Chapter 4: Through Troubled Times

A week later, a special operations team composed of 30 elite members entered Mt. Eternal fully armed.

“Our mission is to find the center of the Protofield and eliminate it to stop the creation of Wanderers. The speculated location is in the valley of the northern cliff. This operation is more difficult and even more dangerous than any others before, so you must all strictly follow orders and do everything in the name of safety...”

As the leader of the group, Captain Xander, pauses his lecture about precautions to grab a map, William comes over and asks Zayne, “Who did you address your will to?”

He’s curious about whom Zayne, emotionless as he is, holds dear in his heart.

Zayne instead deflects the question. “Who did you address yours to?”

William coughs and says, in a different voice, “I’ll introduce you when we get back.”

**********

Despite being mentally prepared, Zayne didn’t expect “getting back” to become am unobtainable luxury.

**********

As they venture deeper into the mountain range, the terrain becomes more treacherous, and the energy fluctuations more violent. For each step forward, the operations team has to fight, costing them time and energy.

With every teammate that falls, the tally marks on Zayne’s notebook increase. At the same time, he goes from being a combat medic to a soldier. Still, the bloodshed doesn’t let up. The Grim Reaper in his dreams appears once again, staring at him with cold eyes.

With another narrow escape from death, Captain Xander has to make a decision.

They alone cannot hold back the Protofield’s energy fluctuations. If they keep going, it will only lead to more casualties.

**********

They must act quickly and destroy the Protofield’s center.

When William returns to the tent, Zayne is dressing his wounds. The large injury on his right arm is open again, blood oozing out.

William sighs and hands him a bottle of medication. “As a doctor, shouldn’t you know how important your arm is? There are other ways of saving people that don’t involve you taking hits from Wanderers on their behalf.”

“I know what I’m doing.”

“I don’t think you do.” William asks, “Zayne, I’ve always felt like you’re more desperate yhan others when it comes tp saving people. I’ve seen dedicated medical staff, but none as persistent as you. Is something weighing you down?”

“No,” Zayne answers.

“There is.”

“...Not at all.”

Once Zayne is done dressing his wound, he takes out his sleeping bag and lies down in a way to show he wishes to rest and not be disturbed. William remains where he is, clearly unwilling to leave until he gets an answer. The two are at a stalemate. In the end, Zayne admits defeat.

“Years ago,” he says after a long time, “I almost killed someone important.”

William is surprised. “What happened?”

Holding the ice-cold air with his right hand, Zayne lets it go.

“I lost control of my Evol.”

**********

That night, the blood in his hands kept dripping onto the ground, dripping into his dreams.

The summer when he was 12 was extraordinarily long. Every little thing—like the ivy climbing up the courtyard wall, the stall that sells popsicles, the swings in the park—is clear in his mind, as if it were yesterday.

A snowstorm ended that summer.

It was the first time a black-robed Grim Reaper appeared in his dreams.