Etheric Desires Paths

Drop, drop, drop— 

The raindrops continued to fall and hit the ground, splashing and disappearing like the foam of a soap bubble in the air. Moreover, the number of raindrops gradually increased every minute as the clouds in the sky thickened. 

-Running, running, running- 

Derek kept running beneath the heavy downpour, breathing lightly as he struggled not to fall under the torrential rain, trying to find a place to hide from the heavy rain, for he had no umbrella to protect him from the intense raindrops. 

"Wait…" 

"Wait… wait a little…" 

"You waited for me, Derek…!" 

Derek, running lightly, heard his friend Adam shouting from behind, who was also running quickly in the rain, trying to catch up with him. 

After a while of running, Derek stopped at the bus stop under one of the shelters, where Adam caught up with him, breathing heavily as he spoke to his friend. 

"You've become fast at running these days…" 

"Oh, my little friend." 

"Were you going to the training hall at the university without me again?" 

"Yes, but not much… still, you're the one who didn't seriously try to catch up with me." 

"Haha, yes." 

Adam smiled at his friend, knowing he was trying to joke with him and hadn't really tried to catch up. Adam was famous at the university for being the star football player and the top runner; if he had been serious about catching Derek, he would have caught up with him a long time ago. 

The two young men sat under the shelter waiting for the bus, hiding there until the rain stopped falling a little. 

After a while of waiting under the shelter, the two young men noticed that the rain had eased a bit.

The two young men were looking at the empty road, contemplating whether any bus would arrive to take them home, but to no avail, as no one appeared on the road. This made Adam say to Derek, annoyed.

"The road is completely empty..."

"I don't think we're going to find any bus to take us nearby..."

"Because of the heavy rain that suddenly fell."

"I think so."

Derek replied silently as they both continued to gaze at the empty road around them. A little distance away, in the opposite direction of the road, they noticed a small black cat trying to pull something from under the sidewalk to escape the water. Adam focused a little on it, recognizing it as the same cat he had rescued from the university window earlier.

From the other side of the road, away from the small cat, a loud honking sound came from a black car approaching from behind. The driver honked forcefully to warn the small cat, but it refused to let go of whatever it had caught in its mouth and was trying to pull it out with all its might. Derek, who saw this, widened his eyes in fright, feeling a deep and strange sensation in his heart. He then stood up and began to run towards the road, not knowing at that moment why he felt that strange, uncomfortable feeling in his heart that compelled his body to rise and start running quickly towards the small cat.

He ran, ran, ran—taking several steps forward, Derek began to get closer to the small cat. But as he approached within a short distance of it, he felt as if the world around him had slowed down a bit. While running in this slow world, he watched the car approaching the small cat faster than the cat itself, and as he observed this in slow motion, he felt a sense of anxiety while thinking to himself as he looked ahead.

"I won't reach it in time like this."

After thinking about it, he pressed hard on his left foot and then jumped lightly with his right foot, reaching out his hand towards the small cat. With a slightly high jump, moving gracefully in the air like a skilled gymnast, Derek caught the small cat and quickly pulled it away from the path of the car that had just hit the spot where Tony had moved away with the young man and the small cat.

"Ha... ha... ha..."

"That was way too close."

Derek, who had barely managed to save the small cat before the car could hit it, held it in his hands while looking in the direction of the road where the black car had passed by them quickly.

The black car stopped a moment later after it had crossed the road, rolled down its window, and stuck its head out, asking the young man who had come running down the road.

"Hey, young man, are you okay...?"

"Yes, sir."

Derek smiled slightly at the car driver and waved at him, who then reassured him and drove off again. However, contrary to what he had said to the man, he did not come out of that risky situation completely unharmed. In his attempt to save the small cat from that car, he had broken his glasses, which had fallen on the road and shattered, scattering some of the glass on the ground, with some pieces scratching the corner of his eye, causing a little blood to trickle down. It hurt him a bit, but it didn't bother him because he knew he had saved the small cat life from danger. He looked at the small black cat in his hands, which was holding something small in its mouth, glimmering and tied with a thin, strong black thread.

Derek smiled at the small cat and jokingly said to it.

"What were you trying to pull from under the sidewalk that you risked your life like this...?"

"Meow... meow... meow."

The small cat responded with soft meows, then dropped the object from its mouth into the young man's hand, who looked at it for a moment and then said.

"What is this...?"

After examining it for a moment, Derek was able to recognize it and said in surprise.

"A necklace."

The small, shiny object that the little cat held in its mouth was an incredibly beautiful and unique blue-green necklace that glowed with a faint light. Derek, who looked at it, had never seen such a beautiful emerald necklace in his entire life. As he held the little cat and stroked its unique black fur, he felt a bit of regret for the danger it had put itself in just for a necklace like that. He then began to walk back toward Adam.

With his vision impaired, Derek struggled to see, and as a result, the fall had affected his hearing, preventing him from hearing the loud roar of another approaching vehicle. As he walked down the road, he could barely see Adam running toward him, shouting loudly words that Derek couldn't initially hear. However, by reading his lips, Derek could understand what Adam was trying to say, but it was too late.

"Truck..."

"What...?"

-BOOM-

Far from where the young man was, there was a large truck speeding through the rain, driven by an elderly man who was beginning to struggle with fatigue from work, compounded by the heavy rain falling on the windshield, making it difficult for him to see. He collided with a large rock that caused him to sharply veer in another direction, preventing the elderly man from controlling the truck as it sped toward the young man, who was holding a small cat and trying to cross the road. He did everything he could to stop the truck by pressing hard on the brake pedal, but it was too late.

-BOOM-

With a loud and powerful crash, the large truck collided with the young man body, and as Newton law of motion states, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The young man body was violently thrown after the collision with the front of the truck, and a large amount of fresh blood sprayed from his body as he fell heavily into the water.

"Huh...?"

For a moment, the young man felt as if time had stopped around him as he looked at the world, which seemed to be hanging by a thin thread between life and death. His body, which had been soaring through the air before falling into the water, was overwhelmed by numerous negative feelings that engulfed his entire body and mind, including the intense pain from the truck colliding with him, shock, and fear after the impact.

As he gazed at the world around him, it transformed entirely into shades of gray. Time moved with excruciating slowness. The young man looked at this world and up at the bridge where many people began to gather, some looking at him with expressions of terror, others with shock, and some with confusion. Amidst all those people and their varied gazes, the young man focused on one person among them—Adam, his friend—who was holding a small cat in his hands, looking astonished, shocked, and sorrowful, unable to believe what had just happened before him. He saw his friend in disbelief sitting under the bridge, fixated on his hands that were tightly holding the small cat. He remembered the last moment before the truck hit him when he had thrown the small cat to his friend, who managed to catch it after looking and confirming the cat's safety in his hands. Among all the negative emotions that flooded his mind and body, a single positive feeling emerged: a fleeting happiness that filled his body and mind, a smile of joy for the first time in his life since losing his mother.

-Fall-

After his body fell into the water slowly, his field of vision became increasingly foggy until he closed his eyes. His body began to feel heavy and sank more slowly to the bottom of the water. He started to see a short film of his miserable life, devoid of happiness, dreams, goals, or desires, with no aspirations for the future. Among those memories, he recalled his mother words and her advice to him since he was a child.

"What is life, in your opinion?" 

"I don't know...?" 

"What is my mother...?" 

A beautiful woman smiled warmly, then replied, 

"It is living and finding happiness in it...?" 

"What is happiness, mother...?" 

"It's hard to answer that simply...?" 

"However, for me, it is the greatest treasure I have found in life...?" 

"And what is it, mother...?" 

"You...?" 

The child smiled at his mother as he hugged her. 

Then the mother gently asked, holding him tightly, 

"And what is it for you, my little one...?" 

The child looked at his mother and smiled cheerfully, responding, 

"You...!" 

The mother replied with a joyful smile, but her face and expression showed some sadness and regret due to her illness, and fear and despair from the approach of her end and losing her little one. So she said to her child, 

"I am happy about that..." 

"But I hope you find happiness in something else in life, my dear." 

The child responded, puzzled by her words, and asked, not understanding what his mother was saying, 

"But I don't know anything that makes me happy other than you, mother." 

"But there is, you just don't know it yet..." 

"Take your time, grow up, and always ask yourself..." 

"What makes a person happy...?" 

"What are the simple things that make someone happy...?" 

"And when you find the answer, think about what is most important to you and what you need, and how far you are willing to go to achieve it in life." 

"Then, even if it is not what you are supposed to want, you will notice your body filled with a deep feeling resulting from happiness here." 

After saying that, the mother pointed to her child's chest, and the child said, 

"The heart...?" 

"Yes."

"Promise me this, my dear little one, until you find something that truly makes you happy..." 

"You must live life until you find it..." 

"Can you promise me to do that, my little one...?" 

After the mother said this, she smiled gently and reached out her hand to her child, who extended his small hand, raised his pinky, and held his mother hand, which did the same. Then the hands of the mother and child moved up and down repeatedly in a gentle and quiet motion, after which the child responded cheerfully. 

"I promise you, Mom..." 

"I will live life until I find it." 

Derek, who was overwhelmed by the memory of his little one promising his mother for the first time, felt a sense of happiness that he hadn't felt in years after the loss. Remembering and promising her, he didn't want life to end like this; he wanted to feel more and more of that deep and quiet happiness. So he opened his eyes wide and began to scream in a low voice filled with despair and sadness, rejecting death. 

"No...." 

"I don't want to die...." 

"No... I don't want to die like this...!" 

"One chance..." 

"One chance... one more chance... just one chance....!" 

"If I get just one more chance, I will work hard to change it." 

He was screaming desperately, raising his hands in the water, trying hopelessly to move and get out of the water to have another chance at feeling more of that deep and happy feeling. But his body and mind were unable to meet his feelings. In that moment of despair, something miraculous appeared to him; he began to see something falling, shining with a bright light, getting closer to him.

[Notifications!]

[You have met the requirement to possess the royal ethereal artifact]

An ancient melody echoed back to him, and the voice of a mysterious and enchanting woman resonated in his head, continuing the notifications.

[Notifications!]

[You have received the ancient blessing as a reward for possessing the royal ethereal artifact]

[Notifications!]

[And you have gained the right to receive one more chance at life in exchange for completing the mission of the royal ethereal artifact]

[Mission: Obtain the Throne of Ethereal Sovereignty]

[Mission Requirements: Three]

[First: Reach the peak of global power level]

[Second: Complete all system missions]

[Third: Subjugate one million women under your sovereignty]

[Do you accept the mission...?]

[Yes or No]

The young man eyes widened in shock when he saw this bright green notification window appear before him, resembling the video game windows he played in his childhood. He heard the echo of the mysterious and enchanting woman voice in his head and thought for a moment to himself that if he could get another chance at life, he would do anything for it, as he had been helplessly fading away in the deep darkness. Then he responded to the woman kind and mysterious voice in his head.

"Yes"

Without even opening his mouth, just by the thought of it, he responded to the mysterious woman voice that echoed in his head. Then he lost the blue-green pendant into the water with a powerful, blinding light that enveloped him in a fleeting mist. The young man did not know what was happening, but the feeling that engulfed him in that mist was comforting and ethereal before he lost consciousness. 

-Flash-