A portal blinked open in the middle of the ruined sci-fi hospital, and out stepped Azarel and Aziel, the infant in tow. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't shake the thought of what a little monster this kid was.
He had drained the entire crimson pool dry, something that had taken about a decade to produce, and yet, this tiny devil had slurped it all up like it was a juice box.
They both exchanged a glance, silently wondering where exactly all that liquid had gone in his tiny body. His skin, now sporting a healthy rosy-crimson glow, shimmered ever so subtly, as if he were showing off the fact that he'd just guzzled years of hard work.
Luiz, the child's father, sat by the med-bed, his powerful frame supporting the exhausted mother. His brows furrowed slightly, a flicker of something between worry and resentment crossing his face as he stared at his newborn son.
"Little devil," he muttered under his breath, but Lyra, the baby's mother, paid no mind to his complaints.
As soon as the baby was brought near, Lyra's face lit up, forgetting the fact that this tiny being had caused havoc during the delivery. She snatched him up, cuddling him close with pure adoration.
"You've borne quite the seed," Azarel said with a dry chuckle, feeling the irony of his words.
"Little warrior," Lyra called with a soft smile from the bed, her voice gentle and warm. "Your name should be..."
"...Kallen," she began.
"Koa," Aizel said simultaneously, their words overlapping. They paused, staring at each other with awkward amusement, then she nodded.p
"Kallen Koa," Lyra said finally, stroking the baby's cheek. "Kallen Koa Luiz Crimson."
Just as the name was sealed, the baby's eyes flew open.
Azarel raised an eyebrow. "Well, at least he approves of the name."
---
Kallen had no idea where he was, nor how long he had been trapped in the oppressive darkness.
The dark was not something foreign to him, but he just couldn't appreciate this one. It felt alive, menacing, and overwhelming.
It gnawed at him, twisting his sense of reality. He had encountered strange realms of nothingness before while playing Divine Odyssey, but compared to this one, he might as well have been taking a nap.
Time felt like it had lost all meaning here. Was it minutes, hours, days... or had years already passed? The uncertainty of it all was close to driving him mad.
Although he couldn't find it in himself to appreciate this darkness, he still had to make use of this time to mull over his recent experience.
But therein lied the problem, had those recent events...? truly happened, or were they just elaborate hallucinations?
Interstellar railways, apex lifeforms, it all sounded too absurd to be real. How could beings so powerful casually interact with him, let alone bestow divinities upon him?
But it all felt so vivid, the rush of power when he devoured those divine fragments, the pressure when that crack in the void appeared... it couldn't have been fake... Or was it?
Perhaps this oppressive darkness should be hell, and maybe everything he experienced was all part of his torture? He couldn't be sure.
As he struggled to make sense of it all, a violent surge of agony crashed over him like a tidal wave. It felt like he was being suffocated, drowning in invisible depths, thrashing wildly in a desperate attempt to breathe.
But instead of air, searing heat erupted within him, as though his insides were igniting, consuming him from the core. His ragged screams tore through the void, but they vanished into nothingness, swallowed by the emptiness.
Time seemed to have warped, seconds turning into endless years, or perhaps it was centuries that collapsed into fleeting moments.
Relentlessly, the torment tore at his soul, until he was, unable to endure any longer, finally giving in to the pain, and crumpled into unconsciousness.
He awoke to a faint light shinning in the distance, the first sign of anything else other than darkness, since he came to hell.
Weak and disoriented, Kallen propped himself up and looked at the light with an emotionless eyes for a few seconds, "A soul like mine has no business with the light... The Lord of this hell can quit with the illusions" he said.
"Kallen"
He froze, straining his ears. It was the first sound besides his own voice he had heard since he was thrust into this strange space.
However he reclined backwards,
"This tortured soul might as well be nameless". He said to himself, falling for this obvious trick would be an insult to his intelligence.
Besides, his name was Caleb not Kallen. This was really a pathetic attempt at torturing his mind.
The whisper grew louder, and he heard it again.
"Kallen..."
"Koa..."
This time, two distinct, unfamiliar voices called out to him, and his body began to move against his own volution. His gaze frosted over but he didn't resist, deep down he knew he would be powerless against it so why bother?
The closer he got, the clearer the voice became... feminine, warm, and unmistakably calling for him.
"Kallen Koa..."
An unseen force grabbed hold of him, yanking him forward at an incredible speed, hurtling toward the light now, completely powerless to stop it.
And then, at the exact moment the voice called out the full name, "Kallen Koa Luiz Crimson", he plunged into the light.
In the outside world, the baby's eyes flew open.
For the first time, Kallen Koa Luiz Crimson was truly awake.
---
Kallen blinked, trying to absorb the surreal sight before him. Compared to the infinite abyss of nothingness he had just escaped, this new setting was a disorganized and ruined technological marvel.
The futuristic hospital ward he found himself in was a shimmering blend of sterile whites and metallic grays, illuminated by a soft, ambient blue glow that came from thin, translucent panels embedded into the walls.
The steady pulse of a monitoring device sounded rhythmic, almost like a digital heartbeat.
It was as if the equipments in this place could function autonomously, needing no human touch to perform its tasks.
Looking down on him, was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, gazing into his eyes lovingly. Her caramel-colored hair fell like waterfall, flowing in smooth waves down to her back.
Her skin, a warm, tanned bronze, had a subtle sheen, glowing faintly under the sterile lights. There was something undeniably strong about her, though her face was delicately beautiful.
Her long, pointy ears were elegant, unlike anything he had seen on Earth... they reminded him of elves.
Brown eyes that sparkled, reflecting his tiny form back at him, and he couldn't help but marvel at their clarity. They were as clear as glass, brimming with emotion, though a touch of fatigue lingered in them.
_'A baby huh?!'_
He was unable to decide if he had reincarnated or if this was another illusion. The possibility of it being the latter would be high.
Behind the woman stood a tall, imposing man with wild crimson hair, framing a stern and ruggedly handsome face. His eyes were disconcerting, one glowing a fierce crimson, the other regal purple.
His expression carried an air of mock resentment, and his piercing gaze locked on his small figure.
_'This place would give any sci-fi nerd a nose bleed,_' he mused, marveling at the sleek, otherworldly design.
From the corner of his eye, Kallen noticed two old men standing nearby, their crimson hair tying them unmistakably to the family.
The first was hunched, his wild, untrimmed beard reaching nearly to his chest. His face looked weathered, gruff, and sickly, his features softened with age.
Beside him stood another man, taller and more upright, his posture rigid, as if he were carved from stone.
His beard was neatly trimmed into a sharp goatee, his attire immaculate and white, giving him the appearance of a scholar. Yet his physique was powerfully built, betraying the fact that he had seen countless battles.
He could make some pretty accurate deductions of everyone in the ward, and how they related to him. But soon, a strange drowsiness crept in, fogging his mind and weighing down his eyelids.
The sounds of the beeping machines, the soft hum of technology, and the distant murmur of voices grew distant.
The darkness that came in as his eyelids closed, chilled his heart.
_'Well, I agree you got me again'_ he thought his consciousness returning to darkness.
_'I wonder what agony you'd bring up this time..._
_'...This hell might just be fun'_
Slowly, the sci-fi marvel around him faded, replaced by comforting darkness?
_'Huh?'_
He drifted off, his thoughts slipping away into peaceful oblivion.