The air of Atlantis was unusually mild on this New Year's Eve of 1049. Inside the Xanarth home, the atmosphere was festive. Laughter echoed against the white stone walls, mingling with the scent of spicy dishes covering the massive dining table.
Carmel Xanarth was celebrating his 12th birthday. Sitting between his parents, he felt like the luckiest boy in the world. His mother, Julianne, placed an affectionate hand on his shoulder.
"Happy birthday, Carmel!" she said with a radiant smile.
After the feast, as the room's glowing crystals began to dim, Julianne turned to her son.
"Help me clear the table, sweetheart."
"I'm coming, Mom!" Carmel replied enthusiastically.
As he stacked the pewter plates, his father, Lucas Dupont, stopped him with a serious but kind look. Lucas was not a man of long speeches, but that night, his gaze seemed to carry the weight of centuries.
"Carmel, once you've finished helping your mother, go to my bedroom. Open my desk drawer. You will find a key there. Take it. It is time I told you the true story of our family."
Carmel's heart began to race. A key? What story? He finished his task in the blink of an eye and rushed to his father's room. The drawer creaked softly. There, resting on a piece of dark velvet, was a bronze key—heavy and adorned with strange engravings unlike anything he had ever seen in Atlantis.
Suddenly, a deafening crash shattered the silence. BOOM!
A gigantic explosion threw Carmel against the wall. The heat became instantly unbearable. Screams of pain tore through the air. Carmel, his vision blurred by smoke, crawled toward the living room. What he saw chilled his blood: his house was in flames, and in the midst of the fire stood a terrifying silhouette.
A mysterious man, dressed in a dark cape that seemed to absorb the light, held his parents shackled by an invisible force. Carmel was paralyzed. His hands shook violently.
"No! Carmel, run!" Lucas screamed, his voice muffled by the smoke. "Don't lose the key! It is the only thing that will allow you to know the truth about us!"
Gripped by panic, tears burning his cheeks, Carmel pressed the key against his chest and bolted into the night, pursued by the murderer's shadow.
Two days later...
Carmel was unrecognizable. His clothes were in tatters, his face smeared with soot and dried tears. After two days of wandering through dark alleys, hunger and fear had transformed him. But one obsession haunted him: the truth.
He returned to the smoking ruins of his home. The smell of burning made his stomach churn. Scavenging through the debris of the kitchen, he remembered his father's words. His fingers met an iron ring hidden under charred floorboards. A trapdoor.
He descended into the darkness of the basement. There, in a chest spared by the flames, he discovered a book with a mysterious title: The Odyssey of the Land of Asgard.
As he brushed the cover, the sound of footsteps echoed behind him. KRAHHH!
The mysterious man was there.
"That foolish organization sends me to do the dirty work..." the stranger whispered, raising a metal-gloved hand. He sent a heavy right hook toward Carmel.
Carmel's fear vanished, replaced by pure rage. He couldn't die here. Not before he understood. Just as the man was about to strike, an intense heat flooded Carmel's arm. A blinding light erupted from his skin, forming a spike of pure energy that pierced the attacker's shoulder.
"Wh... What is this power?!" the man howled, recoiling.
Carmel, gasping for breath, stared at his arm in terror. Traduction en français sans modifier l'histoire et le déroulement