A figure dressed in dark overalls and carrying a large bag in his right hand stood before a gate.
His left hand reached for the button beside the gate as he clicked on the number, '3..4..1..2.'
A wave of red light emanates from the door and scans his palms.
"Beep."
The door slowly opened, and he walked in.
It was a place, dark and icy cold.
The figure bent as his hand reached for the bag, quickly unzipping it and bringing out Zeras's body.
Raising it high, he flung it outward with speed, the body helplessly plummeting into the dark abyss below.
He zipped up the bag, then made his way out of the place, the door shutting close behind him.
___
The silence was stifling and nerve-wracking.
Inside the abyss where Zeras was thrown was a pile of bodies reaching almost one thousand, each badly mutilated in different ways.
This was where the dead bodies of all experimental failures were disposed of.
In this dark, gloomy place…
A blue light suddenly shone, giving the abyss a momentary glow.
COUGH
COUGH
Zeras coughed out repeatedly, his voice hoarse.
His face was deathly pale due to having lost too much blood.
His breathing was extremely labored and painful, but deep in those blue eyes was a certain calmness.
One impossible to possess in such a situation.
Zeras assessed the condition of his body, and the first thing that he noticed was his muscles:
They were fully paralyzed, rendering him unable to move an inch.
He was also losing too much blood from the injuries on him, and could feel his death imminent if nothing was done.
But where could he find medical attention in an abyss where corpses were disposed of?
His fate was already sealed.
The realization made his eyes flash with hatred as memories of how he got there surfaced in his blue eyes.
He couldn't believe what was happening as the people he called clan members sold him out to a dark force as a lab rat for 2.5 million Star Coins.
'Well, at least I was sold off for a good amount,'
He thought to himself, chuckling a bit.
In his measly existence, all he had couldn't amount to 50-star coins, even if all his clothes and whatever he had were sold off.
Yeah, that was just how poor he was.
He never really knew who his parents were, either.
All he could remember was growing up in the Celestria family orphanage home.
There, he had at least been given a home to live in and a meal for the day.
The rest of the day was spent learning martial arts and combat techniques, necessary in this day and age.
Anything he could remember being positive about himself?
That would be the fact that was number one when it came to battle proficiency.
Even the guardians of the orphanages told him he had a bright future ahead and would most likely awaken a powerful gene simply due to his godly comprehension of combat techniques.
That had its advantages:
His meals were even increased to twice a day,
And disadvantages:
Invoking the jealousy of other orphans.
Those were the good times, but the joy was short-lived.
When the Gene-awakening test came, he didn't awaken the powerful Gene, but instead the trashy F-grade Multi-color hair gene.
A gene that allowed him to change the color of his hair from raven black to blue or red.
His status immediately plummeted as he came crashing down from the best in martial arts to the butt of jokes at the orphanage.
It was pretty common knowledge that no matter how powerful your comprehension of battle arts is, your gene grade and power count, for a far lot more, as they determine how powerful battle arts will be when used.
What's the point of a trashy F-grade gene that only makes you change your hair color in a world where battle strength means all?
His meals were denied to him, and he only managed to survive due to Grandma Mia, who secretly passed him some food at night when all was asleep.
A Kind-hearted Lady who he felt understood his plight in such a dog-eat-dog world.
But good days never last long, as that too came crashing down when Grandma Mia urgently woke him in the night, telling him to run for unknown reasons.
He followed behind her as they both fled the orphanage, but they weren't gone for long before they were caught, and he watched Grandma Mia beheaded in front of him for attempting to kidnap a child, while he, the child, was sold off under the guise of a rehabilitation center meant to cure the effects that might have arisen from the shock of the kidnapping.
The last thing he remembered was being sold to a man in dark robes for 2.5 million Star coins to become their experimental subject, and he found himself in the lab after that.
His eyes flashed coldly as he clenched his teeth tightly due to pain.
Not that of his terrible injuries but that of betrayal.
The pain of the only thing he had taken away from him.
He wanted revenge.
He wanted to slaughter the entire Celestria family for the pain they had caused him, but he knew that was impossible.
He would be dying here today.
His eyes soon became blurry as tears slipped out from the sides due to his weakness.
The world was getting darker, and he slowly drifted off into the darkness that beckoned to him like a loving mother to her lost newborn.
-------
The darkness was still as Zeras felt himself losing the concept of time.
His eyes slowly opened, seeing his body made from some type of milky white energy, but his eyes immediately widened in shock as he turned forward, looking at the sight before him:
Spreading into the far distance as far as his eyes could see were huge crystals.
Each of them was taller than he was, with a beautiful glow like that of stars, and they blessed him with their radiance.
"Where am I?" Zeras asked, looking around at this weird space.
"Am I dead? Is this my soul form? Just what is happening?".
The place was oddly quiet; not a single sound was made, and his eyes slowly turned towards the nearest Crystal.
It was a crystal, unlike the rest.
Unlike the others, which radiated a beautiful light, this one was like a black hole, a pitch black cosmic circle continuously revolving in the crystal, making him feel as if his soul was about to be devoured.
It seemed to have no depth, just like an unending abyss.
But even though scary and bone-chilling, Zeras felt deeply attracted to this crystal.
It was like something was calling out to him from the abyssal darkness present within the dark crystal... like a part of him that was once locked away and disregarded but finally had the chance to meet with him once more.
"What are you?"
Zeras asked as his hand quietly reached out, touching the crystal's surface.
RIIIIIIPLE
A ripple emanated from the place he touched, gently traveling through the void of crystals...and what happened next shocked him to his core.