THE LOST GOD OF CHAOS

Chapter 1 – A Different World

“BROTHER…” a childish voice murmured. She appeared to be a little girl with long, unruly golden hair. Sunburn had turned her face a crimson hue.

“Brother, wake up! We are still alive!” She slowly tapped her brother’s cheek. She knew he was still alive because she checked his heartbeat a while ago.

Scattered across a huge desert was a tiny oasis, where the young man lay. The girl continued to check on her brother.

“Please, brother. You have to see what’s going on! There’s a miracle!” Optimism radiated from the young girl. Especially when her brother grunted. “Look at me! I’m perfectly well now. I can run!”

The girl, although her brother could not see her, ran around the oasis and kept shouting. “I’m alive and well!”

She was humming a happy song while playing around.

“Brother, I dare you. Look at me!” She urged more. But her brother lay motionless.

In her young mind, it was liberating to feel that, despite all the hardships they had been through, they managed to survive the arduous journey to the surface.

“I am so elated, brother. Finally, I saw how the stars looked! My dream came true. All thanks to you!” The little girl came to check on her unconscious older sibling again. “Come on, wake up! You can’t die! What will happen to me if you leave me here? I can’t go back to our village.”

The girl let out an exasperated sigh.

JIE felt the heat forming in his skin. Slowly, he opened his eyes. The scorching sun greeted him, and it took a while before he adjusted to the light.

Where am I? He pondered in silence.

Someone shouted. “Brother!” 

He slightly massaged his temple because there was a sudden jolt of pain. The language was different, but he understood what it meant.

A little girl came after him. “You’ve finally woken up!”

Jie’s forehead creased. “I-I’m sorry?”

Indeed, the language was never heard by Jie. However, it shocked him more because he spoke the same!

Wait a damn minute… Jie contemplated his situation. He might be dreaming. The little girl’s angelic face was unfamiliar. Jie assumed she was not more than ten years old, and he immediately noticed her bright, emerald eyes.

Jie slowly got up. He wondered why his body felt light. He quickly checked his chest; there were no visible stab wounds there.

“What the hell just happened?” he mumbled. Convinced he was dreaming, he asked the little girl using the same language she used. “Who are you?”

The child halted and raised an eyebrow at him. Her eyes were questioning. “I’m Nyssa, your sister. Are you all right, brother?”

Bloody hell! This dream is amazing! I’m well versed in this new language.

Despite his amazement, Jie maintained his stern face.

“N-Nyssa?” Jie hardly shook his head. He had a younger sister, but definitely not this little girl.

“Why are you acting so weird? Isn’t it great that we made it through?” Nyssa held her brother’s hand. “Perhaps this has something to do with the weird orbs last night.”

Jie’s eyes narrowed. “Orbs? What orbs?”

Nyssa was even more perplexed. “You really don’t remember!”

Jie ignored Nyssa’s remarks. He knew something was wrong, but could not pinpoint the exact thing. The fact that he could recall the details of his death led him to believe that he was still in a dream.

He walked quietly toward the small lake. The water was crystal clear, and he did not hesitate to drink to quench his thirst. Why did he feel like he’d just traveled from a very far place?

“Holy shit—” Seeing his own reflection in the water caused Jie to stop drinking on the spot. He buried his face in his hands and stared at his fingers afterward. He could not believe it!

“What the hell happened to me?” Moving closer to the lake, he made sure his eyes weren't deceiving him, even if he was too startled to move.

Not far from him, Nyssa began to cry. “Brother… Ethros…” 

“Ethros?” Jie turned to Nyssa, whose tears kept cascading down her cheeks.

Jie glanced at his reflection again. Then he found himself chuckling. Because this dream was indeed hilarious. First, he spoke a dialect that sounded ancient, now this!

This is not me!

Jie laughed hysterically. The reflection was of a slender teenage boy with jet-black hair and the same emerald eyes as the little girl. Not to mention he wore strange clothing, an onyx-colored tunic, and two small, medium-length bamboo sticks mounted on his back.

“Nyssa, I am not your brother,” he said when he finally calmed down.

Nyssa ran to him, wiping her tears. “Don’t make that nasty joke, brother! We almost died trying to escape Ardhi Village. And last night, you fulfilled my wish to see the stars. We were about to die, but—”

“Ardhi Village?” Jie’s forehead furrowed upon hearing the unfamiliar place. “This is a dream, right? I was stabbed to death, and when I woke up, I was here in this weird place.”

“You probably lost your memories after that incident last night.” Nyssa tried to be optimistic. “Okay, firstly, your name is Ethros. Secondly, our father was banished here to the surface. And lastly, we ran away from home.”

Never before had Jie been so bewildered, yet he said nothing. He kept listening to Nyssa, even if her words did not make any sense.

So, in this dream, my name is Ethros. It sounds cool, though. Jie thought to amuse himself.

“We were dying last night after all the trouble we have been through. But look, we are still alive, and I’m not sick anymore!” Nyssa beamed. “You’re not dreaming!” She pinched Jie’s arm.

Jie winced a bit when he felt the pain. He still couldn’t believe this was real. “I don’t understand what is going on. Would you tell me which country this is? Based on this vast desert, I assume we are in the Middle East.”

Nyssa’s forehead creased. “Middle East? Where is that? This area is within the Dezertus District, where Ardhi Village is located below the ground.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Jie’s jaw dropped. A village below the ground?

“Ethros, are you sick?” Nyssa’s eyes welled up again. “I-I can’t live without you. It’s also my first time on the surface.”

Jie had a lot of questions in mind, but he couldn’t ask anymore because the ground shook. Both of them lost their balance. The quaking was too much compared to an ordinary earthquake.

In a flash, he grabbed Nyssa’s hand. “Tell me where to go!”

“I don’t know!” The girl was panicking.

It was Jie’s instinct telling him to run. He could hear a guttural sound around, but aside from them, there were no other creatures. It was not long before the entire oasis was broken into pieces, the small lake dried, and a gigantic scorpion-like creature materialized.

“What the heck is that? Let’s run!” Jie carried Nyssa on his back and sprinted fast, unsure which direction to take. His heart was racing as the creature preyed on them. He prayed that if this was a dream, he should wake up. Sweats formed on his body as he tried to evade the giant scorpion’s attack.

“Shit, this is not funny at all! I want to wake up!” He shouted despite the chill running down his spine.

“Brother, it’s coming!” Nyssa screamed.

Jie felt the adrenaline rush to run faster, but the sandy ground made his movement slow. Since he never experienced being in the desert, his foot stepped on loose sand, and he accidentally fell along with Nyssa. They were being dragged down.

“Damn it!” His chest went up and down, trying to catch his breath. He shielded his body to protect the little girl while the monster’s tail slowly rose, and it was ready to take them.

Jie knew how perilous their situation was—that even if he could get up, it was impossible to escape. They’d surely die without a fight!

He breathed out deeply with the thought that even in this dream, he could not evade death.

“Ethros, do something! I don’t want to die!” Nyssa begged.

“W-What to do?” Jie’s body trembled. He climbed up the loose sand, slowly assisting Nyssa, careful not to trigger the scorpion. But its attack was inevitable.

“No!” They fell hard. Jie’s hands moved forward as he closed his eyes to greet his death. The colossal tail of the scorpion nearly landed on his body as he waited to be pierced.

Surprisingly, he heard a growl coming from the monster, as if it were in pain. When he opened his eyes, he was still in one piece while the monster rolled in the desert with black smoke circulating on its body… and it was incinerated in just a blink.

“Whoa!” Jie was so focused on the gigantic scorpion that he didn’t notice Nyssa was back on her feet, still shocked by their near-death experience.

“Look at your hands!” Nyssa’s eyes widened.

When Jie looked down, his hands had black smoke-like particles encircling them. He was both fascinated and horrified at the same time.

“Goodness gracious, what the hell is this?” He panicked. Jie repeatedly tapped the ground until the black smoke faded away. Then he checked if he had serious injuries, but there were only a few scratches due to the sand’s coarseness. “Nyssa, are you all right? Did you see it?”

“I witnessed everything! This must be because of the orbs. You acquired magic!” Nyssa blurted out. “Just like me!”

“Magic?!” Jie was too stunned to speak.

There was a long pause before Nyssa spoke. “Yes, but what are we going to do now?”

“Let’s go back to the village where we came from. I need answers.”

“But... we had so much trouble being on the surface.” Nyssa was hesitant, yet she had no choice but to obey her older brother.

“I want to survive, too. But let me get this straight, Nyssa. I am not your brother.”

Nyssa’s jaw dropped. “I… don’t get it.”

“Well…” Jie cleared his throat. How would he explain what had happened to him? He died and woke up in this dangerous desert. Worse, he became a teenage boy with magic!

Magic, my ass! I need to wake up from this nightmare! Jie gritted his teeth.

“Please don’t say that. You’re making me upset.” Nyssa almost cried again. “I can’t believe you lost your memories.”

Jie took a deep breath. “All right, forget what I said. I need to go back to the village where we came from. So that I can understand what is going on. We can’t move forward like this, Nyssa.”

“But… it’s dangerous to go back.” Nyssa was fidgeting.

“I’m sure we have friends in that village. Besides, we managed to get to the surface, didn’t we? I’m sure we could follow the same path going back here once we return.”

A frown spread across Nyssa’s face. “I was mostly asleep when you took me out. I was on the verge of dying at that time.” She let out a sigh. “You don’t remember after all. You said Ardhi Village would soon collapse anyway, so you did everything to grant my last wish.”

“Why, what happened to you?” Jie was genuinely curious.

“I have always been sick since I was born. We struggle to survive, and food is scarce in our village.”

“You don’t look sick to me.” He scrutinized her.

Nyssa rolled her eyes. “I told you! It’s because of the orbs!”

“Orbs again. I don’t get it.”

“Neither do I. All I know is that magic is exclusive to royals here on the surface.”

Jie clicked his tongue. “Magic? Is it a necessity in this world?”

“Of course! Since the great catastrophe, mankind has survived because of magic.”

“Whatever!” Jie couldn’t find the same energy to match Nyssa. The more he learns about this place, the more he becomes perplexed. He still believed that he’d wake up sooner.

Nyssa took a deep breath again as her shoulder fell. “Anyway, I remembered there are hidden markings that we could follow going back.”

Following the path of the medium-sized rectangular brick with peculiar, orange-luminous patterns, the two set out on foot.