Loneliness, it was devoid, the void, infinite nothing, finitely defined. A place that coldness consumed, not through presence, but through absence, an emptiness so hollow it denied existence. Land and sea rejected from the frigid void, incapable of bearing against such violent silence.


    Loneliness was cramped in a sense; there were always many others traversing through that quiet vastness. The loneliness crowded beyond any world''s capacity, beyond any system''s capacity, yet it all remained lonely. It may have been crowded, but the loneliness was even more so empty to deny any contact amongst these beings, each lost, flailing through the loneliness, doomed to never cross paths, as was the curse of the void.


    A heavy mass hurtled itself through the loneliness. A mass sent on its journey by the catastrophic death of its major, a journey it had travelled for time memorial; a silent escapade for nobody going nowhere. The mass never even existed as an idea, as a possibility; it was naught but a conjuration in the wandering imaginations of the past.


    The heavy mass, packed with reminders of places once been and things once done, could only stupor in memory of times before the loneliness. Before the loneliness was the only place in which meaningful experience could even be fabricated.


    The heavy mass, weightless and unyielding, moved forever, accepting the rest of its Sisyphean life.


    Until a child called.


    <hr>


    Eddy had just finished collecting the eggs from the roost. The day star had barely risen, yet he was already deep into his list of chores. Even in the cool pre-morn, his shaggy hair clung to his neck, sticky with sweat.


    Coming to the foot of the home''s entrance, he was obstructed by a cry of blithe laughter, piercing clangs of cutlery, sounds separated by a door and an impossibly large chasm. Eddy could even imagine this chasm as a physical moat of bubbling lava spurting out angry belches of scolding flame, the heat smothering his face. Eddy, like a great hero, would brave through the daunting obstacle, leaping across the terrifying ravine and catching a stray vine to swing over the chasm and escape with the bountiful treasure in his basket. The chasm, in reality, was not so easily surmounted by physical actions. He opened the door and walked into the dining room.


    Three younger children cheerily sat about a long well-worn table; two blond twins were mischievously play-fighting with their forks while the third child patiently waited for breakfast, a stoic poise battling with childish impatience. The rowdy children were energized by the warming embrace of the climbing day star reaching through open windows to blanket the hall in a homely yellow light.


    The children shone in a familial glow, a beacon light calling from across another chasm. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Eddy''s aunt and uncle were preparing the much-anticipated breakfast. In a happenstance turn, reaching for more flour, the uncle caught sight of Eddy. The uncle spotted Eddy''s muddy boot stepping forth, about to breach the home''s sanctity, and, so fast it were like magic, he was standing before Eddy, large frame blotting the dining room from sight. The man was so close, and so suddenly, Eddy took a shocked step back, tripping over the welcoming mat and landing painfully on his tailbone. His uncle glanced at the eggs uncertainly, though they remained steadfastly sequestered in the basket, and he smiled down at the prone Eddy. "You finally got the eggs perfect, now we can finish making breakfast."


    The twins cheered in excitement while the third child failed to hide her satisfied smirk corrupting her patiently stoic face.


    "Eddy." His uncle spoke firmly. He always made every moment feel like the pivotal turn of a century. The gap between child and guardian tight with tensioned gravitas. "Go muck the stalls." Each word spoken like it were more vital than the last, he always had that overpowering sense of authority, "You can get your plate after." It was like a grand quest, a king delegating to a uniquely qualified hero, a motivating reward dangled at the end and everything. This was an urgent task which had to be accomplished as soon as possible and Eddy was the only one who could do it.


    Of course, Eddy knew he had a poor habit of projection, that he inserted more into that sharp tone than it ever deserved, but Eddy preferred to feign faith into his initial fantastical assumptions. "Yes, Mr. Caitiff."


    Eddy handed over the basket of eggs as his uncle funnelled him out the door he had barely breached. Glancing back, Eddy still couldn''t help but see those small white rhomboids as a lavish stockpile of gems, handed from tyrants to paupers, the cheering of children in the background. They weren''t cheers for eggs. They were a celebration of the great Eddy, who had saved this town and brought peace to the world.


    The door slammed shut in front of him.


    Eddy briefly paused to gaze at the day star carelessly beating down on him and let out a tired sigh. It had seemed like such a gentle caress on his cousins'' cheeks, but on him, it felt like a terrible blast of fire melting him down to the bone. Perhaps this fire was summoned by an evil wizard; the Sodality of Cinder, with a renewed lust for power, instigated an assault on Aegis, and it was up to Eddy to stop them.


    The destructive orb of enflamed death was too much for the mere small folk, forced to hide in their pitiable homes, comforting themselves with a final breakfast. It was up to the unmatched Eddy to halt this dastardly evil from wrecking its grim ideals upon the innocents.


    With such a noble quest, of course, he would attract the aid of other fantastical paragons, and who better to swoop in than the Saviours? Doyen, The Hero of New Heirisson Conquest, rode in with Iatric, The Holy Light, on a beautiful white steed. The pristine mare flanked to his left, and the two fleshed legends gave him a deferential bow. Soon, to his right, Jocund the Wall, Ken the Preeminent, and Forgo the Ballista line up, their chosen weapons ready in white-knuckled grips. The Saviours were nervous; they had never faced a foe as powerful as this Cinder Wizard, and they all looked to Eddy for hope. Only upon his reassuring smile did they gain the confidence to move forward.Stolen story; please report.


    Eddy led the charge, ducking and weaving, making short and accurate movements as he dodged the mental balls of flame that the evil wizard whizzed at him. The Saviours fought like they''d never fought before to open a path for him to the barn''s cover, as powerful as they were, Eddy was the only one that could do this.


    With a desperate dive, he escaped a meteoric fireball and landed in the barn. Here he could acquire the legendary weapon, the ancient relic of myth left by the gods-


    Wait, was it still okay to call the devadoots gods?


    -an ancient relic of myth left by the devadoots, the holy-


    Wait, it''s probably not good to call it holy, either.


    The transcendental shovel! The second he gripped the unparalleled weapon, he felt a wave of unimaginable power wash over him, he sheathed his weapon into a wheelbarrow and carried it over to the horse stalls. Shirking his duties would never end well, so he obediently entered the first stall and shovelled the manure into the wheelbarrow. The sedate activity did not last long; before his very eyes, the pile of manure morphed into a legion of soldiers bearing flags of the Sodality of Cinders.


    Eddy''s shovel sharpened, and the weapon would explode into sparks of emboldened light with every strike into the manure, and with every strike, he felled an enemy. The barn was filled with overwhelming pressure, an aromatic pressure so putrid and omnipresent that Eddy had to wear a thick linen mask over his mouth and nose to just maintain a grip over his consciousness. No, the pressure was not aromatic in nature, no matter what reality was trying to convince him of; the pressure was from the thousands of enemies stretching out to the horizon and beyond, from the weight of battle, the gravity of this very moment so overbearing it manifested as this unidentifiable pressure.


    Just when Eddy felt so overwhelmed he thought he could no longer hold his own, an arrow came crashing down and knocked out an entire battalion of enemies. Eddy swung around to see Schlemiel, the beautiful Savage Archer give him a cheeky wink. The Murugan Squad, with their genius commander Ad leading the team, the Unstoppable Duo Emeritus & Emirita, and Liederkranz, the Child of Victory, quickly followed behind. The squad bolstered Eddy on either side, just barely saving him in time from complete defeat.


    Even with the support of most of Murugan Squad, they were still only able to hold back the incredible forces; it wasn''t enough. The burning heat of day redoubled, stronger, harsher, and Eddy started to feel dehydrated. Wait, no, he knew what this was! He could hardly even feel the scorching heat; the berating star of the evil wizard kept smashing down on him, but his skin felt impervious.


    Although he heralded from the cinders, he was a member of the Pangean entente and the Murugan Squad, and he would not accept this insubordination; Bennu The Phoenix directly opposed the enemy wizard in a beautiful show of magnificent flames.


    Eddy had to make several trips to and from the manure pile to carry the massive load of dung. Eddy found his back aching and his arms losing their will with each consecutive lift and toss of the substance, with each consecutive swing and stab of his weapon. To muck every stall, along with the several trips back and forth from the pile, took Eddy several hours to complete.


    After his gruelling combat, he and the squad finally managed to conquer his enemy. The evil Sodality of Cinders had been stopped, and the evil wizard in the sky could do nothing but watch. Although his imagination carried a resounding victory, the day star had actually only gotten stronger as noon approached.


    He stood in front of the entrance to the dining room, another impregnable chasm gone blurry from the sweat cascading over his eyes. This time, he didn''t even bother trying to jump the gap; he just let himself fall down the endless pit.


    The door opened.


    The house was empty, quiet. Chairs pushed away from the table, twisted at odd angles, dirty plates and dishes littered the table, food spilled over the floor and sipped through the cracks of floorboards. There was a cold plate at the far end of the table, which was mostly barren, with a tranche of bread and a few dollops of mashed potato.


    A terrific rumbling shook the whole house when suddenly a giant stone smashed through the roof, carrying a beautiful purple drape that fell onto the table. A magical portal on the tablecloth expunged a superabundance of silver platters adorned with immense succulent meals of wonderous variety. His imagination wasn''t strong enough to replace the taste of brittle bread more akin to a cracker, but in his mind, he could pretend.


    After finishing his meal, he cleaned the room, wiping the floor from the smears of abandoned food. As his stomach grumbled, he couldn''t help but steal a few of the abandoned scraps of eggs, a little taste of the fatty meat glued to the floor. After tidying the dining room, wiping the floor and table, fetching water from the well, washing the dishes, tidying the kitchen, putting the food away and wiping the kitchen''s floor, his uncle walked into the room. "Finally finished the cleaning up? About time, we need you to send some of the left-over eggs to Dour''s, she''ll also need your help with sheaving the hay."


    A great depression sunk into Eddy''s shoulder. The weight of his day bore down on him; it dragged his skin down and filled the dark bags under his eyes. It pressed into his heaving chest.


    "Hey, are you listening to me, Eddy!?" His uncle shouted with his usual boiling temper intermixed with a strange panic. "You should do as your family tells you, Eddy. We''re all you have left, and you owe a lot to us. You owe a lot to me. Think of where you''d be if it wasn''t for me. You hear me? Think you could manage on your own, letting our good will go to your head."


    Eddy chose to remain silent; he found it best to not get involved when his uncle spiralled into his hysterical paranoias. "Eddy, you need us, you need me. Without me you wouldn''t have a roof, you wouldn''t have the food you eat or the clothes you wear. Without me, you would have no means to even attain, to even think of how to attain these things!"


    Eddy brought his chin down to his chest and clenched his jaw closed while keeping his eyelids shut. His uncle approached, and a bell chimed in between the two.


    In between the two of them there was what seemed to be a small pink rhombus that grew out of thin air, or it was a rhombus, but its body would reject any stable state. It would shift and transform, shrink and grow, continuously morphing into other shapes. The pink shape finally locked into a form resembling that of a featureless human with only one limb. The arm was outstretched towards Eddy holding a glowing parchment: It read.


    <table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 82.1181%; background-color: rgba(255, 213, 171, 1); border-color: rgba(235, 164, 57, 1); border-style: ridge" border="1">


    <tbody>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">You have been invited to</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">The Tournament</td>


    </tr>


    <tr>


    <td style="width: 100%; text-align: center">You are The Bolide</td>


    </tr>


    </tbody>


    </table>