The Burst

1. The Burst



Prologue



For over 60 years, a battle for who would rule the world raged across the planet, dismantling entire lands, turning regions of great forests into deserts, and causing islands to vanish. The powers of those who fought were so great that they generated great environmental upheaval over entire lands. These powerful beings would eventually be known as the Emperor Beasts. They eventually reached a stalemate in their conquest for power, making them take the land within their proximity. This divided the planet into many different territories, each belonging to a single powerful entity.



Eventually, the animals that were against their rule began to fight the Emperor Beasts. Many animals were lost in the fighting, but eventually, most of the Emperor Beasts had been destroyed. A great warrior known as the being of Burst was well known for having defeated many of the numerous Emperor Beasts that had terrified it's denizens and selfishly taken the resources of the land for themselves.



The last of the Emperor Beasts vanished in an event known as the Star of the North, were an explosion visible for hundreds of miles destroyed all warriors who were present at the final battle. This was the light that had ended the Great Mayhem.



Present

 

Twenty years have passed since the end of the Great Mayhem. During those years, new and terrifying beings appeared all over the planet, marking a new age of fear for many of it's animal denizens. These new beings had already begun to take lands from the animals that thrived on them, forcing many to fight for what little room was left for them. Some of the animals now inhabited great establishments known to many as the Kingdoms, a set of settlements made by a powerful being known as the Deity Beast, who offered protection and resources in an otherwise savage and lifeless world.



Other animals banded together, forming their own establishments on the harsh lands that were once lush forests. In the wastelands that were not yet taken by the new Emperor Beasts, animals lived wildly, taking any food that appeared in the emergent forests that struggled to grow.

 

The newly established Emperor Beasts rule unopposed. They slowly expanded, those that had the power to fight them avoided them, and those that didn't had their efforts met with futility.



After many years of hopelessness and dread, an effulgent of hope is lit up over a land shrouded in fear.

 

An armored being, with a red orange, metal hide that glimmers in the light, looks over the edge of a great cliff that overlooks the vast empty land, having stopped on his vagrant journey to observe the surroundings. After several moments, he hears the sound of footsteps echoing across the rocks. He  looks directly below, standing on the edge and notices a dainty being, adorned with bowknots, looking up at him from several yards away while she walked with ease on the sheer vertical surface of the rocky walls, defying gravity by strolling up to where the armored being was.



“I’ve been looking for you, Grypto.” said the mysterious being, finally walking over the edge and unto the ledge. “Grypto?”,  exclaimed the armored being with a confused tone. “That is your name, have you forgotten?” she replied quietly.  He looks at her as if trying hard to recognize her but to no avail. He says to her solemnly “I think you got the wrong person, lady.” As he tries to walk away, he hears her faint voice say “No, wait, it really is you, Grypto.”



He faces her once again, trying to persuade her with his eyes before saying “Listen you; I don’t know who you are so that is proof enough for me that you must have the wrong person. Besides, I don’t think I have a name.”



“That’s because you forgot it,” she said quietly. He looked at her for a moment with disbelief and said in stuttering tone, “I forgot it?”



“Yes.” She replied with a faint smile and friendly eyes. They stood there silently for a moment, their eyes locked in a curious gaze. “Do you mind explaining yourself?” he said light-heartedly. “Sure.” She replied quietly, with her faint smile now diminishing as she began to tell her story.



She began to focus quietly and put her hands up in front of her as if holding to something invisible. Suddenly a mirror like surface appeared in between her hands that glowed in a faint light. Suddenly, images began to appear within the mirror, distorted by the swirls of light. “I’m going to show you my memories in this mirror while I explain, “she said timidly, “showing is better than telling.”  The armored being looked at the mirror curiously while preparing his ears in anticipation to what he was about to hear.



The image of an armored being of incredible stature appeared in the mirror, an armor of orange metal encasing what appeared to be eyes blazing with fury from a face shrouded and obscured by a great, fearsome armor. Long hair dropped from behind the helmet tied by an orange band. A large cape with edges shredded and tattered from many battles seem to reach far back behind him with a background of endless light on the horizon appearing to be distant. “This was you”, she uttered. After a few moments, another image appeared in the mirror. A female being, tall as a tree, with hairs that appeared to be ribbons that extended far behind her, defying gravity through sheer, ambient telekinesis, with a body adorned in ornate bows and patterns appeared.  “That was me,” she said and they were both silent for a moment.



“We were married,” she blurted out; an image of what seemed to look like his and hers past forms adorned in wedding attire. He looked at her with a petrified face of terror. “We had 5 children,” she said nimbly. His face grew with ever more fear. “And now you’re coming back to take care of all of us!” she finished, with a demented expression. “Nooooooooo,” He screamed in terror, trying to run as far away as possible.



“Just kidding,” she replied quietly while holding the armored being in mid air with telekinesis, preventing him from getting any further, a look of faint amusement painted on her face. “Hey! You don’t look like the type to make jokes! This is my past we are talking about here!” he replied with some level of disturbance, while floating upside down a dozen feet off the ground.

She slowly floated him back to the spot where he initially stood and placed him gently on the ground, feet first, a sly look of amusement still fresh on her face. She briefly held her hands to her mouth and turned her head away in quiet laughter that quickly faded as she returned to her explanation.



The girl’s eyes became more sincere and her mood became sullen. “I apologize,” she quietly said, her psychic mirror showing nothing but swirls of energies.  He stood there, looking at her with inquisitive eyes, his tense mood from before now gone due to her playful act. “You noticed?” she asked serenely. The armored being thought for a moment and replied “I do feel more relaxed, although, I really dislike your method!” She looked at him with a faint smile on her face again, and said “You were getting tense, so I said something to help you relax back like we use to before every battle.” He looked at her with a look of disbelief and eyes lazily open, he thought “D-Did we really talk like that back then? What kind of weirdo would do such things?”



The girl focused and became even more serious in mood, this surprised the armored entity and he listened intently to what she was about to say. The image on the mirror showed the fearsome orange warrior once again, eyes blazing in fury. “Your name was Grypto of the Burst,” she said with a solemn tone.  “You fought with many Emperor Beasts throughout the Great Mayhem; you wanted to free the animals from their oppression,” she paused briefly, her expression becoming melancholy, various images of battles between powerful beasts and fearsome warrior appeared in the mirror, “You fought for many years, you fought all the way to the very end,” she said faintly. She stopped speaking for an instant and images of Grypto and three other fearsome beasts appeared in the mirror. “During the final battle, you led a group of beings against the remaining Emperor Beasts and their forces.” The images in the mirror showed the fearsome warrior being triumphant over three of the emperor beasts. “Just when we thought the Emperor Beasts were defeated, the last of them appeared with a terrible power,” she said in her soft, sad voice.



The mirror showed images of the final emperor beast unleashing waves of energy from his hands while the fearsome warrior attempted to strike at the epicenter of the waves with a great sword engulfed in energy that flowed from it like flames. “You tried to stop it,” she said with great sadness. The last image is of him being overcome by the waves of light and appearing to disintegrate within them.



The screen becomes bright, “That was the last time I ever saw you,” she said, over taken with grief, her past self is shown nearly disintegrating in the light. Swirls of energy appeared briefly in the mirror before another image materialized on the screen. “I found myself deep in the grand abyss, where light is faint and no sound is heard,” she explained, the image of her former self now reduced to what looked like rock like shapes of what she use to look like. “I laid there in the darkness in a form that wasn’t able to move anymore,” she said, “All I thought about was if you were still alive.”



He looked at her puzzled as she stood there with her eyes closed, her lips bitter, thinking of the distant past. “After sometime had passed I found a faint signal of your aura from very far away, when I finally felt this, I was overcome with relief,” she said, still melancholy. After I had found you, I noticed that I wasn’t able to move anymore, and that the only way to regain myself immediately would be to discard most of my remains and remake my form from what I had left, just like you did,” she explained, the mirror showing her present appearance emerging from the remains of her old form. “I did that?” said the armored being. “Yes!” the girl said with content, a faint smile appearing on her face again. The mirror showed her at another place with what appeared to be the remains of something big. “Hey, I use to live there!” he exclaimed. “That’s where you discarded your old form and made your new form from what was left, but you seemed to have lost your memories during the process,” she explained with some discontent.



“I guess you are telling the truth, I somehow feel it,” he said rubbing the back of his head. “Although, why are you so over friendly with me, especially in some of those images.” Suddenly the mirror returns to an image of when they were together, her old form looking in awe at his previous form. “There it is! Is this some kind of joke! I thought you were kidding about the marriage thing!” he exclaimed, pointing his finger at the image in the mirror. “We weren’t married, but, we did have something special,” she said, now holding her hands to her face in an attempt to hide her blush, her jaw dropping in awe. “Impossible! I would never fall in love! There’s no way that would happen!” he said defensively.



“A warrior lives a solitary life, there is no room for love in war,” he proclaimed with his fist raised high in the air. “You said something like that decades ago”, she said her blushing becoming more apparent.  “Even if you don’t remember who you are, you’re still the same as ever,” she said with a smile full of ease, her hands still gripping her face. He turns away from her and stubbornly crosses his arms in disbelief then after sometime, looks at her again and says “It was nice to meet you “again”, I think, but I don’t have any memories of you or who I use to be,” he said. “I thank you for telling me my name though, and I’ll use it from now on.”



The armored being now having a name, grabbed his sword and impaled it on the ground and said “I live a life where I’m hunted and feared regularly, it’s dangerous to be around me.” The girl looked at him with sad eyes, full of worry. “I’m nothing like that person you showed me, I don’t like the company of others, and I would definitely not lead a team of them into battle,” he determined.  “And I definitely would not fall in love.” She looked at him with sorrowful eyes as he said this, he felt a deep sadness emanating from her.  He thought to himself worriedly, not knowing what to do, when the girl suddenly spoke “If you don’t mind, may I travel with you?” He looked at her with perplexed eyes, trying to find the answer and stuttered, “If that’s all you want, then for a while, until I can find you a safe living place!” She looked at him with a faint, yet melancholy smile, satisfied with his answer.



The two walked down the seemingly ill landscape, towards an endless horizon in which a tired sun began to settle in. The emerging forests lining the path that appeared to fade into the horizon, utter bitterness filled the land as the day ended. “I forgot to ask your name,” said the armored being now known as Grypto. “It’s Uigu,” the mystery girl said, faintly smiling afterwards, her eyes filled with hope. They walked off into the dreariness of the land filled only with emergent plant and tree life that trickled the endless barren ground.



END