Ajax

The year is 2075, but for Ajax, time is but a vexing illusion. His birthdate, 1589, seems a mockery of his eternal youth. Thousands of years—that's the burden he bears, serving out a punishment bestowed upon him in time immemorial. The old witch's curse, which granted him immortality, has become his eternal penal servitude, for the same fate awaited everyone he loved: death at twenty-one, always under the most horrific circumstances.

Ajax wandered the world, watching as time devoured eras and civilizations replaced one another. He saw faces, cities, even the sky itself change. He sought solace, but found only echoes of the past. In each new era, in each new face, he recognized her—the one whose life had been so cruelly cut short. He saw her 120 times: in the radiance of youth, in the sparkle of ambition, in the naive faith in the future. And each time she reached the cherished mark, history repeated itself, breaking his heart again and again.

He grew weary of the endless cycle, of the plague he seemed to bring with him. His soul, ravaged by eternal grief, longed for peace, but the curse held him captive, condemning him to an endless repetition of loss. Each encounter was simultaneously a discovery and a farewell, hope and inevitable pain. In 2075, he was still searching, though he knew he had already experienced a true encounter, once upon a time, in another, distant time.