A pitch white. A pitch black.
A thin line separated them in the infinitely wide void, their light and dark painting the old, worn structures.
A large door remained sealed, its enchanted stone weary, yet strong. And the bridge gave no reflection of the world around itself. Vast space greeted all areas outside of the open bridge. It was a road- a road not taken by those who did not have the essence of chaos within.
Both
chaos, and
order.
For chaos, without order, did not have importance. A state of chaos was only valuable when there was order to balance it. That was not to say that a world of pure chaos would necessarily be a bad thing, but the world preferred order. Its many denizens did, at least, and a good handful claimed chaos was a way to live against the orderly who would not watch over them.
But they were misguided. A little too much. Running one's mouth off about chaos was utterly- repulsively- distasteful if they only knew of what chaos brought. It was a concept simple in practice, but infinite in volume.
The road not taken stretched and stretched past the black-white world, and went through a torn gap between dimensions. And in this gap, colors of different hues trailed through every spot available aside from the bridge, remained white and black. The colors existed in a world of order and chaos, but it was a rare sight to see them in what was essentially a void world. A world far, far away from...
"demons" and the like. Or
"angels."Ashes swirled past the void as an entity brushed past nothingness.
It heard the sounds of people.
The ashes emitted a dull black as they moved, slipping through the void. It followed the sounds.
The sounds of people.
It reverberated wildly in its head. The sound- the mere presence of them made its life flare into overdrive.
And as it reached the end of the void, the entity opened its eyes.
Though he wanted ramen, Ryuu ended up buying a sandwich instead.
Nobody came by to his place. Nobody! Not even a single person was interested in his anime stall, and that alone angered him. How on God’s green planet was it possible that literally everybody that passed by didn’t share his interests? He had a whole catalog and samples prepared for this crap.
Mark my words, he thought grumpily in his head,
it’s only a matter of time before people swarm into my store like starving ants discovering a crumb of bread.He knew that’d never happen.
Still, having at least a bit of recognition for his efforts would have been nice. A brief growl escaped him as he brushed past several people subconsciously.
As one of people bumped into him particularly hard, he roared,
“Watch where you’re going!” The man who bumped into him fled apologetically.
Ryuu took a bite out of his sandwich. He bought the wrong sandwich, unfortunately, considering he didn’t enjoy ham, and the sandwich was literally packed with it.
“Dammit!”Sighing, Ryuu looked up and took a deep breath, making sure that he didn’t lose his cool in the public. The last time he did that, something dumb happened that almost got him in trouble with his neighborhood’s police.
His day seriously couldn’t get any worse than this.
As he opened his eyes, Ryuu blinked, noticing something odd in the skies. The day would normally be full of sunshine if it weren’t for the clouds forming above at a fairly rapid pace.
The clouds were grey. Perhaps they were rain clouds?
I haven’t seen any cloud form up that quickly, though, Ryuu thought, disgruntled by the fact that he probably had to pack up his stuff in the rain.
I better get going.Tossing his unfinished sandwich in a nearby trash bin, he headed over to where he kicked his stall down.
Vermilla stared at the clouds as she left the ramen stall.
Why are they swirling up like that? She noticed quickly, squinting at the grey clouds forming above the Kora Electric Company’s skyscraper. The clouds hadn’t covered the whole city yet, though they seemed to grow in size unnaturally.
Unable to take her gaze off the clouds, she remained still, wondering what she should do. Contacting the colonel seemed a bit repetitive, as she had little doubts about him noticing the oddity in the skies as well. Also, she was no longer a part of Kora’s military.
A minute passed by, and soon, rain began to fall. It fell lightly at first, though it steadily grew harsher.
As an intimidating man with sunglasses shouted
“Seriously?!” far away, she blinked, returning to reality as she realized she had no umbrella. The weather forecast had no mention of rain, after all. Before she moved, however, the rain stopped pouring on her as someone cast a red umbrella over her.
She turned, only to find a blond man with a cowboy hat by her side, with a blue umbrella cast over himself.
“Um,” she began, thinking of ways to decline the umbrella. But the man offered her something to cover herself from the rain- there was no harm in accepting it.
“Thank you,” she finished calmly instead.
“Mhm,” the blond man nodded.
“Pretty convenient I had this umbrella around. I carry two in the rain.”“…Two? Why two?”The man closed his crystal blue eyes as he smiled.
“Because sometimes,” he said as he opened his eyes, a weird, cheeky grin sliding into his face,
“I wonder that if I do, a cat-shaped bus would come by.”Vermilla raised an eyebrow, glancing to the side as she held onto the red umbrella.
“And why would a cat-shaped bus come by?”“Because I want it to.”“Oh. I see.”The two watched the clouds in silence. She had a feeling that this man, too, knew that the weather was odd. She had no idea as to who he was, though.
In their silence, the man suddenly leapt and stomped both of his feet on the ground. He remained still in an awkward, crouching position for a few seconds before standing normally like before. He mumbled something about the rain not stopping when he stomped.
Vermilla stared at the man weirdly. As polite as it was for him to offer an umbrella, so far, he made little to no sense in his actions or intentions.
He didn’t seem like a bad person, though.
Turning to the clouds, she muttered,
“They said it would be sunny today.”“Oh, ho, lady, today ain’t gonna be sunny no more,” the man responded quickly. Vermilla turned to him, noticing that he had a smile on him. Yet, the smile didn’t seem too optimistic of the weather.
“In fact, I highly suggest we start moving.”Tilting her head in confusion, she asked, “Do you know something about this weather?”
He didn’t answer her.
Though she wanted to hear his response, a barrage of lightning suddenly struck the tip of the skyscraper rapidly. She jumped as she looked up, and her eyes widened as the clouds grew darker.
And red.
A cry of fear prompted the abrupt end of the World Fair.
Several stalls were knocked over as people ran away from the direction of the lightning. Riesling had been known as one of the most peaceful cities in Kora, and as such, many were lost in trying to run for shelter. The city had gone dark quickly, and when several lamps turned on automatically in response to the lack of light, they shattered instantly.
Kora’s military was extremely quick to respond, however, as many of its soldiers began crowding at the popular intersections of the cities. Police formulaically lined themselves down the streets to get people to the closest storm shelters. Almost every one of them were armed.
“I want all of those shelters secured!” a certain Colonel shouted in his radio. “What’s the report on the paranormality level at the KEC?”
“Five! The whole area around the building’s gone red, sir!”That doesn’t sound good, the Colonel thought grimly as a light reeking of bright red began glowing at the center of the clouds.
“Get the PSI barriers ready. I need as many men positioned around the skyscraper now! And get a visual on the paranormal source up there!”
At the top of the skyscraper, dust of red and black swirled into the world as the clouds opened, revealing a pale void for a brief moment before it closed. The dust circulated around the tip of the building as it seemingly observed the city as a whole.
Red lightning struck around the dust as it remained in place as the clouds grew redder. Beneath the ashes of red and black formed a physical entity, his body marked with runes glowing in red.
He had yet to vanish, and he had no plans in doing so at that very moment. He needed to be remembered. Duatos stood at the tip of the skyscraper, his torn, ruined flesh masking his soul as he observed the city in chaos.
No doubt would he, as he was, fall in danger if he stayed too long. He had yet to recover after centuries of silence.
The hollow, empty space in his head soon held two glowing orbs, each of them appearing behind his ripped eye sockets.
Letting out a deep screech, he thrust his hands in the air as raw, necromantic magic formed in his hands as it turned into a ball of crackling energy.
He then launched a large blast of energy that was sent directly beneath the skyscraper. In an instant, the streets began to explode in red thunder as the energy spread out throughout the streets as if a dozen fuses were lit. Soldiers positioned themselves and activated the PSI barriers, barely preventing some of the lightning from annihilating many of the civilians still evacuating. Some who had not made it, however, burst into ashes instantly. The culture of Sarastrea, including Kora, Oasari, Okarlai, and many other countries had been tossed aside.
Out of the ashes made of the fallen came mindless demons, resembling the shape of people. Their form was indefinite, though they formed claws that seemed shared resemblance to common predators. Glowing white eyes peeked open one by one as they wildly ran down the streets, claiming any lives the lightning had not taken already.
As some of the barriers shattered the moment the energy passed the soldiers, Duatos called upon the essence of the chaos beneath him. The essence flowed towards him from the demons that appeared, like streams of blue light that steadily grew red as they drew closer to him. He consumed the essence at the top of the skyscraper, feeling a bare fraction of his life return to him.
Knowing that remaining still will cause some to try attacking him, he vanished into a small fog of dust as it made its way down to the cities, shattering the windows it passed by. The streams of essence were still connected to him, indefinitely marking his position.
What the hell is that?Ryuu’s eyes widened as thunder literally tore its way down the streets. Out of pure instinct, he brought out the plasma in his body as he created a glowing white barrier tinted with red. The lightning seemingly bounced off of the shield he made as it continued to make its way down the streets.
Okay, seriously, what’s going on?!The screams of people made him lose his focus, but he eventually calmed half of his tensed nerves down and analyzed the situation.
Some… thing had appeared at the top of the skyscraper in the middle of a fair. And it suddenly brought havoc and tried to destroy the whole city in an instant.
If he were to be honest, he’d seen more bizarre things in comics. But comics and reality were different- even he knew that!
“You gotta be shitting me,” he muttered as he took out a lightsaber model from his hip. Plasma erupted from the handle as he formed his beam sword, glaring at several ashe-covered figures that approached his direction wildly.
The screaming all around him didn’t help.
“Aaaaaalright, Ryuu,” he said to himself, his eyes darting between what he now presumed as monsters.
“Life happens, right? So it doesn’t really hurt to expect some freakish thing to pop out and start tearing apart one of the most perfectly normal cities after years of peace.
“It happens. It happens.”No, it didn’t. And he knew that too well.
As one of the demons lunged towards him, Ryuu leaned away from a sharp claw swung diagonally for his neck. He twisted his body as he intensified his plasma blade, and with a mighty slash, cut the monster apart in one hit. He had seen and encountered something like this back when he was a student at Athalia. And he honestly thought his life would finally relax a little.
Another one of the monsters leapt towards where he was as Ryuu rolled away, his blade readied near him as he shouted,
“This is such bullshit!” When the monster charged towards Ryuu again, bolts of plasma formed down his free, left hand as he blasted away the mindless thing away, sending it crashing through one of the nearby building’s windows.
Life was full of curveballs. Some just hit your face way too hard. The otaku steadily retreated as he cut down more of the demons that got close to him.
Her life had flashed before her eyes when she saw the red thunder.
Much to her surprise, however, she still stood. Opening her closed eyes, she found the blond man standing in front of her, his umbrella simply opened to the direction of where the lightning tearing through the streets had come from. Spinning the umbrella, he shook the umbrella a bit before tossing it aside.
“Well, that’s busted,” he said out loud, scratching the back of his head.
"Guess that's another trip to Okarlai."“What… What just- How did you-““Hold up, lady,” he interrupted, cracking his knuckles as he pointed at a nearby water fountain.
“Looks like we got company.”Monsters.
Demons.
She had seen monsters, but not demons. She had heard of them, but never approached them.
And here she was, standing before what she could only describe as something worse than both.
Their bodies flailing wildly as they charged towards her at a frightening speed, the demons roared in discourse, their razor teeth and eyes glinting with white. Some of them were tainted in red, and she could not even imagine what they had done to look like that.
Gulping, she closed her eyes and shot them open. Her blue eyes went scarlet red as long, cyan string formed in her hands. It had been a while since she had used her Hardlight, but the situation practically begged her to use it.
As one of them leapt sky high, the airborne demon in particular attempted to sever her in half. Before it reached her, however, she swung the string vertically upwards as a thin barrier formed, floating in the air.
The demon collided against it hard, and as it fell uncontrollably, she extended the Hardlight string and swung it diagonally forward, slicing apart the demon in half. As it died, it burst into ashes as its remains floated back to where the lightning had come from earlier.
Meanwhile, the blond man took out a whip and a machete-
Wait, where did he get that? Vermilla thought incredulously, only to find her incredulity grow when she saw him take on three of the monsters at once.
Ducking underneath one of the leaping monsters, Mark spun on one foot as he kicked the airborne monster on a fire extinguisher before thrusting his whip out. The very tip of the whip hit one of the approaching monsters harshly, throwing it off balance. The third demon lunged at an apparent opening Mark had left open, his back facing it.
Vermilla shouted,
“Look out!-“Suddenly jumping forward, Mark’s body followed the direction of the demon’s lunge as he flipped backwards. Machete in hand, he sliced open the demon’s head, leaving its vertically severed head dangling to its sides for a moment before the monster vanished. He then thrashed his whip at the demon he had tossed towards the fire extinguisher, smashing its head against the extinguisher yet again.
And he continued to send the demon’s head crashing against the extinguisher with his whip until the thing burst out water.
“Oof!" Mark let out at a high pitch somewhat jokingly, as the monster faded. The first demon, which had been kicked away from him earlier, charged towards him, keeping its body low unlike previously where it had exposed its body in the air. A moment before it attempted to cut his throat with a claw, however, Mark lashed out his whip, causing it to trip forward.
Taking a step back, Mark winded his machete behind him. He then took two steps forward, swinging his body wildly before he slashed vertically, tearing apart the demon quickly.
The demons weren’t too strong. But there was a huge quantity of them.
“Lady, what’s your name?!” Mark suddenly shouted as he dusted his clothes, startling Vermilla.
“You're pretty good!”“Vermilla!” She spoke under the noises of chaos surrounding them. The two began running from the skyscraper’s direction.
“Name’s Mark Noxus!” Mark shouted.
“Adventurer, explorer- you name it! And I think we're being attacked by some spooky stuff. I don’t mean to be rude, but this place looks like it’s gonna fall apart any minute now! Let's go!”“I understand!”The two made a run for it under the city in chaos. Most of the structures in the cities stood sturdily, though that mostly had to do with Duatos focusing primarily on wiping out the streets and regenerating himself steadily. Many of the soldiers began to open fire at both the demons and Duatos' ashes, which floated down the many corners of the city, keeping their primary goal to save any more civilians they can find.
@Animelover_princess@Driving Park@Nevix
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