not making any sense.For all he knew,the secret passage which she speaks of never existed.
He did once heard about the passage that lead to a paradise beyond the walls. But after what happened fifteen years ago,Omar had lost faith in those tales.
The worst was the great risk Anna was willing to take. There's no escape from the outskirts and if they were to get caught trying to do so,the Maronos wouldn't hesitate to plunge them into the arena.
Anna on the other hand was nervously waiting for his response.
"No. I won't let you do that."
The reply was as sharp as the thrust of a sword in the chest. And it was in that moment that the anger and frustration Anna had been bottling up for so long finally exploded.
"Why do you always have to say no to me automatically?"
"It's because I am trying to protect you." Omar's voice was as cool as cucumber,but it made Anna want to scream.
"No!" Anna rasps, furious now. "It is because you are too stupid and scared that you chose to live the rest if your life here."
Omar anger was finally evoked,he bangs his hand on the table making Anna blench in freight.
"Don't you dare talk to me like that!"
Anna then stares at him for a moment with her chest heaving up and down.
"You're a coward and I hate you!" She blurts out and then storms to her room, slamming the door behind her.
Omar sighs and deflates back into his chair and he begins to wonder if Anna will ever reason with him and understand all what he was trying to do was protect her from the cruelty of the world.
What Anna was planning to do was suicide. Some years ago,some Vulnerables had tried to escape from the outskirts but were not so fortunate that they got caught amid the execution of their plan by the patrolling team.As punishment,the Maronos tortured nearly half of them by sealing their eyes shut with red hot iron while the rest were flayed alive and hung in the town square as a clear sign of warning.
The abandoned outskirts now a crowded valley of serrated rocks ruled by the vicious Maronos had once being a realm of ancient dark forest,just like Trazos. It had being a place where a man could walk a thousand miles under the shades of giant trees,but then the Raymonds came and fell almost all the trees just to feed the insatiable fires of the weapon making industry.
And when the Maronos appeared,it became another form of hell.
The Maronos opened mines and began to force those whom couldn't pay the king's taxes to become their enslaved laborers. Little did the Vulnerables came to realize that they were being plunged into servitude. Even so,the Vulnerables couldn't fight back,nor could they runaway because they were living within the barrier of a crowded maze that only the Maronos have access to leave. Besides,to think of escaping was foolish, because just behind the wall the predators still prowled. Waiting, forever.
It occurred to him that ever since their mother was killed by a heart attack some months ago,his relationship with Anna was growing weaker everyday.
Anna had grown up to metamorphosise from a sweet little girl to an arrogant and stubborn teenager. The two argued and quarrelled almost everyday as everyone seems to have a different opinion over everything.
The moments in which Omar loved life were numbered, mainly because his life had always been miserable for him. Just five years after his father's death, their mother laid ill and Omar was left in a situation where he had to work to pay for his mother's medication and food.
Even at such a tender age, Omar had worked in the mines as a water fetcher and the rewards he usually got were scrums of food leftovers and measly coins. However it was this when accumulated that Omar would take home as dinner and buy medicine for his mother.
Clearing off his thoughts,he stood and walked to the old kitchen cupboard and retrieved a small wooden box from it. He then opened the box, disclosing a bright beam of blue light that instantly hurled and slammed him in the face, dazzling him for a brief moment.
"Why can't I just get used to this already!" He quietly lamented.
After fully regaining back his vision,Omar proceeded to bring out the wooden box's only content,it was the blue glowing shard of metal his father had given him just before his death.
This was what his father only left behind,the useless metal which apart from the glow it exhibits isn't worth anything else.
For several occasions,Omar had thought about selling it. What held him back was that he knew no one amongst the Vulnerables will be stupid enough to buy such a trash,hence he had decided to embrace it since it was his father's final gift to him. Besides,how many among the Vulnerables were lucky to inherit something from their families?
The poverty the Vulnerables were living in made sure that majority of them went to their graves without leaving anything behind for their families.
"Well at least I can use it to illuminate the darkness." He told himself with a shrug and he then began to twirl the metal around his hand. Just as he was doing so,he mistakenly slit the back if his hand with the sharp edge of the glowing metal and it had created a cut.
He responded to the stimuli quickly, dropping the metal to the floor and beginning to groan and moan in pain.
To his dismay,the metal edge turned out to be sharper than it looked,the cut it had created was horrifyingly big and was now letting blood flow freely. The blood was dropping all over the place and the glowing metal was now already being drenched by it, causing its glow to become a shade of blue and red.
"Alright that's it, I'm gonna sell this stupid thing to the junk store first thing tomorrow morning."
Just when he crouched down to pick it up,it suddenly began to convulse and glow brighter than it had ever done before.
The light it shone with was just enough to blind a man,but strangely Omar's eyes remained wide open and alive as he stared at the convulsing element. All he could think about was that the object was glowing so intensely it might attract some of the patrolling team's attention.
"I change my mind,I will no longer sell you out,just stop!"
Suddenly the metal began to levitate and was soon hovering just above him.
Omar was beginning to get terrified but at the same time was partially excited. The entire situation felt like a scene from a science fiction movie where the main characters is just about to be granted superpowers.
But at the same time also,his insides felt like they were set on fire and he was beginning to have difficulty breathing. His heart beat also seemed to be slowing down in its usual pace.
And somehow time flow seemed to have slowed down to a complete standstill.
The metal however continued to vibrate and Omar knew exactly what was coming next.
"Shit!"
BOOM!
The glowing element suddenly exploded in a pillar of light. Not only did the force if the explosion made the windows blast outwards but it also caused Omar to be catapulted towards the far end of the room and hit the adjoining wall.
Omar suddenly experienced himself being plunged into weakness,his eyes felt somewhat heavier and he was struggling to keep them open. He eventually collapsed to the ground and as soon as his head touched the marble floor,the world around him became pure darkness and he slowly fell concuss.
***
Something suddenly appeared in the darkness:
[System uploading complete]
[Unable to bond with the host]
[Unable to bond with the host]
His eyes suddenly flung wide open. The first thing Omar was welcomed with as he regained consciousness was the stinging pain that surged across his entire body. However the pain subsided almost immediately and his his breathing and heart beat were now normal.
Omar slowly lifted himself off the ground surveying the room and finally noticed the mess in it. Even as he wrecked his brain to the answer of what had happened,he couldn't remember a thing.
"I wonder why I can't remember what happened here." He mused as he noticed the fresh cut at the back of his hand.
Just then,he caught the faint emitted glow from his chest and he then started to take him tunic off. Still,he couldn't really tell what was exhibiting the glow and even as he felt his chest with his hands,he could only detect the texture of a coarse material embedded in his chest.
He panicked and quickly rushed to pick a sizable piece of the broken window and began to position the glass just where it will give a perfect reflection of his torso.
"What the hell!"
The glowing material was actually a core embedded in the centre of his chest.
He reacted in a wild flash as he began to use all his strength to pull out the object. But to know avail,the blue core seemed to be strongly fused to his chest.
At least the the glow was soon growing thinner and was fading away. But just as it did,a holographic screen suddenly appeared before his eyes with an anonymous voice speaking in the background.
[HOST IDENTIFICATION]
[Name:Omar Khan]
[Age:20]
[Level:0]
[Rank: currently unknown]
[X.P:0/100]
[EN.P:8/10]
[H.P:7/10]
[Strength:7]
[Agility:5]
[Stamina:5]
[According to stats,the host's chances of survival in terms of danger is below 30%]
Omar shrank back.
"Who just said that?" He demanded, darting his eyes manically across the room. But shockingly,there was no one in the room but himself.
The feminine computer voice spoke again and this time it became obvious that the voice was speaking in his head.
[Hello Omar,I am your personal AI assistant programmed for the purpose of helping you wield the power of the brazallium easily. My main priority is to keep you alive no matter what, however that will have to be after bonding with you. Do you wish to know more?]
Omar's mind suddenly jolted and reflexes of what happened moments ago began to flash before his eyes. From the moment where the metal was glowing profoundly,to where it exploded and then to the point where he fell unconscious.
After he regained his memory,he started to pull the pieces together and the more he solved the puzzle,the more horrifying everything was becoming to him.
But the truth was already conspicuous for him to see. The metal he had once considered to be garbage was no other than the weapon the world was fighting to get their hands on; the ultimate brazallium.
[Do you wish to know more,Omar?]
A smirk caught his lips. Finally,he was beginning to get lucky.