When Isle came to, he awoke in a bed of roses. A few roses rested on top of him. He swiped them off.
He looked around. A cloudy blue sky stretched on as far as he could see. The floor was white; pieces of shattered glass littered the ground.
Roses bloomed on some pieces, blocking what seemed to be faces.
'What the hell is this place… Is this really Shattered Memories?'
He noticed each shard had a different face on it, but most of them had the same rosé-colored hair that he did.
He suspected that they were all him or different versions of him.
Was Shattered Memories supposed to be this personal?
He walked over and picked up one of the shards.
He was about to examine it before he felt a sharp pain shoot across his body. He yelled and dropped the shard; immediately as it left his hands the pain subsided.
"You are not worthy of viewing that."
An echoing voice appeared from behind him; he quickly turned around and saw a tall figure sitting on a black throne where the bed of roses was before.
He had the same rosé hair as him, and a black cloak that hid his figure. It was long enough that some of it lay on the floor.
Reality around the throne distorted, obscuring its surroundings.
Isle shivered.
"Are you me? Where am I?"
He asked the man in front of him; attempting to use his quantum before it failed.
This furthered his unease.
"Am I you?"
The man laughed with his head in his hand. the question was stupid but he was still amused nonetheless.
"That's funny, Isle Calamitas."
At the mention of his name Isle ran towards him and attempted to punch him. Before his hand could make contact with the man it was ripped apart by a shredding gale.
Isle screamed in agony; his shirt sleeve was bloodied and the floor was painted a deep crimson.
Roses sprouted from the blood on the floor.
"Kneel..."
After he spoke Isle's left leg was shredded as well. He screamed again with tears of rage running down his face.
He kneeled; it was all he could do at that point.
"Hm… you're weak. Is this really what we were waiting for?"
Isle looked at him in confusion. Who were these other people he spoke of? If Isle's earlier guess was correct, he could assume that the man was referring to other versions of himself?
The man stepped off of his throne and ripped off his cloak. He wore a thin shirt paired with long, baggy pants and several luxurious waist accessories.
"I'm going to kill you now."
The man, once standing by his throne, was nowhere to be seen. A fist came flying at Isle.
He managed to sloppily block the blow but the result wasn't much better than it would've been otherwise.
Isle shot backwards, flying before eventually coming to a halt. The blow brutally shattered his arm and bruised his chest.
He gritted his teeth and pushed himself up from the ground.
He tried to use his quantum again, this time it worked but his weapon didn't appear in his hand. it appeared in the man's.
"Oh, for me?"
The man held up the crimson sword made by Isle's quantum and inspected it.
This somewhat solidified Isle's earlier guess in his mind; this man is him, or at least some deranged alternate version of himself.
Shortly after inspecting the sword, the man threw it at Isle. It was much too fast for Isle to even dream of avoiding it. The blade cut through his chest easily and pierced his lung.
He staggered back, coughing up blood as he did. A hand was brought up to the sword's handle to pull it out, before he thought against it.
'There's no point in taking it out, and there's definitely no point in bothering to run…'
He took a step towards the man.
The man's eyes were domineering. Isle could be killed at any point, but he wasn't gonna give up at this point, especially when he'd likely die either way.
"I suppose I should tell you who I am, I am Vermilion."
Isle's expression remained the same.
Vermilion seemed almost insulted at Isle's lack of a reaction.
With that, he was once again upon Isle. Before he could make it to him, Isle spit blood into his face and activated his quantum.
Like before, the weapon appeared in Vermilion's hands, but this time Isle grabbed it while he was blinded and stabbed at him.
The blade didn't even scratch him, it bounced right off his skin.
Vermilion grabbed the blade and stabbed Isle.
He fell to the ground and cried out in pain. Vermilion wiped the blood off of his face and looked at Isle with a cruel smile.
"Did you think you could beat me because you were a little crafty? That's real funny."
Vermilion ripped both of the blades out of Isle'd chest. His blood leaked onto the floor, and roses bloomed, greedily drinking it up like it was ichor.
Isle looked around and saw all the blood, the roses blooming. He realized just how much blood he'd lost and his skin suddenly felt clammy.
His arm was a bloody mess, and his leg wasn't much better, but his chest was the worst.
It had been punctured twice already, and it was almost impossible to make out any details past all the blood. He could barely breathe with his punctured lung.
He lay flat on his back, weakly stretching out his right arm to touch one of the fragments of glass on the floor. The pain returned, and he pushed through it.
The face in the glass glanced at him with an uninterested look and walked out of sight, Isle heard a small whisper in his ear shortly after.
"I'll help you, but you're now indebted to me. I am Caeruleus."
Caeruleus' voice was elegant and ethereal, like a ghosts.
Isle's eyes changed to a deep cerulean. His hair started to flow in the air and the tips turned to the same cerulean as his current eyes.
His wounds closed and he felt as if his quantum had been altered in some way.
"Ah… So you finally made a contract?!"
Vermilion could barely hold in his excitement; his previous aura had all but vanished, as if he was holding back until Isle made a contract. He'd been waiting to fight someone interesting.
"Well come now, don't expect me to hold back anymore though."
A childlike grin appeared on his face, as opposed to Isle's gloom.
"If that was you holding back then how in the hell am I supposed to beat you?!"
Isle's gloom turned to outrage in about a second.
"I dunno, that's for you to find out."
Vermilion's voice was so nonchalant that it was infuriating.
Isle charged towards him again then attempted to punch him.
He easily caught his hand and punched Isle in the face; Isle was knocked away again. his cheek was bruised but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been.
"You really suck at fighting, Isle Calamitas. Did you really think attacking the same way twice would work?"
Vermilion had an almost unconvinced look to him, it was hard to believe that Isle was this bad at fighting.
"Are you even trying?"
At this point Isle was fuming. He was clearly growing tired of Vermilions countless taunts.
But it was true that Isle wasn't good at fighting; in fact it was a bit odd that he had made it this far like this.
"Hm. Maybe I should actually kill you for not taking this seriously."
He rushed towards Isle again, this time Isle was able to slightly keep track of him. It wasn't much, but it was enough for him to prepare.
Isle used his quantum and a weapon was made. It was in Isle's hand but it wasn't at all what he had thought of.
He looked down at the weapon that had manifested in his hands, and realized it was a pair of gauntlets.
It was abundantly clear that Isle had absolutely no chance in winning hand to hand against Vermilion.
But to add to his problems, they hadn't even manifested on his hands. He had the choice to either block with his bare arms, or try to put them on quickly then block with them.
Neither of them seemed to be the best for Isle, but there were no other ones that he could think of so he quickly put them on.
He slipped both his hands into them then quickly looked up and saw nothing but the blue sky, he glanced around but it was as if Vermilion had vanished.
Sadly for Isle, Vermilion hadn't gone anywhere.
In the time that Isle spent while he was looking down and putting on the gauntlets, Vermilion had already passed Isle, he was now behind Isle, he'd moved around with Isle when he looked around, making sure he wasn't seen.
Isle was about to look over his shoulder when Vermilion pummeled his face, Isle staggered and he grabbed him and slammed him to the ground.
Isle was now pinned down to the ground, stunned. Though he quickly came to, and punched Vermilion in the face once before pushing him off.
Vermilion was on the ground for a second; Isle rolled away from him and got up.
His face was bloody but the actual wounds had already closed up. Was it because of the contract he had made with Caeruleus? He assumed it was.
Vermillion got up quickly to face Isle again, he still looked exactly the same as he did when the fight started, except for the hole in his shirt from when Isle had attempted to stab him earlier, and some blood splatters on his clothes from Isle.
"I hope you find a way to beat me soon, Isle Calamitas…"
He taunted him once again and sauntered towards him. Dark crimson horns that weren't there before, sprouted from his head. They seemed to be draconic. He grinned ear to ear.
"And I hope you don't die before I'm finished with you."
Isle wasn't amused at all, in fact his emotions were quite the opposite. He scoffed, clenching his fists in his gauntlets as he advanced towards Vermilion.