Day 1:
"HEY ZEPHYR, SHUT UP…"
Abruptly, his senses beca unclogged. Sound, sll, and a mixture of odd, jagged, wet touch overtook him in a sudden burst like a crashing wave.
Drip… Drip… Drip…
Damp stone and stale air along with the unmistakable stench of decay and mildew, flooded his nostrils. The air was thick and suffocating, broken only by muffled groans and hisses that slithered through the stillness like snakes.
Yet his mind latched onto that persistent dripping—until a voice shattered his trance.
"ZEPHYR!!"
Sothing cold abruptly struck his face; a sudden, chilling wave rattled his spine. He recoiled instinctively nearly falling, his left arm colliding with sothing sharp that, oddly, registered no pain or feeling.
His eyes flew open, adjusting to the dim light cast by dying torches.
He was in a box made of cracked stone, one that was the size of a king-size bedroom with its ceiling extending high.
Empty shackles hung from the mossy, uneven wall, and the jagged, sharp ground had puddles which was clearly the source of that decaying sll.
It was only when his eyes landed on the set of rusted bars to his right did he realize where he truly was.
A prison cell…
There was a slight mont of shock before Joseph realized what happened, his face returning to its usual deanour as everything flooded into him all at once.
_________________________
Zephyr
I am a calm person, frighteningly so for most others… But now, my calmness frightens even .
'I'm… dead? This is a reincarnation... A new world. I'm sure of it.'
Looking at myself and surroundings, that was the first conclusion that my mind ca to. To , this was oddly sound; as though it was a feeling instilled in my very being.
Short limbs… I'm… in the body of a child? In a prison cell?
What kind of person was the previous owner of this body? What happened to them? Did they die and I took over? Why am I here? Did soone put here?
I strained my mind for answers, yet no previous knowledge from this body returned. Instead, sothing else did…
As I sat, fragnts of mory trickled back like water through cracked stone. mories of my life on earth…
'Nina… dear sister… All those mories were real… but rely a dream... They must have been...'
Last thing I rembered before waking was my consciousness fading into black as that factory erupted into chaos. Everything beyond that point existed in fragnts, obscured by a deep veil of shadows.
I knew there was more—
Beyond there, I was aware of certain things, but the full picture eluded .
I knew certain things with absolute certainty. I reached the apex of strength, Ki mastery, and power in the underworld... My code na was Wolf... I nearly lost my arm once during a mission... My best friend's na was Allen... I paused, eye twitching slightly. Best friend?
Hundreds of tiny fragnts locked into place, so carrying more weight than others, each one I was certain was true, they were my mories after all. With these pieces, it was safe to assu that I didn't perish that night in the factory. No— that was an impossibility.
Although my last clear mory was when I was twelve, I have a feeling my current ntal age was no doubt higher. I was certainly not that sa naive child.
'Why only fragnts? Why has my mory been corrupted? Is this a side effect of reincarnation?' I had no idea.
Still, the most crucial fragnts remained had yet to return… The ones that mattered most—my dear Nina's fate.
I tried squeezing my mind for an answer, yet only two things surfaced... No, three...
First: 'I kept her safe...'
Second: 'We will et again... I promise...'
And third, a phrase that echoed in my ears, causing my entire body to pulse with its rhythm: "BROTHER!! PLEASE LIVE!!! I WANT YOU TO LIVE!!!"
'Did I die protecting her? Or was it a natural death?' I strained my mind for answers, but only the infinite mist of shadows that shrouded my mories erged.
Eventually, I surrendered to the futility of that path and concentrated on the other words... 'I kept her safe... We will et again...' I pondered their implications…
'What could that an? Could she also be in this world? I guess it'd be best if I go with the flow for now until I can find answers…'
'Then—'
"ZEPHYR!!!"
_________________________
"ZEPHYR!!" That voice, now ringing louder than ever, snapped him out of his inner stupor.
From the absolute darkness it ca, and his gaze imdiately followed— A voice that had always been there but that he had only just noticed, the voice of a female he did not recognize.
He turned his head, and there he saw:
She stood before him,a girl no older than twelve with hair white as winter moonlight, falling over her shoulders in wild disarray. Filthy prison garb hung from her small fra, the dull brown fabric making her pale, dirt-smudged skin seem almost translucent.
Her eyes were like chips of ice floating in a murky sea, cold and piercing, as if trying to see right through him. They glinted in the faded light, reflecting the dying torchlight like twin stars in a polluted sky.
Tall and proud she stood with her spine straight as an arrow and her head held high. Her movents were graceful and fluid, like a bird in flight, despite the shackles that bound her limbs grounded.
Although she had an appearance similar to that of a feral trapped animal, there was a sense of quiet dignity about her that would have commanded fear and respect from anyone if it weren't him.
Suddenly, sothing changed; her movents slowed, the ferocity of her eyes softened, and her gaze began to waver.
She took one step back and pointed, "ZEPHYR!! What's wrong with you!? How dare you not respond to when I question you! Know your place, servant boy!"
No response.
The silence that grew between them made the fetid air even more suffocating.
'This isn't english… but… I can understand her? Of all things in this world, why can I speak and understand the language? No other knowledge and mories? What makes this special?'
Quickly, Joseph got over his initial shock, and brought his mind back to reality.
'So I must be a slave or a servant… My na is Zephyr… And she must be my owner it seems… '
"HEY I SAID—"
His gaze was solely on the ground, only taking slight peaks up towards the girl to probe her reaction.
Now was not the ti to be arrogant.
'I have no mories from the owner of this body.'
He lacked power— the power of knowledge.
For one to survive, they must know what to expect. Fighting an invisible enemy was an assured loss.
Right now he was no different than a newborn— For all he knew this entire world was underground, fat people were seen as attractive, pee was stored in the balls, and the laws of physics did not apply.
This world was completely alien to him. He knew not his own strength nor that of this girl. Nor did he know her status and na, power dynamics, or what got him in this prison cell. He was completely unaware of who he was and how he fit in.
In theory, one wrong step may spell certain death.
But to question existence itself as he knew it was a trendous ntal burden, even for him. For now, it was best to assu things functioned as he knew, and identify any contradictions as he encountered them. For now, things seed very earth-like.
Seeing how she was his 'master' it was safe to assu she was more powerful than he was, or at the very least soone of significant importance to Zephyr's life.
It was best he lay low— speak and interact as little as possible; act normal for now and simply examine. 'That's what anyone with more than half a brain cell would do,' Joseph concluded.
He had seen and even been a part of many master-servant relationships in his past. In fact, he had been on both sides and knew precisely how to act— even the slightest change of deanour he could pick up on. One could say he was even a connoisseur.
Yet in this darkness, it beca infinitely harder to discern.
"Apologies, mistress. This servant must have lost his composure and had a nightmare." Joseph knelt, his voice soft but clear.
He waited patiently for her response, but she remained still, her unfinished sentence hanging in the air.
Is she in shock? Over sothing so simple? What kind of person was this Zephyr?
…
The room descended into silence, but not for long.
"HEY!! WHAT'S WITH THE SHOUTING!! QUIET DOWN RUNTS!!" A rumbling voice cut through the silence like lightning.
A gust of stale air swept through the chamber, making the torches dance wildly, casting grotesque shadows across the walls.
Heads snapped toward the rusted cell bars where a man, no, a giant stood. His silhouette was massive, towering above like a mountain of flesh and tal, his features shrouded in a thick miasma of darkness that left only his pricking eyes gleaming as if they were burning coals in a dark furnace peaking through his helm. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the N0veI.Fiɾe
Cold sweat trickled down the girl's forehead as she unconsciously retreated a step. Her breathing, suddenly shallow, beca the only sound she could hear.
'It's him. That very sa prison guard…' She gritted her teeth and thought to herself.
Her gaze narrowed. At that mont, an urge overca her, one that burned like hot needles screaming at her to act. Yet, there she was, her body frozen stiff as if icy tendrils wrapped around her thighs.
'Oh 'High Priestess', give strength…'
The more she stared into his burning eyes, the more she could feel the weight of his gaze close in on her.
Yet even still, she could not allow herself to look away.
It was only when she noticed what was directly in front of her did her face take on a completely new expression.
'Zephyr!?'
Her face widened. There, only a few steps away from the cell bars, that boy stood, breaths away from that man. Part of her thought he was crazy, that he was so frozen in fear, that he had simply forgotten to flee. But nevertheless, there was a deeper instinct that whispered otherwise.
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