"I want you two to promise no matter what happens, you'll stay together and live a life you'll both be proud of. It's all I could want for you two, to live free and be happy forever."

The two linked their pinkies together, smiling among the flowers grown by their mother.

"I promise, we'll always be together and be happy. So please, don't worry about us. It will be a promise that can't be broken."

.

.

.

Initiating booting sequence . . .

Depressurizing pod . . .

Initiating reviving sequence . . .

Sequence_01 and _02 complete . . .

Disconnecting life support system . . .

Stasis discontinuing . . .

Revival complete . . .

Pod_Carna_Grenore opened . . .

. . . Welcome back to the living . . .

The boy opened his eyes to a golden light. It was warm and blurry still, and it made him think, "did I die?" He blinked a couple of times, tears that fell before he was put into a deep slumber trickled down.

There was a heavy feeling weighing down on him as he looked around, head turning slowly. He couldn't move his body yet, his limbs sluggish and body temperature still cold. Despite the sleep inertia, there was a sense of unnatural tranquillity. The boy named, Carna, did not remember anything for the first hour.

Soon, a transparent screen with blue text appeared in front of his face. It read:

"Welcome back, Carna Grenore, to the Nasod Preservation Chamber located in Elianode and connected to the Northern Region of Lurensia, Elrios. You have admitted to the Nasod Preservation Chamber approximately three hundred years ago and have been in cryo stasis for three hundred years. You may feel a heavy sense of inertia and cannot move your body. Please do not panic as your body is still stabilising and adjusting to reality.

"You may move soon and are requested to perform the following exercises for rehabilitation. After an hour, you will regain further cognitive functions and will be required to rest. Returning to the living can be difficult for your mainly human components, so it is recommended you take things slowly. Thank you for reading this notice and good luck."

The notice stayed there long enough for him to read it all before it automatically disappeared.

It was hard to walk the first few times. There were a few Nasods to help him walk and pick him up when he fell, but he soon got the hang of walking. It didn't take long for him to go through obstacle courses before he was guided to the resting room. To the resting room where a headache that persisted for the last hour got worse.

Waking up in a strange place like this and without memories, it made him feel like a big chunk of himself was lost somewhere. His head met the cold ground beneath as his vision shook in all different directions. The pain was nothing new, he felt. He wanted to remember, the missing parts that drifted away in slumber…

"You can't do this!" Her hand pulled him along without ease. "I can't leave yet! Not when my older brother is still out there!"

She typed a few numbers on a small panel and the entrance shut tight behind them, bolts drilling in and steam gushing out. The tunnel was dimly lit to conserve power. It was necessary.

"Carna, listen to me." She knelt to his height, dress flowing onto the ground. Her warm-coloured eyes stared sympathetically at his, like a mother trying to comfort her crying child. "We don't have a choice in this. If we tried to escape from the forest, they would hunt us down mercilessly. Even if we did manage to escape, everyone in Elrios knows what we look like. We won't be safe anywhere."

"So we're...fugitives?"

She pressed her lips together for a second and continued to lead him down the tunnel.

"Please understand. This is for your own safety."

"But...you'll die."

"If I die to protect you, then I'm satisfied."

"I don't want you to do this! Don't leave me alone…"

They arrived in the chamber where the Preservation Pod was. She strapped him in and configured the settings.

"When Adam wakes up again, he will send a signal to automatically re power this place and you will also wake up. You'll be fine."

"Don't you say that when you're knocking on death's door in front of me." She smiled again, her golden-pink eyes gazing sadly. Her finger upon a blue button when she was strapped into another device.

"Goodnight, Carna. It was nice spending time with you and I hope...you can find happiness without me."

Liquid sorrow overcame him in waves as it rolled its way down his warm cheeks. She pressed the button and watched him as his eyelids gradually fluttered shut before she let out her last breath.

There was a small puddle of tears cuddling beneath his face. Yes, he remembered her. The memory of being alone, followed by the darkness that always crept over his shoulder. She was just walking amongst the greenery, the rocks that jutted out, the small streams splashing, small creatures scuttling away with branches cracking underneath. He remembered lying there, set against a tree barely dry. Wheeze, cough, wheeze. That caught her attention, then. Hair billowing around her shoulders with eyes blinking a rosy pink in his direction. A power covered in warmth circled around her in a calm frenzy, breathing through the air that quivered ever so slightly.

She had been a series of constantly saving him. Constantly wrapping clean bandages around the wounds he sustained from living 'out there'.

The cryostasis must have caused a temporary memory loss and then he understood. "Returning to the living can be difficult for your mainly human components" was what the notice had read. He knew he was still missing chunks of his memory. It was hard to miss the empty hole etched inside your head, the heavyweight pressed against it.

He helped himself up, only to feel soft grass underneath his feet.

"Huh?"

"Your stay at the Nasod Preservation Chamber has expired. A message and a gift had been saved for your departure." Another blue screen with cursive writing appeared, floating perfectly at his height.

"Greetings, Carna, I have read your file that Princess Apple previously sent. It is unfortunate to hear of your situation and what you have been through. Although, by the time you awake, I would've returned to sleep as well, so I have left a gift that will arrive soon. Carna, I have no doubt that you will arrive here soon and it is rather saddening that I might never get to meet you. You were the best friend she ever had since her home in Elrios fell and her wish was to see you fulfil your promise. Do her proud, Carna, and keep yourself hidden well. They are searching for you, the ones who cloak themselves in the darkness will have no doubt been sweeping Elrios for you. So I advise you not to keep your name and keep what's within locked inside."

He frowned, but there had been a knotting feeling in his stomach for quite some time now. Twisting and tightening, coiling in the depth of his stomach like a snake. The feeling of dread was familiar as if he spent time all alone with dread itching to choke him. The heart would thud, thud, thud. A black snake slithering its way up and into the throat, flickering its tongue and hissing. Hissing in the surroundings he stood in as the blue screen glitch and disappeared. Something was coming towards him and he wanted to believe it was what the message mentioned. A crack rustled in the trees behind him, a patter thundered through in the bushes, a distant cry shook the air, the sounds of the forest groaning all around him. He had twisted around, but nothing would present itself.

Whirr, crack, crash, snicker… It was getting closer.

"Are you Carna Grenore?"

"Wah!" He fell to see a looming shadow behind him. Turning around, it was a humanoid looking robot. "You're…"

"I have been sent to help you prepare for your journey," it said. "You may choose your attire, create your weapon system and appearances. You must also provide the following: a new identity."

Carna just stared at the Nasod before asking, "Do you have a name?"

"..."

"You don't have a name?" He stood up, noticing just how tall the Nasod was. At his current height, he was at the chest. The humanoid Nasod surrounded Carna with multiple blue screens, circling around him in a slow pace. It guided him through the processes of creating a new identity and appearance.

He decided on his clothes carefully, using different pattern work to figure out what he liked. A white jacket with a darkened coat of black from the waist to hip, a golden zip line diagonally to the side, with a simple black and white pattern attached. A white belt with a dark blue line running around the middle, it carried a decorative clock on the side. It seemed that the Nasod held many materials gathered from around the world and strange technological objects he was unfamiliar with.

"That person got me all this?" he said, astounded. "Who is this person…? Will I meet him soon?"

"If you begin your journey, you will meet him. Now create your weapon system."

At first, he thought he would have to use weapons that would allow him to use mana. Undergoing a body scan, there were traces of mana around him and inside, but...there was a separate type of energy. In Elrios, El was what gave life to the land and people could harness its power to live better. But before the El ever existed, Elrios was the Forsaken Continent that only gave birth to Darkness and Chaos. The energy back then was powerful and reckless, reigning death and destruction to any surviving life forms. It had no name, but even in the time of El, there were a people who believed in that power. To bring back that Forsaken Continent.

Carna wasn't completely aware of that, but that the separate energy within him was explosive and massive in quantity. If he could utilise this energy well, he could be independent of both the El and Mana altogether. It was an energy he felt he could control, given enough time to practice. With several hours in the forest clearing, he created vessel drones that could be inserted with energy. However, giving them equal amounts of energy was too difficult. So, he tried recreating the vessel drones again.

"You will not last long without eating, Carna. Having been only sustained by a life support system, your body has become weaker. Should I go into the nearest town to get you food?"

"Operator…" he said sleepily. He had named the Nasod after a component he took interest in. "Sounds good."

Operator left into the forest, leaving Carna alone with the many types of Nasod machinery from the storage. Light radiated from lamps, which was powered by El.

"What if I created a switching mechanism?" He mused. Carna had become familiar with the machinery and materials he found. It felt like he had known them for a long time, yet his memories did not recall ever seeing them. "The barrier device looks good enough, but it's too big."

He shivered, the night's chilly air seeping in his newly made clothes. The lights provided some warmth and he began to worry monsters were lurking in the forest. An hour had passed by, nothing had approached him.

"I suggest using the Energy Switching blueprint." He was too tired to act surprised and saw Operator approaching with food in his arms. "I managed to secure some food from a supply cart."

"You...stole food?"

"I am not bound to human morality. I'm here to help you prepare." The Operator gave him several pieces of fruit with a bottle of water. They were placed on a floating desk surface and he randomly selected a red-looking fruit. It wasn't an apple, but it tasted sweet when he bit into it. The Operator watched him eat before assisting him with creating a weapon. Eventually, they managed to make six Vessel Drones paired with three Shift Drones. Carna barely slept as the sun started to rise. He barely minded the frosty cold of morning when his weapons were complete.

"You express remarkable understanding of the machinery."

Carna watched his drones fly around him.

"Well, you helped me create them in one night," he laughed. "Thank you, Operator."

"I do not require thanking, but I must ask...you also created an AI Socket for a Core. Why is that?"

"Ah, that?" He looked at the spherical empty socket before his drones paired up, synchronising. One system comprised of two Vessel Drones and one Shift Drone. "Just to create some room for improvement."

The drones went in triangular formations before dispersing a transparent field. Two thin holographic fields atop each other. Carna carefully swiped two fingers across the field, sending a rippling trace to the side.

Operator let out a sound akin to shock when he was split in half before its blue eyes flickered off. It fell with a loud crash, bolts and metallic pieces tumbling away. Carna just stared before plucking the Nasod Core from the remains, cloudy blue. He pressed the core into the Core AI Socket and reprogrammed the Core for a few minutes.

"Hello, Operator," he said. The core flushed to life like it was alive. He picked it up and threw it in the holographic field. It entered through, being registered as a Core before disappearing. "You won't remember who you were and what you came for."

He stored the equipment and threw the storage cube into the field, too. "Let's see...three triplet weapons. I'll give them each a name."

There was a sense of guilt slowly coming over him since he didn't know why he cut Operator down. When he was creating his weapons alongside the humanoid Nasod, he felt like someone suddenly changed his view and he had started making the Socket. Why was it now that he realised that? He wasn't in complete control. It was like someone was pulling his strings, dancing him around and yanking him towards a different path.

"...what did I just do?" Guilt felt like the heart was being pulled down, the mind plunging and the realisation coming in waves. He sighed, knowing that he was alone now. Where exactly was he supposed to go?

The sun was at a fair distance in the sky as he travelled to a nearby town. A brown wooden plaque gave the identity of the town, "Elder". There were guards stationed at the gate, eyeing him cautiously as they stood still. Carna walked through the entrance, feet stepping on white concrete as his drones followed behind. People rarely wandered around the town without any purpose, but several men and women walked downcast on the streets. Torn posters decorated several walls, once promoting the tyrant of a mayor. The scenery laid out before him was familiar. Children sitting against the walls, holding their toys in hand. Parents huddling behind their doors with sobbing noises emanating from within.

It was strange. One would expect a bright town like this to be bustling with life as their tyrannical mayor was deceased. Carna sighed to himself as he neared the main court, following the signs to Wally's Memorial Bridge. An Alchemist was unloading her supplies for today and started setting up her cauldron. She was consuming a lollipop, which she took out shortly. Having a knowledgeable aura around her, he thought about asking her what was wrong with the town.

"Hey," he greeted.

The alchemist raised her head and her eyes widened in surprise, "Suru suru…? Do Echo's eyes deceive her?"

He frowned slightly.

"You look just like someone who was here a few days ago, suru…," she said. "Are you perhaps related to Add?"

"Who?" he responded but had a sneaking realisation. "What did he look like?"

"He had white hair and magenta eyes," she answered. "You also have...the same eyes."

He wanted to ask more questions but stopped himself. How would he have known someone like that-was there a promise? The scent of flowers permeated the air, sweet and aromatic. A promise?

"S-suru? Are you okay?" questioned the alchemist, but it didn't register. A lady with flowing white hair, glowing silvery in the sunlight streaming through clean glass. He couldn't hear her voice even when she opened her mouth to speak. Someone else was in front of him, holding out a pinky finger. A child with the same hair colour as the lady who always seemed to smile. Why couldn't he hear the voices of both of them? His own biological mother and his own older brother.

"I'm...alright," he managed to respond. Carna was hunched over and the Alchemist looked concerned.

"Are you his younger brother, or something? He once mentioned you in his sleep," she said. "Although, when I mentioned this, he got angry and left."

"I understand. Did you say your name was Echo?" He asked politely.

"Suru suru, Echo alright," she said, nodding. "What's your name?"

He couldn't say he was Carna according to the mysterious messenger, so he thought of something hurriedly.

"Sub... Subtract!" He said rather loudly, standing straight.

Echo blinked a couple of times in surprise before letting out a soft giggle, "The opposite of his name, huh? Well, Echo can't point you in the direction he went but your best bet is Bethma."

"Bethma?"

"It's a desert area inhabited by both lizard men and humans. Bethma is the neighbour town next to Elder, suru. If one wants to advance forward, Bethma is an ideal place to go to, suru."

Subtract thought about his options and offered Echo a fake-placed smile. Somewhat remembering to be polite to people you just met. The empty feeling of faking was only a drop, but noticeable when he did the act. Echo tilted her head to the right, almost as if confused about something.

"You seem different from him. You're actually pretty nice and polite," she pointed out. "Alright, I'll answer any question you have. Only one, suru."

"What's wrong with this town? It seems gloomy for a bright-looking town."

"Ah, you don't know about the HoD? It's a mysterious group that popped out of nowhere and has been terrorising many towns, suru. They've managed to cast this ominous presence over towns they are going to invade next, suru, so with that indication... Elder will be invaded by them soon. The Velder Army has tried taking them down and liberating every town they've taken, but none of them has succeeded, suru. Now only if the El Search Party could solve this, but I think they're all the way up in Altera."

"HoD…" It felt like an old scar starting to open up. He knew who they were, but he couldn't get the words out of his mouth. No, he didn't know who they were, he knew what they were. Maybe he would encounter them on the way to Bethma. If this was a possibility, he would have to prepare himself. "Do you know where they're going to come from?"

She frowned, "Oh, I see the problem now, suru. They're coming from Bethma so it's likely …"

"Invaded and taken over…" he finished for her. This was certainly bad news for the first day of his arrival. Echo pursed her lips before looking at Subtract's drones, which she had been doing for a couple times. The nine floating drones were minimal so they didn't take up much space behind him. They floated rather silently without any noise, having non-existent engines and being sustained only by spatial technology and energy. His energy was largely versatile in functioning. "I'll still go."

"Your drones...can I see them?" asked Echo. Subtract beckoned the drones closer as they whirled around Echo. One Vessel Drone and Shift Drone landed in Echo's hands, circling around on her palms before becoming still. "This energy you're using to power them is unfamiliar, but the mechanical parts are a bit out of alignment. Look, if you're planning to face a part of that group, you're going to need to be optimal for fighting them. I'll help you modify them with some parts from the Castle."

"The Castle?"

Echo pointed in the direction of a towering white castle.

"There are still remnants of our tyrant mayor in there. It may be a bit dangerous."

"I'll go then. Don't worry about me."

Echo smiled. "I'll go get my detector nasod to help guide you."

"Thank you much, Echo."

"It's not much. I just like technology."

In a space of turquoise shards and blue, someone stood afar watching through a blurry-edged screen. Although he had something else to do and vastly important than watching someone unrelated to his goal, he got an ominously bad feeling. An evil presence walked among the lands of Elrios and that presence existed now in Elder. He made a frustrated sound, whispering, "You should have never existed here."

Welp, I'm back with the rewritten version of HAR and it is now SPE. Lol. This is the end of the chapter, please leave a fav/follow/reply/share~

Also I wonder who that is at the end. ...Your guess is as good as mine, but the voice it belongs to...belongs to something you knew. Someone you erased from your memory. Someone you wanted to not exist. ...And he was born to be forgotten. (Look up ainchase on Tumblr w because she wrote about Ain first and translated all about him (and posts theories of Elsword, so please check her up))

And who knows? Maybe I'll draw fanart of my own fiction (I'm sad halp me) on my tumblr desolatedchronos (shameless self-promo, hit me pls)