Calamity Upon This World

'I can't wait to get home and play with my mother'

Maran thought as he made his way back home.

Today had been a bit strange for him; he kept randomly blacking out every now and then.

Also, for some reason, his reflexes and instincts were extremely sharpened today, and he was really good at dodge ball.

He wanted to ask his mother if this was normal or if she had any idea about what was happening.

However, just as he was on his way back home, he saw the people in his village running and shouting.

"Everyone run"

"God, please, I don't want to die."

"Why us?"

"Those bastards will pay for this."

A bunch of similar shouts and curses could be heard as the village folk ran for their lives.

Maran was confused, but he remembered his mother's teachings as he waved his hand and said.

"Hi, where are you guys going?" he asked cluelessly.

Seeing him, an uncle stopped and picked the boy up as he started running.

Maran felt scared by the actions of the uncle, and all the fear in the atmosphere finally made its way towards him as he felt uneasy and started crying.

"Am I getting kidnapped?" he asked.

The uncle carrying him slowed down, bewildered by the confusion, but he still explained what was happening.

"The city folk have set fire to our forest, and it's too big now to be put out."

"It's only a matter of time till the fire makes its way towards the village, which is why we're prioritising the safety of the villagers."

Maran's face went pale, almost like he had seen a ghost, as he looked around in panic, hoping to find his mother.

But alas, it was futile, as she was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's mother?" Maran asked, hoping to be proven wrong.

The man carrying him remained silent for a few seconds, as he said.

"She already made it out; don't worry about her."

The man was a terrible liar, and his lying skills were so bad that even a child could see through him and tell that he was lying.

Without any hesitation, Maran bit the hands of the man.

~Crunch~

"Ahh!!" the man screamed in pain as he accidentally dropped Maran.

Normally, Maran would've fallen head first, but thanks to Williams's personality affecting him and his instinct, he was able to land gracefully and start running to the opposite side of everyone else as he made his way towards his mother.

The village people were shocked to see the boy running in the direction where the flame was spreading and wanted to stop him.

But in the end, their own survival instinct won against their humanity, and they instead kept running.

'Why is this happening to us?' Maran thought as he ran through the empty streets and passed by empty houses, their residents having already long escaped.

And before long, he had reached his destination.

His precious, small, but familiar house was now nowhere to be seen, and instead all he found was a small hut on fire.

Maran went into a house besides his own that wasn't on fire and wetted himself, filled some water in a utensil, and picked up a cloth.

Completely disregarding all his survival instincts, Maran rushed inside to 'rescue' his mother.

~cough~

~cough~

He coughed as he had trouble breathing due to all the smoke attacking his lungs, but he still kept running.

Everywhere his eyes could see was on fire.

He looked through all the rooms in the house before he made his way towards his own room.

~sizzle~

~sizzle~

The flames sizzled as they burned a humanoid figure.

While the figure no longer bore any resemblance to his mother, Maran knew it was her.

After all, who else could it possibly be?

"Mom!!!" he shouted as tears flooded his eyes, from both the emotional trauma and the smoke invading his eyes.

~cough~

~cough~

He coughed from all the smoke, but he didn't care as he rushed towards his burning mother.

~Splash~

Maran threw the water he had stored in the utensil at the burning figure and used his cloth to dissipate the fire, even if only a little bit.

And against all odds, he succeeded in putting out the fire.

Sadly, it was useless, as all that was left of his once beautiful mother was a disgusting black, charred corpse that fell to the ground.

Silence.

Maran didn't say anything anymore, and neither did he cry anymore.

Instead, he turned his face to look at the door, and as expected, it was covered in fire, making it impossible to make it out of here alive.

Unlike what one might expect, the boy didn't cry or curse his faith like most adults.

As his reason for living was already gone, why should he still be alive?

"I'll come play with you soon, mom."

The boy said as he passed out from the trauma of losing his mother right before the fire could engulf him.

And instead of the boy, the one who was engulfed in fire was William Verhein, who had no clue about what was happening.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!"

William screamed in agony as he felt himself burning alive.

"Ahhhhhh!!!!!"

William once again screamed, hoping for someone to help him.

'It hurts so much'

William thought as he hoped for the cold embrace of death to come for him.

His skin started melting, and before long, his screams stopped.

This wasn't because he was dead or that it no longer hurt.

But rather, his voice box had burned; he was now physically incapable of screaming.

By now, an average person would have died, but for some reason, William was still alive, despite his current body being much weaker than the average person.

Williams opinion about the worst kind of pain has now changed.

He no longer thought that starvation was the worst kind of pain.

As someone who had experienced both, he was quite sure that he hated the feeling of being burned alive far more than simple starvation.

'Please, someone kill me,' he prayed sadly; his prayers fell on deaf ears.

He tried to use his precious mana, the energy he was supposed to be the child of.

The power he had so desperately craved in the final years of his past life and the energy that had accompanied him every step of the way in his second life.

And yet today, in his time of need, it was nowhere to be found.

He called out to Zephyr, Wiz, Sera, Agni, and even Gionne.

The beings that had been in his head for the past few years and used to constantly pester him were also nowhere to be seen.

He even tried to use the aura, thinking maybe being literally burned alive was enough of a goal for it to respond, but sadly, somehow it wasn't.

He tried to use his aspect thinking since it was linked to his soul; maybe it would work.

And just like all the other times, it didn't work.

He was truly on his own in his time of need.

All alone to suffer as he burned alive for hours, completely unable to do something or die.

The same emotion, which he had come to hate in his past life, had once again found him.

He was completely helpless.

After this realisation, he continued being burned alive for hours, unsure of when his suffering would end, assuming it would even end.

He wanted to scream, but he couldn't.

He wanted to die, but he couldn't.

He wanted to escape this fire, but he couldn't.

He wanted to use mana to put out the fire, but he couldn't.

He wanted to hear the voices he had grown accustomed to over the years, but he couldn't.

He wanted to feel less helpless, but he couldn't.

'Maybe this is hell, and I'm now suffering for all the sins I have committed over the year's

All the heinous crimes he had done in his past life to gain power, the unborn son of Jason he had killed in the name of revenge.

The maids and servants he had killed just by being born in his second life, the village that had been destroyed in the fight between Rex and the Hydra, all the soldiers that had been killed by the dragons and other beasts lured by his flaw, the other tragedies caused by his flaw, and now even the death of Tony.

At least in his past life, all his bad deeds were done consciously by him, but in his second life, even his existence was a sin.

Wherever he went, tragedy struck, and whenever he tried to do good, things went wrong.

While he tried his best to hide it with the persona he put on, in truth, he was hurt as he tried to cope with the sin that was his existence.

It was almost like the whole world was against him, which probably wasn't that far from the truth.

He was just a normal person with normal goals, like everyone else.

So why must his existence be such a sin?

What was the point of being able to use magic if the price for his dream was paid by everyone he cared for and even random people around him?

'Maybe this is where I really belong,' William thought as he finally accepted the pain as a reminder for what he had done and what more he would do if he continued living.

However, after hours of being burned alive as he burned, another thought crept inside his head as he gained another enlightenment about the true nature of fire.

'Fire is death and destruction'

And before he knew it, his vision went dark, and his surroundings changed.