The Awakening

Bam!

In a white expanse, Yuriel woke up with a start hitting his head on the ceiling of the coffin he was currently inside of, sending a heavy sound ringing through the small space.

The rickety old coffin received yet another dent, the biggest one so far. This one was shaped like the top of Yuriel's head. There were smaller ones beside it, each with a different shape. One couldn't easily see how they were formed.

Yuriel's head throbbed with pain he hadn't felt in a long time, and he wondered where he was. Opening his eyes, he found the scene to be pitch black and his sense of smell not working.

Trying to stand up, he realized he couldn't so he pushed open the object right above his head.

Placing his hand on the uneven surface, he felt the need to muster nearly all his strength to pry it open. It seemed he still needed some time to fully recover.

He stepped out of the coffin, pushing the lid to the side and taking this opportunity to gauge his current strength accurately.

After that, he started stretching his rigid body seriously.

'Stretching out my body after thousands of years feels great every time', the corner of Yuriel's lips curled up slightly on his otherwise stiff face.

Leaning his back back, then straightening it again, then bending over to the other side. Yuriel flexed his sore muscles and appreciated his chiseled figure. He was getting used to feeling alive again.

Yuriel was also very glad at the moment. His body was very important to him, and he had yet to notice any negative changes that might have occurred. It wouldn't be the first time something of that nature would've happened.

Everything seemed normal. Yuriel didn't sense physical discomfort nor any mental repercussions of his hibernation.

Sensing something, he turned his head towards a spot in the darkness. His body was registering an abnormal signal from that direction.

He examined the coffin silently for a few moments and did one final check of his surroundings, to be certain it was completely dark around him, then proceeded to walk in the direction of the signal.

Normal people obviously wouldn't be able to see anything in this scenario, but for someone who had reluctantly gotten used to being called the Being of Darkness after a specific event, much to his chagrin, it seemed reasonable.

Yuriel had a set of abilities regarding light and shadow, which included slight night vision. Not otherworldly by any means, but it was better than the average person.

It's not something one could obtain without spending a huge amount of effort, and of course, having the appropriate amount of luck.

The trials he faced to obtain his current powers, only he knew how much sweat and blood had poured out, and how many sacrifices he had made.

No amount of nicknames he received, good or bad, would have been capable of replacing them.

Yuriel started to recall his past vividly as he began to walk towards the distance. A particular surge of memories surfaced, and his face fell. His head started hurting, this time more severely. A strange expression appeared on his face, his eyes narrowed in pain and his gaze became unfocused.

His brain seemed intent on remembering past tragedies.

When he thought up to the part about his wife's murder he almost jumped in excitement. The overwhelming feeling of rage and hair-rising bloodlust surfaced for a split second, causing him to mess up his footwork slightly, almost falling down.

A rare display from a man feared by gods and demons alike, but otherwise a man nonetheless. None would shame him for reacting this way.

His wife was the only existence which had been truly capable of moving his heart, and soothing his weary soul. Without her, Yuriel wasn't the same man.

A sorrowful feeling then washed over his face, his gaze shaking slightly.

He raised his head to look up to the ceiling, as if seeking an answer out of the nightmare.

He seemed like a child at the end of his mother's berating shouts, bathing inside the light coming from the living room's lamp, waiting eagerly for a semblance of relief and quiet in the dark night.

He closed his eyes, and his eyelids trembled for a moment before he opened them again. Those feelings faded away instantly as if they were never there in the first place.

Regaining his composure, he maintained a stoic face and calmly untied his long black hair previously locked in place with a strange bracelet that he promptly wore as a bracelet on his slender wrist. He performed this set of actions like a routine to pacify his restless spirit, and resumed walking forward.

He followed the trace he had found for about a dozen meters, reaching a door. It was 5 meters tall and 2 wide and besides this door at the center, there was nothing else in the white wall that spanned dozens of meters. The layout seemed eerily minimalistic, emphasizing its uniqueness.

Upon pushing open the blue plasteel door, a hot wave of air rushed over him, akin to a dragon's fiery breath. It engulfed him for a few moments, and then carried on past the door, continuing on for a couple of meters and briefly illuminating the surroundings.

A faint roar could be heard echoing through the room, as if it was trying to transform it into an ancient battlefield.

Within this short span of time, the scene had changed from portraying a mysterious and unknown image, to a morbid one transmitting a dangerous feeling which could shake a mortal's soul.

Yuriel felt a hint of a murderous intent passing through his entire body. It felt as if he was facing an insurmountable enemy, akin to fighting a giant dragon in the hardest difficulty possible.

Though as Yuriel had never seen a dragon before, he couldn't possibly know this. Nor had he ever been in the presence of any other mystical being. In fact, he currently did not have the slightest clue as to what modern fantasy was.

The murderous intent disappeared as quickly as it came, presumably the last traces of its existence.

He instinctively felt the thick ancient air pervading around him. It should have been several thousand years since the place had been built, and apparently remnants of its past still remained to this day.

For a bloodlust this strong to be able to last this long, hordes upon hordes of people must've died here. A faint bloody aura could be seen dispersing in the air, giving the scene an intense presence.

Even a strong expert would take a few steps back when faced with this sort of pressure. Yuriel, however, didn't seem too bothered. Instead, he calmly walked forwards about a few dozen meters towards a big object inside, located in the middle of the spacious room.

It seemed what Yuriel sensed when he first stepped out of the coffin was in fact a heat source. To be precise, it was a metallic heating unit.

The room was about fifty meters wide and square shaped, and this piece occupied only about a tenth of the whole area. It felt like it was the only existence in the entire room.

Observing these incongruent proportions, one thought popped up almost instantly in Yuriel's mind. 'Just the right amount of walking space for an ancient God.'

'It could also suffice as a crawling space for some other bigger beings, if the engineer had any intentions of distorting common logic and hiding the truth on the surface', his eyes flashed lightly.

He had always tried to handle matters in a careful way since young, for anything less would have warranted his swift death.

Yuriel had seen things that no ordinary man should be able witness, not even immortals. Even if one happened to take a glimpse at these matters by some misfortunate accident, well, this world had always been a very mysterious one.

People could always lose their heads inside the insanity that crawled through reality and fed on their souls. One had to be ready for such events while exploring the boundless reaches of the world. There were many cases throughout the ages where someone witnessed a scene they shouldn't, and then… there was no then.

As the saying goes, "curiosity killed the cat".

Though since Yuriel was not a modern man, he couldn't possibly know that phrase. Instead, he had his own. Some of his personal sayings had been passed down for generations and spread far and wide once upon a time.

There was a large ancient formation on the ground, covered with bits of dead skin on the floor. Yuriel suspected it to be human skin, but couldn't be certain without inspecting it further. As it was not particularly important at this moment, he felt leaving it for later would be the best option.

Placed over it was a structure just about over three meters tall and a couple meters wide, appearing to be a furnace. Its color was a kind of washed out black that seemed more grey than black, and it had many faint cuts and slashes on the surface. The material seemed rough, and it exuded a mysterious feeling.

The most prominent aspect of the furnace was its enormous pipes coming out from the edge of its upper side, thick and black. There was a small gap in the center, its design resembling a mouth of monstrous serrated teeth with little space in between.

It was certainly unusual from the way it was built, reminding him of techniques long lost, at least tens of thousands years old. He had plenty of hazy memories about such old structures and their engineers, but if you asked him a specific set of knowledge, he wouldn't be able to answer.

He was immortal, not omniscient.

Although not particularly well versed in these mechanics, he felt this one was of a very peculiar nature. It didn't resemble anything he had seen before, only the feeling was vaguely the same.

'An exotic item, chances are it's the last one remaining of its time', Yuriel felt a slight interest in studying the furnace.

Maybe the people who built this place had a penchant for such designs. Would the rest of the building also be shaped like this? If so, he would be in for a treat. Rarely had he ever witnessed anything so bizarre, and he truly did not have the slightest clue of its purpose.

Yuriel surveyed the remainder of the room with a couple of passing glances, and after not noticing anything out of the ordinary he turned back, going through the same blue plasteel door he had come in from the first time.

He had noticed it had small traces of burns on its hinge.

Running his fingers over the burned material after confirming it was safe to do so, his face changed slightly. It must have been something extremely hot for it to be able to leave these marks, and why was it shaped like a hand?

He turned his gaze to the first room, staring at the coffin he had been inside of just a while ago.

Yuriel approached the coffin and curiously took a peek inside.

The two meter long space was empty, as it should have been obvious since he just lay there a while ago.

He felt relieved there wasn't anything strange in there. What if there was something inside looking to have a few rounds with him? He didn't have his spear nearby and ready at the moment, and therefore would not be entirely confident of handling the issue by himself.

Apart from a simple white robe, white linen pants and white shoes, he did not have any other piece of clothing on him. As for other miscellaneous items, there was only the black bracelet.

Engraved onto the black coffin were strange runes that ran freely and unrestrainedly across the vast majority of its surface. It rested on the cold hard plasteel flooring, and it seemed as if no amount of force would be able to shake it. It felt cold and detached from the rest of the space.

Apart from it, there was one other thing worthy of notice inside the room.

Yuriel's gaze turned to the side and his gaze landed a couple meters away from the door, to the floor. His eyes narrowed as he seemed to realize that this item was here all along, even though he wasn't able to see it before.

'Is it possible I missed it passing through here earlier?', he raised his thin dark eyebrows.

Of course, that was extremely unlikely given his sharp senses capable of even noticing an ant disappearing amidst tall grass. He had always put a lot of focus on daily practice, and had honed both his mind and constitution through countless adventures.

Nothing was given freely by the heavens, Yuriel understood this saying deeply. This was also the reason he felt that his awakening this time, especially in this sort of environment… was bound to be troublesome.

He let out a small sigh, strangely thirsty. Yuriel always got thirsty when thinking deeply. He wondered if he even was normal before gaining his immortality. This was obviously strange: being hungry after working your brain can still be easily understood, but thirsty? He didn't even particularly like drinking…

He probably belonged to a school of fish in his past life, swimming merrily across the ocean and witnessing the wonders of the aquatic universe, being eaten by a terrible shark…

There was a twitch on his stony face, and he heaved a small sigh.

Also, at times he would randomly wake up in the middle of sleep and rush over to the nearest liquid source, occasionally almost choking himself to death, and scaring others thinking he was an evil water spirit.

This was because he was very loud when drinking water, like an old man passionately slurping a cup of ramen noodles. Even wiping his mouth seemed exactly like an evil action a ghost would do. This occurred frequently, almost every other week.

And when mentioning liquids here, it doesn't simply refer to water alone.

He had accidentally ingested so many different kinds of poison, weak and strong, and once overhead someone suggesting his body should have built a strong tolerance to over a hundred different types of poison.

One was left wondering where Yuriel stored such a vast amount of fluids inside his small body.

…

'I'll examine the strange occurrence later, to find out where the item invisibility comes from', he pushed back the matter as he wouldn't be able to glean any insight as to why the item had disappeared, especially with his currently overactive mind.

Yuriel narrowed his eyes at the thing in front of him.

It was a small red box about thirty centimeters square. It had strange patterns spread across the surface, somewhat resembling the runes on the black coffin, yet not. They flowed vibrantly, akin to an eastern dragon soaring through the clouds.

Yuriel stared mesmerized at the flowing blue dragon for a few breaths of time, admiring the piece silently. Whenever he noticed little details he appreciated, he praised the creator inside his heart as he wished their presence nearby so he could ask them a hundred questions.

There was a strong aura of majesty present on the box, otherwise nonexistent in the black coffin. Comparing the two, it was very clear this item was of superior quality.

'This design is also somewhat different', Yuriel turned his attention away from the dragon. The patterns seemed to be engraved with a higher level of attention and detail, and one cm deeper inwards compared to the coffin.

Yuriel deducted that maybe one of the two designs had been imitated from the other. Probably the coffin. Perhaps the crafter had been trying its best, but still fell short. It was understandable, given that this art appeared to be extremely rare and precious.

It was definitely not something you usually would see every other day.

Approaching the red box closely, he extended his hand towards it. Looking down Yuriel also took his time to appraise his own white shoes. His shoelaces were untied.

Just as his hand reached a few centimeters above it, the red exterior of the box started to blink extremely fast.

He touched the box lightly with his index finger as if ordering it to obey. It did nothing. He blinked a couple times.

Yuriel picked the box up and poked at it from all sides to see if it would react. Seeing it didn't, he tried biting it. Still no success. Maybe throwing it at the wall would work?

He decided against it in the end.

…

After a few minutes of waiting and tying his shoelaces tightly and meticulously, something finally changed.

The box decided to… open extremely slowly, as if to test the limits of his patience. It felt as if some sort of invisible being was there besides him, struggling heavily to lift open the box.

He simply could not see the authors' intentions here.

What was the point of engineering it this way? He lampooned inwardly, having a strong urge of cupping his hand over his glabella. Yuriel still remembered simpler days, where everyone was focused on surviving and not building infuriating technologies to pass the time.

'It started these past few tens of millenia… starting from a few central countries until it spread further to the edges. There is a possibility that there could be a conspirator behind it!

A person or an organization with evil motives and means of this scale…' Yuriel's usually cold eyes turned sharper at this possibility.

A thought flashed through his mind, but vanished abruptly. It was as if his consciousness wanted to warn him of something, but was unable to.

Shaking off these thoughts, he shifted his focus to the box.