Arc 1: A first day filled with anarchy
The rushes of hope. Magic, friends, love. The idea of being a hero. Of living in a dream. It was all fleeing, pulled away by the darkness hidden under this reality. Where Gray, no, this boy that had never gone to another world could breathe. Being in another world, it had to be a lie, it just had to. It was all he could think. A dream before he died. A dream and he didn't die at all. Anything other than the truth. But either way, there he was, back in his room like nothing had happened.
Gray: "Wa? How is this -
However it was hazy; it felt more unreal than that other world. But seeing his room, his computer, feeling his blanket over his body. Seeing his hands, he couldn't take it. It was was enough to squeeze the sheets as tight as he could. Grit his teeth, bite his lip, clench the tears in his eyes. With a fading memory of something so strong, so powerful that he couldn't breathe.
Gray {Where...why....what is this!?}
The room he missed so much all blurred with the tears, the image of golden strands. Until before he saw his door open. And a relatively tall, skinny, pale skinned woman stood in the door way. With circular glasses compared to Grays darker square ones, however her face, build, and even hair were all very similar to Grays. He was just a little taller, had messier hair, and a far gloomy look over his face. Frozen, head down by eye bags, and yet seeing his mom made it all defrost. For just a second. Causing his heart to skip a beat.
Gray: "It really is you!?"
"I'd hope it's me and not an intruder or something, and if it was your dad there would have been a bit more screaming. Now common! I'm starting the show without out!"
while she went along like normal, turning to walk away while Gray almost collapsed out of bed to run after her.
"What's the matter!? Come downstairs and eat lunch you can't sleep in all day."
Gray: "Okay I'm comin!"
Grays room was fairly small. They had lived in an apartment, this exact apartment, for basically his entire life. His walls were painted over again and again until they've reached the slight white they are now. Those walls were now barren compared to the poster haven it used to be. No stickers, no clothes, no figures. The only thing he had was a bed, his desk and computer, and a sword mounted on the wall. He hadn't taken it down because it was too difficult. Leaving him in a shell. However, strangely energized for the first time in a while, Gray gets his glasses and some clothes before quickly stepping out of his room and down the hall heads to go eat food with his Parents.
Gray {What the hell? Did I just wake up from a bad dream? It felt so real though, guess it was one of those types of dreams then, I have a better imagination than I thought}
His mother looked extremely close to him, with slightly longer hair and larger circular classes. Always wearing some sort of turtle neck sweater, usually gray. While his father was a lot bulkier, shorter, and had shorter light brown hair just like Grays mother. His mothers eyes were as large as Grays, but Grays smile was just as large as his dads. For the most part, you wouldn't even be able to tell they were even related aside from their big mouths and curlier hair. But, at least in this world, Grays face was far quiet. Slimmer eyes, a slimmer mouth, heavier and less wild hair that looked a bit darker than normal. But Grays dad always wore a couple old Night Strike Band shirts, a band Grays mom was in during college when they met.
Mom: "You look upset, are you alright? Did I wake you up from a good dream or are you just sad that you have to go back to school tomorrow? "
School, something completely out of his mind, and something that felt like a curse. Heavy enough to make everything seem familiar. Tight, painful, burning hot, until he could lay back in his bed and let the day pass over him. But, like always, he tried to muster a small smile while pushing his food back and forth across his plate.
Gray: "Oh, yeah I forgot I have school tomorrow, and I guess it was a cool dream. Pretty memorable I guess. "
Dad: " I haven't seen you outta your room much. You haven't eaten with us in like weeks!, I wanna catch up!"
Gray: "I ate with you guys a few days ago! And I eat at school, when I come home I just wanna sleep."
Dad: "Come on! You have to do something while you're at school! Something dumb that happened, girls you like, or plans with friends!?"
Gray could feel the pressure instantly setting in. And all of the memories fill its place. Day in and day out, without a word. Walking class to class, car to home, room to school. The same eyes, the same grim demeanor, and only worsening thoughts by the day.
Gray: "No, I haven't really been doing anything."
Dad: "You gotta do something! Come on man! You gotta be a loser not a quitter at least, shoot your shot with somethin! It's how I got your mom, and my kinda job!."
Mom: "You "got" me because I asked you out, I thought you'd never ask me but you can tell the story how you like it I guess."
Gray tried his hardest to focus away from the conversation, with the thought of Rosemary, Soku, Ophelia, and the other world still in his mind. He still felt sore, he felt like he had done everything. That it felt more than this ever did. Like his hope was stripped away.
Dad: "Oh yeah my bad, but still, you can't keep walking around all lonely and depressed get something more productive to do."
Gray: "All I do is play games, and watch TV basically what you do all day."
Dad: "Well, uh, fine just stop looking all sad and stuff, look you're smiling right now."
Mom: "Leave him alone, he's fine, he's not overconfident and he's funny."
As they continued to talk to weight of his apparent dream still weighed heavy on him, heavier than the loss of this world. The thought of Rosemary, Ophelia, and even Soku being fake just felt like a slap in the face, the thought that he could have been anything special gone. But still, he spoke loudly, with his chest puffed out, and a massive smile on his face.
Gray: "Got my number one supporter and my number one hater in one room!"
Mom: "You do seem to be in a happier state than yesterday when you went on that walk."
Gray: "Walk..?"
Gray goes into a bit of a panic, getting flashes of the truck hitting him. The fear that hit him in the final moment returning, and the weight that he felt in that moment coming back along with it.
Dad: "Yeah when you killed yourself for no reason leaving us to deal with it, you couldn't even bother to leave a note or anything."
Gray: " What are you talking about!?"Gray stood up, instantly defensive and filled with confusion.
Mom: "Don't play dumb you little selfish bastard!"
Gray jerked away from his parents, desperate to understand just why they were screaming so loudly. Echoing through and around the walls, back and through his ears. Where their voices sounded exactly the same. Deeper and deeper, while the walls got closer and closer.
Mom: "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!? LEAVING US TO CRY AND WORRY FOR HOURS AND HOURS!? HOW LONG IS IT GONNA BE BEFORE WE CAN SLEEP AGAIN!? HOW LONG UNTIL HE THINK YOU GAVE UP ON US!?"
Dad: "DID YOU JUST WANT US TO WASTE ALL THAT MONEY ON YOU!? ALL THAT TIME!? AND NOW WHAT!? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!? WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO US!?!"
His father threw the wooden circular table to the side, crashing against the sink. Gray couldn't think, he could hardly see through the confusion. The panic. The god awful fear. Like shackles, pulling him back as he scurried away against the wooden floor. Until he felt the slim tight hand of his mother around his ankle, holding so tightly that her nails dug into his foot.
Gray: "DAMMIT PLEASE! STOP SHUT UP SHUT UP! LET ME GO! LET ME LIVE!"
He couldn't kick back, but his father picked him up for him. Where Gray had to scream, struggle, and push against his dads raging and screaming face. Sweating, with blank while eyes, while the floor began to separate.
Dad: "YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST WALK INTO ANOTHER WORLD!? TAKE WHAT'S NOT YOURS!?"
Mom: "DO YOU THINK IT OWES YOUR TRASH A NEW LIFE!? DO YOU REALLY THINK CONNER KYOJIN DESERVES ANYTHING AT ALL!?"
The parent's voices and tone started to go deeper and darker. Stretching like a sickness through their mouth, their eyes, their veins. Gray screamed, staring at his decaying mom and father. Roaring to the heavens about just how useless, putrid he is. Until Gray finally kicked off his fathers thick chest to the floor, a floor that grabbed hold of him.
Gray: "WHAT -
It was cold, it was far more painful then their screams, but it wasn't as scary as the windows bursting open with black smog to quickly fill the room. So the strange, slimy, streching tendrils around his arms couldn't bee seen.
Gray: "PLEASE JUST STOP THIS PLEASE! I BEG OF YOU! I DIDN'T MEAN TO COME HERE! IF I COULD GO BACK I WILL, I - I - I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!!"
As he looked their appearance started to get foggier like a cloud. Blending into the rushing storm, circling and circling him. Where all he could feel, hear, see, taste, was the degusting corruption. Where his parents voices, words, all faded into the darkness. To pull him deeper and deeper, before bright purple eyes flashed inside of it. Staring directly into Grays eyes, no through them, deep into his soul. His OD.
Gray: "....if I did something to deserve this....I'm sorry....I swear I am...."
He was shuttering with an absolute terror, an all encompassing fear. Ready to puke on his tears, to fill the storm with his own screams of terror. But he just dug his arms into his sides, and looked into those horrible eyes. But, like they were annoyed, squinted. Wrapping his arms, his legs, his throat with a tight black tendril. Pulling him as close as he could be, and it spoke through the darkness with the miniscule connection that's been built.
"Wake up, you filthy creature."
Like he'd been brought back from the dead, Gray leapt out of bed. Ready to scream, cry, throw up, run in circles, and just about anything else. Until he saw the brick walls, the stair , leaping onto his feet sweating and panting. But then he felt new old and scratchy blankets, a harsh floor, and brick walls. Sokus home, and beside him, shaking his arm with filled with even more fear than Gray was Rosemary. Without a breathe, without a shred of hope, she could only whisper with all her might. Under the sound off dead silence, the cracking winds. shaking with fear and looking forward. She whispered into his ear.
Rosemary: "Be quiet. They...they're here..."
Gray, confused to why Rosemary is talking with a voice filled with fear, only fear, tries to get answers as quick as he can. He even held her hands out of instinct, but she only gripped them tighter. She wasn't inexperienced, she wasn't weak, far from it. But the thing she felt, that putrid corruption. The same kind Gray had just been caught in a storm off, the same mana that keeps erupting out of Gray. The corruption, of anarchy.
Rosemary: "I don't know how I know but it's the Sect! The Sect of Anarchy, they are here right now and -
Then came the knock at the door. One, two, one two, one two, one two. two. A small malady that shook through the house. Causing Soku and Ophelia's ears to wiggle, Rosemary's mind to flash with flame filled memories, and every bit of air Gray had in his lungs to rush out.
Rosemary: "This is bad this is bad this - No! Okay get ready to run! If there are just a few anarchists I can take them on but if it's a Lower Pillar then -
The Knock slammed against the door hard enough to shake the building, sounding as if the front half of the home had been smashed against. But Rosemary managed to stand ahead of Gray. Putting her hand forward, to await the eventual bursting of the door.
Gray {Stand dammit! This is your chance to show them you're not worthless! I'm here for a reason right!? You're always here for a reason! I just have to push it! I CAN DO IT I CAN DO IT! BUT DAMMIT WHY WON'T MY LEG STOP SHAKING!? PLEASE! JUST STAND!}
Shaking and shaking and falling and falling, with only Rosemarys focused face to put him at some kind of ease.
Gray: " THE SECT OF ANARCHY!? THOSE CULT GUYS RIGHT!? WE GOTTA GO GET THE OTHERS AND -
With a final knock, the front half of the home ruptured with a dense crack. While the windows in the kitchen behind them erupted with black flashes. Rushing figures ready to hold guard, and insure they wouldn't leave. In long dark and purple coats over whatever attire they could find, wielding rusty blades, daggers, and wrapped wands.
Rosemary: "I WON'T LET YOU DO THIS!"
Rosemary clenched her fists, ready to unleash her mana, before the door finally blew open.
interrupted by the front door opening to show a figure coated in the shadows. Though they moved back into his cloak, under the shared blank white masks. His eyes were covered with a black lense, but his hair was messy, and his build was incredible short and fragile. As his entire body was coverd in the oversized cloak, dragging along with each of his slow movements. Hunched forward, wheezing and wheezing, before Rosemary finaly began to let out a bright golden flow of mana after a sudden loud click.
Rosemary: "STAND BACK! AND DON'T MAKE ME DRAW MY HAND, I'M AN EX GOLDENKNIGHT AFTER ALL!"
Gray: "…. Um hey can you leave please..."
He was trying his best, he even had a smile. But it instantly fell. He wanted to run as fast as he could with everybodys hands in his, he wanted to scream and beg and cry to be let free, but with Rosemary seemingly ready to take them on? He had to bite his lip to fight it, so hard it bled, before moving to his knees, then his feet. And tried to put his hand up, stopping Rosemary and the Sect, before slowly stepping toward what seemed to just be a child.
"Leave? No, no, no, no not without you!!! Don't you all feel it!? Your mana, it's, ITS SPLENDED! RUSHING, INCREDIBLE, JUST LIKE THE WITCHES INDEED! As my superior Pillar said it was! I thought it was impossible, but if that's how fate has been played, then I welcome you to the Sect. I don't know what part you've been set up for, however, if you're connected to her of all people, IT MUST BE WONDERFUL!"
The Sect and its bleeding madness for all to be hold. For Gray to back up and tremble under, while Rosemary's golden mana rushed even more. Although the anarchists stepped closer, iching for a battle to happen. And still Gray tried his best to break the tension.
Jeremiah: " I apologize if this is sudden, but I have orders to take you no matter what. So make this easy. And you can be welcomed, as a Lower Pillar of your own! Now, what is your name!?"
Gray moved forward with all the strenght he could. Holding his hand for Rosemary to hold off, so he could get face to the face with the tinny child. Looking toward his black eyes, before bowing. Letting his sweat and tears drench the floor while he began to bend his leg backward.
Jeremiah: "Now, let me deal with these creatures first. If a Golden Knight truly survives, then they must be culled."
As Grays leg stretched as far back as possible, he let it fling forward.
Jeremiah: "Please, without the theatrics.
As Jeremiah spoke, the darkness clumped against his chest. Bursting out as a long winding claw to grab Gray in an instant, before smashing him against the wall. Almost knocking him out in an instant, and forcing everyone else into action. It leaked, surged, rushed and flowed like water. Not a shadow, not a tendril, but a dense corruption. Flowing back into Jeremiah's chest, where other claws erupted forth. Toward Rosemary, against the brick walls, and right toward the overlooking Soku.
Gray: "ALL OF YOU GET OUT OF HERE! IT'S ME THEY WANT!"
Soku: "GOOD IDEA!"
Rosemary: "HELL NO! GET SERIOUS! WE CAN MAKE IT THROUGH THIS!
Jeremiah: "OOOH I'M HONORED TO SEE SUCH A SHOW! LET'S MAKE IT INTRESTING NOW!"
Rushing behind her was one of the few cultist surrounding the corners of the room, rushing with a dagger. And yet she instantly spun around, dodging the blade and kicking against the anarchist head. Before her golden flow rushed with two more clicks, sparking like a bright flame. Allowing her to smash the anarchist into the wood, before slamming her fist around into one of Jeremiah's claws. It burst from the pressure, and yet another anarchist sent Rosemary rolling to the side from a quick eruption of flame magic.
Rosemary: "GRAY!?"
Gray was forced to struggle and squeal against Jeremiah's arm, unable to do anything but watch the action unfold all around the tight home. Whether it be Soku rushing across the stair case, toward a wall, then the celling, to another wall, all while Jeremiah's arms rapidly chased behind her. Blasting out of the celling, walls, into and through the floor. To dodge dodge dodge in a dense rushing cloak of green winds.
Gray {DAMMIT! CAN'T YOU DO ANYTHING!? GRAY KYOJIN!?}
His eyes jotted between Sokus dodges, watching Rosemary bash an anarchist in their stomach until Jeremiah's arm snagged her leg. Slamming her into the stair case, in an attempt to drag her up the brick wall. Leaving Soku to save her with a quick slash of winds, shaped like a crescent, to cut the claw in half. Only for multiple more to follow and swallow both of them up, to tangle them in a web of his spiraling darkness, until they were both bound in two massive claws stretched from his Cloak.
Jeremiah: "WONDERFUL WONDERFUL ABSOLUTLEY POSITIVLEY UNDENIABLY WONDERFUL!!!! AN ELF! A GOLDEN KNIGHT! AND A CORRUPTED CHILD!? IT'S INCREDIBLE! AND TO THINK, I'M THE YOUNGEST LOWER PILLAR!!! OOH MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS WILL KILL THEMSELVES KNOWING HOW MUCH PRAISE I'M GOING TO GET FROM THE MASTERS!!!!}
Gray had seen the claws, or what looked like long arms, combining in and out. Splitting from a larger two, then four, then six. Shorter, weaker, until it seemed to be a max of eight or ten. It was still dense, powerful, a storm of corruption confined together. But it was manageable, and weak enough for Rosemary to scream out with a surge of power. Causing her golden aura to spark even brighter, before she burst through the darkness to free herself and Soku. Until she fell to the ground holding her aching body, temporarily in a daze from such a sudden and sharp pain. Burning through her muscles, her veins, so suddenly she couldn't help but freeze.
Rosemary {...After all this, I still can't handle it!? Even with everyones lives on the line!?}
Unable to push to that fourth step, she was forced to take a hit from a larger anarchist to the side. Thrown into the way of four rushing claws, quickly sliced open by Soku. Pivoting off the floor with a dense stream from under her feet, while layering her blade with wind to shoot right through his attack. Curve up toward Gray, and finally try to free him. Until she was yet against snagged by Jeremiah's endless claws. To be thrown up into the air, and smash through the celling. Glowing a bright green over the Slums, before falling right back in.
Everyone was screaming, sweating, ready to fight with their lives on the line. While Ophelia was no where to be seen, while Gray continued to scratch and claw at Jeremiah's arm to no affect, while Rosemary stood and lunged into an anarchist to bash them down, they'd move. They had to. Whether it be for themselves, for each other, or just for the sake of it. Against ten remaining anarchists, a powerful boss rushing with corruption, Gray had begun his second fight in another world. And only the Spirits could help him now. Or his own blood, sweat, and tears.