Wrapped in Shadows

Chapter 1 - Dark Rebirth

(?'s P.O.V)

As I slowly wake up, I feel incredibly lethargic and sluggish, as if I'm coming out of a long coma or something similar. Soon enough I finally am able to open my eyes and realize with a start that I'm not in my bedroom where I went to sleep last night, all I'm seeing is a strangely familiar room..

"Oh look, sleeping Beauty finally decided to wake up, been keeping me waiting a long time.." I hear close by me, suddenly getting up and reacting without any real thought, two strikingly familiar spears appearing in my hands before I finally see who it was that spoke, my eyes widen as in front of me is Xigbar, the Nobody of Braig.

"H-how…" I go to say before realizing that the voice coming from me is not the voice I have known for a while, I look down at myself and realize with a blush that I am not in my old body anymore, and the body I'm in is..

"Scathach…I've become Scathach from Fate…" I say, the situation finally sinking in as Xigbar grins before throwing me something. It's a phone, and I realize with a start the situation almost immediately..

"That's right Kiddo, you kicked the bucket, and your most recent build as part of the Catalog is now the form you've taken…gotta say you're quite the looker as you are.." Xigbar says, smirking at my form before suddenly finding my spears at his throat, making his arms get raised in a surrender motion.

"Jeez, settle down I'm just here to get you through Orientation, although considering you wrote quite the story regarding this situation, I bet you're very familiar with how things work..?" Xigbar says, my eyes narrowing as I slowly nod.

Admittedly, I am the Author of a fanfiction known as A Golden Goddess, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that I got shipped off into this sort of situation upon my own first death. To think I was in the middle of writing Chapter 46 before I went to sleep last night too..

"What build are we talking about…?" I ask, making Xigbar(?) smirk before retrieving a slip of paper and holding it out to me. I put away the spears and grab the piece of paper with two hands, my new wine-red eyes skimming over the build and I simply ask..

"Where is the shroud?" The question makes Xigbar smirk before walking over to a nearby wardrobe, realizing I'm probably in a replica of an organization Member's room before I see him hand me an organization XIII cloak.

"Really..?" I can't help but ask, making Xigbar shrug before giving me the Cloak, it suddenly coming to life and changing into a Semi-sentient Black cape that puts itself on my body. The moment I find myself wearing it, I feel like I've been reunited with a long-lost part of myself I never knew I had lost.

"So, ready to move that big behind of yours to your first world?" Xigbar asks me, making my eyes twitch, and have to physically restrain myself from blasting him with an Ansuz rune magecraft before simply nodding.

"That's wonderful, now then I do hope to see you around one day, perhaps you might have some interesting tales to tell.." Xigbar says before suddenly a portal opens up below me, I fall through it and the last thing I see before passing out is Xigbar smirking while waving me goodbye, the smug bastard..

Somewhere in the Far East Sector - God Eater World

(Scathach's P.O.V)

I groan as I slowly wake up, shaking my head while opening my eyes to gather my bearing. Before I've even gotten a good look at my surroundings though, I hear the sound of growling and above me, on the mountain of rubble I woke up in front of, is a single Ogretail Aragami.

It tries to rush me, but once again, without thinking I find myself drawing out my twin spears and with a precise thrust, managing to kill the incredibly weak Aragami that tried to ambush me. I think some pest control is in order so I can vent my frustrations of having died in my sleep..

I expertly start using some of the debris above me to get onto the other side of this small mountain of rubble, finding a small group of Ogretail Aragami. As they spot me I leap from the top of the rubble and using one of my spears to direct my rune magecraft, I unleash the fire rune Ausuz directly on top of the group of Aragami, burning them and the ground below.

Once I finally land, I get to work with the pest control and throw one of my spears at one of the burning Aragami, nailing it to a nearby building while rushing toward a second one. I stab it in between the eye and while holding the spear with two hands send the burning corpse into the remaining two living but still very much burning Aragami.

I slowly walk over to the first Orgetail that is desperately trying to get itself loose, screeching with agonized cries of pain and torment as the flames are burning the top of it alive. I pull my spear out of it and with both of my spears I put it out of its misery and thrust into its brain to kill it instantly.

The two remaining alive ones try to flee, unwilling to fight me but I rapidly rush past them before turning around and facing them before using their own momentum to have the two Aragami skewer themselves upon my spears.

With the fight now over, I just stare at the burning corpses and find myself unable to stop myself from sighing. I look over myself and even use some more obscure rune magic to generate a mirror to actually get a look at myself.

I practically look exactly like Scathach from the Fate Fandom, or Nasuverse if I were to use more general terms. But to be perfectly honest with myself, I'm fine with that as truth be told I can't help but be happier in the body I have now.

True, I am now stuck in a post-apocalyptic world where fucking monsters roam the world and most of humanity is dead by their hand, but I know that as Scathach I have the skills to survive in this hellscape.

Of course, I don't plan on sticking around if I can help it. Perhaps I should try to look for the location of Fenrir since it's been so long since I've actually played God eater so I will admit freely that my memories are particularly spotty, with God Eater 3 being the most recent entry I've actually played before I died..

Soon enough I am broken from my internal musings as the growls of yet more Ogretails that are prowling towards me slowly, snarling as they gaze at their dead kin around me. I briefly ignore them and pull out the phone I got from Xigbar, checking the ESL app and seeing that the entire killing spree of Aragami has counted as 1% progress so far…

"Very well then, as they say…when in Rome, do what the Romans do…" I say before giving a confident, sultry smirk and letting the shadowy haze of my shroud slowly start to manifest around my body.

It emits a faint aura of fear in the Aragami in front of me and with a chuckle I find myself throwing myself into yet another fight with the Aragami. Somehow, despite not having gotten Memoria, I think the original Scathach is influencing me here..

Just a hunch..

Hours later

(Scathach's P.O.V)

I take a moment to gaze over yet another pile of dead Aragami, with me sitting on some rubble as I gaze at the approaching sunset. It feels strange as, during my pest control of the Aragami, I ended up discovering that I'm likely in the Far East Sector because of the Japanese text on many of the ruined buildings.

Meaning that I am almost definitely close to the Far East Branch of Fenrir, or at least in the general area. I wonder if the extermination of so many Aragami has been noticed, either way, I find myself unsure if I should get myself involved with the plot or if I should focus on killing Aragami until I have enough ESL progress to continue.

But in the end, I can't help but feel grateful for this second chance as this time around, I plan on ensuring that I live up to my potential, both old and new. I can only hope that I will live up to the name and body I have been given..

I think tonight, despite the fact I have access to the Pocket Dimension Manor I bought in the build before I died, I will spend the night in this world. Mostly because part of me still worries that this is all a dream.

But once tomorrow comes…

I can get started on making some real plans and do some experimenting since I am not familiar with the shroud binding and how it works just yet. Might see if I can't try to bind an Aragami somehow.

I can't wait to get started!

Author's Note

Welcome to the first Chapter of my new Story, Wrapped in Shadows!

Before anyone asks, A Golden Goddess will still be worked on alongside this new Story, I am not declaring any sort of Hiatus or such as I am working on making a schedule to accommodate both.

Wrapped in Shadows takes place in a version of events where A Golden Goddess is supposed to be a story. As for Whether or not the two will end up meeting, I cannot say just yet but if it ever happens, it'll be interesting for two versions of the same person to interact.

Plus new story means new binding!

So Just after I post this chapter, I'll also post a Build chapter so you all can see what I'll be working with. I do hope you'll all enjoy Scathach's journey as I will, playing the part of Scathach.

So, Next time in Wrapped in Shadows: The Morning of the Second Day, Exploring the Pocket Space Manor and Shroud Experiments.

See you all soon!