Death, as a symbol, is often misjudged; it may be seen as a sort of finality or a bad omen and can strike fear into the hearts of those it falls upon.
However, death is often used to represent a drastic change in one's life, or a rebirth of sorts, killing the old you to create the new, better you, if you will.
Or perhaps even severing all the connections of your life, and being reborn as an entirely new being altogether.
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.
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"Filthy Hobo Bastard!"
"Who do you think you are?! Freeloading off us hardworking, awakened when you're too weak-minded to even have a goal at your age!"
The young man who lay on the ground did not respond, simply turtled and shielding himself as best he could from the assault of the two men.
Once they saw they would get no reaction, one of them spat on him before turning away. Well, the other simply threw one final kick at the defenceless young man before following suit.
The young man gagged and rolled over in pain, staring up at the foggy sky of the third city.
This place was not home to any faction in particular, but was the home of probably most of the manual labor and poverty in all of the Republic of Babel.
After a moment of rest, the young man rose to his feet and limped off to a nearby alley before sitting down somewhere nobody could see him.
The only mistake he had made today was being spotted by the two awakened, who were likely fresh off returning from their Materializations.
He grimaced and spat out a mouthful of blood; he saw a white chunk come out with it and noticed that he had lost a tooth from the beating.
Sacril had been on the streets for the last two years now. Following the death of his parents, he had been too old for an orphanage, too poor to sustain himself normally, and too well-mannered and not street-smart enough to become one of the slum rats.
On top of all this, the workforce only wanted to be awakened, who could perform tasks faster, easier, and overall much more efficiently than a regular person could hope to do.
thus after about a month without his parents, he was evicted from their home, which was quickly demolished. Had he relocated, he would have received a check of compensation for this; of course, he had no way to receive it, as well as having no ID to prove his identity.
And so he spent a while starving in the streets, before eventually learning how to scavenge. He dumpster dived and holed up as best he could near anything that could emit heat; however, even this chaos was apparently too peaceful for him, as he was in the first city at the time.
The strict curfew was heavily enforced there, and he was eventually detained and locked up for about a month. He actually enjoyed this far more than living on the streets, with a real roof and real food every day; he was almost content enough to sort out the storm raging through his head.
however once he was researched, they found his identity, his story, and of course, his money, which was used in its entirety to pay his bail.
After that, he was shipped off to the third city without another word and has lived as a scavenger ever since.
These beatings were quite regular, in fact, and he could almost understand them.
Unawakened like him were trash, leaching off the awakened of the republic, and these newly awakened wanted to use this new amazing power, so they took it out on those they felt were now below them.
He clenched a fist, enraged by his weakness, thinking back to some of the last times he had heard about the materialization when he had actually attended school.
"So, class, today we will learn about how to become an awakened, this is mandatory for your survival and the safety of those close to you, so i Suggest listening."
Anyone who had not been paying attention instantly turned to their teacher.
"As you know, before the Advent, Humans had no special abilities whatsoever. We relied on crude weaponry, all of which was destroyed around 10 years ago.:
He sighed and held out a hand.
"But as if to combat this catastrophe, some humans began falling into trances. Doctors had no time to monitor these things, but eventually, some of the people came back."
With that inside his hand, a small ball of blue flame ignited, and he held it for a moment before closing his hand and extinguishing it.
"We who returned received powers beyond anything that humans could ever do before, and became known as awakened."
A boy near him raised his hand to the teacher, looked at him, and nodded, permitting him to ask his question.
"Uhm... you said those who returned... what about... those who didn't?"
The teacher looked down in remorse.
After pausing for a long while, he finally spoke.
"Anyone who does not return, depending on how difficult the trial that they failed was, will allow a stronger monster into the world."
The class went dead silent.
The teacher pushed his glasses up and spoke again.
"So now you can see how crucial it is that every person inside of the cities passes their trial."
He paused and then continued.
"As such, I will tell you the way to enter the Materialization: is to realize what your true goal is."
The conversation had continued from their however, that part stuck with Sacril the most.
He smacked his fist into the ground, causing his knuckles to bleed.
He had yet to enter his Materialization, apparently never meeting the condition of achieving a true 'goal.'
His parents had died in a trolley accident, apparently when someone on board entered and failed their Materialization on purpose to cause havoc.
Perhaps if he had been awakened and gone with them, they would still be alive.
But alas, here he was.
He laughed quietly, a tinge of madness in his voice.
How long would he live this rat's life?
No, even the rats had not wanted anything to do with him.
He was worse than a rat, a stain of shit on the world.
'Perhaps I would be better off dead after all.'
He began to feel faint; it seemed the blood loss and exhaustion had caught up to him. This wasn't his first time passing out in an alley; however, this time it felt strange.
'Hmm, am I more hurt than I thought? Is this it for me after all?'
suddenly his entire world rocked. The sensation was so strange and foreign, he instantly knew something was wrong.
When his vision returned to him, he was looking up at the sky.
or well, something covering the sky.
'wait... the entire sky???'
Thousands of chains hung in the air above him. As his vision focused, he saw that the object falling from the sky was, in fact, a giant blade, which was slicing through the chains one by one.
He coughed and tried to stand, but it seemed his state from the real world had carried over into... this place, wherever it wa-
His eyes widened, and his pulse sped up. His eyes flashed around and went back up onto the blade in terror.
This wasn't some dream.
This was his Materialization.
He looked for a way to escape the blade, which looked like it only had about thirty seconds until it crushed the area as far as they could see.
He nearly laughed.
This was simply... impossible.
If what his teacher had said was correct, and the harder the trial was, the more horrifying the creature unleashed would be...
This would unleash something capable of destroying the entire Republic of Babel.