Trial of the Wild Card Chapter 3: What Will Be, a megami tensei fanfic

Trial of the Wild Card: What Will Be PT1

A/N: Hello all this is the ever late Kusanagi reporting in. Sorry for the delay folks, but it's taken me some time to get back into this after my PC died a horrible power supply related death. I'm keeping this chapter relatively brief for a reason. The action is going to ramp up once the exposition is done, and I don't want to give too much away. Overall I know this chapter is short, but I think I've gotten first-person detailing down slightly better. As always I'm trying to step up my game in order to please the people who like my work. This really is a labor of love for me so I want to do it right. As always feel free ro R&R. I'll try to respond to you quickly. Anywho enough from the proud author, on with the show!!!

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"I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all." -Richard Wright

"Ugh..." My consciousness is coming together. As feeling slowly returns to my extremities I realize that I am lying face down on what feels like cold brick. My eyes slowly open to a sight I wish I could forget once and for all. "...Fog." To be precise it is the same fog that appeared after every long period of rain, and the same fog that claimed the lives of two innocent people. Thanks to a certain goddess' ambition. As a feeling of dread washes over me I decide to try and get myself up righted so I can have a better look. I slowly gather my strength and drag my legs into a kneeling position. My arms feel heavy as lead and hardly respond to my desire to push myself up.

After some rather serious prodding. I finally manage to stand up, albeit in a rather shaky fashion. As I look around I realize that I am completely surrounded in a dense blanket of fog. My left hand, slowly recovering from the apparent atrophy it endured, creeps into my jacket pocket. After a few moments of searching I found what I was looking for in a pair of grey-rimmed glasses. As I pulled them out of my pocket a feeling of nausea, and vertigo coupled with a crippling headache caused me to fall to a knee in order to stay fluid. I quickly placed the glasses onto my face, and felt an immediate sense of relief washing over me.

The nasty feelings in the back of my skull slowly fade away as I will myself to stand once more. "Where am I?" I ponder to myself as my eyes adjust to the glasses I haven't worn in a very long time. My eyes now free of the dampening effects of the fog search the area surrounding me for any sense of where I am. I'm standing in what looks like a medieval castle's courtyard. The area is damaged by what looks like mortars. I slowly start feeling around for a weapon of some sort in case of a shadow attack. As I searched, I noticed various scrawled images of the Sun and the Moon locked in some form of conflict. I can't process the meaning behind such a strange concept so I'll just file that away for later.

It was just as I found a polearm of some sort that I notice a faint smell of roses and turn quickly only to find who looks to be Naoto standing with her back turned to me. What luck I think to myself as I pick up the spear and rush over to her. My mind races at the implications of Naoto being in this strange place with me. "Naoto-chan!" I yell out desperate to get her attention. I get close enough to brush her arms with my fingertips when I feel myself being blasted into the wall by what feels like an invisible hammer. The impact rattles my bones as my right hand releases my only form of defense. The weapon having landing a good distance away, was essentially useless to me now seeing as I can barely breathe let alone move. The pressure mounts as my joints begin to creak from the strain.

As I struggle I notice that it doesn't seem to be trying to crush me, but rather restrain me. I have no doubt that it could with a mere whim. A voice rings out from what seems like everywhere. "Souji Seta, child of creation and wielder of the Wild Card, heed my warning." The voice sounds like a mix of the Naoto I know and a familiar and unappreciated goddess whose voice I wish to forget eternally. "Izanami...How the hell are you still living." I say in righteous anger.

This thing nearly destroyed our world once, and I am not about to let it happen again. I focus my energy into my left arm and create a persona card for my other half. I cry out in hopes that he'll hear me and awaken "Izanagi!" I feel a surge of energy for a brief moment before it is snuffed out like a burned out candle. I'm horrified; my greatest power was so easily turned back. It simply continued as if nothing had ever happened, furthering the growing pit of fear in my stomach. "Creator's Birth and Demon's Curse. Nergara awakens to the tune of death, bringing with him the wave of darkening. The sun be turned a vile crimson, and the air be choked with dust, However, if Heaven's Gaze, and Devil's Breath be crossed, the land's misfortune shall be lost."

I shift my weight against the wall and call out to the unknown voice. " What do you mean Creator's Birth, and Demon's Curse? What is Nergara?" My voice barely carrying in this environment. The grip loosens and my body begins to lose all feeling. "Nergara is the master of darkness and a puppeteer that makes humans dance. If you are to defeat him you must witness the birth of a creator and bear the curse of a demon." Her voices seems rather hopeful as she turns her back on me. "You humans have a flair for making the impossible, possible, so I leave this task to you, the one who was able to slay me, and free the world of the fog." My mind is swimming and my body feels cold.

"The Goddess of Fortune smiles upon you, take hold of her, and the Gates of Infinity will reveal your one and only truth." As my mind started drifting away I heard "The Gate of Heaven's close, bodes the beginning of all woes. Farewell for now Godslayer." The voice repeating those words in my head as I black out...

I find myself floating in what seems like an infinite void. It feels ephemeral and yet strangely textile. The nothingness feels like it's tearing at me. My body is wracked with indescribable pain as I feel tendrils of darkness dig into my flesh. They work their way up my arms and chest moving toward my brain. Just as the white-hot pain reaches the unbearable point and I feel like I'm going to shatter a bright light shines down on me and causes the darkness to dissolve from my body. I try to look upon the light only to see a human form floating above me. I focus in and try to reach out the shining blue orb I see floating just out of my reach....

'...YasoInaba Station, I repeat the last stop for this line is YasoInaba station. Please gather your belongings and prepare to exit the train.' My eyes snap open only to see a child sleeping on his mother's lap. I shake my head and pinch the bridge of my nose. "It was just a dream." Wearily I stand up to gather my luggage only to have a small blue marble-like object roll of my chest and down next to my foot. I lean down and grab it. My eyes transfixed as it starts pulsing with my heartbeat.

"How is this possible?" I ask more to myself than to any other person. I place the sphere in my pocket and grab my bags. Naoto and Dojima should be awaiting me at the station, so I open the compartment door, and begin my departure when the sleeping child says something strange. "Heaven's gates are closing." I turn quickly in shock of what I am hearing, only to find no one there. "What the hell is going on?" I ask completely mystified by today's events. I quickly gather myself and close the compartment door. Naoto is waiting; I better make sure I can smile for her sake.

Three Down, Many to Go. Feel free to R&R.