Novels2Search

Phase 0.1- The Arrival

"So that Tartarus, huh? Look better than I thought."

Standing quite a distance away on top of a hill, far away from a city located on top of a mountain, is a man wearing a black jacket with a dark green undershirt, both hands wearing gloves, and on his left waist is a sheathed katana while on his right is a pitch black gun in a holster. His heterochromatic eyes of black and green look toward the city on top of the mountain.

The man is, of course, none other than Raven himself.

Raven quickly jumps down from the hill and makes his way toward Tartarus. Raven promptly made his way toward the city without saying a single word.

Walking up the mountain, Raven stares forward, unwavering and only focusing on a single thing in his mind.

It was not an arduous journey; step by step, Raven walked up the mountain until he arrived at the city's entrance.

Standing tall and high, the steel wall of Tartarus city stood there, protecting and preventing anything from entering the Hanging City while at the same time preventing anything and everything from leaving the city without permission.

Locating at the top of the mountain and the city stood a tall, towering building that seemingly reached far into the empty blue sky while looking over and casting a shadow over the city of Tartarus.

It is an elevated structure that is none other than the Athenaeum, the main building responsible for powering the entire city of Tartarus.

Raven quickly made his way inside the city by using the front gate.

'No guards? Not even the security system was activated. Strange,' Raven thought while quickly entering the city.

With a single thought, Raven makes his way into the city and straight toward the Athenaeum. Each step he took echoed throughout the entire city, yet, there was no sound of other people, no animals, no sound of any machines. The only sound that Raven can hear is his footstep.

"What is going on?" Raven kept his pace and walked toward Athenaeum, muttering, "Where the hell is everyone in this city?"

The city is silent; it is weird, it is strange.

No sound, no life, no sign of a living, as if this city was abandoned by its people; however, the conditions and qualities of these buildings would be said otherwise. It is crisp and clean, as if it was newly built, with no sign of crack or dirty marks on the build. Heck, there was even no trash on the street.

The sound of Raven's footsteps echoes throughout the empty street; Raven keeps looking left and right, seemingly paranoid that he might get ambushed at any moment.

'Something not right... Is it because they all already evacuated from the city? But that should not be possible when I make my way here; I see no transportation, and I understand evacuating civilians, but why SOM soldier too?' Raven can only think while still making his way toward Athenaeum, 'But I'm not complaining about it, making everything much more straightforward.'

However, at that moment, Raven stops in the mid of his track before quickly clutching onto his right arm, seemingly glowing with an ominous dark green aura. Raven quickly frowns after seeing the green aura coming out from his arm.

"Why is it acting up now?" Raven says to himself while clutching his right arm tightly.

At that very moment, something, in this case, someone, had landed on top of Raven's head or appeared on top of Raven's head. A being with total black skin, with some purple outline that seems to run along its body and over its face in a mouth shape. A being that Raven knows very well.

"A good day to you, Raven." The creature says while standing on Raven's head, "I must admit, I am very bored right now."

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Raven's frown quickly deepens, and with a swing of his hand, he makes the creature jump away from his head. While in the air, the creature extends one of its arms before quickly shooting out a ball of energy toward Raven; the latter promptly puts up his right hand and blocks the ball with his palm, and the energy seemingly gets absorbed into the said arm.

"You bastard! What the hell was that all of sudden!?" Raven quickly turns toward the creature, and his expression contorted in annoyance.

"You still have good control over it. Considering that you are as smart as a brick, I thought you would have fallen prey to that Crown, but..." The creature said while seemingly tilting its head as if to look down on Raven himself, "I'm impressed. You are such a good boy, Raven."

"Why the hell are you here for!?" Raven yelled back while looking the creature straight in the eyes.

"The basement of the Athenaeum." The creature said while pointing at the towering building that is the Athenaeum, "That is where Heaven's Gate is located."

"The basement?" Raven says while looking back at the Athenaeum, "They are usually located on the top; why the basement now?"

Raven then quickly looked back at where the creature was, but when he turned around, the creature was not there anymore.

"Tch! Guess I'm going down to the basement," Raven says before quickly turning and continuing to make his way toward the Athenaeum, this time at a much faster pace than before. While also seemingly immensely annoyed after what happened to him.

Up into the sky of Tartarus, looking down at the city, no, it is more like looking down at Raven, a person with golden blonde hair and orange eyes that glows like the sun floating in the sky.

The man is wearing what seems to be a long grey coat with a button-up white t-shirt underneath, covered by a grey vest. He also wears grey trousers with black leather shoes. What stands out the most is the badge on his right arm, which shows that it is a SOM logo.

"Hey now, if it isn't the stupid Spectator." The man with orange eyes says with a smile.

Teleporting behind the man is the creature that was talking to Raven a few seconds ago, with the creature floating in the air while simply looking at the man from behind.

"Have you been watching us again, Samael? You surely must have a lot of free time to kill." The creature said

"Yeah, there is so much that I don't even know what to do with it! When things keep repeating over and over again, I start to get bored. I can't make any plans either. It sucks, you know?"

"Good. Just stay like that, and do no more than watch."

"Thank you for the advice. However!! The wheel had already been turning, once more cycle!! This time, not even the Council can stop it!!" The man, Samael, exclaims before cracking up madly while holding onto his stomach. "So be a good Spectator and watch it closely!"

"Nothing can be hidden from the Council, Samael. That includes you and your plan." The creature calmly explains while floating aimlessly behind the man. "You can struggle and change all you want, but everything will end the same, just like everything."

"Oh, of course, I know! But the Council itself is not omnipotent or omniscient! Even if they know what I do, they can never stop it!" Samael says, "If anything, I am more worried about you, Spectator! You had been interfering a lot more lately. That isn't good, you know. The Council would never let you get away with it!!"

"That's my problem that only matters to me, Samael. You do not need to show that fake worried of yours." The creature answers before turning away from Samael, "Always remember, Samael, you can never be free from your leash.

The wheel will keep turning. The world goes round and round, and the never-ending conclusion will never end. The journey's destination will never be reached, and we can only watch the wheel of destiny moving forward..." Before giving a last look to the man, the creature said, "And backwards."

The creature then quickly disappears by teleporting to somewhere else. The man only rolls his eyes before clicking his tongue and turning his attention back toward the city while also visibly squinting his eyes, seemingly focused on Raven despite the distance between them.

"Come one now, Ravy. Just once more cycle; that is all I need." Samael said while looking at Raven from above. With a sinister smile, Samael started to laugh madly to himself again, seemingly amused by whatever he thought of.

After quite some time, he stops laughing before seemingly putting his two fingers next to his right ear. A red magic circle appears next to his ears while his two fingers seem to be touching the magic circle itself.

"This is lieutenant Samael Eous speaking. It seems that the report was true, that the criminal Raven is at Tartarus."

"..."

"Ho? The Grand-General? I cannot believe he disobeys the order!"

"..."

"He here? Really?" Samael says while dramatically putting his hand over his forehead while his voice seemingly had a sarcastic undertone. "Fine, I will bring him in."

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter