At the last Hero League tournament, me and my team 'Top Hiro' took first place and brought glory to our country after years of unsuccessful attempts on the World stage. And then an American magazine recognised our team as the most talented team in the history of Hero League.
Immediately after the tournament, I headed home alone and decided to rest from the exhausting day.
I chose a hobby that helped relieve stress - drawing my favourite characters - as my bedtime entertainment.
While working on another sketch of the character Esdes from the anime 'Akame ga Kill', I headed to the kitchen to make tea before my evening work, and when I returned, I found a note on my desk with only one sentence written on it:
'Save them all or die, The Last Hero.'
It looked like outdated parchment from the Elder Scrolls universe, so yellow and dry. The sheet seemed to have lain for centuries waiting for me.
Erika, who liked to play pranks on me, came to mind. Maybe she'd left a note after our last role-playing game.
Erika is my American girlfriend with whom I had just started a relationship. We met when I won my first World of Wacraft tournament.
This girl was the first hope that made me believe that I was good for something other than gaming. And most importantly, she believed in my mediocre paintings.
Turning to the phone, I reached for the receiver and felt a tingling sensation in my temples. A prickly shiver ran down my skin, and my body broke out in a hot sweat. My eyes darkened. I thought I'd stood up too abruptly, or I was so tired from the Hero League practice games, but a sharp jab to my heart robbed me of my strength and dropped me to the floor.
Resting my elbows in front of my face, I tried to cope with the darkening in my eyes. My mind seemed to be fading, my head felt hot, and the darkness wouldn't go away. This was my karma for sleepless nights and hard achievements. Nothing in life came easy, not even talent.
I reached for the phone, hoping to dial the ER number, but my fingers slipped and I fell on my elbow.
That very note slowly fell in front of my eyes. And the black, faded writing on the yellowed paper began to change:
'... Where death is the end for some, for you it is only the beginning.'
- Sometimes I don't know why people like me. I'm a pretty boring guy.
- You're always downplaying your accomplishments. And I find that about you very endearing,' Erica's blue eyes looked with love.
- 'If that's true... it's a little embarrassing.
- Should I keep going? - she smiled.
- If only for a little while. But I'm not sure I deserve a nice girl like you.
- You should have a little faith in yourself, you know. You're pretty cool actually, I mean it,' Erica shoved him in the shoulder.
- So this is all about my skills? Okay, I'll take it that the guys were wrong when they said that a nerd can't be popular with women.
- I wouldn't be too quick to say that,' she chuckled.
- Now I realise I don't understand women at all. Yeah, I categorically give up,' he sighed, smiling.
- And you don't have to. I sympathise even with your flaws,' her warm hand touched his palm.
- I've never had so many compliments in my entire life. Will you marry me already?
... Erika's melodious laugh blurred into a tangled, elusive memory.
The last will of thought faded away, and only when the mind faded did the body collapse to the floor involuntarily.
As if in a dream, countless snippets of other people's lives flashed by, other heroes finding themselves in his place. Hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands of smiles and different faces. Glory, victories, defeats, shared joys and sorrows filled their hearts with vivid emotions. Great and thundering battles, encompassing the entire World spread out before their eyes. Boundless seas and lands full of uncharted and outlandish races. The beauty was breathtaking. Forests full of life fragrant with fragrance, awe-inspiring. But then the flames of war covered it all, and all the trees and lands were overwhelmed by blazing fire, the rumble of steel and enemy advance. All the beauty of life vanished, mangled and disfigured into embers, and in its place only tortured mountains of corpses remained.
The worthiest, the strongest, the wisest heroes took unequal battle in an attempt to save the surviving lands, but...
The staunchest quarrelled, unable to bear the strain, they were led round their fingers, betrayed by their friends. The great and just fell to the ground with their hearts pierced by the dagger of the Brotherhood of Justice's assassins; the strongest and most arrogant burned in the fire of Onyxia's black flames; the fastest and most agile were torn to pieces by the swift and swift insect-like silithids, driven by the will of the Dark Lords; the minds of the Cleverest could not withstand the torture of the thousands of eyes of the mad Ancient Gods and were torn into billions of shards in the most impregnable and deepest depths, where no man had ever set foot.
And after their death there was nothing left but the endless torment of the world left to the tearing of the world.