"Joan! JOOAN!"
His aunt extended her arms towards Joan, crying as she was about to attempt to jump into the flames. However, Joan's scream stopped her, as he tore apart his own legs and carried his sister near her.
"Take… her…"
"W-Wait!"
Crack… crack…!
As his aunt managed to grab his unconscious sister, the ceiling began to crack, flames gushing out ferociously as they fell over Joan before his aunt could carry him out.
"At least… I was able to save her…"
C R A A A A S H!
Joan's aunt eyes stared at the destroyed house, with only a little girl in her arms. Her sister's entire family was gone in a single night, the intoxicating smell of burnt wood making her dizzy as tears flowed from her eyes…
"No… No… No…"
As she wept, behind her, someone glanced at the scene. A young girl with brown hair and a Japanese school girl uniform. Her eyes seemed filled with sorrow, as she sighed.
"I was unable to change fate…" She sighed.
Joan's aunt noticed the girl murmuring to herself, her eyes opening wide.
"D-Did you do this?! Who are you?!" She asked, slowly growing insane as she grabbed Natalia and protected her from the mysterious girl.
"I did not…" The girl sighed. "However… I could had done something, yet I was unable to…"
"What? What… are you talking about?" The aunt grew more confused.
The girl looked at Natalia's unconscious face, her life signs were fading away.
"But I can do something now…"
Suddenly, a flash of light emerged from her left hand's index finger.
F L A S H!
The light reached Natalia, healing most of her injuries, and assuring her survival. The entire process was almost magical, Natalia's aunt was left speechless.
"I've done it… I have acted. Now the course of this world's spiritual awakening will not stop."
The girl looked at Natalia's aunts' eyes.
"Take care of her. She will become someone important in the future… And so will be her brother, the one baptized by flames."
"Huh? Ah…"
Before she could say anything else, Natalia's aunt fell unconscious, while the sound of the fireman's truck grew closer, alongside that of an ambulance.
The girl sighed, as she looked into the distance.
"I worry not much for this girl's safety, but much more from the boy spirited away… Hopefully, the Ice Dragon King will protect him from the clutches of Darkness..."
.
.
.
The only thing he could see was pure darkness after seeing the crimson red color of flames before his death.
Yet his consciousness remained healthy and very much alive, and so did his soul.
"After being embraced by flames, the baptism of fire has been completed."
He heard a faint voice, resembling that of an old woman.
"Did I die? The ceiling must have crushed me… My parents… Ah… Where am I?"
The consciousness spoke, yet nobody answered.
Within the peace of darkness, he began to think of everything that has happened.
Sorrow quickly took over his mind, and then frustration and regret due to his powerlessness.
"Natalia…"
However, he quickly recalled his sister.
She must have survived, for sure.
"I'm sorry for leaving you behind… I hope… you can be strong, Natalia."
So many regrets. He had so much yet to live… Dying at the age of barely 17 was not something he could had ever expected. The whole accident felt way too out of nowhere.
Yet it also made him recall the fragility of life itself.
"I hadn't even confessed to the girl I liked yet. I hadn't even finished high school…I had so many games to play yet… So many books to read… So many things to live… Even my parents died…"
As he regretted not having been able to live longer to do all the things he could had ever hoped to do, he began to question his surroundings. The darkness, and that voice he heard.
"What is this feeling of pure emptiness? Is this the eternal void? Where we all go after dying?"
"You could say so, young one."
And there it was, that voice once more.
"Who are you?!"
The voice remained quiet, and then it spoke, as if it was trying to think what to say to him.
"I am the bridge between the two stages of existence, life and death."
"Bridge…?"
"Some call me the Dark Daughter. Others say I am the Reaper. But my mother named me Hel."
Joan was more confused than ever, was this an hallucination before death?
"You're not hallucinating, this is real. You've died, Joan from Earth."
"What… Then what is this?"
"The darkness every soul sees before being reincarnated in our world, Yggdrasil."
"Reincarnation…?"
F L A A A S H!
Suddenly, as Joan concentrated, he could feel his own body, no longer physical, but ethereal, as he went through several thin membranes, one after the other.
"So abyssal… It is as if I was nowhere yet, my consciousness remains."
Each time he went through one of these strange membranes, he felt as if his "body" grew slightly bigger and stronger, tougher, even.
And as his thoughts emerged one after the other, this leftover strength gathered and materialized inside of his own "body" or well, his soul.
It was as if his very essence was now becoming something, a power.
"It's about time now, young soul. Be careful out there. I cannot watch over you anymore once you hatch."
"Eh? What? Wait! I haven't even asked any questions yet! I need to know what's going on-"
"Your destiny calls you, answer it. If you happen to meet the Dragon King, join him. You may one day see your sister once more if you walk through the same path as he does."
"Dragon… King?"
C r a c k… c r a c k!
"Oh, wielder of the Flames… Hear my call…"
Suddenly, the voice of a young woman echoed around Joan's surroundings, much different than the other voice belonging to "Hel".
