Tool of Chaos - Chapter 1 - Rude Awakening
Anger.
Hate.
Despair.
The world cried out for help. Everything was being torn apart by something. Something evil…
The Nephilim's mind was aware of these occurrences. She awakened with a singular word repeating itself in her head, 'Hope'.
Nothing else mattered to her. Not why the world was in danger, not how she would help it. Her entire being moved as if it was being piloted by some outside force. She was brought into a city.
She watched people walk around on the sidewalk, not knowing the danger they were in. To these normal people, the Nephilim was completely invisible. Still, they all moved around her unconsciously. None of them so much as brushed against her.
The Nephilim glided over to the tallest building, putting her hand just next to the glass of its exterior. Slowly, she levitated up from the ground and followed the outside of the building as she rose to the top of it.
She couldn't feel the cold or the fear of being so high in the air. The city now looked so small, as she looked down from the very top of the building.
She raised a hand above her, letting her magic pour out of her body into the sky. The city was plunged into darkness, as any nonorganic material was obliterated. A white flash followed soon after, with everything returning back to normal.
Except the world was now filled with a little more 'Hope' this time.
"We need to get back, now!" Calli yelled just as the call went dead. No one disagreed with her. As far as they all could tell, their manager was in danger.
"Ina, teleport us," Gura said firmly. Ina knelt to the ground to prepare a teleportation spell, however the new voices in her head stopped her.
'We can't teleport more than one other if you want to get there quickly,' AO-chan said. The words floated just above Ina's head, communicating to the rest of the group the situation.
"What?!" Calli quickly walked over to Ina who was still crouching on the ground. "What do you mean 'get there quickly'?" she asked the floating letters. They rearranged themselves to respond.
'A spell that would teleport all of you would take too much time. Time was not an issue earlier, so we did not bring it up. We are sorry…' Calli took a deep breath and looked away from AO-chan's answer. She tapped her foot on the ground rapidly, trying to come up with another solution.
"Teleport me," Kiara said, her voice lacking her usual warm tone. It slightly disturbed Gura who was standing next to the Phoenix. "I have the highest firepower here. Any threat will be turned to ash before it can touch Enma!" she said with fiery aggression. Gura took a step away from her, just to be safe.
"No…" Calli mumbled in thought. Kiara turned to her, eyes wide.
"What's that supposed to mean, Calli?" Kiara wasn't too pleased with the disagreement from her friend.
"How would Gura and I get there? We wouldn't arrive for at least a couple hours, so there would be no back up for you guys. Plus, your magic is notoriously destructive to the area around you and your arm is still missing," Calli thought out loud to back up her precious statement. Kiara opened her mouth to refute, but couldn't find a good enough reason. Her missing arm was the biggest reason stopping her from mounting a decent rebuttal.
"I'm worried about getting other people in the city involved, too…" Gura knew that her control of Primal was still lacking. She had no experience using Primal around people other than her friends. It would not be a good idea to test it, especially in the state she was in. She could feel her hunger rising slowly to compensate for her injuries.
"If I go with Ina, you could fly Gura over as fast as you can. She should be able to handle the heat and g-forces," Calli proposed her solution. Ina was almost finished with the teleportation spell.
"Gura, can you make a thin shield of water around you?" Kiara asked. Gura looked at her broken trident. Only the bottom half remained, as it had been snapped in two during the fight against the Ancient Ones.
"I think I can." With a dim blue glow emanating from the half trident, water slowly flowed out of the broken shaft and enveloped her. Without Primal or adrenaline it was much harder than before.
"Good, Ina are you ready?" Calli turned to look at how the Priestess was doing.
"Almost done," she replied. The lack of adrenaline was affecting Ina, too. She was finding it much harder to control her magic output. Teleporting only one person would have been a simple task with her previous Ancient Ones, but these new ones were much more limiting.
'We're sorry about our limits, but we will give it our all for you,' AO-chan said to her alone. Everyone was still suspicious of them, but Ina saw no reason to not believe them for now. Ina finished casting the spell and called out for Calli to step into the circle.
"We'll meet you guys there, alright?" Calli said to Gura and Kiara, as the shorter Atlantean had just climbed onto Phoenix's shoulders. Kiara gave her a quick thumbs up and smile before blasting off into the sky. With Gura being able to resist her flames with water, Kiara could fly much closer to her top speed. It should only take her twenty minutes to reach HQ.
"Alright, let's go," Ina told her. Calli nodded and suddenly felt her entire body jolt. She flinched slightly from the new sensation, making her eyes close. When she reopened them, she saw a few clouds of purple smoke disappearing and the sight of HQ right in front of her. "I teleported us outside since we don't know the situation in the building just yet," Ina explained. Calli agreed that it was correct to be cautious.
They both walked in through the front doors and carefully observed the office. It was starting to get late by this point, so the office was empty. However, it felt too empty. Normally, there was some movement somewhere, but right now it was dead quiet. They both quietly made their way up the levels, checking rooms as they did.
The first goal they had was to find Emersyn. As long as they could locate their manager, they could get information out of her about what had been happening earlier. They began to ascend the stairs towards the bedrooms.
"Hey…" Ina whispered to Calli, "do you feel like you're being watched at all?" Calli glanced around her nervously.
"I guess," she answered, "I'm not too familiar with that since I'm normally the one doing the watching."
"I've felt it ever since we got here, but now it's really starting to creep me out…" The two went silent again, continuing up the stairs to the third floor.
All the other floors had been normal, albeit a little too quiet. However, there was something far more off about this one. As they approached the first of the bedrooms, which was supposed to be Ina's, it became obvious what was wrong.
The nameplate that normally adorned each bedroom door was missing. Instead, a simple room number sat in its place. Calli and Ina both looked at each other before slowly easing the door open.
Inside was almost barren, save for a single desk and tall box that leaned against a far corner. Nothing of Ina's existed in the room. It was a blank slate that had been wiped clean. Neither of the girls could vocalize what they were feeling, so they silently walked out of the room and into another.
Gura's, A-Amelia's, Kiara's, Calli's… All empty, as well…
"This is messed up…" Ina finally spoke up. Calli simply nodded. They made their way to the end of the hallway and stood in front of the last bedroom.
Emersyn's name was still hanging on the door. Both girls breathed sighs of relief. At least her room was still here. None of them had ever seen the inside of it since they weren't really allowed to by the woman herself, but right now there was a possible emergency. Slowly, they pushed the door open…
Calliope grunted, feeling a sharp sting on her leg. She looked down and saw Emersyn's katana sticking through the door and slicing her thigh. She quickly threw open the door the rest of the way. Emersyn scampered away from it just as quickly.
The two girls who had been searching for their manager finally found her, but it was not in the state they had hoped for.
Emersyn was a mess. Her normally well kept hair was tangled and matted down and her clothes were tattered and disorganized. And her eyes were filled with fear and terror.
"Who are you?! What do you want?!" she cried in desperation. Her entire body was pressed against the far wall of her room, which was also a complete mess. Her bedsheets had been torn from the bed and thrown around randomly. Her desk was a storm of office supplies and computer equipment.
"Enma, it's ok. We're here to help you," Ina said carefully, while Calli was still in shock from the sight of her broken manager. "My name is Ina and this is Calli." Emersyn's eyes lightened for a moment before turning dark again.
"Why are you here? What happened to me?" she asked more rapid fire questions. This time they were more subdued. Calli finally snapped out of her shock to answer.
"We came here to make sure that you were ok. It seems like you are not," Calli explained, "As for what happened to you, only you can tell us that." Emersyn's rapid breathing slowed to a more normal rate.
"I-I was working as normal, but then I just suddenly was in here. I feel like there's something missing, though…" Emersyn said shakily. She suddenly looked up at them, eyes darting between them. "Why did you come and check on me?" she asked quickly. It was clear to Ina and Calli that Emersyn's memories had been affected by something.
"We work for you. This is Hololive English HQ and we are the talents that you manage," Ina responded. Emersyn tilted her head in confusion. Calli and Ina shared a very worried glance at each other.
"I-I don't remember that…" Instead of fear and terror, Emersyn's eyes filled with horror. Her lip trembled and her breathing increased, as she tried to keep herself together. Ina made a slight move towards her in order to comfort her, but Emersyn quickly moved away.
"S-sorry…" Ina apologized. Emersyn put her head into her hands and began to sob.
"W-Why can't I r-remember…" she cried.
"You called us not long ago, Emersyn," Calli said. Emersyn's sobbing slowly stopped, until she looked up at Calli. "You said that something was happening outside and then there was a bang and the line went dead." Emersyn blinked the remaining tears out of her eyes and wiped her face with her sleeve.
"D-did I say anything else?" she asked. Calli shook her head.
"You just wanted us back as soon as possible. Whatever happened to you, we will work our hardest to reverse it and get your memories back!" Calli said sternly. They had just gotten Kiara's memories back using the Crystal of Time, so that should work here, too.
"Two more of us are going to be here soon," Ina said, glancing at the digital clock that was on the floor. It would only be a few more minutes until Gura and Kiara showed up.
"Who are they? Are they also people I managed?" Ina nodded.
"Their names are Gura and Kiara. There is one other, but she won't be coming right away…" It was still painful to talk about Amelia. But right now they have more pressing issues. Something here had caused Emersyn to lose her memories and they needed to figure it out.
"Ok, are they nice like you guys?" It was odd to hear Emersyn using such informal language.
"They can come on a little strong, but they're nice," Calli said. For the first time since they found her, Emersyn's face held a small smile on it. She was relieved that her confusion would be resolved soon.
"Can you remember anything about what might have happened to you here?" Ina asked, crouching down next to Emersyn. Their manager thought about it for a moment before pressing her hand against her temple.
"I-It's like I'm being forced to not remember whatever it is. I can feel that my memories are there, but I just can't grasp them…" she said, slumping over in defeat. Both Ina and Calli opened their mouths to reassure their manager that they would work hard to fix whatever had happened to her, but they were interrupted. However, this voice did not belong to any of them.
"Impressive that you can even sense that," a fourth voice said from behind them all. It was both feminine and masculine, low and high pitched, deep and shallow, shrill and booming.
A voice was not supposed to sound like that…
The hair on the backs of Ina and Calli stood up instantly. Both flipped around, but saw no one standing in the doorway. But there was still a presence that neither could shake.
"Please tell me you feel that, too…" Ina whispered to Calli. The Reaper nodded and carefully moved to the side. She tried to see if a different angle could help her see whoever had just spoken to them. It unfortunately didn't help, but she could absolutely feel that something was standing in the doorway.
"Even more impressive that you can sense me," the voice said again. Ina began to breathe harder and faster. Something was standing in the doorway, taunting them. Terror began to run up her spine and settle into her heart. Small beads of sweat formed on her forehead.
"Wh-Who are you?!" Calli yelled at them, her own fear causing her to stutter. She hated that she couldn't be as imposing as she wanted to be at this moment.
"A Reaper and a Priestess… You both must have just gotten here…" the voice said, seemingly thinking out loud. Calli became angry at her question being avoided.
"What did you do here?!" she screamed at it. The voice let out a low chuckle, however it didn't sound like they found Calli's question funny. It was like they found the question stupid.
"I am spreading hope." As soon as the voice finished, Ina and Calli's fear spiked. They both felt like they were in immediate danger. Ina raised her hands to defend herself, while Calli tried to summon her scythe.
But it was too fast.
Calli was knocked away, slamming into a wall with enough force to shatter the concrete. Ina fired a hasty spell to where she thought the being was. It stopped in midair, just hanging stationary with no momentum.
Ina felt her body suddenly get pulled towards the spell, like it was a string being tugged on. She stopped the spell, as it was ripped away and shattered into a shower of sparks. Calli got back to her feet and fully summoned her scythe.
Calli didn't know where the enemy was exactly, but she could get a sense of it. She swung her scythe in a large arc in this direction. It whistled through the air and made no contact. It didn't even sound like they had moved to avoid it.
Ina paid attention to Calli's whiff. She produced another spell, but was faster on the casting. A low powered beam struck the wall in front of her.
However, she saw a blue eye glaring at her for a moment.
"This could prove interesting…" the voice mumbled. Ina prepared to fire again, as Calli swung her scythe at where the eye had been. But they were both suddenly grabbed by something.
There wasn't anything actually physically holding them, but some force was dragging them away from the room. Ina made them both a barrier, as the invisible force dragged them through multiple walls. They exploded through the exterior of the building and dropped to the ground outside.
"Where is she?" Calli asked, putting her back against Ina's. The new open environment they found themselves in meant they had no idea where their opponent was. At least now they have more room to work with and Emersyn was safe. The being seemed more interested in them now.
Ina planted a tentacle into the ground and caused the concrete beneath them to become slightly softer. Her power was lacking right now, but she could still fight against one opponent. A slight indentation emerged in the ground a few feet away from them. It wasn't footprints, instead looking more like the edge of a sphere.
Calli took a swing at the area above the indent. It moved backwards away from them, avoiding the strike with grace. Ina fired another beam, but it too was dodged. Calli continued to swing and advance on the indent, but none of her strikes made contact.
Ina wasn't concerned by this, however. She couldn't talk to Calli about any plan right now, so they just had to trust each other's actions. Calli was being a wonderful distraction, allowing Ina to sneak a tentacle underneath the ground. The indent moved right over top of where it was hidden and Ina sprung her trap.
The tentacle wrapped around something and prevented the being from moving any further. Calli took one more swing at the being. There was no possible way for them to dodge now.
And that was true. The being did not dodge Calli's scythe.
Instead, right as the scythe touched their hand, it turned to a slimy shadow. The entire blade was reduced to nothing but sludge, as it passed through their hand.
Ina took another shot with a beam, but it bent around the being and hit the road behind them. Her tentacle was severed and the indent moved quickly towards them. Calli attempted to resummon her scythe, but again the being was too fast.
Calli knew this from last time, though. She used the remaining shaft of her scythe to hit the being cleanly. They were clearly not expecting this and were knocked away.
The cloak surrounding them began to fade, as well. They were still cloaked in shadows, but at least they could see them now.
Half of them was covered in darkness and the other was glowing from underneath the shadows. Two horns protruded from the top of the cloak and several crystals floated behind them like wings. The crystals ranged from pure white to perfect darkness. Long purple hair poked out from under the cloak, too.
"Who the hell are you?!" Calli yelled at them, fully reforming her scythe and pointing it at them. Ina got ready to quickly cast another spell, but she didn't want it to be pulled by this thing again. The being in front of them slowly stood back up and faced them. Not one of their movements seemed wasted, with every single one having some purpose behind it.
"I am the end of despair, harbinger of hope," it said with zero emotion. It didn't revel in its announcement or proclaim anything with pride. Instead, it just answered the question and rushed Calli yet again.
Being able to see her opponent helped Calli actually fight instead of swinging at the air. The problem was that this thing was still so fast it could dodge everything she tried. Ina tried to help, but the being positioned itself so that Calli would always be in between them and Ina.
Calli spun her scythe out in front of her to give herself a little breathing room, but the being simply reached into the scythe and turned it to sludge again. They grabbed Calli's face and planted her firmly into the concrete. If it wasn't still slightly soft, her entire face would have been caved in.
Calli tried to pivot herself on the ground, but her body didn't have the flexibility she had been used to. Her kicks at the being's legs completely fell short. She was slammed into the ground a few more times in rapid succession before Ina fired a beam to get them off.
Ina summoned more tentacles to help her, but they were simply repelled by whatever this thing was using to repel the rest of the attacks. Calli got back to her feet, but she was swiftly kicked into a nearby building. She coughed up blood on the impact, her ribs cracking under the impact. Ina was able to prevent Calli from sustaining any more damage from actually hitting the building, but this left her completely open.
It reached for Ina's face, trying to grab around her mouth.
Ina's field of vision was suddenly swallowed up by flames. She fell backwards onto the ground and took a couple moments to figure out what had just happened. When the flames receded, she saw the being had been tossed a fair distance away.
"Where's Calli?" Gura asked from behind her. There was a slight amount of panic in her voice.
"S-she's in there," Ina said, pointing towards the cloud of dust coming from the building next to them. Gura sighed and looked up towards the sky.
"Calli's ok!" she called out to Kiara, who circled overhead. The Phoenix dove to the ground in between Ina and the shadow covered being. Her hair and blade blazed a brilliant orange, but inside she was in far more distress.
Why was this thing back? Why was it trying to destroy her family again?
Those questions could wait, though.
"I'm going to make this painful," she promised them, gripping her sword as tight as she could. The being did not reply and simply stared back.
Author's Note: IRyS is not here to play around :)
Next Chapter: A Fight to Remember
Any feedback/criticism is appreciated!