Chapter 1 - Episode 8 - Dark Times

An imposing figure stood before Oku.
He was wrapped in a brown burlap cloak.
“Aren't you going to offer an old friend a drink?
One glass won't kill us, right?”

They sat down.
The liquor trembled in their rough glass tumblers.

“How are you, old friend?
How are things here at the Arena?”

“Can't complain, my lord.
Still better here than where you are. But…
You seem worried. Am I right?”

The man in the burlap cloak took a slow sip.
“There's something strange in the air on Gommhon.
I don't know what it is, but it feels like the calm before a storm.
Maybe I'm wrong… and yet, that Singularity seems darker to me with each passing day”

“What do you fear is about to happen?”

“I don't know, Oku. Perhaps Alset is right.
Perhaps these are just the ramblings of a tired old man”
He took another sip. Then, in a graver voice:
“How's the new generation? Any promising recruits?
If I'm right, and I hope I'm not, we'll soon need every last bit of strength we can muster.”

Oku nodded.
“There are a couple of good ones.
One in particular, Gozen Rockembech.
He's rough around the edges, but he's talented. He comes from an Orange Planet.”

“Hadn't the Rockembech family's planet been conquered by the Fhuurians?”

“Probably” Oku replied.
“If he survived the conquest of those demons, then he really was born to fight.”

“And the boy from the White Planet?”

Oku jolted.
“How do you know about him?
Look, it was Gladyo who wanted him here. I was against it…”

“Relax, Oku. I'm not here to reprimand you.
How's the boy doing?”

“Physically, he's improving before my eyes.
In combat, he's fast and determined.
But Ori… that's another matter.
Without it, he'll always lag behind, like an unarmed warrior on a battlefield.”

The figure wrapped in burlap remained silent, his gaze lost in the distance, his glass suspended in midair.

Oku watched him thoughtfully.
Time, he thought, was the cruelest of enemies.
Nothing destroys like time.
It is the darkest and most relentless element in the universe:
the true embodiment of fate.
Nothing is created, nothing is destroyed, he reflected.
Everything transforms. But what transforms never returns to what it once was.

The stranger spoke softly, almost to himself.
“Who can say, Oku? We believe things are the way they are only because we know nothing else.
But the universe doesn't care about our certainties.
It follows its own rules, whether we understand them or not.”

Oku smiled.
“You should tell that to Alset.”

The other man chuckled.
“Never get too philosophical with a scientist! That's why I'm here.
You and I, on the other hand, are cut from the same cloth.”

He drained his glass and stood up.
“Thanks for the drink, my friend.”

Oku bowed.
“Whatever happens, we still have you, Lawrence, and Alset.”

The other man smiled melancholically.
“We're old, Oku.
And we lost Micaene, Jinrai, and Parcil far too long ago.
The age of the invincible is over.
Now more than ever, we need new heroes.
That's why your work here is so important.”

“Yes, my lord.”
Oku bowed his head slightly.

“Dark times lie ahead.”
The grave tone of his voice startled Oku.

He raised his gaze, but the figure had vanished.