Garden Of The Abyss

"Seriously, he's still at it?"

"What a nutcase." 

"Ha-ha! What good does he think it's going to do? Does he think learning some martial arts is going to make him rich or something?"

The hecklers spoke without any care of their words reaching the ears of the man as he sparred with the vacant air before him. Drenched from head-to-toe in sweat, his entire body had felt like it had been on fire for hours at this point, begging him to stop.

But stopping is the last thing he had in mind. That wasn't quite right; there were hardly any meaningful thoughts flowing through his mind. He simply allowed himself to be swallowed in the process of throwing one fist after another, perfecting the grace of such a maneuver through to be simple into a refined gem. 

Even the sound of each droplet of his body's exuded exhaustion hitting the wooden floorboards beneath his feet. The belittling voices drew him out of this zone as he suddenly stopped, causing the heckling teenagers to fall to silence at the man's abrupt stop. 

"Hey! Looking to learn some moves?!"

As exhausted as his conditioned, sweat-lathered body looked to be, the man spoke to them with gleeful fervor, smiling with his pearly whites as his hazel locks tied into a ponytail swung behind him. Without so much as a word, the teens scurried off as the man was left silent. 

Just when I thought I found some students. Not even my sick moves were enough to reel them in, he smiled. 

Falling down onto his rear, he finally allowed himself to rest as he took in plentiful breaths into his lungs. 

The brief reprieve from training was just that as he heard frantic footsteps approaching the thin door of his training venue. 

"Fai!"

The sliding, pale white door to his spacious training area was suddenly pulled open. 

"Qui…?"

Using a rag to wipe the sweat from his cheek, he looked at the familiar woman as he caught his breath just as she did. 

"It's…its Grandma!"

As the words left the girl's lips paired with her pained, hazel irises, Fai fell silent. Any attempt at trying to form a response only came out as quenched air as he couldn't feel his own body. 

Sprinting through the bustling town, he didn't care for anything in his way, moving with such fervent speed that he was in complete auto-pilot until he reached the cottage.

Staring at the humble home of weathered timber, he huffed as he felt some sort of unknown hesitance keeping him from stepping through the door. 

"I…I…told you to wait…for me."

Finally catching up to Fai, Qui huffed and puffed heavily as he held onto her knees. The man wearing only his worn shoes and baggy, black pants didn't so much as turn back to look at her. 

"Come on, she doesn't have long left…"

Taking Fai's hand, the girl with long, brown hair running down her shoulders led the man inside of the cottage. 

He felt like his soul wasn't in control of his body anymore, walking only out of instinct as Qiu guided him to the bedroom of their grandmother. 

Sitting by the bedside of the sickly elder woman was a man in a white coat. 

"Doctor…He's here…"

"Good. Fai, she doesn't have—"

"Bastard!"

Fai suddenly marched over to the doctor, lifting him by the collar of his coat. 

"Fai?!"

"You were supposed to save her! The hell do we pay you for?! Huh? Huh?!"

I can't help it. All this anger, resentment...guilt. I don't know where to put it. I don't know if I'm even mad at the man before my eyes or myself, Fai thought. 

In the reflection of the doctor's startled, olive irises, he could see his own hurt eyes looking back at him, slowly releasing his hold on the man as a hand reached out, grazing the fabric of his pants. 

I never got to meet my parents. Sis' Qiu, gran and old man were all I had. It was more than enough, more than I could ever ask for. So...Why? Why did they have to be taken away from me? Does everything in this world need to be so fleeting?

"...Fai, my boy, please…"

Spoken so weakly it could be mistaken for the wind, the words from his sickly, pale grandmother halted his rage in its entirety. 

His sister had already wrapped her fingers around his arm to try and free his grip from the doctor, but he never felt it in his moment of emotion. 

It's something I'll never forget: her eyes seemed to look straight past me, clouded over and dazed. Still, all I could do was hold her wrinkled, cold hand as she whispered so faintly those last words to me. 

"Never stop fighting."

The words were so cliche I almost felt like laughing, but more than that, I cried and I cried. I knew quickly what she really meant; it wasn't to tell me to just continue perfecting the martial arts my grandfather, her husband, had started--but to strive to be better. 

After that day, I fought and never stopped. 

"Get him, Jormungandr!" 

Riding atop the back of the sky-reaching serpentine of myth, Fai felt the wind brush against his shirtless torso as his eyes were kept locked on the Argonaut below. 

I lost everything and everyone. All I had left were my memories, convictions, and my fists. Was I made when I was brought to this unknown world? No. 

Did I scorn Beatrice for giving me a reason to continue fighting? No. 

How could I ever reject that which gave me reason again, that which gave me the will to carry on the will of the dread?

Here, I've made new friends, new family--our bonds as thick as blood. I wouldn't trade it for anything, I wouldn't pray my life went a different way, that would be the greatest disrespect to those who care for me now. 

Even if it means discarding my comfort, my blood, flesh, and bones--even if it means losing all of that, I'll fight to protect them, I'll fight to bring a future where they don't have to fight anymore! A future where I'm not the last one standing, living and seeping in guilt!

It was hard to see the man from such soaring heights as he rode the world serpent across the forest, making it that much more jarring when Jormungandr was sliced into a dozen pieces, discarding by an array of sable bursts of magic condensed into sharp forms. 

What the--so damn fast, I could hardly see it, Fai thought. 

Even with his heightened reinforcement amplifying his senses, he didn't hear any incantations part from the black-haired man's mouth nor did he see his lips moved. Just at the simple wave of his hand, a dozen, building-sized blades of circular darkness had already cut through the serpent which he rode. 

"Stop wasting my time."

Avdima waited on the ground below as the entrails of the cloud-reaching serpent rained down upon the forest, showers of its crimson essence dying the evergreen in its deathly glow. 

He's strong. Too strong. This man--he has to be stopped; right here, right now, Fai thought. 

Falling from the great heights of the star-filled sky, Fai remained calm as he clapped his hands together, keeping his eyes locked on the foe far below him. 

"Roc!"

Following his voice that was carried by the fervent winds, the large avian manifested from the shadows formed around him, catching him amidst the wild airs. Avoiding the many parts of the slewn serpent was as if trying to escape a collapsing building, keeping his balance steady as the Roc spun with finesse through the chunks parted by Avdima's magic fell down to the world. 

I know just how much of a threat you are. That's why I can't risk holding back, he thought.

Standing tall on the back of the amber-feathered bird as it flapped its powerful wings, Fai stretched his arms out as he took in a deep inhale of the pale winds, slapping his palms together. 

"Zhurong!"

Stating just the prefix of his mastered magecraft, a colossal seal manifested itself in the skies directly above the blood-drenched section of the forest, glowing with a vermilion eminence. 

Waiting below, Avdima didn't so much as move a muscle in retaliation, simply watching with his idle eyes as the magical seal took to the air above him, lighting the darkness of the night with its fiery radiance. 

"Show me something interesting, Fai Meng of the Outlanders. That's the reason I came here; hopefully, you of all people can cure my boredom."