"It's starting to get chilly, maybe I should have dressed more ..."

Eizo Gigli, a young man about to turn twenty, said to himself during a solitary excursion to a wood in the Alps, on an August morning.

He was dressed in ocher yellow shorts and a midnight blue gym jacket, with tall dark brown boots on his feet, thinking it wouldn't be so cold.

He had come to Italy from the USA with his parents for the funeral of his paternal grandfather and to meet his grandmother whom he had not seen for many years.

Eizo was in fact half American, on his mother's side, and half Italian, on his father's side. He was average tall, had curly black hair, dark brown eyes, and long eyebrows; in his life he has always played sports, inheriting his father's passion for football, and for this reason he had a sporty and agile physique.

If you're wondering why his parents gave him a Japanese name, well, both his father and mother have always been passionate about Japanese culture, and it was on one of their trips to Japan that they decided to have a child.

His grandparents' house was located in a remote valley in Trentino Alto-Adige.

Eizo loved his grandfather, and his funeral would be in a few hours, so, Eizo had decided to take a walk in a wood near his grandparents' house to lighten his mind a little and say goodbye to his grandfather for the last time. With his grandfather, Eizo had explored practically all the woods nearby.

As he walked, he observed with surprise how much that wood and path, which he often explored as a child with his grandfather, had changed.

The vegetation of the undergrowth had made it almost completely impassable, brambles and bushes of wild berries had almost entirely "devoured" it, however, when he reached the point he wanted to see, he was fascinated as the first time.

The path in fact, at one point, came to skirt a stream that descended from a high waterfall.

The sunlight passing through the pine needles created breathtaking reflections, and most importantly, the air there was absolutely the freshest, cleanest air that man could breathe.

Eizo stayed there for a while, remembering the first time his grandfather showed him that place, remembering his happiness, and the smile on his grandfather's face.

Tears of a mixture of joy, sadness, and nostalgia rolled down his face.

He pulled out his phone and took a picture of the place.

'It's already 10!' He thought looking forward. The funeral ceremony would begin at 11, he had to hurry back.

He started to resume the previous path, then stopped for a second, and turned to see the waterfall again.

"Goodbye ... Grandfather ...".

On the way back home, he remained silent, and his thoughts also remained silent.

*Fuh

A sound similar to the lighting of a torch came from his left, Eizo turned suddenly and was shocked by what he saw.

'It's flying?!' He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't having a vision or dreaming.

'A purple flame ... flying ?!'

In front of him, there was a purple flame that floated at the height of his knees, shortly after other flames appeared behind it.

Eizo reluctantly approached the flame closest to him, and when he was about two feet from it, it disappeared.

*Fih

He then approached the other flame, behind the one that had just disappeared, it disappeared in turn.

Eizo understood that the flames wanted to take him somewhere, so he followed them.

'I don't know why ... but I feel I have to follow them ...'

The flames continued to appear and disappear in the undergrowth, these flames did not seem to be able to "burn".

The undergrowth began to become sparse and arid, the only plants that survived there amidst the thick shade created by the pine crowns were mushrooms and a few wild berry brambles. Now you could also hear some small animals wandering through the soft ground of pine needles and moss.

The flames carried him up to a cave carved into the rock. Eizo immediately understood that this cave was not wholly natural, there were in fact, inside it, stone columns that seemed to support it. In addition, the walls of the cave, which had a circular shape, seemed carved to make them smoother.

"My grandfather never told me there was such a cave in this area ..."

The flames invited Eizo to enter it.

A parallelepiped of rock rose from the ground, with a crystal ball above it.

Eizo's mind was confused, and at the same time intrigued by what was going on.

He approached the sphere to get a better look at it. The sphere was dyed with various colors, which mingled with each other, now showing well-defined images.

"It looks like a forest ... yet ... it's all so ... gray ..."

What he saw was a sad forest, as if someone had taken away its colors, lifeless.

*Seventh…*

A voice reverberated in Eizo's mind, a voice without tonality.

* Touch the sphere ... *

What Eizo heard were "empty" words, without "warmth", but which nevertheless mesmerized Eizo.

Eizo reached out to the sphere, and, with his right hand, touched it.

[DARK DARK

and then LIGHT again but in a dark world.]

'Where am I ... it's dark ...'

After touching the sphere, the world in front of me darkened, and I lost the ability to use my senses, I no longer felt anything. Throughout this process, however, I never lost consciousness, which made my experience quite traumatic.

After a while I was finally able to open my eyes again, or rather, I regained my senses.

I was always in that cave and in front of me there was still that strange crystal ball, now tinted with dull black.

The sphere caught my attention and, like a moment ago, it seemed to me that I was being controlled by a mysterious force. I reached out my right hand and dipped it into that sphere, I noticed that there was something in there, so I grabbed it and pulled it out.

'What the f+ck?!' In my hand I now had a sword sheathed in a dark brown leather sheath, which, towards the height of the guard, had a kind of belt, also in dark brown leather.

My eyes were wide open, 'a sword ?!' Part of me was thinking 'That's cool' while another was wondering how I got a sword out of a sphere.

I turned my attention back to the crystal ball for a moment, it was now transparent.

In the throes of the confusion of the moment, I decided to draw the sword anyway.

I was enchanted by its beauty and the "power" that emanated just from looking at it.

I was not a sword expert, however, at first glance, it seemed medieval in style with some fantasy notes and very sharp. The blade was just over 10 centimeters wide, tapering towards the tip, and completely black. Centrally, the blade was dull, while near the edges and tip it was shiny. In total, the sword will be a little over one meter long by counting blade, tang, guard, grip, and pommel.

The ricasso was also black and shiny, but, however, not smooth, it was grainy on the surface. The guard was the most beautiful part in my opinion, in the center, on both sides, there were represented dragon heads, while the two arms of the guard represented dragon wings, also almost completely black, with, however, in the parts where the wings were thinner, dark purple reflections. The guard then gave space to a light brown leather handle, bound on the sides with black threads, which seemed to be formed by small scales. On one side of the handle, there was also a symbol: a heptagon, which seemed to be marked on it.

The pommel was, instead … It took a while to count all the faces

"An icosahedron?" I was surprised that I remembered what this geometric figure was called, and maybe even a little proud of myself.

I was stuck for a while looking at the sword, it surprised me how I could hold it so easily and without tiring my arm; I thought about what had happened, my head was spinning but it didn't hurt, I was just extremely confused.

I put the sword inside its scabbard and tied the belt around my pelvis.

I took my phone out of my pocket to check the time, it was already 10:40. "S+it! I must hurry!"

{TO BE CONTINUED ...}