Hi Leaf,
Disorganised houses lined up in scruffy columns.
Pitiful peasants crowded the streets walking to and fro.
Boys fit for the slums crouched along the street edges.
All was fine.
All was one.
No mismatched pieces.
One such piece was a cloaked figure, a withered man hobbling across the street, his eyes barely visible under the mud coloured hood.
The man’s eyes stalked in front of him glaring through the crowd.
The regular groans and gasps began to louden.
“Look Out!” A man screeched.
The crowd separated into two messes.
But the cloaked man didn’t change paces—his robe blocking out all the moans and shouts.
Looking up the street to the cause of the separation was a wild horse frolicking down the street.
Though cheerful it was, it caused great panic for the people.
Bang!
The horse hit the man.
The man’s body appearing even more withered than before.
A blunt hit it was causing his bones to audibly creak.
The wild horse continued its journey down the street through the separated crowds.
On the other hand, the human man was crawling on the floor, his right arm slightly outstretched seeking its target.
The citizens began to crowd round the man, one boy who seemed barely 18 years of age tried to walk directly past the crowd.
He failed.
Great lumps of human meat blocked his path.
The boy grinded his teeth together, visibly annoyed.
“Can I get through?”
A few people heard the request from the teenage voice and shifted out of the way.
“Never seen a kid with such perfect white hair, have you?” A middle aged woman asked a similar woman beside her.
The other woman continued, “I haven’t seen such posh glasses in these parts ever.”
The boy only made it a few steps ahead before he encountered more lumps of meat, their wretched smell stinging his nose.
The withered man on the ground’s eyes dimmed slowly but his arm held life, perfectly guiding towards its target.
The tall boy with middle-parted white hair froze in his spot—no longer trying to edge forward as his ankle was caught.
A frail hand suspended his movement.
Crimson blood drips onto the hand.
A small wound caught in the cheek of the boy.
“Let go,” he commands, attempting to wrestle his leg out of the hold.
All of a sudden, his worn-out white pupils dilate and shift upwards disappearing from view.
He falls backwards onto the street, into the legs, feet and the chasing hands of the people.
Where the withered man’s hand was, on his ankle carved, had out a hole which was a dark purple nearly blackish colour on the boy’s exposed ankle.
The galaxy compressed and exploded in the eyes of the boy.
In the next moment he was no longer on the continent known as Titanmere.
Instead, he was among the stars.
To his right lay a massive white sphere, bubbles of flames mixed with a divine yellow and tiny streaks of pure gold lay sporadically on the massive sphere.
To his left lay a sphere much smaller in size and also scarred with deep cuts.
A pure dark green with elements of wood-brown which decorated the sphere.
“Wh-whe-where am I?”
An arm hooked around his shoulder:
“This is my soul plain,” a kind mature woman’s voice replied.
He turned his head and saw a womanly figure covered in a pure black mist.
Her body was taller than his but shaped perfectly.
One more figure appeared in front of him.
This time it was a man whom both sides were ordained by a katana.
A similar pure black mist covered his whole body.
“Name kid,” less of a question, more of a command.
“Florian.”
The woman chimed in, “nice name but I’ll just call you Flo.”
“Fine, you can do that,” he sighed under his breath.
“So Flo—”
“My name’s Florian not Flo, sir.”
“Okay Florian—”
A voice once again interrupted him:
“I shall take it from here,” this voice didn’t come from anybody but from the atmosphere around them.
The voice was motherly but also slightly robotic but without doubt soothing to the ears and extremely majestic.
“Kill this man,” the face of a calloused elderly man ran through Florian’s mind.
The man’s head is covered by a long red, white and golden religious hat with the symbol of the sun, his pupils a reflection of the very yellow sun itself carved into them.
The rest of his face was insignificantly perfect for an old man.
“I guess I’ll do it, maybe.”
“You will do it.”
“I will I will I will,” he repeated at a quickened pace.
“He is Pope Valestine.”
“Can I go now,” his figure vanished in an instant.
A heavy sigh came from the male figure:
“He is not killing old Val.”
“At least another survived,” the elegant atmospheric voice commented.
“Anyway, Liz why’d you become so sisterly,” he turned to look at her but she had already left.
Putting his hands onto his hips, he gazed around at the empty space.
…
The next thing Florian knew was waking up in a cold bed.
“He’s awake,” a shout came from a small toddler next to him.
Florian sits up in the bed and looks around, it appears to be some sort of hospital.
The wooden floorboards creak and the window shutters shake rapidly from the wind.
“Good afternoon sir,” says a pink-haired nurse who just turned from around the corner.
“I bet you’re feeling good to go aren’t you, a big healthy strong boy like you,” says a muscly doctor appearing from behind the nurse.
Within moments, Florian finds himself abandoned outside the hospital onto the half-empty street.
In one hand lies a receipt with a bar code for him to pay his bills through his plink which lies in his other hand.
“What type of sh— plink is this, a bloody ring.”
A plink is a small metallic device that can be shaped into any form desired, it is mostly used for identification and it can also be used as a form of currency transfer.
It didn’t take very long for Florian to go into the plink’s settings and change it into a golden necklace.
Hanging onto the necklace is a small locket, also golden.
Florian’s gaze wanders across the plinks green menu that appears in front of his eyes glancing below his name and age, all of his worst fears are true:
[Job – None
Currency – 0 Shards 0 Sols 0 Eclipse
Shards (Owes 35 shards to Blake Hospital to be paid within 29 sunrises)
Life Core Element – Unknown
Weapon Body/ Innate Weapon Body – Unknown if Present
Realm – Unknown
Realm Stabilisation – Unknown
Companion – None
Location – Brimnar City
Date – 13th Sunrise of Summer of Year 4032]
Florian jumped twice, he would like to say it’s because he’s happy but he just wants to see if he has any money on him.
After the disappointment of no ka-ching sound, he takes a quick glance at the bill before stuffing it away into his pocket.
“35 shards…” he mutters under his breath.
He looks up at the beaming sun:
“Someone help me.”
He shifts his glasses so they sit properly on the bridge of his nose.
Florian finds a nice park towards the city center and sits on a wooden bench.
His hands fiddle with each other and the image of Pope Valestine passes through his mind.
“Do I really need to kill the man?” He poses the question to himself as he wants to say absolutely not.
But, a sudden push from behind causes him to fall forward and he stops himself face-palming the floor with his hands.
He looks back and sees no one there.
A seemingly majestic voice re-enters his mind:
“Yes, you have to kill him,” it is the same voice that came from the atmosphere around him in the life core domain.
Florian mutters a series of unneeded curses under his breath.
“I am going to do that now, so stop stalking me, pervert.”
“Wait, can I call you Flo?”
“Sure.”
The eyes of that voice to Flo seemed to disappear at the same moment.
Not long after, Flo finds himself in front of a much larger building than the practically run-down hospital.
It is a Union building.
Flo opens the large doors and enters.
He walks up to the empty long desk, the attendant at the desk had her body slouched across it.
Flo decided to knock twice on the desk.
The woman pulls herself up and looks at him, her short black hair and glasses drooped with her melancholic behaviour.
“Nice hair, why’s it so whitish silvery?”
“Can I get my life core element and weapon body checked please.”
The woman seems a bit surprised:
“Wait, how old are you?”
“19, ma’am.”
A look of relief passes by on her face but the confusion remains.
She gets up from her chair and turns to the back wall, muddling through drawers.
“You’re so old and only now you’re getting it checked, why’s that?”
“Because I’m an idiot.”
Not bothering to reply she pulled out a small black circular pad.
“Pass your plink,” she instructed and he pulled the necklace off.
Passing it to her, she then placed the plink on the circular pad.
She looked up and without having to instruct, Flo had already cut himself by digging into his own skin.
The blood dripped onto the plink.
But not regular blood.
This blood wasn’t crimson red—it was a dark purplish-black.
As it dripped onto the plink, the outer edges started to melt away from the necklace.
“What’s your name?” He asked quickly.
“Emily, why?”
“Just wondering,” he grabbed the plink.
Staring at the blood left on the pad, she asked, “So what are you?”
“It’s just a perk I have,” he responded in a rushed tone.
He opened up his plink’s screen and stared at the green holographic image.
[Job – None
Currency – 0 Shards 0 Sols 0 Eclipse Shards (Owes 35 shards to Blake Hospital to be paid within 29 sunrises)
Life Core Element – Loading
Weapon Body – Loading
Innate Body – Unknown
Realm – Loading
Realm Stabilisation – Loading
Companion – None
Location – Brimnar City
Date – 13th Sunrise of Summer of Year 4032]
“Is it done yet?” Emily asked impatiently while she attempted to clean the blood with a tissue but it caused it to disintegrate.
“Nope, just give it a minute.”
Eventually, the blood dried onto the table, allowing for it to be cleaned by Emily.