u/ResolutionMuch9262

Red Moon shining bright, surrounded by red raging clouds, thunder falling everywhere while raining hailstorms, and beneath it a large ground with multiple tall and grand buildings surrounded by large mountains.

In the center of it stood the grandest building of them all, where people wearing white robes were running around and the whole palace echoed with the sound of a woman screaming as the hailstorm and thunder grew worse with each passing second.

A man stood by the railing right outside the sliding wooden doors, while looking up with his calm red pupils.

"Oh God, just what is this test."

The sound of the woman screaming grew louder and louder from behind the door. The man grabbed both of his arms as his veins bulged out.

Far away from the palace, beneath the very same Red Moon and the same raging storm...

Inside a dark room, without any windows, a small lamp was lit up.

A dead rat lay right under the lampshade with a small piece of bread near it.

"Wake up, Ratty, wake up. Don't leave me like this."

The rat never moved from its place. The boy's voice grew more aggressive.

"You can't leave me like this, Ratty. Why didn't you mate anymore?"

"Do you know how much I gave to your whole family?"

Both of his hands slammed onto the table hard.

"Do you know how much I wanted to be with you all? Your great-grandfather, I found him two years ago."

"I let him mate with a female rat. I fed him my own food. I saw your generation grow old and leave."

"But Ratty, why did you refuse?"

"Why?"

The rat's eyes were wide open with its tongue out and no signs of any movement.

A hand wrapped around the rat and slowly lifted it up.

"Let's go, Ratty. Let's go to your family's burial ground."

The boy first opened a wooden panel, and after a very long time he saw the outside world, and it was different.

The moon was completely red with thunder raging and a storm happening around.

The boy looked at the moon.

His skinny body and dark circles around his eyes, with nearly dry eyes, focused on the small plant pot right outside.

He started to dig the mud. Some remains of the previous rats were there as he made space for Ratty to be buried.

After the burial was complete, he looked at the sky once again, whipping his long black hair, his eyes searching for an answer.

"Why do you like to make me suffer so much? My mother used to say God will help everyone when they need it."

"Then why do you like to make me suffer so much?"

"Is there even a God out there?"

The rain soaked his whole face and front hair, but the boy waited for a reply, seeing nothing but the bad weather outside.

He turned around and was about to close the wooden panel once again.

"God, what a joke."

Just at that moment, a large lightning strike landed near him, on the pot where he had buried Ratty.

His eyes grew bigger as he saw his past getting destroyed in seconds right in front of him.

He stood there at the same spot. His heartbeat was getting faster. He wanted to scream but his mouth refused. He wanted to move but his mind was not in coordination.

At that very moment, as thunder rolled across the heavens once more...

A large burning tree stood in the middle of the garden with rain falling all around it.

The woman never stopped screaming.

A slender man in white clothes with some blood splashes on them.

The man who stood outside ran towards him.

"Doctor, doctor, how is my wife? Is she alright?"

The doctor's eyes were heavy, with a serious look on his face.

"Well, your wife is alright, but your son... he is..."

"Well, I am sorry to say, but he was born dead."

The man fell to his knees.

The woman's screams turned into cries.

For a second, his whole world came to a stop.

Yet beneath that same blood-red sky, another soul had already lost everything.

The boy was also on his knees with a large grin on his face, his eyes having lost all their glimmer.

"Hah... God."

"What a fucking joke."

"If God is like this, then I guess even the devil will be better than him."

A knife lay right behind him on the floor. His hand reached out for it and clenched it tightly.

"Oh Ratty's family, you are the most precious thing in my life. I hope I get to meet you all again."

The knife neared his neck while his eyes remained open, unwavering without any shred of doubt.

The knife reached closer to his neck and a drop of blood came out.

Just then, the once dark room was now covered in the shade of red.

[ DO YOU WANT TO EXPERIENCE A NEW LIFE ]

A translucent hologram window appeared in front of him with the text and two buttons asking him to accept or reject it.

"Do I want to live?"

"For what."

"I don't want to live anymore."

His finger was heading towards the reject button, but the text on the screen changed once again.

[ YOU CAN DO THE THINGS THIS WORLD STOPPED YOU FROM ]

The finger stopped in midair.

"Wait... are you telling the truth?"

The screen glitched for a second.

[ -_- ]

[ I don't tell lies, Master ]

The boy sat there confused with the knife on his throat and the screen in front of him.

On the other side,

Under the burning tree, the man stood tall with his pupils reflecting the fire.

"I, Zu Jiang, the head of the Jiang family, swear to sell my soul to the devil himself..."

"If he can return our son back to us."

He shouted once again.

"I said I am ready to sell my soul to the devil himself if he can bring our son back to us."

The thunderclouds gathered right above the mansion itself.

The rain slowed down, but the man never blinked while staring at the burning tree.

His desperate cry echoed throughout the palace.

Inside the room...

On a large white bed covered with bloodstains, a woman cried while holding a child who was completely still, not breathing nor crying.

A lifeless body covered with tears.

The man's shout even echoed inside the room.

"Devil, I said I am ready to sell my soul. Just bring my son back."

The woman, while crying, looked outside towards the tree where her husband stood.

In one hand she held the lifeless boy, while extending her other hand towards her husband.

"Stop it... please stop it."

"It won't bring our son back..."

The moment those words faded...

The lifeless child slowly began to float into the air.

A red glow appeared around the kid's body.

The woman was shocked by the sight.

Zu Jiang saw a red light coming out of the room and started to run towards it.

The raging clouds all combined into one under the Red Moon.

As the child reached the top of the room, the woman stared at him in shock while reaching her hand out.

"My child."

Zu Jiang stood outside the window with his eyes wide open, staring at the child who was glowing so brightly that it painted nearly the whole palace red.

The clouds above raged one last time as an enormous lightning strike hit the palace and struck the child floating in the air, as if the body was absorbing it.

Both the woman and Zu Jiang stood there seeing a miracle happen.

At that exact same moment, beneath the same crimson moon...

The body of the boy lay on the floor, without breathing, without any movement, but with no blood flowing out of it.

Back inside the Jiang Mansion...

The boy who absorbed the lightning slowly came back down to the bed and rested beside the woman.

All the doctors and other people in the mansion ran towards the room.

Screaming,

"What happened? Is my lady alright? That lightning strike..."

His words stopped there as the voice of the small child crying filled the room that no longer had a roof.

Nobody knew what had happened.

Only the crying child who could see the clear sky with the Red Moon right above him and a translucent red screen.

[ WELCOME TO THE PATH OF DEVIL ]

[ MASTER ^-^ ]

Ch-01

The End

Please suggest what could be better and more engaging.