Grail/War

Prologue

They always said the world would end with a bang, however nobody could predict the end would come as silent as a scream. The Gods shattered the skies, and tore the earth asunder. Society as we know it collapsed and what could we do to stop it? It was just an ordinary day when it happened, I remember it like it was yesterday. But when dealing with the will and the wrath of the Gods, there isn't much the moral man can do besides sit and watch.

Ordinary used to describe life around here; people went to school, grew up, got jobs settled down and had kids. Simplicity is always the best my mother used to say, though now I would go so far as to call that viewpoint ignorant, there was a time where I shared similar values. I knocked school off my list, and got a (dead end) job. Though I wouldn't have considered myself grown up just yet and settling down eluded me like the plague. Looking back I was pretty irresponsible and lacked any sort of motivation to change my lot in life, despite graduating from a (somewhat) respected school with a degree in archaeology I only ever managed to net myself an office job doing nothing related to my field of study. Little did I know how things were about to change.

Manhattan, December 23 2020

It was a unseasonably cold today, the kind of cold that slices right through your clothes and lingers. Alaric Feroze shivered as he stepped out from "Triumph Publishing" into the bust Manhattan street, and began the long trek home after a grueling day of proofreading and editing the abysmal works that have been pushed across his desk these past weeks. Cursing the cold, he made a detour to a nearby cafe for something to keep him warm on the way home. As he sat in the relative warmth of the cafe his eyes wandered to the television. The evening news was on, and although he was seated to far to hear all of the broadcast, it seemed that there was some kind of strange electrical storm going on over parts of Europe, people were even reporting seeing strange lights. "Its those daym'ed aliens!" exclaimed a tall dark skinned man seated near the TV, the group of people with him laughed "CJ, you got to let it go man, just because you blacked out drinking once doesn't mean you got abducted." The man called CJ tried to protest but whatever was said was drowned out by more laughter.

The last thing Alaric heard from the conversation was something about "Independence day" before an ear splitting sonic boom exploded around them. Alaric figured it was either that or a shock-wave because he was promptly thrown across the room like a paper ball and crumpled like one. After a moment he groaned to his feet amid and screams and cries and coughed "What the hell was that?!" someone asked as he brushed shattered glass off his "Might have been a bomb." Alaric tried to shake disorientation off "Is anyone hurt?" He called out. Surprisingly after checking and asking around, no one was hurt at all.

Silence eventually drew the cafe's inhabitants to the street. A deep sense of foreboding filled Alaric like never before. What caused that? Were they under attack? The thoughts filled him with the fear he got watching the news broadcasts about terrorist attacks. He glanced around at the faces around him and imagined they to felt the same. The foreboding feeling felt like it was going to overwhelm him each step he took towards the shattered cafe front that seemed to protect them from the unnatural silence and the strange fog that appeared to have set in. Smoke Alaric thought and took one last look around the cafe and noticed several people still huddled in back. Wishing he could join them, he stepped over the remains of the window into the silent street.

His stomach sank. The once busy street was now dead empty, save the curious eyes peering out from the surrounding buildings. "Wh-where are all the people gone?" Alaric looked around wide eyed at the blasted landscape.

The once pristine concrete of Manhattan was now made charcoal black. It was as if a thousand fires had burned out while they sat in the cafe. Even the cars were totaled, some half melted into the pavement. Realization slowly dawned on Alaric where all the missing people went, as the "fog" began to settle into a thin layer of grey ash. Alaric took a step back only to be greeted with a crunch, and looked down to see the spiteful gaze of death staring back up at him. "What the fuck?!" He screamed and recoiled into the warm concrete of the building.

Alaric's terrified outburst started a chain reaction and soon the once silent air was filled with cries of terror, and just plain crying. There was a one woman in particular nearby sobbing hysterically "He texted me saying he was 5 minutes away!" She buried her face in her hand but her muffled cries still carried strong over the commotion. Alaric watched the commotion in slow motion through glazed eyes. This cant be happening! He thought I've never even heard of anything killing this many people before, not outside of movies! His gaze slowly shifted up along the buildings towards the sky.

There it froze, as Alaric's mind tried to process what it was looking at, or rather what was looking back at him. A giants knife had ripped open the sky to create a hateful looking eye that had contained all the evils in the world. What scared Alaric the most was not the fact he could see this eye, but the fact it was looking right back at him, with hatred pouring from the wound.

A burning pain brought his attention back to the land of the mostly living. The back of his hand was suddenly on fire, it was so bad it forced him to his knees. He almost cried out but was captivated by the intricate patterns now scarred on his hand. He looked around in disbelief at the crowd only to see them in various states of agony. The man called "CJ" clutched his face while the woman from before held her chest.

Then a man appeared out of thin air before Alaric. A large man with a long spear, and large bronze shield, his features were shrouded by red plumed helm. Alaric couldn't just see this man, he could feel his energy. Before Alaric could ask the obvious question of "Where did you come from" The giant before him silenced any questions with a penetrating glare, staring long and hard at Alaric before finally speaking in a voice filled with command;

"Tell me, are you my master?"