Two sides of the same coin.
History crowns the victors as heroes, while those who fall to defeat are cast as nemesis of their own fate.
Those who triumph are praised in GLORY, while those who falter are condemned to SHAME.
--
Norgdimn - Lobrean War.
Bearland Region. Northern Lobrea.
Silence choked the region, thick and sour. It is a land of low hills and open meadows. Across a hillside clearing, birds chirped faintly from the trees. Ants labored over the wounded soil.
A river meandered through the hills, susurrating softly in gentle whispers. The sky was heavy with clouds, drifting like smoke.
But beneath that tenuous stillness, the landscape bore scars.
A trench.
In them, Less than a thousand of Lobrean soldiers on duty. They sat taut from their positions, faces full of anxiety.
Others crouched low upon the firing step, fingers tight on the triggers of their guns, waiting for the inevitable.
Then—
A low, rolling rumble began to creep from the distance.
"Do you hear that?" hissed one soldier.
A heartbeat later, the sky cracked.
SHREEeeee—
A commander's bellow split the air.
"ARTILLERY INCOMING! TAKE COVER!"
KAAABOOOM!
A shell struck!
One of the fortified trenches was instantly ravaged by the hit, flesh and mud hailed skyward.
More shells followed slicing through the air, descending like raining meteors from the sky, crashing down in barrage, shuddering and ripping trenches apart.
KABOOOOM! BOOOM! THOOOOOM!
Screams of despairs.
"AGHHHHH!!!!"
Men with no limbs.
"H—HEEELPP ME!"
"M—MAMA!
Dead Bodies littered on the scorched earth.
SILENCE.
In the midst of oppressive silence, behemoth war machines rumbled across the fields, crushing anything in their path.
Each colossal beast firing withering shells— tearing through trenches, and leaving a trail of fire and destruction in its wake.
Yet, despite being outmatched, in numbers and in technology, the Lobrean commander rose with bravery, his voice cut through the gunfire.
"Fight to the last!" he roared.
"For the kingdom!"
But.
The moment his head exposed above the trench line.
Tucghk!
A bullet shattered his skull.
Blood and flesh sprayed across the mud. His body crumpled and instantly collapsed into the trench floor.
A defeaning silence shrouded the entire trench.
Men froze in utter shock, each faces hollowed by dread as if their hopes get sucked into the abyss.
Some started to cry, other stared blankly into the unknown, and others struck speechless.
But then, a roar of bravery erupted.
"AGHHHHH!!!!"
A young man filled with a reckless spirit scrambled out from his trench and charged forward.
"FOR THE KINGDOM!!!"
His sudden act of courage cut through the wavering hearts of every Lobrean soldiers.
One by one, they too screamed and rose from their trenches.
"FOR THE KINGDOM!!"
"UUUAAAAGHHHH!!!!"
But—
They all met the same fate as their commander.
DEATH.
On one of the shattered trenches, the brave young man lay.
"UAGHHKKK!...."
COUGH!
He was breathing heavily, half-lifeless, his tattered uniform drenched in blood, body riddled with fragments and bullet holes.
'Is this the end...?' The thought slipped weakly through his mind.
He stared blankly ahead while enemy infantry streamed passed in a blur. Behind them armored behemoth followed.
One of the armored behemoth passed at him, crushing his right arm.
CRIIIISSSSP!
His flesh and bone mangled into pulp.
He wanted to scream, but he was to helpless, only the spreading cold crept through his veins, wrapping him in the embrace of death.
Within the silence of his fading breath, tears slowly traced down his dirt, bloodied-stained cheeks.
'I'm s-sorry... I couldn't make it... I failed..'
Then—
The sky cracked with fire.
A shell shrieked as it descended.
The trench around him exploded.
KABOOOM!
SILENCE.
DARK.
UNKNOWN.
A void of an endless pit.
There was no air to breathe, no ground to cling to, no horizon to search for.
Just nothing.
But then—
BZZZZT— CRAACK!
Flickers of light and static suddenly rippled through the void. His life suddenly replayed backwards and in fragments, shattering, and reforming.
His thoughts flickered back, sharp and sudden.
'....'
'Huh...?'
'Wait...'
'W-why am I conscious?'
'What's going on?'
'I— I'm Alive?'
'But—'
'Didn't I—'
'I was crushed defending that trench—'
'I felt the cold. I remember the silence—'
'??????...'
It was an endless pinging of question marks.
Suddenly—
A voice cut through his thoughts.
"Hey! Can you hear me?"
The voice was calm, echoing through the void.
'Huh? who was that?'
He blinked awake, blurred light dancing around him before sharpening into focus.
Overhead, he could see spaghetti wires dangled in tangles. Lights flickered weakly, and murky water dripped steadily from rusted pipes. Cold solid metal pressing against his back like a slab from some morgue.
'Huh?'
'What is this place?'
Suddenly, a figure appeared beside him.
A disheveled old man, wearing a dirty lab coat, white hair was wild and unkempt, as if he hadn't bathed for an entire year.
'Who is this old man?'
However, a striking familiarity suddenly clicked as he looked at the old man's grimy face.
'Wait..'
'Do I know him? It feels like I've seen him somewhere...'
He tried to think.
'Where did I met him?'
'hmmmm...'
'....'
But none came.
'I— I can't remember!'
He then tried to move. However, his body refused to obey.
'What the hell? Why can't I move a single thing?'
His head couldn't tilt, even his fingers wasn't spared.
He was paralyzed.
Suddenly, the old man cut through his thoughts, waving his arms in his eyes as if he was some kind of blind individual.
"Hey! Can you hear me?" the old man asked.
"..."
"...."
".."
No response.
How could even he respond to the old man? He can't move a single thing. His mouth was clamped tight as if frozen stiff.
The old man seemed to realize it after a few moments, blinking twice as if his brain had just rebooted.
"Ooooohhh—"
Straightaway, he pressed something from his wrist.
BEEP!
"Can you speak now?" The old man asked again.
Then—
Without wasting a millisecond—
"OII!!!"
"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU OLD MAN?!!!"
He yeeted the words straight to the old man as soon as he could speak. However, his muscles still tense and would not cooperate, still numb from head to toe.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME? WHY CAN'T I MOVE MY WHOLE BODY?!"
The old man was taken aback by his sudden outburst.
"Please calm down!" The old man murmured.
"I'm just assuring that I succeeded and you're not someone."
He was swiftly disoriented, lost in extreme bafflement at the old man's words.
"Huh? What someone? The heck are you even talking about?" he shot back, his voice sharp with frustration.
The old man drew a steady breath before answering.
"Huuuuuuu—"
"Alright."
"It won't be easy for you to understand right now..."
"But once you grasp the truth, you will."
However, his expression shifted as he continued, his tone weighed down by a sudden anxiety.
"But If..."
"If I really succeeded..."
He then paused.
"..."
Seconds later, he took another deep breath and forced a smile to steady himself, trying to rebuild his confidence.
"Huuuuu—"
"Alright!!"
"This is the culmination of everything I've worked for over forty years!" he uttered. His voice carried an eerie gravity of seriousness.
Without hesitation, the old man continued, "To confirm that you truly are who you are..."
His tone wavered, then hardened with intent.
"DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE?"
The question of the old man struck him momentarily speechless.
'Huh?'
'Me?'
'Who I am?'
Suddenly, Memories surged.
Mud, blood, horrors, comrades, himself, and the roar of war.
It was a nightmare of memories.
Just recalling a shard of those memories made something stir within him. Something unknown, yet heavy with sorrow.
He immediately shoved them aside, burying them deep in the back of his mind.
Then, to answer the old mans question, he roar aloud.
"OF COURSE! I KNOW WHO I AM!
With pride, he introduced himself.
"I am Konan Burnback, an arcane scientist, an engineer, and a young lieutenant from the Kingdom of Lobrea!"
The words ignited the old man. His eyes widened, a smile of stunned disbelief spreading across his face.
Slowly, tears gathered, as his quivered lips trembling forming a word.
"I-I-it i-is is... r-really you!!"
"I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!"
"Father was right all along!"
With a delighted expression, tears still streaming down his face, the old man suddenly embraced Konan and whispered with trembling joy.
"Welcome back big brother!" he cried, his voice alight with exhilaration.
Konan froze. 'Big... brother?'
"BIG WHAT???"
The old man didn't answer and quickly pulled back just enough to look at Konan, his eyes gleaming with a strange fervor.
His expression suddenly hardened.
"I'm sorry brother," he said quietly. "It looks like I don't have much time to explain everything to you."
His eyes suddenly flick to the steel door, narrowing in a sudden alarm.
"They're already here." He murmured.
Konan's eyes tightened. He was clueless of what the old man was talking.
'They are here? what does he mean?'
In a hurry, the old man suddenly grasped something cold against Konan's core.
"I need to this quick." He said, his voice tight with urgency.
"Brace yourself brother, This will hurt."
Then, he paused, his gaze soft yet burning with triumph.
"I am just glad... I succeeded father's plan." He added.
And then—
He pressed.
FLASSSH!!
A violent surge ripped through Konan's body.
BZZZZT!
Static hissing, racing through every nerve like lightning.
"Ehkkkkk!"
"Ughhjj!!!!"
"What the—"
His muscles seized, his vision flickered white.
'This fucking hurts!'
It lasted only a moment, but it felt like his body was being re-written.
Then—
SILENCE.
"..."
Konan gasped.
"WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!"
His body unknowingly responded strong. He could feel as if his veins suddenly connected.
With ease, he pushed himself upright. His gaze caught on the wide, shattered surface of the polished obsidian wall, and he froze.
'Huh?'
The face staring back wasn't the one he knew.
'Who the hell—'
The reflection showed a tall man, around six feet tall. It was handsome, has a dark hair, and a well-built physique. It is someone far and completely opposite from who he believed himself to be.
But something eerily caught his attention even more.
'Huh?'
His gaze dropped to his body.
'What's this?'
A blue light pulsed within his solar plexus, radiant with blinding luminance.
Slowly, the brilliance dimmed, revealing an azure crystalline core. From it, his veins branching outward like rays of the sun.
With trembling hands, he reached out, gently pressing against the strange, radiant core.
"What... what is this?" he whispered.
But as his gaze shifted, his breath caught at the sight of his palms.
'Huh? Is this...'
On each palm, etched a star-shaped pattern, its edges ringed with runes that shimmered faintly before settling into silence.
'...an arcane array?'
His thoughts immediately spun into chaos. A new body? A different him? Arcane arrays? Nothing made sense at the moment.
"WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING?!!"
Suddenly—
"Don't be wary, brother!" the old man cut through his storm.
"That body will help you... it will guide you to continue your mission!"
The word snagged in his mind. "A... mission? What do you mea—"
But before he could finish his words, the chamber shattered.
KABOOM!!
The steel door blasted apart, metal screeching across the floor. Smoke and fire ripped through the room as sparks from severed wires hissed and rained down.
Armed men suddenly stormed in.
"There he is!" One barked.
They are all clad in black armor, masks concealing their faces, guns raised with unflinching precision. All of them aiming at Konan.
The old man's eyes widened in alarm. He stepped forward without hesitation, frail arms spreading wide.
An arcane array flared beneath his feet, rippling outward like light on water.
Afterwards and in an instant, a translucent barrier burst into existence. He raised it before himself and Konan.
Then—
Gunfire roared.
RATATATATATAT!!
The room exploded with violent flashes as bullets slammed into the translucent barrier.
RATATATATATAT!!
Until—
CRACK!
A bullet pierced through. Cracks spread like spiderwebs. Then, with a sound like breaking glass, the barrier shattered.
CRAAASSSHH!!
Rounds of bullets pierced through the old man's body, shredding him down to the cold floor.
The gunfire ceased. The armed men run out of bullets.
With a faint, trembling smile, the old man rasped: "I have fulfilled Father's will... I have no regrets of everything."
He smiled once more. It was peaceful and almost proud.
"It's nice to see you once again my brother..."
Then, with a final breath, his voice cracked softly.
"Goodbye..."
And he died.
Konan's heart suddenly pounded.
THUMP—
DUB - DUB!
His eyes snapped wide by the scene infront of him, it was screaming something...
Something familiar.
DUB - DUB...
Sketches of memories abruptly flooded back in the back of his mind: The faces of his fallen comrades. The war.
All of it, in a split second.
DUB - DUB.
It was silence for a few moments.
Until—
BZZZT— CRACK!
Sparks of lightning suddenly sizzled around him.
Steam hissed from his body as the crystalline core shimmered back to life.
He rose in utter silence, feet rooted to the ground, void-like eyes locking onto the armed men with a soul-crushing stare.
Then he moved. His voice crawling out of his throat, low and dreadful.
"YOU VILE OF SCUMS!!"
A pause.
The air trembled.
Then—
The air changed. Konan's eyes flared.
He slammed his fist into the ground.
BAM!!
A flash of lightning erupted outward, splitting the air with a deafening roar.
Arcs of white and blue energy bifurcated across the floor, devouring everything in their path.
The armed men screamed as lightning danced across their body.
"AGHHHHH!!!"
"AGHKKKKKKKKK!!!!"
Agony.
Torment.
Suffering.
SILENCE.
The air smelled of burnt flesh and ozone as the armed men lay scattered on the ground, bodies blackened and still.
Konan's emotion's began to settle. His fist still rooted against the cratered floor. Bolts of lightning around it flickered once, then subdued.
Then—
A realization struck him.
'Huh?'
His eyes were bulging in utter disbelief, staring at the devastation before him. He had never imagined himself capable of such destruction.
All he remembered was the overwhelming surge of emotion and the uncontrollable outburst bursting free from within him.
He rose slowly as he quietly scan the ruined chamber.
Not until—
The air suddenly became heavy.
GURRRR!
A voice spoke.
"Such immense power..."
Konan's eyes flicked on the broken entrance of the chamber.
There, a figure emerged.
It stepped out of the shadows and entered the room. It was tall and slender, draped in a dark cloak.
"It's been a long time..."
"My Brother!"