Time Holders: The World of Balance

Aldrus lay on his bed, closing his eyes tightly as a piercing wave of pain forced him to let out a raspy groan. The day had barely started and he was already incapacitated.

Haaahh... He sighed, wallowing in his misery.

The fresh air that flowed into the room touched his burning skin, feeling like an angel’s caress.He thought it was funny how his fever had been caused by his own mind, yet it was real enough to keep his body pinned on a mattress.

From the moment he got his fragment, the power he held brought him nothing but trouble. He wondered if it was the same for everyone else.

I’ll ask Alice when she comes back...

His mind wandered with no clear direction. Sometimes, he even thought he’d heard someone calling his name, or seen a person staring at him from above.

Slowly, his eyelids grew heavier, as if begging for him to let them fall. With his mind foggy and his thoughts abstract, he didn’t think twice before succumbing to their demand.

Soon, he was asleep.

***

Aldrus found himself in a strange place. Everything around him was gray. The sky was covered in a thick layer of crying clouds and mist. The ground was flattened, clearly by human hand; it stretched all the way through the horizon, as far as sight could reach.

He was standing there, alone. Drenched in rain, sweat... and blood. He looked around, searching desperately for something or someone he did not yet know.

He felt it coming—imminent. The most primal, raw sense of yearning. Of missing. Of loss. The air tasted of iron, and smelled like coal.

He started running; there was a huge weight on his back. His hair was longer, it swung brusquely at the mercy of the wind and stuck on his lips with mud and blood.

The only things he could hear were the remnant echoes of a distant battle—the clash of swords, the gurgles of throats, the pleas of the fallen...

The slaughter of them all.

He realized then. The ground wasn’t flattened. It was covered.

Covered in bodies.

A path of flesh and broken swords. It led in a single direction...

Him.

His eyes widened in terror. Immediately, he looked over his shoulder at the foreign object weighing on his back. There, the upper half of a girl still clung to his cloak. She smelled of rot and tears.

In a panic, he shook her off and let her dismembered body plummet to the ground. Then, he looked down slowly, shaking desperately as the sight that welcomed him made his stomach squirm.

His hands were crimson. Mangled so terribly that anyone would rather cut them off. Tangled between his fingers—human hair, skin, cloth and nails were all stuck together in a harrowing, vomitive work of art that only the vilest of minds could hope to craft.

He shook his them. He shook them so hard his wrists dislocated with the movement.

He ran again. He ran so fast his knees bent back, but he kept running nevertheless.

A black-haired monster ran through the ghost of a battlefield, squishing corpses with each step.

The red and the rain fought for a place on his muddy boots and tattered cloak.

The only sound beside him was that of water and wind, but the water was crimson, and the wind made out of ash.

Soon, his body stopped working altogether and collapsed to the ground, blending among the rot beside.

...dying?

He moved his pupils to the sky. High up above him, the faint silhouette of a man met his gaze.

Aldrus thought he saw him cry.

But before he could ask anything, a piercing wave of pain struck his head.

It’s hot... so hot...

Scorching...

BURNING.

”GAAAHHHGGHAAaaAhh!!!”

Aldrus woke up with a scream and jumped to his feet in a single desperate movement. He landed with his face on the raspy surface of the brown carpet he knew so well. He was covered in sweat and gasping for air.

Trembling uncontrollably, he stood up, raised his hands...

And bit them.

He bit down with all his strength and swiftly ripped the skin off. He tore flesh and muscles apart in a savage, inhuman frenzy.

Tears of pain mixed with the flowing blood, staining everything in their path.

He kept destroying his own body for five whole minutes, until the adrenaline began to fade and his mind slowly cleared up. A little calmer, he stared at them with horror as they twitched erratically with pain and fear.

The memories from his dream haunted him for way longer than he would have liked. However, for some reason, they slowly began to fade, leaving behind nothing but a lingering sense of terror.

After a while, the door clicked open. Alice was back, and behind her stood a mighty old man dressed in lavish clothes, scanning the room with little interest.

Aldrus stayed there, still looking at his trembling hands.

”Why are you out of bed? You should rest, Aldrus,” Alice said with a concerned face.

She approached him quickly and prepared to scold him a bit. However, after seeing him closer, she suddenly noticed his state. ”W-What happened?! Why are you hurt this badly?!”

Her eyes widened in surprise, then immediately looked back at the man behind her, ”S-Sir Ludwig!”

Ludwig swiftly moved his eyes in their direction. Without changing his expression one bit, he made his presence heavier for a split second, and then...

T-They’re healed...

His hands were instantly back to normal, as if not a single feather had ever touched them. Aldrus stood there, quiet. He exhaled in relief as his heart calmed down.

It was only now, with a clear head, that he could feel his body burn again. But he didn’t care. In fact, maybe a fever like this was something he longed for. Any stimulus would be welcomed if it meant forgetting, even for a second.

The room went silent for a few moments, Alice still by his side. After a while, the silence was cut by a raspy voice, ”So, we meet again, Aldrus,” Ludwig finally spoke.

Somehow, he was now sitting on Aldrus’s bed.