How It All Started (1)

I blinked, and I was no longer in the hot air balloon. The blue sky turned grey. It was not just that, the atmosphere changed to somber. I heard a sniffle next to me. When I turned, I saw Alexander… but that couldn’t be, right? Because his eyes were red as he stared ahead.

My eyes followed his gaze to a coffin that was just being put down inside a hole in the ground. When I looked at the surrounding area, I realized I was in a cemetery.

There were a few other people in front of Alexander. They murmured, “Poor girl. Kira has always been too adventurous for her own good.”

“Her death is tragic. Rumor has it she was raped and beat up by a nobleman’s son who paid a lot to keep the news from the public,” a woman chuckled then continued to whisper, “She should’ve just surrendered to him and close her eyes instead of fighting all the way.”

Instinctively, I looked at Alexander. His eyes were still teary, but it changed into a powerful gaze, directed at the people who kept whispering during the funeral. He clenched his fists and jaw tightly. The two women whispering looked back to Alexander. They flinched, seeing his strong gaze, and feeling uncomfortable, they moved away from him.

Then the scene fast-forwarded suddenly. The gloomy day became raining dusk. The ground covered the coffin completely, a stone plate was put on top of it, and the people went away one by one. The only one left was Alexander. He stood silently under the rain. His eyes never left the burial ground.

I suddenly felt my chest collapsing for him. But was that really Alexander? Why did he look so… different? It was like this version of Alexander has emotions, instead of the cold and grumpy one I am used to. Even if a person changes, it wouldn’t be this drastic, right? Then again, he said this was 1783, Alexander had decades to transform.

I should have been irritated. But all I could feel then was sympathy. I pitied that immortal asshole for having to change into the person he is today. He looked so defeated by the death of the girl. I remembered his expression when he told me about Kira from the painting in the hallway.

Was she his first love? Was her death the catalyst in Alexander’s behavior change?

“Once upon a time, a clumsy and weak wizard lost the human girl he loved dearly,” the same voice sounded in my head. It was Alexander’s voice. But the Alexander I saw with my eyes did not move his mouth at all. He was still staring at the burial spot.

“He blamed himself. He is a wizard yet his magic was useless to protect her,” the voice sounded again, “He spent a lot of time hiding his power, he has lived for a long time, longer than any human, thinking he’d be happy living as an ordinary man.”

“He was happy.” I heard the tremble in his voice. “Until they took her away.”

The Alexander in front of my eyes suddenly walked to the burial site. Using his claws, he dug into the ground. I gasped.

He was really doing it, digging into the grave with his bare hands. The scene didn’t seem to be fast-forwarded, I felt like I watched him digging the grave all night along yet at the same time, the time felt so quick. The next thing I know Alexander was already holding Kira’s pale body limply in his arms. He got out of the grave with Kira and walked.

The look in his eyes created a chill deep in my spine. He looked so determined.

I blinked again. The scenery changed into that of an underground lab. Rusty equipment was everywhere, and the roof was leaking with rainwater. The entire room smelled foul and rats were running on every corner. There was one small bed on one side, a bucket, a cupboard, and a large table in the middle of the room with a lot of equipment.

They looked like an engineering lab, with wrenches, bolts, and screwdrivers of various sizes. I saw some small prototypes of air balloons on the table.

The door opened suddenly with a bang. I gasped when I saw Alexander coming in with Kira. He quickly threw every piece of equipment on the table to the floor, causing some prototypes to break, then laid Kira’s body on the table.

The voice appeared again. “So, if the world would not let him have this small happiness, he would turn back time to make sure he gets his happiness.”

Alexander grabbed a book from the cupboard and opened it. He then started chanting weird words over and over again.

“A summoning spell.” I jumped slightly when the Alexander I know suddenly materialized next to me. His gaze found me, and just like I have been accustomed to, cold, piercing gaze.

“A summoning spell?”

“Yes, I was summoning the Dark Lord,” he replied.

“What? So there was a Dark Lord before?” If there was already a Dark Lord, why was the Cycle created? What happened to the previous Dark Lord?

Before Alexander could answer, darkness emerged from the book. Black smoke appeared, like ink crawling in the air. It grew into a large form of a figure with a dark cloak. A scythe appeared on its right. I couldn’t see the face because the creature was staring at the sad Alexander and all I could see was the back of its hood.

“You dare summon me?” the creature spoke. Its voice was heavy, dark, and husky. The kind of voice that could raise the hairs on my skin.

The sad Alexander gulped. He looked nervous. “I want you to turn back time,” he said to the creature.

“In exchange of what?” the creature scoffed mockingly. “You can’t seriously think that I will follow your wish just like that, right?”

“What do you want?”

“Your soul,” the creature said eerily.

“Deal.”

The Alexander beside me chuckled. “I was pretty naïve. You’d think being immortal would at least give you wisdom. It didn’t. At least not for me.”

“Deal!” the Dark Lord cried out. “However, I must warn you. You can only observe, do not touch, do not speak, change nothing. Turning back time is actually a forbidden thing to do and is a taboo between supernaturals.”

“What? Then how can I prevent Kira from dying?”

The Dark Lord scoffed again. “That’s your problem. Not mine. If you dare try anything weird in the past, I will rip your heart out instantly,” it threatened.

Suddenly, the scenery changed into a blur. It looked like someone had just erased a drawing on the board, then quickly change the drawing. I was suddenly already in an alley. I saw the sad Alexander and the Dark Lord on one side. I could finally see the creature’s face. It was a skull.

“Grim Reaper?” I whispered the question, much to myself.

“Yup,” Lex confirmed my suspicion.

Kira was walking without seeing them or us from the other side. She was wearing a woman's suit, a pair of pants, and a pair of riding boots.

A man walked into the alley and cornered Kira. He flirted with her, but Kira didn’t like it. “Women aren’t supposed to wear pants,” the man said, “Why don’t I help you take it off?” He began to force himself on Kira. As she kept fighting him, the man then punched her in the face.

I gasped at the loud sound. My hands covered my mouth because of the atrocity I saw.

When Kira didn’t stop fighting, the man was about to take another punch on her. But suddenly the sad Alexander held the man’s arm and flicked his wrist, causing the man to be thrown in the air with magic. The man hit the wall opposite of them with a loud crash. He slumped on the cobblestone, unconscious.

“What are you doing?” the Dark Lord cried out. “Now I gotta kill you and replay this exact moment to fix it!” The creature stretched its hand, but Alexander stretched his arms faster. A bright light appeared from his palm. It shot directly at the Dark Lord, hitting the creature straight in the chest.

The Dark Lord went still, as a hole suddenly appeared in the center of its cloaked figure. “D–did you just…?”

Suddenly, the Dark Lord wailed in pain. At the rim of the hole, the creature started burning. It spread like wildfire to the entire body until there was nothing left of the Dark Lord other than ashes.

“What did you do?” I muttered. I couldn’t believe my eyes. How could a Dark Lord be defeated that easily? What is Alexander exactly? How come he was so powerful?

“I shot heaven light to the Dark Lord,” he replied, “Kept it with magic and hid it until I could aim it at the Dark Lord.”

“So… you planned to kill the Dark Lord?” I asked again.

I caught Lex’s gaze. There was regret in his eyes. Yet a storm clouded that regret. He was conflicted with his own regret.

“Yes,” he said, “And things didn’t end well after that.”