Okay everyone, this is my first attempt at a first person fanfic, so I hope someone enjoys it. I worked hard and any comments or help with my writing will be appreciated and put to heart. So here it goes. -crosses fingers-
Echo: Prologue
A History
No one is exactly sure how the Earth came to be. Some believe the explosion of a star was the beginning of it all. Others believe some great deity created the earth. It is safe to say that the second option is more correct; however, whether it was a deity or not is a little harder to answer. The creator of worlds is said to be a great spirit, who's only goal is to repeat the experiment of existence until success is reached. You may be thinking this great entity to be insane, after all, the definition of insanity repeating the same action and expecting a different result? However, in each world new world there is a distinct difference, and that would be the spirit's children, the gods.
In the world currently in question, there were not many gods, but each one chose a domain to rule over. Zeus chose the sky. Hades ruled the earth. Poseidon ruled the seas. Athena ruled over nature. Hera ruled over the supernatural. Hermies ruled over the shadows. Eris ruled over the darkness. It is said that she did not only rule over darkness, but was darkness herself, spawned from the source of all evil, which of course I cannot write down for fear of the consequences. Aries ruled over conflict. It was Aries, of course, who gave shape to the first humans.
Humans, as we can see from first hand experience, had obvious flaws. Because they came from a god of war, they were naturally inclined to fight. They did not care to go explore or learn; they had absolutely no interest in the world around them. Their focus was to become physically dominant over their fellow humans.
Zeus, the ruler of the gods, deemed these creatures to be unworthy of life, and set out for their destruction. However, Aries whined, and complained, and even resorted to the closest thing to crying that a god can get to. Zeus felt pity for Aries, and allowed this breed to survive, on one condition. He forced Aries to become their patron god and care these creatures, which was a task Aries readily accepted. These humans which he named "Warriors," built their homes in the vast mountain ranges of the northern regions of the continent, and called their city, Perion. Aries visited them often, and his people loved him.
This act of pity from Zeus caused a wave rage and jealousy from the gods. It also didn't help to see Aries beaming with pride as he walked into the palace halls, bragging and telling tales of the monuments erected in his name, or how much his humans adored him. Soon three other gods demanded the right to create their own race of humans. In order to keep dealings between friendly, Zeus reluctantly approved.
Athena created a curious group of humans, in tune with the gentle creatures of the earth, only killing when necessary. Athena saw their potential, and trained them in the art of using her most prized tool, the bow and arrow. She personally came down from the heavenly palace gates to tutor the humans in its use. Many excelled, and the ones who did she moved to a separate town of her own creation, Henesys, located on the southern reaches of the still unnamed continent, and named them "Bowmen."
Hera's humans were extremely intelligent. Their creativity and mental capabilities rivaled hers. They craved and begged for knowledge, and Hera gave it to them. They adsorbed the powers of magic like it was water, and learned to use it as second nature. Soon they were creating spells hat even Hera herself could not think of. These "Magicians," moved to the western forest area of where the magic was most potent and named their establishment Ellina.
Hermes made his race very quick, very smart, and extremely lucky. They excelled in life, and lead an easy existence, playing, relaxing, and honing their skills with the dagger and the new weapon they developed, the claw. They got along well with the Bowmen because they shared their casual attitude toward life. They made an impressive looking city from fields they cleared cleared and paved over in the east. These relaxed individuals called themselves "Rogues." By the time the rogues were settled, all four races, now deemed jobs, send representatives to a convention where the name of the continent was deemed Victoria.
The different jobs became restless, tired of the confines of the earth, which was becoming too small for the great mass of people. Zeus was pressured to create a magical city in his domain which he named Orbis, in honor of his beloved pet, Orbi. Humans who felt no particular allegiance to a god left to live in Orbis. Poseidon became jealous of Zeus and created his own city under the sea. He named his city Aquarium. People also flocked to Aquarium, for its isolated lifestyle and exotic wildlife. Hades felt like he should create a domain to fit in with the crowd. He created the toy city of Ludibrium, named after his pet, Ludiar. People came to Ludibrium for the fun, excitement, and worldly delights. The gods were content, and so were the humans. This peace continued for millennia, until Eris became uneasy.
The peace disturbed her. People should not get a long, they are meant for war. She was, without a doubt, the smartest of the gods. She was cold, calculating, and just plain evil. After the one thousandth year anniversary of the creation of the earth, Eris introduced evil into the world. She corrupted the minds of the once peaceful animals of earth. Numerous attacks occurred against the seven towns before the humans discovered the creatures, now regarded as monsters, were something to worry about.
Eris and her pet, the Lucida, lead the army of monsters against each of the towns. Most were destroyed, and the humans flocked to the last remaining town, Perion, of the Warriors. Here they used the terrain to their advantage and managed to destroy the bulk of the army. The monsters went back into hiding, flocking into the dungeon created by Eris in the center of Victoria.
The humans were outraged at this attack. After rebuilding most of their cities, they rebelled against their once loved gods, whom they felt were responsible for these attacks. They challenged the gods, vast armies that stretched on for miles assembled for this assault. The battle raged on for months, but the humans eventually emerged victorious. The gods were forced to retreat to the palace, thinking that all hope was lost, until Zeus decided that each of the gods should disguise themselves as humans and assimilate into their patron towns. Eris also disguised herself, and wandered around Victoria, waiting for the right time to disrupt the peace and restore the rule of her creatures once again. On one of her travels she was courted by a crafty fellow who lived in Kerning. She lived with him for awhile and they eventually wed. She had one child with her husband, but then she mysteriously disappeared. No one knows what happened to her child, or to her. No one really cared. The other gods lead uneventful lives, and are presumed dead.
Prologue
No one is exactly sure where the boy came from. He was first seen outside of the only orphanage that remained standing in Kerning City, wrapped in a golden scarf, head resting on a gold bound, rune engraved book. Tucked inside his clothing was a note, telling whoever happened to find him to give him the items he was sent there with when he became of age.
The head master of the orphanage took the child in and gave him a warm bed and hot meal. At first the child seemed content, but as he grew older he was given less and less special treatment, and became more like one of the troubled children from the orphanage. He wasn't a pickpocket or ruffian like the others, but he had a dark air around him. He almost never smiled and only spoke when spoken too. And even then his reply would only be one word as most. His anti-social attitude gained him the nickname Echo.
Despite the boy's attitude, no one could doubt that he was brilliant. Unlike the other students, he worked for his money and spent and spent all of it on books. He started his own personal library in the room he sometimes shared with the other orphans. He taught himself to read, and read all he could about combat and strategy. His first couple pay checks went to saving up for a silver lined field dagger he had his eye on in the self defense store. The time he didn't spend reading he spent practicing techniques he read about in the back yard.
No matter how skilled Echo got in combat, he chose to not use talents in an underground fighting ring, like the one created by the notorious Jin, which promised riches beyond his wildest dreams. He only fought in self defense, and in the defense of the younger members of the orphanage. For this the youngest ones came to love him, and often followed him around the orphanage, trying to look as important as possible. Most of them tried to learn to read or fight for themselves, however most gave up and just lived under the protection of Echo.
Although Echo cared for the younger children, he didn't really talk to them, at least not meaningfully. He still stayed mostly to himself, and locked the younger kids out of his room to read. None of this changed until he was around eight years old.
One day when Echo was training in the backyard, a new boy arrived at the orphanage, named Yian. Yian came in and made himself right at home in Echo's bed, reading some of his books. When Echo came back inside, he found Yian in that same position, intently staring at one of his most expensive combat strategy manuscripts.
As you can imagine Echo was furious, he ran into the room and pushed Yian off the bed. Yian landed gracefully, and calmly counterattacked, sending Echo to the floor, gasping for air.
At first the relationship between the two boys was venomous; they would always find ways to punish each other when they least expected it. One time Echo put some harsh laxatives in Yian's milk. He was in the bathroom for days. Anyway, after the first few months, and constant pleading from the frantic head mistress, the boys became best friends. They both had an intense love of reading and combat, and Yian was the only boy who could compete with Echo intellectually. They would have long conversations about complex theories they had about battle, constantly contradicting and correcting each other. It was their goal in life to outsmart the other. They also knew how to work together to complete a common goal. They started classes to start teaching some of the younger orphans about combat, and they even developed a new irrigation system for the crops the orphanage planted for profit. The years after that were the most plentiful and prosperous years for the orphanage, every kid got a fresh pair of clothes and a hot meal three times a day, which was unheard of in Kerning. Almost no one in the city got three full meals a day.
All was fine until one day, when Echo was eight; a call came to the head master. Echo's parents, Ceryxus and Daiia, had been found. Apparently they had to give him up as a baby because at the moment they both had no job and were living on the streets. They now had good jobs and could afford a child.
The headmaster found both Echo and Yian training together in the backyard and relayed the message to him. Echo was obviously ecstatic, but Yian was clearly holding back blinding rage.
How dare those two deadbeats give up my best friend, and then come out of nowhere expecting a huge parade or something. They gave him up, how dare they take him away from me now! No, they will not take him away from me!
Echo's parents were scheduled to travel into Kerning from Ellina. Yian gathered up his meager belongings, a black bandana, his field dagger and pan lid, and 300 mesos for food. He traveled for two days straight to set up an ambush on one of the most well traveled roads from Ellina to Kerning. Two and a half days later, it happened. Ceryxus was an experienced fighter, but not even he could stand against a well planned out ambush from an extremely angry, surprisingly talented warrior. Echo's parents were slain.
Three days after Echo's parents were supposed to arrive, Echo completely lost hope. He completely stopped talking to everyone, including Yian. Yian knew the kind of pain Echo must have been feeling, but he still thought it was for the best. After Echo's behavior continued for over a month, Yian decided the best thing he could do for Echo was to tell him what he did, and why he did it.
When Echo finished hearing Yian's story, Yian was grinning ear to ear, and Echo was dead inside. Everything he thought was definite in his life was now proven to be lies. The kind of sadness he was feeling was like none ever experienced before. Although his eyes were still blue, they held the pain and suffering of generations. His eyes glazed over, and he lost complete control.
When Echo woke from his trance, it was too late. Yian lay dead at his feet, covered in bruised and lacerations. There were pools of blood everywhere. Echo didn't even cry. He stumbled over to his bed and went to sleep.
It was around this time when the Combat Specialists Institution became interested in Echo. They sent several recruiters to the orphanage, and even offered to "donate" a substantial amount of money to the orphanage if Echo agreed to attend their chain of schools. Echo agreed, he was tired of his old life. Three weeks after accepting, five hundred million mesos were donated to the orphanage, and Echo moved into Basic Training.
At first Echo excelled in all of his classes, but when he heard some of the things teachers started to say about him and his performance, that he was obviously cheating because he was just and orphan and he couldn't possibly be on a higher level than the kids they were training for years on end, he gradually and purposely lowered his grade point average to about a three, which is the average of all the students attending. With his teachers satisfied he continued his work, however, one kid still carried a grudge. His name was Soren, and his goal in life was to make Echo as miserable as possible. Acts of harassment and humiliation were common occurrences in Echo's life, until one day he snapped.
This is where the story starts. The tale of a boy and the destiny he must create for himself.