AN: Official first chapter of the rewrite of Starfall on Remnant! Thanks to everyone who stuck with me and to any new readers! Hopefully it will be to you liking!
Chapter One: Arrival
Silver Silencian. A young man that was zealously attempting to complete every achievement of his gaming media of choice, Starcraft II. He had been in a manic induced binge session, one which had gone on for over forty-eight hours.
He was so focused and honestly so sleep deprived that he could of sworn his hearing was faulty. At least, that was what he assumed. For a strange voice seemed to be speaking to him, however it sounded similar to having been said underwater making it extremely difficult to understand.
'Damn it all, what was it they said about auditory hallucinations… Eh, probably not important.' Silver thought idly as he furiously attempted to micro his units, he had little time for thoughts, he was in a critical moment and running out of time to complete the level he was playing.
[Synchronization achieved! Host confirmed!]
Startled, Silver abruptly launched his chair away from his "command station", falling backwards comically. He had most certainly heard something just now, something too clear to be ignored.
"He… Hello?" Silver asked tentatively. Fear easily rooting itself into his being, normally he would take things in stride… but he had been awake for far too long and was losing himself both physically and mentally.
'Get it together Silver! You're hearing things, you need to sleep.' Silver mentally berated himself.
[Detecting anomaly in Host… Diagnosis: Mental instability, potential risk of heart failure. Engaging emergency override!]
'Creepy robot voice say what now?!' Silver thought while slightly panicking now. However, his mind soon went blank upon seeing particles of light drift away from where his limbs once were. His body was vanishing before his eyes.
A scream resounded through the house for a moment before abruptly cutting off. Silver's existence had been erased.
-Location: Unknown-
Silver found himself in a small white walled room. In front of him was a floating crystal, it shone with a myriad of colors as it peacefully spun a few centimeters off the ground.
Strangely, he found he was perfectly calm. His emotional and mental well being seemed to be locked into blissful serenity.
[Welcome host! Please approach of the crystal!]
Silver felt a strange pull or even resonance between himself and the crystal. Shakily he moved forward, he only stopped once he had come in contact with the crystal. With a flash of light information was rapidly forced into Silver's brain.
After sometime, Silver understood what had happened.
Simply put… Silver was a few moments away from death just moments ago. The only reason he was here and not on some cycle of reincarnation was because of this crystal before him.
Basically, the crystal is a kind of core for an advanced naturally created intelligence that was born from excess energy generated by the myriad realms of the multi-verse. This intelligence had only recently awoken and discovered it could not survive without a symbiotic relationship with a host. Thus it searched for the best match and found Silver, who had been close to death.
Once the intelligence synchronized with Silver's soul, they became permanently connected. However, with Silver being near death the intelligence ultimately had to erase Silver's physical body and retrieve his soul back to the room they currently inhabited before the world laws began Silver's journey through the afterlife system.
All of this was explained through a mental data packet which Silver received when he touched the crystal core.
Unfortunately, Silver can now no longer enter his original world. When the crystal intelligence extracted Silver's soul, it had also disrupted the world laws and set them into something similar to a defensive mode preventing foreign interference.
Sighing slightly, Silver's rational mind began to converse mentally with the crystal intelligence. He knew that he was now irreversibly connected with the crystal core. And soon, after a short mental conversation the two determined what to do next.
Silver was extremely interested in the fact that the intelligence confirmed the existence of other universes and worlds. Even better was the fact that the crystal could act as a medium to access the entire multi-verse. This was due to the fact that the crystal core was made up of multi-versal energy in the first place.
However, the core was weakened currently. Additionally the strength of the host would also reflect on the crystal core. Silver had no physical form at this point. As such he would need to use what little energy they had available to create one to send to the nearest location available where Silver could blend in and gain strength while the crystal secretly absorbed excess energy from the world itself.
With their plans set, Silver spent some time designing a young body for himself. He kept it at a youthful age to exploit his bodily potential as he grew. Silver was satisfied with his design after spending what could very well be days on it, he only had one shot after all.
Finally, Silver had the intelligence shrink the crystal core and pushed it into his younger body through its chest. Afterwords Silver merged with his body as well.
Once the merge was complete Silver and the crystal intelligence were finally ready to set off. Silver nodded his head and the crystal exerted the last of its energy to open a portal. Their destination was essentially unknown, however they were able to confirm that it was at least live-able on the other side.
Silver stepped through the portal and soon found himself on a wild ride through some kaleidoscope-like wormhole. When he finally arrived at his destination he felt sweet relief as he fell to his knees onto the grassy terrain. He did not want to try world jumping anytime soon, nor did they have the energy to anyway.
Once he recovered enough to move around, Silver investigated the surroundings and found nothing except a forest of tall trees. He had landed in the middle of nowhere, and he somehow doubted he would find civilization anytime soon. However he knew that food, water, and shelter would be essential to obtain before nightfall. As for his clothing situation… he would figure it out later.
'So, where are we?' Silver asked through his mental link to the crystal intelligence, he hoped that it could somehow recognize whatever world they had been dropped into.
[Unknown… This world has an abundance of excess energy, the likelihood of this world possessing stronger beings than you are familiar with is very high. Please survive while I begin harvesting the excess energy of this world.]
'Well… Wish me luck, I guess.' Silver thought to himself.
[Indeed. Good luck host.]
Laughing with a hint of mirth, Silver started to explore the surrounding forest. The air was extremely fresh here, pleasantly cool and slightly crisp. Twigs and undergrowth snapped and tripped up Silver as he advanced almost aimlessly. In truth, he was following an ever growing sound of water crashing against the earth. He hoped he could find the source and potentially make a temporary shelter nearby.
Several minutes later he finally stepped into a clearing. Before him was a beautiful waterfall which was powerfully crashing into a small basin. Near the far side a river could be seen allowing the rushing water to continue on its way.
The waterfall cascaded over a large cliff, and upon investigating near the great wall of stone he found a narrow pathway that lead behind the rushing water. Silver felt he was in luck, this could make for a potentially safe shelter if there was room behind the waterfall for him to reside.
With his back to the stone wall, Silver shuffled his way behind the crashing water. The roar of the falls deafened him slightly, but eventually he found his way into a hidden cave.
After some exploration and general curiosity, Silver found the cave to be suitable for his base of operations. With water and a secure shelter located, Silver felt a weight was lifted from his shoulders. Only now did he realize how much stress being ripped from his world and sent blindly into another had caused. Honestly, he knew the crystal had forcefully calmed him down within the white room earlier… but now that external force seemed to be gradually vanishing.
Slapping his hands together, Silver jumped up. He knew that now was not the time to freak out. Survival was a priority right now. He took a deep breath before exiting his hidden base, shuffling across the rocky pathway once more.
For the next several hours Silver made multiple trips between his cave and into the forest. He spent time gathering whatever edible-looking plants he could find. During this time he carefully avoided any areas where he could hear the roars of beasts, he doubted he could survive if he was attacked.
By nightfall, Silver was making his last trip into the wilderness. His feet were beginning to show signs of damage from stepping on sharp thorny undergrowth and rocky terrain hidden by plants. He gritted his teeth and pushed forward, a little pain never killed anyone… right?
Silver was halfway up a tree with his eyes set on a particularly juicy fruit on its branches when he heard some rustling nearby. Freezing, Silver felt his heart begin to speed up as the sound became louder. In the darkness of the forest, Silver could see an ominous pair of glowing eyes appear from behind some bushes.
Its body blended in with the dark forest, Silver could barely discern its form with his limited human eyes. Four large limbs carried its shadowy body forward, bone-like spikes seemed to extend off of its body. This thing, it was vaguely familiar to Silver. If only he could see it clearly, he had a feeling he could identify it.
Still, these were thoughts for after he survives this encounter.
The shadowy beast began to close in on Silver, its claws digging into the undergrowth. Something inside Silver screamed for him to move.
With a leap he jumped from where he had been attempting to hide on the tree, landing heavily and rolling a short distance. Silver took off into a mad sprint towards the waterfall. He didn't look back, but the sound of a groaning tree and debris impacting around the forest told him volumes of what had just transpired behind him.
A howling roar echoed through the forest, shortly after it was accompanied by more from further away. Silver's mind was blank, his young legs were firing like pistons into the ground sending him faster and faster forward.
Silver would occasionally dodge when his body screamed for him to move, sounds of exploding trees echoed each time he used the forest as a barrier between him and the beast. He could feel bits of shrapnel impact him as he ran madly.
Sliding under a massive fallen tree, Silver barely avoided having his body torn apart by sharp claws. Even the air seemed to be shredded as it screamed from the strike.
He could see the basin now, the waterfall still crashed down, yet his drumming heart seemed to eclipse its mighty roar. Every beat sending blood and oxygen through his body to his screaming legs. His lungs burned as if lava had been pumped into them, not even the adrenaline coursing through his veins stopped the pain.
Behind him he could feel warm air from the breath of the beast closing in on him. But with a final burst of movement Silver rushed onto his hidden pathway, he nearly fell as he had no time to slowly cross. Collapsing into his cave base, Silver flipped onto his back and saw his chest heaving up and down as he took in mouthfuls of air into his burning lungs.
Over the sound of his beating heart, he could hear the angered howls of whatever had chased him. Clearly it could not enter this cave due to the waterfall blocking its large body.
As Silver faded into unconsciousness, he replayed everything he saw. Now, he was sure of where he had seen that monster before. That was a creature of Grimm, one of many from the world of Remnant. However, his thoughts stopped there as his body shut down, he needed rest more than anything right now.