''How cruel. The fate of mortals, that they must burden.''
A tall cloaked figure in tattered dusk can be seen, the face hidden behind a veil of never ending darkness.
The figure was bearing a lantern, the color was too dark to discern, maybe dark gray. The lantern, strangely enough wasn't emitting any light.
The air hung heavy with shadows, swallowing every trace of light before it could reach the ground.
The figure was surrounded by dozens of dead trees. Each tree had a row of black crows, watching curiously.
There was an eerily silence after the figure had spoken. The remaining leaves on the trees started to wither away.
Eventually a voice was heard, it carried a chilling calmness... Each word was slow and deliberate, heavy with the silence of eternity.
''Oh, my dear Daemon! Death is the Mercy of mortals. The Mercy of being Free, rid from the Truth. If my Brother couldn't handle the Corruption, imagine the Fate those of humans.''
Right after the mysterious voice fell silent, a faint white gleam shaped like a zero appeared along the edge of the figure's cloak.
"Thank you… for the Mercy of your words, my Great Lord, the Firstborn of the Unknown... Ḩ̷̧̛̳̭̬̞͙̹̬̯͎̣̹͚̦͈̘̝̟͋͊͌͜d̸̡͚͚̻͔̳̖̱̈̏͐͒̚͘ḁ̵̡̤̘͖͋̄́̈́͋̂̐̋̂̀̔͜͝e̷̛̦͇̲̞̟̦͌͋̃̄͑͂̌̔̃̓̊̂̚t̶̻̻͕̩̯̗̤̼͔̦̱̼̳̳͙͖̗̞͙́͗ͅͅ''
******************
A young man suddenly gasped, his eyes wide open. He had a nightmare. Again.
There was another man next to the young male, their resemblance uncanny. The younger one appeared to be quite malnourished, his eyes held a delicate trace of ruby, his thick long hair was coarse. The hair was enchanted with the beautiful color of brown, in the lightest shade.
The man next to the young male who jolted up in surprise after the sudden movements of the young male next to him had a patchy beard, he looked as if he hadn't slept for days, Unlike his brother, his eyes were a pale, light brown. His hair was also the lightest shade of brown.
''By the Empyraeons! Aeson!''
The voice was raspy, as if drained of water for the whole entirety of a day. The older male had accidentally struck the young male on his nose.
''Ouch!' Michael!''
He winced in pain, holding his nose before hissing,
''I had a nightmare! About the damn Corruption again!''
Corruption was such a vile thing, by the Empyraeons, whichever one decided to create Corruption needed to be set an execution date, in the most excruciating pain possible! No matter how bad Aeson wanted to avoid Corruption, he knew the ugly Truth, in the fact that it was everywhere. It infected rivers, animals, even the air... Hell, even the humans! The reason Aeson had a particular type of hate towards the Corruption was because his father and mother both succumbed to the Corruption after learning of the incomprehensible Truth which is of this world. Corruption is the essence of Truth, and the Truth is Corrupted. Hence why mortal beings, maybe even the Transcendental Beings could never hope to truly grasp the Truth. If you did, well you'd go mad, and lose your humanity... Eventually becoming Corrupted.
There are tales of those who have learned of the Truth without succumbing to it's Corruption, something about devouring the Empyraeons gift to humanity or something? Aeson might've been a young 16 year old boy, but he was not dumb enough to fall for such foolish tales.
Michael, the brother of Aeson, completely disregarded Aeson's concern of the Corruption, truth be told Michael was used to it, and he was also focusing on the fact that he'd be late to his ''job''.
Michael jolted up quickly from the slum room and yanked the ragged clothes left behind by their late father. He quickly threw 1 silver ''Yen'' at his brother before struggling to put the on clothes and exclaimed, ''Don't forget, this should be enough for 1 loaf of bread and a pouch of water!''
Aeson naturally missed the catch and the coin struck his forehead. Aeson hissed, then massaged his forehead before eventually getting up and putting on his splintered, dark brown shoes.
Aeson's outfit was what you'd expect from two orphaned brothers, nothing short of pitiful. He was wearing light brown ragged clothes, but he had to hurry, this was the only time of the day the normally bustling streets would actually be empty!
Aeson shoved the singular Yen into his pocket and ran outside, Aeson didn't have much time to look at his surroundings, but he could hear distinct laughter and conversations. He ran in a straight line onwards the long stretch of the high street. His slum room apartment thankfully was right next to his favorite person, and a very cheap market vendor. Aunt Maia!
Aunt Maia was an elderly woman burning with passion for what she loves doing, helping out the poor by giving them access to affordable food. Even if the food was a measly loaf of bread for three bronze Yen, or thirty cents of a silver Yen. Her smile widened after seeing young Aeson rush towards her vendor. She had been an old acquaintance to Aeson's mother, which is why she had been very supportive towards him and his brother by offering them free necessities of life such as food and shelter for a few weeks, before his brother finally found a job that paid enough for them to survive on their own.
Before Aeson could even reach inside his pockets Aunt Maia had already handed over a loaf of bread and a pouch of water to Aeson, smiling warmly. Aeson naturally smiled back and handed her the silver Yen. Uncorrupted, clean water was a very valuable and sacred resource in the Kingdom of Whispers. It costed seventy cents of a silver Yen for a small pouch... Well at least at Aunt Maia's humble and honest vendor. Other vendor's tend to exploit people as much as possible, Aeson shot multiple glances at the vendor right in front of Aunt Maia's.
Aunt Maia noticed and sighed, ''Oh, Aeson... Didn't your brother ever teach you it was bad manners to stare!''
Aeson gulped, ''Sorry, Aunt Maia.'' Aunt Maia smiled, and nodded as the next customer approached her humble vendor. Aeson held the pouch and loaf of bread firmly.
As Aeson started to walk back, he could hear screaming at the far distance, it seemed a drunkard had gotten into trouble against one of the ''Holy Knights'', which in Aeson's opinion was just a fancier way to say inhumane corrupted despicable bastards. Aeson naturally was interested as to what was going on and squeezed through the crowd after safely storing his loaf of bread into his pocket alongside the pouch of water.
The drunkard was wearing a mask, well half of it. His face was flushed and the Holy Knight was ordering him to watch his tone, Aeson guessed that the drunkard probably slurred the Holy Knight out and the Holy Knight's little ego couldn't take it.
''When the world... Needed truth! It... Broke!''
The drunkard was slurring his speech. There was a small crowd gathered in a circle with the Holy Knight, which had a veil as for the face, and a helmet on top of it, with chain armor and a symbol of a tongue that had an engraving of the number ''7'' on each of the shoulder plating.
The Holy Knight pushed the drunkard back, his tone was furious.
''Apologize to the Holy Knight, and you will be taken in quietly!''
The drunkard naturally became more angry, he slurred out, whilst simultaneously stumbling around, continuing his previous sentence,
''Wh-When the world was... Corrupted by the Truth... He Lied! Rejoice!''
To the Holy Knight's surprise the crowd of people circling them rejoiced, Aeson naturally only rolled his eyes. What the drunkard was slowly reciting was the old tale of the Daemon. The Daemon of the Empyraeon... Whisperer. Aeson was never well-versed about Daemons, Empyraeons and what not. He only knew that Empyraeons acted as ''Gods.'' He was as well familiar with the fact that very few Empyraeons had actually existed, and that there was only proof, from as far as he was aware that of one singular Empyraeon actually existing, which is the Whisp- Empyraeon Whisperer. That Empyraeon is whom this Kingdom is eternally indebted towards.
'This Holy Knight indeed, is in a very peculiar situation now.'
Aeson naturally, never believed in such tales, he had only believed in the ones his mother had recited to him when he was a kid. There were several sculptures all around their kingdom, which depicted half of a mask with a ''7'' engraved near the eye socket, which was what is used to depict the Daemon of Empyraeon Whisperer.
Aeson was half curious though, would he insult a Divine... Incomprehensible Being by spitting all over the debt... Or would he actually not let his ego control his decisions? Aeson just shrugged it off and walked back towards his home, he could hear the crowd spitting on the Holy Knight, Aeson groaned internally... He missed the chance to also spit on the Holy Knight.