Ten was silently staring at the broken shards of glass that were scattered all over the floor. The fractured mosaic of his ghastly reflection was a perfect representation of his mental state. He felt lost and confused.

All of a sudden, the door opened again. It was the young girl he had seen earlier. She approached Ten with an air of innocence and curiosity.

“Are you crying?” The young girl asked.

He no longer had the energy to do anything. Laying slumped on the floor, tears continuing to streak down his sullied face.

The girl crouched down next to him. She began to pat his head.

“There there. Everything will be ok.” She consoled him.

Ten finally looked up to inspect the young girl up close.

“My name is Naomi, what about you?” She smiled innocently.

“Ten,” he replied softly.

“Ten? Is that short for something?”

“Tenebris… Lord Tenebris Aurelius Valemont…”

Even his former name began to sound foreign to him.

“A lord?! Are you a king? A legendary hero? That’s so cool! I get to speak with an actual king!!” 

She was chiming with genuine curiosity. Her eyes were gleaming.

“Well… I used to be a king… But now…”

“Used to? What happened? Did your kingdom get attacked?”

“It was attacked… By a powerful enemy… and because of that… I’ve become a nobody…” 

There was a sad look in Ten’s eyes as a long moment of silence followed.

“Let’s go take it back! Your kingdom! We have to!!” Naomi blurted out of nowhere.

Ten looked away.

“That might not be possible anymore…”

“Why not?!”

“It was a kingdom in another world… a world I can no longer return to…”

Another moment of silence.

“Then let’s start a new kingdom! In this world! You can make it ten times better than the last one!”

Ten couldn’t help but be drawn in by Naomi’s optimism.

“I can help you! Only if you promise that I get to be the queen!” She exclaimed with excitement.

Her enthusiasm had become infectious and it began weaving its way through Ten’s worn down mind. After all of the stress and harsh realities he had been exposed to, it was the first time he had felt a slight sense of ease in this new world.

“You said your name was Naomi?” Ten asked softly.

“That’s right!”

“Thank you… Naomi.” Ten said with a sad smile.

Ten finally got up off the floor, still trying to get used to his malnourished legs. He wobbled towards the door. As he followed Naomi down a dark hallway, there was a peculiar aura around her that he couldn’t quite grasp. It was like following a bright spirit guide through an ominous cave. 

Eventually he found himself in a loud and buzzing room full of eccentric people with strange metallic limbs and machinery. The atmosphere was reminiscent of the guild hall he used to visit.

Dreya was sitting in the corner of the room conversing with an older lady. It was the only person he recognized in a place filled with unfamiliar faces. Ten began approaching her and Naomi followed.

“Looks like someone finally woke up…” Dreya said, coldy glancing at Ten’s bandage covered body.

“Oh? What is your name, young man?” Asked the older woman.

“It’s T-“

Naomi boldly cuts him off. “His name is… uh…”

“Um… who are you again?” Naomi innocently looks up at Ten.

“It’s… Ten…” he replied slowly.

Ten was caught off guard. Naomi had made such a strong promise with him just moments earlier. To have forgotten his name after such a short period of time was almost insulting.

“Hahaha!” Laughed Dreya.

“You have to forgive her… you see…”

“She has a mental disorder that makes it impossible for her to learn new things… It's called Anterograde Amnesia.” Dreya explained.

It sounded like the name of a deadly spell Zena would chant before casting.

“Hey! I don’t know your name but stop saying mean things about Naomi!” Naomi shot back.

Dreya begins to pat her on the head. Ten caught a glimpse of sadness in her eyes as she gently brushed Naomi’s hair.

“Sorry about that.” She replied in a soft tone.

Naomi flashes a smile of forgiveness and scurries off to disturb another table, leaving Ten alone with Dreya and the older woman.

“That young lady… She is a child of God…” Elyza commented.

“Ah, this is Elyza. She’s… well, she has a case of dementia, sometimes she spouts off things that make no sense at all.”

“A fool would never understand the ramblings of a genius.” Elyza calmly replied looking up at the ceiling as if she was talking to someone else.

Dreya looked a little irritated but quickly changed the subject.

“So… what do you want?”

“I… I was looking for Wolf.” Ten said, looking down at the ground in shame.

He had wanted to apologize for his prior outburst. Now that he was more composed, he realized he had been acting in a way least befitting of a former king.

“Wolf? He’s not here right now. He left a while ago after receiving an anonymous note about an Abnormal.”

“Abnormal?”

“They’re creatures born from people with highly unstable minds. Notice how everyone seems to have a debilitating condition like anterograde amnesia or dementia-”

“Or intermittent explosive disorder.” Elyza chimed in while still staring at the ceiling.

Dreya looked even more irritated than before, but she continued to hold herself back.

“What’s that?” Asked Ten curiously.

“It’s nothing…” Dreya quickly retorted, looking flustered.

“Anyways, these ‘diseases’ have been rising sharply ever since Project Nuro 100 became a thing. Some believe it’s a curse from God. Others claim that it’s a result of humanity’s rising neural potential. But the AA believes that these incidents are a direct cause of BANE’s global expansion.”

“BANE…” Ten repeated slowly. The mysterious and corrupt entity that Wolf had mentioned.

“Under extreme stress, individuals who have unlocked the latent potential in their brains have a much higher risk of losing control. With great power comes great responsibility after all.”

Ten somewhat understood what Dreya was implying. He had faced countless foes who had been consumed by their own powers back in Elysion.

But before Ten could ask any more questions, a loud commotion broke out at the other end of the room. People were frantically moving about as two near lifeless bodies appeared from the crowd. One of them looked familiar.

Dreya’s eyes widened with shock.

“IKARA!” She shouted as she stumbled out of her chair running over to the crowd.

Ten’s world suddenly began to spin and an eerie ringing in his ears began to drown out the cacophony of the room. His eyes widened with horror. Ikara had been torn up into a mangled and bloodied mess. So was the other man next to her. Surrounding the two were more bodies that had been battered beyond recognition. The strong smell of blood and fear had pervaded through the room.

It was Ten’s first exposure to death in this new world.

***

Ten was sitting alone in the main room of the hideout. Still trying to calm down from the earlier commotion and the horror he had witnessed. Wolf sat down across from Ten.

“Sorry you had to see all of that. You were looking for me?”

“Well… I was but…” Ten shifted uneasily in his chair.

“Do those kinds of things happen often?” He asked.

After a long silence Wolf finally answered.

“Unfortunately yes… these kinds of things happen all the time for us in the AA... It's to be expected… We’re fighting an uphill battle against a global powerhouse after all.”

Ten looked down at his malnourished hands. He was slightly trembling.

“I… I’m sorry for earlier. That was no way a former king should have acted…”

After another awkward silence, Wolf let out a genuine laugh.

“It’s completely understandable. King or not, it would have been more ridiculous if you hadn’t. I’ve seen it hundreds of times. The faces of those who have had their realities shatter before them.”

Their conversation ended as quickly as it began. Wolf returned to the scene of the Abnormal with reinforcements. Seeing an opportunity, Ten sneaks out of the hide out and makes a run for it. There was no way he was going to stay with the fourth branch. It was basically the equivalent of committing suicide.

***

Ten found himself running through the poverty stricken streets of Sensory City, one of three big metropolises in the country of Axel.

As he ran, he took in the scenery of this otherworldly society. Styles of architecture he had never seen before. Bright neon signs that reminded him of the glowing essence of spirits and fairies. But he could only run for so long. Perhaps it was the adrenaline that was bursting through his veins, but now that it had depleted, he collapsed to the floor frantically hyperventilating. 

“What the hell happened back there!” He cursed to himself.

“Abnormals? No way… no way no way no way!” 

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS WORLD!” He shouted uncontrollably.

Ten had begun breaking down, frantically shouting and cursing wildly. A destitute child and her mother walking by quickly hastened their pace.

“Who is that person?” Asked the child innocently.

“Don’t worry about that person dear. That’s what happens when you forget to take your daily prescriptions.” She replied in a cold sweat.

“HUH?! WHAT DID YOU SAY?! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!” Ten shot back at the two.

“I’M LORD TENEBRIS AURELIUS VALEMONT! THE STRONGEST HERO OF ELYSION AND THE MIGHTIEST RULER OF THE KINGD-”

“Just shut up will you.” A voice boomed from out of nowhere.

All of a sudden Ten found himself frozen, unable to move his limbs. He barely managed to turn his head towards the voice. It was a lone girl in a hooded garment. Her golden glowing eyes pierced through the night like that of a mountain lion. He tried to move his hands and feet but something had managed to latch onto them. They looked like vines. Something that a powerful mage from Elysion used to cast all the time. A gust of wind lifted her hood off, revealing her face underneath.

It was a familiar face.

It was Zena.