As usual, Lizy brings in another one-shot, this time I got the inspiration from Mili's song "Ga1ahad and Scientific Witchery". Spoiler: Perpetual Love I hummed my favourite song as I slowly mixed the ingredients, creating the perfect solution that I desired whole-heartedly. I watched as the glass tube vibrated as the chemicals interacted with each other, creating numberless chain reactions, radiating energy and raising the room's temperature. Hopefully, this would become the perfect salvation for my grave sin. Thinking about the past wouldn't change anything, so I kept myself from stopping, living a long life to repent all my sins. Nothing could deter me from fulfilling my promise, breaking away from the hell that was life. Maybe there was a way to redemption, but the like of me wouldn't be able to attain it. My mind wouldn't let go of my suffering. I couldn't bear to live in happiness before I completed my commitment. However, those worthless thoughts were nothing to me, nothing to my world and nothing to my mind. For I had already decided to dedicate my life for this wish of mine, nothing short of death and accomplishment of my dream could strip me of my wills to live. I observed the process of breaking down the particles and the manner in which they reconnected with each other, monitoring every change regarding the solution. I could easily hear the sound of my racing heartbeats, waiting for the chance to burst out of my chest. The increase in my heart rate also led to the raising of my blood pressure, causing my body temperature to rise. The burst of emotions came attacking my thorax, turning my stomach upside down, rampaging within my physical body. The uncontrollable subconscious side of mine had always been my primary problem in dealing with these experiments. The outburst of adrenaline would make my blood boil, rushing faster and faster, fueling the flame of excitement in my heart, with in turn caused my hands to get unsteady, failing me at the critical time. Although it sounded as if I had never finished my experiments without any of these problems, in reality, I could have suppressed it in other sections. My emotions had already gotten dulled after my various mistakes during the operations. However, facing this experiment, presumably my very last operation, I had to let my pending emotions out, giving way to the primal desire hidden deep within the depth of my mundane existence. The sensation of devolving into the thoughtless animal that relied on its instinct and emotions to survive have filled me with the odd impression of escapism. Holding the test tube in my hand, I gently shook it to mix the remaining undissolved ingredients, before pouring it into a specially-made container. The glassy container had the shape of the cartoonish heart, which I was proud to design it by myself. Before doing anything, I didn't forget to wash my hand, drying them with the cleaner before putting the rubber gloves on, protecting my hand from the accidental contamination. After I finished handling the solution, I took a good look at it before writing down my experimental record, converging everything that I had discovered during the operations into an informative paper for the future generation to see. Because of the late owner of the laboratory, whose life had vanished and extinguished, who had written these journey regarding the same topics that I was researching on, I could comfortably finish and improve the solution I had created earlier. So, I intended to give away my benefits for the sake of future generations. However, if everything went well, I sincerely hoped that there would be no future generation of me. I must break the cycle. Holding the potion in my hand, I began to smile faintly, trembling in anticipant at the last step towards completion. ... I was an orphan, giving a chance towards salvation by the church and the second life by the royalty of the kingdom. My parents had left me alone since my birth, at the doorstep of the church. No one had witnessed the scene as if I just magically appeared into existence. However, due to the kind nature of the priests and the church in general, they gladly accepted me into their community, raising me as one of their believers. My faith naturally came from my heart, wholeheartedly supported the selfless courses and the grace of the god. After taking me in, I quickly became one of their apprentice priests, helping the church our belief, saving humanity from the darkness of sins and ill intentions. Luckily, due to my extraordinary talents, my progress in priesthood had become increasingly fast as time past by, attracting the attention of the main church. Before long, the envoys of the royalty came to the church where I stationed in, asking for me to test my talent. They asked me to place my hands onto the crystal ball, before relaxing my mind and let my thought drove itself into the orb. With absolute in the church and humanity, I let down all my guard before doing everything as the envoys said, allowing my thought to go inside the orb of wonder. In there, I saw a humanoid figure, living inside the huge gloomy castle at the top of the death-cold mountain. The wicked building gave the air of destruction, sending chills down my spine. The figure was mixing some unknown ingredients, creating something beyond the realm of mortal, trespassing into the realm of divinity, the crime worth a thousand deaths. At the completion of the defying thing, the sky turned dark as the world trembled in rage, causing my blood to boil, filling me with disgusted and hatred towards the sinner who dared to defy the lord. However, I could only watch the hopeless display alone, too powerless to do anything, the warming and welcoming light shone onto me, overflowing me with determination and compassion that I previously felt during the time the church decided to adopt me. My vision slowly faded into while as a giant and holy sword descended towards me, I instinctively reached out my hand and grasped at its handle. The illusion ended as the sword connected itself with me, becoming a part of me. Once I woke up, the servants around me told me that I was already at the capital of the kingdom, heading towards the castle of the royalty. They said that during the period when I entered the orb of wonder, my body shone as the holy light descended onto me, engraving my hand with the imprint of the lord, appointing me as the saviour of humanity. Since that moment, I knew that the vision about the gloomy castle and its mysterious owner must be to inform me of my objective. I needed to slay the evil being that resided above the mountain, regaining the peace of the world. After learning about my destiny, I quickly accepted the order of the lord without any hesitation. After all, the one who gave me my current life was the church, so it was natural that I had to repay them. The first thing I did after arriving at the castle of the royalty was to meet the king of the country. He was an old man with grey hair all over his head, raking of wisdom and patience. His voice was pleasing to hear, and his demeanour was that of the leader of humanity. However, the one who caught my attention was not the high and mighty king, but the smaller and less impressive feminine figure that stood beside his throne. From her elegant appearance, the person with the eyes as sky and hair as the sun whose smiled eclipsed the moon was none other than the princess. She was the one who cared about her people the most, because of this, the king who was busy with other affairs had given the tasks of managing people to her. So I naturally went with her, helping the people in need and training myself, hoping to one day defeated the evil and brought peace into humanity. ... It had been a long time since the experiment had concluded. However, to my surprise, after using all of my power to accomplish it, my physical body had exhausted itself and went into a long-drawn habitation-like state. Before I went into the slumber, I ordered my servants to bring me the boy after his age had turned twenty-two years old. From my clockwork and numerous hourglass, I could deduce that I had been sleeping soundly for nearly twenty years. As for the change of the outside world? They did not concern me at all. The humanity could go extinct, and I wouldn't batch my eyes. If I could, I would have already gone out personally and took him to live with me since his birth. However, we had already promised to marry each other at the age of twenty-two and lived happily ever after. So I kept my emotions from taking over my rationality and silently endured the feeling of longing and loneliness. Even so, today, as a great man as he was, he majestically walked towards my castle, our castle that would later get used as our haven, trying his best to find me at the top of the mountain. He must be very concerned about me, living alone in the forest full of darkness and loneliness. At first, I had a thought about going out and meeting him at once, but, after several minutes of thinking, the satisfaction when he fought his way into the castle and saved his woman would be better than for me to go and meet him directly. So I waited and observed him, silently anticipated the day when we met face to face, the day I told him the truth and the day where our happiness began. ... At the age of fifteen, a tremendous headache assaulted my mind while I was praying to the lord, seemingly tried to stuff some unknowable information into my brain. However, as I was about to fall unconscious, the faint imprint at my hand brightly shone as it fought with the mysterious force, before emerging victorious after a while. After that moment, I felt that my mind had gone blank and my body had gone weak. I bitterly trained and harder than ever before, hoping to one day have the strength to combat the ambiguous force by myself and not become the burden of the lord. That moment of weirdness had become the sole motivation for me to train as the saviour of humanity, aside from restoring the peace of the world. I also became increasingly closed with the princess, having gained her appreciation and trust. Now, when I turned twenty-one, at the order of my lady, the princess, I travelled towards the sinful forest I saw in my dreamy state, prepared to fight my way in and slaughter the evil being inside. My lady said that the monster that resided inside the castle was a witch, whose minions had been attacking our people, demanding the destruction of the church. Hearing that, how could I not be angry and furious? So I charged in without any hesitation. ... In front of the gate of the castle, the man I loved was standing there, staring gloomily at it before using his sword to break it and rush towards the hall. It was very unnatural that he destroyed my gate without saying anything or asking for me to be with him. I assumed that he would bring me amazing presents, but he didn't bring anything that could be a present towards a girl he liked, which left me somewhat mad at his way of expressing love. ... After getting into the gloomy castle, I saw the witch sitting nervously while anxiously staring at my face, which I found her cute, making me felt as if she was someone who was pure and not the beast who disturbed the order of humanity. However, caressing the imprint on my hand, I dispelled the thought before drawing my sword back up, pointing its end at her. Because of my training, I could easily resist the hypnotising spell of the witch, which I assume she had cast one on me at that moment. Without any hesitation, I rushed towards her. ... What was happening? I was utterly confused as I watched his sword coming towards me. I couldn't bear to hurt him so I could only dodge his attack, running around while trying to speak to him. "Stop right there, you evil witch!" His voice was full of disgusted and hatred towards me, giving me the sensation of lost. "Why are you trying to kill me?" My voice was cracking as I stopped myself from tearing up. "Why did you ask the obvious? Your minions had tried to destroy my hometown and destroyed the kingdom of humanity!" I stopped myself from running immediately after hearing such tragic news. My body had stopped functioning as I emotionally watched the sword finally impaling itself into my heart. I thought that he knew about me. His memory was supposed to awake when he turned fifteen, giving him the vision before his first death, telling him about the promise we had in the past. I hurt him again. I hurt him again. Why did the stupid me do this again? Weren't we supposed to live happily ever after? I hurt him again. When did I order my minions to kill the humans? I hurt him again. I hurt him again. Why didn't he remember me? How was this possible? I hurt him again. I hurt him again. I should have just stopped existing altogether. ... I froze in place after my sword stabbed into her heart, allowing her to fall onto the ground. Her eyes strangely rained down tears as she crawled her way towards me, stopping right in front of me. My mind which got filled with the sensation of detachment abruptly stirred my body to bent down towards her, meeting her face to face with her dimmed, watery eyes. Unexpectedly, she reached out her hand towards my face, before smiling mockingly at me or maybe at herself. There was no way I could know. She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something before closed it as she retracted her hand. I watched as her eyes dimmed and her warm corpse dropped onto the cold marble floor. However, before I turned to leave, the sensation of sorrow rushed into me as my sight fell onto an old book, a diary of some sort. Without any thought in my mind, I reached out and retrieved it, trying to read the content inside. Before long, I fell onto my kneel, holding my emotions back as I read about her journey, feeling strangely closed and intimated. This was the story detailing the life of a saintess, aiming to improve the world for humanity by defeating the evil wizard at the top of the gloomy castle. She was born an orphan, giving a chance towards salvation by the church and the second life by the royalty of the kingdom. Her parents had left her alone since her birth, at the doorstep of the church. No one had witnessed the scene as if she just magically appeared into existence. Her note ended ominously at the point where she set out to defeat the evil wizard. The resonance between the story of mine and hers was uncanny, filling me with the sense of dread. At the last page of the dairy, there was a letter towards someone, probably written by her. The letter talked about a promise between a boy and a girl, waiting to marry each other once they turned twenty-two. That was when I knew. I had committed an unforgivable sin. Why didn't I know it earlier? I had committed an unforgivable sin. I mustn't die before I fulfilled that promise. So what if I had to become the evil? ... I hummed my favourite song as I slowly mixed the ingredients, creating the perfect solution that I desired whole-heartedly. I watched as the glass tube vibrated as the chemicals interacted with each other, creating numberless chain reactions, radiating energy and raising the room's temperature. Hopefully, this would become the perfect salvation for my grave sin. Again, I need feedback to feed my writer-ego, so please, comment!
At some point the main character turn to enjoy the abuse they get from the author.... Ah i think the second character can be made to be the polar opposite of the first so it can make it more ironic on how they came to the same conclusion. It's hard not to see the two as one of the same character.
That’s because I want the two to kinda walk the path over and over again, forming a cycle. Hence the name Perpetual Love. I also tried to make the two ‘genderless’ by not using any gender-based words but later decided that the story would be too confusing.
actually it can be made genderless but you need to define the character role. the one who took action and the one that react to it has to be clear. so since this is tragedy with repeat experience the irony has to stood out. well i think... since the first character is the one that knows all and the second one plays the inexperienced kid i think you can play more on how the second character took action oblivious to the first character intention.
I thought that the fact that the main characters knew about the cycle of tragedy right after the incident and still chose to embrace the infinitesimal hope that the chain would be broken was tragic enough, but well.
"We participate in tragedy. At comedy we only look." --Aldous Huxley This is what i feel if the tragedy is done right!