original

Fate's Playful Deceiver

Author: Qartycan

Chapter 1: The Birth

Volume I - Convergence

Chapter 1: The Brith

In the forsaken world that resembled an empty void.

Countless souls represented by various lights and sizes gathered. All of them different yet with the same cruel fate.

Without hope for anything else they were left there to be forgotten. They were the outcasts that had even their right to rest in death stripped away as they were forced to wander the boundless darkness for eternity.

In here every second passed without completely changing anything. Will this continue on forever?

***

Somewhere unknown. In a large facility that resembled some sort of laboratory.

"Aghhhhhhhhh!"

A loud scream filled with pain echoed throughout the walls of this mysterious place.

It belonged to a man wearing a dark cloak with a symbol of a self devouring snake coiled to form the sign of infinity. His chest had a hole the size of a fist in where his heart was supposed to be. He quickly collapsed and joined his other dead colleagues.

The entire room in which he died was filled with corpses of similarly dressed people of different ages and genders. The causes of their death differed from each other. Some had their necks crushed while the others had similarly pierced holes on their bodies but compared to one unlucky person who looked to have had his head devoid of blood they died mercifully.

In contrast to the gruesome scene a man leisurely leaned on the wall and hummed in a happy tune. Although his demeanour indicated that he was a calm and easy going person the more one looked at him the more uneasiness one would feel.

His hair was completely black and his eyes were red in colour. He wore dark clothes combined with an even darker cloak. If he were to stand in the dead of the night probably only his eyes would be visible.

"Cough! Cough! Cough!"

Out of nowhere rough coughing could be heard. It did not belong to the mysterious man and he himself glanced over towards the centre of the room from where the noise originated.

Over there was a human sized test tube. Its thick glass was broken and a green liquid mixed with blood surrounded it but all that did not catch the attention of the cloaked figure. He instead focused on the slowly crawling man from behind the container.

He was completely naked and covered with the previously mentioned mixture of blood and unknown green liquid. His hair was blond and eyes enchantingly emerald in colour. He looked to be no older than twenty but considering the circumstance it's clear he was born today.

"Happy birthday. Nice to meet you. My name is Amon by the way"

The cloaked man was not surprised by the development and even introduced himself as Amon.

"Huh?"

The naked man looked up at Amon and weakly stood up from the floor. He looked dazed and clearly had no idea what was going on.

"What's your name, friend?"

Amon ignored the confused look and instead asked for his name.

"My name? I-I don't think I have one"

"That's no good. How about I call you Arty or better yet Arthur? You are a product of artificial life experiment so I think it fits quite well"

The naked man did not protest and nodded slightly. He seemed to like the name.

"Arthur is good"

"Great!"

Amon seemed elated that his idea was instantly approved and even clapped his hands in order to express his happiness.

"Now then I should probably explain to you the… environment of your birth"

He moved his right arm in order to make Arthur look around the room in which they were in.

Beside the already mentioned corpses and the test tube there were a lot of bookshelves, desks and 'scientific' equipment and all of that properly illuminated by white crystals floating near the ceiling.

Amon however in his showcase only focused on the corpses.

"You see I was taking a relaxing stroll when I stumbled upon this place and with a heart filled with curiosity I asked them nicely what they were doing here to which they did not answer and instead rudely attacked me. So in righteous self defence I killed them all"

In a tone similar to lovers talking about their day Amon admitted to slaughter.

"Of course I did not forget about my purpose and from one kind volunteer I learned quite a bit about them. Mainly that they belonged to an organisation called Ouroboros and that they were conducting not so human friendly experiments here"

Amon did not explain further and instead with a smile observed Arthur's reaction.

"So I am the product of their experiments?"

Arthur questioned with a dejected expression.

"Didn't I mention so at the start? But yes you are right and it's already quite surprising you understand so much given you are a minute old. How interesting"

Amon seemed curious as to how someone who was born literally seconds ago knew that much. Wouldn't it make more sense if he couldn't even walk or talk? He however did not inquire about this.

"How about we leave this room then. It's already starting to smell really badly here"

Arthur did not object to this and even led the way.