A white haired young man laid down on a porcelain white bedsheet, covered in a pale blue blanket and seemingly deep in sleep. His pale, black-lidded eyes slowly opened as beads of sweat fell down from his forehead.
’I’m alive?’
Those were the first words Luke thought as he sat up on his bed, pulling the blanket off his body.
’But how is that possible? Or... am I dead?’
The thought slipped into his mind, Luke shrugging it off as it came, but that could also have been the reality. Strangely, he recalled obscure memories of how the world ended and a new one arose from its ruins, and then he found himself in a village.
He felt as though it was a dream, and like some dreams, it was quickly fading from his memories, only bits and pieces of the occurrences remaining.
’So why did I ask if I was alive?’
Luke unconsciously glanced around the room. It looked the same, walls plastered with posters relating to musical bands and legendary characters of Mythos, and clothes piled on the armrest of the wooden chair.
A desk cluttered with schoolwork, half empty water bottles, headphones, and a phone charger snaking across the top of his bag. Everything looked pretty much the same, but Luke felt a deep sense of unease.
He tried to remember what had really happened in the dream, but his memory was foggy. Before he could ponder further on it, though, he noticed a figure with slightly glowing eyes peeked at him from the little space that was separating his front door from its enclosed segment.
"Brother Luke?"
Selene spoke from behind the door with a cheerful and cute voice that almost seemed sonorous.
She slowly pushed the door open, her white hair cascading down from her forehead down to her cheek. White pupils shimmering in the dimly lit area. Her hands clutching a coloring book.
"You’re finally awake!"
Selene yelled with glee. Luke, already used to such theatrics from his little sister, got off the bed and spoke evenly. "Of course I am, it’s morning after all, isn’t it?"
Selene beamed with excitement and answered with a question of her own. "Brother Luke, why does the cookie go to the doctor?" Luke thought for a bit, then answered. "I don’t know why?"
"Because it feels crumpy!" After saying that, Selene burst into laughter, appreciating her sense of humor. Whatever tension Luke felt earlier was almost eviscerated, as seeing his little sister in such a good mood raised his spirits.
He took her hand and pushed the curtain with the other. It was in the afternoon, probably why Selene had been a bit worried about when he should wake up.
’Did that also mean what had happened was fake and I just happened to have a really long realistic dream?’
Two hours later, he was surrounded by a small kitchen table where everyone had an assigned seat. The family consisted of three members in which, strangely, Luke was the head. Sitting at his front currently was the gorgeous figure of his adopted sister, Clara.
Her face was calm, her brown eyes were focused on her food, a small smile plastered on her beautiful face. Usually Luke was a bit tense around Clara, but today was an exception as he was deep in thought.
They didn’t speak about anything too important. Their conversations revolved around routine... how school was, Luke’s work updates, or scheduling the upcoming weekend.
Luke and Selene spoke with both their hands and voices although with a bit of mistakes in the hand signs of both Luke and Selene, but at least they knew the gist of it.
That evening, gamepads were in both the hands of Luke and Clara, their eyes focused on the screen on the wall ahead.
Clara, a level 500 mage, was helping Luke in his leveling up affairs. The atmosphere was the usual, but something was off about Luke today, and Clara noticed.
She put aside the controller and faced Luke, her eyebrow raised, surprised at the sudden change of his actions.
"You look pale."
Clara related through signs, her face filled with worry as she stared intently at Luke’s bloodless face.
"I do?"
Luke asked her, as although he had been feeling pain in his body, he didn’t know it was reflecting outwards too. At this point, he had decided that the dream he had was probably real, he had noticed inconsistencies.
A slight leak in the shower was gone, some cracks on the walls had magically vanished, and his nails even felt longer than usual. Luke had then decided maybe what had happened was not a dream after all.
The part that was most vivid to him, however, was the scenario that had occurred from the morning he had woken up till when Arthur Spark had spoken. With that, he had deduced that he might have been separated from his sisters or at least, that was what the fragments of his memories and intuition implied.
So Luke knew he was in mortal danger. He felt as though something was eating him from the inside, and yet he could not feel it. He spoke or, more clearly, he relayed to Clara through signs.
"Do you know anything about a class called the undefeated one?"
Clara shook her head with a raised brow, surprised at the diversion of the question.
"How would you escape a mind attack?"
Clara was surprised at the other question, but she quickly understood that Luke was referring to Mythos. Without thinking, she replied.
"If you don’t have mind protection tools or weapons, then shock should be enough." Luke stared at his pretty sister’s face, he was really going to miss her, along with Selene’s too.
"Be right back, I’ve got to stock up."
With that excuse, Luke dashed out of the apartment.
Later that night, somewhere in the outskirts of the city, the silhouette of Luke could be seen standing close to a bunch of naked wires. He hesitated at first, then closed his eyes.
"This is going to hurt badly!" He grabbed the wires and... he was electrocuted.
But instead of burning alive, Luke’s eyes snapped open. Surrounding him was darkness, and then his memories washed back like a tidal wave. He was struck by fear.
’Those five thralls, were they the ones that caused this?’
’Am I going to die?’
As if answering his thoughts, a glowing mist materialized from nowhere, encompassing the pitch black place in an instant.