Chapter 1: Realm Crosser, Breaker of Worlds
Rage, Goddess.
Sing of the rage of Peleus' son,
Achilles.
Murderous.
Doomed.
Once upon a time, there was a queen. A beatiful queen. A queen that had a face, that could launch a thousand ships. A thousand ships that made their way to the sands of Troy.
A young man saw this. A young man saw it all unfold before his very eyes. But he could not make what was of it.
These scenes played out in the dreams of a young man. A young man who always dreamt about the same thing.
In the dream he was above the walls of Troy. He was beside a man with ruffled hair and green eyes, and was holding the hand of a lady, with golden locks and grey eyes that reminded him of an unforgiving storm.
Bellow the walls and behind the gates was an man who looked like the man beside him. only older and bearded.
Outside the walls, was another man, who yelled with the entirety of his lungs.
"HECTOR! FACE ME!"
And the dream stops, as his alarm clock stirs him from his sleepiness.
5:00 AM.
Said the clock display. The boy groaned and looked groggily. After a few seconds of absent-mindedness, his whole body jolted upwards with a realization.
"I'M GONNA BE LATE FOR WORK!"
He hurriedly went to his bathroom to take a shower. It wasn't exactly a comfortable place to take a shower. In fact, the whole section of the apartment he lived in was not comfy at all. It was cramped, and he did his best to make it feel homely. But even the electricity wasn't working on certain hours. Because his side of the apartment was never repaired. You see, there was a series of freak-storms that hit
New York sometime ago. It damaged his apartment, but apparently his landlady
(although she's a very kind woman,) cannot afford repairs. In fact, most of their neighbours and other residents of Queens couldn't afford repairs either.
As he steps out of the shower, the young man does his post-shower rituals. Deodorant
(although he smelled naturally good), gel for his unruly neck-length curly brown hair to be pulled in a slick-back, and the works. As he puts on his uniform, a yellow-sleeved red shirt that says ROLLO'S PIZZA, he studies himself in the mirror. Brown hair, thin lips, well aligned nose, slightly squinted crimson eyes, and...scars. He had a small scar on the left side of his upper-lip, a streak of a scar near his eye that diverted his right eyebrow, and a very subtle one on his right cheek that is not visible without light. He never fought with anyone in his life so he wondered how he obtained the scars. Often he just tells himself that it was an accident he had as a child.
"Just a few more months, Nas" he tells himself. "A few more months of savings and you can go to college."
On that note he heads for the door and leaves the apartment. On his way out, he meets his lovely middle-aged landlady who offers him breakfast. "No more time to eat? Running late again, huh Nas?"
"Yes Ma'am. I might bring you home a pie or two for supper mrs. Garnett!"
"No need!" yelled the landlady as Nas gets farther on his bike in the distance.
"Have a great day Ma'am!" Nas said as the landlady waves her goodbye.
"Well," the boy said, "mr. Garnett is one lucky man."
As the restaurant grows near in his sight, he prepared himself to make an excuse in front of mr. Lance Lenni, his manager.
"...uhh, the door's hinge was slightly bent so I had to ask my landlady for assistance and-"
He opens the door and finds that mr. Lenni wasn't at work. Instead, it was his wife, mrs. Vanelope Lenni, was present.
" Oh, uh, hey ma'am! Top of the morning to you. Umm, where's-:
"He has a fever darling. I'll be taking over today." Said the woman while biting her lip. She was looking at him with apparent malicious intent.
"Uhhh..." Nas said, now sweating rapidly.
"So, is there a, umm, say, pie I need to deliver?"
Mrs. Vanelope snapped out of her daze and muttered, "uhh, yes! Yes."
She picked up two boxes and said,
"Patino's. 33rd."
"Got it." Nas said as he hurried over outside and rode his bike off to the address. He really didn't like the Lenni couple. One was a thirsty weirdo and the other one was an agressive jerk who got mad at the smallest mistakes.
Thinking these thoughts, he almost forgot the task at hand and noticed that he was just aimlessly strolling around. And so he snapped into his senses and rode at high speeds towards the address.
There were two greyed out flats at the location he was given. One was nasty and infested with all sorts of rodents, and beside it was a very clean and orderly flat. Nas wondered, how on Earth is the clean flat unaffected by the rotting flat, as they were right beside each other. He was indecisive at first, although in the end, he decides to go for the clean one.
He knocks at the door and waits.
"Coming!" A voice rendered.
As the door gently swung open, he was met by a young lady. Whose face became red as an apple after seeing Nas.
"You ordered from Rollo's Pizza, ma'am?" asked Nas.
"Oh...h-hey, pizza guy," the lady said shyly. "Uhhh...how much will...uh..." the lady stuttered. She appeared to be lost in Nas' crimson eyes. "Four Dollars, ma'am." Nas said, completing the thought. This seemed to jolt the lady from her daydreaming.
"OH, right, sorry." She ran in holding the pies and came back with a LOT more than four dollars.
"Uhhh...h-here."
Nas was very confused as he counts the total of what he was holding.
"Ma'am these are..." he double-checks the money he was holding, and now he was certain.
"Fifty dollars, ma'am."
"Uh-huh."
"Ma'am, these are at least twelve times more than the price of the pies."
The lady giggled.
"The rest is your tip." The woman said while dreamily staring at him. "O-ok then ma'am," Nas said reluctantly, "thank you. Have a nice day."
...
As Nas rode his bike along the road, he ponders about how odd he was.
Well, that's only how HE sees himself. He was not odd at all. He was actually perfect. Literally. He has a perfectly fit body, even if he had never worked-out at all, and had a huge appetite. His teeth were perfect too, even if he'd never had an appointment with the dentist. Everything about him was perfect. Unreasonably perfect without a realistic explanation of why he was always (unintentionally) winning the hearts of people no matter what their sex or gender. He would be a perfect partner for any of them. But it was his least priority.
Deep inside, he wishes to know his parents.
He never met them. In fact, he does not remember much from his childhood. He's had no one to support him since his childhood so he worked many small-time jobs. His main objective in life is primarily to get to college and find a decent job.
But that isn't destiny's plan for him.
When he arrived to the restaurant he was certain it was still morning, but as his thoughts have taken him further away from his natural senses, he noticed that it was getting darker, not brighter in the day. He glances at his watch and stares in shock.
WHAT?!
5:47 pm
there was only 13 minutes left in his shift. Yet, he was certain that he was only thirty minutes gone.
That's it. I need to see a shrink.
He opens the doors of the restaurant to find it deserted...and messy. Chairs and tables were everywhere. Condiments, napkins, and sauces were all over the floor. He doesn't see any of the Lennis. Well, not yet. And so he goes to check the counter. The money was in place. Nothing important was stolen. Nas thought maybe this was an act of arsony. Maybe
mr. Lenni has had a few encounters with street thugs. But they would've at least capped some of the money in the prominent cash register. He goes over to the kitchen to see if something else is misplaced. Knives, pots, pans, utensils, shattered glasses and plates were everywhere. But what hit him the most was the stench inside the fridge. He approaches very slowly to avoid any of the shards that might pierce him, and carefully opens the fridge. And recieved the biggest scare of his life.
It was Mr. Lenni's body. Twisted into a painfully sinister position, and he looked like he's been dead for at least a day.
...
"Took you long enough"
A voice said behind Nas that made him jump in shock.
"You took so long that I had to get myself a snack because I was so, so hungry."
Nas recognized the voice. It was Mrs. Lenni.
"You took so long, Realm-Crosser."
Her figure emerged from the shadows. But instead of a human figure, it was a scaly lizard-like upright form.
"M-mrs. Lenni?" Nas asked, now in panic.
Nope. Nas thought to himself. Not today.
Nas ended up sprinting outside, and then he hurriedly rode his bike and pedalled as fast as he could towards his apartment, the demon taking mrs. Lenni's form hot on his trail. And so he rode extremely fast back to his home.
As he was just a block away from home, he turned to look if mrs. Lenni was still trailling behind him. And so she wasn't anymore. And he calmed himself down and tried to process what had just happened.
"I was only half an hour away, but it aparently took me half a day to come back..."
Nas was close to his appartment.
"And mrs. Lenni became a...yup. Shrink. Tomorrow. It's just a hallucination. Sleep. I only need sleep."
As the darkness of the evening bit the horizon, Nas found himself at the front gate of his appartment. He hurried inside, and was going straight to his room, when he passed by his Landlady's room and found that her window was glowing in an odd manner.
"Nope." Nas relayed to himself. "No more crazy things today, Nas." He went straight inside his room.
...
Five minutes later, he finds himself at the front door of his landlady's room.
"I am probably gonna regret this," he said to himself, "but mrs. Garnett is such a nice person that I'd be a jerk to ignore this."
Before he could try knocking, he heard mrs. Garnett's voice.
"Nas, come in, sweetie."
He found himself inside his landlady's room, although he highly doubts that his "landlady" is just a landlady at all. She floated mid-air, and had a radiant, comforting presence all aaround her.
"Good Evening, Realm-Crosser." Mrs. Garnett says warmly.
Realm-Crosser. Mrs. Lenni also called him that a while ago, however he stayed focused in what Mrs. Garnett was stating.
"Do you wish to know who I truly am?" Asks Mrs. Garnett.
"You are...Mrs. Evelyn Garnett?"
The landlady giggled.
"That is my mortal pseudonym. I am Hebe. Goddess of eternal youth, lasting life, and its prime."
"Wh-...Goddess?"
The lady nods.
"Now, Nas, do you want to know who you are?" Asks Mrs. Garnett...err, Hebe.
"Well, today has been a very confusing day for me, so some answers would be really nice."
"Alright then." The goddess said. "Until this point in your life, you have been an idle mortal who has no knowledge of his full purpose. Let me tell you that you are the second vessel of the Realm-Crosser's soul. You did not know this at first, and neither did the beasts in this world. But soon, word spread around fast that the Breaker of Worlds has returned."
Realm Crosser? Breaker of Worlds? Those sound like they're all very important things! But I am not important, I'm a nobody!
"A handsome nobody, may I add." The goddess said, apparently reading Nas' mind. Nas jaw dropped lower than the floor at that moment.
"I shall now restore your divinity." The goddess said.
Divinity?
Without warning, she touches Nas' forehead, and a thousand images arrive at his mind, rendering his senses useless.
"From now on, you will be a man on a mission. A prophet to preach the end of time. A bridge of mortal and divine. You are a demigod."
Nas' head was playing a drumline. It throbbed in pain.
"Tomorrow, head to Central Park. Look for the bearded man in a wheelchair. He will help you understand."
The goddess seemed to glow even brighter.
"I look forward to meeting you again, Realm-Crosser. Soon. Avert your eyes now."
He followed her command and from the lids of his eyes shone a bright light that would've burned his eyes. As soon as the light fades, Nas falls into a deep sleep. But the dreams are now very different.
...
He dreamed that he was in full armour, carrying elderly man through a hall. Everywhere else, fire danced inside and around the buildings.
Come!
A voice called them from the end of the hall
I know a way out through the back!
Hurry,
Aeneas!
Author's Note:
I hope you can all guess the which series this fanfic comes from. I'm gonna give a big shout to whoever can illustrate our hero, Nas.
I hope you all enjoyed. Chapter 2 is coming tomorrow.
(p.s. minor spoiler: I know, we all hate clueless main protagonists, right? Don't worry. By chapter 3 or 4 he'll be bad-ass as HELL)