Cold.
Though no freezing winds tore at my frostbitten skin; though no snow settled on my bloody and scar-riddled face; a niveous mist permeated through the core of my very being, encasing it in the crystalline hoar frost that carpeted the cracked marble floors. Out of crumbling stone pillars grew spiked vines and botanical constructs featuring razor-edged 'teeth', all withering, covered in a restricting layer of hard rime. On the other side, small hills on the ground had formed, superheated rock expanding and eventually collapsing outwards. It had yet to cool, the scorched ground meeting the frost right down the middle of the throne room as if both elements waged battle for control over the floor. Clouds of dust and large chunks of rubble lay suspended in the air by some spacetime magic, a remnant of the bloody struggle that had just taken place between the tyrants and the liberators. Both blazing heat and biting cold assaulted me from both sides, but it mattered not. The mission I had set out to complete on that fateful day neared its completion.
Forward I trudged, frost crunching and leather sizzling under my feet as I advanced towards the decomposing throne and its rapidly disintegrating occupant. No, I would not let it escape. Not this time. Not after all they had done to us, after all we had sacrificed to get here. I glanced sideways at the corpses strewn all over, some pierced through dozens of times by sharp, elemental protrusions and others missing multiple limbs. I steeled my resolve then. It would die by my blade, here and now.
Finally, my boots made contact with the corroded steps and I raised my worn-out blade, ready for any last, desperate attempts by my target to delay the inevitable. But the figure on the chair lay motionless, daring him to take one more step and deliver the final blow.
"It is over," I growled, throat raw and voice cracked. "Your kingdom of lies and the iron grip with which you choked our freedom, all dust, gone with the wind as with the rest of your despicable allies. You have lost, tyrant!"
The figure only chuckled, inexplicably finding humour in this dire situation. "I have lost only an insignificant, poor excuse of a civilisation," it replied. "Many others have existed before yours, and many will in the millennia to come. My kind are patient and long-lived, superior to your impulsive and transitory human lives. We have witnessed the rise and fall of all your puny realms and empires. There is nothing you can hope to achieve against us when we inevitably return to crush your arrogance once more."
"Your kind shall never again taint the surface of this land, monster," I readied myself to thrust my sword into the undoubtedly rotten core of the figure. "We know the secret behind your eternal life. This time, the diminutive candle flame that is your life shall be snuffed out forevermore."
"Fool!" It exclaimed, "You cannot hope to comprehend even a fraction of our knowledge, much less understand how we live and die. But it is as I foresaw. Even now, when you stand on the cusp of your so-called 'victory', conceit blinds you to that which lies right in front of your eyes!"
A flash of light erupted from the figure, staggering me and filling my eyes with a blinding luminescence. Only when I forced open my eyelids did I see the figure hovering over the throne, forcing other corpses up into the air, rising toward the shattered skylight above. The palace shook, tiles above dislodging and plummeting to the floor. Webs of cracks formed on the wall, breaking into hundreds of pieces.
"NO!" I began to gather power under my boots to propel me up, but it was too late. The ground beneath me collapsed and I was sent hurtling below.
"Mr. Moss!"
Ethan Moss shot up, sitting up straight in his seat. "U-uh, yes, miss?"
"What do you think of the topic we were discussing?" asked the teacher, eyes squinting as Ethan attempted to recall whatever it was they were talking about a few seconds before.
"Uh…" The student looked to the person on his right, non-verbally asking for a little help. What he got in response was a shrug and a look that told him you should have been listening.
Out of options, he decided to wing it. "Um, it's bad?"
"What's bad?"
"The uh, thing we were talking about."
The teacher sighed and shook her head in disapproval as she stood up and walked over. "What is it you are here to do? To talk to your friends during class? To look at non-school related materials on your laptop? To fiddle with your fingers while not paying attention to what I'm saying?" Her voice rose as she mentioned each thing.
"No…? But I wasn't-"
"Don't talk back to me!" she said in a raised voice loud enough to startle everyone in the class. Then, pronouncing each word with emphasis in a low voice, said "Then what are you here to do?"
"To…to learn, miss."
"Exactly. Now close your laptop, and listen to what I'm saying. Your parents don't pay money for you to play games on your laptop during class." she sternly reprimanded, before heading back to the front of the classroom.
"Why didn't you help me out there? I just got scolded in front of the entire class!"
"Weeeell," replied his twin sister Lucy, the person who had been sitting next to him. "Ya weren't payin' attention!" she stated matter-of-factly. "And, you got what you deserved, bro"
"Wha-what I deserved? I wasn't even doing anything on my laptop, and this is the first time I've zoned out! Damn Karen, always being so unreasonable!" using the nickname that the student population had given that particular instructor.
"What-ever, just forget about it. It's the end of school, everyone else should be waiting downstairs by now. Let's go" Lucy hauled her bag over her shoulder before heading out the classroom door.
"Mm," Ethan answered, following her out.
As the twins strolled through the tan-painted hallways, navigating the white flood of uniformed students trying to get out of the building as soon as possible, Ethan's mind wandered, as it always did whenever he was doing something that didn't require active thought, like following his sister. The two had always been considered slightly strange-looking, with their unnaturally bright fair hair and large, round and golden eyes containing star-shaped pupils. These unusual qualities had always attracted the attention of their fellow students, which the outgoing Lucy enjoyed, but the more nervous Ethan disliked. But it was easier to blend in at their school, Ark International Academy, than out in public. Where they lived, a lot of people had the same general look to them which made the two stick out like sore thumbs. It was one of the reasons the blond student had always felt nervous out there, but over time he had learned to ignore the stares of people he did not know. "After all, what does it matter what they think?" his sister had said to him once. "Be proud of what you look like, little bro!" He'd told her it was easy for her to say, and that he was not her little bro, they were twins. "Whatever, little bro!" she'd responded with a giggle before running off to talk to their friends.
Ethan's little tangent would have lasted him the trip to the school gate, had he not accidentally bumped into someone.
"Sorry," the quiet boy quickly apologized. He looked up to see a blue-haired member of staff, struggling to balance the mountain of sheets and folders in her hand.
"Oh no!" she replied. "It's fine. I should have been looking at where I was going."
"That's an awful lot of stuff you're carrying," Ethan said, eyeing the pile of unsteady sheets she was carrying. "Do you need help with that, Ms Wan?"
"It's fine," Ms Wan, the secretary replied, an embarrassed smile on her face. "I always handle this on my own."
"Alright then." Ethan waved the secretary goodbye and continued onwards.
"Hey guys!" Lucy greeted.
"Hey, my amigos! What's up?" a tall, spiky-haired student approached them, before noticing the male twin's stormy expression. "What happened to the little guy? He seems a little down"
The energetic blonde chuckled. "Karen scolded him for zoning out. Got what he deserved, if ya ask me."
Ethan simply grumbled, turning away from the group. "Still, did she have to shout like that? That's just unfair, getting yelled at in front of the entire class, especially when your sister doesn't help you out so you don't get yelled at." throwing a quick glare at said person.
"Hey, no worries man, I get it!" the student threw his arms around him. "You ask me, Karen is the worst teacher in this school! Always shouting at people and being unreasonable for, well, no reason."
"Maybe if you actually paid attention in class instead of texting under your desk, you wouldn't be yelled at all the time, Arataki." came a sharp voice from the side. An impeccably dressed student strolled towards us, viridescent eyes focused in a severe stare directed at the aforementioned troublemaker.
"Oh shut it, Kujou!" Arataki retorted. "You're always sucking up to the teachers. It's no wonder you can't relate to us regular students"
"If 'relating' to you means pouring a bucket of water over the principal while he's eating, I'd have to pass. I wouldn't associate with troublemakers like you if I could help it."
"Oh yeah? If you're such a stickler for the rules, why's your hair dyed purple?"
"I told you," Kujou gritted her teeth. "It's my natural hair colour!"
"Yeah, sure," A sly grin rested on Itto's face. "But the teachers didn't buy it, did they? And then you got scol-"
"Shut up! Shut up!" Before Sara's hands could find their way to Itto's neck, Lucy jumped in between them.
"Hey Sara, let's just cool down for a sec, 'kay?" A nervous smile dented her facial features at Sara's still seething expression. A look of disapproval quickly replaced the smile as Lumine flicked her head toward Itto. "And you!" She scolded. "I told you to stop doing that!"
Itto's mouth turned downwards in a childish pout. "It's not my fault that Kujou's too much of a teacher's pet," The spiky-haired student crossed his arms and looked away. "She just needs to learn that-"
"Now, now, how about we stop arguing for now? You'll have enough time for that when you go to the afterlife~" A girl with long, flowing hair intervened, flower-shaped pupils looking on with slight impatience at their constant quarrelling.
"Hu Tao's right…" an exhausted yawn came after that statement. "I can't rest properly when you're making so much noise…" A blue-haired student struggled to get out before her body when limp and tumbled to the floor.
"Oh no! Layla!" Lucy jumped forward and caught Layla just before her head smacked against the gritty pavement below. "Phew!" Lucy breathed a sigh of relief. "I keep telling you to get more sleep, but you just won't…"
"Wha…?" Layla's golden eyes cracked open, cringing slightly when they were focusing right at the sun. "What happened…"
"Never mind," Ethan cut in. "I think we'd better get moving now. The arcade isn't gonna come to us, you know."
"Right!" Hu Tao exclaimed. "Let's go!"
"Tch. Why is it you're so good? I barely see you hanging around here!" Itto complained as the group left the incessant beeps of game machines and raucous noise behind. "You pulled those moves off like they were nothing!"
Hu Tao giggled. "I guess I'm just too good huh?"
"And you too Layla! You beat the top players there like they were noobs! You gotta tell me your secret!" Itto stepped in front of the drowsy girl and placed his hands together, putting on his best puppy dog eyes.
"I did?" asked a confused Layla. "I just remember falling asleep at the snack bar…"
"Don't forget when Sara beat you at that shooting game~" Lumine reminded Itto. "It was so funny when you threw your juice up in the air and yelled bloody murder"
"Tch. My controller was faulty! It wasn't my fault I lost." The messy-uniformed student threw a glare at the purple-haired girl beside him, who steadfastly ignored Itto's simmering look.
"Well, it's about time we split up for today," Ethan said as the group arrived at an intersection. "See you all tomorrow."
A halfhearted "Bye" came from Itto. "I'll definitely win next time," he muttered. "And I'll make sure no stupid teacher's pets will get in my-ow, ow, ow! What's the big deal…" Itto's voice trailed off into the distance as both he and Sara headed in one direction.
"Yeah bye! See you tomorrow!" Hu Tao waved farewell with Layla in tow. "I'll make sure this sleepyhead here doesn't sleep herself to death!"
"Time to head home, little bro!" Lucy exclaimed. "Race you! Haha!" the blonde giggled, rushing off into the distance between the rows of houses.
"Hey wait!" Ethan called out, hoodie flapping in the wind as he raced to catch up with his twin. Being the less athletic of the two, however, it proved to be a useless endeavour as he was left a sweaty and panting mess while his sister ran on ahead without breaking a sweat.
"C'mon little bro, can't even catch up to your big sis anymore?" Lucy teased. "You should really get out more, you know, instead of staying inside reading stuff all day."
"For your information," Ethan replied, getting slightly defensive. "Reading helps you-"
"Expand your knowledge and broaden your horizons, I know, I know." the blonde finished for him. "I'm just saying you should be a little less uptight about some things, you know? Sometimes you're just like Sara when it comes to following the rules"
The flustered blond sighed. "I don't know how I'm siblings with a rule breaker like you. But whatever". The sun was setting, painting the squat brick houses around them with a soft vermillion glow and taking with it the azure coating of the day. Orange light seeped in between the roofs and balconies. It would not be long before a violet curtain would be fully drawn across the sky, light shining through its holes forming a multitude of glittering stars. Despite the fact that all the houses in the neighbourhood looked the same, Ethan would recognise his own house no matter what the lighting was.
And right now, he didn't know where he was.
"Lucy," the reserved boy turned to his sister. "Which part of the neighbourhood are we in?"
"Um…" Lucy's voice trailed off as she attempted to focus on the residences around her. "I don't know. I don't remember any of the houses looking this…bland. And it's strange how I don't see any lights from the windows. Surely they wouldn't all be asleep now…right?"
Ethan raised a finger to his chin, concentration etched into his facial features. Lucy was right, there wasn't any sign of anyone inside the houses. A quick run-through of the path they took during the race in his memory showed Ethan that they hadn't seen any other people in the area. Where was everybody?
"Maybe we can check in on some of the houses" suggested Lucy, moving towards an oak wooden door and rapping quickly on the smooth surface. "Hello?" she called. "Anyone there?"
"Wait," Ethan held a hand up toward his sister, indicating for her to stop. "I don't want to bother the residents, if there are any. I'm going to call Mom and Dad" He slipped a mobile phone out of his pocket and tapped away at the virtual number pad, holding the phone up to his ear only to hear a mechanical voice saying that the number he had dialled was unavailable at the moment. Calling again netted the same result, so Ethan slipped the phone back into his pocket.
"Didn't work? Well, we're just going to have to-huh? Is that someone? Hey, wait!"
Turning his head to verify what his sister had just said, he did indeed see the back of a figure wearing a tailcoat of sorts vanishing behind the house.
"Somebody? Let's go!"
"Holy moly!" Even Lucy had become tired now, a sheen of sweat breaking out across her forehead. Perspiration streamed down Ethan's face, his gasps now akin to the dying breaths of a fish out of water. By this point, darkness had fallen over the strange neighbourhood, coating everything in an eerie shade despite being illuminated by the equally unsettling, cold glow of the street lamps scattered across the pavement. They had come no closer to catching up with this elusive figure, only ever catching a glimpse of the stranger's jet-black robe before they were gone in a flash, leaving the twins to stumble after him.
"We've – run around – the whole damned place by now" gasped an exhausted Ethan, lungs screeching for air lest the exhausted blond choke on the sheer amount of sweat pouring from every single pore in his body. "And we still-can't-" his legs gave out and he hit the ground, despite his sister's attempt to catch him. "Hoo!" He exhaled. "I'm – so tired. Just let me rest here for a second-"
"No, not yet…" His sister was equally out of breath as he was. "We still need to catch that guy and get him to tell us what happened"
"Yeah but…wait, what's he doing over there?"
Indeed, the mysterious figure was standing in the middle of the street, one of their hands held high while another supported a thick book. From the distance they were at, the twins could just make out the figure saying something, though it did not seem to be in any language either of them recognised.
"The guy's just standing there talking to himself…" Lucy stood up. "I'm going to go talk to him"
At that moment an unexplained fear struck through Ethan's very being, and he found himself clutching at his sister's leg as she started towards the robed figure.
"Wait-no," Ethan sputtered out. "Don't go near him. It's dangerous."
"Why?" the blonde asked, raising an eyebrow. "He doesn't seem all that dangerous to me, just some weirdo talking to himself. Probably a cosplayer or something. Let's just ask him where to go."
"No!" Ethan cried again, surprising Lucy and himself. Why was he so scared? She was right, it probably was just some guy playing at being a wizard. But he couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen.
"Ethan, are you okay?" Lucy questioned, bending down to get a closer look at his fear-stricken face. "You didn't eat anything bad, did you? You're a lot more afraid than usual…"
"I - don't know," Ethan gasped. "I just feel really scared, like we'll get hurt if we-oh my god…"
"Huh?" Furrowed eyebrows met the sudden look of terror on his face. "What're you so scared of?... Oh."
A dark mist surrounded the figure, inky threads weaving a menacing sash around them. The magician was chanting louder now, pure hatred pouring out of his mouth and feeding the mist. Suddenly, the dark cloth dove downwards, drilling a hole in the ground and lodging itself in the subsequent spider web of cracks that now marred the asphalt road. An abrupt gale blasted out from the ground, revealing the figure's short white hair as his hood flew off. Something was happening, something bad. The twins struggled to keep their ground amidst the increasing ferocity of the unearthly gale, giving ground in metres every few seconds.
"Ethan!" Lucy cried as she felt her twin slip away. "Hold on to me!"
"I-" Ethan felt the savage winds tug him upwards, phantom hands grasping at his coat. No matter how he grasped the road or his sister's arm, the tempest would not let up. She was the only thing keeping him from being flung into the air and being smashed into a pulp when landed.
So his heart gave a lurch when he felt his hands slip from his twin's and was hurled upwards, tossing and turning at the whims of impulsive winds.
"No!" Lucy gave another shout of despair. Yet it was not over. From behind her, an inhuman roar sounded, chilling her to the very core. Something was coming out from the crack in the ground.
A misshapen claw shot up from the fissure, slamming onto the ground and digging into the pavement. Another emerged, then a bulbous, slimy head with bulging eyes and long, serrated teeth, on which was fixed an eerie imitation of a smile. No, no, that wasn't the only head. Lucy spotted what appeared to be a lion head, its mane made not of fur but of many tentacle-like appendages wriggling as if they had a life of their own. Bloodshot eyes stared menacingly at her, just as the rest of the heads did. An eagle, a horse, a snake, a goat…There were too many. The same inky fog that the magician had summoned steamed out of the fissure and poured off the creature like liquid nitrogen. As the mist thinned it revealed numerous shrivelled human limbs attached to the monster's torso and crooked spikes running along the length of its spine. Squat hind legs peppered with sharp bits of metal dug into the floor as the thing's entire body came out. Multiple giant arms and legs hung off of the creature, all disproportionate to its size. As it fully emerged from the foggy ravine, it let out a half-human, half-monstrous shriek, nearly shattering Lucy's eardrums.
"Yes!" The magician cackled. "Obey me, O pitiful creature of the Abyss! Bend to my will and destroy my enemies!" The monster buckled under an invisible weight as the magician sought to bring it under his control, thrashing and growling at unseen chains. As the struggle went on, however, the magician appeared to grow more tired, heavy breaths with his back bent over as he fought to stay standing. Soon enough, the robed mage tumbled to the ground, his cloak reduced to a tangled mess. He barely had time to utter a yelp of surprise as the creature leapt forward and crushed him under the flat of its paw. Lucy stood there, muscles locked in a fear-induced stasis no matter how much she screamed at them to move. A jackhammer beat at her chest as the creature raised its head and focused its veiny eyes on its next target, a clear, viscous substance dripping out from between its teeth. Somehow the bloodlust that emanated from the monster snapped Lucy out of her terrified stupor and she was running, her trainers slapping the pavement at irregular intervals as she tried to get as far as her legs could take her. Heavy thuds and an almost excited roar sounded behind her, but she focused on the endless parkway in front of her, one step after another. Would this be how she died?
The world spun, the sky now a flat plain with rectangular blurs hanging over an endless abyss. Desperately, Ethan swung his arms and legs around trying to grasp something, anything, that would stop him from plummeting to his death, but in the chilly night sky there was nothing to hold on to but the hope that he would live to see another day. There has to be something I can do, Ethan despaired, believing those helpless words reverberating around his head less by the second. I can't really be about to die right? This has to be some dream, right, yeah, just a dream, I just have to let myself hit the ground and I'll wake up in my bed…
For a second the winds stabilised, and Ethan was left staring at the ground, where he saw that monster bounding after his sister.
What? No, no, why is that thing after her… Even in a dream, the airborne blond could not let anything happen to one of his family, despite his obvious inability to do anything in his position. His friends had always laughed at him for being too scared to do something that could potentially harm someone, for trying to protect even when it didn't matter, like something as inconsequential as choosing a rude dialogue option or not letting a certain character die. But he had always felt the need to cause the least amount of destruction as possible, to prevent any from coming to harm. What use was any of that here? I can't let her die! I can't! She's one of my family! She MUST NOT DIE!
Suddenly, the winds grew still for but a second, tension permeating the air as Ethan held a hand out towards his sister. And then he was flying, barrelling towards the ground, towards that monstrosity below.
Running, running, running. Lucy couldn't afford to think about anything else but carrying herself away from certain death behind her. Sweat poured off her in buckets, her limbs flinging the liquid at the air around her. Every heartbeat was an explosion in her ears. But as she sought escape, the leather of her trainers caught on a bump in the road causing her to topple over, the sharp pavement below tearing at the skin on her knee. The fleeing girl attempted to get back up, but a thump behind her stopped her from moving any further. A lump formed in her throat as she slowly turned her head around to face the eldritch behemoth looming over her. Her mouth hung open, unable to utter a single word, every sound coming from her mouth tinged with fear. That eerie smile stretched all the way to the edge of its "face" as it raised one of its deformed limbs to strike. "No…" she breathed. "Please no, I can't die here, NO!"
She raised her hand to defend herself, adrenaline fracturing her vision into an incomprehensible blur when a flash of bright light and searing heat erupted in front of her.
A fiery explosion rocked the area as Ethan collided with the beast. Both twins were flung backwards, the flying bookworm crashing into a wall on his side before flopping onto the concrete below. Struggling to raise his head, he got sight of his sister recovering from the blast. "Gah!" Ethan hissed in pain as he planted his hand on the cement to raise the rest of his body up. His arm had seen better days, clearly. It was a miracle he hadn't been smashed to a pulp, but at least it was over. The thing couldn't be alive after something like that.
"Ethan!" He heard Lucy call as she rushed over to his collapsed form. "Oh my god, are you okay? And how did you get down here anyway? Weren't you up–never mind, we have to get out of here. Who knows if there are more of those things out here-"
Time came to a stilted halt as out of the smoke shot the hulking form of the beast, intent on flattening them both. Ethan had always thought that the "life flashing before your eyes" trope was overused and unrealistic, but now he could see it so clearly: His family and friends, the time he had spent with them, his life up until now; All passed through his mind in a whirl of memories as past and present overlapped and time ceased to exist. In the midst of all this confusion, one thought passed through the brain of the soon-to-be-dead boy…
Are you fucking kidding me?
But just as the behemoth was about to strike, multiple beams of radiant light sliced through the stagnant air, knocking it to the side and riddling the monster's tough skin with frozen punctures. Multicoloured liquids and grotesque organic constructs, likely its internal organs, splattered all over the road and stained the dark asphalt and the twins' clothes with otherworldly hues as ice crystals burst out of the beast's body.
…and time resumed, the blurry compilation of Ethan's life experiences tucked away once more in his hippocampus. For a second he lay there on the rough concrete, unbelieving of what had just happened. He was alive - he was still living and breathing, still staring at the figure standing on the roof, clad in cobalt blue armour that seemed to pulse azure light with her every breath.
Wait, what?
Their saviour eyed the beast's corpse, punctured through with strangely luminescent ice crystals that radiated the same eerie glow as her attire, with a laser focus that itself could bore another volley's worth of holes into the decidedly, at least to Ethan, dead creature. Nevertheless, her geared compound bow remained trained on it, dominant hand raised and prepared to loose another barrage of frigid projectiles. Ethan planted both his hands on the ground to lift himself up and get a better look but let out a cry of agony and quickly let himself slump back down when a sharp pain shot up his battered arm.
The blue-haired figure's head snapped towards his crumpled form and the ground, studying him for a second before her heterochromatic eyes lit up with recognition. "You two…"
Surprise and worriedness tinged her voice as she hopped off the ledge and jogged over to the pair. "What are you doing here? No, forget that." She kneeled down. "Are you injured?"
"Ms Wan?! Crystal Wan?!" Lucy's mouth hung open, unbelieving that the school secretary would be here of all places. "Um, I'm fine," Lucy said, brushing dust off her uniform as she rose. She had many questions, but they had to wait until later. "But Ethan…"
She glanced at the boy, now more akin to a mess of stained and ripped uniform with a mop of dull golden hair covered in the monster's blood.
"He's got a few bruises and cuts, but that's not what's serious," Crystal said, inspecting the boy for injuries. "His arm might be fractured. We need to get him to a clinic or hospital. But first…" She rummaged through a small pouch attached to her utility belt, sticking her arm deeper in than the pouch should have been. "Do you have anything that could act as a splint? Like a ruler?
Lucy was already rifling through her schoolbag, tossing coats and books to the side with the speed of a tunnel-digging mole. "Here!" Her eyes lit up as they came upon a ruler at the very bottom.
"Give it here, and stand back." The archer-secretary took great care not to move the arm as she rolled up Ethan's sleeve, focusing almost as much concentration on the task as she did with the dead beast. Crystal rose after she had taped the splint to his arm. "Lift him up and place his left arm around your shoulder," she instructed, helping Lucy as she did so. "Make sure his other arm doesn't move too much."
"Got it" Lucy hoisted the semi-lucid boy up. "It'll be ok little bro. Just hang in there."
"I'll be on the lookout for any other beasts," Crystal collected her bow from off the ground. "Let's go.
A/N: Hi whoever's reading this, welcome to my first fanfiction. I'd appreciate some constructive criticism seeing as this is the first time I've written something that's not for school, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter.