Screehh!
The sound of metal rubbing against metal slowly entered my ears.
Opening my eyes, I found myself lying in the descending room.
Surprisingly, there was little to no blood on the floor, and the bodies of Elmak, Chaves, and Arther were nowhere to be seen.
Did the Calamity burn them to oblivion?
Feeling just how hot the ground was, the terrifying thought crossed my sluggish mind.
No, that's the wrong question, because where is the Calamity, by the way?
As if hearing my thoughts, his voice traversed the air.
" you up?"
His tone, yet Monotonous, was not that of a caring, tired person, but one of a predator fed up with waiting for his prey to regain consciousness.
Shifting my eyes and slowly sitting up, the Flame of Calamity's figure entered my line of sight.
He had both his hands tiredly resting on his waist as the ripped, bloody elite uniform and his red hair rustled due to the breeze that entered the descending room through the massive hole in the roof.
He had his guard down.
If I wanted to escape, this was the right moment.
But after thinking about it more, and also taking into consideration my current energy and the gap in our power levels, I did not act rashly.
I was at the Flame of Calamity's mercy at the moment.
And so, I earnestly said,
"Yes."
I wanted my voice to sound calm, but for some reason it came out low and cracking.
I was afraid.
Afraid of having to fight the Flame of Calamity, afraid of the pain I would receive during the fight, afraid of losing, afraid of dying, and most saliently, afraid of not having found...
"What do you know about the Day of Shadows?"
His sudden question left me in a trance.
"I... I... I..."
My thoughts were everywhere.
"The time before impact and the sudden explosion of this room is about ten minutes, so I would advise you to talk clearly."
Immediately after saying that, he retracted his right hand from his waist and rubbed his neck.
"Sigh, I forgot you can't speak."
Turning around, his half-masked face looked at me.
"Now you can talk."
Under his gaze, my mind was windswept by questions and fear.
One of the former was why he had asked me that question.
And the fear that crossed me was that the mad Calamity was perhaps playing with his food before it ate
Even if the latter were the case, I still had to play along.
Tentatively lifting my hands, I recalled as I said,
"The Day of Shadows, reportedly occurring ten years ago, came to be after the nightmares ambushed the other kingdoms at night, leaving nothing but a trail of blood and corpses in the cities they attacked.
As such, as a means of responding to the massacre of their people, the top five kingdoms held a conference before sending out an armada to the kingdom of Terath in an attempt to wipe it out.
Though the nightmares of Terath were small in number compared to their attackers, they did not retreat or bow, and not once did they ask for negotiations.
Instead, they defended themselves and, at the same time, launched attacks on the other kingdoms in the form of two towering nightmares–the collosal beasts.
Soon, the entire world was plunged into an ugly, bloody war.
At the end of it all, the Kingdom of Terath fell and, just as the top five kingdoms wanted, it was wiped out.
Literally wiped off the surface of the world.
No houses remained, no statues remained, and no nightmares remained either.
Only scorched dry land was left to be seen.
According to several records, the hellish sight, lasting from dawn till dusk, could not bear the sun's radiant glow.
The entire day was enveloped in shadows, as though the heavens could not stand witnessing the bloody nightmare."
Looking at me, Captain Benu repeated my last line before adding,
"Judging by your tone, you seem not to agree with either party's actions."
"Of course not. Even though the nightmares started the entire thing, attacking them was not the right move, for it only led to the spilling of more blood.
Worse still, innocent lives were lost on both sides because of the higher-ups' decisions."
"So you wanted the top five kingdoms to sit back and ignore the ambush that led to the destruction of their cities?"
"Exactly."
"Why?"
"Why? Well, look around, Captain. Ten years later, the problem of the nightmares is still in existence.
So what then did the top five kingdoms achieve on the Day of Shadows?
It certainly wasn't the eradication of the nightmare problem.
I'll tell you what they achieved: plunging innocent lives into war, leading them to their deaths, destroying countless homes, and creating a never-ending hatred between the surviving nightmares and the rest of the world.
Now tell me, Captain, what is more dangerous than a nightmare that has no attachment to the world?"
He remained silent as I added,
"One whose only attachment is hatred."
Without even realizing it, I had raised my "voice" at my captor.
My eyes were burning with rage.
Leaning back and suppressing my temper, I recalled the horror that was the baby nightmare.
"You've got no idea what you people have created."
A silence, save for the screeching sound of the elevator, fell over the room.
"Believe me, boy, I do. And as such, I aim to fix everything, which leads me to you."
He took off his half-back mask, revealing a severe cut that run from his left eye, across the lips, ending near his bearedless chin.
"To begin with, do not worry. I am not going to kill you.
I am, as your friend Commander Gal put it at the time, your rescuer.
However, having betrayed my kingdom, I would like to know what Gal sees in you.
Why has he gone out of his way to help you, and are you worth my efforts?
So I'll ask you something.
What is it that you seek in life, boy?"
What I seek?
I swallowed as the unexpected question slowly appeared to send me back in time.
Back to the boundless colorful void I once lived in.
Here, where beautiful colors with no fixed shapes constantly swirled about, I, Tintless, felt out of place.
I was like a mole on a perfect body.
A stone in a delicious bowl of rice.
A weed in an evergreen field of wheat.
Soon, the colors took shape, animating my memories.
I saw myself conversing with Mr. Fiction on his white tower.
He was telling me his ever-enjoyable stories.
Those were good times.
However, as soon as I left Mr. Fiction and plunged into this world in hopes of making good stories that I could one day tell Mr. Fiction, I found only ridicule, hatred, and betrayal.
First it was the old woman.
Then came those three bandits.
So many others followed that they were hard to count.
And then, lastly, the reanimation of my fall courtesy of Mr. Freak loomed before me.
I stared at the memories, replaying them one by one and scrutinizing each.
And to my surprise, I discovered something familiar in all of them.
I closed my eyes and reopened them, finding Captain Benu's questioning glare.
With my mind settled, my nerves calmed, and my voice steady, I raised my head and said,
"What I seek is purpose."
Yes, purpose.
For a good story is nothing without the protagonist having a valid goal.