It was a normal day just like any other until that singular moment.

He had woken up alone in the middle class hotel room he was staying in, having slept in until about 10AM despite the waste of time on his trip to New York. 

He had taken a shower, changed his clothes to a basic white shirt and blue jeans.

He had eaten a large breakfast at the dining room of anything that wasn’t easy to buy elsewhere.

He had gone back to his room, brushed his teeth, styled his wavy black hair and made sure his caramel coloured skin wasn’t damaged in anyway. 

It was supposed to have been a very simple trip.

He was supposed to have gotten to Times Square much earlier to join a tour group but he didn’t really care that he had missed it. He could afford the hit to his wallet and he had all the time in the world.

On top of that another group was scheduled not too long from now and besides, he considered it a way to try and enjoy the location at his own pace.

He had been to many places in the world but oddly enough the USA had been last on his list. 

Finally crossing it off felt good to him. This was his first holiday in a while and while a part of him didn’t want to waste the time he had, it was also his time to waste.

He enjoyed that freedom from his work environment and wanted to really make the most out of it.

This seemed like the proper country to do that in. To be free of all the constraints of the daily grind of life. Soon he would have to return to it but for now, the present… this moment, he thought was certainly his and his alone. 

Then a single voice decided to rewrite the very definition of freedom.

A small blip of static as every screen and phone in Times Square rattled, forcefully taken over and began to broadcast a message to every single person in the world.

Sid looked up to see the figure of a man coated in shadows, his body posture screamed exhaustion.His ears pricked up as the man sighed and began to speak to everyone and anyone who would listen.

“We’ve made a mistake. People are arguing over fighting and not fighting. Blaming anyone who is forced to do anything just for the benefit of the many. Then again nothing means anything, not really. We choose the value of the concepts we’ve crafted and change it over time. We talk about drawing the line but we’re always supposed to redraw it as things change. Yet we’ve stopped doing that. So I did what I thought was right…”

There’s a pause as he clears his throat and sighs again.

“This world has stagnated. I will change it. To steal your past, present and future is a sin. 

“Yet, I believe it to be just. In a minute, I will twist the starting point of human history and return to this world all that was lost. Take a moment to say goodbye, even if none of you remember it, this world for all its faults deserves that. If any of your souls remember this - forgive me.

“To die without knowing why… well, rather many of you probably won’t be even born. Never having actually existed. I guess that’s slightly better. Fight. Fight for what you believe is right. Please. That’s all I think we need to do.”

The transmission ended. Sid turned his mahogany eyes away and began to walk away and continue his little tourist trip down the famous location.

His fingers suddenly began to tremble, the index fingers in particular.

He looked down at his quivering hands, they were vibrating uncontrollably with incredible speed.

Becoming like spilled paint running over parchment. He looked back up and his jaw dropped.

The buildings of New York were being undone. Piece by piece, brick by brick, sheet by sheet, all ripping apart one piece at a time before his very eyes. He turned his head to the left and saw blurs of flesh coloured light. He turned to his right and saw explosions of light and shadow.

He turned around and tried to run but his body moved at a snail's pace. It couldn’t resist the flow of whatever was happening, it was as useless as trying to swim upstream.

The world was being torn down to atoms. 

Light was not being extinguished from the world. It was being undone. Unravelled. 

The entwined Helix of Life and Fate was furiously twisted into singular scattered threads before his very eyes; the fabric of the universe was being twisted until nothing was left but an unfathomable and intangible chaos.

What was but a few seconds to Sid was all of time being flinged back to where it all began.

A vast empty sea of primordial abyss. Nothing at all that could become anything at all.

Sid floated within the depths of the darkness and then closed his eyes.

The light was born again as a deafening bang filled his ears. 

When the sound finally stopped, he opened his eyes to the light of the sun at the highest point of noon.

He now stood within a long stretch of sand, staring down a woman standing a long distance parallel to him, staring daggers towards him with her sharp gaze.

His hair was messier now, getting in the way of his eyesight ever so slightly. 

His skin was a single shade darker. His clothes had changed completely. What was once the clothes of our modern era were now a large worn piece of clothing that resembled a mix between a poncho and a raincoat. The interior of his poncho had been embroidered with a dizzying amount of dog tags, clattering like chimes in the wind.

He looked around for the source of the breeze, but only saw a corridor that resembled an old fashioned Times Square. The buildings still existed in some form but the roads had been replaced, now there was a distinctive crimson strip of sand where the famous crossing should've been.

A holster for a handgun was on his right waist and a large knife was strapped to the back of his waist.

Within the inner section of his cape like attire were a near uncountable amount of dog tags, somehow sewn into the material they clattered like chimes as the wind rolled down the corridor of what resembled an older Times Square, but the main crossing had become a wide strip of crimson sand.

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A wall of blue light closed off this singular road from all but the two figures standing within the centre of it all.

Behind those walls were an enormous crowd of people with their eyes wide with excitement. The first thing Sid noticed as he looked towards them was their clothes. 

Finely crafted classical suits for men and women, hats of various shapes and sizes adorned quite a few heads.

The ethnical diversity of the crowd was large as one would expect of New York but he  noticed something significantly different. There were quite a few Native Americans among the crowd too, dressed like everyone else bar a few accessories such as headbands, paint or charms. Then his mind processed the really bizarre sight before him.

Men and women with the ears of beasts. Figures with scales on their skin. People floating in the air through the beating of their wings. Buzzing and clicking sounds from the mouths of those not entirely human.

Sid’s heart began to beat like a jackhammer. His eyes dashed around his surroundings like a lost puppy… then he felt them being dragged back to the woman glaring at him with a look that could kill.

His right arm moved on its own. His fingers danced around the holster of the revolver by his right side and he returned the deadly glare his adversary was giving him, his body began to feel incredibly light, as if his soul was floating away and losing control.

He noted her appearance and broke it down.

Taller than average, perhaps around 170cm. 

Blonde hair braided into a single long tail falling to her waist.

Dark blue eyes, sharp and narrow. Filled with hate. Short lashes, thick black brows.

Her clothes were built for battle. Light metal breastplate, a black shirt beneath that and black shorts. It looked a little off aesthetically but it gave her a wide berth of movement.

By her right waist, a holster for a gun as expected, a luger.

“It’s a brilliant, sunny day to die in our wonderful city of New Leif, in the greatest country in the world, our Vinland!”

A high pitched and energetic female voice rang from the clear blue skies above and Sid’s head jerked up to look at the source the moment she said “New Leif” and “Vinland.”

The source of the voice was a young woman. She was cloaked in a tight black bridal dress, the veil covering all but her luscious red lips and the snow white skin surrounding them. She levitated up and down, resting her posterior sideways on what seemed to be a bone coloured scythe.

“I hope you’re all having a good day because it’s only going to get better from here! If you’ve had a bad one, well turn that frown upside down because it’s time for an event you don’t want to miss! The duel between a Traitor and a girl looking for revenge! A tale as old as time!”

The woman was getting the crowd riled up, using lines that had been clearly practiced and repeated over and over again until it became an art that spilled from her lips.

“On the left we have our challenger! From the Bavarian Empire of Mud - Astrid Hertz!

"She’s here to take the life of the man who slew her parents! Vengeance is boiling in her heart and it’s about to erupt here and now!” Astrid formed a fist with her left hand and raised it to the heavens.

The crowd roared with applause and cheers of support.

Sid’s mind was beginning to fracture. “What the hell is going on?”

His voice leaked out and he was shocked by the sound, it seemed to be an octave lower than what he was used to. 

He wanted to protest and ask questions but all of a sudden his lips sealed themselves shut as if they had a will of their own. His mind was now alight with fear and confusion yet his heart had suddenly calmed down and almost turn cold. 

“On the right we have the legendary Traitor - Sid Hart, the Slayer of Shambala!”

With the simple announcement of his name booing and cheering came out in waves one after another… coming from the same people. They booed him but then a few seconds later began to cheer for him before repeating the process with explosive energy.

“You all know who he is! The man who carries 108 sins, weighing him down, the sound of metal clanging tells you he’s coming to town! The duelist who wins without using magic! The conqueror of one on one combat! Will today be the day he falls to justice? Or will he be the winner yet again and yet again prove that might makes right!?” 

If the crowd were an explosion before they were now a tsunami crashing into a mountain. 

“Today I avenge the fallen!” Astrid’s voice tore through the wave with the force of a volcano.

The black bride floating above giggled.

“Well it seems you’re raring to go! Let’s get started then! The Struggles of Man! Round 1, a duel of fire…!”

Sid found his hands firmly wrapped around the grip of the revolver now. 

This was madness. He knew that. What was going on now was far removed from the world he knew before.

For some reason he was being called a Traitor. A murderer.

Yet he had never done anything worthy of receiving such ill bought titles. Yet he found his body moving as if to prove him wrong. He could feel it. The instinct to kill was building inside him.

“Go!”

The bride in black opened the curtains to a battle to the death.

Sid’s muscles moved with memories that belonged to his body and not his mind.

The gun launched out of its holster, pushed out by lightning fast reflexes. 

The barrel and sight lined up dead centre between the eyes of Astrid and without missing a single beat, without even a drop of doubt or second of hesitation, his index finger pulled the trigger just as Astrid’s luger was about to get into position.

BANG!

Sid’s lips were curled into a twisted smile. His breath was ragged with exhilaration. 

The sound of a body hitting the floor echoed through the altered Times Square. Silence.

A pause from all who watched. Astrid’s head had been shattered by a bullet in half a second, but what was strange was the bullet itself. It had just before impact, expanded in size and bore a hole through her head as if it was a drill. 

Then they began to cheer with the roaring of pleased thunder. 

The crowd was going wild. Sin began to seep into Sid’s heart. He felt sick to his stomach.

Yet he couldn’t stop smiling. A cold shiver pulsed through his body as he tried to stop himself from showing enjoyment on his face. “This world is insane! I killed her and their cheering!?”

Unfortunately it was only the beginning of his introduction to this mad, mad world.

Astrid’s body spasmed until its legs began to find the strength to keep themselves upright.

The wound in her head was being undone.

Sid watched with gross wonder as bone, muscle and sinew strung themselves back together until they mended the damage that had been inflicted on her. In a minute it was as he had never shot the gun in the first place, but as clear as day, the revolver was in his hand and was smoking with the proof of his violence.

The black bride whistled.

“Amazing show as always! Today the Slayer of Shambala showed us he actually can use magic! To think the old dog actually knew all the tricks this whole time? Well, round 1 is over! Time for round 2! A crossing of blades!”

Sid’s body betrayed him again.

He couldn’t move his lips. His fingers pushed the revolver back into its holster and then his left hand drew the knife on his back with a single swift motion and prepped it as if he was going to throw it.

“Stop. Stop! Just… let me… stop!” 

His words were left to rattle in his brain. No one could hear his pleas or see the fear hidden in the well of bloodthirst in his eyes. All except one woman in the crowd.

Around her head was a crown of fresh green thorns that trapped her long scarlet hair that flowed down to the base of her neck.  She was dressed in a black sweater, covered over the shoulders and arms by a dark green jacket and lemon coloured miniskirt tied against her waist. 

Her fanciful green eyes and long lashes flicked with concern and curiosity.

She mused to herself… “Sid, you’ve never smiled before. What’s going on?”

A glimmer of hope began to beat in her chest. She kept her eyes on the duel with more focus than anyone else.

A stream of white smoke began to float around Astrid. Something was descending from the sky above to her location. A moment later, the smoke burst in all directions and when it cleared, something was in both of her hands.

A giant golden axe with what seemed to be steam engines guzzling on the back side with the massive blade on the front side. Astrid released her left hand and began to lift the heavy weapon with her right until the bottom was before her eyes. Her left hand dug into a pocket and pulled out a small round red gem, and placed it against the bottom of the axes pole.

It fit perfectly. The engines began to release even more steam as her she began lowering then weapon and lifting it up once more with both arms. The white smoke then without any warning, turned into a burst of sizzling red flames.

“Round 2… Go!”

With those three words the bride once again opened up the stage for a display of ruthless carnage that Sid was finding himself drawn into. His body was screaming for battle even when his mind pleaded to escape. The world had been forever altered by a twist in history.

A world of duelling for one’s own justice. For glory, honour and death. For battles that carried the weight of what people believed in. 

This story begins in the Year 1927, the planet Earth, New Leif, United Jarldoms of Vinland.