Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) in this message of Truth… especially for the one who so long ago wrote it.

A NOTE: For those of you who may later grow concerned over it, allow me to provide a quick explanation. This story starts off focusing on two enemies to varying degrees. Only one is actually important, but he doesn't fully come into play until later. The other one, being of very little importance overall, is only mentioned and never really shown. There will still be plenty going on without that first enemy having any specific interactions with the characters, though, I promise. Trust me, the second enemy will bring plenty of action to the tale. Also, as always this is an M-Rated story due to swearing, fight scenes, and such.

Okay? Now, I hope you all enjoy the story.

~保護者~

"Prologue Part 1: Shadows"

~保護者~

"Truth is lost in the vastness of this sea of lies. It watches as it destroys us, hungry for our pain. In Dark waters its fangs are bared, ready to devour, seeking to consume all Truth and all Lie and, in essence, everything.

Truth and Lie.

Where does one end and the other begin?

Understanding is… dangerous.

No one speaks of it. No one tells the tales of the day the shepherd's staff became the shepherd's sword, the shepherd's gun, the physical manifestation of the shepherd's will to live. It is never discussed anymore why we bear the marks we wear so proudly, these honored gifts once given solely to those who stood as pillars of Hope and Light against the devastation of the Night. As our many ages of prosperity and Truth came screeching to a halt, we stood defiant against the coming end. We were the first line of defense… and in many ways the last. But no one speaks of those things. No one speaks of the Truth… or of the Lies the Night brought.

What I wish to convey is… understanding. Benign comprehension. Logic without judgement.

The stories people tell these days… They sing tales of Light and of Darkness. But something, something out there has transcended such unimaginative limitations and rules. It's far easier to believe in the madness of normality than it is in this, but… I cannot deny the things I sense, the whispers I continue to hear day after day, night after night. Truth is something I have long sought to reclaim, ever since the Night swallowed us whole, but something always hinders me.

Secrets.

Creation is, in many ways, built upon secrets and the encryptions that keep those secrets safe.

They say truth is where we seek it, but what are we meant to do when all we seek is hidden by secrets we alone cannot uncover?

The whispers once took enough form to resemble a genuine voice, a voice which seemed to say, 'Burn the world. Burn all words. Burn them all away until they cease to be.' It is a Lie, one I have been presented with before. The Lie of power in exchange for Death… I will not fall into such treachery. It asks then, it always asks, 'What is your answer, then, when the only True answer is extinction?'

'From the space between realms is where I come,' it tells me. 'Fragments of stars and realities burn in my footsteps and shine in my path. In my hands I hold the Truth of Life and Death, the Truth to all that you seek.'

This power, whatever it may grow to be, is but a spark now, it is true. But I often have to remind myself that sparks are just as capable of giving Life as they are of utterly taking it. In response, it tries to convince me that sometimes the only answer to it all is to burn everything away… to start anew. I suppose it is fitting, then, that we have weaponized the once-unknown. If this force continues as it is now, I will have burn it away until there is nothing left, lest it do the same to us all. Until that day, the Lies are destined to continue. The Secrets will forever remain in my way. The Truth I seek will lie buried someplace where I cannot reach it.

Few speak of the Night that once tortured us. They refuse to remember, to understand that there are yet more shadows, always more shadows, rising from the Darkness and hungering for all our hope and all out Light.

My own Light flickers, at times. It grows weak.

I seek to understand, to know without bias and without opinion. To simply know and be, and this forces me to study. To learn. I study this essence, whatever it may be, and I know it does the same. It will learn little from me… and I little from it. We are trapped, in a way, each seeking what we cannot attain, each striving for what may be impossible so long as we remain as we are. But that does not mean that there is no… connection. I have learned some things from it, things I never had any desire to know.

From this essence, I know pain.

It is nothing like I had ever believed it to be before.

It is ice, and it is fire. It is the Light of a thousand burning suns and the Darkness of a million dying worlds. It is everything and nothing, yet still something. It is Truth and Lie and Secret all at once, and yet none at all. It is unfathomable agony, yet it is unattainable bliss. It is nothing… and everything.

I feel I drive myself to the edge of madness, rambling hopelessly while trying to explain what cannot be put into words, to explain what I simply know.

In reality, its simplicity is staggering. The simplicity, that is, of Truth and Lie.

New voices often reach out and seek to challenge the new energy and its will, saying to me, 'Before you lie two paths. There is the worship of Death, the world-killing way where you live as Death and Devastation. There is the Sky, our Light, in which we build new life against the onset of ruin, striving toward a gentler future. You have walked with us this far. Do not abandon us.'

This new essence, these voices, they whisper unto me, 'Let us speak of the terrible beauty of becoming ourselves. We are the gaze and glory of Light and Darkness together, the cunning and knowledge, the triumph and brawn… we are everything they are and can be, and yet we are beyond them utterly. Love and the desire to kill... the Truth you seek says that they are one and the same. You may not believe these words yet, but the rest of what we have told you over all these years… why do you ignore them so?

You deny Truth until it becomes Lie.'

And there it was. The moment of understanding. The time when I finally knew where one ended and the other began. But understanding always seems to breed new questions, and now I am forced to ponder the morality of this all… and, above all, whose Truths to believe. In years long past, the answer may have seemed so obvious as to be a pillar of Light in the center of Zyr, but now… Now I know not what I believe, let alone what I should believe.

I am lost… and this time I do not think I will be able to find my way alone."

~保護者~

1,137 words this time. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. The linebreaker just reads "Guardian", by the way. Posted (at about 10:00 a.m.) 10-23-18.