The sounds of nothingness echoed in the eternal dark.
Stepping forth into pitch black, a trickle of red ventured into what was not defined. A land- a kingdom, plunged into darkness. The kingdom she was born in, raised in, and trained to rescue from He who held it.
Duatos.
He showed no mercy. With his magic, he incapacitated those who could oppose him. Her family may have escaped to raise her elsewhere for the rest of her life, but she, “Sangue Naga,” knew all too well of the empty gap in her heart whenever she heard the word "home."
With a blade in hand, she ruthlessly accepted hardships. Those hardships hardened her very soul- one which knew nothing but slaying those who sought to make Duatos' rule the absolute law. It was not the forces of darkness she faced, but rather, a physical manifestation of all the nightmares one could dream of. Nothing would stop her- even if she lost an arm when Duatos had first attacked.
She pursued on. Dead or alive, she would make sure Duatos' reign would end by her own hand.
Running forward into the kingdom of darkness with a magic sword in hand, Sangue slashed apart all of those who defended Duatos. None were human, yet they screamed like them- to deter the young child's motivation.
The fields she saw as a child had rotted. The golden mountains had died, and the green plants that soothed her soul had been chewed at by time. And the skies screamed red, tinting the world beneath with blood red.
She ran past it all, and into the Naga Castle.
Raising her blade with her delicate hand clutching onto it for dear life, she gazed before Duatos. A floating mass of darkness, with ancient weapons and relics rotating around his ethereal body. The hot-white eyes that glared into her very soul.
As he took notice of her, the mass reshaped as he latched onto some of the weapons floating around him. "You are their daughter," he mused quietly.
"..."
The entity of darkness and chaos reshaped endlessly, seemingly unsure of what it could use to instantly kill the young girl. The blade protected her from his chaotic soul, for her mind was far too protected for him to touch.
"You are the daughter of those who kept me sealed. They, the son and daughter of those who held that duty before- a cycle that goes on and on..."
Taking on the form of an Eldritch horror with a sickly jet-black color, Duatos seethed, "My sense of humor had long died when I learned how to be angry for so long."
She remained silent.
Screeching madly, Duatos abruptly launched himself towards the Naga. Sangue swiftly stepped to her right as she slashed the glowing white blade against Duatos' indefinite body. All weapons left no mark on Duatos, but her blade was special.
For it was forged not to seal all forms of darkness or evil, but to end any physical manifestation of human horrors and evils. And Duatos being the manifestation of human horrors she had to slay made it clear that the weapon would hurt him badly.
Ignoring his pain, Duatos veered and turned, letting one of his tentacles swing a naginata at the red-haired girl. She barely moved out of the way, but the side of her waist had been cut due to his blinding speed. When Duatos attempted to end her life with two blades headed for her neck, she leapt as she spun herself in the air, slicing at the tentacles.
"...!"
Growling, Duatos tossed aside the weapons he had been holding and belched out acids that tore through the world itself effortlessly. But as the woman raised the blade to defend herself, its deadly effects proved to be fruitless against the white blade.
"You are strong... Or rather, the weapon you hold is," Duatos growled. "But you cannot stop me from achieving my purpose- to merge the gates of life and death. Only I am in the right, and the right always prevail over the wrong."
Reshaping himself, Duatos had enough of facing her without putting his all. Sangue's eyes widened as she clutched her weapon even tighter. An armored warrior that vaguely resembled the shape of a human being landed in front of her. It was the true form of Duatos- the one he held before his corruption.
"Only you have to die," Duatos admitted. "If I stop you...-"
Sliding across the ground, Sangue propelled herself to Duatos' direction as she swung her blade at his neck, ramming it against the blade he raised just before she cut him.
"-then my purpose will be a reality."
His strength steadily revealing more of itself, he began to push Sangue's weapon as he seethed, "But this is
my purpose! And
you have yet to realize that I-"
Pushing him away, Sangue slashed at Duatos' feet, not caring for any of the demon’s banter. The armor that covered his legs shattered instantly at the touch of her blade, and he quickly slammed the blade away from himself as he raised his own weapon.
A barrage of strikes. He had no form- no technical skills, but that did not matter for a mad demon who had the advantage in strength and speed. Sangue felt the coldness of the blade as she barely dodged and let it pass her face. The strikes she blocked were endlessly painful to withstand, but she persevered. Silently. Against the demon who stole her childhood.
Despite being so much bigger, and so much stronger than her, Duatos failed to kill her quickly. One by one, Sangue tore apart his armor, leaving behind the mass of darkness that pretended to take on the form of a person. She refused to have second thoughts, for as soon as she saw him stagger from the force of her weapon, she swung once more at his bare body.
Duatos screamed in agony, wildly flailing about as the weapon sliced through his torso. Lifeless, his legs fell as black dust spewed out uncontrollably from where his guts would have been. The rest of his body remained floating, but as Duatos' strength waned, he unconsciously began to meet the woman's eye level.
Again and again, she hacked away at his body. Soon, only a portion of his chest, one arm, and his head was left.
He had not yet been bested in combat, but from the looks of it, if he made one mistake, he would die.
"It is this rotten kingdom you wish to restore," Duatos muttered as Sangue approached him, a cold expression painting over her face. Black liquids- one that resembled Duatos' essence- painted her body. She practically bathed in his blood.
"But it is also this rotten kingdom that will be your downfall," he spoke, grinning madly. With a motion of his hand, a bright light shined above Sangue as she looked up.
Suddenly, a disfigured monster fell from what appeared to be a portal. Then another, and another, and another fell. More and more portals tore open as an endless amount of monsters fell from the heavens.
Taken aback at the sudden number of foes she had to deal with, Sangue tore apart one of the monsters with a diagonal slash, the steel effortlessly tearing apart the enemy. And she hacked and slashed away. Even when one of them slashed her back, she kept her mouth shut as she turned around to behead the foe who wounded her.
She was wounded. From head to toe, she began to bleed. The blackness that painted her body mixed with red, drenching her in crimson.
"You will die."
She persevered. But she did not know for how long she could.
"With this 'thing' you call home."
As the last of the monsters Duatos had summoned was torn apart, Sangue kicked away its corpse as she screamed incoherently, her eyes wide in anger as she furiously let out the essence of her fury.
”AGHHHHHHHHHHH!” A fury meant only for Duatos.
Raising his arm, he swept at the air in desperation.
The sound of the world shattering reverberated across the fallen kingdom.
Duatos froze deathly still. His power waned, and as he looked up at the portal he created, his shocked expression remained frozen.
The portal had a crack.
It had to be an interference.
Kali Rana…! Duatos realized as he paled.
The goddess who maintained the timelines of a multiverse… Surely, she must have noticed him abusing the power to tear open gaps between dimensions.
And for that, it must have been her own way of punishing him.
Divine punishment. A punishment he had forgotten for so long.
At that moment, the portal let out a loud screeching noise as it began to suck everything inside the castle room into it. Screaming loudly, Duatos' mangled body flew into it helplessly. As she watched Duatos suddenly fly away into the gap between dimensions, Sangue was petrified for a split moment.
No! He's escaping... Not knowing that Duatos did not open up the portal behind him, the red-haired woman let go of the ground as she flew into it without second thoughts. Until she killed him with her eyes gazing into his, she would not stop in chasing after him. Not even if she was in risk of death.
As she entered the portal, a blinding light colored everything in the portal jet-white. She felt the portal pull at her body and mind, for unbeknownst to her, it was meant to destroy Duatos alone. The gap would close to eternally seal him and essentially kill him off the timeline forever. But because she and the pure blade had entered the portal...
The magic malfunctioned as the light began to flicker violently. Sangue screamed as she clutched onto her blade with one hand, her head in the other. Memories of everything she fought for flickered just as much as the lights, and the warmth... the love... everything began to tear itself in and out of herself, over and over again.
Letting out a cry of pain, she was helpless as the light engulfed her and Duatos' unconscious form.
A super-soldier in outer space blasted at a bunch of aliens.
Without context, that sounded pretty stupid, but when the name of the game was "Halo," it just made a bit more sense. The Spartan fired his Assault Rifle at the Elites that approached him in the midst of a snowy area. One by one, they began to fall, so some of them tossed grenades at his direction.
He ran and fired at the Elites, tossing out one of his grenades to cover an area they could escape through. And just as he expected, the remaining Elites were blown away, dead.
Yes. Nobody could beat him. He was the one and only Master Ch-
A Grunt shot him and he died immediately.
Benjamin Lloyd felt his eyes twitch as he was carried over to the very start of a checkpoint.
He remembered what his father often said. "If things didn't work out right, it's good to start from the beginning."
Ben never, EVER expected the damn phrase to apply to video games as well. Halo apparently took his father's advice and decided to piss Ben off with it.
"That's a great way to start off the evening," Ben sighed as he got up.
Walking out of his room, he took a soda out of the kitchen's fridge. As he closed the fridge, he stared at the note pasted on the fridge door.
"We're on a date! Make sure you're safe with the house. We'll back as soon as possible!" It... had been about a month since they left that note.
It's one thing to go on a date, but it's another thing to leave your son behind! Ben thought as he sighed comically.
Well, he could live on his own for a while. But he could not guarantee not being lonely by himself.
Perhaps Lauren could have some ideas as to what he could do on his own. She seemed to know how to have fun with literally anything, after all.
Scratching the back of his head, Ben looked at the time.
Eight o' clock, huh? Without much thought for cooking something, he dressed up, making sure he locked the door before leaving.
He was an average guy with an interesting in building things.
His dream of creative design began at a forge. When he watched his father bring ideas to life from the forge, a spark of imagination and creativity ignited the motivation of Benjamin Lloyd. He was far from a genius, but that did not mean he would live dumbly. Ben liked taking life easily while working adequately to pass classes.
Although he was still afraid to put his dreams to the test, for the time being, he would continue to just having a normal life. If anything, a boring life was the one thing he wanted to avoid the most. Even an over-dramatic life was better than something that could literally kill him of boredom.
Now, if his father was less of a hardass with him about that perspective, Ben would easily say that his life went on smoothly.
Having eaten at a ramen shop, Ben stretched his arms as he went back to his home's direction. He made sure his coat covered his body well- the cold air did little to convince him that he should stay outside longer.
Maybe a snack or two would be good, he thought to himself as he walked.
I'm pretty damn ready for the test tomorrow! With that in mind, he got himself in the mood to play lazily for a bit longer. He studied, he went over the material, and he needed something that could calm him down. He wasn't some hardcore gamer or anything, but even for him, a game or two was perfect for the night.
The next day, he woke up facing the ceiling.
Groggily opening his eyes, he got up as he stretched his arms.
It was weird. He felt like he got used to living alone, but he still desperately wanted to see his parents at least
visit him sometime soon. He had no idea where the hell they went aside from knowing that "they weren't still on a date, but were still together."
What a lovely excuse to leave their son alone by himself. At least he wasn't a rotten little kid.
He yawned and ruffled his own hair. For some reason, his left leg felt warmer than usual. Ben noticed a strange series of bumps popping out of the blanket.
As his eyes trailed the bumps, his eyes met a red-haired thing sleeping silently next to him.
"..."
...
...
...
Eh, I still need to wake up, he thought as he smacked his head.
Got a test today, anyway. It was definitely just him being too sleepy. There was no way some red, fuzzy thing would sleep next to him.
Nope. Definitely not. Nope, nope, nope. No, no, no.
Bad Ben.
Getting up from his bed, Ben glanced at the time.
"..."
...
...
...
"CRAP, I'M LATE!!" Panicking, he mindlessly dressed up quickly as he checked the time again. The exams were here... and there was only ten minutes left before they started. Ten. Minutes. His house was at a five minute distance from his school by bicycle. Did he have a bike?
Not really. But someone else did.
Hastily dressed up, Ben bolted out of his house with his bag in hand. His uniform may have looked messy, but he'd seen messier from delinquents. Snapping his fingers, Ben called out loudly,
"NAPOLI!" And as if he was Ben's familiar or something, Napoli came into view on a bike with a wide grin.
If there was one way to describe Napoli, it was that he loved being the cheerful guy without knowing much about how he annoyed the absolute hell out of some people. He was a bright guy, and in this case, he was Ben's brightest solution in avoiding missing out his exams.
"Right 'ere, Ben!" It was kind of sad, now that Ben thought about it. He almost missed so many exams to the point where calling Napoli for backup became his ultimate solution for the Fall semester's final exams. His blond friend seemed pretty chill with the whole thing, too, so that was a plus.
"Late again, Ben!" Napoli cheerfuly shouted as he pedaled with Ben riding the bike with him.
"Man, it'd kill for me to pick up a girl like this. Maybe even Gratia would warm up to me-" "You KNOW that's freakin' impossible, Fiordilatte! Go, go!" Picking up speed, Napoli pedaled the two to school as quickly as possible. Ben was going to pass the exams. He would pass them so well, Lauren and Amy would not try to bother him about being "average" again!
...Not that he'd ever make that possible knowing the two, but still.
He was going to beat the hell out of those tests.
...
...
...
Warmth.
...
...
...
Warmth.
It’s…
... warm.
My… body…
…warm.
Warm.
...
...
...Fuzzy...
...Soft... ...
Opening her eyes, the red-haired girl drowsily rustled under the blanket.
She shivered.
Her mind felt blank.
She felt like she had been doing something important.
Nothing came to mind.
A room.
She was in a room.
A tidy room.
It was comfortable.
Comfy.
The blanket over her was warm.
Warm.
Warm…
It felt heavenly.
Was she in heaven?
Did she die?
Why would she die?
Why would she be in heaven?
What was she?
Who was she…?
…
…
The warmth.
It made pain go away.
Pain.
What pain?
Pain…
She was too tired to feel pain.
She was cold, but the blankets were warm.
She wanted things to remain like this.
She felt like… she needed rest.
She felt like… she needed time.
She felt like… she needed help.
Even though she was safe and sound in such a tidy room.
Alone.
Alone… alone…
…
It wasn't hard to imagine that Ben would pass the exams.
With a smug grin on his face, he rolled his neck as he left the building. While he knew that he didn't ace the exams, he knew that he took it well enough. That would shut some people up about his grades.
Like Lauren, who approached him as soon as he left the building.
"BEN," she almost shouted as she latched onto his collar, shaking him violently and almost snapping his neck with sheer force.
"Ben, what the hell was that last problem on that test?! You didn't solve it, right-""I solved it perfectly." Ben responded, barely containing a grin from sprouting on his face.
Lauren pulled at her hair furiously as she let out a roar of frustration before letting out a pathetic sigh.
"...Damn," she mumbled with a pout.
"I'm dumber than the white boy straight out of Seinfield-""You could say that again."To put it in an easily explainable way, Lauren lived off of hype.
The dark-haired Negasi was, theoretically, pretty, but Ben was always put on the verge of death whenever she dragged him into her shenanigans. At one point, she picked him up, slammed him against the seat of her motorcycle, and drove off while racing past a bunch of people who were angry at her. Thugs, punks- you name it. They all wanted to make her pay for the things she stole from them, though since most of them came outside of Valen, she always got them off her trails.
He knew she was a good girl. It's just that she could certainly treat him with less ham.
"AGH, screw it! Ben, let's go drink our heads off," Lauren exclaimed, brightening at the idea of spending time with him.
"I dunno where Amy went off to suck a billion di-""Lauren."Lauren froze as they passed the gate, smoothly passing by the P.E. teacher without getting his attention.
"...Right," she mumbled before going back to cheerily speaking loudly.
"So like I said, I dunno where Amy went, but you and I could hang out for the time being. The club would be boring as hell in daytime, but that's not the only place to hang out at, right?""Riiiiight.""You seem unsure of yourself.""L-Look, I don't want this uniform to be ruined for the umpteenth time, so let me dress up. I'll send a message when I'm ready."Beaming with a contagious smile, Lauren laughed as she continued walking with him.
"Well, I'll just wait by your house, then. Being neighbors sure makes things a whole lot easier."And a whole lot hellish, Ben thought grimly, knowing that Lauren was probably going to try to embarrass him to death somehow. The last time they were together outside of school, she kept announcing about his interest in women. Who actually did tha-
Oh.
Lauren.
He had to keep reminding himself.
As they bantered on their walk to their homes, Lauren then asked,
"Say, are you interested in someone? Like- super sexually.""...""...Vaguely sexually?""L a u r e n.""Fiiiiiiiiine. Romantically. Shakespearean-ly. Fuccboi-ly. Better?""."Rolling his eyes, Ben looked away from Lauren's infectious gaze. He didn't really have anyone in mind. Well, maybe he had one, but she probably didn't even know him.
"Kind of," he mumbled.
"What was that?""I said 'nothing'!""You said 'Kind of,' right?"A vein almost popped in Ben's head as he glared at Lauren, who made a puppy pout.
Gritting his teeth, he asked,
"Is it in your nature to give others false hope that you didn't listen to them?"Her pout turned into a sly smile as she wrapped an arm around his neck.
"Not really in my nature, but it's more of something I'm unconsciously talented at."Ben sighed, but he could not help but smile. Laugh, even.
Soon, they arrived at their homes. There was another house sitting right in-between Ben and Lauren's. It was simply a sign of mercy granted to Ben by Amaranth Desire, for she knew that if Lauren lived right next to Ben, she'd tie a bunch of blankets up and smash his window open just to snatch him and go out to go nuts at some club.
It was a shame Amy was so busy, though. She looked like she could use some of Lauren's crazy "field trips."
"See you soon," Ben said as he entered his house.
"Don't stay in for too long," Lauren exclaimed as she waved at him.
"It's not healthy to jack off for-"Ben slammed the door shut.
Taking a deep breath, he rubbed at his face, exhausted from the exams. He knew that Lauren would exhaust him to death soon, so he sucked it up and smacked his cheeks.
"Alright," he muttered as he marched off to his bedroom.
"Time to dress up."Opening the door to his room, Ben took one step forward.
He froze as soon as one of his underpants slammed itself against his face.
"..."...His underpants?
Why would his underpants fly and attack him?
I thought underpants are just clothes that lacked any form of sentience whatsoever-Putting the undergarments off his face, he was soon attacked by another undergarment. He smacked it away again.
When he finally saw what was in his room, his heart froze, and his skin crawled.
He did not know how to exactly describe it.
It was like... that one time he visited the Anime Store near the outlet.
Ben stared at a television sitting in the corner of the store, standing next to a sharp-haired man with sunglasses on.
"This is the pinnacle of mankind," the owner of the store explained to him. "This is what all men strive to live for."
A beautiful, naked girl sat in the middle of some random guy's apartment room. As cute as it could seem at first, Ben wondered,
‘Isn't that illegal?’
"Isn't that illegal?" He ended up speaking his thoughts out loud.
Grabbing him by his uniform's collar, the owner of the store screeched, "LIES!”
The man let go of Ben's collar, dusting his hands as he went back to watching the anime.
"Uh," Ben muttered as he looked at the exit of the store. "I'll just... go home now. I was just here to return Luke's thing for you."
The owner of the store raised an eyebrow at Ben's lack of otaku. He then nodded as if to admit defeat, acknowledging that someone as young as Benjamin Lloyd probably had a much brighter future than him.
Ben wondered if all anime store owners looked hardcore.
How lovely. The scene before him was just like what he saw before.
Except instead of a beautiful girl just sitting in the middle of his room, there was a girl who kept stretching at his underwear for absolutely no reason at all. She dug into his closet, softly throwing things around without a word.
He then noticed that she even wrapped some of the underwear around her body, covering-
"!!!!!!!!!!!!"Heat practically filling his face to the brim, Ben, with a tomato-red face, pointed at the red-haired girl accusingly as he shouted,
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"The girl froze, her eyes covered by one of his undergarments. Turning to him slowly, she stared at his direction for quite a bit. She remained still. So did he.
Except she had no shame, and Ben felt like he just experienced all the shame in the world.
"..."Her movements were weak. And the more Ben looked at her, the more he noticed how frail she seemed. The way she raised her arm to move away the clothes stacked on her head- it was as if she had so little strength.
Of course, that didn't make it okay for her to just barge in his house and throw around his underwear. Just because she looked cute while doing it didn't mean it was okay. Not at all.
Moving the cloth off her head, she revealed her vibrantly red-orange eyes as they locked onto his blue ones.
Benjamin Lloyd was at a loss of words. Not just because of how a woman he knew nothing about popped out of nowhere, but because of how needlessly oblivious she looked. She didn't look like she was interested in stealing his underwear, but she also looked just as confused as he was.
She blinked.
He held his breath.
That was the first day Benjamin Lloyd met the girl named Sangue Naga.
Bluetommy,
Danyel,
Ookawa,
Musoka,
Simple Unicycle,
Plank Sinatra
