[ WP ] in the future , the super rich have achieved immortality for hundreds of years , granting more power than ever . They forgot one thing though , that one hero of the middle class 500 years ago who stole the serum for themselves ... you .

The rain pelted my body heavily, as I stood over Nassim Hill, peering down at the walled city of Canning. Streaks of lightning flashed across the sky, followed by the loud boom of thunder. Five hundred years ago, standing on top of a hill in a middle of a thunderstorm would have frightened me. 
 
 But I've been through worse and lived to tell the tale, and a couple of lightning strikes, although painful when they hit, was not going to stop me from accomplishing my task, revenge. 
 
 I pulled the golden locket out from my shirt, flipping the cover open. Arwen's face smiled at me, like she did for the past five hundred years. Centuries may have passed, but the anger and grief that I felt were like yesterday. When those rich aristocrats denied my Arwen a chance of living through their selfish logic. Just like how they denied seven other billion people. 
 
 My feet trudged through the mud as I made my way downhill. The wind was picking up, making walking difficult. Several times I had to lie down flat on the ground to avoid being blown away. I cursed at the weather, which for some reason decided to make my final mission difficult. 
 
 `` I'm killing those who did this to you, you forgetful idiot!'' I shouted to the sky, my voice drowned out by the howls of the wind. Immediately after I said that, the storm softened down, as if it understood my words. The rain slowed, as the clouds slowly parted. One would expect the sun to shine through from behind the clouds, but it has been close to a thousand years since we last saw the last ray of the sun. All the work of those aristocrats holed up in Canning. 
 
 Its massive walls towered over me as I approached it, with a collection of sentry towers poking up several meters along it. The walls had been built to keep the middle class out, while the rich enjoyed their blissfully ignorant life inside. Some of the skeletons of people trying to get into Canning laid around the wall, a grim reminder of the atrocities that happened at the peak of the crisis. 
 
 I gritted my teeth as I slung my grapple unto the ledge, and started pulling myself up. 
 
 `` I will avenge you too,'' I said, looking at the bones. The walls used to be manned, but without anything to defend themselves from, the guards eventually gave up their job, and retreated back into the comfort of their walled city. Those suckers can never do anything right. 
 
 I groaned as I pulled myself up the ledge, feeling a sense of excitement that I have not felt in a long time. Glass vials clanked noisily in my backpack, the very serum that they had engineered to give them immortality, while they left the rest of humanity to perish. 
 
 I had reverse-engineered their magical serum, making it poison to any immortals who drank it. And I made sure to make the entire process as painful as possible. Those idiots will finally atone for their sins. I removed the vials from my bag, carefully examining the swirling purple liquid inside. 
 
 As I stepped closer to the ledge on the other side, expecting to see a still functioning city with bustling life, only a large crater greeted me, with the remnants of Canning littering the ground. Pillars that had snapped in half, with broken off concrete slabs and charred walls dotted the horizon. The only structure that remained intact was the wall. 
 
 Far from a functioning city, Canning was a ghost town, a lifeless shell of its past. No sign of those I had swore to kill at all. I fell to my knees, together with the vials. They crashed unto the ground and shattered, spilling their content. I no longer cared, however, as there was only one question in my mind. 
 
 How long has Canning been dead? 
 
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 /r/dori_tales 
 

