Chapter 0:
Lost Proxy
An entire planet gone quiet. The once bustling and vibrant Dorado City, with its large spectacular LED displays and neon streets, now reduced to a quiet ghost city where not a single soul walks its streets and shattered displays become a common sight. The port town of Aqualagos, once housing the proud and long lived Elvinian people and their prized opera house and the mountain village of Teyo where festivals and ritual dances always filled the air with laughter and music, both now only housed an emptiness so profound that one's own soul feels as if it's being sucked in to fill the void. It was as if everyone everywhere were just plucked from existence, like a rapture had occurred and everyone just dissipated, leaving not a trace of their former existence but whatever belongings they had at the time. However, this was anything but a rapture by a benevolent being.
On the rolling hills of Route Oriana near Colorway Town, where many novice trainers once began their journey now stood two figures in pearlescent and angelic white robes that contrasted with the shadowy overcast above. Small flat gems of various colors and shapes bearing sigils litter the ground as the wind blows, creating small 'waves' across the verdant hills that pass many craters and patches of scorched and frozen earth. Clear signs of a struggle. One of the robed figures, a woman named Justinia with fair skin, an incredibly stoic face that seemingly never shows any emotion, and long straight black hair that reaches her back, contrasting with her pure white robes that bear various symbols of justice such as scales and swords speaks up while raising a silver broadsword, shimmering with golden dust.
"We're done here. All instances of life-like animation have been eliminated." Slashing at the air in front of her, she cleanses her brilliant weapon of all the golden particles. The other, a hooded figure named Gray, is a man with a chiseled face and medium straight hair that reaches his shoulders, steps forward and begins to frantically collect all the stones and place them into separate small piles.
"What are you doing?" Justinia looks towards her companion, never once breaking her stoic face.
"In this world, it's customary that the Crystamon of the deceased are passed down to their friends or family and when the beasts themselves perish, they are then usually buried with their original trainer. So I plan to-"
"Funeral rites should only be reserved for actual living things." The woman interrupts, caring not for the man's knowledge of these 'people's' supposed culture. Equally appalled and at a loss, the man pauses, wondering what exactly he could say. After all, it's not as if he'll change her mind. He's already tried plenty of times.
"These people... laughed, cried, had problems, triumphs, failures and fought to the bitter end before we snuffed them out of existence... they were alive and I personally feel that it's the least we can do for them."
"So you consider yourself a murder?"
"Do you not?"
The woman turns her head towards the empty verdant green fields, all without breaking her uncaring face.
"Does a man consider themselves a murder because they laid out poison that killed an infestation?
Disgusted by her response, he simply returns to collecting the stones. Damn it Maroon, you were supposed to arrive before me and Justinia massacred these poor people! Now I'll have to perform another reset behind her back... I swear if she ever finds out...
"Do you honestly intend to collect every single stone here?"
"Of course. After all, it's not as if we're in any rush."
"I suppose not. Do what you want but please be considerate, after all, the plan cannot continue without both of us." Justinia waves him away, uncaring but knowing that if she doesn't indulge him here, he'll whine about it for all eternity.
"Then I'll be sure to take my time."
An hour passes by as the man has now made countless small piles of gems and the woman sits atop a nearby boulder, staring at the man as he does his work. Suddenly her eyes dart to the east towards the ruins of Colorway Town. She rises from her seat and lifts her sword into the air once more, turning her body towards the town.
"Someone is coming." The woman furrows her brow in confusion.
"Impossible. Every man, woman, and child has been 'eliminated' as you say." He chides her, feigning ignorance. Well, you took your sweet time.
Looking towards where Justinia is looking, he gasps at the sight. A teenager, no older than maybe 17 or 18, hobbling towards them. Battered and bruised, his red jacket, appearing to be ready to tear at the seams, his jeans torn and dirty, and his left leg drags behind like a broken tail. He limps towards the two robed individuals with a deranged look in his eyes. He stops right before them.
"Hey there. Remember me?" The teen looks up with a mad look in his eyes. Like a diabolical scientist that just finished his diabolical experiments.
"You failed to eliminate him I see." The woman mentions to the man, still sounding unbothered.
"But... that's impossible. I saw you with my own eyes..." A vision of his battle with this individual plays in his mind: Using golden rings of light, he bound both of his arms and legs, allowing him to impale his chest with a brilliant shard of golden crystal. It was supposed to look lethal, as if he just tore his heart to shreds, but in actuality he purposefully missed his vital organs. After all, they made a deal. "My attack shredded through his heart... how in the world...?" He lied.
"Oh, isn't it obvious?" The teen then removes his jacket which causes Gray to wince at the sight of what's underneath. "I'm the freaking protagonist! You just can't kill me, it's impossible!"
At a glance, it looked like the teen had a deep purple bruise that encompassed his entire chest with bulging veins leading to where his heart should be. A gruesome sight for sure, but upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that the veins in actuality are pulsating red vines and where his heart should be, the flesh beats unnaturally. As if a crazed lunatic is trapped in his rib cage and is kicking relentlessly to get free.
"Not quite how that works but... huh." The man shakes his head to regain his composure and stares the teen down. Kid, did you do the one thing I specifically told you not to do!? I swear, if you told that overgrown garden snake a single thing about our plan I'll-
"How careless. You forgot to factor that degenerate's meddling didn't you?" The woman asks Gray, not once flinching at the teen's condition.
Giving a deep sigh, he shakes his head and shrugs. "To be fair, it's not like we could've done anything about it." But he could have!!
The teen then re-donned his jacket and looked straight at the man.
"But enough about me. Despite everything I've seen, everyone I hurt, and everything I learned, there is one thing I'm just dying to know!" The teen's manic smile ceases as he stares directly into Gray's eyes. "Tell me. What exactly is the Azathoth Principle?"
The woman turns her head towards Gray. "Kill him. This time, make sure you finish the job." The woman commands, not gracing the teen with a reaction or response.
"Why don't you lend me that sword of yours then? Would be pretty useful." Gray responds, looking at the woman with scorn.
"You know very well why you cannot use my blade. Besides, I don't see why I should be punished for your inability to plan."
"I'm just saying."
The woman then conjures a large ring of light that she lowers onto herself telepathically. She disappears into it and once she is no longer visible, the ring itself vanishes. As soon as she's gone, Gray gives a deep and exhausted sigh.
"So, mind telling me where you learned about this 'principle'?" The teen however just scoffs, returning to his former mania.
"Does it really matter?"
"It actually does, especially when that... whatever it is... is in your chest! You better not have-"
"Oh, don't worry what I did! I just want to learn just how deep this rabbit hole goes before the world is screwed and who better to tell me than you Gray!" The teen then digs into his pockets and throws four sigil bearing gems into the air. The sigils then glow while in the air.
"Now how did you get them back?" Gray then conjures a large man sized crystal that glows a brilliant yellow and fires it at the teen point first. Right when the crystal is about to hit its mark, a white figure rushes into action and deflects Gray's attack onto the ground right before his target. Dust rises into the air from the crystal's impact with the ground and when it settles, four beasts are revealed: A large heron-like bird adorned with red and white feathers and a beak that stretches the length of its body; Javeron. A large Seal like beast with sharp ice adorning its flippers and body; Crusadeal. A massive horse-like beast that appears to be made of coal and is burning from the inside; Coaltrotter. Lastly, the beast that successfully blocked Gray's attack: a large white rabbit-like beast with exceptionally large muscular ears that curl up at the ends like fists, a sharp gaze that pierces foes, and apparent battle scaring; Jackpion.
"Wouldn't you like to know? Now you will tell me everything..." The teen raises his hand and points it to the air, prompting Javeron to fly into the air. "Even if I have to beat it out of you!" The teen then points at Gray, commanding Javeron to fly directly at Gray at break neck speeds. It spins in the air like a drill as it comes towards him and spawns vines from its body that spin like a pinwheel. The vines converge on Gray, attempting to restrain him, but Gray quickly disappears in a ring of light, evading the attack. The teen looks annoyed, but then wide eyed shocked when Gray reappears directly behind him.
"Don't you mean you have 'them' beat me? You trainers aren't exactly known for scrapping yourselves." Gray's hand then glows white as he goes to chop at the teen's neck. The teen looks nervous for a second, but that is quickly replaced by a devious smirk as both his hands glow purple. He quickly turns around and grabs Gray's arm with his left hand.
"What the!?" Gray yells out, surprised not only by the teen's speed, but also by the fact that he blocked his attack.
"oh, just for you, I'll be getting a few licks in myself!" With his right hand, the teen punches Gray square in the chest. Gray is sent flying backwards, bouncing off the ground as he does. This continues till he collides with the boulder Justinia was previously sitting on.
"Coaltrotter! Crusadeal! Like we practiced!" The teen jumps into the air and prompts Coaltrotter to get below and allow him to mount. Crusadeal follows close behind as the trio charge directly at Gray. Gray quickly recovers and sees the teen charging directly at him with a crazed look splattered on his face. Gray points two fingers at the teen and raises them, causing massive geysers of fire to spring from the ground to spring in between him and the teen. The teen responds by bobbing and weaving around the pillars of fire and quickly gains on Gray. Right when they are about twenty yards away from Gray, a geyser begins to form right in front of the teen and his beasts. Going too fast to avoid it, Coaltrotter and Crusadeal jump over the budding geyser. Right at Coaltrotter's jump's apex, the geyser erupts and engulfs the trio. Gray gives a sigh of relief, however the teen emerges from the Geyser in a bubble of water created by Crusadeal, much to Gray's surprise.
"Do it Coaltrotter!" The teen then jumps to dismount as the horse Sigil Beast then heats up, becoming bright red and charges directly at Gray. Gray blocks the attack with a glowing hand, holding back the stallion of a creature with one arm. At that moment, Jackpion appears behind the man.
"What!?" The man can barely give a verbal reaction before the rabbit unleashes a powerful flurry of punches towards him. Gray responds by raising his free hand creating a small barrier of energy to block Jackpion's assault. Then Javeron flies in and does the same drilling spear attack from before. Gray this time utilizes his crystal shard of light and clashes tip to tip with the bird. Gray strains to hold off the three pronged assault.
"What... is this!?" Gray yells out as he gives it his all to repel the attacks.
"I got you now!!" The teen descends from the sky head first with a purple glowing hand curled up into a fist, ready to strike at the robed man. Gray looks up and smirks.
"Huh... you know what, I'm impressed. You actually managed to back me into a corner... I'm proud." Gray's face darkens as he suddenly tucks in all his limbs. The creatures and the teen all close in on Gray, ready to strike down the hooded man. Gray however calmly closes his eyes.
"Spara." Suddenly he opens his eyes and extends all his limbs outward. Following that, a massive bubble of force extends from Gray's chest! The bubble pushes all his opponents back with a force so powerful, a large crater is formed under where Gray stood. The teen and his beasts lay on the floor beaten as Gray retracts his shield and walks towards them.
"So, this is how the "protagonist" perishes? Trying to make some great comeback only to get tossed aside like before?" Gray scolds the boy. Seriously, what's gotten into you!? What about our plan!?!?
"S-screw you..." The teen attempts to rise to his feet, but pain acts as shackles keeping him on the earth. Gray sighs.
"Well, I suppose there are worse choices in final words." Gray conjures his shard of light once more and raises it telepathically over him, all the while spinning it like a drill. "Farewell Maroon..."
Gray is stopped short of ending the teens life by a sudden blade of light piercing him from behind and emerging from his chest. Gray gasps as the air is almost sucked out of him.
"W-what?" The shard dissipates as Gray turns his head to face his assailant: Crusadeal. Having conjured a brilliant sword of light out of its head like a narwhal, it plunged it deep into Gray's back. Gray also realizes that Crusadeal was not present in the 4 pronged assault from before, which gave it time to hide away and strike after his "Spara". All of this is only possible thanks to Maroon's tactical mind. "Oh... you've got to be kidding me."
Crusadeal retracts its sword, causing Gray to collapse onto the floor in agony. Crusadeal slides towards the teen, ignoring Gray.
"G-good job Crusadeal..." The seal's horn shines an emerald ray of light into the teen. Maroon's wounds and bruises heal quickly as he gets up and looks towards Gray who is still suffering on the ground. Digging into his bag, the teen pulls out a rusted sword hilt and points the broken blade at Gray. "Now... tell me what I want to know."
Gray grasps at his open wound, gasping for air and unable to answer while shooting a scornful look. You freaking stabbed me through the lungs! How the heck am I supposed to answer anything!?
"Fine, keep your secrets for now. I'll get another opportunity soon enough anyway. For now, I think it's time." The teen raises their broken sword into the sky. "To me my knights!"
At those words, the clouds above open above the teen and a brilliant light shines from the opening and envelops him and Crusadeal. They both begin to float high into the air as Crusadeal reignites his horn into a blade of light and closes its eyes in a prayer.
Gray watches from below, still grasping his wound, but now frantically reaching into his robe at the same time. "Y-You... bas....tard... this... wasn't the plan..."
The teen closes his eyes in prayer while now holding the sword close to face.
"Knights of virtue and honor, that have dedicated your very lives to upholding all that is true and fair. Congregate your powers onto my blade so that I may vanquish my enemy and shine pure cleansing light upon this darkened land!" Suddenly, the broken sword shines and becomes whole once again instantaneously as silhouettes of knights appear all around the teen. Crusadeal also transforms into a knight with brilliant silver armor with a white blade. All the knights then raise their weapons into the air above the teen. He raises his blade, joining the other knights.
"Sanctus destruit!" Maroon then swings his sword at Gray, firing a brilliant beam of light that rockets towards Gray. In response, Gray frantically takes out a pendulum.
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