Prologue 1

'Clickety' 'Clack'

I held my crossed seat belt tightly as I shifted my hollow gaze to the other children sitting beside me. Their faces were filled with despair and agony, while some went as far as crying.

"Tsk". It wasn't as if I didn't feel the fear from my last train ride, but I just didn't feel the need to shed tears or fall into despair. 'The world treated me bad, and now they are throwing me away as a fucking sacrifice; yeah, sure, I will feel ecstatic about it'.

In the fast-moving train, there were many people of different sizes and origins, but they all had one thing in common: they were all outcasts whom the world wanted nothing to do with; they might have called us heroes who were protecting the world by sacrificing ourselves. But who wants to be a fucking hero.

" Mommy, please save me; I don't want to die". A boy with blue hair and black eyes around the same age as me muttered from the opposite seat.

'Pathetic'. I honestly didn't know the families that the kids on this train came from, but calling your mommy now was just damn stupid. I still couldn't get it in me to condemn him. 'I guess I was once like him, when I still had a family'

A girl sitting next to him with black hair, dressed in the same white and black jumpsuit we all wore, patted his head. "Don't worry we won't die I promise"

My gaze shifted to the other passengers by my left side who looked like they came from a normal home, some of their parents and loved ones might have cried for them and others didn't even show up to their boarding, but what exactly was the difference between these two groups, well it was nothing they all still sold their children for another ten years of peace, no one can call that care.

A familiar voice rang through the train.

[Welcome Young Lamb's to your Final Journey: Destination Luthadel]

I gritted my teeth. 'Damn woman or whatever it is'. This was a voice that not just me but everyone sitting on this train had come accustomed to hearing and the last sound you hear every ten years before the departure of the 'hell train' as some people call it.

Before you leave Earth after being selected as a candidate for the sacrifice, you go to the crash course that teaches you what to do once on the train and how to always listen to the voice.

'I honestly thought the classes were a bust; the only reason I attended was because of the free food'.

[Fasten Your Seat Belt New Shifters Cause You Are Almost At Your Destination]

Now we were the new badge that has been prepared to stabilise our world. 'They told us all shit about hope and courage '. Well, if it makes them feel better about sending a bunch of kids on a journey of no return, so be it.

But I'm sure that every soul on this train knows why they gave us those fancy speeches because once we reduce to a specific number, a new badge needs to be sent.

The word hope suddenly resurfaced in my mind. 'Hah, Hope huh'. One of the few words I despise the most in this world. I thought as my face darkened.

Hope is a slow poison that eats away at anyone it is attached to; some say hope is good, but for me, hope is the worst thing that could happen to anyone because the feeling of ecstasy and confidence that hope brings with it can destroy anyone once given a slight wabble. The rich and successful tell us that when we fall, we should rise back up; no matter how many times it takes, we can still be great.

But how many people can take that constant failure, how many can live while hoping that life will be just a little better someday? How many can handle the breakdown from watching their so-called hope be shattered?

Not me. At least when I see my fate, I don't think there is still hope to live, like some idiots on this train are thinking. But that doesn't mean that I am giving up, no, not now and not ever, but trusting a petty thing as hope is past me, thinking that everything will be better or someone will come to my rescue, was now just a distant memory to me. Yes, from now on, I will pave my path. I don't know how vast, dangerous or unpredictable this new world I am entering is going to be, but I wasn't prepared to die, not at anyone's decree, at least.

The train stuttered pulling me back to reality. The same gentle and slightly alien voice rang again as the lights of the train turned red.

[Welcome Shifter to Luthadel your Final Journey].

In the next moment, something unexpected happened: the train dismantled midair and came surging down to the ground with no visible parachute in sight.

'Not only are they sending us to this world in a blood exchange for their survival but the damn train couldn't even drop us on the ground'. Before I could gather my thoughts, my eardrums were filled with whistling sounds.

'Damn, think Aquarius, think'. I looked around at the other children who were shaking and some even convulsing. My lips curled to a snarling frown at only the sight of them, but there were still others who were staying calm.

No matter how hard I tried I couldn't think of anything. 'What the hell will a street kid like me know about trains and a hell train at that'.

But when I looked outside the window, I was instantly petrified at the sight of the world of Luthadel.

"This is hell". I muttered.