A pompous, light, and unknown voice popped up and down all around my ears.

One couldn't discern a gender, rather it sounded numbed and constantly shifted.

"Wake u-uuup."

"Wake up."

"Hey wake up."

"You're fine. Now wake up."

"Wake up?"

"Wake up."

The tone and pitch changed drastically and dramatically as it continued its tedious embarkment.

"What is up with this one-."

"Oh?"

My eyes were stubbornly released from their restraints under a heavy coat of umbra.

I found myself in an alley of some sort, the world was painted ink-black and the only colors that were susceptible to my sight were a muddle of brown, black, and faded grey.

My mind slowly unfurled itself as my memories began crashing back to the forefront of my head like detestable and powerful torrents.

"Ah-?"

My voice was thinner than before and almost a whisper.

My head felt like it was covered in a lucid layer of ice that was slowly dripping down into the betrodgen mud that represented the floor below me.

My face was burning and my muscles felt like they had all been pushed back in as they throbbed uncomfortably.

Carefully, groping the ground around me to make sure I was safe It felt as though the bone in my left arm had become so sensitive that even the slightest movements would cause it to jolt and send a wave of shivers down my body.

I could only attempt to bend it before being able to realize that the abhorrent pricks and pangs rapidly sourcing from it only increased.

I rubbed my eyes with my right arm feeling some irritating itches numb before my eyes widened horrifically.

"Uwah."

My voice was engulfed in deathly disarray and unfortunate surprise.

My steadying breaths soon collapsed and deformed into deplorable hyper-ventilations as my left arm intensely seared with accursed pain.

The pain soared through my arm and caused my entire body to feel as fragile as glass in that one moment.

My body felt malignantly lukewarm as jerks and jolts resurfaced all across my bones.

"Yeah, looks like that part of you didn't get regenerated with the transformation. That one's on me."

A cheery and now pitying voice emerged from above me.

My jutting head slowly and as if held back by immense fear, strainingly pulled itself up to the point where my neck began to ache and hold itself in discomfort.

An incorporeal, transparent, and dreamy white-ish entity drifted and hung above me.

It had no face, just a blank, cloudy, swirling mystery of secrets that seemed to hold together its entire being.

My sunken skin was pushed around by my bones as I looked at this mysterious figure in incomparable dishevelment.

"Who... are you?"

My voice became slightly deeper and more profound.

For a moment I had forgotten about my presumably broken left arm and my thoughts had fully clung to this figure in one fair swoop.

An arrogant and breezy voice swashed through the foul and fetid air that I found myself discouragedly inhaling.

"The phantom who toppled the balance of the Gregar Alliance during the White wars, the phantom who mercilessly suffocated 4 of the 5 lords of the north, the phantom who overcame their phantom bounds and achieved a corporal form far before any of their peers, the phantom who required an Extraordinary Knight of the Holy Templar to defeat them at their peak. And the phantom who saved your life child."

"Wai-."

"Vigar. I am Vigar the Phantom, awarded with the title by the Lord of Wasteful Winters of Vigar the Great. That is who I am."

The childish arrogance seeping through the phantom's voice was hard to avoid as I stared in a peculiar fashion at this 'creature.'

"W-why are you here? Then?"

My voice stuttered and barely saved itself from crumbling as I watched as this mass of white that could only be described as underwhelming floated around my head gracefully. The pain in my arm momentarily subsided as I waited for his response in tension.

"You seriously can't tell?"

The voice sounded astoundingly flat, neutral, and almost disappointed.

I shook my head dumbfoundedly.

An inaudible sigh tremored through the mysterious white mass before me as it worked its neutral voice up.

"How do you think you survived a fall that far?"

It seemed to turn around almost, inciting me to crank my neck forwards.

High.

It was an incredible distance between the ground I stood on and even half of the heights of the great architect's masterpieces that towered over me from all angles. All black silhouettes that gleamed with tiny yellow openings from time to time in the dingy and dim, thoughtlessly black night.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"How do you think your back survived being impaled by that spike."

My head rapidly shook as I looked at a caliginous, inky, and complacent black spike that was dangerously close to my back.

"Feel your back."

I tilted my head slightly in confusion.

My mind went a little bit more numb as my hand slowly crept up my back.

"Go on, give it a good feel."

Skin.

I had felt no cotton from clothing or tailored suit.

Just cold, smooth, and nearly gray-pallor skin.

I felt around the rim of the center of my back and realized that a gap had been split.

It was around the size that it put most of my back open to the evening air.

In other words, the piercing had gone far and deep.

"So how am I... alive?"

I looked at my right hand whilst trying my best to be ignorant of the discouraging state of my left arm.

"Half-alive."

The white mass above me whistled quietly and almost seemed to be drifting away from me.

It spoke fast and with a tinge of guilt.

"What?"

My voice felt as if it was in a blaspheming state.

"Maybe not so alive as before your unfortunate... fall."

The cloudy faceless ghost above me continued slowly drifting away from me.

"What are you inciting?"

My voice felt distrusting and slightly anxious now.

"Did I mention that I was a phantom?"

I nodded my head slowly.

The mass of white took a deep breath.

"Well, I guess that makes the two of us now."

It spoke so calmly and casually that it took a few seconds for the meaning of that sentence to fully transfuse into my being.

"Aurghg, stop pulling!"

I ragefully pulled on this shameless beast before me.

Was I going to be exorcized now? Excursed? Was the holy light kingdom already on its way to me?

"You turned me into a Phantom."

My voice was terrifyingly straight as I continued pulling the desperately fleeing cloud of smog back to me.

Who cares if it saved my life?

I'm getting exorcised tomorrow. The Kingdom of Holy Light is considered the strongest, it would be held in much higher regard if it didn't only exscurge the 'tainted creatures of this beautiful world.'

Next week sounds possible too?

"HALF-PHANTOM."

The voice wailed in distress before calming itself gradually. If it had the ability to pant then right now it would be a bumbling mess, panting and pathetically wasting on the ground.

"Half-phantom."

"I turned you into a half-phantom, you feral, beastly, savage humanoid."

It felt as though the phantom was frustratingly pouting with a red face as it hid itself away from me.

The cloud now depressingly drifted above me, it had become slightly grey from the pulling in certain areas.

"How does that work."

I was seconds away from pulling this mad creature back into my rageful storm.

The once mighty Vigor the Great started explaining as much as possible in the fastest method it knew.

"You're a half phantom. Your appearance is identical to your past human self, if not for your eyes becoming a shade deeper and your looks possibly refining themselves. Your constitution is a lot more precious than your human form though these effects are slightly dulled due to the whole half thing."

"For example?"

My curiosity had been successfully breached.

"Your regeneration is much stronger than that of a normal human, but below that of a ghoul or regular phantom. Your senses should be enhanced like hearing. Your appetite is the same, no vampire pish posh and who knows? If you let this poor Phantom live then maybe it can teach you a move or two. Don't you want to let this living Phantom index live? I can already tell you've unlocked Phantom Eyes and a significant energy boost."

Its words had sped up so much that they became nigh inaudible to my twitching ears.

It was strange. The whole situation had deformed into something... underwhelming?

This creature that I thought had spared me on a whim was actually the one being spared.

It was incredibly weak physically and felt like cotton candy when I pulled it down and began pulling and pushing it around wildly.

It was far from fast too and even my slow swaying arm grabbed it in the air.

"Oh, and you're hair is just magnificent."

With an extra accent on the -cant- I thread a hand through my hair.

It felt silken and flossy.

A big flop of hair lightly drifted in front of my face. As if waiting to reveal itself.

What?

I had always thoroughly admired my red hair that matched perfectly with my red eyes but now I suppose that was gone.

Replaced by a glossy, flawless white that seemed to have grown out despite my extremely recent haircut.

My hair was no longer dry and crazy, but smooth and refined.

It wasn't like that of an elderly person.

It was more like... Chlora's.

If Chlora's was a shade lighter than the snow.

Then this was probably several shades lighter from what I could infer and see.

It wasn't much of a downgrade. Maybe it was an... upgrade?

Hope rose within my suddenly distressed self.

There was no mirror near me of some sort so I couldn't check my appearance, however, I was fine with anything as long as it was not a hysterical mine of bald spots.

Still. It was kind of... underwhelming?

I didn't unlock some new form, some new ability in the middle of a fight.

I just got it.

I just nearly died and then my hair changed. Well.

As long as I'm not dead, it's all good. Probably at least.

But...

I sighed solemnly.

A half-phantom?

It didn't sound awful but, I didn't exactly want another river-creature situation.

Although that 'thing' had been quiet and timid for a while, such a behavioral manner only deepened my concerns.

"You won't kill me, right? You don't want to possess my body or anything? Maybe steal my soul?"

I addressed my hidden fears directly in this situation where I scaled far higher in power compared to this pitiable cloud that creased in sadness.

"What."

The mass of white used a tone that made me seem like a blatantly obvious moron.

"Why on Orthit's fungus oats would I do that?"

I could see the dents of a fumbling expression.

"That would just kill me. I'm many things. But suicidal is one thing that I am not, child."

Oh.

I see.

So it was like a master-slave bond.

No...

It was more like a fusion.

I piped up, this time with more enthusiasm.

"So in other words... you're stuck with me?"

To my clearly disheartening question, the mass of white merely nodded slowly and sullenly.

"Doesn't sound too bad."

I added it as a side note to hopefully cheer the Phantom known as Vigar up.

I then addressed the next issue as this underwhelming moment came to a conclusion.

My arm.

Exasperated I kept it to my chest as if there was an invisible cast.

The pain was still there, brimming and pernicious but manageable.

I looked up at the subsiding cloud beside me and concluded.

"Vigar the great."

The phantom cloud shifted left bitterly.

"Be my cast."

"I don't think I shall-."

I rose my ready hand amazingly naturally.

The phantom considered the two options disastrously.

"...Gladly."

My arm was engulfed in a smooth and warm sensation as the transparent white comfortably landed around it.

My neck was free from strain as Vigar floated by my left.

I enjoyed the minimal absence of pain before walking out of the alleyway I seem to have found myself in.

My drooping cast kept upwards and seemed to have no issues.

There was no wind, just an odd smell of a pepper-like substance and half-molded washing.

Audra.

I need to find Audra.

Wait no.

I need to gather information first.

This was a one-time life-save situation. I can't survive another fall like that.

I can't even trust this strange cloud.

It saved my life so I should probably treat it better but... I can't just trust this thing.

I can't just trust a stranger, a phantom at that. A phantom that seems to hate humans.

Though I'm probably it's... brethren now? Half-brethren?

I'll just keep my distance for now. That should work out.

I nodded to myself triumphantly as I slowly wandered down the twisting lanes of this unknown place.

It was nice to have time to think to ones-self outside the adrenaline of a wild conversation.

But I can't keep acting recklessly and overconfidently right now.

It almost cost me my life, falling into this, I assume, the citadel.

Though there was little to do in that situation anyways.

Yeah. I'll leave it at that for now.

A muddle of shades of grey was all that marauded my view.

I could not see a single human being, merely breaking walls and disparities lanes.

I kept going down the lanes before I heard the faint tremors of shouts and protests to my left.

Before getting anywhere near human-natured beings I made sure to deal with the Phantom Issue.

"A-."

My voice faltered as I realized that Vigar had already become invisible.

My arm hung on an invisible soft and sublime surface as I let out a low and unnoticeable breath of relief.

The foul smell of this odd city settled as I slowly prodded down the dirty and musty lanes before turning my head curiously around the tight left corner.

And it was then that I oddly found myself.

In a bumbling, bustling, and clearly bombastic slave market.

Nice.