Beginning of the Dark Ages

" I promise I will attain it! I will attain true freedom from my very own hands. I will take over this cruel world and crush Avalon!"

' Seven years ago on the eve of last freedom I promised myself that no matter what happens I will crush Avalon and bring an end to this cruel world. Looking back to that now, I feel as if what I said that day was nothing but mere words.

Words that might have materialized due to the intense mental pressure I felt that day and even due to the number of comics I had read. But those were just words and everyone knows that mere words can never change the world.

I know that I am well aware of that fact but at the same time I also know that whatever I said that day was not a lie, it was all true. But now that I am once again in front of the doors of death, once again I ask myself the same question that I asked myself three years ago:

Can a mere child actually change this cruel world? A world that has been abandoned by Gods. Can I actually do it or will I once again become a slave to the order of the new world '

The year 2017

Odysseus Tower 1

Rooftop Banquet hall

There was silence, no one uttered a word it was as if the world had stopped moving forward, the time had stopped and the only one still moving was the falling body of the decapitated Governor.

'Silence before the storm' she murmured.

The moment Governor's body hit the floor, everything changed. Everything that was going to happen from.now on was something that not even the fates could have foreseen.

'The Dark ages have finally begun.'

There was chaos, no one understood what had just happened. One moment the Governor was giving his speech and the very next moment he had dropped dead.

There was no time to comprehend what had just occurred and the only thing that conquered everyone's heart was fear and terror. The civilised rich people's from moments ago had now all given up on their humanity and were acting like a scared group of deer trying to run away from the one who was trying to hunt them.

However, what these people didn't know was the fact that they were used as bait to lure the terrorists who were trying to kill the Governor. In other words, whatever that had happened from the entry of the Red Reaper until the assassination of the Governor was nothing but a big trap that had been laid out by Avalon in order to lure the rat out of their hole.

And they had succeeded in it. And also the Governor who had just been executed wasn't the real Governor. The real Governor Askandar Crowley was sitting comfortably inside his Arcen Moven and watching his plan coming to fruition as he sipped red wine from his goblet.

"Send in the Imperial soldiers and kill everyone present in the banquet hall. I don't want even a single soul to escape alive except Neha Agarwal." Crowley ordered through his intercom, his voice was sharp fabricated with a sense of pride and dignity.

"Yes sir!" The Imperial soldiers replied through the intercom. There was no sign of hesitation or even a sense of guilt that they were going to kill fellow humans. They sounded like robots whose sole reason for existence is receiving orders and carrying them out with perfection.

"All Hail Avalon!" Crowley replied with content.

"All Hail Avalon!!" The Imperial Soldiers chanted back as they entered the rooftop banquet hall.

"Stay wherever you are no one moves until I give orders to!" A man wearing black Achilles commando outfit entered the room with a M4A1 assault rifle.

The M4/M4A1 5.56mm Carbine is a lightweight, gas-operated, air-cooled, magazine-fed, selective rate, shoulder-fired weapon with a collapsible stock. It is now the standard issue firearm for most units in the Imperial Army. Equipped with a shorter barrel, collapsible stock and detachable carrying handle (with a built-in accessory rail) it provides soldiers operating in close quarters with improved handling and the capability to rapidly and accurately engage targets at extended range, day or night.

In other words perfect for killing anyone present in the congested Banquet hall. And the moment, they secured Neha and her assistant, the barrage of bullets begun showering on the innocent people. The pleasant atmosphere of moments ago changed into chaos, the laughter changed into wailing and begging for mercy.

Under the order of the Governor, they fired and fired, without any hesitation or remorse, their eyes filled with nothingness.

Emotionless they stood as they took the lives of hundreds of innocent people present there, age didn't matter to them children and adults were treated all the same. Riddled with bullets the lifeless bodies of those present there fell, people cried for help they begged they wept and prayed for help but their cries were silenced by the black-clad soldiers, as they kept on firing smoke rising from the barrels of their rifles.

As time passed slowly people began to accept their fate, many were too scared to and there was even a mother with a two-year-old baby who begged for mercy but she was indefinitely silenced.

'Is this true Freedom?' The question once again appeared in the mind of Sidharth as he stood their paralysed and powerless to do anything. His body was shaking as he saw the bloody bodies fall one after another covering the white marble floor in corpses.

He tried to avert his gaze and brace himself for the worst but what he saw next was something that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Besides him laid the corpse of a five-year-old girl, her body riddled with bullets, her skull was broken. There was one shot under her nose on the upper lip, two on the right side and one on the left neck and three on the chest and some two or three on the head. Her lifeless black eyes starting at Sidharth's as he stood there his heart slowly filling with despair, rage and desire for vengeance from Avalon.

Sidharth took a step and stopped. Something had hit him in the chest. It was as if he had been punched. He looked left and right but there was nobody close to him. How very strange.

His body was paralyzed his entire body felt as if it had been set on fire, people being shot around him-the blonde girl-Neha-the corpse of the dead governor-all of it felt as if they were fading away, his vision began to fumble the light around him slowly began to dye in the pitch black.

Sidharth looked down and was surprised to see that his whole front was turning crimson.

There was an irregular shape spreading rapidly across his sweatshirt. At the same time, he became aware that the sound of the bullet firing had faded. It was as if something had pulled him out of the world and he was only seeing it from a very long way away. A few soldiers had stopped and turned to look at him. Their eyes shone with content as they looked at him. There was a woman screaming. But she was making no sound at all.

Then the marble floor played a trick on him, tilting so suddenly that it seemed to turn upside down. His vision had almost diminished, he couldn't feel his body anymore.

He opened his mouth to ask for help but no words, not even a breath, came out.

Sidharth was starting to feel scared. There was no pain at all, but something told him that he must have been hurt.

He was lying on the marble floor, although he didn't know how he had got there. There was a red circle around him, widening with every second that passed. He tried to call for Neha. He opened his mouth again and did hear a voice calling, but it was very far away.

'Is this how this ks going to end? Am I going to die here? Am I going to fail again? Am I so powerless?!' Sidharth thought his eyes now filled with nothing but darkness, even the feeling of the cold marble floor seemed to have faded away and he was floating through nothingness.

But even within this darkness, there was warmth, a nostalgic warmth that enveloped his entire body. Accompanied by a gentle voice…

'Did you know I picked your name?'

The warm and gentle words echoed through the darkness guiding lost Sidharth back to where he was supposed to be.

Back to the cruel world, back to where his destiny lies.

Sidharth slowly opened his eyes, his vision restored as he could yet again see the massacre. He was lying on the marble floor on a puddle of blood-his blood but that didn't matter.

He was powerless to do anything.

Crush Avalon?-Don't joke with me!-The way I am right now I can do nothing but scream for help-true freedom?- is there actually anything like that-even if there's do I even have the strength to attain it-me who couldn't even save himself?

All of his questions remained unanswered as a voice called for him asking him a question.

"Do you seek strength?"

Her authoritative voice filled Sidharth's mind with a feeling of nausea, his eyes couldn't look properly at the person whenever he tried to focus on her face it got blurred, it was as if the forces of the world was denying the fact that the person even existed. And yet she was there, standing alone looking at the helpless seventeen-year-old kid asking him a question that doesn't make sense.

All of this seemed unreal to Sidharth, as if he was dreaming, a lucid dream. And soon this dream would end and he would be dragged back to reality, the reality where he failed. But that never happened.

"Boy. Do you yearn for strength to live?"

Instead of that voice once again filled the destroyed banquet hall of the Odysseus Tower dragging him back from his despair. The despair that he was going to die, that this was the end of the road for him and he couldn't change anything, he couldn't destroy this wretched world and crush Avalon with his own hands.

"Do you seek strength to overturn this world?"

Her question dragged Sidharth Zou back to reality. His dead olive black eyes once again sparkled with life, as he stared deep into her grey eyes. Strength to overturn the world. What could she mean by that? He didn't know but he couldn't care less.

No this was the moment he had been looking for, and today that chance was right Infront of him.

"Ye-" before he could have completed his words, once again the sound of gunshots filled the room and the Avalonian Soldiers made their way towards him. Sidharth frantically looked around him to find the girl but he couldn't see her anymore.

Was it all a dream? Was I hallucinating?.

"Oh, it seems there's one person still alive." The commander of the Avalonian Soldiers said as he slowly walked towards Sidharth, his hand gripping his pistol tightly.

" You're a student aren't you? Sorry I need to end your life so soon but you know it was kind of your fault to be born as a citizen of Colony 25"

Panic enthralled him in its grips, he couldn't think anymore everything that he wanted to do was going to end, even the last beacon of hope had disappeared from right in front of his eyes leaving no trace of its existence.

The commander came to a halt just a few metres away from the fallen Sidharth. He brought up his left hand over the pistol cocking it for shooting.

Sidharth couldn't see the face of the commander as he was wearing the combat mask.

"Any last wish kid?" He asked grinning like a maniac, his eyes filled with amusement as he looked at the frightened figure of Sid below him. He couldn't be more content, the act of killing was just so fulfilling that one could easily get addicted to it and the same had happened with the commander as he finally aimed the pistol at Sidharth's forehead.

So this is how's it going to end?!! In the end, I could never do anything I couldn't Crush Avalon and protect my family?!!

He shut his eyes bracing himself for the inevitable. As the sound of a gunshot filled the room Sid prayed, for the first time in years he asked for help and miraculously it was heard and awarded.

The mysterious voice once again flowed into his mind.

"What do you desire?" The voice asked.

" I desire to crush Avalon and take over this world"

"I hear it loud and clear, And what do you wish for?"

" I wish to …...…"

A ripple of fire burns the entire floor blocking the voice of Sidharth, blue flame surrounded the duo enthralling them in its ever-glowing ripples.

Sidharth slowly opened his eyes, he could still feel the pain from his chest and the burning sensation that had possessed his body from when he was shot was still there. But at the same time, something felt different, something had changed something within him. What was it?

The moment he opened his eyes, the sound of shattering glass echoed from within him. Something has broken something really important to him. But he couldn't care less. He didn't have time for a trivial matter.

"Who are you?" Sidharth asked, his eyes boring into the stormy grey eyes of the girl standing above her.

When people say 'time stood still' they must surely be talking about times like this.

The same blonde girl who was sitting atop the Nemesis was now holding Sidharth's hand tightly, he has never seen someone like her before. She was beautiful. She had long golden hairs that reached down to her hips. She was looking straight at Sidharth with her stormy grey eye that shone with intelligence and coldness. In her soft features, were both elements of youth but also mature beauty.

"I am Athena. Daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom and war and the adored patroness of the city of Athens. With this I hereby declare our contract sealed. From this instant, we will be connected till the day you live as half of your soul belongs to me." Athena smiled, "Let's crush Avalon together and change this cruel world."

Athena stood up and stretched her arms, her soft hands loomed above Sidharth. The moment he accepts it everything will change.

'I have been waiting… I have always been waiting for someone to come and end Avalon. Even if I had promised myself that one I will crush Avalon. In my heart, I had always known… I had always reckoned that no matter how much I strived to crush Avalon I couldn't do it. After all, words don't change the world. Action does... But now I have the chance I have been waiting for, this is what I desired. No one is going to change this cruel world, a world that has been abandoned by Gods…'

He stretched out his bloody arm trying to reach out Athena's hand, all of his energy surrogated through him for one last time as his fingers gripped those of the Goddess. The contract was finally sealed.

"After all only one who can change this world is me!"

Athena's grey eyes shone with content as she gripped the bloody fingers of her vessel. With her free hand, she brought up a golden knife and placed it right above the heart of the human.

The last step for completing the contract was to make the bearer face his greatest fear and for Sidharth it was death.

"I art thou command you, the overseer of all, I Goddess Athena form thy pact with this human. Let min vessel be the Basileus candidate." Athena chanted as she thrust her Golden knife piercing Sidharth's heart.

As soon as the knife pierced him the black spark in his eyes disappeared as the plain broken eyes took its place.

His legs gave up and he fell down on his knees, head arching downwards preparing for the worst.

Slowly his eyelids closed itself and everything before him went dark.

"When you wake up you no longer will be human. Let's change this world together human boy… I will be waiting."

A/N after a long wait Avalon is finally back with it's new chapter. The dark ages have begun, what's going to happen next? Will Sidharth ever crush Avalon?