Hero of Darkness

Chapter 1221: The Birth of the Hero

In the vastness of different worlds, dimensions, and timelines that were fundamentally extensions of the reality of the Prime Ultimatus, presently known as Vantrea... was a planet where a worldwide war occurred that put the fate of humanity on the brink of extinction.

This was one of the few dimensions where humans were the predominant species of the planet. And now, they were in a world-ending scale war.

This was the planet called Volos. And according to the universal knowledge among the humans, their planet Volos was the child of a goddess named Vasudhara.

Unlike Earth, people on Volos lived through a similar history, but a monumental shift happened in the 58th Millennium, where their planet was besieged by beings of another dimension through portals akin to your average hunter manhwas and novels.

Decades had gone by as humanity adapted and survived on its own while hunting and harvesting the monsters that appeared through rifts.

In this world too, were the awakened people who were randomly granted powers and soon rose to prominence in society due to strength, ability to fight, heal, and harness natural elements.

No more introduction was needed for the setting of this world. But as reality would have it... It became a game of power, fame, and wealth while normal people became secondary citizens a couple of decades later.

Among such billions of people with no power, a boy named Morpheus Constantine was born in a normal household.

Having no one in their entire family tree who was awakened, their situation was just as same as everyone else who had to toil every day to survive.

But the government, the rich, and the elites of the society at that time were inhabiting the posh and advanced areas of the city, while the poor populace could either be homeless and live in slums like the outcasts of the civilization.

Until one day, when Morpheus was only 6 years old, a Rift directly opened in one of the sections of slums at midnight, close to the small hut where Morpheus and his parents lived.

The bloodthirsty monsters attacked using the dark of the night and started butchering people outright.

This was a strategic attack by the monsters from the other dimension, as they too harvested humans for the organic matter to fuel their own survival, whether it was as a food resource or to engineer and create more monsters that would be sent to another planet just like Volos.

But thanks to human greed and inherent corruption in the society as well as the government, the kind that exists everywhere on earth as well... not a single awakened was stationed to protect the slums.

Even those employed by the government in the police force or the military outposts... didn’t care to ever venture in these parts of the cities, no matter which country it was on Volos.

And even when the emergency contact was made... it took them 2 hours just to arrive on the scene of the attack.

By that time... thousands of people were dead, even more captured and transported through those rifts just to be cut apart limb from limb or became meat for the experiments for the monster civilization’s technology.

Hundreds of houses, huts, and makeshift tents lay in debris as the slums became a field of blood, flesh, and carnage.

Among these dilapidated debris... lay Morpheus, muffling in fear as both his parents used their bodies to shield him from the monsters. His small frame was covered beneath their corpses as monsters ate them alive and left them to rot, as the young skinny boy didn’t even interest them.

Morpheus lay soaked in the blood and flesh of both his parents, their entrails covering his body like a blanket, while whatever skin and bones they had left helped his small frame hide from the monsters.

All this time, Morpheus was so scared that he was paralyzed from the shock as he watched his parents being eaten alive. The horrified expression of his father and the helpless, as well as terrified face of his mother, was forever imprinted on young Morpheus’ entire life.

******************

A couple of days later, the survivors of that attack were gathered, and the government declared relief aid for the people who had lost family members in front of the media. They even lied to the press that the Awakened Hunters responded to the emergency calls within minutes and fought against the monster wave, repelling it with very few casualties.

Meanwhile, the actual victims were not even allowed to enter these high and clean sections of the cities, as the leaders and politicians made grand claims about their competence to please and assure the well-off class of the society that these kinds of problems and rift breaches would not reach their doorsteps.

Morpheus was put into a camp along with others and taken to a refugee facility. Soon, the news of the relief aid by the government also reached the camp.

But the most inhumane creatures in the world were humans themselves.

The aid was announced so that people who could control the procedure will be able to legally siphon the aid money used for buying resources and compensate the victims.

Despite the media and articles writing about it, the actual money that went to the victims, like Morpheus, wasn’t even 10% of the announced amount. The food, the clothes... it didn’t even last for two weeks before they ran out of funds.

And what followed was shocking, furthermore.

The thousands of survivors gathered in the refugee camp by the government were soon taken to a different part outside of the central plains and transported to mining and harvesting facilities.

People were told that they all were getting jobs and a stable income at first, so they could settle and move on with their lives. With their hungry bellies and starving children in their hands... most had no other choice but to accept this arrangement so they could at least survive.

As for an orphan like Morpheus, who couldn’t even work as a child, had a skinny body, and no real knowledge or experience about the outside world... the people in charge of those facilities had a different plan.

Many children like him, whether a girl or a boy, who had no one to look after them, and no one who would ask questions about their whereabouts; were soon moved to a private and undisclosed area.

As for the citizens who were chosen to work in those facilities... would soon find themselves being subjected to forced labor, overbearingly long working hours, inefficient pay, and even barred from leaving the facilities.

And the biggest force of deterrence stopping them from leaving was none other than the Awakened Hunters employed by the government itself. Those who tried were simply imprisoned and, in many cases, killed off just to control the rest of the masses through fear.

Human lives were never sacred, no matter which world. They are and always have been... a commodity.

******************

Meanwhile... Morpheus had a different fate awaiting him. Even worse than those left behind in the harvesting facilities.

A couple of days later... they were transported through trucks to a hidden city filled with lavish houses, architecture, and it looked like heaven on earth.

Morpheus, who had barely recovered from the shock and trauma of watching his parents brutally butchered in front of him, saw the articulated town and was transfixed by the beauty and the overall atmosphere around this new area, as it was his first time in life to witness something so serene.

It was this destination where things took a turn for the worse for all the children.

Hundreds of orphans were gathered and then partitioned into two groups based on their genders.

All the little boys were soon sent to a training camp, but what kind of training it would be was not specified. All they were told was the simple line... ’Earn your keep’.

The little and teenage girls, on the other hand, were sent to traffickers to be sold off to wealthy people to be either their slaves... or treated as objects for pleasure by the elites and powerful on some island that even the government would deny knowing its existence.

It was after this day... Morpheus would soon witness hell.

Because the training meant for kids like him wasn’t for the military or to become part of some kind of private security. No, it’s to fight... against the other kids.

The place they were brought to was an entertainment hub for the true elites of the world, gathering every week for their enjoyment in every shape or form.

Whether it was for the thrill of the fight, to experience the pleasure of their respective fetishes, or to simply watch others squirm and beg for their lives, whether one was an adult or a child.

And there were plenty of these rich men and women who also enjoyed watching young children beat each other until one either passed out or even died.

Everyone was here to seek thrills at the expense of other people. Their sense of morality or consciousness as humans... didn’t exist.

While walking towards a training facility, Morpheus saw an area where the crowd was cheering as two kids around the same age as him were forced to fight each other and were soaked in blood.

Morpheus, the boy who had seen death, blood, and gore an inch away from his eyes, knew what was awaiting him.

Despite the hell he recognized was awaiting him, he spoke for the first time after that massacre...

”I will not die!”