'Cold.'
That was the only thought that came to mind, as the heavy thud of my metal boots hit the crystal floor, while the sound of the raging snowstorm only kept intensifying.
'Empty.'
The long corridor of crystal was accompanied by the sounds of my steps, and nothing else.
I pushed the gate open to reach a balcony of sorts. I felt the snow and strong winds. The view was foggy at best, but I saw it.
Endless houses made from crystal, entire roads covered in snow, that all combined to form a city with a snowflake design, with the castle at the heart of it… all with not a single soul inside.
'Except me.'
I looked down at my gauntlets. They were sharp and strong. I sighed heavily as I lowered my head to glance at the crystal floor, or more accurately, my reflection.
Blood red orbs stared back at me, with a faint green hue leaking from my eyes, making me have a sinister look that would terrify many.
I raised my head, while my hand subconsciously held the top of my head,
a strange weight resting atop my head, familiar, yet completely strange to the real me at the same time.
'A metal crown.'
I felt powerful. My body felt strange, yet familiar at the same time.
I lowered my hand from my head, as an amused chuckle escaped my throat, with a voice that was fitting for a villain from a storybook to terrify children.
'That merchant wasn't in fact a crazy person… or maybe he was crazy, but magically crazy.'
I knew exactly who I am, and what this city of crystal is. My new memories and my old ones made me sure of it.
'This wasn't a city… an empire…. No, it's my empire.'
'And I am the king… the king of the crystal empire.'
I felt my eyebrows twitch in barely held annoyance, and the need to punch that stupid merchant. 'Maybe I should have questioned that strange merchant a lot more than I did.'
'No, I should have just punched him… at least once.'
[Adrian Lucas POV.]
(A few hours in the past.)
My life wasn't anything special. My parents did not make the best choices, terrible choices actually.
They acted more like teenagers than real adults. They both had a gambling addiction, and things never looked up, since they never bothered to try to change.
I didn't hate them… but I was quite sure that I didn't love them as a child should to their parents.
I just saw them as terrible people, while feeling sorry for them, which was always mixed with disappointment.
Thankfully, after they both got our house sold due to one of their gambling moments, my grandparents got involved… My grandparents were old people, not in the sense of age, but in everything, from their ways to many things.
But they tried to help, from offering my parents jobs at the farm to even paying to solve their addiction.
It never worked. My parents always found a way back to their bad habits.
Thankfully, when my grandparents heard about the house being taken, they had enough of sugarcoating it.
They sued my parents for my custody.
The memories of the court were foggy for me.
But I remember the judge asking me what I wanted, and I made a choice that day.
I am now 19 years old. Things have been going wonderfully for me… or as wonderfully as it can get.
My grandfather was strict. He was the kind of man who would always expect people to do the best they can at all times.
But he was also the kind of man who would take a bullet for family, while smacking them around for crying if he was hurt.
My grandmother was a lovely woman. She didn't know how to do many things. She learned to read and write from my grandfather, after they married, to help him deal with the mail when they made the farm years ago.
But my grandfather always told me that his farm would never have been successful if he had married any other woman.
And when I asked him why, he told me something I took to heart.
A man can only give everything when he knows that his home and children are in safe hands.
Otherwise, he would never have peace, even in his own home.
I wanted to inherit the farm and continue the family work. After all, our farm was successful, and my grandfather had many workers.
But my grandparents refused, and gave me a condition.
Complete my education.
I learned long ago everything the family job needed, but my grandfather literally beat me with a stick when I wanted not to go to college to work.
"I am not dead, nor senile yet, that I need your help!" As he ran after me with a stick, while my grandmother was laughing at our bonding.
'I love my grandparents.'
Finally, after my grandfather felt that he had smacked me around enough, he sat down while looking me dead in the eyes.
"You have your whole life to work. This farm isn't going nowhere, and I am not dying before you are married and show me my grandchildren."
"So I don't want to hear any more sentimental nonsense about helping around the farm! Or I will beat the nonsense out of you!" as he raised his walking stick menacingly.
(Time skip 2 years.)
And that is how I have been suffering for the last two years.
I went to law school, although I could have chosen something else, but my grandfather said a farmer who knows the laws, and how to defend himself legally against money-grubbing politicians, is the best farmer.
Though I believe he simply liked the idea of me being a lawyer.
Law school is the pain of my existence.
I didn't hate it per se, but I was the third in the college… yes, the third top student in my year.
And unfortunately, my grandfather has imprinted on me long ago.
I wanted to be number 1, yet I couldn't do it. I couldn't, for the love of all that is holy, achieve the first spot!
It was always the second or the third.
It has reached the point where I started doubting if Alexander on the first spot was even human.
My theory till now says he is not fully human.
Or that he has a photographic memory that he has been hiding from me all this time.
Thankfully, I found a hobby: to watch movies and anything I deemed interesting enough.
In my free time, of course, and only for an hour or two each day.
But it helped stop me from jumping Alexander in some dark alley and threatening him to give me his reading method and notes.
I only considered it…
Today, since the semester, he decided to go to a convention. It was simply something new Adrian decided to try, something new.
'So expensive.'
Adrian ignored most things, although he had a hobby. He would never spend anything exaggerated on it.
"500 dollars for a helmet? What do they take me for, a walking ATM?"
Adrian muttered, annoyed, under his breath, as he kept walking around.
Thankfully, Adrian did enjoy himself by taking a few pictures with a few cosplaying characters, although he wasn't as passionate about it as other people.
But he did enjoy it nonetheless.
A nice change of pace from the thoughts of killing Alexander in his sleep… hypothetically of course.
Not like he would ever do something like that to Alexander, a fellow student… yeah, of course not… hopefully.
"Hello, stranger! Interested in buying a card?"
Adrian turned his face, slightly confused, to see the most convincing cosplay he saw for the day.
"A card?" Instead of answering, the merchant simply laughed in a strange tone as he said:
"I think I know exactly the kind of card you need… In fact, I would even dare say it's your destiny to buy it." He pulled a dark grey card that had strange blue scales drawn on it.
'Well, he certainly is playing the part, or he is crazy…'
"And how much is this card?…"
"Oh, stranger, the price is 10 dollars… very considerate, don't you think? And believe me, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
"This is the second card I am selling today, and believe me, I don't sell at random."
'So he is really crazy, huh? Or does he tell that to every customer.'
I pulled my wallet out, as I gave it to him, and he gave me the card, while his smile seemed slightly strange.
"Might as well. After all, I do need a souvenir." As I turned the card to look at it.
[New body/looks: King Sombra (Human form) (From My Little Pony series).]
(Pic)
[Origins: No king is required to explain his origins to peasants. They should only hail their eternal king.]
[powers: All Sombra capabilities and everything he considers his by right/Minus the mind control capabilities/a modified version of the crystal heart + Uo Uo no Mi, Model: Seiryu (Fish-Fish Fruit, Azure Dragon Model).]
Oh boy, that sure is some edgy card, isn't it?
My Little Pony, huh? I don't remember it fully, but I sure didn't expect to get a card for Sombra.
Kaido's devil fruit, huh? So that's why those blue scales are drawn around the card.
'It's unique, I guess… but that is one hell of a disgusting character to fight. Sombra with Kaido's devil fruit.'
Adrian slipped the card inside his pocket as he continued his day.
(3 hours later.)
Adrian eventually grew bored with the convention and decided to bolt.
He could have taken a taxi, but he decided to walk for a while first.
'Something is wrong.' There was something strange Adrian just couldn't put his finger on.
That was until he passed beside an alley, as his eyes drifted to it, and he froze.
The darkness was strange. It wasn't like it normally is.
It felt alive, tangible, and moving.
Adrian tried to shake the thought off, but as he prepared to continue walking, he froze.
The darkness was moving. It was like a dark gas if given a liquid-like form.
The street was blocked by it, and Adrian found himself surrounded, while the darkness grew closer and closer by the second.
Unnoticed by him, his card started glowing.
(Meanwhile, in a different reality, unnoticed by the world, a terrifying yet incredible phenomenon was taking place.)
(The South Pole, Antarctica.)
From beneath the ice, crystal structures started to grow.
And within the sea of growing crystals, a heart was beating with magical energy.
(A/N):If you like this work please do have a look on my other book as well