The Voice From The Past

After Vida left, nothing was ever the same for the boys. Their normal school wasn't the same anymore since they didn't have Vida to always make sure they behaved.

"Another boring day in school," Adam lamented as they ate their lunch.

"Well, today's lunch tastes better," Gavin remarked

"With you, every lunch always tastes better," Adam rolled his eyes before turning to Dante, who was just about to take his medication. "Why do you always take this medicine?"

"My mom said I was a very sick child, so I need this drug," Dante answered before gulping down the drug.

"Have you ever tried not taking them?" Gavin asked.

"Yes, I tried once, and I passed out. I need to take it at least once every day," Dante replied.

"Alright," Adam replied. 

With Vida gone, the boys had no other option than to adapt. They continued with their sword training and laying traps to catch rabbits. Unfortunately, with Vida gone, Mrs. Joan's soup wasn't as great anymore. The lady had to admit that Vida was the reason the soups were always so tasty.

One fateful day, Dante and his friends were on their way back from school when the space tore open to allow monsters to come in. Before a gate would open, there was always a disturbance in the atmosphere, and humans always noticed this phenomenon with their satellites. So it gave them time to prepare for the attack. The phenomenon always made them aware of the gate rank that was about to open. Because the little town was far from the city and less attention was paid to it, the phenomenon wasn't noticed on time, so awakeners weren't dispatched on time to handle the situation.

Before the gate opened, Dante felt it in his body. He felt that calamity was about to befall them.

"We should hurry home," Dante tried warning his friends, but they didn't take him seriously.

"Are you missing your mother's soup?" Adam jests. Since they realized that Mrs. Joan wasn't much of a great cook, they always teased Dante about it.

"Or do you want to use the toilet?" Gavin added.

"No, something bad is about to happen," Dante said, but they paid him no heed. Seeing that his friends weren't listening, Dante decided to run home alone.

"He is serious," Adam said before they ran after Dante. 

They had always known themselves to be physically stronger than Dante, but today they couldn't catch up with the boy, no matter how they tried. Just as they got closer to their home, the gate opened.

When a gate opens, it takes about 30 minutes before monsters start coming out, but sometimes they start coming out immediately. This is the reason why awakeners are always ready before it opens because monsters might start coming out immediately. Unfortunately for the little town, the monsters started coming immediately.

The danger of a gate is determined by its color. Unlike awakeners that have S-rank, A-rank, B-rank, E-rank, and F-rank, gates only have three ranks: E-rank, B-rank, and S-rank. E-rank is the least dangerous and has a green color. It takes at least ten B-rank awakeners and a few A-rank to take care of it. Second most dangerous is B-rank, which is red in color. It will take at least twenty B-rank and five to ten A-rank awakeners, or two S-rank awakeners to take care of the monsters it spews out. Then the last and most dangerous gate is the S-rank gate, which is purple in color. Though it is very rare for an S-rank gate to appear, it needs at least 5-10 S-rank awakeners to take care of it.

Luckily for the small town, the gate that suddenly opened was an E-rank. Though it was the lowest ranked, it was still a disaster for the little town.

"Dear God," Adam said as blood dogs started rushing out of the gate to attack and suck the blood of anything in sight. Blood dogs looked like normal dogs but were far from it. Their tongues could extend up to two meters, and once the tongue got stuck to a human, it only took them 30 seconds to suck the person dry.

"Don't just stand there; our family needs us," Dante wasn't frozen like his friends. In fact, his body was reacting as if this was a normal routine for him. Seeing The one they considered weakest heading towards danger just save his mother, Adam and Gavin shook away their fears and ran to help their family.

By the time they arrived, the monsters were already causing havoc. Dante ignored everything and ran home to check up on his mother. He had never run so much in his life, yet he wasn't tired.

"Mom," he yelled as he flung open the door. Luckily, he got home before the dogs could get there.

"Dante?" Mrs. Joan came out and hugged her son. She was already about to go out and look for her son, but seeing he was back already, she quickly locked the door. "Help will soon arrive," she assured her son.

Dante followed his mother and entered her laboratory. Dante had never really been interested in the laboratory, so he couldn't even remember the last time he had been there. So, he was shocked to see his mother had surveillance to monitor the whole town.

"What are all these surveillance cameras for?" Dante muttered. Mrs. Joan heard him but didn't answer. How would she tell her son that the surveillance was for their own safety? Dante came closer and saw his friends trying to fend off the monsters.

"The town is being overrun."

"We can't do anything. Help will soon be here," Mrs. Joan replied.

Dante tried to calm down, but he couldn't bear seeing his friends in such a dangerous situation. Suddenly, a voice echoed in his head.

"The only sadness most ordinary folks suffer is the inability to protect the people they love." Dante had never heard these words before, yet they felt so familiar.

"If anything happened to them, I would be lonely?" Dante said before running out of the laboratory and out of the house. He was so fast his mother had no time to react.

"How?" Mrs. Joan was left speechless, for she knew the medication Dante was on prevented him from using any special ability. Unknown to Mrs. Joan, inside Dante's body dwelled a soul that was once the pinnacle of greatness. Even though the soul had lost its memories, its instinct remained. Dante ran in the direction of his friends, not caring if his life would be in danger. He just didn't want to be lonely. For some reason, the thought of being lonely made his blood boil.