Chapter One; Recollection
In the Outskirts of the city, a boy could be seen walking down a dark street, he had messy hair that didn't seem clean and neat, the hair was brown in colour but if one looked closely, they would see some black strands of hair so they would know that the hairs original colour was black and it was dirty that was why it was brown in colour.
The boy had a pair of pale blue eyes that seemed to shimmer in the darkness, it had lines arranged in a clockwise order and it made it look a clock was in his eyes, but it was barely visible to the naked eyes unless one used a microscope to look into his eyes.
The boy walked down the street unbothered by the dirt littered all around the place and the smell permeatting the hair, there were run down houses all around the place, pale and sick people could be seen everywhere.
The boy too, was like that also, he looked pale, sickly and unhealthy. This was the trait of all those who lived in slums, who had no family, no good home to call their own.
The Outskirts which was named as 'The Slums' to the people who lived in the good embrace of the city, the boy was sure that if any of those rich and blessed ones of the city had to come, they wouldn't last an hour, even a minute in this place labeled as 'The Slums' by them.
The boy though was walking unconcerned by the dirt all around him, he was already used to it, so there was nothing here that could bother him even a little bit.
He had grew here, ate here, played here a d struggled hereHe was just a little boy boy of 12years whose 13th birthday was tomorrow on the Autumn Equinox, but yet life was already so hard.
He only had a single shirt on his body, but it was so large - large enough to cover him from top to bottom atleast - but it still had holes on it and it was torn almost in all parts of it. He walked with barefoots, he had no money for better clothes and shoes.
Life wasn't always like this though, he had once had everything in life he could desire and want, he had always had good clothes, good shoes and hygienically prepared food. It was just that things never lasts forever that was just the way of the world. Life is not a bed of roses, this saying was dead on the center true, in this world, only the strong are to survive and the weak to be defeated.
***
In this age, only cultivators had the right to good food, good health and good home. The modern World was very different from the Earth of the past.The planet had literally dies or that was what the boy heard, it was rumored that around a century ago, there was a different sort of World named Earth, it was a lively world with greenery and pasture, animals that weren't cursed monsters, technologies that could almost defy the heavens and somethings like spaceships that could leave Earth to traverse space and explore many things.
There was no constant fighting, no catastrophic invasions, no need to struggle against all odds to survive, there were many other things like restoration, peace, hope and many others. That was a time when the modern Humans wanted to return to, unlike now when they were invaded by a deadly plague whose aim was to devour and swallow up all living things and vitalities.
According to what the boy knew - or what he had heard from the words of those riches living in the city - it had been just a normal day for the past Earth and it was during the Autumn Equinox.
The sky suddenly darkened and black rain began to drop. Suddenly, a huge black object fell from the sky and hit Earth with stunning momentum, but that was not all, it had landed on the pacific ocean and it had caused a cacophonic boom that resounded throughout all of Earth. The explosion was so vast, so devastating, so disastrous that it had consumed majority of the ocean even reaching inland and affecting some of the countries - whatever countries meant in the first place - it had caused the ocean to ripple widely and the waters even flooded other countries. This alone killed hundreds of thousands of humans. The human scientists had researched to find out what had happened, they discovered something unbelievable, Planet Neptune, Planet Uranus, Planet Saturn, Planet Jupiter and Planet Mars had all vanished from the solar system without warning or cause and what remained was only a large blackhole. The blackhole had then entered into Earth or atleast a shard of it, for when the humans had went to the spot of the descent of the black object, they had saw a blackhole that was slowly releasing plumes of black smokes into Earth's atmosphere. After some time had passed, the humans had all calmed down and had gotten used to the changes, they had taught it was all over and there was nothing to worry about, but like a grim reaper which uses a scythe to collect souls and make humans die without even knowing they had died, the humans of that era had faced a similar thing but it was manifested in a different, crude manner. One year after the blackhole discovery, which was on the next Autumn Equinox, a huge change occurred as some humans at or above the age of 13 years old discovered they had awakened unique abilities and like the other side of a coin, some humans didn't awaken their abilities and out of this group of Humans, some of them transformed into what humans had named 'Cursed Creatures' The miniature blackhole that was on Earth started to expand and grow rapidly, then monsters started to come out of the blackhole numbering in hundreds of thousands. They killed, destroy and ate anything in their way, they invaded Earth and their first base had become the pacific ocean where the blackhole had landed, wherever they conquered, the blackhole would devour. The humans did not sit still during this period of time, with some of them wielding special abilities they had those super humans with abilities were miniscule when compared to the monsters..... And also the Cursed creatures which were once humans. The scientists had come to a conclusion after extensive research that the reason why some of the humans and also animals had gained abilities was because of the plumes of black smoke which the blackhole had been releasing, it was some sort of plague which sort to consume and corrupt it's host, if one was lucky enough to gain an ability during the Autumn Equinox, then they were branded with longer life, for no matter how strong one was, the plague's aim was to consume all sense and rationality of its host. Unfortunate for those humans whom had became cursed creatures due to the plague consuming them, they didn't Awaken abilities that would have been able to prolong their life a little bit, this meant that anyone could be devoured by the plague, superhuman or not, there was no cure.
The news had caused utter despair to befall the humans as no one wanted to become a cursed creature with no will of their own only driven by an incessant feeling of hunger and destruction.***'Huh?' Suddenly getting distracted from his thoughts by a noise, the boy stopped walking and looked at the space in front of him, there, a small black cat sat, with its eyes shining like crystal black pearls, the cat cat's eyes had a pleasing look like it was begging for food."Food huh, can't remember the last I had a hot prepared meal" said the boy as he searched into the only pocket on the large shirt he was wearing. He brought his hand out and in his hand was a dried hard bread, from a look alone, one would instantly know that it was close to rotting, but the boy didn't seem to care as he split the bread in two and he gave a part of the bread to the cat and he began to eat the other part of bread. "What a mess of a world we live in" the boy murmured as he lowered his vision from the bread, but at the place where the cat was supposed to be, nothing remained, the boy looked around but saw nothing, it was like everything was a dream, it was like it wasn't even part of existence, if he hadn't been seeing the bread which was currently only half, he would have thought that he had finally overused his brain and now he was an hallucinating insane madman, that would have sure been a hard pill to swallow.He strolled down the street and turned to another route which he trotted down and soon he arrived at his familiar place of rest, it was a simple run down house with only the sitting room available as the other parts were collapsed.
"Neigh! Neigh!!" he heard the sounds of a familiar friend.
"How are you doing Phantom?" he asked the steed which was standing next to the run down house.
Phantom was his one and only friend, it was a steed of grace, it was black in colour, it was smart and great and had piercing dark eyes.
Animals which weren't monsters after awakening their abilities were rare, very rare to say the least as all animals transforms into monsters the day they get an ability.Phantom though was not a monster since it did not possess an ability.