Blademaster Ascension

3- The Voice Within

The cool wind of autumn made the curtains flutter softly and the two people inside the room sighed from satisfaction.
"Finally, the third eclipse has come upon us. This one shall certainly hold surprises, hoho..."
"Stating the obvious and trying to sound all mysterious; your diplomatic tendency hasn't gone anywhere, has it?"

"Ahem, I am not wrong though."
"Whatever. How many of the bunkers have signaled green by now?"

"Five. The other two probably haven't been discovered yet."

"Good, good. It seems we will witness some interesting youngsters this time."

"That, we can be sure of. It's going to be fun, with all the new monsters and variant races. Want to call the rest of gang to watch it together? We could make a small fortune by betting..."

"Good idea!"

The two old men laughed contentedly on their seats.

........ ......... ......... ..........

Searching for habitable zone...]
[Initiating contact...]

Pain consumed whatever miniscule shred of consciousness Rowan had. His head felt like thousand tons and he couldn't even feel the rest of his body; he wasn't sure he wanted to though.

[Contact established...gathering data...]
[Proceeding...]

Rowan felt a splitting sensation inside his head and memories started flooding his thoughts.
His birth...His parent's faces...their disappearance...the monsters'...The harsh training everyday...just to survive...The nightmares of battlefields...fears...tears...chaos...And the sword he wielded in battles...
All of it overwhelmed him. Old pains, harsh memories, they all consumed his reasoning.

[Process complete...initiating system...]
Another wave of pain came and Rowan lost his consciousness for the second time.

"...Ro...a....nnn...r...A.....Rowan!"
Rowan was jolted awake by a familiar voice. He immediately opened his eyes and tried to sit up, only to end up falling on his back as if all strength has left his body. He turned his head around and saw Isa lying a few feet away on a bed with half his body bandaged.

"Uhh...Isa? What happened...?"

Isa was staring at him oddly, as if surprised by his awakening. After a couple of seconds he timidly asked,
"How do you feel?"

"Weak."

"Do you remember what happened in there?"

"Uhh...we saw those...people inside glass boxes," Rowan tried to recall, "and there was that broken box..."
He stopped speaking for a second as a chill ran down his spine. Immediately, his hands flew to his left eye, only to discover an anomaly. The skin around it was bandaged and felt numb. Very slowly, he touched the corned of his eyes.

"Isa...? What does my eye look like right now?" He asked in an alarmed tone.

"You don't wanna know," Isa replied firmly.

"...Shit."

"Yep, that sums it up."

Rowan hurriedly looked around for a mirror, only to discover that they were inside the hospital of their town. Feeling his strength slowly returning, he got down from the bed and slowly walked to the attached bathroom. There should be a mirror there. As he opened the door, his reflection greeted him.

"What the...?!"

His left eye looked extremely unnatural from a first glance. After closer inspection, he found that there were small holes around his pupil and they glowed with a very imperceptible red light; as if thin, electric wires were placed behind them. The whites of his eye had a reddish hue, reminding him of the large amount of blood which had flown out of it.