Blade ate a tasteless nutrient block while he patted the pockets of a dead man, the corners of his mouth curving into a smile as he fished out a leather wallet. The purple haired boy stared at it for a moment and shook his head. Blade bent down and studied the man's body for valuables. He was an older gentleman with glasses and tired eyes, slumped against the wall. He was bruised and viciously beaten. Many found themselves borrowing money from the wrong people, and being brutalized when they failed to pay it back. There was no jewelry to be found, but he did have a pair of nice boots.
He removed them and wore them himself. The soft insoles protected the sores on his feet. Then Blade's eyes widened as he checked the leather wallet.
He laughed loudly, pocketing the money and abandoning the leather wallet.
"Oh… Blade! My good friend, over here."
The enchanting voice came from a young man with long blonde hair that fell past his shoulders. He was slender, handsome, with perfect unblemished porcelain skin.
If he caught a reflection of them together, he was sure they would've looked like beauty and the beast. Blade sighed, giving his radiant companion a wave.
"Um, hey to you too, Isaac."
As both of them walked, there were many more like the man in the alleyway, lying on the street but not quite dead yet. But it was just a matter of time. Even Blade would someday be one of them when his luck ran out. That's just how it was here.
Looking up, he saw several billboards. They showed the faces of great Honorables who explored a magical realm called the Labyrinth. They were wealthy elites, and protected Earth from the monsters of that realm, and kept them from spilling out into ours.
There was the Sword clan and the Shield clan, the two biggest lineages for these Honorables. Blade snarled, and glanced at Isaac.
The blonde man looked at the billboard with a heavy stillness. He sensed Blade's gaze and smiled with a nervous laugh.
They were silent for a while until Blade spoke.
"So… The usual spot?"
Isaac nodded. After some walking, they found their haven. It was an abandoned school. Although abandoned in name, it was in good shape, and mostly clean. They both jumped the fence and entered the front doors, walking the empty halls in silence for some time. Blade rummaged in his pocket, removing a nutrient block and snapping it in half.
"Thank you."
Isaac opened his mouth and bit off a small piece of the nutrient bar. He slowly grew pale and smiled nervously at Blade.
"Blade, my friend… Do you really eat this?"
The purple haired boy was already finished with his half, chewing it without much of an expression.
"Of course. It's the most accessible food in the slums."
"Easily mass produced and it offers all the nutrients and vitamins a body needs… I think. Perfect for people like us."
"Oh… I see."
Isaac tossed the remaining piece in his mouth, chewed furiously, and then swallowed hard.
He and Blade climbed the last flight of stairs and swung open the doors to the rooftop which was propped open by a metal pipe.
From this high up, the city could be seen in its entirety. There were the slums, but there were also wealthy highrise buildings where the middle class lived, and where the really wealthy lived far away from here in their own mansions.
"This whole city. It looks like… a prison from here."
Blade snorted and patted Isaac's back.
"You say that like you don't belong here."
"I do."
Blade stared at the city without smiling.
"No… You don't."
Isaac tensed and opened his mouth and then quickly closed it again, his jaw relaxing. The blonde young man lowered his gaze to the city. His fingers quietly tightened around the metal fence until they paled.
Below them were distant sirens wailing, but even they quieted.
"…Isaac?"
He didn't answer. The air was different somehow. It was like there was a cold suffocating pressure that settled over the rooftop. Isaac's face was now deathly pale.
But he wasn't looking at Blade, he was looking past him. Isaac took a step back instinctively.
"…What?"
The blonde man's lips parted slightly but nothing came out. Behind Blade, something heavy scraped against concrete slowly and wetly. Blade turned his head, and at first he only saw darkness near the rooftop entrance.
Then he saw two hole shaped dots appearing from it. Eyes. There was a low growl that rolled over the rooftop. The fence rattled softly as Isaac released his grip from it. Blade moved before thinking and shoved Isaac aside just as a massive shape lunged from the shadows.
Then Isaac saw it too. A monstrous beast which was far larger than a bear, with hollow eyes and a serrated mess of razor sharp teeth in its mouth. Its growl was a low and heavy hiss.
'H—How…'
"Run!"
Blade ran towards the roof access door to grab the only weapon he could find, the metal pipe which kept the door ajar. The demon dog's jaws missed Blade by centimeters. It sounded like a sledgehammer striking a stone behind him. Blade picked himself up. There was a great slab of cement from the stairway that was pulverized into gravel with its massive jaw that could swallow him whole.
Blade swallowed.
He swung the pole hard, smashing against the demon dog's chest with a wet crack. Blade's pole had been bent horribly out of shape, without even scratching the creature.
It groaned loudly, and kicked him with his powerful front legs. The purple haired boy's world exploded in pain. The force alone was like being hit by a speeding car.
It forced the air out of his lungs, and left him gasping like a fish out of water as his body crumpled to the ground like a broken doll.
The Labyrinth beast snorted loudly, slowly walking towards Blade. Yet the purple haired man couldn't move. He could only struggle in vain, looking at Isaac weakly. The demon dog stood above him.
He mouthed out something.
'Blade… he saved me.'
Isaac's body refused to move. A cold instinctual thought appeared in his mind. Run.
Leaving Blade behind and running away while it was focused on him.
His heart was pounding against his ribs as the demon dog took another step forward. Blade coughed weakly as concrete cracked under its weight.
Isaac stared at the purple haired boy who was still weakly pushing himself up, but one of his arms trembled under his own weight before giving out again.
His gaze shifted toward the dark portal behind Blade. A gate to the Labyrinth, and horrors that would kill them or give them a fate worse than death waited inside. But not immediate death.
Isaac swallowed. If they stayed here, they'd die. Enter the Labyrinth and maybe die later. What other choice did they have?
His breathing became uneven and broken as he faced a choice that hardly felt like a choice at all. The demon dog suddenly stopped moving, its hollow eyes shifted. Toward him. Isaac felt his stomach drop. Neither of them moved for a long moment.
Then, unexpectedly a laugh escaped his mouth. It was thin at first. Isaac blinked and another laugh followed, much louder this time. Of course. Of course it had come to this. The world cornered people like animals and then waited to see what they would do to survive. The sound of his laughter drew the creature's full attention. Its growl deepened while Isaac forced himself to grin despite his trembling legs.
"Yeah…"
"Look at me instead."
Without taking his eyes off the beast, he bent down and grabbed a rusted bucket.
The murky rainwater in the bucket exploded on the beast's face. It let out a screech it had never made before. Pure rage. Its hollow eyes, momentarily blinded, snapped back onto Isaac and charged at him. The blonde man's blood ran cold. He threw himself aside just as the massive jaws crashed into the concrete where he had been standing a moment before. The impact shook the whole rooftop, with fragments of stone tearing across his face.
Blade turned his head weakly. "Stuh… S-Stop…"
The demon dog lunged again with twice the fury. But instead of running away, he ran straight towards it. For one horrible second, he truly thought the creature would tear him apart before he reached Blade. Then he grabbed the purple haired boy's arm violently.
"We're entering the Labyrinth."
Blade's eyes widened and his head shook hard.
"No—"
The demon dog charged toward them with thunderous footsteps.
"It's the only way."
"Are you crazy?"
Isaac stared at him silently for a moment.
The dark portal behind them pulsed softly, and then Isaac smiled. It was a small and exhausted smile.
"…I am."
It got closer… and closer until Isaac could hear its hot and wet breathing. He tightened his grip on Blade's arm and took one last glance at him.
"What about you?"
Blade hesitated but only for a second.
Just like Isaac, he had no choice either. Then his trembling hand grabbed Isaac's arm and the two of them fell backwards into the darkness just as the creature reached them.
Isaac saw the final traces of light vanish above him, the darkness swallowing him whole, one last thought drifting through Isaac's fading mind.
Deep down…
Something hot and ugly twisted inside him. That part of him wanted to see Blade die.
* * *