Chapter 1:

New World

The Throne of Sin


       “Should we call it a day?” Corbin stretched in his seat. “I’m exhausted from all the studying.” 

       Three high school students sat across from each other in a local library, finishing up their study session for their midterms in a week.

       “What time is it?” One of the boys, Lucas, yawned.

       The other student, Daniel, looked at his phone.

       “It’s 10:35. I should probably head out anyways, my mom’ll be mad at me if I show up back home any later.”

      “I guess we should all just leave then,” Lucas said. “It’s late anyways. Same time tomorrow?

       “Works for me.” Corbin stood up and put his books into his backpack. “What are we covering next session?”

       Daniel scrolled through his phone calendar to look at the schedule they had planned out a few days' prior.

       “Tomorrow is math,” he said.

       Corbin and Lucas both nodded their heads in understanding. The three of them walked out of the library silently, careful not to interrupt anyone else in the library that was reading or studying.

       “See you all tomorrow.” Corbin waved to them as he walked the other way.

       “Only one more semester until I’m free to go into the real world.” Corbin jumped up and clicked his heels in excitement.

       He continued walking through the quiet streets of Chicago. By now, most people were asleep. The only light sources were from some windows and the streetlights.  

       Corbin stopped at a crosswalk and pressed the button on the light post, signaling it to turn green after a few moments.

       Very few cars were on the street, allowing the crosswalk’s light to turn green relatively fast. The familiar “walk” sound effect echoed through the somewhat empty streets.

       He began walking across the crosswalk, looking both ways as he crossed just to be safe.

      A small white truck made a sharp turn on the corner a block away and didn’t show any signs of slowing down for the red light.

       Corbin thought fast and lunged out of the way. Not being the most athletic person in the world, he would’ve still been hit but luckily the truck’s automatic emergency braking system stopped suddenly before it could hit Corbin.

       The driver lurched forward in his seat from the sudden stop and dropped his phone.

       The few people that were walking around nearby stopped and went over to the scene to make sure that Corbin was okay.

       A man in a business suit helped him up and brushed the slight rubble off Corbin’s shirt.

       “Are you okay son?”

       Corbin looked at the man with wide eyes and shaky legs, still uneasy from his near death.

       “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said in a shaky voice. “I just need to sit down.”

       The man helped Corbin to the curb to sit down. He then went up to the truck and knocked on the window.

       The driver, rubbing his neck from the whiplash of stopping so fast, rolled it down.

       “What is it?” he asked gruffly.

       “My name is William Smith; I’m a lawyer with Smith Law Firm. While I most likely won’t represent this young man in court, I will do the right thing and ask for your insurance information on his behalf.”

       The man scoffed. 

       “Insurance? I don’t have that.”

       William looked baffled.

       “That’s illegal in Illinois, you know. I’m going to have to write that down for use in court, if you don’t mind. Could you also give me your name?”

       The man looked scared. Out of fear, he stepped on the gas, leaving the scene.

       William and some other bystanders quickly pulled out their phones and took the best picture they could of the man’s license plate.

       He went back over to Corbin and squatted down to match his eye level.

       “Son, you might just have a good case on your hands. If you decide to sue, that is,” William told him.

       Corbin looked at him, eyes still wide.

       “Really?”

       “Really,” William said. “We don’t have to talk about it right now since you still seem pretty shaken up, but I’ll give you my business card so that you can contact me when you’re feeling better.”

       William took a business card out from his breast pocket and handed it to Corbin.

       “Oh, you’re a lawyer.” Corbin finished examining the card. “I’ll definitely call you later for help. I don’t know much about law.”

       William gave Corbin a hand to help him stand up.

       “I’ll make sure to await your call.” He straightened out his suit. “Will you be okay walking back home or would you like someone to accompany you?”

       “I think I’ll be fine,” Corbin said, voice still slightly shaky. “My apartment isn’t far from here and I don’t have to cross a major street again.”

       “Good to hear.” William patted his back roughly. “I look forward to working with you.”

       With the scene now over, William and the other bystanders dispersed. 

       Corbin walked a few minutes more until he reached a one-way street. With no crosswalk available, he looked both ways a few times for extra safety before crossing the street.

       As he planted his foot on a manhole cover in the middle of the street, it shifted into a red vortex beneath him. Corbin fell through the vortex, being transported from the ground into the sky.

       He naturally started screaming as loud as he could for no particular reason.

       Corbin spun around in the air. He tried to stabilize himself for a while before he was facing the ground.

       Vaguely remembering something he saw online about gliding, he spread out his arms and legs to catch the wind and fall slightly slower.

       While screaming still, his eyes observed the surrounding area from a bird's eye view. Seven suns painted the sky crimson red, and the ground below was covered in destroyed ground with dense forest. He didn’t see any signs of civilization, except for what looked like some ruins on the horizon.

       As the ground hurled toward him, he struggled to flip around so that his back would hit the ground first.

       He turned his head to see how far left he had to fall; a few seconds at most. Not knowing what to do, he just let himself fall and accepted his death.

       Corbin’s back hit the ground, creating a small crater and throwing the nearby dirt up into the air.

       Shocked to be alive, Corbin stayed in the crater lying down for a few minutes while breathing heavily and letting his thoughts catch up.

       “What the hell happened,” he said in a shocked whisper. “I don’t hurt anywhere. How am I not dead?”

       He stood up with no problems besides his shaky legs that made a return.

       Corbin laughed out of happiness that he wasn’t dead before looking around to see where he was.  

       “Clearly this isn’t Earth anymore,” he thought. “Or maybe I’m in hell. Did I actually die?

       He noticed that his backpack was still intact as well as all the items inside.

       “Well, even if I am dead, I might as well explore, this place looks sort of cool.” He walked further into the forest.

       The land was desolate besides the trees, just dirt on the ground with no grass or greenery. The trees were tall and thick, the complete opposite of the ground.

       After only a minute or so of walking, he encountered his first sign of life, movement out of the corner of his eye.

       Not knowing if he could still be killed in death or not, he hid behind a tree and poked his head out to see what moved.

       With no other greenery to hide in, he noticed that the movement originated from some sort of long shadowy snake-like creature. The pure evil aura radiating from it highly encouraged Corbin to not try and interact with it. His instincts weren’t the best, but he had enough common sense to know that thing would be bad news if he tried to get closer.

       He slowly backed away from the creature, careful not to make a sound. Corbin’s heel caught on a small rock, forcing him to trip backwards and gasp, catching the attention of the serpent.

       Corbin saw it snap its head towards him. Not waiting to see what was going to happen, he turned around and ran the way he came from.

       The snake slithered after him quickly, slowly catching up. As the snake got closer, Corbin started to feel a small tug in the snake’s direction.

       He looked back to see what was prompting the tugging feeling, but nothing was attached or hooked to him. The closer the serpent got, the stronger the tug seemed to get. It opened its mouth and made a sound like a rumbling stomach.

       Corbin’s mind raced, thinking of ways to escape before settling on the sound it made.

       “Is it hungry?” he thought. 

       Corbin, still running, took his backpack off his shoulders and opened it, grabbed a textbook, and threw it at the snake, hoping to either hit it or let it bite into it and get distracted.

       None of the options he had in mind happened. Instead, the textbook got sucked into the snake’s shadowy body.

       “What the hell was that?!” Corbin shouted, out of breath. “Someone please help me! I’m going to die!”

       His voice echoed through the silent forest, no one answered him. The serpent was only a few meters away from him now and running away became increasingly more difficult because of the invisible tug.

       There was sudden movement from the trees on Corbin’s right. He quickly looked over but didn’t stop to check what it was. He kept trying to run away and shake off the snake.

       “If there’s someone friendly over there, please help me!” he shouted in that direction.

       Corbin heard a loud thud from behind. He turned his head, still running away, and saw a giant pile of rocks in place of the snake.

       Out of either curiosity or stupidity, he stopped running and turned fully to face the pile of rocks, convinced that the snake was crushed under the weight.

       Instead, he watched as the rocks quickly began to disappear downwards. Corbin put two and two together and realized that the snake’s body must be consuming the rocks like it did with his textbook.

       The snake lunged out of the rocks toward Corbin. His first instinct was to put his arms up, but before the snake could sink its fangs into his flesh, a giant log flew past and hit the snake with perfect aim.

       “What happened?” Corbin whispered to himself.

       The snake began to consume the large log. When it was halfway consumed, a flash of silver and red came out from behind the tree and grabbed the snake, ramming it into a nearby tree.  

       Corbin noticed that the thing that grabbed the snake was actually a woman with long silver hair and some kind of red dress.

       “Don’t worry friend. You are safe now.” Corbin heard a mysterious voice echo through his head. He looked around but didn’t see anyone else nearby.

       The woman that took the snake was fighting hard. She used one hand to claw at the serpent’s skin while the other hand pinned the snake tightly to the tree.

       “I need some help over here!” she shouted. “I can’t hold this guy forever!”

       “What can I do—” Before Corbin could finish his sentence, a smaller rock hurdled toward the snake’s head, catching it off guard.

       This gave the woman a split-second opportunity to put both of her hands around the serpent’s neck and pull apart.

       She struggled for a few seconds, but she was able to separate the snake’s head from its body.

       The snake’s shadowy corpse dropped to the ground and the woman turned to face Corbin.

       She ran towards him fast, grabbing his hand and dragging him behind a tree before embracing him so that her back was facing the corpse.

       “Wha—” Corbin blushed.

       He heard what sounded to him like an explosion a few feet away. Out of his prefrail vision, he saw bits of random junk go flying past them on both sides of the tree.

       After a few seconds, the woman let Corbin go.

       “I’m terribly sorry for holding you like that out of nowhere,” she apologized to him. “Sivkeths explode with the more recent stuff they have consumed when they’re forcefully killed. Figured you didn’t know about that.”

       “Oh.” Corbin looked around nervously. “That’s interesting. Do you mind if I ask you a question.” 

       “Go right ahead.” She put her hands on her hips, looking proud for some reason. “But you will have to answer some questions I have after.”

       “Yeah, that’s fine,” Corbin said. “Were you the one that spoke to me in my head earlier?”

       “Oh, no, that was not me. That was my friend.”

       Right on cue, a humanoid figure with a large robe covering their entire body came out from behind a tree.

       “Nice to meet you. I’m the one that was speaking in your head. My name is Valerith.

       “Hello,” Corbin said nervously. “Are you guys here to hurt me?”

       The woman put her hand on his shoulder and laughed a little, showing off her sharp red nails.

       “Quite the opposite. We’re here to help, don’t worry. We’re actually interested in you.”

       Corbin turned to look at her, finally getting a good look at her face. She was super attractive; her silver hair complimented her pale skin and red eyes beautifully.

       “Me?” Corbin asked.

       “Yes, yes. Now come along with us before anything else comes to get you. Your little show brought a lot of attention to the creatures in this area, and I have no doubt that the Sivketh we killed warned the hivemind before it died.” She slipped her hand into his and started pulling him forward gently.

       Valerith caught up to them and walked beside Corbin.

       “Yes, ma’am. Do you mind if I ask for your name?”

       Without stopping she answered him.

       “I’m Sylvarien.” 

AppleyCorn
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