Bright, holy bright.
Cracking open my eyes, I'm left wishing I hadn't opened them to begin with. Who needs sight when there's comfort? Even squinting was not enough to allow me to adjust to the assault of the sun on my pupils, seeming more alien and explosive than any sheen I had ever experienced.
Hell. I was in hell.
"SIR!" Someone screams as I sit up, their yell bouncing about me. "A CIVILIAN!" Comes the second shout, the voice of a girl. My eyes are still sealed shut against the onslaught of light, I'm overwhelmed but as everything registers, the realisation that her screams are not the only ones slipping into my ears has me on alert; there's a symphony of screams, all around me, striking me.
What in...
I force open my eyes, still blinded by the sun above me, beating into the scalp of my head from where I'm sitting on the shaking floor.
Floor...shaking?
A city.
Gigantic buildings bulk over me, seeming to tower and leer down at me from their sky-high positions. I hear a rumble and my eyes snap to the source, the collapsing building some metres from me heads to bow down before me, greeting me into the chaos I find myself in.
So that's where the screams were coming from...submitting metal.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me," the words slip out subconsciously, anticipating the disaster of the descending structure. Falling, lower and lower, bending to snap at me.
I'm floating, slipping as the gigantic building misses its target and crashes to the ground with a thunderous sound, grovelling at its failure to assassinate me.
"Are you insane?!" I don't register the girl holding onto me, only the sight of the buildings and scenery shifting at an unnatural pace as she speaks, the wind slashing against our bodies, wrapping us up. "What were you doing just standing there?! How are you here? Civilians are not able to enter Mr. Tworn's vacuum! It's impossible!" She's flying, clasping onto me, soaring through the sky and taking us god-knows-where. "Are you a student? Where's your uniform? Are your classmates here as well? You're unmarked, a first year? No, you look my age...still, it's not safe." Talking too much. No, wait.
This girl...
We're not flying, she's running on and across the windows of the buildings, gliding across the glass like it's nothing. How it hasn't cracked under our joint weight or we haven't fallen to our death? I have no idea.
"1st Chare Tworn, sir!" she declares loudly, jumping up and crashing us through the window of one of the mega buildings, shifting upright mid-air as she finally has us come to a stop. Her shoes screech into a halt and the glass of the shattered window whines as it clatters to the floor. She's breathing deeply, scouting the abandoned office before she drops me to the carpeted floor, without any care for my ease as my body collides into the ground below us. "I've stumbled upon a lost boy, I've transported him to a secondary space, away from the open streets. I'm unsure if he's a student; there's no sign of classmates. He's without harm," she finishes, ignoring the pained groan I let out as she spectated the debris disaster which some moments ago sought to devour me. Without harm? I'm lucky I haven't been impaled by loose glass. "It's safe to go ahead with pulverisation."
"Good job, Morlein," someone responds, voice winding into the air and from the little earpiece sat sturdy in her ear, blanketed by her short blonde hair. A proud smile breaks her face, seeming pleased with the praise. "I've sent Kek and Rowln to destroy the silver Palav at the centre. You sit tight and keep him safe until I make it out there. Keep a lookout for any stragglers." Creased brown eyes zip back to me, a sneer casting on her face as the girl takes me in.
Something I follow her in doing as my stare turns back to my body. I'm in a white button-down, black trousers which are ripped messily at the ends, the loose and shredded strings tickle uncomfortably at my exposed legs. I don't have any shoes on. My gaze shifts to my hands, and I can't help but pause at the sight. I'm absorbed with the symbols that decorate my flesh, curling up my limbs and reaching unseen under my clothes.
"So who and what exactly are you? You don't look like a student now that I think about it. " My focus snaps back to the blond girl, the one the individual over the transmitter called Morlein and I realise that she seems just as curious about my tattoos as I am. "You one of those Cloren fanatics?" she asks, nose scrunched with hesitation.
I ignore her question. "Where am I?"
I don't know why, but my inquiry seems to really irk her. Or maybe it's the fact that I didn't answer her question, the question which seems to have her on guard. She's cautious of me. Scared?
"Is that all you have to say?! Are you kidding me!" She yells at me, making me wish she had just left me to be crushed by the building. My head is killing me. "Are you drunk?! I swear if you are! I'll toss you straight out of the fucking window!"
Not scared, duly noted.
"Is that how you're supposed to be talking to civilians?" I say in a grumble, rubbing my aching head. Why exactly is she not qualified as a civilian herself? In all honesty, with that power of hers, that building gliding, it's clear this girl isn't what I'd exactly define as normal. But everyone is something...and at that moment, with no idea where I was or who I was, I really wanted to know what she was.
Kerr..who was that and why did I remember that name?
"Civilian my ass!" She's yelling again, straining her voice into a momentary rasp. I don't bother regenerating the failing conversation as I stand up, dusting myself off. I'm not injured, what a joy. "Don't give me that shit, you inked freak!" I feel my face twitch with offence. It's official; I hate this girl. "You're a metropolis, aren't you?"
"Merta-what?" I half-repeat, bored.
"Metropolis," she tells me, folding her arms as she sends me another withering glare. "A city suit. Don't play dumb; I can smell your lousy kind miles away."
"Hate to break your fantasy," I say, shifting closer to the shattered window to look out of. There seems to be something piling a few buildings away, the dust billowing against the air, forming miniature tornadoes, no doubt a result of whatever hidden struggle which was taking place there. Where the fuck am I? "But I have no idea what all of that means." I turn back to the scowling blonde as I say, "And having spent the last five minutes enduring you, I really don't care to find an idea." And that seems to do the trick of ripping off the bandaid. I can feel her loathing for me duplicating in short seconds, her shoulders vehemently trembling as she gives me a lethal look.
"Who do you—"
A bleeding screech cuts off her insult, wavering the both of us from our glare competition as we turn to the pit of darkness on the other side of the office, orange eyes boring into us.
"Are you fucking—" The girl cuts off into a closed-mouth growl, pushing to stand before me in a defensive pose, sword in her tight grip glinting harshly into my face from the tilt she held it at. "It's like I'm being punished, one headache after the fucking next."
"What is that?" I ask, watching the darkness shift from the opposite side of the building and she beats her eyes in my direction, still managing to maintain that disdainful glare of hers.
"Is that some kind of joke?" she hisses, turning back to the creature in the dark, its clementine eyes multiplying in an unsettling manner. "You've managed to breach an admin vacuum, which I'd like to add is a stupid move on your part really, and you're telling me you don't know what that is?" She points to the creature.
"No," I mumble in response but she doesn't seem to grasp what I say as she breaks into panic mutters of her own.
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"I made sure to get rid of my grace, so how the hell did this ugly shit find me?" Her hands are shaking, she's thinking as fast as she's fretting. "Damn it, Mr. Tworn's going to maim me," she whimpers, huffing as she took in the arid air. And feeling the immense bloodlust of the creature before us, I understand her alarm. But as hard as I try, I can't seem to project the same trepidation, no success of fright identical to the blonde trying to defend me.
"It's blocking our exit," Morlein lets out, light brows furrowed at the creature slinking out of the darkness, taking in its food. "I don't have enough grace to carry you out of the window, not without any solid standing. We'll plummet to our death," she says, talking low, making me realise she is now directly talking to me. Surprising the 180 fear has on displeasing personalities. "Well, you will. I could rebalance, but I would prefer to not spend the remainder of my life locked away in containment for being the cause of such a pitiful death."
How charming.
"Can't you just kill it?" I ask her, making her eyes find me again, now debased with incredulity. I nod to her weapon with a point of my finger. "You have a sword for a reason, why not use it to kill it and get us out of this little mess?"
She's scowling out at me. "Aren't you a little comedian?" She turns back to the creature. "This weapon is a last resort; I don't know what class it is," she tells me, griping at the handle of her weapon. "It may be a bronze, which is no problem. I could put up a little fight and slip us out unscathed. But just like that, it may very well be a platinum itol," she finishes, eyeing me from the corner of her eye. "You have any idea what a platinum rank entails, inky?
"If I had to guess?" I shrug at her, not acknowledging the obnoxious name. I already know what she's getting at. It was a gamble to try and fight it, an unknown hand of cards. And by the sound of it, there was a limit to her confidence in her strength. I really didn't want to be here."Death?"
"You're finally useful," she snaps back sarcastically, taking a step back. The top of her blonde head reaches the curve of my shoulder blade.
I ignore her bite as I observe the creature.
That thing, the itol, it sure is hideous. It had scales lacing its body, and a dozen thin legs arching high to the ceiling as it shuffled closer. It's so large, that it looks squashed inside the office, downsizing us with its colossal existence. It's almost claustrophobic to look at. Its body is dark, fur covering the limbs and scales that consumed it.
"How do you figure out its rank?"
I can hear a cagey grumble leave her. "Any great gracer would be able to utilise the abundance of their given grace to figure out an itol's output rank."
"Good," I say, folding my arms and inspecting the beast shuffling closer. "You do that then."
"YOU THINK I WOULDN'T IF I COULD!"She yells enraged, snarling back at me, facing me completely now. Maybe it was a side effect of me waking up in the middle of this insanity, or I was just seeing things. But there's smoke jumping off her wrathful expression, eyes wishing to plummet me to the ground and kill me then and there.
I smirk, not able to help what leaves my lips, "So, what you're saying is that you're not very great." And that seems to do it, her fist finding my face and the sting of the impact makes me wish I had just left my mouth sealed shut.
Fucking god, she hits hard.
She's holding me by my collar now, angered sweat beating off her pale face as she screams some nonsense at me, completely absorbed with how many insults she could stab straight into me.
"Low-life scum, weak, pathetic, unloveable, ugly tattooed, stupid, freaky, creepy—" Wow, she's very unlikeable.
"Are you by chance delicious?" I ask, cutting her off. Change of topic always seems to do the trick, the echo of her quelled yells tingling in my ears.
She's fuming hotter now, angrier as she hisses,"What'd you just say, you perverted little fuck?!"
"Because that thing over seems to be drooling at the sight of us," I say, turning my gaze to the Itol which had managed to crawl even closer than before, mouth flooding. She turns in follow, the red of her face paling slightly as the creature registers to her once again. "Me, I understand. But you? Can't say I see the appeal."
Still clenching my collar, she shoves me back harshly, letting go and allowing my body to hit against one of the many office desks, my hand stabbing into one of the sharpened pencils inside of a small pot of office utensils which is promptly knocked over at contact.
Without harm? ☒
Morlein strides forward, holding her sword horizontally before her, dragging her finger across the bite of the blade. She shoots me a look, spitting, "I'm going to disembowel you after I'm finished." Before turning back to face the creature. It's inching closer to her, snapping its teeth.
Disgusting.
"Pleasedon'tdiepleasedon'tdie," the blonde rushes to herself, looking up high as she raises the handle of her sword above her head. "CLOREN!" comes the shout of desperation. "COME GUIDE ME!" And with that last cry, her weapon is coming down again—the crunch of the sword against her flesh makes me queasy.
What the fuck?
But then I see it, the caving hole permeating a glow from her torso. It's white and bright and it crawls around her body as it's expelled from her. It's remarkable, inhumane. And the Itol before her squeals in excitement just as the blonde drags the sword out of her body, her blood wailing as it dribbles to the floor as she takes a sharp diagonal slash at the creature in front of her and I know the squealing that rumbles from it now is only one of hurt.
"I'm going to fucking dismember you!" she's seething again, and as much as I hate the sound of her angered shrieks, a part of me is glad it is no longer directed at me as the girl takes more rapid slashes at the ugly monster. Left, right, up, left, again and again as it roars at the cuts forming on it, backing up as the light of her torso sears into its eyes. The sound of its limbs detaching and hitting the floor with a dull thud is revolting but I look past it, taking in the dark wounds that hiss and I see it. It's regenerating. Morlein is fast, inhumanly speedy. But not fast enough. With every lost limb, another struggles to breach out of the wound and at this rate, she'll be able to kill it before it can regenerate all of its cut limbs. But then the creature lifts those beady orange eyes, almost realising its predicament.
Don't you fucking dare...
The itol swings itself into a sharp turn, swaying and pivoting its enormous tail as it twists its body, clinging its remaining lanky limps to the ceiling as it rushes my way.
Great.
"No! Close off your grace!" Comes the cry for me, words that didn't completely make sense as I eye the monstrosity making its way to me. Grace? Morlein is hurled to the left as the creature's long tail beats into her open wound, letting free a pained cry as she collides with the booth closest to her. "No!"She manages to yell, now slouched against the broken booth.
Fuck, shit, fuck, shit—
I don't have time to run as the creature collides with me, clamping its great teeth into me and I can't hear anything over my own screams as the creature's teeth penetrate my skin.
I'm going to kill you.
Everything seems to stop as I slap my free hand against the hard shell of the creature, feeling my blood gush from my mangled hand, scampering its way up my veins until only heat registers.
More screaming, though no longer are they mine. The Itol is wailing, trying to dislodge its teeth from me as my hand sears and eats away all organic material, singeing through the hard scales of its body. I'm glowing, not white like Morlein had been; my glow is dark, more black and bleeding with red.
There are more screams in the air and my gaze briefly lifts from the beast trying to escape my grasp as I swiftly take in the bodies of people seeming to come into existence out of nowhere, blurred but still visible as their bodies become more distinct.
Civilians, office workers.
"You're tearing down the vacuum!" Morlein screams at me, her yell pointed and washed out against the screeches of the Itol which is now caught ablaze with consuming jet and crimson flames that swings it backwards, slamming it into the office cubicles as it devoured the creature before me, still shrieking, booming.
𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡?
"You need to stop now! Please! Stop! YOU'RE GOING TO KILL ALL OF THEM!"
I—
The itol tears with a sick crack, taking the brute force of my onslaught, body breaking into small portions and flinging to every direction of the room. My heat matures greater and depletes the oxygen in the office as the lumps of meat are burnt to ash. Its teeth and flesh still cling to me I feel its handle on me burn away, slipping to the floor, into nothing.
I hear screams, people...people burning. Morlein's calls for me fail to find me in the sea of chaos. The itol is dead, charred to near dust and scattered across the office but my body is still bleeding angry red and black flares which reach out and away from me before returning, then reaching further out in an angry pulse.
Feeding and retrieving.
—don't care.
"Help!" I recognise that shout, that single word almost ridiculous and strange to acknowledge coming out of that rage-brimmed blonde. Turning to her, I see Morlein withering on the floor, the glow of her wound stretching away from her body, reaching out to me. Her eyes are large and tearful, glued on me. Scared, she was scared of me. "Stop! Please! You're going to kill me!"
Feeding and retrieving.
If I could, I would, I want to reply, watching as she bled blood as bright as the sun. She was bleeding luminous, dying with a lustre.
Feeding and retrieving. Feeding and retrieving.
"Help," she rasps, talking to whoever was communicating to her on the other side of the device, their voice seeping out of the earpiece sat securely in her ear, lax voice not making its way to me. "H-he's going to kill me."
Feeding. Feeding. Feeding.
Burning, hurting. I'm left screaming again as red and black attack me, a white gloss stabbing into my skin as they join together wrap around me, consuming the entirety of my flesh. There's a rotting taste in my mouth, my heat waning and pain leaves me cold. Colder and and colder. Feeding on me.
I'm being devoured.
Warm.
The hand on the nape of my neck is tight and large, holding me still and in place as red, black and white let free of my limbs and rush to the owner of the hand on my neck.
"You certainly are something," a man's deep voice drags from behind me, unmoved by the barrage of energy eating into his flesh. "I'm surprised you're even conscious."
Screaming. The metal above us, seeming to have grown sick of only watching, starts to descend upon us, reaching out and attempting to finish whatever job the building from earlier did not accomplish.
My eyes feel heavy.
"Huh, seems I may have jinxed it."
And my world goes black.