It was dark.
A chorus of clanks pounded across the ground as a blue haired man rushed a much taller, more intimidating figure with his sword drawn. A cloaked woman watched with bated breath as a fight broke out between the two. The scene was off, she couldn't help but notice. Everything aside from the two men looked almost… fuzzy. As though she had tunnel vision that only permitted her to see the two men clearly.
The blue haired man swung his sword, once, twice, three times with a grunt, the other figure dodging the first two blows with ease and countering the last with his magic. There was a brief struggle between the two, as blade and magic clashed in a flurry of blinding light, when the cloaked woman lifted her palm, as if on instinct, which began to glow orange, using her own magic just as the man with the sword fell to the ground for but a moment. Before she could react however, the figure seemingly flew into the air as evident but the blue haired man's call of " Up there!" to the woman. She looked up just in time to see an explosion of purple light hurling towards her, sending her flying as it hit the ground, covering the area in purple smoke. In a flash, the woman raised her arm and pointed at the figure overhead, firing the magic she had begun to summon beforehand. Bright lightning-like streaks shot from her hand, heading straight for the figure that was hovering above.
Unfortunately for her, just as the incantation met the figure, his body became translucent, before disappearing completely, leaving her spell to hit the ceiling with an explosion of orange smoke.
"You fool!" He bellowed as his body vanished.
In a panic, the cloaked woman's head snapped to the blue hair man only to watch in horror as a dark cloud emitting blue lightning appeared before him and engulfed him in mere seconds. The man grunted and fell to his knee, using his sword as leverage to pull himself back to his feet. Once more, the cloaked woman's gaze snapped away, this time focusing on the figure, who now had his arm raised. The sound of static buzzed around him and, above his raised hand, a bright purple spear of magic emanated bright light. The figure let out an ominous laugh before throwing the magic towards the blue haired, who was now on his feet.
"Die!" He shouted.
The cloaked woman quickly dashed forward, throwing her arm up and shooting out her own magic. Orange and purple collided, creating an explosion of blinding light and left the area shrouded in smoke. As the smoke dissipated, the cloaked woman found herself staring down the tall figure from beneath her hood. The figure glared down at her, his crimson eyes feeling as though they were staring into her very soul. The woman couldn't help but feel a sickening sense of familiarity behind that icy glare… she was almost transfixed on those red eyes.
"This is it!" A voice yelled from behind her, snapping her out of her stupor.
She turned on her heel and found herself face to face with the blue haired man from before. As his eyes met hers, the man's face changed from an angry expression to that of fondness and hope.
"You're one of us, Calista," He said, reaching out and placing a hand on her shoulder and shaking it. "and no "destiny" can change that." He stressed.
He squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, before pulling his arm back and reaching for his sword. His expression became determined as he turned to face the tall figure standing off in the center of the room.
"Now let's kill this dastard and be done with it!" He shouted, pulling his sword from its sheath and holding it before him.
The cloaked woman, w ho now remembered her name was Calista, opened her mouth to respond, but found herself unable to produce words. How odd. She instead settled on a simple nod, which seemed to do the trick.
"Calista, we have to get closer. Let's move!" The blue haired man called out to her.
When Calista paused, waiting for the man to move on ahead of her, he turned to her and gestured for her to go forward.
"Go ahead, Calista!" He urged her.
Without hesitation, Calista dashed forward, feet pounding against the floor as she ran. She stopped a short distance from the figure and watched him in silence.
"All right, my turn." She heard the blue haired man say from behind her.
The sound of footsteps echoed behind her, approaching swiftly, and soon the man was standing right beside her. Calista didn't acknowledge him however, she instead chose to keep her eye on the figure in the center of the room, never once letting him leave her sight. Not that he appeared to want to, he seemed perfectly content staring her down with a menacing grin plastered across his face. Suddenly, the figure let out a loud, spine-chilling cackle.
" Why do you resist?" He taunted.
The blue haired man rushed ahead and this time he stopped mere feet away from the figure. Calista followed suit, this time choosing to split up from the man and stand off to the side.
"Good, he's almost within reach. Let's move in and strike!" The man shouted to her.
Calista nodded at him, pulled a book from her robe and began to flick through it. She settled on a page with the proper incantation for this situation and took the opportunity to finally approach the figure before her. The figure let out another eerie-sounding laugh. He continued to stare Calista down as she stood in front of him with her book clutched tightly in her hand.
"Fools!" He spat at her, the word dripping from his mouth with contempt and malice. "Struggle all you want! You cannot unwrite what is already written!"
Calista ignored his little speech, and instead took to muttering the incantation for 'Thoron' under her breath. It was odd though, even though she could feel her mouth moving, saying all the syllables needed to recite the spell, she still couldn't hear any words leave her mouth. Even so, orange magic formed around her body in the form of many dimly glowing rings. She raised her free hand and, with another utterance of incantation, shot an orange blast from the rings. Thoron hit the figure dead on, knocking him to his knees for a moment.
The figure got to his feet quickly, as though not affected by the spell whatsoever. He began to recite the incantation for the spell 'Grima's Truth', and, to Calista's surprise, she could actually hear him! Orange rings formed around him and he raised his arm. Immediately, orange rings appeared around Calista, followed closely by blinding purple light that surrounded her. The light seized her body, then exploded around her in a flash, leaving her shrouded in thick, black smog.
The pain from the explosion tore a silent cry from her throat that she attempted to smother by biting down hard on her lip. Not that anyone could hear it really… The sound of rapid footsteps sounded behind her while she recovered, and she turned just in time to see the blue-haired man rush at the figure, sword at the ready. He slashed at the figure's side with a loud grunt, then jumped back. The figure lifted his arm and fired off the same spell he used on Calista.
Like Calista, a pained shout was pulled from the man's mouth, only this time it was audible. Calista lifted her arm to engage the figure again, under the assumption that the man would need time to recover, but was swiftly cut off when the man slashed upward across the enemies front. A purple aura began to glow around the figure. He stood, completely stunned, for a few seconds, then slowly he fell to his knees and then to the ground, the aura continuing to rise off of him like purple fire. Calista watched this from beneath her hood, her eye trained silently on the fallen figure. The blue haired man suddenly moved into her line of sight, turning to smile at her in relief.
The celebration was short lived however, because a familiar voice hissed out from the floor.
"This isn't over.."
The figure suddenly sat up from the ground and shot out his hand, the purple aura glowing brighter around him. An unfamiliar spell flew out of his palm at lightning speed, heading straight for the blue haired man, who was still just staring at her!
"Damn you both!" He roared.
Calista didn't have much time to react, it was like her body moved on it's own accord, she threw up her free hand and shoved the bluenette out of the spell's trajectory. The next few seconds became a blur to Calista… As the spell approached her, time seemed to slow down. The light of the incantation grew so bright that Calista was forced to shut her eye tight, and, even then, she could still faintly see the brightness behind her eyelid. The world became white and her body seized, pain erupting across her body in sharp waves, the spell closing around her like a snake constricting around its prey.
This time her mouth didn't open, no sound came from her, she couldn't even scream. She only faintly acknowledged the world going dark after that, the sound of her falling to the hard ground being the only thing that kept her aware that she was still alive, she couldn't feel it over the pain. As the world slowly faded back into focus, Calista numbly watched through her blurred sight as the blue-haired man dash to her side and fell to his knees before her.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
Calista didn't answer, even if she wanted to. Once more, her mouth refused to work. The blunette carefully helped her sit up, resting a hand on her back to keep her stable.
"That's the end of him."
The man looked off to the side and Calista blearily followed his gaze. Across the room, the purple aura from the figure flickered and died out like fire being put out on a candle. The man turned back to her with a relieved expression on his face.
"Thanks to you we carried the day." He said, smiling at her. "We can rest easy now."
Calista turned her head, trying in vain to regain some semblance of her energy, when she felt a throbbing pulsing feeling throughout her whole body. Her vision swam briefly with red and she curled her leg closer to her body and carefully got to her feet, a non-audible hiss left her mouth.
"At long last…" The man muttered, looking away, seemingly unaware of Calista's current plight.
The pulse hit her again, harder than the last. Her vision began to further swim and it was rapidly becoming more and more hard to focus. The man returned his gaze to her, smiling brightly. His smile quickly fell as, yet another, pulse washed over her. This time her vision tinted red, veins appearing in the corners of her eye as she fully began to take in the man's expression of worry. Sweat was dripping down his face and his eyes were wide with concern.
"...What's wrong?" He asked, voice laced with worry.
Calista stared at him numbly. She took a step towards him, her body felt empty all over, her palm curled in a familiar manner… The man's eyes widened. He attempted to call out to her, raising a hand to reach out.
"Hey hang on-!"
Whatever he was going to say was silenced by the sickening sound of flesh slicing open.
The man's face became a ghostly pale, nearly blending in the white of the cape on his shoulder. He stumbled back, a choked noise leaving his throat. The red in Calista's eyesight faded, returning to the world to it's original state. Her eye flicked down and stared in silence. Protruding from the man's torso was a long, bright lightning bolt.
The man's hand curled around it, staring at Calista in shock and pain. Calista's gaze snapped to her hand, that she hadn't even realized she had raised, which was crackling with magic. Her eye slowly returned to the blunette, who met her gaze. The smell of sickeningly dry, copper filled the air, burning Calista's nose with the stench of oncoming death. Blood dripped from the wound in the man's torso, pooling on the ground in a dark puddle and staining his hand with crimson.
"This is not your-" He groaned sharply. "your fault…" His eyes squeezed shut and he shook his head, sweat pooling down his skin. "Promise me you'll escape from this place…" His breathing turned ragged and choked. "Please, go…" He finally rasped out.
The light in his eyes began to fade, shining blue now dulled to a pair of colorless orbs. His legs gave out from under him and slowly his body fell to the ground. Calista watched, emotionless, his body hit the floor with a loud thump.
The thump was loud.
The thump was so loud.
Calista stared, transfixed on the body that lay before her.
It was loud.
It echoed in her head, bouncing off her skull and drilling into her brain.
It was motionless, lifeless...
It was so loud.
It repeated and repeated and repeated, over and over and over.
Blood pooled around the corpse... the stench of death was so prominent that made her insides feel vile.
It was too loud.
Her ears were ringing, the sound of the thump ringing and ringing.
Someone was laughing now, high pitched cackling in directly in her ears, directly in her head.
Loud.
Too loud.
The world faded to black, but Calista hadn't closed her eye.
It was too loud!
Too loud! Too loud! Too loud! Too loud!Why was it so loud!? Too loud! Too loud! Too loud! Too loud! Too loud! It was too loud! Too loud! Too loud! Too loud! Too loud! Too loud! Stop, please stop! Too loud! The thump was too loud! Too loud! Too loud! Too loud! Too loud! Too loud! It was loud! Too loud! Too loud! Too loud! Too loud! Why won't it stop!? Too loud! Too loud! Too loud! Too loud-
And then the world went quiet...