- Chapter 1: World on Fire -

I stand underneath a starless night, inside the smoldering corpse of a city that didn't exist.

This place… it was...

Ash and soot mix together to swirl high into the sky above, creating a dusty haze that chokes my lungs and blinds my senses. It's as if I am standing at the center of a blazing furnace, the very air around me burning my skin and leeching all moisture from my form.

...hell on earth...

The source of the unbearable heat: impossible fires that are black as pitch, slowly continue their single-minded spread across the shattered landscape as I watch, dumbfounded. Consuming everything they touch, the accursed flames seem to be alive. They leech the light from their surroundings, attempting to sink their ever-burning fangs into anything that isn't as wretched as themselves.

...the beginning of the end...

My hand reaches out to gingerly rest upon the large stack of rubble next to me. The dusty mound of stone and masonry is just one of many burning ruins, lying broken and forgotten, the sight stretching as far as the eye can see. Tracing a crack that runs through a piece of masonry, my hands confirm that the well-worn stone is solid to the touch. It feels warm. It feels real.

...a place known as...

A crazed laugh clashes with a choking sob, both getting trapped in my throat. A sort of ever-permeating weakness fills my form, all my strength being stolen from me in an instant. I fall heavily onto my knees, the chipped stone and rubble underneath digging painfully into my skin. As if saying it would confirm that this is truly happening, as if everything would make sense afterward, I slowly mouth out a single word. A single, horrible, all-too-real, word.

"Fuyuki."

I don't know how long I was sitting there, staring hollowly at nothing, shivering despite the warmth all around. My stomach tries to claw its way out of my mouth. Multiple times I fall into coughing fits, the horrible taste of bile causing me to retch loudly.

Lost in my slowly fracturing mind, I take no notice of my surroundings. Or at least, not until I begin to hear the sound of rattling coming from nearby. Turning tear-stained eyes in the direction of the noise, the pit in my stomach grows even worse. I wasn't alone anymore.

A horde of skeletal figures shambles into view from behind the ruins of a once-massive building, the light of the blackened fires reflecting off of their bleached bones and corroded weaponry. I can't help but stare, dazed, as the undead monsters draw slowly closer, with nothing seeming to animate their form. Wandering aimlessly, it seemed like they hadn't noticed me yet. But if I stayed here, then they would soon.

Yet I was rooted in place, unable to take my eyes off of them.

Fuck me. Magic was real. I could see straight through their ribs to the scenery behind. Running a hand through sweat-soaked hair, it takes everything I have to stop myself from laughing hysterically. The dream of my childhood, of everyone's childhoods, was fucking real and ready to kill me.

Rising onto jelly-filled legs, I take a shaky step backward, the pounding of my head only serving to make the worst day of my life even worse. I-I needed time. Time to think. Just a couple of seconds to process. This was insane... My entire worldview had been taken and curb-stomped into non-existence.

A thought occurs to me, as clear as day, breaking through all the fear and anxiety to deliver an irrevocable, unchangeable truth.

I was going to die.

I was going to die, here in this ungodly place. A frenzied smile graces my lips as I struggle to hold back another half-mad laugh. And even if I escaped, then so what? I'd die soon enough in another one of these twisted hellscapes.

I was no brave hero. Hell, I wasn't even a cowardly villain. I was just a nobody, a worthless extra at best… someone to fill in the background while the real main characters got shit done.

Taking another step backward, my foot lands on a loose piece of rubble, skidding instantly. There is a split second of deep regret, before I lose my balance completely, tumbling backward with a stifled yelp.

I grimace in pain as I lie on my butt, the skin on my hands having torn quite a bit on the jagged rock underneath. But the discomfort is instantly forgotten in favor of the sight in front of me. The blood in my veins turns to ice as, in unison, all the skeletons turn their vacant eyes towards my prone form.

All is silent, for a moment.

Then, one of the skeletons takes a step forward, leering at me through lifeless sockets.

And with that, the dam breaks. Letting loose a horrifying wail that rips through my eardrums to pierce my very core, the skeletons charge.

I was going to die. That much was true. But fuck laying down and just accepting it.

My body is moving before I even realize it, sprinting full speed away from the approaching horde. I don't even try to pace myself, not when certain death pursued just a few steps behind. Flying down what looked to once have been a road, I dodge past broken-down cars and leap over various pieces of wreckage, just attempting to get as far away from the goddamn actual real-life monsters as fast as possible.

A few minutes later, I was still running, the skeletons not stopping in their endless pursuit, even after numerous attempts to shake them off. Alright. Think. An arrow comes whistling past my ear. I stumble and nearly fall, costing me a couple of precious seconds. Glancing behind, the undead monsters were gaining.

"Shitshitshitshit" I breathe out as I sprint full speed ahead, leaping onto and over the hood of a car, running down its length. "I'm so fucked."

Think think think think. My breath was coming out in heaving bursts, as I was slowly starting to feel the strain from the impromptu run. How the hell had Ritsuka handled the skeletons?

I can't help but grind my teeth together as I remember. He hadn't! He had a fucking capital-S Servant with him! Reaching up to wipe a bit of sweat from my eyes, the futility of my situation rises even further. How the hell was I going to find a Servant here that wasn't going to immediately shove a Noble Phantasm up my ass?

The screeching that is following my footsteps grows louder and louder, other voices joining in the deafening clamor on all sides. I was being surrounded.

The street in front of me is blocked by a massive pile-up of cars, rising nearly half a dozen feet into the air. My already skinned hands burn even more as I am forced to clamber up the pile the best that I can, climbing from one broken vehicle to another as I continue my mad dash.

A bony hand wraps its hand around my ankle and yanks. Only a last-second grab at a rear bumper in front of me keeps me from going straight backward into the skeleton horde below, a surefire death as any.

The fucking thing looks like it's smiling. "Ohjesuslemmegolemmegolemmego!"

I repeatedly stomp on the thing's head with my free leg. It's like I'm kicking solid stone. A sharp pain breaks through my fear as I slam my foot into its skull a third time. Did I break something? Fuck me I couldn't tell.

But with adrenaline running ever higher, the pain immediately numbs and is pointedly ignored. I could worry about it later. One more good kick throws the monster off of me, but by then other skeletons have already begun the climb.

Somehow panicking more than before, I spin around and continue my climb, now at a much slower pace than before. And when I reach the top of the pile of crumpled metal, the sight does nothing but make me want to scream even more. "Oh, you've gotta be shitting me."

Barely a few streets ahead, the road that I am currently running down ends, a churning gray river seeming to cut the ruined city into two. From here, some distance down one of the riverbanks, I can see that there is a bridge that connects the two regions… the middle of which is completely gone, leaving behind a mangled wreck of steel and stone.

My hesitation to continue is immediately removed by lieu of a sword clanging off of a car hood just below me. I hurriedly begin to slide down the other side of the car pile, wincing every time I put pressure on the injured foot as I do my best to avoid the jagged odds and ends that were poking out of the heap every so often.

I don't know how much longer I can run, especially with whatever was wrong with my leg. I was fit, but not that fit.

Every road I try to turn down, trying to get off of the path that leads straight to a watery grave, more skeletons are waiting, shrieking that horrible wail. I am repeatedly forced to stay on my original track.

And so I continue my lopsided run, now approaching the river, my only choice of salvation at this point. As I run headlong at the drop, a thought registers in my mind.

Can magic skeletons swim? God, I hope not. I'd be even more screwed than I am right now. The edge of the river is not ten feet in front of me now, a good twenty foot drop into a murky gray grave.

But it's my best, worst and only option.

A skeleton shrieks right in my ear, its clawed hands grazing the back of my shirt. I reach the edge.

Screaming at the top of my lungs, I jump.

A/N: Gonna keep these brief, as to not artificially inflate word count. Reading good (and bad) SI's is one of my guilty pleasures, so I decided to try my own hand at it, doing my own personal spin on how scary/difficult dealing with the Grand Order would be. Reviews/Favs/Follows are always appreciated.