God's blind eye stared down at the city of Lumina, and the street lights stuttered overhead endlessly as the shadows danced on the pavement. In an alley behind a run-down arcade, everything felt…different. The atmosphere was choked as if something clogged it.
A boy, his dark-brown hair that covered his forehead messily, his hollow stare pierced under his hood with a hazel hue, a black jacket hung around his body loosely as sleeves were pulled over his hands like he was trying to disappear, stood there uneasily as he drew in a deep breath of fresh air, his gaze fixated downwards at a physical photograph of his deceased father while he rubbed his thumb at the worn out edges that was smeared with a single tear of guilt, a regret he couldn't outrun even if he tried. The night deepened into midnight as the air grew colder. There was no noise other than the faint buzz of the street lights nearby.
His phone started to vibrate vigorously.
His hands slowly reached into the pocket of his tracks, dreaded with fear, praying he hadn't been caught sneaking out.
"Please don't find the pillows under the blanket," he whispered under his breath.
He pulled it out; the screen was dark. He exhaled in relief. But as his fingers wrapped around his phone more firmly, the vibrations began once again, and it escalated more violently. It started to get warmer, stronger this time, like it had a heartbeat of its own, as if something had been trying to break free. He tapped the power button in the hope it was a malfunction. The screen lit up instantly, but instead of his lock screen, it was a single message, waiting.
[DO YOU WISH TO CHALLENGE FATE, VIREO?]
He blinked, then rubbed his eyes just to be sure he wasn't dreaming. There was nothing else on the screen, no notification icon or app name. Just two options beneath the message.
'YES' or 'NO'
He stared at the options, unsure what they truly entailed. Curiosity kept gnawing at him quietly until it eventually won.
"Happy Birthday to me, I guess…"
He chose 'YES.'
For a moment, nothing happened at all. Then reality hesitated. The streetlights flickered a single time, sharply, as if they were being forced to. The air around him felt suffocating as a strange pressure hummed in the wind like a calm before a thunderstorm. The phone lit up, but it shouldn't have. It stuck to his hand like gorilla glue; he struggled against it, but his grip wouldn't break, no matter the force used when he waved it in the air. Panic shot through his chest, his lungs stiffened, his body frozen.
"What the- help!" Vireo screamed at the top of his lungs, but all he mustered was a whisper at best.
Blood-red lines of light crept across the phone, branching like veins under skin. Beneath the screen, circuit-like patterns pulsed with a steady, rhythmic pulse, almost like a heartbeat.
The phone reacted to Vireo, responding to his every move, judging every action. Light spread through his veins as if they were searching for something inside of him. The display cracked, but it didn't break as fragments that glittered in the moonlight rose from the surface, rising into the air, weightlessly. Vireo froze, only catching a fleeting glimpse of a creature-like figure in between the fragments, as they twisted above him, stretching, folding, and unfolding into a shape that was never meant to be with a material that shouldn't exist.
Then, a weight returned to his hand, heavier. Not his phone anymore, a blade; a long, narrow edge of pale purple light that hummed softly as his hands wrapped around the handle like it had been waiting on him. Its surface had a surreal feeling as the air bent around it like reality couldn't settle near its edge.
A cold, mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
[MANIFESTATION COMPLETE]
[Weapon Type: Catalyst]
[Designation: Reality Blade]
His palm gripped his chest as his heart raced.
"What..?"
Before the thought could be completely processed, footsteps echoed from the far end of the alleyway as they were only growing closer. The flickering street light caught her first. A girl with silver hair that glistened under the moon, eyes azure as the ocean, sharp and steady, almost too focused, a dress draped over her frame, slipping off her shoulders as if it barely clung to her. She held a phone that radiated the same light as before, only now it burned with an azure hue engulfing her tightly clenched fist around her phone, echoing the colour of her eyes. Her gaze locked onto the weapon that resided in Vireo's grip, unblinking.
"You're new…" She muttered.
"What are you talking about?" Vireo said, his voice catching. "It's three in the morning- please cut it out. You're-" he stumbled back, nearly tripping over nearby rubbish. "You're scaring me."
She tilted her head slightly, studying him. Her fingers' grip tightened around her phone until it shattered, but it didn't fall; instead, it warped around her hand. Fragments of glass-like rock warped around her hand instead, with a silhouette of a lizard-like creature residing on her shoulder. The fragments surged into the creature, as they began to merge as one.
"Oh come on-" He shouted as his body trembled.
The alley flared with a burst of azure light as the shards lifted into her palm, rising into the air, locking into place. A crossbow emerged; sleek, compact, formed from fractured light encased in a dazing azure hue. She raised it, aiming at him.
Words bled at the edge of his sight; thin and translucent as if they burned directly into his retina.
[PLAYER DETECTED]
[DISTANCE: 10 METERS]
The ground beneath them flickered. Thin lines of light spread throughout the alley walls, branching, intersecting, forming strange, irregular geometrical patterns that sealed the place around them.
The air became heavy as if time had frozen; it felt as if time had stalled, like reality itself had been shifted slightly out of place, outside of the bounds of rationality and physics.
The voice returned; it didn't echo, it was simply there.
[DUAL INITIALIZED]
The girl sighed, with her finger just shy of a few millimeters from the trigger, subtly aiming at him.
"Great, you're a beginner." A pause, exhaling calmly,k "I'm sorry."
It didn't feel like an apology as the shot came out instantly.
A bolt of pure azure light tore through the alley, screaming with noise as if the air around it was being burnt, while the ground beneath was cracked by the immense pressure it carried, fragments of concrete lifting in its wake.
Vireo didn't think; instinctively, his body moved. His arm swung upward as he gritted his teeth. Impact. The bolt splits clean in two as light scattered with sparks that rained through the alley like a meteor shower. The force caught up with him a moment after. Hurling up off his feet as his body slammed into the wall, cracking it open as he was driven through into the arcade. Silence soon followed, then footsteps. The girl navigated the rubble without flaw, her eyes narrowed slightly as she entered the arcade's interior, immediately noticing Vireo lying on his back.
"First time?" Completely unfazed, as if she had done this countless times.
Vireo's grip tightened around his blade, "You could stay that," brushing dust off his clothing as he slowly rose from the rubble, his eyes never leaving contact.
"Rule one," as she pulled the trigger, another bolt of light tore through the air again, and as it grazed his arm that he barely dodged, it exploded behind him. Fragments of the concrete flew everywhere; as a result, the arcade equipment got damaged. "Don't freeze."
"Rule 2, Don't hesitate," as she lowers her crossbow slightly.
Vireo ducked behind one of the fighting game cabinets that was closest to his vicinity, while his back hugged the machine as he tried to steady his breathing. He glanced down at his blade. He noticed that the light began to slowly dim. Not good. He gritted his teeth.
"Fine," he muttered.
He rushed forward, gripping his blade tightly like it was life or death. The air warped around him as he swung with all his might. Vireo had no thought behind the strikes, no rhythm either, just force. It was clumsy but powerful. The impacts shattered the surrounding glass as a shockwave rippled outwards. The girl stepped aside effortlessly… too effortlessly.
"You're overdoing it,"
His arm felt as if it were burned to the point where the injuries were self-inflicted with every swing. Something flickered in his periphery.
[SYNCHRONIZATION 21%]
"What does that even mean?" he muttered to himself.
She sighed as she slipped past every swing from Viego effortlessly, as if she were dancing.
"You don't even understand your Alter yet. Why are you even here?"
As his blade collided with her crossbow, this time, she parried the attack. Fragments chipped away on impact, scattering like shards of glass. She planted her leg firmly into the ground while Vireo's body was unsteady. Her fist drove into his stomach, as the air was sucked out of his lungs, making him lose grip of the blade. She didn't stop. Without a second's notice, she spun around, landing a devastating kick that landed square on his chest, which sent him crashing across the floor a few meters away, a trail of miniature craters like skipping stones on water formed as he flew.
Silence fell in the room.
"Interesting…" she said to herself
"You're unstable but dangerous." A pause as she lowered her weapon.
"Final rule, don't be stupid," as the crossbow dissolved back to light, fadling into nothingness.
Vireo's hand grasped his chest, gasping for air. Pain burned throughout his body as he tried to move. The blade beside him began to flicker, slowly dimming until it vanished. Where his blade lay, his phone remained unscathed. He reached for his phone, forcing himself to rise before collapsing back again on his knees.
She turned her back away from him. There was something almost like pity in her expression.
"You're not ready, learn to control your alter, or the next person that finds you will kill you. Until then, don't activate it."
The duel interface flickered in his peripheral vision.
[DUAL TERMINATED]
The world shifted back to normalcy. In an instant, they were back in the alley. No visible damage or wounds, just lingering exhaustion. The arcade stood untouched, as if nothing had happened. As if it all had been erased like a dream.
The girl disappeared spontaneously, swallowed by the darkness. Vireo lay on the alley ground, the device still in his hand. The screen glowed faintly as another message appeared.
[SYSTEM NOTICE]
[IRREGULAR MANIFESTATION DETECTED]
"I really need to get back home before sunrise," he muttered as he struggled to stand. He took one step, and everything tilted, getting worse with every other. His vision blurred, his body weakened. He caught himself against the wall, his fingers scraping the crevices of the wall for support. Another step, his legs gave out. The world began to fade as he collapsed onto the cold pavement. The phone pulsed once, somewhere from the distance, a shadow gazed upon his unconscious body.
Far above the clouds, beyond the sight and reach of normal human means, something stirred. Fragments of a shattered moon glowed faintly in the dark, unseen by the world below.
[RANK: UNREGISTERED]