Dawn of Zero

Prologue

Ausbrennen der Schwäche.

Three words were all it took to turn the world from its usual peaceful slumber into a state of destruction. It's during a winter night, where a divine-looking human figure descended from the sky above, its face barely recognisable due to rays of white light emitting from a pair of magical spiked wings.

Upon stepping onto the ground, the figure raised its left hand and chanted the three words with a voice that was harmonic, yet hostile.

"Ausbrennen der Schwäche!" Multiple explosions then began to occur throughout the surrounding area. Everything around the vicinity's engulfed in flames, while beasts that spot a werewolf-like appearance were manifested and began destroying everything in sight.

A five-year-old boy with reasonably short, coarse wavy black hair witnessed the forest around him beginning to burn as he's training in the woods and began to rush back to his home, situated in a small old village surrounded by the now burning forest.

As soon as he arrived at the village's front gate, he could feel an eerie atmosphere lingering around him. Houses and shops looked deserted due to the lack of lights, only the faint light from the inferno around the village could assist him in navigating back home.

Upon reaching there, the boy ran towards the entrance of his house and opened the wooden sliding door, where he's then greeted by a horrific sight.

The feeling of shock began filling inside his mind, and a scream's about to come out of his mouth, but he could only whimper faintly and fell onto his knees while letting out tears. Right in front of his eyes, a large pool of blood and two bodies were lying on the wooden floor, their severed limbs scattered around the house. When taken a closer look, the bodies turned out to be his parents.

As horror and grief began to get the better of him, one of the beasts nearby picked up the stench from his sweat and immediately howled to call its pack before rushing towards him. He began to hear their footsteps and proceeded to rush out of his house.

The boy slipped on the damp ground and stumbled onto his knees. As he attempted to glance behind him, he could feel the warmth of the beast's breath breezing gently on his neck. Instinctively, he grabbed a broken wooden stick on the ground nearby and thrust its sharp end into the beast's stomach. He managed to get away from the wounded beast but was soon found out by its pack nearby. He continued to run for his life, before one of the monsters clawed him on his back, his grey t-shirt torn up at the back and a massive wound opening up as a result.

As the boy tripped onto the ground in pain but got back up soon after with adrenaline pumping through his veins, the chase continued until they entered a nearby burning forest ahead. Even though the forest fire prevented him from looking further around him, he knew every nook and cranny of the surrounding. Despite getting more burns on his skin from the ember following the wind's path, he successfully outran them by using a secret route; its path's hidden beneath a pile of dead tree branches. The beasts couldn't keep up with him as the heat got the better of them, and they got hit by a large tree branch from above.

Almost blinded in panic and fear, he ran through the blazing forest, intuitively avoiding the falling branches along the route. He wouldn't even dare to look back, but instead focused on reaching his destination—an old cave situated within a vast snowfield. The cave wasn't exactly deep, but it's just enough for someone looking for a temporary shelter, as long as they have a fire lit up and a sufficient supply of food and water.

As he approached the cave, his rapidly depleting stamina and loss of blood from the wound on his back earlier began to take a toll on him. The weather also transitioned from an average snowfall to an Arctic blizzard in just a matter of a few minutes, putting out the fire in the forest in the process.

He then fell onto the snowy ground on his little knees and looked up to the stormy winter sky with tears welling up his emerald eyes.

It's cold...

It's dark...

It hurts...

These words clouded his mind as more snow piled up on his limp figure. He wouldn't give up on his life, however, as he dared to look ahead of the fading forest in hopes of somebody coming to his aid. When his vision faded further, a mysterious silhouette appeared in front of him. The boy couldn't tell whether it's a hostile beast or someone who survived the earlier onslaught. He saw the figure got closer and closer until its legs were near his face. Before he could attempt to recognise that figure, his vision went pitch-dark.

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Note: "Ausbrennen der Schwäche" means (roughly anyway) "Burn out the weak". Do correct me if I got it wrong, my friend helped me with this since I'm not good with German.