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by BloodOfPhantoms
Prologue
"The pain in their eyes... I can see it. If you could see it also, maybe you would understand. I am the world, and I am in danger. I am the world, and I weep." That night— our nocturnal spillage... like the core of what led us to this in the first place. No matter what victories we obtained, we inevitably faltered. Our bodies were all but robotic. Flesh— and thus flesh rots. It entropies, to the point of no return. And leaves little else in its wake. We were cursed to be flawed, and thus it became our blessing. A fool's journey... **"Fukfufkfuf..."** A black-blue creature with many spike rowed gear that circled. Pierced into and around its neck, it spun with its motion. Rattling, rattling a slow noise. Well camouflaged within the far of the many yellow streetlamps, picking out its "spot". He could barely make out a face. But its head shaped purely like a human skeleton's. Eye holes yet sunken; absent. It tore straight through the smiling girl's heart with a piercing spiked limb. In the midst, he could see it try to cloak its appearance as it attempted to retreat. The shape of its head obscured into a mixed jelly. The rest of its body too, quickly losing shape amidst the dark walkway's blanket. Obscured— but not for him. Their ruby hair moved the same— until hers began to fall out of rhythm. His still pulsed, sharp and restless. Hers quieted, straightened, like a note held too long that finally stopped— short, straight, and sided. The grey of his jacket clung darker with the large splash of her blood amidst white tucked shirted clothing, too staining the slate skirt below. Blurred trail on the black of his shorts made fast. CLANK. He picked it up, and at once. IGNIS II. An odd, two pronged steel sword that hummed confusedly in his grasp... the twin edges ran uneven— one forward, one trailing— like a blade split by its own echo. Yet, as if understanding his sorrows and anger, allowed his wield for but a moment. "GET BACK HERE," he said. "I'LL KILL YOU WHERE YOU STAND," he said. Strangely, the Rank II blade emitted flame. The monster hovered back, and faded into the black. Before the flame could strike. Before the blade's tip could meet its mark. The fires only danced in the air and dazzled across the shadows of the walls. He stood there, for what felt like hours. Hours... Solan woke up in cold sweat. The room is pitch, just as the night intended. Under the sheets, it was warm. But cold, and alone. Empty. The house was not as it was before.