"They're dead. All dead. I'll never trust you again."
Perhaps the alcohol had gone to his head. The kneeling man's voice gradually faded, and exhausted as he was, he actually fell asleep in that position. Then he entered a dream.
In the dream, he saw himself. He saw his dead family. He saw raging flames devouring them, while a rain of blood fell from the sky alongside scattered pieces of dismembered airplane wreckage.
Yet the rain did not extinguish the flames. Instead, it was like gasoline, making the fire burn even fiercer.
The next second, a figure appeared within the flames. He seemed to be a being made of elements, capable of floating in midair. He came before the man and said:
"Tell no one. Do not tell them the truth. You will never be trusted, because people will not understand. At this moment, they can only hate, just as this bloody rain falls, just as flowers wither. You need only know that this is God's arrangement."
"Y-you... who are you? God? Is that you?" The man seemed to regain his senses. His face was smeared with blood, and flames surrounded him, yet he still rubbed his eyes, trying to see the other man's face clearly through the illusion.
But perhaps gods would not allow mortals to see them clearly, or perhaps this calamity was never meant to be his. All he saw was the figure formed of flames seemingly smiling as a massive burning sword appeared in his hand.
The sword thrust straight at him. The man had nowhere to evade, but once the pain in his chest passed, once the flames ignited him, he felt an unprecedented sense of relief and joy.
The next second, he became a pile of black ash. Yet amid the ashes was a