Enderverse: The Virtuous Knight

Chapter 1: "The Artifact"

..."Who are you?"

As the young boy covered in open wounds and burn marks questioned him, the white hooded figure turned to look at the asker, and once he saw the small, sad child, he grinned.

"I am the one who controls the elements. I am a being of great power."

Still slightly confused, the boy asked him another question:

"Where is everyone? Why is the village on fire?"

His mouth began to slightly quiver and his face started to heat up. Asking that question apparently made him upset. But the hooded figure thought nothing of his sadness, and proceeded to answer his question.

"The village is burning, because I was the one who set it on fire."

As he heard that seemingly frightening answer from him, he began to grow more upset. What did he do to witness his home being burnt down? What about everyone else? What happened to his family and friends? Did they get away safely? These were all questions that this boy desperately wanted answered. He cared so much for the others, that he didn't stop to think about his own safety. He looked back up to the figure, who was now watching the burning flames slowly engulf the concrete buildings and houses around them. The boy asked more questions:

"But...But what about everyone else? Did you at least spare them all?!"

Upon hearing this particular question, the figure closed his eyes and quietly laughed to himself. The confused boy watched him laugh as he was on the verge of tears and sadness. Then, the hooded figure stopped laughing, opened his eyes, and took a closer look at the boy. He then gave a sinister smile at the boy.

"They're all dead, and there's nothing you can do about it to bring them back."

The figure stood back up and laughed maniacally out loud into the night. As he continued laughing, the boy only stood there frozen, pondering on what he had just heard.

"Everyone... is dead?"

It was at this moment that a tear ran down the boy's face, then two, then several. It wasn't long until he was going to have a emotional breakdown. He began to picture the faces of the people he loved in his mind: his family, his friends, and acquaintances. All of these people, he had a close relationship with him, and the thought of all of them suddenly dying would be mentally catastrophic. He loved them all.

The words "They're all dead" began to repeat in the boy's mind. He cried out to try stop the voices repeating those words, but to no avail. More and more voices began to whisper to the boy and repeat those words, and it was so unbearable that the boy kneeled down and tried to stop it by blocking his ears. Nothing worked, and the voices just continually kept on repeating those words.

The boy was crying, begging for the voices to stop, but those exact words kept ringing on in his mind. He couldn't take it anymore, but before he had the chance to try something, the voices suddenly stopped.

And then he woke up.

...

"General?"

It seemed distorted at first, but as that word kept repeating itself, it became more clearer each time. It repeated itself several times until it was loud and clear.

"General? Are you feeling unwell?"

Suddenly, he broke from his dazed, hypnotized-like state and snapped back to reality. It was at this moment that he realised that he was on the soft ground on his hands and knees, with a panicked, sickened expression on his face. His whole body was trembling. He decided to think of something else, for now.