Forum Thread

Exerpt from "The Story of the World"

Upon the dawn of the next day, the City of God had fallen.

Heroes and Villains alike had been felled in combat, and the instigator of it all, Abyss, disappeared without a trace, as did his fellow villains.

The only sign of Abyss' existence was the scorched buildings of the city, a stamped-out cigarette, and the broken whiskey bottle lying in the center of the city, next to a singed, halfway-burnt photo of two villains, in their youth.

They called this day the 'Dawn of The New Era'.

What many try to forget, though was what came soon after.

They called it 'The First Twilight'.

---

"-tween 15-21 years old rig-"

The sound shut off, as the girl paused the audio tape.

From under her black hoodie, she stared at the unmarked gravestone in front of her.

She twirled the rose between her gloved fingers, her dim golden eyes staring down at the snow-covered grave.

Everything was quiet.

She dropped the rose onto the snow.

Her mouth was set in a thin line, as her black hair moved with the wind.

"... I didn't get to say goodbye."

---

A man sat at the top of a building, his legs swinging, his headphones locked firmly around his ears. He wore black sunglasses, as he fiddled with the controller in his hands.

"Truth, status report."

He called out into the sky.

Nothing but static.

He hummed in annoyance, as he tapped a button on the side of his glasses.

he watched from the drone's point of view, as it rose into the air.

"Perfect."

A female voice crackled through his headphones.

"Art? Did you find the person you were looking for?"

He sighed.

"Not yet, Madness. And I told you. Codenames only."

The woman on the other side laughed.

"Okay, okay, Mr. Logic."

She paused.

"...and Truth?"

Logic laughed.

"She'll be done with her bit quite soon, I imagine."

The drone's camera zoomed in, scanning the crowds of the City of Prosperity/

"Do your job as well, Madness."

"Yes sir, Mr. Leaderman!"

The voice cut off.

He pulled his phone out, tapping it a few times, connecting his headphones to the phone, before turning on his playlist.

From his perch upon the tallest building in the City of Prosperity, he grinned, as the drone zoomed in on the crowds.

"Let's get to work."

---

She had changed. She wasn't sure if it was for the better, but she had changed. No more plots and schemes, no more shattering of worlds and murders of men. For the past few years, Elle K. Compass disguised herself with a baggy brown cloak the color of the desert sands, and drifted through the lesser known kingdoms.

She healed a village here and there, embarked on quests of great importance, and tried not to make friends, staying one step ahead of the specter that followed her. She had a new name for herself, seperate from the identity she had once worn so proudly. There was nothing left for her in the City of God, after all.

Athena was supposed to have taken care of it. The City wasn't supposed to have gotten this way.

Today, Elle K. Compass was feeling nostalgic. She scaled a large boulder in the middle of the endless sands she was journeying through, and perched there, crossing her legs. Inside her satchel, she pulled out a tin chest, and set it in front of herself apprehensively.

Taking a deep breath, she opened it.

A gun.

A single shard from a broken whiskey bottle.

A bloodstained cloak.

A single tape.

And a note that she had recieved shortly after, scrawled in a familiar hand.



𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓴 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓼𝓮𝓻𝓿𝓲𝓬𝓮. . /̵͇̿̿/’̿’̿ ̿ ̿̿ ̿̿ ̿̿

---

Something is wrong! Something is most certainly wrong!

Her leg shouldn't be feeling like this- like something had stabbed into it. The pain was so intense, it took everything Revna had not to pass out. An unnatural animal-like screech pierced through the air. It was something Revna had grown use to, but stupidly never grown afraid of. Why did I stay here? Why didn't I leave with the first evacuation group?

She was trapped underneath the rubble of her house. Large pieces of wood had crumpled over her, sparing her from the full weight of the rubble. Dust and other particles drifted around her, choking and blinding her. Her fear only grew when she heard the sound of approaching footsteps growing louder and louder.

Bearing her teeth together, she summons her cards and weakly reaches out towards the king of spades. Her movement was impaired due to the surrounding rubble and the footsteps were close, nearly about to crush down on top of her while she desperately reached for the card...

She jolts upwards, and aims an arm to the ceiling. Five surprisingly durable cards fire up and pierce the ceiling above her. She sits still for a moment, breathing hard while she listens to the neighbor above her stomp around. She winces, holding a hand to her forehead while she slowly calms down.

That's right. She was no longer in the City of Wisdom. Oh how she missed it. She would give anything to return to the life she knew before the monster hoards appeared.

She sighs and glances at the time. Barley reading the numbers as she lazily moves out of her bed. She would be in no hurry to get to work. Compared to her old life, life here was boring. But it was safe. Still, she couldn't help but feel like it wouldn't be peaceful for long. After all, nobody could've predicted that the City of Wisdom would've fallen.

Getting dressed and grabbing her keys, Revna quickly moves out the door. Quickly resummoning her cards in the off chance that her landlord would peek inside and see the damage made by her cards. It wasn't made be me, I swear! She walks with her hands in her pocket, her head hung low. She tries to do what she can to be as small and unnoticeable as possible.

The City of Prosperity twinkled under the evervescent light of the night, dancing and sparkling as the booming economics displayed itself on its sleeve. But for every shining beacon of light, an equally long shadow would be cast. The world had long since come to terms with such facts after Abyss and even Prosperity in all her glory cast her own. Around the outskirts of the city, makeshift housing and crumbling buildings overflowered with the wounded and dying, spilling out onto the beautiful lands hidden behind towering walls. Under the cover of darkness the disease spred faster than it could be healed, swallowing up the underbelly of the city in a uncontrollable rot. The presence of monsters only gave such filth the freedom to bloom unfettered and uncontrolled.

In one such clinic where the groans of pain had long since faded into silent suffering and overworked personnel had long since retired, a shadow of someone once alive slipped through the unprotected door. They hovered at the threshold, starscarred silence pressing down heavily before the shadows moved as one. To any still awake be it under feverish infection or haunting memories all claimed that they had believed Death had come for them, the cloaked figure solemnly parading through the rows of the ailed. It paused over each corpse, hands steady as the stale air began to flow once again. The sudden arrival of wind whipped those asleep up into a frenzy, shouts of dilarious confusion accompanying the harmonious ringing of invisible wind chimes. In what was previously a empty hand, a beautiful relic appeared in Death's hand, golden laurels snaking up the glimmering sun as the Palo Santo staff struck the barren ground, leaving nothing but a swath of budding grass dotted with beseeching lilies as red as the blood soaked into previously dusty tiles and patients convinced that they had a shared hallucinatory experience.

Come morning when the staff would return with grin eyes and weary hands, they would find all patients to be on the mend, miraculous healing coursing their their bodies as they scrambled to find the reason. When prodded, the patients would all claim that they spent the night resting, no pain nor demon haunting their rest but in the face of overjoyed family and the relief on the caretakers faces, no one would press too hard. A miracle was just that, a blessing that they wouldn't look quite too hard at. And if such a phenomena spread admist the various gallows of the poorest of them all, then they would thank whatever dirty they saw fit to worship and count the blessings of the Prosperous city.

Far away, in the busy bustling streets that made canned fish of even the most prestigious of citizens, a lone busker pulled the bow on a violin, a beautiful concerto of one filling the lifeblood of the city.

---

Logic watched through the camera of his drone, scanning over each and every person in the shifting masses, figuring who exactly each person was.

He bobbed his head to the muaic flowing through his headphones, as he continued flying his drone over the hord3s of people.

"No. No. No. Could be useful. No. No."

He swiped away the profiles of each person that came up in the lenses of his sunglasses, unimpressed by their abilities.

His drone sped around the skyways of the City of Prosperity, zooming in on a girl, maybe 20, with long, white hair and terrible posture.

The profile appeared in front of him.

[Revna Payne]
[21]
[The Power of the Odds]
[Read more?]

He scanned through her ability quickly, before nodding.

"Alright. That one could be useful."

---

The girl stared up at the falling snow, before looking back down at the ground.

She unzipped her hoodie, pulled it off, and stuffed it in the backpack she always wore.

Underneath, she wore a crumpled white T-shirt.

Her raven-black hair fell down her back in rippling waves, as she turned her eyes to the right of her.

She drew a semi-circle in the air, and a door appeared in the air, following the path of her finger.

He finished drawing the door in the air.

She took the doorknob, twisted it, and opened the door.

The breeze that blew out of it was warm, and the land in front of her was endless dunes of sands, stretching out infinitely.

A woman sat on the boulder the door had opened up to.

She stepped through the door. The moment she did, it disappeared behind her.

"Elle K. Compass. Elucian Anaheim. El."

She walked up to the woman, sitting down next to her, casually, like she hadn't just appeared out of nowhere.

"...That last one's what he called you, innit?"

She turned to look at Elucian, tilting her head slightly.

---

She looked up calmly, her trembling hands falling still. She remained in her lotus position. She removed her hood with one hand, her bright blue hair spilling down her back. Blue tinted aviators framed her slim face.

"I've answered to most of those. Yet it appears I'm at a disadvantage, Miss...?"

Elle and El, both names pronounced the same way, looked over at the girl who had arrived. She had done her research. And that concerned her. Who was she to be quoting Abyss at her? Who was this raven haired girl?

And why was she so... familiar?

She lifted the gun into her hands, gazing at the metal in her fingers. Why had he chosen an iron weapon? There was only one explanation, right? Right? She could feel the recoil from three shots, a memory imprinted into her fingers. She placed it into the box. The shard was lovingly set on top of it, the cloak was folded around them with care. The tape she looked at once more, before tucking it against the side. And the note... she could feel it in her bones that the girl was connected to the note.

A fat lot of good foresight did now.

Five years too late.

---

"Most call me... Truth."

She looked at the gun in Elucian's hands.

Truth nodded slowly, looking away, and pulling a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket. She put one in her mouth, before lighting it with a black fire that formed on the tip of her finger.

She took a slow breath in, then out.

The Girl Named Truth looked at Elucian.

"Did you know that he really liked roses?"

She spoke softly, calmly.

"...I'll give you three guesses as to who I'm talking about."

She let a dark flame flicker in her open palm, her attention snapping to the fire.

Her expression was unreadable.

---

The sound of music caught Revna's attention. She paused, half debating whenever or not she could afford to be late for work. Oh whatever, a few minutes won't hurt. She moves closer to the sound, apologizing when she accidentally bumped into a couple. One turns to glare towards her, but she adverts her gaze away and continues closer towards the sound.

Had he always been here? Or has she been too consumed by her own thoughts to notice? Much like now- she was being tailed by a drone and haven't bothered to pay attention to the buzzing sound above her. She stands a respectful distance away, glancing at him for a moment before finally glancing around at her surroundings, gently taping her foot along to the music.

For someone being so focused on being invisible. One would think she would be aware of her environment. Was her lack of awareness due to confidence or something else entirely? Revna herself couldn't be too certain of the answer.

She finally notices the odd feeling in the air. As if she was being watched. But when she glances around, nothing seems out of the ordinary. She drops the feeling and instead refocuses on the music.

Celine regretted switching hospitals. The City Of God was far better suited for her than Prosperity ever was. Why did she ever listen to her superior’s advice to work in Prosperity instead? Life here was so much more chaotic yet peaceful. Sure, Celine had much fewer patients, but the city was so bustling and full of life, so much ‘noisier’ than the City of God. Even the hospital she worked in had no peace. The chatter was way too loud, for both her and the patients, and shushing them did no good. Celine runs her fingers through her hair, sighing. She checks her clipboard, pulling out someone’s profile, scanning briefly through the details and given diagnosis. A broken limb…fractured rib, bruised body and suspected internal bleeding. Brilliant. Who decided to give a bunch of human beings powers anyways? It certainly made things much harder, giving irrational, emotional human beings power that could be used for both good and bad. She walks over to the patients bed, hands hovering over the injuries and closing her eyes. A soft warm golden glow enveloped the patient, as the rib mended itself and the bone got replaced with a newer one. Once she was done, she did a last check, before deciding he was healed and gently shooing him out to pay. Or something. She removes the bedsheets and replace them, catching sight of herself in the mirror. Present Celine looked so much better than Past Celine. No more eyebags, frazzled hair or permanently frowning face. With much less people, less people got injured and Celine received a quarter of her usual patient load in Prosperity. Which meant much more rest and less stress.

She finished her work, before heading to the staff lounge for a break. She was immediately greeted by a dragon-shaped figure, whose cerulean scales shimmered and shifted like the moving surface of water. “Hi, Kai…” She mumbles, affectionately scratching its back. Kai gave a satisfied purr, before curling up and snoozing on Celine’s lap.

---

Logic .essed with the control of the drone, and it flew away from Revna.

He'd have to dig into that one in a second.

He moved the drone higher, higher into the clear sky, whistling along with the music.

He tapped his headphones.

"Truth, Status report."

Nothing.

That girl had been like that ever since...

Well, not important. He had something else to do.

The drone quickly scanned the streets, shoving information at him almost as fast as he processed it, before it rested its' sights on a person sitting in the staff lounge of a hospital.

"Ho~! Not bad. That could be helpful as well..."

He tapped his headphones.

"Madness. Have you finished?"

A crackling, static-y voice came through the headphones.

"Almost, Logic. But I'm warning you, after all this work, you'd better treat me to a nice me-"

He tapped his headphones once more, and her voice was cut off.

He turned his attention back to the drone.

---

Drawing the bow with practiced proficiency, the busker launching into a jaunty tune, fingers flying over strings as they pulled forth the most somber of jives. It seemed like the gathered crowd didn't mind however, clapping and cheered as they launched into a shag quickstep, body moving in practiced movements in time with each press of the well worn strings. Booted feet skipped over dusty tiles, the wide brim of their cloak swirling around their flowing movements as if they were the wings of a mighty owl about to take flight. The noise only grew as a gust of wind beckoned petals to graze tantalizingly against the spectator's cheeks, inviting them to partake in the waltz of moonlit malice that the mahogany bow pulled forth.

The music bloomed and swept much like the city itself, pulling in those looking for fortune and favour with the busker evidently being one such prey. The pitiful bowl filled with nothing but cheers and a few coin sat ignored by the fleet-footed steps and hungry eyes, travelers garb devoid of any city colours enshrouding the mysterious entertainer. It seemed that the song would soon come to an end as all things were want to do, however, even if the whoops and encouragement from the audience. But no show could be complete without a grade finale, the busker taking a running start before throwing himself into the air in a graceful arc. Swift fingers still for just a fraction of a moment as they contorted their body into a perfect arial, slender legs kicking out in a fan of fabric and grace, the burst of sound from the violin and crowd deafening roars the moment their feet touched the ground and spun them into another dizzying dance.

Though his hood flowed freely leaving his face to soak in the forgiving sun's rays, no one could quite get a good look at his appearance aside from strawberry blond streaked red. But for just a split second, anyone looking closely enough could see soulless red eyes staring right back.

---

"I'd get it in one."

The almighty Abyss. He who fell the City of God. Her best friend, Kendo.

Elle was intrigued. But she didn't want to have this conversation. She wanted back to her false heroism. She wanted to bury the box back in the recesses of her bag, and push the memories away. She didn't want to the think of the gun in her hand, magnetized there like it was always meant to be, the instinctive recoil shooting three shots perfectly...

"Who are you, and what use do you have of me?" She was tired of playing games. The games ended five years ago. She did what she was asked. You wanted a village healed? She did it. You wanted your treasure retrieved? She did it. You wanted your fields blessed and your people to prosper? She could make that happen, too. Elle had stayed far away from the City of God. She had never entered Wisdom, Prosperity, or any of the rest, either. She was nameless, faceless. So how did this girl know her?

---

"I'm Truth. I'm... well, I'm a part of the past, some might say."

She smiled bitterly.

"Did he never talk about me? That kind of stings... He talked about you a lot, though."

She threw her cigarette into the shifting sands below.

'But you want who I really am, huh?"

She sighed, tucking a lock of her raven-black hair behind her ear.

"My name is Lydia, better known as Kyouko.'

she looked at Elucian.

"You are Elucian Anaheim, the Villain known as Compass, and the one who killed my older brother, Miyazaki Kendo Satou. Correct?"

---

Older brother. Well that would explain the grudge. But Elle didn't have time to explain the particulars of the events leading up to-

"Yes. I killed your brother. Would you like to kill me in return? Make me pay a little? I'll go willingly, if that's what you'd like. Make both of our lives a little easier."

No, Kendo had never mentioned Lydia. Or Truth. Or whomever this girl was. But she should really stop smoking. Oh no, was this girl an alcoholic too? Elle couldn't deal with it if she was.

Because after all, she really was just a kid still. How could he have left her?

---

"Kill you? Make you... pay? Oh, did you think I was here because of a grudge?"

She laughed.

"Oh, no. Of course not. That bastard was a terrible person and a worse brother. Kendo can go rot in hell. Serves him right, getting killed unceremoniously. Bastard didn't deserve a hero's death. I'm not my brother. I don't kill people for the heck of it."

She was suddenly smiling brightly, her golden eyes sparkling.

"I'm here because we need your help on something."

---

"My help. That, I can give." It didn't matter what task the younger Satou needed done. Short of murder or euthenasia, she would aid anyone in anything.

Elle was quiet. Kendo was... a controversial person. That much was obvious. And maybe he had been a crappy brother... he had left some things to be desired in his capacity as a friend. But Lydia would need to know the full story eventually.

A hero's death. The world remembered him as a villain. Abyss and his trusty sidekick, Compass.

---

"It must be painful for you, so I'll stop talking about him."

Truth twirled the cigarette between her fingers, absentmindedly.

She seemed to have the same habits as Abyss did.

"Do you know the situation that's been going on in the mainland? Probably not."

Truth sighed, pulling her knees up to her chest.

"So, monsters appeared out of nowhere, one day. The city of Wisdom has been destroyed."

---

Painful. There was truth in that, but she would need to face her demons eventually. She would answer Lydia's questions, but she feared the girl would shape her inquiries to recieve the answers she wanted.

"No, I've been... away from the mainland. Monsters? From where? The City of Wisdom is really gone?" She was concerned. Perhaps she should have stayed...

No.

Elle had made her choice.

---

"I should know. I was there when it was destroyed. All because of my dumba** brother..."

She said that last bit very quietly.

"Monsters rushed out of these... portals. We barely managed to evacuate half of the population..."

She was speaking more quietly now.

"The City of Prosperity is next. Then Preservation. Then God."

---

"Hmm. Dumb*ss brother. What did we have to do with this?" Elle leaned forward slightly, her brow furrowing. Great, another mess she would have to fix. She tried to calm her heartrate, which was beginning to accelerate.

"And portals? Can you describe them?"

---