On any other day, Remnant would be meeting his daily lux quota before checking up on the other members in his party leader's stately mansion. The peaceful streets of Daybreak Town would be teeming with other Keyblade wielders not too different from himself, each of which would be shopping, idly mingling by the fountain, or like Remnant, completing missions for other parties.
This however, was no day to relax.
Daybreak Town was in shambles. What once had been a village was now a decimated wasteland. Any greenery still growing would be a rare sight.
About a month ago, a contagious virus had spread from an unknown source. Some wielders rumored that it came from a failed experiment. Others believed that a rare breed of Heartless had struck a small area, and the plague it carried spread out from there. Over time, this virus came to be known as the Chi virus.
Regardless of how it started, everyone suffered in some form. Friends were lost, cities evacuated, and very few survivors. Keyblade wielders both strong and weak were struck by the horrific plague which suddenly struck their once peaceful world. Granted, Daybreak Town had its share of Heartless invasions. But in the long run, all of the Heartless attacks ever recorded fell short to this.
Any parties that were still in fighting condition were quarantined in an isolated section near the outskirts of Daybreak Town. About a week after the Chi virus hit, only fifteen of the thousands of parties in the Vulpes union were left. The party Remnant was in, the Heaven's Knights, was one of the few parties to survive the outbreak. Soon after they were relocated to the outskirts of Daybreak Town, the Union leaders called any remaining parties together that could still fight and gave them the grave task of hunting a new breed of monsters which now threatened their existence- Black Bloods.
Black Bloods were no form of Heartless; these were the creatures that were the byproducts of the deadly virus. They varied slightly in size, but they all had a general appearance- humanoid and covered in mutilated flesh. A couple of wielders who were fortunate enough to escape reported seeing the Black Bloods having mouths with sharp teeth where a wielder's stomach would be, expanding the entire width of the body. Any Heartless that lingered from the Chi virus appeared around people that had survived any Black Blood attacks. It seemed that even the Heartless feared these ferocious new beasts.
Remnant's party was one of the first parties to respond to the task of fighting the Black Bloods. As such, they were the first to see the desolate fragments left of their once beloved home. Not a single sign of life was found no matter where they looked.
Remnant remembered seeing the tattered remains of the Heaven's Knights' mansion a few days ago. So many fond memories….so many relationships and friendships created….all gone in a matter of hours. The higher-ranked parties in each of the unions usually were given more durable houses and supplies, so their mansion was one of the last structures to be destroyed.
He could still see when he looked out his bedroom window to see Black Bloods scurrying towards their front door. At first, like countless other Keyblade wielders, Remnant thought they were a new breed of Heartless. However…when he saw how they just opened the doors to the mansion, he knew they were no Heartless.
Remnant and a few others from the Heaven's Knights fought alongside him and pushed them out long enough to evacuate everyone from the mansion, but it wasn't long before more came.
(End Part 1)