Vanguard
"A psychic? Mph, so it seems you truly are a specialist in the matters of the mind. I guess it is fortunate that I met you so. Had it been another time, confronting you like this could have been an impossibility." Said Vanguard, a clear tone full of respect as he nodded.
"It is a rather... long story. To grasp it fully, one must look back to roots dug deeper in the sands of time than one can possibility comprehend and look at a curse that is as old as eternity. It begins so-"
Thus, Vanguard told the child of a tale as old as the original deities, one of a world before the concept of an absolute end was determined by men. He spoke of yore as ancient as the primordial deities, and of a citadel that laid over the very heavens, where humanity rested for countless hundreds of millenia.
He spoke of one man, peerless, who became the city's very protector. He spoke of countless battles of myth, each as fantastic as the other. He spoke of that man, without equal in both body, spirit and heart. He spoke of his virtue, of his courage and of his love for the mankind he protected for millenia.
And he spoke of the tragedy that befell that man. One that was far too cruel to be inflicted upon any man. He spoke of his hopeless bout against the gods, one that he knew could only end in defeat. He spoke of that man, of himself, and how he had lost all that a man could lose.
And then, his words became much more coarse. He described what he had seen in his slumber. countless worlds birth, only to die not unlike his own. Was it billions? Trillions? Or maybe up to a trigintillion. He spoke of how what he once admired became a sickening caricature of failure, the sin that he had committed and that would never wash away.
“Yes, I truly hated it. How no matter how much I wished for salvation to come, no fruit ever came. I guess this thought me just how powerless I truly was, just how pathetic the mere idea of fighting with a mere fairy tale could be. And hope, the thing I was meant to be a beacon of, the thing that made me strong and pushed me to fight past my very limits, it became like a poison. Why create, when it would only be destroyed? Why cling to life, knowing that we had to die? What I once understood and could have answered with a clear conscience, I was now doubting. And it maddened me, this defeatism of mine. But it was the only thing I had left. Nothing else mattered anymore.” said Vanguard.
“When I came here, I was reminded once more of that mistake of mine, and I took it a a duty to show that such a thing would bring nothing but emptiness, not unlike this body of mine. And yet, when that woman stood against me wtith that proud shine I once basked in, I felt lost once again. It was… more beautiful than I remembered it to be. No matter how much I belittled it, it endured without remorse. Her eyes, they were like mine. I could not win, even though I could.” Vanguard continued.
“I don’t know what to believe in anymore. Could it be that it was I the fool all along?” he asked, bowing as if to await judgement, an answer, or perhaps both.
