1 New life

Bang!

William fell to one knee as his face twisted in pain.

A bullet had pierced right into his heart and brick-red blood gushed out like a fountain.

'' Y-you bastard, '' he grunted weakly as he watched the familiar figure standing before him.

'' Brother, I'm sorry, but it's time we call an end to your atrocities. '' The other figure replied in a sombre tone.

'' He-he, '' William giggled, regret filling his already pierced heart.

'' You know, '' he paused, his body getting drained with each second passing. '' If a stranger hears your heroic words right now, they will think you're some messiah who is here to give people salvation, '' William's second kneel dropped on the blood covered marble floor.

His left hand was weakly on the floor, and he covered his chest with his right.

William lived a double agent life that wasn't known to many. However, for those who knew, no one dared to cross him, at least that was until now.

To the outside world, William was a genius game developer who completed all his degrees with distinction.

He also participated in developing popular RPG games with different international teams.

In fact, he recently supervised his team who developed a new game that had the highest sale of the year 2025.

However, that was the light side of William.

Behind the innocent looking face was a dark side that brought terror and concern to different countries on Earth.

William was the overlord of the underworld organizations on Earth, and the most wanted criminal who was on every country's blacklist.

He joined the underworld at the age of seven, doing petty jobs such as that of a gambler and transporter.

However, the boss then saw how smart he was and decided to groom him to become the criminal that made even giant nations quiver.

He was now thirty years, and he had been ruling the underworld since he was twenty.

William also had a brother, one of the reasons he joined the underworld.

They lost their parents to war when William was just six and his brother three.

Becoming a war refugee in another country at such a tender age, surviving until the next day, was a mountainous task since he also had to cater for his little brother.

Stealing, pickpocketing and even blocking civilians who trudged in the dark alleys with knives were the daily habits he picked up to get just basic needs.

This continued until one day when he decided to attack a man who was walking casually in the slum part of the country at night.

Unbeknownst to him, that was the boss of the underworld, and it was at that moment his life as a certified ruffian began.

William had gone back to school under the guidance of the boss and with the little he got, he started sponsoring his little Brother's education too.

A few years later, one grew up to become the mafias' overlord and the other one became a bright detective who headed the multinational special criminal team at the age of twenty-seven.

William looked at his brother once again as his vision began to turn blurry, he remembered how he used to ruffle his short raven hair and poke his slim pointy nose whenever he was upset.

Except for their differing eyes colours, both showed similar resemblance. William had blue eyes, and his brother, Joe, had grey eyes.

'' So this is Karma huh… '' William's eyes finally closed, with the last thing he remembered being his brother's soulless eyes and the dark building where the failed mission that led to his doom happened.

***

'' The primal gods are still not intervening?'' A silhouette asked in a hushed tone that drifted far and wide in the dark space.

'' What does this mean? '' The silhouette asked again as he watched another silhouette raise his palms, folding some of his fingers while raising others.

'' The time the world has before it's thrown into chaos, '' A deep ancient voice reverberated across the dark space as the other silhouette who raised his hands spoke.

They were both in a sitting position in this strange place that occasionally rippled.

'' Can you explain what…'' The first silhouette wanted to ask another question, but he trailed off as space began to crack and a white, violent ether storm began to envelop them.

'' Wait, you need to answer me. '' The first silhouette bellowed, alas, the storm soon enveloped him completely.

---

'' Argh! ''

Jerouch woke up with a low screech.

'' It's this dream again, '' he frowned in frustration.

'' And I always wake up not remembering anything except for that frightening storm, '' he rose from the small wooden bed with a tired look after wiping the sweat on his face with his bare hands.

It was early in the morning and the others were still sleeping.

There were ten small wooden beds in the room that looked more like where horses were kept.

Jerouch tiptoed as he opened the rusty door, making sure not to wake others.

Today he had a mission and that was to escape this damn slave house, he had had enough of their shit.

However, he had to be careful if not, he might be dying for the second time. And who knows, he might not be lucky as he was before.

'' No thanks to that damn nightmare, I woke up very early, '' he entered a passage where one guard in rusty armour holding a flame torch was patrolling.

Jerouch didn't hide long before the guard left.

'' Hehe that bastard must be tired of seeing the lavatory by now. '' he had an evil grin on as he confirmed that his plan was still working.

After twisting and turning for a while along the building, he finally saw the small metallic door in the courtyard of the slave house.

'' Umm, he did keep to his words, no guards here. '' Jerouch touched the door and opened it.

At last, he was finally running away from this rabbit hole…

Well, that was what he thought.

'' Amazing, what do you think you're doing, ''

Jerouch froze in horror as he heard that voice, and his heartbeat skyrocketed.

He knew what was going to happen next as he had witnessed it so many times throughout his stay here.

As for what was about to happen…