They say the creation of the world began with an explosion that gave rise to everything that exists, including the human race itself.
Years ago, we did not know them, but even so, it was because of us that they came to us. Because of our sins, we attracted their hunger and wrath upon us humans.
The two races that had once existed separately from humanity and would come to be known as the Absolute Races of this world created a point of war within creation itself.
The planet Earth, which had once been beautiful and full of life, was coming to know and be stained by the marks and wounds that came with war, and I would have to crawl through that stain, a stain I did not cause. It was in that stain of blood that I was born.
On the night of November ninth, in the year two thousand of the twenty-first century, it was supposed to be a happy moment, my happy moment, and I was going to sleep excited, waiting to wake up with my parents a few hours later when it would be my birthday. The sun was supposed to rise with a wide smile filling the faces of my family.
Ever since I was born, my parents had been trying to leave the Order. My father's name was Carlos Rodrigues, and he was a tall man with broad shoulders and scars that made him look like a great soldier in my eyes.
My mother's name was Helyara Sanchez, and she was also a soldier, but she did not serve the Order directly like my father. She was a soldier from the city of , where the strongest and most prepared base of the Order was located in our country.
In this world, there is also a power that humans awakened on the day the first Point opened, connecting Earth to them. This power allows some people of the human race to manipulate the energy of their own souls to become stronger. We call this power Just Wrath.
My father had his Just Wrath at the Light Yellow Stage.
My mother had her Just Wrath at the Dark White Stage.
The three of us lived in a small remote community, trying to stay as far away as possible from that war and from the Order, and it was in that place that my parents had me and raised me, believing they were far from the eyes and blades of war.
By then, it had already been a few years since my parents had left the Order. They never talked about it, so I cannot say why, but it was around the time I appeared in my mother's womb that something happened between them and the Order. As time passed, I was born and grew up like a normal child, and perhaps because I was a child raised almost completely isolated from the world, I failed to notice that a war was taking place on this planet. My parents never truly taught me how to fight, but I could throw a decent punch, since at the time I could not hold swords. They were far too heavy for me, and my father would always end up laughing at me while saying that it was not yet time for me to hold something so heavy in my hands.
I think it was fair to say that I was happy, at least until the night of November ninth, two thousand, when two Points opened at the same time just a few kilometers away from where we lived. Sky and earth cracked apart until they broke open, revealing holes so deep that it seemed as though they had always been struggling to connect themselves to our reality. The Point that opened in the earth was dark and hot, and if viewed from above, it was sometimes possible to see flames so red at its depths that the very air seemed to burn. It was as if those flames did not need to feed on our oxygen.
The Point that opened in the sky, on the other hand, was practically surrounded by stars and galaxies, and deep within it, it was possible to see an enormous white light that many would say rivaled the sun itself. But this light was different. It seemed to emit such a cold breeze that birds near the Point had their feathers and skin replaced by ice.
From that Point emerged something gigantic and monstrous, with a form and appearance that was difficult to describe in words, but its skin was silver-white, and when that thing completely emerged from the Point, it came crashing down to Earth. Its impact on the ground resembled a small earthquake, but only those who lived near the community where I grew up were able to feel it.
Small buildings and houses collapsed because of that earthquake. Many died simply from the falling debris, and as if that were not enough, amid the panic and before that night sky gained another wound, an angel emerged from the Point alongside that thing. It was an angel whose skin was also silver-white, but this angel was thin, poorly defined, and possessed neither wings nor a face. It had only a right eye. Its eye was golden and seemed to be surrounded by small, shining white stars around its iris, and its hands appeared to possess claws.
While that angel seemed to descend slowly from the sky, the other creature that had come with it finally rose to its feet and began walking toward us.
Meanwhile, on the ground, climbing the boiling walls of the second Point, a large red hand, which looked as though it were burning in raw flesh, gripped the surface of the war, charring the ground. When it rose, it released a roar or howl that sounded like a thousand lions at once. It was so loud and hot that the nearby vegetation began to burn, and the fire spread toward the community.
At the time, I did not know it, but that crimson-skinned thing was a Greater Demonic Beast (G.D.B.), and after that thing emerged from the Point, the earth closed itself, leaving behind a massive crack in the location.
My family and I barely survived the earthquake caused by the fall of the Order. My father and mother suffered only minor scratches because, the moment they sensed the presence of the creatures when they appeared, they immediately moved to protect me while covering their bodies with their Just Wrath. Thanks to that, I ended up only hitting my head against one of the heavy sections of the wall of our house that collapsed.
"Are you okay, Neale?" — Helyara Sanchez
"Mom... I'm okay, I just feel a little dizzy." — Neale
"We need to get out of here quickly. The house could collapse even more." — Carlos Rodrigues
My father was the only one who managed to grab his sword before the entire section of our house outside my bedroom collapsed. When we climbed out through my window, it was possible to see fire beginning to consume some of the houses around the community. Everything was complete chaos at that moment. The survivors did not know whether to help one another or simply flee from that place as fast as possible.
All that confusion caused those things to notice that people were trying to escape, and that drew their attention. The two of them leaped so high toward us that the second impact of those creatures crashing down, this time against houses and people, shook everything once again. The angel reached the center of the community before the two beasts, and it did so by running.
Those things were eating people with the remains of what had once been their homes, while one moved toward the other.
The G.A.B [1]reached us first while being commanded by the angel standing at the center of the community, giving orders to that thing while making strange gestures with its hands.
Terror consumed me as my mother ran while holding me tightly, trying to shield me from the flames with her overcoat, and when we turned a corner in one of the streets to move away from the crowd, that angel appeared right in front of our family, throwing my father, who had been ahead of us, into one of the broken, burning buildings.
My mother reacted immediately, ready to fight, making her body shine with the thousands of dark-white particles of her Just Wrath, but my father emerged once more from the building like a blur surrounded by light-yellow particles, attacking the angel. His entire body was covered with the particles of his Just Wrath. The energy of his Just Wrath was so intense that even his sword was overflowing with it at that moment.
And in that brief instant when he cleared the angel from our path, he ordered us to run away from there and do it fast. Even with my mother's overcoat covering my head and blocking much of my vision, I was still able to see my father one last time. His back seemed broad and radiant with his Just Wrath. We ran in the opposite direction while my father remained there in that alley, fighting the angel.
My mother and I could already see the exit of the community, but at that moment, the G.D.B[2], ran out of humans to devour and noticed us running nearby. We did not notice it approaching, and when we looked up, it was too late. That thing was practically on top of us already. The only reaction my mother managed to have was to push me away while her legs were crushed.
Everything happened so fast, but I saw it all in slow motion as the ground became covered with her blood and the space around me filled with her screams along with the final words she managed to say to me before she began to be devoured by that thing.
"Run... kirden." — Helyara Sanchez
I do not know what came over me at that moment, but I clung to those words and to the overcoat my mother left with me, and I ran out of that place. I was completely weak and powerless.
I ran as fast as my legs would allow, and for some reason, I was also lucky that those two beasts, the Greater Angelic Beast and the Greater Demonic Beast, began fighting each other while everything around them turned to ash.
That was when I realized that I was the protagonist of the cruelest joke in this world, because on that exact day—
November tenth, two thousand, twenty-first century—it was my sixteenth birthday, and my gift was watching my parents die while the cruelest stroke of luck allowed me to survive.
When I stopped running, trying to understand everything that had happened, I collapsed under the weight of hatred and all the sadness I had unconsciously locked inside my chest while cursing and wishing death upon the Absolute Races of this world. I wanted to tear those things apart with my own hands, and all that echoed in my mind was:
"November tenth... they died on November tenth."
That was all that remained in my head while my body trembled uncontrollably.
And that was my first Point of War.
[1] Greater Angelic Beast.
[2] Greater Demonic Beast.