#1 The Shifting Sea

Underneath, a veil of red leaves struck with pale moonlight.

A woman lay calmly seated, her head resting on the white bark of the swaying trees. Her violet eyes were destitute yet loving as she brushed her sleeping lover’s head. Sighing for a moment, whilst her lips pressed thinly. Her pale face slightly illuminated by the moon’s gaze.

“Alphy, just why is your soul so twisted? What trial are they putting you through?” She asked softly, her raven-black hair shifting ever so slightly in the cold wind.

“But I’m here for you; you can always speak to me…” The young woman wanted to say more, but her violet eyes shallowly reflected that the best she could do was stand in his presence while she still could.

Raiza shifted her gaze to the moonlit skies, the white clouds in her heart growing heavy at every second time passed. ‘Come on, let’s bring you home.’

A spatial ring with a single cube, engraved with a continuous cycle of runes and indexes. Twisting and bending unnaturally, as a small grey crystal appeared. At her open palms, connecting to her with tendrils of spiritual energy. It responded to her touch with a dim light, faintly signifying the initial stages of the teleportation process.

The crystal broke apart, it’s dust scattering, as small lines of fabric untangled from reality in a perfect circle.

Space itself sizzled, with brimming particles of matter, while the ground shook, as air itself seemed to vanish sucked into a narrow vacuum; she disappeared along with the young man. His sleeping figure shifting slightly in her embrace. A discomfort that lay on his persistent mind. ‘Alphy, whatever you’re doing. I just hope you’ll still stay with me.’ Her final thoughts echoed, as the crystalline red leaves carried her voice.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The sound of bells tolled from everywhere and nowhere at once. A grand welcome to the resting young man’s nightmare all over again.

Drums beat, as the ocean of white melted into a shadowy grey, sand sprawling his body.

The waves and tides turning it into a storm of violence of calm.

Gravity itself pulling the young man’s slumbering spectral body deeper, burying him deeper onto the grey sand.

Until it was cold, a dark riveting cold. His body flinched, with discomfort as pitch black water blanketed this sleeping beauty.

{As befitting a successor, you have again challenged your own soul domain.}

{May the Soul Resonance Commence Alphonso Romulus Reinheit}

A deep but low-pitched voice, much like the young man’s own, echoed in his mind. It’s a message automated, devoid of any warmth, as the abyss itself held him in a tight embrace. ‘Well shit, they’ve sealed some of my pathways.’ He cursed, checking his blood circulation.

The flow of bright, golden energy leaked from his mind, flickering and coursing through his body. ‘Thank the Lords they didn’t lock my authority.’ He sighed, resolutely determined to make use of the tools he has.

He pulled his scythe out of its sheath, its straight curved blade resembling a spear decorated with cracks and squared-off segments. Each with its own unique runic inscription, fifteen in total.

It hummed at the cold touch of his alabaster hands, connected to him in both soul and mind.

His grasp on the scythe was gentle, yet his eyes were still closed.

A world invisible to most, slowly revealed inch by inch by the golden threads of causality itself. Vibrating at every event, but still none of his senses screamed at him. ‘It’s too quiet.’ He thought lowly as a single rune at the tip of his blade lit with a subtle gold. Highlighting small pieces of ash falling undisturbed by the water’s pressure.

It was the only light there, a fleeting hope for a ray of sunshine to pierce the eternal darkness.

Still, not a single disturbance. But still his instincts tugged at his ears. Wanting him to listen, and so he did. ‘Perhaps it can hide itself from causality…Or it’s way stronger than me.’ At the thought, he shook his head, not intending to delve deeper.

His eyes sprung open, revealing a golden light emanating from within as he looked at the rune. Maybe he was the only ray of sunshine here. Then there were sporadic shifts below and above in the fabric of causality.

Closing in on the source of light, eager to devour it, ‘Yep, can’t keep my eyes open for long.’ He sighed inwardly, his heart rate briefly spiking at his little experiment. Here he had no senses, only the fabric as his guide.

His starry eyes shut closed as he steadied his breath. Swiftly rupturing space and appearing at an unknown distance, it was enough at least for now. Another runic inscription hummed, sending a ping that ran through causality.

But it only took an instant for him to detect it, the thing that was here beside him for so long, in these black waters. ‘Lords, I swear!!’ He cursed his luck, but its intentions remained unclear.

A horror clearly much more powerful than the rest, never leaving its unblinking gaze on the young man.

Alphonso can feel that once he knows it is there, it too will be aware. Despite being unable to see its face, if it had one in the first place. The young man felt a bone-chilling, serene smile creeping up its very being.

Another ping rang out from the blade, as the horror in another instant was on his left, its face close to his. In that instant, when Alphonso turned his head, he looked at the very void. It was calling to him, saying it could fix all his mistakes, that he never needed to worry anymore.

“It’s alright, little one. Shhh…Just take a nice long rest.” It said, the void’s devilish smile growing wider, as Alphonso’s mind battled against the intoxication of warmth.

{Go fuck yourself} Alphonso shouted telepathically, his loosening grip gaining strength as he swung his scythe at the horror, only for it to disappear once more.

“I’ll be waiting for your answer.” It said its voice is soft and light-hearted, just like a mother’s. This time it seemed sad, almost regretful at his choice.

Alphonso cleaved space, and this time it wasn’t just in one direction but all at once.

He felt eyes trying to pry into his soul. Its presence is vicious, yet careful like his own. ‘Just what the hell is this thing?’ He questioned, as if hearing his thoughts. The causality of the void itself shifted, the fabric of causality bending into a bright golden grin.

Seeing the control it had over darkness to even bend, a concept outside of its own as a mere consequence. His body shivered in fear, but still Alphonso didn’t give the horror what it wanted. ‘To hell with this.’

In an instant his eyes sprang open as he spun himself with the golden threads. Their touch searing his existence, but if he could survive another day, who’s to say it wasn’t worth it?

Like a torpedo, he flew forward faster than light itself, a bolt of gold against the darkness erupting the very ash around him into flames. His soul churning, as he turned incandescent. The void itself twisted and bent, deciding for now it couldn’t welcome another child.

As the golden threads from the world above pulled him in a continuous motion, a fabric that rapidly carried him through waves. The eternal darkness remained with the bent smile of causality, its presence became fainter, like a distant memory.

Splash

A hand sprung up from the inky black; it’s skin a bit dry, with lines of blood flowing down the fresh cuts, tainted with the glow emitted by the light of the twin-tailed fireflies. Whilst the voices from above, though muffled, intoxicated his ears, their sounds were akin to deafening radio static.

“Ugh!!” He grunted his hands aching, with pain struggling to reach out towards the grimy brick walls fresh of rain. He tried to climb out of the well, only for a force to send a severe pressure down his body. It felt like something was making a fool out of him.

And he knew exactly what—a gaze came from the abyss below. One that disappeared into the earthly shadows of the black water without any ripple to trace where it was. ‘Out of all places, it had to be the sinking well. The sole damn link to the black ocean.’ He remarked, steadying his breath.

Alphonso’s hands clawed onto the surface of the black water, sending ripples and splashes as statues of 7-winged angels brittle and cracked stared at him from above.

Sparse parts of their face as polished, as were the marble white they were made of a contradictory existence befitting the shifting sea. ‘Truly one hell of a trial.’

While his own face, a pure alabaster ran with shallows cuts across his cheeks and nose. The pungent metallic tang of a smell intoxicating to his nostrils.

His eye’s golden and always moving with life set its sight onto the angels.

The world itself whispered and laughed as they appeared and reappeared across the sky, their flapping wings sounding like a piercing whistle. They looked down at him, slightly amused by his ability to subtly influence causality, just like their previous lord. The curtain of clouds opening the way for them.

However, the one below them all stood his ground, as brick by brick he pulled his body up. Inching closer and closer outside of this confined prison.

“Huff…Huff” The young man breathed raggedly as he reached out for another brick. His hands suddenly slipping with the pooling blood. At that moment, he held his breath as he fell down his tattered coat ruffling and deafening his ears.

He looked to the side and outstretched his hands catching onto a brick, his breathing quickening as he saw the black water just below him. ‘Raiza should’ve already teleported my body home.’ He remarked, as he felt his wet hands sliding off the wet bricks.

Crack

“Shit.” His expression turned wry at the sound of the brick crumbling. His golden eyes searched for an answer, and there it was below him.

With haste, Alphonso kicked off the wet walls, latching onto a brick on the other side.

But, back below him, he felt the creature staring at him as the gravity around him pressed. Bricks crumbled at the pressure, nearly making the young man cough as dust entered his nose.

Quickly he jumped back and forth between the two sides, his struggle only slightly eased by the small light of twin-tailed fireflies circling the innards of the sinking well.

He reached for the top and grasped onto it, pulling himself up.

“Hah...hah...” He breathed as the open air filled his lungs with vigour, finally escaping the damn thing.

Alphonso breathed a sigh of relief, his gaze set on the bizarre landscape, as if it welcomed him to the scenery of a world completely made of stone and ash.

Beyond the well was a constantly shifting sea of towering rocky structures and ashen tides. Each slick with an oily sheen, not quite wet, but not quite dry.

A twisted mockery of the mundane world he’d come to live in.

Statues of winged figures adorned with white, and silver moved across the sky.

Titanic faces sculpted with white marble dwarfing the size of celestial bodies loomed over the distant mountains. Their casted shadows gorging over entire valleys, and crevices far beyond the reach of his eyes.

They were all overbearing, filled with weight and burden, but all of them shared one thing, and that was…

“The eyes.” Alphonso stated, his legs slightly shaking, as the sky itself seemed to want another piece of him. He lifted his scythe, its gunmetal grey blade glistening at the touch of sunlight.

With a thought, a map manifested in front of his eyes.

Locations shrouded and clouded with unmarked areas. His eyes turned sharp as he walked across the shifting sea. It’s sand, never in one state, vibrating and shifting in the form of unpredictable tidal waves.

{Welcome to your soul domain. True Lord of Causality} It read, this wasn’t his first rodeo in this place, but every time something always changed, and this time the map had marked the sinking well.

Usually, people who enter their soul domains through sleep never end up in that singular constant. As it was connected to the material plane, what the people of Vastala had called the black ocean at the southern regions of the planet.

He scratched his cheek for a moment, ‘…Ellikh, the Lord of Causality, has been dead for hundreds of years. Yet another question.” He thought begrudgingly, shaking his head, ‘Well, conquering the soul domain it is. I can always ask the admins for answers as a reward.’

He directed his gaze at the skies, and there they were, hidden by a veil of stormy clouds, three moons aligned with cracks of ordained gold.

The very threads of causality bending to their will as they moved slowly across the ashen skies. The administrators, monitoring existence itself, spared him a slight glance before returning to their duties.

Alphonso steeled himself, tightly gripping his scythe; its gunmetal blade vibrating, his lips quivering with annoyance of his insignificance.

Step

Step

His footsteps echoed in this vast space. Covered by the whistling sand. Sometimes he heard cackles, distant cries, or screams, but other times there were smooth, relaxing voices. The ghost of the ashen tides, all trying to take a bite out of his psyche.

Their voices, their sounds were soothing, to his ears, enough so make his forced steps in labored pain feel light, almost ignorant of the dangers that the tides themselves possess. His scythe pinged again, while his vision melted into golden lines and fabrics each complex but, were thoroughly quelled by his authority. 'Even at this level manipulating causality is more than sufficient.'

Then there was dead silence, As he felt his eyes grow tired from their sweet lullabies. A crack ringing through his head, while the ghosts vanished leaving behind trails of floating rocks all slowly breaking apart and falling into ash.

Alphonso's barrier, activated as his walk matched to a tea with the deathly ashen tides.

Monoliths passed by decorated with a macabre of runes, slightly dimming at his soft touch.

Thump

His heart rate quickened, beating rapidly; all around him, above and below, he felt a suffocating stare heavily weighing on his entire existence. Questioning his place in a domain that never belonged to him.

A cold drop of sweat trickled down his forehead. As he looked at the distant horizon aligned raining with slight trickles of golden dust and ash. These were remnants of the true lord that once was, a leftover of the True Lord Ellikh's divine influence over this space.

"Even in death your ghosts haunt me" He murmured, his head instantly turning around for a response, but there was none. Only he belonged here, with these machinations.

Whoosh

[Qualifications assessed: complete all challenges ahead], the voice stated.

Alphonso took a step back as he gazed onto the sky. The 7-winged angels all hovered stilly in the tense air.

Their swirling eyes were strewn across their wings, snapping open right at him.

“Let’s get this over with.” Alphonso said, as a bright grin crept onto his face. He assumed they’d hear his words, but only the sea hummed and constantly moved.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

He blinked, only to open his eyes to the same sight of these statues all staring at him.

“For every step a man takes, they’ll be thrown across the sinking well.” They all stated in unison as bright chains of constantly fluctuating matter began to descend from the sky. The ashen spires flicker in the distance.

“As your training avoids death at all costs, hee-hee.” The statues all began to cackle seeing a delectable source of entertainment fit for their eyes. Their unmoving figures were only lightly visible veiled by the increasing rain of gold and ash in the descending chains, and spears.

“There's no way Rai will let me die before her.” Alphonso said, with confidence, as he dashed, pointing his scythe at the very sky. Challenging them all.

He became a streak of golden light that pierced through the waves of the shifting sea. Leaving trails of black ash smoldering and sizzling. Piles of ash turned into dark mist.

His eyes started to converge into a starry nebula as he saw the surreal landscape changing and altering itself before it even happened.

Alphonso’s faint smile began to fade, replaced by a complete façade of emotionlessness. He turned his body sideways and leaped off the tide.

Boom

A chain struck the dark ash, sending dust and bits of metal flying at Alphonso.

With a swift motion, he reversed his grip into a backhand, cutting them all effortlessly. And sliced the frantic monoliths and spires in half.

His heart pumped with adrenaline, as that was but an appetizer to the main course.

A rain of crumbling ashen spears pours through the mist-like clouds swirling just like the volatileness of causality.

Each striking the ground with the same ferocity as before. Altering the terrain, as mountains shifted to his step.

Alphonso’s rhythm began to quicken as his fast dance came to a halt. Now each step he took, he locked his partner into a deadly embrace. Twirling the scythe, creating a single gaping burning hole through the waves, and spears that resisted his advances.

His divine eyes shimmered as he took a single step forward and swung his scythe, cutting the chains before they dared to touch him. A fluid motion so sharp it severed the golden threads in two. ‘Sei (spiritual energy) often dissipates when even a single layer of reality is cut.’ He remarked that rather than becoming faster, his beats were all steady and filled with elegance.

Still, the reach of his abilities only extended to his scythe. Around him was a complete death zone where no chain escaped his sight.

Every second passed, his arms grew heavy, and his breathing ragged, but slowly he was advancing, erasing these chains with a single cut of his partner.

While the golden threads of causality coated him with a faint static barrier. Almost eager to be tested in battle.

Together they performed a ballet in the abyss, as the area beyond the serene death zone was a complete dark ashen mist with bright stars of gold subtly glimmering caused by the matter kicked up by the bombardment.

‘Fuck, I need to figure something out.’

Crackle

The ground shifted as stone-like pillars headed his way.

Boom

He waved his scythe as a fine line of gold tore through space, cleaving the unsuspecting disruption to their flow. The pillars all fell to the wave of ash, sending an avalanche of cascading grey as he leveraged the opportunity. To somersault in the air, avoiding the chains headed his way.

His grip loosened as he tossed his partner in the air; a wave of golden threads unwrapped itself from its tip, spreading beyond the mist. As with a singular ripple, the particles of the mist all fell to the tide.

Alphonso caught his partner and twisted his body in a singular motion. Blazing across the grey rain, his figure flickered between the tides. For a moment he thought it was a perfect chance to avoid any harm, but who dances in the rain and never gets wet?

He felt his arms and face burning at the touch of the chain, as the rain tore his shirt and tattered his hair. Each movement in the verse now felt just that much heavier, as he swung his scythe relentlessly, having an unspoken trust with it.

His mind was stressing at every moment while he deflected an ashen spear.

Step

Step

His steps echoed in the vast sea of grey, igniting sparks as the rain of chains started to intertwine and twirl around the ashen spears threatening to scatter at the high winds.

Alphonso’s façade started to crack, as the rain drenched his inky black clothes with cuts and bruises. His signature golden glow peering through the mist.

Within his eyes were the fabrics of causality rippling at each droplet. They were the trigger to many events and futures. The cause in which an effect can exist. ‘This truly is Ellikh’s domain,’ he thought, as with a wave of his hands, his spiritual energy flowed into a simple chant.

“Yovres (Position Lock).” He muttered as his gaze crossed the fallen pillars.

The advancing ashen rain was put to a halt, enveloped by the same static barrier, their causality put onto a grinding halt.

But, as they condensed together, their effects became more pronounced, rupturing the barrier as the step he once took became three. And the wave of his cracked scythe slower.

His eyes looked up at the rain as a chain grazed his face.

“Ugh,” he grunted in pain as droplets of crimson splashed onto the ashen sand.

A wide cut opened on his forehead as he remained reaping his way with efficiency. Whilst blood rolled down his eyes like tears dripping from his face. Every droplet landing on the shifting sea with a splash.

Thousands of kilometres were crossed in mere moments, leaving a trail of red scattering into the tide.

Crackle

Around his arms, runes flickered, and the scythe glowed with a deep shade of crimson and gold.

As he ran, the golden threads bent to his will, and with a stroke of his scythe. Every drop he spilled onto the shifting sea. Detached from the tides of ash, floating in the air.

The scythe hummed in its perpetual motion with Alphonso’s dance, as at once all the droplets were pulled into its blade. Dark shimmers of crimson red and gold aligned the segments of the scythe. It’s the forward blade pointing right at the nigh unstoppable barrage.

Alas, reality cracked as he slashed the threads of causality linking the spears to reality. For a moment the statues blurred and looked at Alphonso. Their wide grin creeping onto their eyes. Glad to have been shown something interesting for once with such meagre levels of control.

The titans in the looming distance paused their duties and looked at the shredded and torn fabric. Awaiting reality itself to fill in the wide-open wounds in its threads.

The spears crumbled, and with another wave of his scythe, they disappeared; it was as if they never occurred at all. The death zone once again appeared, this time more refined than ever.

His eyes turned a dash of crimson, while his veins became more pronounced, as he saw all those beautiful golden threads right at his grasp, yet so far from his reach.

He took a step forward, bolting into the tides of ash and gold.

Holes appeared on the crumbling waves and marble monoliths as they scattered into the high winds where he passed.

His eyes burned searing with pain with red as clumps of molten metal from the heat of his movement left thin lines along his cloth. Droplets of crimson dripped from his white skin splashing atop the ashen sand, leaving a trail of red wherever he stood, but like before, the scythe had a ravenous hunger.

For what felt like hours, he became their entertainer, all their gazes affixed on him, without any clear sign of stopping the nigh-endless barrage.

The young man swung his scythe relentlessly, as sparks of gold streaked in the grey mist, forming arcs of golden light within the ashen mist. Storms of ashen sand relentlessly blocked his eyes, yet he stood his dance resuming. Jumping over monoliths, and crumbling stone.

He twirled his scythe as the blade clashed frantically with an arc of sparks following his partner.

The titanic statues above feigning indifference to his existence, as deep inside the storms. What stared at them was a pair of golden eyes and a faint shadowy figure of the young man. No, an angel, with three halos lingered before scattering into the relentless assault.

“Huff…Huff. Alphonso breathed, sweat rolling down his forehead, as he looked beyond the mist. Where they were judging silently in delight.

“Impressive performance. No wonder you didn’t die at your birth. Your mind must truly be strong.” They commended, as the 3 moons in the sky parted the clouds. Their presence was so unimaginable that the mist and all the raging ashen tides were obliterated.

“Inva Torem (Welcome Administrators)” The angels all muttered, their star-streaked gaze almost shifting into a bow.

Alphonso held his scythe firmly onto the ground, anchoring his place. Unaffected by the golden threads the moons claimed as their own. Their presence slowly stripping him away of his control.

BOOM

CRACK

Fleshy mouths cracked open on the moons. Their grey surfaces ruptured, sending a heap of asteroids surging through space.

Their celestial smile dawning upon the shifting sea.

“Still, are you any special compared to the others?” They questioned, as only the irritating shrills of madness remained.

The hovering statues without any motion only continued to bore their gaze with their wide smiles.

Ash blanketing his worn-down coat as their golden eyes opened with a flutter.

They didn’t blink as the violet rain stopped, and the moons hung in the air. The sight of the rubble from their smile burning and churning in the atmosphere.

Alphonso’s entire body was shaking, splotches of red decorating his otherwise white skin.

He planted his scythe onto the ground, holding it to keep himself standing.

“Hahaha, am I? I don’t think so; there are a billion other people with sturdier mentalities than mine, people that are willing to what? Struggle, but no, I complain; I laze around, yet I work hard. I expect the world to like me, but it only hates me for what I am. So, I try my best, and only my best.” Alphonso bitterly remarked, his golden eyes defiantly shining against their lawful gazes.

“What a self-contradiction you are.”

“Illam would’ve loved to see this, but Ellikh…”

“It’s time for you to go back, for your unfitting to hold our power right now.”

“Such a shame; let the shepherd herald your soul.”

As they said their final words to Alphonso, only one thing spoke, and that was their disappointment.

“Wait!!” Alphonso shouted, but a sharp ring pierced his mind.

A shrouded figure of a rectangle loomed over the dark horizons like a solar eclipse, containing all of causality, and his mind became completely shrouded in the mist of the shifting sea. The voices of paranoia now whisper into his mind, lulling him into a gentle illusion of embrace.

[Challenger has died…] The mechanical voice echoed with no remorse.

Splash

With a ripple, his body was now in an ocean of white, lying motionless.

Slowly all signs of vitality returned to his incorporeal form, but he didn’t want to wake up.

“I failed again…” He coldly remarked, his hands tightly grasping the white ocean, “How many times does this make, sixty or maybe seventy? If I keep this up, my mind barrier might crack due to mental overload.”

Splash

Alphonso punched the water, as hard as he could. His teeth grinding with the frustration of repeated failure, as he heard a nearby clock still approaching midnight. ‘You know what they repetition is the mother of learning.’ He sighed inwardly as he watched an old grandfather clock slowly ticking until his consciousness was expelled back into his mind.

He only counted the number of revolutions it had made. As in this place that was his only distraction. With each revolution the white sea rippled, it’s reflections turning with colour.

Tik

Tok

At last, he opened his eyes, and this time what surrounded him wasn’t a white ocean but a warm bed. A glass cup filled with water and a blank note written in cursive.

{Alphy, I know what you’re doing in there. So please take breaks; if not, I’ll drag you out myself.}

The young boy chuckled lightly at the note before turning it around.

{Ohh, and I won’t be back until tomorrow, cyaa. Your lovely fiancée Raiza (^-^)}

“Hahaha you’re really something.” Alphonso spitted out his drink, his hands gliding across the tables, until it touched a button adorned with crescent moons. ‘After all, Rai, you’re always out there fighting. You deserve that break the most.’

click

He pressed it, as small lines of silver light traveled through the grey marble floor and circled around him. Followed by floating orbs unlocking the door.

With a flick of his hand, the window opened, letting a minty smell come in from the rustling trees.

“Not a bad start to the day.” Alphonso muttered, observing small birds with 4 wings gliding across the bright city streets sipping nectar from the silver and gold petals of the casual flowers. Their threads weaved as if one with the entirely of causality. ‘I’ll never get used to this.’ He thought briefly, straightening his back, and steadying his gaze.

Beep

He heard his doorbell being rung as a woman rushed past his room, her figure a dark blur, shouting, “Lords stop pressing the damn doorbell!!!”

Alphonso tilted her head puzzled at why his sister was at such a rush. So, being the cat he was curious, followed her downstairs through the white corridor’s symbols glowed as he passed. Weapons, whether they’d be guns or ancient scimitars, would cross his vision. ‘I still wonder where my parents found these…”

He descended the spiral stairs of the mansion, and there at the entrance he noticed two familiar faces.

“Sis, why’s Yusuf here?” Alphonso questioned; his eyebrows raised.

“Ahh Alphonso, you’re awake. Well… He said he wanted to check on you.” Maria stated, her face alabaster face slightly twitching with a small frown at a young man with grey hair, and sea blue eyes, her long green dress in disarray due to the rush. Whilst her two eyes, both silver and gold, narrowed in annoyance.

“My do you miss me that much?” He lightly scoffed sarcastically, tapping his fingers at the stairway, while looking at the grey-haired boy clad in patterns of blue flowers, matching his floral scent.

“Hah as if! But really, sorry I skipped out on training.” Yusuf replied, his voice growing steadier.

“Come again?” Alphonso teased, causing him to shy away from the seemingly confrontational tone.

“Fine ritual it is...” He bowed.

A bright flower weaved from blue threads ripped itself out of reality, and with the gentle breeze of the outside air, it reached Alphonso’s open palm.

“Hmm…” Alphonso pondered as he injected a handful of Sei into the flower. Its petals becoming dyed in moving gold as he returned it to Yusuf.

His eyes widened in glee as he saw the two energies flowing in harmony.

“Apology accepted.”

“Phew, I thought you were going to kill me.” Yusuf wiped a drop of sweat as he rushed to give Alphonso a bear hug.

The young man stood there awkwardly, looking between Maria and this grey-haired man who wrapped around him.

“Ahem.” She coughed.

Hearing the cue, Yusuf looked up, and he saw eyes that burned deeply into his soul. Sweat trickled down his forehead, as he took a few steps back, smiling lightly at Alphonso.

“You’re still the same as ever,” Alphonso remarked, his long, wavy hair fluttering in the increasingly chilly wind, “But maybe that isn’t so bad.”

“And I’m sure as hell proud of it.” Yusuf proclaimed, wrapping his arms around Alphonso, a flicker of shadows tracing his quirked eyebrow. ‘I wonder why you push yourself so hard.’ He thought, his sight lingering on Alphonso’s body, moving slowly.

“I’m fine believe me. You should see yourself, all out of shape.” Alphonso replied sensing his friend’s growing unease, a subtle imperceptible smile hidden by his nearly blank expression.

“The field it is then.” He said, looking at Alphonso discerning his every movement. ‘You’re a terrible liar.’ He commented unbeknownst to everyone there.

The two walked past paintings as light streamed from the murals decorating the otherwise pale marble corridors with a fresh coat of light yellows.

Yusuf’s sea blue eyes widened, with appreciation.

He tapped the ground, spreading a thin wave of frost.

However, as fast as it appeared, the energy was absorbed or rather firmly negated by a silver circuit flowing within the white marble.

“Hey, the Reinheit family still sells these reinforced circuits, right?” He asked curiously.

“If it’s a watered-down version, yes.” Alphonso answered as he turned to look at Yusuf with mild interest, waiting for the boy to explain himself.

“Alright that’s good.” Yusuf nodded as his sea blue eyes narrowed in focus.

“Mind telling me why you need them?” Maria asked, her fingers weaving in and around soft almost mellow silver threads.

“It’s a lot, but first. Something has been wrecking the damn teleportation gates.” Yusuf stated, as calmly as possible every word laced with a hint of a fury.

“So, you’re proposing we trade?” Alphonso deduced, smiling at the suggestion.

“Yep.” Yusuf confirmed, stretching his hands, in monotony knowing the words that’ll come next from this training junkie.

“Let’s hear the details later for now, warm-up,” Alphonso said, his golden eyes gleaming with a bit of mischief, “Because I happened to learn something new.”

Yusuf stopped for a moment and took a hard look at Alphonso’s stature. “Wow really leaving me in the dust.”

Cling

His ears perked up, hearing a familiar sound, as the two doors before him mechanically shifted their gears, turning at the snap of the woman beside him.

The doors opened almost cinematically, their slow gears turning, as energy ran through the grand wing-like patterns. Alphonso bathed in the warm sunlight. Revealing a field of shifting mazes and gardens. Not one thing stayed in its initial place. Other than a gazebo with engravings of a snake eating its tail. shining metallically at their passing eyes.

The circuits on the ground churned as the field and gardens retreated, pushed beyond the edge of the fine fabric of reality. Expunging the once vibrant smell of burning vanilla.

What lay before them now was an expansive field of grass. Droplets of water suspended in the air, moving in multiple continuous motions, colliding and separating, and in the middle, Maria sat down, her figure reappearing at the gazebo happily drinking a cup of tea.

“A perfect environment for a duel; don’t you agree?” Maria stated, patting her dress.

Whilst a single moon hung brightly in daylight. Its visage nearly enshrouded by the planet’s sharp clouds atmosphere.

“It never gets old,” Yusuf commented, a delicately appreciating smile forming on his lips. “By the way, where’s your fiancée?”

“Probably on a mission, but keep in mind I’m giving you a head start. After all, slackers won’t be carried by their talent alone.” Alphonso grinned, tying his light brown hair back.

The young man stood before Yusuf as both drew circles on the ground, one a bright blue flower, while the other a golden snake eating its tail. Strands of Sei unraveled from their fingers, gliding in the wind.

“We’ll see about that.” Yusuf scoffed.

Maria hands crossed calmly watched the two, her heterochronic eyes, looking over every detail. ‘The Adjudicating Tree should form right now.’ She thought, carefully timing her words.

The threads began to coil around each other, A long blue jade odachi weaved itself into Yusuf’s hands. His grip tightening as the edges of the blade thinly coated in frost and fire. Whilst the runes covering its handle flickered with an intense radiating heat.

“Everato Astema (May the threads be our judge)” The threads wrapped around each other weaving themselves into a small tree in the middle of the field, it’s branches respectively pointing at the two.

It was a signal for both parties. That the duel has started.