Silent Echoes
Immersed in complete darkness, he lacked smell.
He lacked vision and touch.
He lacked taste and sound.
Finally, he lacked even a self.
Completely devoid of ego, he was stripped of everything.
In the womb of Gaia he rested, waiting for his birth.
In the waters of Tiamat he purified himself.
With the winds of Hermes he learned the truth.
And in the fires of Apollo he burned away everything that was not truly him.
The elemental journey repeated itself in infinite cycles, over and over again, for what seemed to be eternity.
"Why have you come here?", the four gods asked.
"I have come in search of light! Of Kingdom, of Foundation, of Glory, of Victory, of Beauty."
Gaia took a step forward and rested her hand on Peter's chest.
Tiamat took a step forward and rested her hand on Peter's chest.
Hermes took a step forward and rested his hand on Peter's chest.
Apollo took a step forward and rested his hand on Peter's chest.
Looking around him, he saw four figures. Two were short boys, one wore a high class suit with a silver rose in his long black hair, the other boy also had the same black hair, but wore casual clothes and held in his hand an old yellow bear plushie.
The other two figures were tall women, one of them had a black bob cut and wore a high quality brown dress. The other one had golden hair held in a pony tail, she wore casual blue clothes.
Peter had the impression he knew them, but his mind was too fuzzy.
"Heir to a dying world, we call you to infinite Beauty. Let the contract be made, and if you shall give up on it, let the blood you spill and your pained tears of regret be your payment!" the four said at once.
A sudden flash of light cleared the area, blinding Peter for a brief moment. After he came to, he could see the silhouette of a bald man in blue military uniform.
"Heir to a dying world, I shall make true the deepest wishes of your soul, if only you reach me."
As Orpheus's hand got closer to Peter, he could feel great apprehension.
But also… hope?
Peter didn't know who that man was, but he had a feeling…
Whoever he was, he was what Peter wanted to be.
"I shall be anxiously waiting for your rebirth, redeemer.", said the man.
Together the five said:
"From the Spirals of Chaos, an initial idea sprung"
"You shall be crowned"
"This idea exploded into infinity"
"Wisdom shall be given"
"Collapsing inside itself, the infinite ideas cooled down"
"Understanding shall be reached"
"Giving way to a shining diamond"
"So you shall overcome the abyss of Knowledge and conquer Chaos"
"Separating into light and darkness, the material world as we know"
"You shall master the universal law of Severity and Mercy"
"So giving way to Beauty!"
"So giving way to Beauty!"
"When Victory is yours"
"True Glory shall be obtained"
"So you shall know the Foundation of the world"
"And rightfully rule the Kingdom"
"By our names and images, all power is locked and unlocked!"
POWER DESCENDS LIKE A THUNDERBOLT!
…
Unbeknownst to our protagonist, the gears of fate stirred. A great murder has been committed in the nearby mountains, setting things into motion. While great monsters and angels planned, the Fool schemed and laughed, happy that the time of beginnings inched ever so closer.
As the savior of humanity completed his first mission, the redeemer slept, unaware of the winding plot that bound them both together.
Heirs to a world that dies, what shall they do to save all,
While Living in a Paradox?
END OF PROLOGUE
Title drop!
Many clues have been left as to the plot, now the action can finally begin.
For now, I'll correct the mistakes and polish up the previous chapters, then I'll start writing Part 1 (Of the story, not the game. That comes later).
EDIT:
How should I begin?
I don't really know exactly how it happened, was it when I saw the number of comments? Or the number of favorites and follows? Or maybe even when, reviewing the chapters, I read the words "END OF PROLOGUE".
But it happened. I realized, "I really was doing this", and that "people are reading this", and, hopefully, liking it. Though the basic ideas for this started ever since Part 1 of Paradox was released, the thing only took form after many years, and on what was essentially a whim, the snippet (now removed) was written. After that, almost offhandedly, the general concept of what would be on the prologue was decided. Very informal and disorganized, I half expected this story to never see the light of day and fade into obscurity like many others, but surprisingly that did not happen. This admittedly sloppy work got much more response than expected. Also, it was a lot of fun. Thinking about how things would move forward, and the wonderful works that inspired this story, I decided that I wanted to put more effort from now on. I said on the first chapter that I felt this had the potential to be a good fic, I will now make the effort so that is the case. Like I said before, the prologue chapters will be reviewed, maybe even rewritten. I will also organize things more efficiently and calmly so that Part 1 can start with a bang!
This might take some time to do, so apologies in advance.
There is also one more thing I want to say, just so things are clear.
The inspirations behind this story, among other things, are:
-SMT 4;
-The Persona Series;
-Muv-Luv;
-Shingeki no Kyojin;
-Little tidbits of other things like Judeo-Christian mythology, Berserk, Planescape: Torment, etc.
Obviously, from this line up you might assert that this will probably not be the kind of story you've been expecting. However, I will say right now that this will be a story not about drama, edgyness or tragedy. This will be about heroism, facing adversities and redeeming, like Peter's title says. Horrible things will happen, that's why the "M" rating is there, but they will be there so that they may be beaten by hope, and my job is to do so in a realistic (as much as possible) and believable manner. Amongst these conflicts I can name one right now: the monster's rape and some other aspects of their culture, I plan to explore these things. In fact, this idea of exploring monster's culture was probably what first drove me to form a story.
I hope that even after all that, you all continue having fun reading this as much as I have writing it.