His body was falling into an endless void of darkness. There was no sound, wind, or smell. Nor vertigo, pain, sadness, despair—and for the first time, fear seemed so distant and nonexistent...
Around him, strange bubbles floated calmly, detached and undisturbed. He felt like one of them, as if his only purpose was simply to exist, without bonds, without desires, or fears.
This whole atmosphere was so unreal and beautiful that it made him want to stay in it forever. Until suddenly...
The fall intensified, becoming faster and fiercer. Like a raging windstorm, the air lashed his back and howled in his ears. The bubbles, once serene, quickly increased in number, bursting beside him as if erupting. The void and darkness surrounding him felt like the jaws of a giant beast, filling him with vertigo. Suddenly, fear had become so...
Hopeless.
However, all of that disappeared as quickly as the explosion of a bubble. His world changed, leaving him in a strange but somehow comforting confusion.
The sun shone brightly, the sky was painted a beautiful blue without clouds, and the refreshing wind carried a sweet and nostalgic lavender scent from freshly washed sheets hanging on the clothesline.
A few meters away, a beautiful woman watched him with a smile and exquisite warmth, making him want to run and hug her forever.
He looked at his small hands in confusion just before raising his gaze to the sky, and a fragile, high-pitched voice of a child came from his mouth.
"Mommy, mommy… The moon is visible!" he shouted with joy, as his tiny finger pointed to a specific spot in the sky where, surprisingly, a pink dot could be seen, almost drowned out by the sunlight.
At that moment, the world trembled and the sky darkened as a strange veil approached at great speed from the horizon, consuming everything in its path like a dark and morbid avalanche.
Terror seized him as he turned to look at the woman. Her smile had been replaced by the anguish and hopelessness of a mother. She was screaming, but her cries were mute—he could only see the movement of her mouth. Yet he knew perfectly well that she was screaming.
"Matt!"
In the next instant, the darkness reached them. His mother vanished before his eyes along with their home and everything he had ever known, leaving him in a deep and sorrowful sea of loneliness.
…
Matt's eyes burst open in shock. At the same moment, his body twisted and he vomited up great gulps of water.
A violent cough overtook him; his throat burned and his lungs felt like they were about to collapse, as if he hadn't breathed in a long time.
Pain and the cold sensation of water coursing over his body overwhelmed his senses. His eyes darted around in desperation. His wet hair sprayed droplets of water with each movement.
In front of him, the warm sunlight shone through a small gap between the rocks high above, where water poured down like a fierce waterfall, continuing its path into a dark and terrifying abyss, surrounded by three rocky peaks that resembled the colossal fangs of a titanic beast.
Matt watched in terror, as he was only a few meters away from falling into that abyss. The water flowed around him like an invitation into the jaws of death.
He quickly pulled away from the current and sat on the rock beside him. The ropes that had once bound him were still clinging to his hands and feet.
He stared at his hands for a few moments.
He was alive—and happy for it—but at the same time angry, and disappointed.
Matt clenched his fists tightly, digging his nails into the flesh until blood oozed from them.
"Damn it!"
"Damn it!"
"Damn it!"
His hoarse voice returned to his ears like a muffled echo.
He was tired—tired of being hurt and humiliated. Was that all the world had in store for him?
Apparently, yes.
And that pissed him off.
But what could he do? He had tried everything. He stood back up time and again. When they hit him, humiliated him, and knocked him down, he simply clenched his teeth and moved forward.
After all, hope is the last thing to die, right? At least that's what he was taught. The world runs on hope; humanity survived catastrophe thanks to hope, and that's why it's the most important thing. If you do not hope, you're nothing.
Unfortunately, Matt wasn't hope.
So what was he?
He was the complete opposite—weak, useless, talentless, futureless, and ugly. He didn't deserve to be human, didn't deserve to be like the rest. That's why he was marked. That's why he was degraded. That's why he was called Hopelessness.
That was the rule imposed by humanity: anyone who brought no hope for a prosperous future did not deserve a future at all. That was why everything had been taken from him—even his own hope.
He hated that rule, hated those who followed it, and—though he hid it, though he knew it wasn't the only reason—he hated Marie for abandoning him to go and spread that rule.
His tears fell, disappearing into the water.
So, if the world tried so hard to show him that he didn't belong in it...
Why fight so much?
Why not give them what they wanted?
His gaze shifted toward the abyss. The darkness no longer seemed so terrifying.
It was a shelter. A place where not even fear would find him.
Matt wiped away his tears and moved.
He placed his hand on one of the rocky peaks right at the edge of the abyss and stared. The darkness seemed to wrap around him in an indescribable terror. His body trembled.
He was afraid... but that fear was finally about to end.
He lifted one leg over the abyss and let out a deep sigh. One last tear fell, lost into the void.
Then, a voice sounded in his ears like a whisper.
Before his eyes, a sign appeared with blood-red letters:
[The Hopelessness of a Fairy rests upon your shoulders]
[Would you like to read the final words?]
His movements stopped. For a moment, his stunned gaze fixed on the sign in front of him.
"Fairy? Final words?" he whispered weakly.
He didn't know how to react to this situation.
The strange floating sign was unlike anything he had ever seen—he had never witnessed anything like it—yet for some reason, it felt familiar.
"Have I gone mad?"
An urgent feeling overwhelmed him. He wanted to know those words behind it. But how?
When that thought crossed his mind, the strange letters glowed brightly and vanished into nothingness. In their place, new words slowly formed, narrated by the strange yet pleasant voice inside his head:
[The world is a dark pit of misery and despair.
The dreams of the weak are devoured; their hope is trampled.
The weak have no future... they do not deserve one.
I have seen your past. I know what you have suffered, and I also know you are not weak.
Sometimes, life does not reward those who deserve it; it feasts on trash.
That is why I offer you a deal:
I will give you power.
But you must promise me something.
Do not forget your revenge.
Erase their smiles. Bathe in their blood.
Trample their bodies and build your future upon their ruins.
Then, even if life turns its back on you...
I will smile in its place.]
A tear rolled down his face.
He felt strange and confused, but at the same time sad and filled with rage—a rage far greater than before. The feelings were purer and more tormenting, as if the sadness and hatred were not coming from him but from the very depths of his soul.
He didn't know if he had gone mad or not, but what he did know was that something important, something far too great, was hidden behind that message, which only deepened his confusion.
Was it a message from some divine being? Or just his subconscious, wrapped in ruins, desperately trying to offer him hope under a layer of lies about gaining strength?
Maybe it was a lie of his mind—but oddly, he sensed it was the first.
New letters formed in front of him:
[Sign the deal?]
[Yes] [No]
His gaze lingered there for a moment.
He desired strength—no one, not even the gods, could understand how much he craved it—but those strange feelings that flooded him made him hesitate.
It was as if the echoes of countless souls were screaming from the deepest parts of his own.
Then he understood: once accepted, he wouldn't just carry the weight of his revenge, but something much greater, something so immense.
But those doubts lasted only a moment.
In the next instant, Matt accepted. The sign glowed once more before vanishing before his eyes.
What did it matter if he had to bear the burden of thousands, even millions? If that gave him a chance—revenge, a future, a life. And maybe... to see Marie again. He would gladly accept, even if the price was to descend into the very depths of hell.
After all, he had already lost everything.
The strange voice echoed again and again in his mind.
[You have accepted the system.]
[Detecting talent]
[Talent not found.]
[Your gift has evolved.]
[Your gift has awakened its energy.]
[The Blood Fairy smiles upon you.]
[Your body is undergoing changes...]
Matt watched in bewilderment as the strange particles that made up the sign fused into a sphere before flying into and disappearing inside his body.
His mind filled with questions as a warm feeling emerged from his heart, filling every pore, every vein, every organ in his body.
The sensation was pleasant. However, it was destined to last very little.
In the next moment, Matt collapsed backward; a muffled scream escaped his mouth as the warm sensation turned into a burning blaze.
It felt as if his blood had turned to lava, coursing through every vein, tearing through his organs, and melting his skin.
His agonized screams were swallowed by the depths of the abyss.