Prolouge: The First Manifestation

Prologue: The First Manifestation

God’s blind eye stared down at the resting city of Lumina, the street lights flickered endlessly as the shadows danced on the pavement. Alas, in an alley behind a run down arcade, everything felt…different. The air felt stagnant and heavy…

A boy with dark brown hair, covered in tracks and a black jacket stood there taking some air looking at a physical photograph of his deceased father, trying his best not to tear up. The air was cold as the time passed midnight. There was no noise other than the short circuitry of the street lights in his vicinity.

‘Buzz buzz buzz’, his phone vibrates vigorously.

He reaches into his pants hesitantly, praying he didn’t get caught sneaking out of his house.

“I really hope they didn’t find out about the pillows I stuffed under my blanket” he whispered under his breath.

He pulled it out, the screen was dark, sighing in relief. As his fingers wrapped around his phone more firmly, the buzzing began once again and it escalated more violently, it started to get warmer… as if it had a heartbeat of its own, as though something was trying to break free. He tapped the power button in hopes it was a malfunction. The screen lit up instantly, but instead of his lock screen, it was a singular message that filled the display.

[DO YOU WISH TO CHALLENGE FATE, VIREO?]

He blinked, then rubbed his eyes just to check if he were dreaming. There was nothing else on the screen, no notification icon nor an app name. Just two options beneath the message.

‘YES’ or ‘NO’

He stared in confusion at what the option could entail. Alas, curiosity nudged into his mind and it got the best of him.

“Happy Birthday to me I guess…”

He chose ‘YES’

For a moment, nothing happened at all.. Then the area lurched, The streetlights flickered violently as if it were going to explode. The air around him felt suffocating as a strange pressure hummed in the wind like a calm before a thunderstorm. The phone bursted with light, yet it stayed intact as it clinged to his hand like glue. Panic shot through his chest, his lungs stiffened and body froze.

“What the- help!” at the top of his lungs, all he mustered was a whisper at best.

Lines of bloodshot red light started to sprawl across the phone’s surface as it crawled upon its surface then branching out like veins beneath the skin. Circuit-like patterns pulsated and glowed beneath them with a rhythm.

The phone was reacting to Vireo, responding to his every move, judging his actions. The glow intensified as it surged throughout his hand, crawling up to his wrist and into his arms. The display cracked, yet the fractures didn’t shatter. Instead, the pieces that got broken lifted into the air from the surface as it floated upwards like weightless shards of light. Vireo stared in shock as it kept moving and twisting mid-air, stretching outwards, morphing, lengthening.

Until suddenly there was weight in his hands once again, but it wasn’t a phone, it was a blade. It was a long, narrow blade made of pale light that hummed softly as he gripped it as if it were speaking to him. The edge shimmered with an obscure distortion that warped the air around it.

A voice echoed throughout his mind. It was cold and mechanical.

[MANIFESTATION COMPLETE]

Weapon Type: Catalyst

Designation: Reality Blade

His palms gripped his chest as his heart raced.

“What..?”

Before he could complete his thought process, footsteps echoed from the farthest end of the alleyway, only getting nearer. The flickering street light emerged a girl, silver hair glistened under the moon, eyes blue as ocean, draped in a black dress that exposed her shoulders with a phone in hand. Her gaze immediately locked onto the weapon in Viero’s hand.

“You’re new…” She muttered

“What are you rambling about? It’s 3am cut it out you’re scaring me miss…” Vireo replying awkwardly, almost biting his tongue, slightly stumbling back, almost tripping on some rubbish.

She tilted her head slightly, studying his reactions. Her fingers gripped her phone until it shattered, warping around her hand.

“Oh come on-” He shouted as his body trembled.

Her device unraveled in a burst of light, illuminating the desolate alleyway. Shards lifted from its surface and began rearranging themselves mid-air. A sleek one handed crossbow emerged from the shards as she took aim towards him.

Vireo’s vision flickered as words appeared across the edge of his sight, as if translucent text got burnt into reality.

[PLAYER DETECTED]

[DISTANCE: 10 METERS]

The ground beneath their feet flickered, thin glowing lines spread throughout the alley walls forming strange irregular geometrical patterns that covered the entire area they stood.

The air became heavy as if time had frozen, it felt… different, like reality itself had been shifted slightly out of place, outside of the bounds of rationality and physics.

The voice returned, ringing in his ear.

[DUAL INITIALIZED]

The girl sighed subtly taking aim, with her finger millimeters away from the trigger.

“Great you’re a beginner, I’m sorry for this” in a cold manner as the apology felt like pouring acid over an open wound.

The weapon fired point blank in the narrow alley way, a bolt of pure white light ripped through the air with a sizzling noise as if the air around it was burning, tearing the ground beneath.

Vireo reacted without thinking. His body moved on its own as his arm swung upwards meeting contact with the bolt, slicing it clean in half as sparks scattered across the alleyway like falling stars, the tension of contact drove Vireo off his feet into the center of the wall, breaking it. As he got propelled into the arcade.

The girl’s eyes widened slightly as he walked over the ruble into the arcade interior where Vireo laid on his back.

“First time?” Completely unfazed as if she did this a thousand times, as she took aim again.

Vireo’s grip tightened around his blade, “You could stay that” getting up immediately, dusting off the bits of concrete on his clothing.

“Rule one” as she pulled the trigger, another bolt of light tore through the air again grazing his arm that he barely dodged as it exploded behind him. Fragments of the concrete flew everywhere, damaging the arcade equipment.

“Rule 2, Don't hesitate” as she lowers her crossbow.

Vireo, now hiding behind a fighting game cabinet as his back hugged the machine trying to catch his breath. Looking at his blade he noticed that the light was beginning to dim. He gritted his teeth.

“Fine,” he muttered.

He rushed forward, gripping his blade tightly as in his mind it was life or death. The air warped as he swung with all his might, having no thought behind the strikes. It was clumsy but powerful. The shockwave shattered the surrounding glass. The girl stepped aside effortlessly… too effortlessly.

“You’re overdoing it,”

His arm felt as if it was burning up to the point where injuries were being self inflicted from every swing, in his peripheral view a translucent text appeared.

[SYNCHRONIZATION 21%]

“What does that even mean?” he muttered to himself.

She sighed as she kept dodging effortlessly as if she were dancing with her amazing footwork.

“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, as fragments of the weapons chipped away as it sparked like shards of glass. She planted her hind leg firmly into the ground as Vireo’s body was unsteady. Her fist connected into his stomach, air rushed out of his lungs, making him lose grip of the blade. Without a second of notice she spun around landing a devastating kick on the middle of his chest that propelled him onto the floor a few meters away, leaving a crater underneath.

“Interesting… you’re unstable but dangerous. Final rule, don’t be stupid” as her weapon dissolves back into light and into nothingness.

Vireo held his jacket where the kick impacted, gasping for air. He blinked, witnessing the blade de-materialized beside him. He adjusted himself, slowly standing up in a defensive stance covered in dust until collapsing back down again.

She turned away with a pitied look.

“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 began turning back to normal, in a blink of an eye they were back in the alley way without any scratches or bruises just fatigue and no translucent texts in his peripheral view, the arcade looked as if it was untouched as if there wasn’t an all out fight a few moments ago.

The mysterious girl disappeared into the dark street as if nothing happened, leaving Vireo with his device in hand flat on the ground. Only one message remained on screen.

[SYSTEM NOTICE]

[IRREGULAR MANIFESTATION DETECTED]

“I really need to get back home before sunrise” as he tried getting up, panting for air. As he took one step… his head became dizzy, body weak, gripping the wall for support. His vision blurred, slowly getting more numb until he fell unconscious landing onto the cold pavement in the desolate streets.

The phone pulsed once and then returned to its original functionality of a normal device. Far above the clouds, hidden beyond the sky and undetected by normal means of vision. Something beyond their world, Fragments of a shattered moon began to glow.

[RANK: UNREGISTERED]