Prologue: Chapter 4. The Spirits

Prologue:

Chapter Four - The Spirits

30 years ago -

A wooden balcony with two armchairs overlooks open wheat fields.

A boy runs towards an open field.

"Here it is again... running to play with his new friend..." muttered Li, the boy's mother standing at the balcony door. Her skin is white, her height and weight are average, and she has long black hair from the top of her head.

"What was it again?" she asked.

"I don't know… looks like some weird doll... probably one of the other kids dropped it." Answered Sean. A tall man with black hair and wide shoulders, as he struggled to see his son from the armchair he was sitting on.

"Definitely weird… he said it moved yesterday… are you sure it's okay to let him play with it?" asked Li.

"Of course!" Sean confidently replied, "You know what dangerous games we would come up with when I was a kid?!" he asked proudly with a cheeky smile.

"We were bored. And so is he. Let him enjoy himself. He's just a kid. It's his imagination. If he's enjoying playing with it so much, I won't be the one to disturb him. And while he's there - resting in my favorite armchair won't hurt me." Sean smiled a wicked smile as he closed his eyes and leaned back.

"Whoa!" Kai, a 5-year-old boy with brown hair and big green eyes, exclaimed in wonder as he leaned down to look at the little doll.

The doll was standing on the floor, in a slightly different position than he remembered leaving it yesterday. It was plain looking. To Kai, it looked fluffy as a pillow. It was slightly rounded, more oval, being wide at the bottom and narrow at the other end. It was all white, except for a large black circle in the center of its head. Inside the black circle, is another white circle. The sight of the black circle on its head reminded Kai of a camera lens.

Kai picked up the doll in his hands. He hugged it tightly with a big smile on his face. He excitedly threw it into the air and watched it float slowly back down. He picked it up again and spun it around as fast as he can, as he held it in his hands. Smiling, laughing, and excited.

From the wooden balcony, Li suddenly saw a strong flash.

"What was that?!", she asked worriedly.

Kai's eyes closed.

Suddenly, there was a thump.

Kai fell face-plant to the floor with force. His body is straight as a board.

A blood-curdling scream escaped from Li's throat and was clearly heard in the open fields before them.

"Huh?!?!" Sean yelled startled, as he jumped up in panic from his nap.

He looked at his wife running and immediately ran after her."Kai!!!" Sean and Li exclaimed as they see his body lying on the fertile ground.

When they reached him, Sean turned him over to lie on his back.

"What happened?!" he asked in a panic. "I do not know!" answered Li, stressed and fearful. "Suddenly there was a flash and he fell!" She answered quickly and with concern. "Kai! Are you okay?! Talk to me!" Sean pressed as he held Kai's unconscious body and shook him lightly.

"My dear! His eyes!" shouted Li, covering her mouth with her hand. Trying hard to hold back the tears.

Kai's eyes were partially open. It was possible to see that each of them turned slightly in a different direction.

Sean saw it and understood immediately. A Stroke.

"We have to get him to the hospital now!" He stated.

Li looked at the unconscious body of Kai and couldn't stop the river of tears that broke out. But, she knew Sean was already used to it. Whenever she cried he was the one to calm her down, and she hoped it would be the same this time. But, when she recognized that he also had one next to the corner of his eye and his jaw locked tight, she understood the severeness of the situation.

"Kai..!" She wiped her tears with a trembling voice.

-------------

After a few days -

At the hospital, Kai laid connected to the medical devices in his bed.

Sean and Li stood at the side of the bed, near the hospital doctor who had the results in his hands.

"I have good and bad news. I'll start with the good." The doctor stated.

"Physically, there is no problem with the child. There is no evidence of a blow or injury. All tests show normal and healthy data levels. The brain shows normal activity for his age. There is no bleeding or abnormal behavior. But, on the other hand…"

The doctor said as he took a long breath. "The bad news is... you see his condition. We can't explain it..." the doctor shared in wonder. "Since he arrived, he can't talk or walk. We must feed him and clear his secretions. His look looks confused like he's seeing everything for the first time. Just like a newborn." concluded the doctor.

"Unfortunately, that's all we can do... We've run every test scenario possible, but we haven't found anything... We're sorry... but there's no way we can help you." said the doctor, lowering his head in despair. "He will be released tomorrow." he informed.

"What?! Tomorrow?! It's not possible! Look at his condition!" Li complained furiously with a wave of her hand.

"I tell you in the most sincere way there is... we did everything. We have no reason to keep him here..." the doctor repeated as his discomfort with the situation was evident from his body language.

"I.. I... what's going on here?" Li asked herself as she falls to the floor. Sean bent down to her, hugging her as she collapsed crying onto his shoulder.

Clueless, Li and Sean began to tell their story in public.

They would stand in squares and central streets together with Kai, who was in a wheelchair, and tell what happened.

About the strange creature that suddenly appeared.

About the flash.

About Kai's current situation.

But, no one believed them.

Over time, other similar cases occurred. In all of them, there were clear signs.

Mysterious dolls. Flash. Convulsions, unconsciousness, and memory loss.

As the number of cases increases, so does the public's attention. Suddenly, the story of the young parents became into the spotlight. On large stages, accompanied by Kai, they told their painful story about that incident.

About that same puppet.

"Suddenly, my wife saw a flash," Sean recalled in the center of the stage in front of the full hall.

"I ran to him. He was on his stomach. I turned him over and saw that the look in his eyes was different. My first thought was that he had been bitten by a venomous animal. I tried to look around, but there was no trace of any reptile.

Just before we evacuated him, Li suddenly remembered this doll with which he was playing.

"What's that got to do with it right now?!" I yelled at her. But she had a certain intuition about it.

Despite my objections, she insisted on looking for it. Just for a moment.

In hindsight, she trusted Kai's words more than I did.

She tried to look for it, bring it to the hospital... there might be a slim chance that the doctors knew what it was... but she couldn't find it.

At the hospital, all the physical tests came back.

All of them showed normal levels for a child of his age. They found nothing. But reality showed otherwise." Sean said, disappointed, remembering his 5 years old son trying to crawl on the floor as a toddler after the incident.

"Our little son...was gone. Disappeared. Even though his body was in front of us, it was as if we had a new child. A different one, and taking care of him was like taking care of a baby." Sean confessed.

"M-ma. M-ma. Say Ma-ma" Li recited to Kai over and over again. "E-ah. E-" Kai repeated after her in indistinct mumbles, saliva oozing from his open mouth.

"How to walk, how to talk, how to eat, how to use the toilet correctly... we had to teach him everything again..." he said.

"Why? Why did this happen to us?" Li asked the audience, "Fate? Destiny? Was it for the best or was it just bad luck? I couldn't accept the thought that we were the only parents in the world who were destined to have their young child start everything from the beginning, for no reason. There must be a reason." Insisted Li.

"But, where do I start?" she wondered. "Liars villagers!", "You just want money," and "Tell the truth!" are just some of the sentences that came our way while we were telling our story. No one believed us." Li said.

"What do I do?" she asked herself, confused and depressed.

Eventually, I decided to try to move on... I told myself that it doesn't matter what happened, I had to concentrate on re-raising our son Kai.

But then... I started getting these reports... of similar cases... of a similar flash... of a similar doll.

With each report, I would locate those involved and try to extract as much information as possible. Trying to understand. Until the token fell." said Li as shivers went down her spine.

"A token that was in front of us all this time," Sean continued, "A token that I tried deep down to suppress and not to believe. Not to believe that this was the reason all along." He said ashamed, remembering that he was the one who resisted until the very last moment.

"No... it can't be..." said Li stunned.

"Mom! Dad! Look what I found!" she recalled the moment Kai first introduce the strange doll in front of them.

"Even then... it was our fault... it could have been avoided..." Li teared up as she closed her eyes in pain and sadness.

"These dolls... or rather these creatures... these beings... are the ones causing this. I dedicated my life to telling our story so that this will never happen to anyone else ever again," Li concluded as she bowed her head down. The audience applauded her, thanking them for the sacrifice and contribution of telling their story.

------

"This case was 20 years ago," said a male voice in a dark room. "It was the first case in modern history where a human came into contact with them. Humanity has forgotten about them.

Our eternal foes.

Over tens of thousands of years have passed since the last person encountered them. Following their disappearance and through technological progress, humanity entered a place it thought was safe.So many boys and girls today are busy with their looks, games, and leisure, that they have forgotten the true basis of reality.

Survival.

In their defense, it was hard to believe it wasn't over. But suddenly, they came back. From the beginning of time, we have been at war with them. And now, they're back.” The man announced as he scratched his short beard.

"These creatures are ancient creatures called 'Spirits'," said the man as his bright eyes sparkled from the dim lamplight in the dark space.

"To the rest of humanity, they are a mystery. But, in our books, it is clearly stated what they are, where they come from, and what they want" he said confidently.

"For years, no one believed us. We were mocked by others. They thought we were crazy... mentally ill. But now, they see that we were the ones who knew the truth all along." He said with a cocky smile.

"It all started hundreds of thousands years ago, with Millua." He began the story with his hands on the table laden with old papers, the only one in the room.

"Millua was the first human that ever lived.

He was the most powerful and intelligent being that ever existed. That still exists - because he is immortal.

In those days, he did not grow old or weak. He was unequivocal and his power was unquestionable. The entire universe was in the palm of his hand.

Millua had a particularly powerful tool, called the "The fountain of everything". The fountain of everything was a powerful ray of light that came out of the ground and would reach beyond the sky.

When Millua wanted to create something, all he had to do was step into the fountain and ask for what his mind desired. In front of his eyes, it would appear as he desired.

This is how we were created.

Millua used the fountain of everything to create us. To bless us with the gift of life.

When this happened, not only did we come into life, but we received another gift from Millua. Millua gave up some of his power and shared it with us. He blessed us with his inner strength. A power that can be found today in everyone. A power that is unique to each and every one of us. This force, as we call it today, is "Energia".

In addition, he shared with us the secrets to the fountain of everything.

Until then, Millua was the only one who used it. But he decided to share it with us so that we can use it for our desires as well. The fountain of everything is an external and infinitely powerful tool. So powerful, that we can use it to create anything we desire, without any effort at all.

But it has an important basic principle.

It can only create.

It can only add, either to existing material or create new material. It cannot eliminate an existing part of our reality.

After continuous use of the fountain of everything, it closes and the white beam of light that shoots into the sky disappears because its power is not unlimited.

Therefore, in order to renew its power, there were rules and regulations that Millua passed on to us that were designed to refill the fountain faster so that we could use it again sooner.

Humans wrote down these laws and rules in a book and passed it down to this very day.

The fountain of everything It is a powerful tool, but limited in its use, therefore, it should be used with caution.

In that period of peace, humans used the fountain of everything for whatever their soul desired. Meat. Wine. Silver, gold and every little thing imaginable. Humans could use the fountain of everything to create anything they wanted.

For decades, humans have lived peacefully beside Millua. There was no death. There was no suffering. Until... until that event." The voice got annoyed and got up from his desk, pacing the darkroom back and forth.

"Jealousy... greed... curiosity... even admiration...call it what you will. It doesn't matter. In a perfect world, this shouldn't have happened." He stated angrily.

"A man entered into the fountain of everything, and sought to become Millua himself." said the figure, and his anger reflected from the pupils of his fired eyes.

"As a result, his eyes became black. Horns grew on his head and his teeth sharpened and became razor sharp. An additional pair of hands grew from the sides of his body, and he grew double in size to become a deformed, terrifying, and an extremely powerful entity called "Zed".

From that moment, the fountain of everything was instantly closed, never to be opened again.

The humans noticed what was happening immediately, and alerted Millua about it. In a flash, a fight between them broke out.

Flying in the world, they fought for days. Destroying everything in their path. Each of their blows created an explosion the size of which could wipe out an entire city in an instant.

After a long battle, they realized that if they continued like this, they would destroy everything. No matter how much they keep fighting, they will be equal. The fountain of everything made them equal.

The only way in which they could break even was with the help of the power of humans.

Each of them asked for our help.

Millua reminded the humans of all the goodness he shared with them. He asked for their power so that he could eliminate the evil creature and bring back the life they were used to.

"Wait!" Zed suddenly shouted. "He's not telling you the truth," he claimed.

As so, Zed suggested to the humans an exciting and spectacular start.

"A world where no one has to follow the rules and regulations to fill the fountain of everything," Zed promised with a malicious smile.

Zed claimed that Millua is the one who controls the fountain, using all human effort to fill it faster in order to gain power. Without him, they could use the fountain of everything without any restriction. Anytime. All the time. without any rules. without any effort.

For eternity.

Anyone can be a king. Everyone can have everything they want. "True and absolute freedom." Zed concluded his words.

For the first time ever, humans have questioned Millua. And for the first time, humans had a choice to choose." Said the man in the room as he spread his hands wide open. "On one hand, their familiar and stable life alongside Millua, and on the other hand, a new and unknown future alongside Zed.

They were in a serious dilemma. But, eventually, curiosity toward a new and unknown future against the stability and boredom of the current peaceful reality, were the reasons for the downfall of humans." Said the man as he closed his hands to a fist.

"After all the years Millua took care of us in the best way possible... after he shared his power with us..." the tall person exclaimed in frustration as he continued to pace around the small room with his clenched fist. "After he fought for us!" he exclaimed with immense anger as he punched the table with force.

"He was betrayed by the humans he himself created!" he cried with tears in his eyes.

The humans chose to give Zed their power, and through their power, he changed reality for the worse.

With the help of humans Energia, Zed sealed Millua in a powerful box that he was unable to break, as most of his power resided in us humans. He used the power Millua provided us, against him.

The human's choice proved to be a mistake, as Zed's intentions were soon revealed.

"Obtain everything."

With Millua locked away, there was no one else who could stop Zed from achieving his dream. Right after Millua, he put humans on target. He wanted to take the Energia Millua had given us, forever.

With the remaining strength they had, humans fled. Despite what happened, Millua never stopped believing in us. Despite being locked up, he never stopped fighting back.

In order to keep him locked, Zed would have to constantly use his Energia to preserve the box that imprisoned him at any given moment.

Guarding and maintaining the box he created, Zed could not move from his place and pursue the humans.

So, with the extra Energia humans gave him, he created the "Spirits".

Creatures designed to take over the human body and take it back to Zed.

They would come in all shapes and sizes.

Huge snake-like creatures, bony bulls, giant spiders with a head of a dog, and more. Deformed creatures that the world has never seen before.

At first, humans didn't know how to fight them back. With sticks and stones, their attacks would not hurt the spirits, who would take control over more and more humans, taking them back to Zed. strengthening him more by any moment.

That was until they tried to use our inner Energia to fight them back.

Then, they understood. Zed knew exactly what he was doing. He knew exactly what he was after.

He wanted to take our Energia because he knew it was the only weapon left that could defeat him and his spirits.

When it's all said and done, humans realized that they were the ones who caused this, and only they are the ones who are able to fix it.

Therefore, as their descendants, we are the ones who must defeat Zed and the spirits.

Since then, for thousands of years, we are at a war with them. Without Millua and the fountain of everything, we had to find other ways to get what we wanted.

Agriculture. Building. Hunting. Everything.

Despite the disappearance of the spirits for thousands of years for unknown reasons, the war never ended. Because now, they are back.

But this time... it will be different. Because today we have something that we didn't have before." Said the mysterious person, closing the book that was lying on the table.

"Because today, we have you." The voice called out with a gleam in his eye, imbued with purpose and expectation.

On the cover of the book, there was a logo of a circle, and inside of it the letters A and L, one on top of the other.

"You are the only one who can defeat Zed and bring back Millua. You're the only one because... you're cursed.” The voice said with heavy seriousness.

"Your curse will be the reason you will always be alone and everyone will be afraid of you.

As you can see, they all already are.

But, you will have to push beyond that. You will have to train yourself with all your might... with the belief that one day... one day... you will be the one to defeat Zed and the spirits. Save Millua, thereby redeeming the entire human race from the fatal mistake of one person.

Loy... you are going to be the one, who is going to save the world." Said the figure looking into Loy's eyes.

Loy, a young boy of 6 years old, looks back at him with his big brown eyes, in astonishment and amazement that revealed his heart full of hope.