Dragon System

NEO KIZER

The forest settled in silence. Pain ate Ace, he escaped from the hands of Sydon but not from grieving. The awful deaths of his loved ones dragged him towards the pit. He wanted to jump, follow them but he couldn't.

Light filled him, it was different from the first ambience, but he never felt uplifted. Everything was nearly as worse as his death. How he wished that he died with them.

Tears flowed and the rain joined him. The silent clouds roared, it mourned with him. The arbor of the day sky was replaced by darkness. Everything reflected what Ace felt.

Drops of rain showered over his body, the young man looked up. He wondered.

'Why am I still here?'

His family was the only thing he had left. Losing them means losing his life and purpose. Ace felt in vain, the scary fact of futility embraced him like captive cages. He wanted to run but he was too weak. Maybe accepting his fate was the answer all the time.

Pier couldn't do anything but to stare at him. He felt his pain, but sadly, right from the start he knew, they can't save everyone, even if they were those people that they loved.

The thunder bellowed louder, and the drops of water caressed Ace's broken spirit. His story was worse than a thousand tragic tales.

Ace's mouth was about to open and scream his frustrations out but Pier stopped him. He hung a hand on his left shoulder, patting it gently. They can't be tracked here, any loud voice or commotion can attract the guards.

"You're still lucky Ace." Pier tried to comfort him.

Pier hoped to he'll lessen his pain, but he didn't. Ace slowly turned his head onto him. Flashing a serious look on his cold face, Ace responded.

"I don't believe in luck. This place has no place for luck."

Since his birth, he never believed that word. He had to work hard just to eat, he needed to make sacrifices just to survive this savage system. Luck never existed, it was only a made up word of mankind.

Pier replied with a smile. He needed to understand his friend. He was the only one left for Ace to lean on.

"Yes, we make our own luck Ace." He contradicted his own statement.

The rain stopped, and only the water gushing down from the leaves poured. Both Pier and Ace were soaking wet, but the cold wind made things worse. Their bodies shuddered as the wind blew back and forth. They have no shelter nor clothes to use.

"We need to find a place to sta-" He paused in the mid sentence.

Ace was mouthing their next move, but something caught his attention. His head turned 360, with eyes scanning the whole surroundings to determine where did the sound came from.

The weeping grew louder, the infant's voice wasn't far from their hail.

"You hear that Pier? Let's split up." Ace led the way.

Pier just nodded, they parted their ways. Somehow, Ace was distracted. He almost forgot that he was mourning. The young man went forth, he navigated himself deeper into large sequoia trees which were swaying along with the wind.

His heart thumped louder, the infant's weeping became more desperate. Its cry was toned to high pitch. The great need hailed over Ace's hearing. He needs to find the baby, it's now or never.

Finally, his ear tracked the exact position. Behind the only narra tree lies a secret that he'll regret of discovering. His feet walked around the tree, and down the roots, Ace found what he was looking for.

A baby was laid by the foot of the giant old tree. Its face was almost red as a tomato, and its voice was hoarse from crying. Ace's arms immediately reacted, he bent down to carry the infant.

Despite the strong rain, the neonate was surprisingly dry and after it felt the warmth of Ace's body,  it stopped, resuming from its disturbed sleep.

He rocked the baby gently. It went silent.

For an unknown reason, Ace felt hope. Fathering the child entered his thoughts. He started to feel distracted, he did not even notice Pier's presence.

"He's a boy." Pier concluded after seeing the baby.

The color blue collar and tag determined its gender. A custom and specification code was issued among hospitals, infants must be dressed according to their genders.

Pier moved closer, he noticed something unusual. The tag was written differently, it only resembled a small detail from the common design of the ordinary hospitals.

Something was entirely peculiar. Pier's instincts pushed him to analyze deeper. He held the tag on his hand. The new alphabet was used, fortunately, Pier knew how to read it.

"Neo Kizer, code 1671."

He thought that it was the end of his discovery, but he was wrong. Blue light flashed from the tag. And letters engraved from the hologram. Even Ace was shocked. The technology and tag was too special for an ordinary Hemian.

The hologram continued, the text flashed an even more intriguing revelation.

"Bring the infant to the Prime, reward awaits." The built in AI spoke.

The tag went back to its original form, the blue light disappeared, thus leaving Pier and Ace to stare at each other. Their life was beyond ordinary, they hoped that the tunnel by the woods will lead them to safety, but instead, it brought a bigger complication.

Before Pier could even ask, Ace knew of what he was going to suggest. Anger sprang from his heart. The Prime was the reason for their suffering. He was too weak to hold Sydon down. Ace trusted him before but that was all in the past.

"No." Ace said firmly.

Ace's decision was made, no matter what was Neo's relation to the Prime, he will never give him back. His teeth gritted strongly, almost crushing every molar. The negativity was too strong to be contained. He blamed the Prime for everything.

"I swear, the Prime will never see this infant