Sanctity of Life
Chapter 1 – The beginning of the end.
In a dark cave, covered with the smell of blood and rotting flesh, littered with garbage and broken pieces of human bones, all that could be heard were loud obnoxious footsteps; a young boy running as fast as he could, his legs about to betray him. Covered in blood, bruised all over, even breathing was painful, nonetheless he continued. He ignored the pain, he simply did not care anymore, this pain was nothing, not after enduring years of hell at his age.
"GET HIM! DON'T LET HIM ESCAPE" Chasing after said boy, 5 heavily armoured men had their broadswords ready, they would cut off both of his legs, 'It's not like he can be handicapped anyway, hehe his punishment is going to be so fun' they all thought as they relentlessly tried to hunt down their prey.
The boy had known these men long enough to know how much they were enjoying this, and how much they would make him 'pay' if they caught him. Luckily, he also knew how arrogant and stupid they were, chasing him whilst wearing such heavy armour and carrying a broadsword each. How he has not tried to escape before astounded him. *THUD* The boy's legs had finally given up; he was lying on the floor bursting with pain. "Damnit, stupid legs, MOVE!" To his dismay, they would not accept the command. Just as the boy was about to give up, he saw an empty bin, without thinking, his body moved on instinct and he jumped into the trash can as fast as he could. He waited several moments after his predators has run past him.
"It's right there" He panted, one hand clenching his heart, the other covering his mouth in an attempt to hold on to what little breathe he had left. The boy had noticed the hole in the cave, it was not a big hole, but thanks to his malnourished body, it was big enough. Double checking to ensure no one was nearby, he got out of the bin as fast as he could and lunged himself out of the hole.
*SPLASH* He had landed in the stream of the river, tears fell down his eyes as he realised that he was finally free, after all this time. And yet, as much as he tried, he could not feel happy. Was this victory? How could it be, He was still alive.
It's a bright sunny day, the sun is shining down on the beautifully grown Sakura trees, the birds are chirping without a care in the world, the citizens are chatting, their lives satisfied and in peace. Another calm day in the town of Ariel, known for it's relaxing breezes of warm wind. A perfect contradiction to the largest house in Ariel. Locally known as "The house of gloom", black clouds covering the enormous palace, heavy rain pouring down as if it were trying to cleanse the abomination of its darkness. It's in this house of gloom where lies the unforgiving body of a young man, to many he may seem dead, but that was just wishful thinking for him.
"Another failed attempt" he says in a harsh resentful tone, his arms full of scars from deep cuts, bags under his brown eyes, remnants of alcohol drooling from the edge of his dry torn lips. The disgusting sound of peace had woken him up. He got up from the laminated floor, not caring about his hangover, it was a minor inconvenience at this point, one he didn't care enough to fix. What his real problem was that he was still breathing, and hell was he going to fix that one day.
He stumped over to his washroom, lazily brushing his teeth, and hopped in the shower, letting the burning hot water scald his body. He couldn't be bothered turning the temperature down, not when it was punishing him for being alive. Truthfully, the gruelling showers he took everyday were one of the few things he looked forward to. He lazily stumbled out of the shower, took his towel, and dried himself off. Reaching his room, he got dressed. He was wearing his usual attire, a black hoodie with white horizontal stripes along the sleeves over a plain neon green t-shirt and jet-black jeans with grey trainers. Much to his disgust, his stomach growled in hunger as he made his way down the stairs.
Checking his wallet, he realised he only had enough money to last him a couple of weeks, he was going to have to take a job. He normally took on 4 jobs a year, each job was advertised as dangerous and paid well, it would normally be a request to take out an entire army of bandits or take down a dark guild. In the world he lived in, every human is born with magic energy, whilst they are all mages, they are not granted the title of "Wizard" until they join a legitimate magic guild. These guilds have jobs posted and graded on difficulty, starting from D class missions to S class and sometimes beyond. There were only a handful of stupidly strong mages capable of taking jobs beyond S class. In order to create a magic guild, the magic council must give permission. Dark guilds are guilds that have formed without permission from the council, dark guilds are often involved with serious magical crime. The man was a mage, a very special one in fact, however, he got his jobs form a magic agency, and thus was not a verified Wizard.
Groaning in annoyance, the hateful mage carelessly prepared some scrambled eggs, he didn't bother seasoning it, it's not like he had any taste buds anymore anyway. No, they had been torn away from him, much like his will to live. After hastily finishing his boring meal, the man rushed to his front door, not bothering to lock it as he left, no one in Ariel would be stupid enough to come near his house of gloom. He casually strolled to the agency he was registered at, hoping they had a job perfect for him, a S class quest to keep him wealthy for a while. His hangover had mostly worn off, all he was left with was a light headache, he reminded himself to drink heavier tonight, perhaps it'll make a difference. 'Pfft, who am I kidding? As if that will ever work' he thought to himself.
His agency was only 10 mins away from his house by foot, when he arrived he noticed the distinct lack of jobs posted on the mission board, he walked towards the board and noticed that only D Class missions were left, stupid stuff like burning a hidden book. 'Just great' he thought, maybe the receptionist could help him out here. He didn't like the idea of talking to another person, it filled him with dread and anxiety, 'let's just get this over with'. He walked over to a woman in her late 30's, she was wearing a business suit and was fairly fit. She had long brown hair let down and green eyes, clearly, she was wearing too much makeup. "Ah it's you, how can I help you?" she smiled to him dearly, "I need a S class quest" he responded rather harshly much to the woman's surprise, even after all this time of knowing him, she had not expected his cold angry tone. "I'm sorry but we only had 1 S class quest, and a guild member has accepted it, they will be here any minute now to sign off the quest. However, the council has said this particular quest is not to be carried out without at least 2 mages, if the current responder is alone, then maybe you'll be able to join them."
'Just great, not only do they not have what I want, to make things worse, I might have to partner up'. He just kept getting more and more enraged, he could feel his destructive urges rising, he needed to find a secluded area to cut himself, it was either that or destroying the agency, and he did not want to perform the latter task. Just as he was about to leave, the woman sighed in relief and called over someone. "Hello, I believe you're the one accepting the S class quest?" that made the man turn behind him and look towards the mage, it was a young lady that looked the same age as the man, she had black glossy hair just like him, except hers was obviously much longer, extended to her shoulder, she was wearing a pink beanie over her hair and in a black tank top with navy blue jeans and… sandals?! 'Does she realise how stupid she looks wearing sandals with the rest of her outfit?'
"Hiyaaa, Yes I am, I'm here to sign it off so I can begin it." She replied with a huge grin, her voice was surprisingly low pitch, but her demeanour screamed "full of life", another perfect contrast to the man, was he really going to have to partner with her and not to mention, split the job reward. 'Can this day get any worse?' he asked himself, and just then the lady noticed the man glaring at her, she gulped and nervously asked him, "Hi, can I um help you? Only, you're staring at me, is it something on my face?" the man realised he was making her uncomfortable, unfortunately for the lady, he didn't really care. He just glared even harder and asked, "Do you have a partner with you for the S class quest?"
"Huh?"
"Tsk. I asked if you have a damn partner? What's so hard to understand?"
"Oh, ugh sorry you caught me by surprise, can you stop glaring though… And no, I do not, why?"
He stopped glaring at the lady and let the receptionist explain the situation, suddenly the lady started laughing, "So that's why you kept looking at me so funny, you couldn't bring yourself to ask to tag along, am I that pretty?"
"No, you're ugly, who are you trying to fool dressed in that skimpy attire and your stupid sandals" he growled, if this lady didn't stop beating around the bush, he was going to break every bone of every person inside the agency building.
"Wow, that's rude" she started pouting, she decided to take a good look at this rude man, noticing the bags under his eyes, the faint smell of booze, the tightness of his hoodie around his sleeves and how his hair covered most of his eyes but not enough to not notice the brown shade of his pupils. Truthfully, she found him rather attractive, he was a hot emo to her, and it just got her going, she couldn't let him slip away, he was rude but had the looks to make up for it, besides if he's looking for an S class quest, he had to be a strong mage like herself. "Alright, we can do this job together, when do you wanna start heading towards the job destination?" she asked him.
He snatched the job memo from her and studied it for 2 seconds before responding, "Now". He started walking out of the agency building and waited outside for the stupid lady to catch up. Once she finally did, she glared at him before voicing her thoughts, "I don't know your name! I'm Rei." She put out her hand for a shake, smiling at him and giving him a wink. Much to her dismay, he just kept glaring.
"This is the part where you shake my hand and tell me your name."
"Why would I tell you my name?"
"What? You realise how dumb that question is, what am I supposed to call you?"
"Here's an idea, don't talk to me."
She looked away whilst pouting, 'why is he so rude?' He kept glaring at her, 'why is she so annoying?' There is a fairly large island a hundred miles away, the entire island is occupied by a dark guild, the job Rei and the man had taken wanted them to liberate the island of the guild, it was a big island, and it will easily take them a month to finish the job. 'A whole month stuck with him; dear lord help me' Rei thought to herself internally crying. 'a whole month stuck with her; stupid body, just let me die' the man thought to himself, the urge to cut stronger then ever, he was going to have to endure it until he had some alone time. Thankfully, the train ride to get to the boat port would last hours, he'll have plenty of time to die.
And so, the two started their journey together, a journey wherein Rei would teach the rude man, the sanctity of life.