Entry to Void Scribe #1. Decided to upload here because I haven't uploaded anything in awhile.
Murky dark clouds hovered over the sky, covering the clear blue behind it. Light droplets of rain splashed onto the dirtied pavement of Velder, almost completely devoid of life. Corpses of demons and humans alike littered the streets of the destroyed remains of what was once a prosperous and thriving city.
Almost no one was around.
Almost.
Boots of plated silver and red thudded against the concrete roads, strikingly fiery red hair tousled by the winds created from the speed its owner ran at. Determined red eyes peered around, darting from one corner to the other, searching.
"Hey!" He yelled out into the silence, shattering the peace and isolation the area carried. The rain was quiet, silently washing away the crimson red blood that covered the Velder grounds while his voice rang out loud and true, resonating throughout the destitute land. A small stream of murky red water trickled downwards from a ramp tilted downwards as the boy ran upwards. The person paused to momentarily catch his breath. So far, zero survivors, and the demon behind the slaughter had yet to be found. As a relatively successful and well-renowned knight of Velder, he was put in charge of investigating this massacre of both humans and demons alike.
The boy was only the tender age of 16. A young age to be such a great knight.
He bit his bottom lip, the flesh bleeding slightly from the amount of pressure applied on the particular area. He felt the coppery taste of blood on his lip and quickly ceased the action, wiping his mouth with a gloved hand. A small stinging sensation remained on the area, but it was nothing compared to actual wounds from battle. Whoever could do all of this, he was a bit nervous to fight such a thing. His sword remained by his side, clasped tightly with a firm fist. The red-head glanced around warily as he brushed off imaginary dust on his shoulder plate and tugged on his shirt of red and white accented with black a bit. Debris littered the sides, obviously the remains of demolished houses. He took slow steps towards one section of the remains of the houses to inspect it.
Somehow, it seemed that a single house had been cut cleanly in half by some sort of large razor-like weapon. As if it was drilled into two pieces. He noted that obviously, some sort of energy source accompanied it from merely scrutinizing how much damage devastated the land.
He inhaled in wonder, exhaling slowly as he turned and continued on the path not in a frantic run, but a steady walk. He scolded himself for running in such a frenzy earlier and making noise so swiftly. Hopefully, that did not expose his location. He still had the element of surprise on his side.
He had to inspect, to find any clues to the culprit.
A small gleam caught his eye as the boy turned. A thin piece of cloth drifted through the dreary city, tattered and made of fine silk in royal red with gold trim. Cautiously approaching the fabric, he gently clasped his hand around it to catch it from the wind and opened it. His vibrant red eyes widened in shock.
A Velder symbol, or at least a fragment of it. Varied emotions coursed through him as he bit his lip even harder than before. A Velder knight must have been attacked here, he assumed. As a knight of Velder himself, he felt a twinge of pity for whoever in the knight legion had fallen.
The boy gave a cursory glance at the sky, before his gaze was redirected to the general area of where the tattered piece of cloth came from. He started to walk, walk past the mangled corpses and charred black bodies. Mutilated humans and demons alike lay motionless at his feet, but not performed by his hand. The tip of his sword dragged behind him, friction grinding between refined, polished metal and bloodied pavement. His eyes stayed forward, making sure not to by any chance look down. He just might puke next time he saw a body that lacked its stomach organs.
Click, clack.
His eyes quickly narrowed with acuity from years of adventure and experience. Someone was coming. His grip on his blade tightened tenfold, swinging it twice in preparation of a possible attack. The rain continued to fall, slightly wetting his spiky fire red hair and matting it just a smidgen. A figure slowly emerged, clad in red and black. She wore dark stockings with black and red thigh high boots, combined with a red tank top with a multitude of straps. Black plated gloves covered her arm up to her bicep with crimson designs that reminded him of blood. She had flaming red hair, a very similar if not the same shade as his own with blank, empty gold eyes. Her sword was caked in blood, a trail of crimson fluid dripping gently off the tip. Her head tilted slightly, eyes half lidded as pale lips parted to utter a single word.
"Elsword."
The boy flinched upon hearing his name. That voice was so familiar but...
It struck him with such unfamiliarity at the same time. The voice was associated with her, but it just didn't feel the same as when he last heard it. He could only stare in shock, his hands starting to shake and his hold on his sword weakening. The woman's lips curled upwards into a smile, but with the blank and empty eyes she held, it hardly looked soothing like most smiles should have been.
It was dark, an emotionless smile that seemed to radiate doom instead of joy. This was no happy greeting at all.
"Elsword," she breathed, her voice feathery and light. The woman approached and hooked her sword by her side, stretching her arms out. The afternoon rain was not letting up, her hair drenched in water. It was clear she had been out for quite a while.
"You've become a fine knight."
The knight took a step back in horror. No. This wasn't how he was supposed to find her. This wasn't who he thought she was. Never. The one he was looking for would never take this path, it was impossible!
"E-Elesis? Sis?" His voice was weak, cracking slightly from how forced out he sounded. He couldn't believe this, he prayed she would be confused and wonder what the name exactly was.
But no.
Her blank smile widened with pride that she was correctly recognized. How wonderful! He still remembered her, even after all of these years!
"Your sister is so..." She stepped closer to him. They were only a foot apart now, as she coolly kicked away a mangled demon corpse that was between them. Elsword was mortified at how little regard she held for the dead now. The Elesis he knew would walk around it.
He even visibly cringed when she whipped out her sword, the blade reminiscent to half of a scissor, and cleanly cut the already fallen demon in half as more red colored the pavement for the falling rain to wash away. She relished in the life essence that flowed out of the demon. It was beautiful. Yet her gaze was still fixated on her brother as she approached, the gap between them beginning to close.
"So proud of you. You've grown up." She whispered. Here her brother was before her, a fine knight. He should be well into his teenage years now. He became everything she wanted. And sadly, everything she wasn't. She tried her best to seem happy, but her stomach twisted into a knot. Jealousy seeped into her veins at her own little brother. How successful he was compared to her. What kind of big sister was she, again?
Little did she know, she didn't even seem happy nor ecstatic. She still looked pale and tormented to Elsword's eyes.
"Sis..." He started, still trying to wrap his head around this. The knight was so confused, so horrified. This was the path his sister took?
He recalled when she encouraged him to walk the path of a loyal and courageous knight. And walk the path of a loyal and courageous knight he did. All for her, all to see his sister proudly smiling at him.
'Good job, little bro!' She would exclaim happily once she heard everything he did. Restoring the El, stopping the war in Bethma, capturing Banthus, exposing Wally's wrongdoings, defeating Berthe! A high-ranking demon!
Yet this was what he got. A mere shell of his sister, without a soul nor a heart of fiery gold. It was as if the Elesis he knew was a mere figment of his imagination. He should have been happy, because it was his sister! She was back! But that wasn't the case. Instead, the knight felt disappointment, dismay, she ended up being a letdown to his hopes.
He didn't even think about telling his sister this. Elesis did not know his inner thoughts, his personal feelings. He made sure they were under lock and key as he looked at her.
"And..." She continued and placed her hands on his shoulders. Her left hand gently caressed his arm, trailing down to his hand which clutched the Velder fabric. His eyes were glued to her soft yet haunted expression. She played with his fingers for a moment, before in a swift and fluid movement she snatched the cloth from his hand. Elesis stared at the fabric, before reaching back and tying the bottom of her hair together with it.
"You have the reminder of my knights." Her eyes darkened, as dull and lifeless as the face of death as she held her weapon as if it were a clutch to her very being. She glanced at the pavement and watched the raindrops splash against it. Elsword furrowed his eyebrows in worry. He could not reiterate this enough, this wasn't how he expected to find his sister, but...
"Elsword." His sister sharply cut in, her eyes suddenly filled with hatred and vengeance as she snapped her head to him. A cold chill coursed through his body and he considered drawing his blade. Their eyes met evenly, fierce red orbs gazing at empty amber ones as she stared him down.
"Don't you think this world is cruel?"
He paused, and contemplated. Elsword listened to the pitter patter of the rain and remained silent for a minute, his hair covering his eyes. His uniform was slowly turning drenched as the rain started to fall harder. Slowly, but inevitably, the water drops fell from the sky faster and faster.
"Yes." He finally replied. Elesis opened her mouth to speak but he intercepted her words.
"But I'm fine, as long as my friends are with me." He couldn't help but smile as he thought back to the other members of his group. Rena, Eve, Chung, even that bratty magician Aisha despite the fact that she had grown up into a nerdy Elemental Master. Elesis stared at him, emotionless towards his response. She was hardly even fazed. Did he really still believe in that friendship crap? Really? Her deadpan was when Elsword knew he could conclude something was wrong, especially since she hardly budged at this. She had always enjoyed hearing about new friends and travels.
"...Little brother, you truly..." She slowly drew her blade and Elsword took another swift step back and unsheathed his as well, although only partially compared to her. Was this the day he truly had to fight his sister?
"Are oblivious to the true nature of this world." A hoarse laugh emitted from the back of her throat, but in Elsword's ears it sounded deranged.
"Even my little brother has different beliefs... ahaha..." She covered her face and leaned back, the roads of the destroyed Velder filled with her malicious laughter. The younger sibling thought back to the way his friends laughed. Rena's laugh, for example, was melodic and serene. It made him happy. Aisha's was annoying, but he dealt with it. And it was not nearly as bad as his sister's.
His sister's laugh was messed up. It didn't remind him of wind chimes, it reminded him of a psychopath on the loose. It didn't sound annoying, it sounded utterly fearsome. Especially now that the source of such unstable laughter was Elesis, his older sibling whom he looked up to. He couldn't bring himself to tell her to stop laughing like that, so he braced through such disturbing laughter until she stopped.
"Haah... I understand..." Her voice died down to a mere low whisper after she finished laughing. Of course. Elsword did not have to suffer as much compared to her. Did not have to lose as much. He still had all his friends based on the flowery words that sprouted out of his mouth. Elsword could only watch as she spoke further. What else was she going to say? The air around her was filled with darkness and anguish.
"I believed in friends once. My knights were the best legion I ever could have." She started with a hollow, dry giggle. With the demons who killed them still around, she could never laugh with true happiness.
"But ever since THAT day...!" Elesis suddenly snarled as she rammed her sword straight through the skull of the same demon she kicked away. It pierced the leathery flesh straight through like a knife through butter. All of the recollections started rushing into her head, the events of her tragedy still as clear as day in her head. She hid her face, her eyes downcast as her hair fell around her. An armored black boot slammed on the corpse's head.
"They shouldn't have messed with me... I'll get rid of all the demons..." Elesis growled with animosity as she drove her sword deeper inside the head. Her eyes reflected memories unspoken, the deaths of all of her knights due to the ambush in Feita. The Dark El injected in herself fueled her hatred further, feeding off of the negative feelings she let herself linger on. Elsword finally brandished his sword fully, no longer trusting his sister to not attack him. It seemed his sister was now rather sadistic. The knight was able to make out a diabolical and insane smile from the way her lips were turned upwards and how he could see the white of her teeth.
"Sis! Stop!" He called out at last. She paused, and lifted her head up slowly to look at him. Her maniacal smile was gone, just like that, into a monotone expression of curiosity. She rested her body on her sword, leaning on the blade nonchalantly.
"Everything is the demon's fault." Her eyes narrowed as she glowered at him, looking down at him all of a sudden. Elesis stepped away from the demon's body and ripped her sword out of its head. At this point, the rain turned into a heavy downfall, a rain shower as the drops now crashed onto the bloodied concrete. Elsword awkwardly stepped away from a long flow of blood that neared his shoes due to the rising water.
"If you can't understand that, Elsword," she slung her blade over her back and turned her back to him.
"Then I can't trust you either." Elesis sneered. Elsword felt as if the weapon she put away was pierced straight into his stomach. It hurt. His chest hurt at the revelation his sister came to. His sister no longer trusted even him, either.
What had she become?
The knight gazed at her figure, his red eyes wide and watery as he slowly bowed his head down and stared at the pavement.
"Farewell, Elsword. Please don't get in my way, or I'll have to kill you too."
He listened to the footsteps of his sister decrescendo into nothing, the sound of rain taking over her steps. She had nothing to say to him now, staying around for so-called 'catching up' was fruitless when their paths branched so far away from each other. He only watched the water fall, his clothes soaked from the weather, his hair dripping wet, and his body suddenly felt drained. His entire goal all along, to find his sister.
Crushed.
Snapped into two.
Shredded into pieces.
It was never supposed to go this way. Elsword felt angry, upset at her. He wanted to scream and rage at her, yell why she chose that path when she was constantly on him about taking the virtuous road. Wasn't she contradicting herself? Wasn't she being a hypocrite? Here he was, a full-fledged knight of Velder, all because of his sister. Yet she went against her own expectations and became... that monster she never wanted him to be. He thought she went off to become a Velder Knight and bring justice to the demons in a rightful manner! Not stoop even lower than them and run around hacking bodies into pieces and mutilating them for fun! This was a twisted dream come true, that was the only valid statement he could think of to himself to summarize the meeting. Elsword grimaced to himself.
Perhaps his sister was correct. No, he knew she was correct.
Life was cruel.
Life was ugly, rearing its ugly head at him with giving him what he wanted, yet at the same time not what he wanted.
He expected a wonderful leader of the Velder knighthood, a woman he could look up to. But this? She was a cold-blooded, merciless killer who murdered daily out of a thirst for blood. A thirst to exact vengeance on the demons, massacring them without a hint of regret nor mercy. He could never. He simply just... couldn't.
The dead roads of Velder city were silent once more. The area was littered with the corpses of humans and demons alike.
And his sister was responsible for it all. She hardly even regretted it, eternally lost in a fake utopia her mind set out for her as 'justice' if she went around throwing demons and sometimes humans into despair.
Elsword's body trembled, and a few more drops of water joined the downpour as he emitted a small sob from his throat and shakily brought a hand to his mouth.
The falling rain surged on in the desolate streets of a ruined Velder, mixing with his grief and sorrow at the product of what his sister had become.
Elsword: Lord Knight
Elesis: Crimson Avenger