Last Era

Chapter 01-Eric

Prelude.......

I lift her head gently as I slipped an arm below her, and brought her closer...

Her skin was cold and pulse missing.

She didn't move ...it took me too long to realize the truth...no... I was hesitant to accept it...

"No...."....my thoughts in disarray...

My arms tighten their embrace...

"No...no... not....yet.... " ...my insides started to scream...

But no sounds escape my mouth....my teeth ground loudly...and my face contorted.

My breathing quickened...and my body started to tremble violently...

The light grey suit she was wearing was dyed red from the thick crimson liquid that flowed out endlessly and pooled around her body.

Tears started to well up in my eyes.

Her blood soaked into my hands that embraced her tightly...

All the things...all my memories with her flow through my head with no control...

The road we take...that annoyingly big home...the kitchen, were I was forced to cook with her...all those times when she'd barge into my room...her incessant nagging about everything...the one person who celebrated my birthdays....all those things that I thought had no significance... as the images from each of those memories flashed in my head.

"Aaaaa......." A painful voice escapes my parched throat.

"....it's too soon..." the painful voice continues, my chest feels like it would be torn apart from the pain...

Her flowing black hair dangled...and her now lifeless body...supported in my arms. Like a puppet with its strings cut...she didn't move.

Looking at my shrunk back a shadow loomed behind me....its bored voice reached my ears from behind.

"It's not like I have much choice, but I can't really act spoilt and choosy at my age...hmm..."

A carefree tone that acted as if it had no concern whatsoever to the events that took place.

"Hmm....fine, then I'll choose you to be the hero who saves the damsel in distress...", midway his apathetic bored tone changing into a more mocking voice... "Well you people couldn't really refuse the honorable and chivalrous knighthood, the hero and villain play, saving the princess, the rising star,...ah and what not..."

His voice reached me but I didn't react...I couldn't ....this reality was not something that I could just accept like this...and the reason for all this was standing behind me.

But I didn't feel anything akin to hate or rage...it was like my own life was slowing escaping me.

As the blood flowed out of her body little by little...my hands almost proportionately kept losing strength.

I no longer had the will to keep going,

I raise my head and the view around me fills my vision. Most of it shrouded in darkness, but I can still make out some details....there were red and crimson patches all over the stone hall...

Bodies of people...ripped...torn and dismembered like a giant beast had rampaged here.

I turn my neck to side, gazing over my shoulders. The walls were sculpted with numerous hieroglyphic patterns that I didn't understand.

At a distance behind, that said beast was present. Its size twice that of a bear, sharp teeth with a coat of red and its bloodied fangs....

Wrestling for strength with a full silver humanoid giant, the Gear-Device that I was piloting...and