"Long ago, my world was a very peaceful one.

Before my mother contracted the Argentum, it was very, very peaceful."

 

"If you don’t find a lover fast, you’re gonna have to marry mommy." Everyday, my mom would fool around like that and show me her dazzling smile. But she contracted an illness. At a certain research center. A certain treatment facility. "Jongdae sweetheart, mom will be leaving soon." She said. “You have to be strong, alright?” Despite the fact that she was smiling, her body was trembling.

Smiling, trembling.

Smiling, trembling.

 

The tears from her right eye were red. Those from her left eye, blue. The doctors  were screaming, running in circles, not knowing what to do.

"Jongdae, please! It's the Argentum Disease!” I knew that. We all knew what was happening. My mother caught a virus. The deadliest. The Argentum. I could not move. Although I was holding a dagger in my right hand, I could not stab that soft flesh of my mother. Especially not use my magic against her. “If you leave it alone, the tens of thousands of humans living in this area will -" His voice ended there. I looked back at his direction only to find him suffocating to death, silver-colored veins appeared all over his body. The veins grew bigger and bigger until he exploded. He died. He was touched by the sickness that my mother contracted, and died.

 

The others, the academy magicians who had come to dispose of my mother, were also killed. Silver water was spreading from beneath her feet. Her sickness was an abnormal disease that gave birth to a lethal silver-colored water in her surroundings, enveloping and changing the world. This water has some unknown power, being stirred, erasing the humans. Where I stood was the only unharmed spot left. Mother looked at me. She was devastated. "You must leave now Jongdae." She said with a very different voice. She grew bigger each minute. Her hair started to turn silver, together with her skin. Everything about her was changing. I shook my head. “I will save you!”

“You need to save the world.” Her voice was husky.

“I don’t care about the world!”

"There's only about a minute left, Jongdae.”

 

One minute and the world will face its destruction.

One minute and I’ll lose my mother.

The time limit was one minute.

 

My professor told me once, “When someone affected by the virus haven’t finished changing yet, They are a hundred times more vulnerable than humans. A single attack can make them back out and hide.”

I tightened my grip around the dagger I had in my hands. “Don’t do anything foolish.” I took my aim. Her right hand was closest to me. “Wait for me mom,”  I was so close to throwing the dagger at her when I saw her smiling.

 

Forty more seconds.

Forty seconds.

 

She was smiling at me.  "Goodbye sweetheart. I love you."

Tears ran down my cheeks. "No! I’ll definitely save you!" I stretched out my hand. I desperately stretched out my hand. I caught hold of her arm. My mother's eyes widened in surprise. Both her now-silver eyes gleamed. "Don't touch me!" She bellowed.  “No!” I retorted, "I'm supposed to protect you! I promised you that, didn’t I?” But at that moment, I could feel the sickness within my mother invading my arm. My right arm suddenly felt heavy and languid.

 

"Stop!" My mother shouted in a shrill voice and brushed off my arm. I was sent flying. I landed headfirst. I had a hard time moving. “Throw the dagger!” Her voice was big and whole now. Like a giant’s voice.

"Dammit mom!" I cried out. Tears hit the open wounds on my face caused by the bad landing I had. It stung. I was a complete mess. But I know better than to keep lying there and let the remaining seconds go to waste.

Using the post beside me for support, I stood up. My legs were shaking, but I had a better aim this time.

 

Three more seconds.

I threw the dagger with all the strength I had left.

 

Two.

It hit my mother’s thigh. She screamed so loud, I felt the ground shake under my feet.

 

One.

Into the darkness, together with the silver water everywhere in the place, my mother disappeared.

 

The lab was down. Tens of thousands of humans living in the area were gone. I was the only one who survived.