Dead Man's Revenge

Everything ended on that day.

On June 16, 2157, "The Eclipse" was dropped onto Elynor.

"The Eclipse" was a bomb developed by the True Human's Military with one purpose: to possess enough destructive power to obliterate entire magical kingdoms in a single blow. They intended for it to be the final solution to the 8-year-long conflict between True Humans and Magicals.

However, they gravely underestimated the bomb's devastating power. Within the few seconds after contact, "The Eclipse" had disintegrated all life, land, and structures within a 100-kilometer radius and sent shockwaves of destruction rippled across the planet, obliterating Arcane and Modern cities alike, sparing nothing in its wake.

But the most deadly consequence of the bomb came after the destruction, for the Cataclysmic Event had thrusted massive clouds of dust and radiation into the sky, triggering a nuclear winter which blanketed the entire planet. One by one, plant life slowly froze to death, followed by the animals, followed by the very air itself, which grew thicker and colder with each passing day, until even the last breath of warmth seemed a distant memory, trapped beneath a relentless sky of ash and ice.

In the wake of this disaster, the True Humans and Magicals were forced to put aside their differences and joined forces to seek a solution to the nuclear winter before all life on the planet was extinguished. And so, the city of Kaltara was designated to become the last stronghold of the humans who were able to survive the disaster. With the power of the "mother stone", a magical stone of impossibly high magical power that was being kept in Kaltara, the Magicals were able to direct the energy of the stone to set up a barrier that covered the city, sheltering it from the cold of the outside world. 

Fifty years later, Kaltara still remains the last beacon of hope for humanity.

And now, within the last sanctuary of the humans deep in the outer cities of Kaltara, we now turn our attention to a certain boy.

This boy currently lay sprawled out in his bed, and was the definition of a disheveled teenager. His hair, as black as night, was an unruly mess, sticking out in every direction as though it had been intentionally styled to mock the very idea of order. His shirt was so tattered and torn that it more accurately fitted the description of a rag, and was currently lifted in such a way that to expose his slim, yet muscular belly, something that he had built up in the unruly environment of the slums. And he was currently slumbering peacefully in his sleep…

Until suddenly, a harsh ray of fluorescent light casted its unwelcome glare onto his face, rudely interrupting him from his slumber.

Groggily, Martin rubbed his eyes, rotated his body 180 degrees such that his face was now buried into his pillow, and prepared to return to his dreams once again.

But then, a familiar voice cut through the silence.

"Oi, Martin, wake up. Don't you know that sleeping in that position is bad for your body?"

Martin groaned, barely able to lift his head. "Yes, Gramps, just let me sleep for five more minutes."

"Martin, my boy, have you forgotten? Today is your birthday."

Martin's lips, which were currently buried under his pillow, curled into a bitter smile. "Gramps, you should know by now that I don't care about my birthday anymore." Afterall, it was not like their situation allowed for much, or any, forms of celebration to be carried out. They simply couldn't afford to do so, especially when it was already hard enough to even survive out here in the slums. And so, to Martin, birthdays have lost their importance. It was just like any other normal day.

"Even if that's the case, it's already morning. You should be waking up now."

"Five more minutes, Gramps," Martin mumbled.

"Martin, wake up."

"Five more minutes…"

"Wake up."

"Let me have just a bit more sleep…"

"Martin Zalchev, using my authority as your current guardian who is in charge of your wellbeing, I order you to wake up."

"... Fine," Martin conceded with a heavy sigh, sitting up in his bed and rubbing his eyes again. As his blurry vision cleared, he was greeted by the familiar sight of their small, threadbare room. The walls were cracked and barren, with the only source of light being a small lightbulb that was hung on the ceiling. Standing at a whopping 25 square feet in area, it could just barely fit 2 tattered beds within its premise, for its 2 tattered residents to live within. And without windows, it felt more like a prison cell than an actual living area.

"Good, you need to get rid of that bad habit of yours if you want to survive around here."

"Hey, Gramps, what's for breakfast?" Martin asked, his voice still thick with sleep.

"You know the drill. Bread and water." Gramps reached his arm into a plastic bag that lay on the floor next to his bed and threw a loaf of bread at Martin, who caught it in the air and took a bite.

"Aww man, I guess I got my hopes up too much, even though it's my birthday."

"Quit acting spoiled," Gramps said with a half-grin. "Back in my day, all we had was water."

"Yeah, well, you can't survive on water alone."

"That's the thing, Most of us didn't. I was just lucky enough to find crumbs of food to keep going."

Martin used his hand to push back his hair in an attempt at correcting his wildly messy hair, and turned to look at his gramps.

Gramps was in his mid-forties, an age not too young to be sprinting all over the place, and not too old that he was totally incapable of work. His hair was still mostly black with a few strands of white here and there, which, in Gramps's words, meant he was "still in his prime", whatever that means. His once-powerful frame had begun to lose some of its strength over the years, but there was still fire in his eyes. 

"Are you going out today as well?" Martin asked, "to scavenge for tomorrow?"

"Not today. Took care of that yesterday," 

"Why? Is today some special occasion?"

It was now Gramps's turn to look at Martin with a stone dead expression.

"Why yes, my dear little child, it is a special occasion today. And as a gift to a certain someone because of this special occasion, I decided to give him the best present he could ever dream of: spending quality time with me, his self-proclaimed father."

Martin grinned. "How sweet of you. I shall now shed tears of gratitude."

"Don't push it."

By now, Martin had finished eating the piece of bread that he had been given.

"That was a great meal. I rate it one star out of five."

"You can't be serious. I worked hard to find that," Gramps grumbled.

"Hmm… alright. Out of pity, I'll bump it up to a 3-star rating."

"That bread went through so much just to end up in your stomach like that. I expect nothing less than five stars."

Martin gave him a mischievous smile. "Alright, alright. Five stars out of ten."