~~Chapter 1~~

...The world...is contaminated...the very creatures the great goddess created are a threat to her world...the only salvation lays in her...the power...of destruction...

Lium practically jumped from his bed. His eyes were wide and he was breathing heavily.

"Damn...", he said aloud, "That dream again..."

He looked around his small room. It wasn't much: four wooden walls, his shelf with old books and random plushies, his closet... Across the room he saw his reflection in his wall length mirror. The young man had short brown hair was a mess and his blue eyes looked as if they hardly got any sleep. Lium lived alone in a small house in the middle of the town of Namcoden. It was one of those middle-of-nowhere towns. Sighing he got out of bed, donned an emerald green jacket, grabbed a wooden sword by his bedside, and walked out the door. The jacket in question had 'S' like designs mirrored on each side of his chest and a symbol resembling a hawk on his back, all of which were in a lighter green. He had also worn plain brown leather gauntlets and knee-high travelers boots.

He headed into the woods to find something to eat. It was hard to find work in Namcoden so Lium would go after the many weak monsters that lived around town. Some of them even dropped gald which he could use to by more food.

As he was walking a bladed boomerang whizzed by his nose. He stepped back and faced the direction it came from glaring. When he saw his attacker he sighed.

"Oh hey, Kayleigh. What the hell are you trying to do? Kill me?"

A young girl was sitting in a tree. She had short red hair, which was well kept ,and large green eyes which had a mischievous twinkle. Her attire consisted of a light blue sleeveless dress that had darker blue tear-drop shapes along the hem of the skirt, detached lacy white sleeves with matching gloves, and she wore a pair of tall silver boots.

Kayleigh jumped down smiling, "Hi, Li! Hunting monsters again?"

She had no reason to ask. Though Kayleigh was the mayor's daughter, she always snuck out of town to watch Lium hunt.

Lium sighed, "What are you doing here? Aren't you the richest person in town?"

"Well yeah, but sitting around in the mansion is boring.", she said, "I'd rather be out fighting with you."

"Fighting?", he actually laughed, "This thing never did anything but snap a grey wolf's neck. I would hardly call what I do 'fighting'"

"Even if it's wood, it's still a sword!", she argued, "Not everyone in Namcoden can use a sword."

"Alright, you win.", he rolled his eyes, "So you wanna go 'fighting' with me then?"

Kayleigh just smiled and ran after him. Despite how he sometimes acted around her, Kayleigh was his best friend. They hung out together on a daily basis and she was sneaking out of town just to be with him.

After walking for a while they spotted a grey wolf a few yards away.

"Over there, it's a monster!", yelled Lium.

"You remember how to fight, right?", asked Kayleigh smiling.

"No crap...", he glared back.

Lium and Kayleigh charged to the wolf and the battle begun.

"You can perform a basic attack by pressing the 'attack' (x) button!", Kayleigh said.

Lium pretended to ignore her and ran to the enemy slashing it.

"Enemies can attack too so defend with the 'guard' (square) button!"

The wolf jumped at him and he blocked it with his sword.

"Finally you can perform artes with the 'arte' (circle) button.", she said, "But watch your TP (technique points)."

Lium knocked his enemy into the air, "Fang Blade!"

Several hits later the wolf was gone and Lium picked up the gald it dropped.

"Only 15 gald? I can't even buy an apple gel with that..."

He pocketed the money and looked at Kayleigh.

"You could have kept your mouth shut.", he said, "I know how to fight."

She smiled, "Just wanted to be sure! Besides, saying it all aloud helps me remember."

"Well you can knock it off; you sound like a damn video game tutorial..."

He sheathed his sword and moved on, "With the little gald the monsters here drop, I'll be out here all day before I can pay for a decent meal."

"You need to get out of here, Lium.", said Kayleigh, "There's not enough for you in this small town."

"And go where?", he asked, "There's no way I can just leave Namcoden."

Just then they saw a darker part of the forest where Lium had never been.

"Let's go over there.", he said, "Maybe the monsters are a little tougher over there."

Kayleigh looked unsure, "It doesn't look safe; let's stay around the town."

"You can go back if you want. I need to make some gald.", he kept walking.

Kayleigh looked around nervously almost as if she could hear or see something Lium couldn't.

"Lium...for some reason", she spoke in almost a whisper, "I feel like I'll never see you again if you go in there..."

Lium looked back at her oddly.

"I'll be fine...", he said as he kept walking.

Kayleigh watched him disappear from sight.

As Lium continued, the woods seemed to get quieter and darker. To his dismay there didn't seem to be any monsters farther in.

'Damn...and I was sure there were going to be way more monsters farther from the town...'

Eventually he came to a small stone structure and he bent down and looked at it oddly.

"What's this?", he said aloud.

There was a message engraved into the stone: 'Salvation is coming...this world will soon be purified...the key of cleansing is near...'

Lium winced closing his eyes, 'This is like in my dream... What the hell?'

He wondered what it all meant. Suddenly he heard an all too familiar scream.

"Kayleigh?!", he called whipping his head around.

He ran back towards the town as fast as he could. Suddenly he found her motionless on the ground in front of a tall black stallion with wings and a single horn on it's head.

Lium drew his sword and faced the beast, "What did you do to my friend?!"

The stallion silently charged towards him. He knew he couldn't block it so he went to move out of the way but he was stuck.

"The hell?! I can't move!"

Futilely he attempted to defend himself with his wooden sword and the beast struck him, knocking him down. As Lium fell, the world seemed to fade to black as he lost consciousness. He never even felt himself hit the ground.

"Colonel, what do you make of this?"

"Hmm...my guess is a very clumsy thief. Poor idiot tripped and knocked himself unconscious before even breaking into the castle..."

Lium could hear faint voices but couldn't make any sense of them.

'Who are they talking about...? Wait...am I alive...?'

He lazily opened his eyes to see a tall brown-haired man with red eyes looking at him intently.

"Oh my,he's awakening, Captain.", said the brown-haired man.

"Well what do you suppose we do? We can't have him getting aggressive."

"An excellent point. Sorry, but I need you to sleep a little longer...", and with that he slugged Lium in the face sending him into yet another state of unconsciousness.

~~End of chapter 1...~~