Chapter Text
Humanity is bound to fight and tussle with itself until the very folds of time fall in on our bones. The greatest curse of uniqueness after all is how prideful living beings can get about our beliefs. What moral code to follow to benefit the best of the greater image. And yet, individualism in this world is what brings pride in people. Living beings are all so unique to one another and in society, it is taught that humanity's differences make individuals, they make us. And it’s all beautiful, special, and if we just all believe we are all unique we will succeed.
The seed of pride spreads. groups, packs, cliques, nations form. From love and joy, sadness and grief, anger and rage. The people felt like they were unheard, and their ideas were tossed away for other ideas they valued from their own. It’s Us versus them after all, and frankly, no living being goes down without some kind of fight nowadays.
War. The entity of fear, hate, envy, and all encompassing human emotion boiled into an overflowing pot of rage laid on the world.
Even when all of those who chose to escape reality manage to succeed, humanity's cries for hate will always follow. Like a looming shadow behind you as you warm up under the comfort of a fire. Humanity thought they could escape it all, the harsh pains of their lives causing them stress and torment could have been sold away for a new world. Where everything about the real world can vanish in an instant, who needs to worry about the stress of feeding yourself when you can enter our imaginary world and live out fantasy like you’ve always had!
Thankfully for them, someone has bought the idea. For no less than a penny. They called it Elysium.
It had worked, for the first part. Societies were formed from the start and people started choosing where to live for their lives. Choosing comfort in the bustling city of Paradise or thrill seeking in the flaming hot sands of South Elysium. Hoping that maybe in this life, they could live individual peace. And there would be no conflict, no arguments, just a life where everyone is happy in their own way because that just seems so incredibly realistic for it to truly happen! It’s a Utopia, any far cry from human errors can never reach us here!
And then records corruption came for them. The personification of every human error, in a place where they'd least expect it. And it came for them fast.
Suddenly, more than ever, it felt like the earth was rebuilding itself. The first real threat to the system was here quicker than expected and the dreams of absolution were crushed in an instant. The entities hit towns quicker than most expected, pushing the dreams aside for an unknown goal that not even man can sympathize with. And for those who lived on the east side of Elysium, they were already having enough trouble.
Xenokuni, the land of community and commerce, was in shambles way before records corruption even considered making its mark on Elysium. The so-called Land of the Righteous has fallen and picked itself up again more than any nation in Elysium. Defining themselves through their resilience and adversity as what makes them individual.
And yet they were struggling. Differentiating opinions lead to remarkable tension and lead to people getting hurt. Division has always run rampant in the nation, they’ve always been known to make up after fighting, but this was different. As if the house they built was starting to flood everything and the walls started to expand and bend as if they were too weak to stand on their own anymore. No one was winning in this twisted game of debate, it was always meant to be a foxtrot of hatred and devotion, twisting into ways that give themselves a smidge more spotlight at any time. But their arms began to weaken and their knees began to buckle under a threat far bigger than any bickering they had ever done for decades.
There was no plan really. Troops were sent out to neutralize the threat, it never really worked. They hired multiple people, went across borders to look for technology to help, and opened a draft for the first time in the nation's history. Even in tumultuous times where the grip on Xenokuni’s resilience begins to falter, it seemed like everyone came together for one shared goal.
And war pursues on, even in the false universe. The Great Xenokunian War they would call it in years time. One of the deadliest wars known to Elysium, where casualties in the hundreds felt like a daily occurrence at times.
But even with so much death knocking on the gates to the city, the individual belief to change something broken never seems to falter. In the midst of death maybe saving a life could mean more than being another score to the waltz of murder. It’s not a belief held by those encouraging the actions of those who will die, or the soulless monsters causing the pain of so many. It's hope for a better future. Maybe I can be hope.
That is what a young ronin felt as he carried the body of a young man on his shoulders as he sloshed his feet through the snow.