Traveling through a Rift isn't a pleasant experience. Fen was able to discover that fact first hand, unfortunately.
"Eugh!" He sat, or rather, he existed on the floor. At the moment he couldn't really tell what position he was in or where he was.
He could only describe going through the Rift as akin to his very being getting chopped up and sent through to somewhere, where he would be put back together again. The pain might have been manageable if it was into two or three pieces, and even that wouldn't made him nearly pass out.
But it felt more like he was cut into thousands of tiny parts of himself, with each retaining a sense of pain so he could experience what being put through a blender felt like. Not only was it extremely painful, he was extremely disorientated from experiencing feeling more than 4 limbs, even if they were all separated from his consciousness.
If there was any bright side to experiencing that hell, it was that it lasted for only a couple seconds, although it felt much longer for Fen.
"Haaa…." He took in a deep breath to stabilize himself after he was reconstructed, barely registering that his body was currently sprawled out onto a rough, stone floor. His vision was blacked out from a lack of oxygen, and air painfully reentered his lungs and began to flow to his extremities.
'What the hell was that?!' Even while exhausted, Fen found the strength to complain in his head.
If his body could speak, that was what it would say, to which his mind would respond with: 'Fuck if I know, we're all suffering together. Stop complaining about it like a little-'
His internal argument was interrupted as he realized that his body felt different. Even though Fen had lived his entire life in his body, he felt… new. Like someone violently cleaned and washed every vein, nerve, and cell inside of his body. A strange and new feeling came from his entire being.
It was like he was suddenly given a brand new car after using an old one his entire life, all of his orifices and insides were cleaned out. If this had happened in any other situation, Fen would've frolicked around to test the state of his body, but sadly, reality stopped listening to him hours ago.
And so, he didn't even get a chance to test his body. His mind was too exhausted from the combined stress of being dragged away from his family as well as being put through the human blender that the psychos working for the PVF called a Rift.
As he slowly regained his senses, he saw that all the other Opfer were sprawled out just like him on the floor. Around him were dark walls and strange veins of light flowing within the walls, so he assumed that they were probably not on Earth.
His idea was further supported when he got a chance to look outside one of the only windows inside of the building, which showed him a view that almost drained the rest of the energy inside him.
Looking through them again to make sure he wasn't seeing things, he was sure. All the Opfer, when they turned their eyes towards the windows shared the same thought.
Void. That was all that they saw. An abyss filled with dark grey clouds emitting red flashes of lightning, stars struggling to light the darkness with starlight, terrible creatures appearing and disappearing within the void clouds. It made them all feel insignificant against such a massive existence. The word 'evil' suddenly felt far too innocent to describe the Rift, the connection between Earth and whatever this place was. There was no possible word capable of describing such an existence better than Void, the absence of all things.
And among it all, a haven against the void, was a floating structure. Constructed with an unknown metal and stone, there was a fortress. Although the youths would never notice it, hundreds of other fortresses were hiding within the void.
"Get up. It's time for the Initiation. You will all be taken into separate rooms. Those who don't perform the task they are given within that room will die. So do yourselves a favor and think of what you really care about, and use it as your motivation." The man grasped the greatsword behind his back to emphasize his words.
Fen snapped his head towards the man who spoke. Armored with a strange metal and a helmet that resembled a dragon's maw surrounding a head, the man started pulling up the other youths and pushed them towards similarly armored men and women. However, Fen was not completely distracted by their appearance to not understand what he said.
Although he expected that they were withholding information, the words still struck a blow to his mentality.
'So that was what they were hiding. Hell, what if there's more? What if they still haven't told us everything?' Thoughts like that flitted inside his head, but Fen pushed them aside so he could focus on getting up.
'To be able to casually mention taking a human life...' Fen looked at the people around him. The youths looked terrified of the guards, who if they before resembled police officers, now looked closer to executioners.
Grim expressions appeared to be the default look, appearing on most of the Opfer's faces after the armored man's casual declaration that they would kill any who didn't listen.
Fen finally managed to pull his body up, his hands dragging at his sides. However, when he saw the armored men (he decided to call them executioners, the name seemed to fit) approach him he quickly straightened his back and refused their assistance.
He didn't want to get involved or interact with them in any way. He couldn't risk one of them getting angry at his weakness, which he saw happen to a poor girl near him.
He chose not to help her cries, even as he watched her get beaten bloody by an executioner's armored fist. The others near him made a similar decision, watching as the girl quickly became a bloody mess.
When Fen turned his eyes away from the scene, the executioner left, but not before scoffing in disgust at her weakness.
When one of the female executioners gestured towards him and another youth, he chose to follow like an obedient dog. There was no time to be angry, fear was dictating most of his actions. The odd trio began heading down a corridor as Fen turned his eyes to look at the boy beside him.
The boy was bigger than Fen, he had much wider shoulders and stood at least a full head taller... Fen considered himself to be very well-built; he was quite proud to declare that he followed a strict workout regime. However, that all meant nothing when comparing him to the boy. The guy had all the muscle to make up the additional height as well.
He worried about what task they would be given. There was still more than a little hope inside him that nothing would happen if he simply ignored it, and pretended that everything was ok.
Those hopes were dashed when he saw the room.
It had a smooth stone floor, recently polished and buffed, with a ceiling high enough for dark shadows to form in the edges of the room despite the lights. The reason for such an absurd ceiling was explained from the dark glass that hid silent observers with recording equipment he presumed; black boxes in each corner of the room, with glowing veins of energy flowing from each of them, leading to the dark glass room.
The energy veins acted like wires, carrying signals from the devices back to the room, where he could barely make out vague faces watching him from inside the room.
A cold shiver went down his back. Taking the room in, and looking at the guy standing next to him, it hit him. What started as a subconscious understanding of the situation sparked into a tiny sliver of realization.
This was real. Not some prank or social experiment. Some aspects of the situation could be written off as fake, but not the magic parts of the place. The god damned abyss outside? This wasn't a movie, you can't trick human eyes like that in real life. No matter how much he rationalized it, Fen knew that something like that couldn't exist. Yet there it was, it had stared him in the face.
What started as a small spark became a raging fire, burning itself into his consciousness. He had to accept it. Accept it now, and question it later, didn't matter. What mattered now was surviving, and getting through this. For his family and Miko.
With a shaky chuckle, he chose to think of this as one his life's ordeals. At the end of it, he might become a greater man. If he survived, of course.
[Begin the Initiation.]
Before he could notice, a speaker turned on and a robotic voice came out from it. And just like that, his built-up courage and resolution crumbled.
*Click. The audio coming from the speaker changed, and an old man's voice was heard.
[Hello. I assume you both are aware of what's happening to you. But before you question our methods and sanity, please know that this was the only way that we could find, to complete our plans.] Although Fen and the other boy couldn't see the speaker's expression, they could hear the slight note of displeasure in the man's tone.
[This had to be done. I am sorry that it had to be you. You were unlucky enough to be given such a task.]
[But even if I disagree with such methods, the evidence told us that there is no other way. I must make you aware that if both of you are still alive in the chamber, we are ordered to exterminate both candidates. That is your task. To see the man in front of you, and to take his life.] To support the man's claim about killing them both, a small amount of gas seeped through hidden vents within the room, making an audible hiss. Fen flinched at the sound, before his eyes regained their focus and stared at the youth opposite him.
[You have one minute to begin. If you haven't started by then, we will take that as a sign that you have no will to fight. *Ahem*. For your own sakes, think of your family, friends, hell, even your pets, if you have any. You just need to endure, and then you can go home.] The man almost seemed sad as he spoke. Fen immediately discarded that thought; if he was truly sad, he wouldn't allow something like this to happen.
The speaker stopped emitting the man's voice with an audible click, leaving the two teens alone in the room facing each other.
"Wait, stop!" The youth held his hands up towards Fen, who was unaware that he had stepped towards him after the speaker stopped. Glancing down, he saw both his hands raised to resemble a fighting posture, with both his feet tense and planted onto the floor.
His unconscious actions scared him. What was he about to do?
He struggled to convince himself, to stop hesitating about what he should do, or at least make a decision. To perform and do what he had to in order to be able to leave this wretched place.
The ideals that Fen had held deep in his heart began to shift, changing even as his head spun in thought.
'They said there was no other option, right? No choice. There was no other option but to fight. My life isn't worth his, and his life isn't worth mine.'
[Forty-nine seconds remaining. Please make a decision.]
Fen didn't notice while he was stuck in thought, but his opponent began to speak some time ago.
"My name's Malique. Hi. This isn't the best of circumstances to meet, but I think we should stop and talk about what's going on." Malique's face cracked into a forced smile as sweat beads formed on his face.
The sweater he was wearing showed a popular college, one that Fen himself had considered going to on multiple occasions. However, that meant nothing right now if the VPF wasn't lying about their plans regarding the Virtues. The world would begin to change, starting with them.
"What's your name-"
"Stop." Fen managed to push out the words that stuck in his throat. His voice came out dry and hoarse, but the words were understandable. The effort appeared to have taken a toll on him, as his face paled even more. But that didn't matter anymore. He had made his decision.
[30 seconds]
Tears streamed down his face, but before he had noticed, his heart had already set on his decision. Not for him, but for Alex. For his parents. And Miko. He could only hope they wouldn't hate him for returning as a murderer, and understand his actions.
"Please. Please don't tell me your name. You know... what we need to do. So please don't make it harder." A voice that didn't sound like him came from his mouth. But, like Fen hoped, he slowly closed his open mouth and nodded, his eyes lighting with understanding.
Their faces were somber when they began to approach one another, but desperation was pervaded every one of their actions. The survivor who would remain in the chamber would not be the more skilled fighter. No. Instead, it would be the one who wanted it more, who was more desperate to survive and keep their life.
Fen, his arms stuck up in a boxer stance, swung his fist forward to begin the fight, his knuckles cracking against the man's chin. Thankfully, the opponent wasn't able to avoid the blow, and caught it with his face.
[Thank you for your cooperation.] If they paid attention, the two might have noticed the relief in his voice through the microphone. But they were too focused on the fight to care. They had realized that survival came first.
"Ungh…."
Before he could have a chance to recover, Fen delivered a sharp kick to the man's groin, forcing him to keel over. A few of the observers winced at the dirty move, but admired Fen's quick adaptation to the situation, even if the male observers cursed his actions.
However, Fen still hesitated, and that nearly cost him his life.
While he hesitated, Malique kicked out whilst on the floor, sending him tumbling to the ground.
"You bastard!! I'LL KILL YOU!"
The pain that no man should experience drove him mad, causing the distorted image on his face. Tears streamed down his bloodshot eyes, his lips drawn thin as he grimaced and tensed in pain. His words didn't seem to be directed at Fen however, it was almost as if he was trying to convince himself.
Malique quickly grappled on top of Fen, positioning himself so that it would be difficult to throw him off.
He slammed his fists repeatedly into Fen's face, who barely managed to throw his hands up in an attempt to guard against the attack. Blood spurted from Fen's broken nose, his ears ringing from the beating.
"Gukh! No! Please!" Jumbled words spilled from Fen's mouth, but his opponent didn't stop and listen. Fists continued to fall on his raised arms.
If Fen had time to think, he might've cursed himself for hesitating. All that resolution to kill, and yet he'd still be the one to die. To never come home.
Slowly, he lost the strength in his hands. Despite his will to live, he couldn't ignore his body's injuries which now threatened his life. Even worse, his enemy's attacks hadn't slowed down, fueled by adrenaline and pain.
"Die!!" Malique roared as he prepared to throw the finishing punch that would knock him unconscious with no way to protect himself, a death sentence.
Then, fortunately for Fen, he got lucky. Just as Malique struck, Fen's hand slipped and clipped Malique's knuckle, the force from his own punch chipping the bone in his finger.
"Aigh!!" He howled with pain, falling away from Fen.
Choking on his own blood that was gushing from his nose, Fen gripped the ground.
With beastlike pants, he threw himself at Malique to take advantage of his injury. Their positions switched, he wrapped both his hands around Malique's neck. His movements were fluid, his body reacting with instinct in order to preserve his life.
Although Malique fiercely resisted, his broken hand made him lack the strength needed to push Fen off of his throat. The blood gushing from Fen's broken nose splattered onto Malique's open eyes, temporarily blinding him.
That was all he needed to start putting more strength into his hands, choking the life out of Malique.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!!" Apologies spilled from his mouth, even as his hands tightened even more around his opponents neck.
Malique clawed at his face, scratching his cheeks, neck and eyes, but Fen still didn't loosen his grip. He knew what would happen if he did, that he would have been killed if Malique didn't break his finger in that moment.
So, he put more strength into his hands, straining against Malique's bulging neck.
"Sorry! I'm sorry!" Even as his face turned red, and then purple, Fen's grip never loosened.
Apologies and gasping sobs continued to spill from his mouth, with more frequency and emotion as his opponent struggled.
"I'm so sorry! So please!" Now, Malique's limbs violently flailed around, his legs kicking at the ground in a final attempt to take oxygen into his lungs.
The image of a candle flame burning low, burning brighter and brighter until it extinguished, was what Fen thought of as his opponent struggled.
"Please die." Fen's ramblings slowly quieted, leaving silence, and his hands slowly dropped from his opponent's throat. He didn't know for how long he held his hands there, or when Malique's body stopped moving. So he sat there, blood dripping from his violently scratched face and nose.
"So please die for me," Fen faintly mumbled, the words barely falling from his ragged lips.
Malique's eyes were blank, and grey. He didn't notice that his eyes were grey. Were they always that color? Perhaps they turned that color when he was dying, and he never noticed.
Fen didn't know. He never knew him before… His eyes turned down from the face, towards the neck. Deep bruises were on his neck, twisting the skin and muscle itself. Further down were rigid hands, lying stiff on the floor. A small amount of blood stained the pale fingertips, blood which came from tearing Fen's skin open as Malique struggled to breath.
When the adrenaline stopped pumping into his veins, a small and indiscernible emotion flickered in Fen's eyes. It wasn't sadness over Malique's death, nor was it anger.
Even when the guards came and he was dragged away from his body, Fen couldn't identify what he was feeling, what emotions were hiding inside of his numb chest, sneaking away from his gaze. Even as the doors began to close and he could no longer see the corpse, those emotions kept flowing from the image burnt into his eyes.
It would have been for the better if Fen didn't know what those emotions were. If he knew, it would have scared him, at what he might become and what he was becoming.
However, if he learned anything that night it was that reality was a cruel mistress; Fen couldn't stay ignorant about his own emotions. The only thing left in his chest was joy, and exhilaration.
The only thing missing, however, was the guilt. The roaring guilt. Guilt that felt like it was clogging his veins, that authors wrote about when mentioning their characters with tragic origins.
And yet, here he was, being dragged away from what used to be a living, thinking human. With just relief. Even the sobs that clawed out his body were long gone.
****
"Hey Fen. What're you doing in here?" Alex asked, hanging by the door outside her room, where Fen was standing and looking around. Although she wasn't hiding anything, it still made her uncomfortable when people looked through her stuff. Family included.
A toothy smile flashed across her brother's face as he answered, "Ah, nothing much. Just searching for my charger. Thought I left it in your room." He took one more exaggerated look around the room, before swaggering out the door.
'I thought he only used the wireless charger now? Whatever, guess he's switching it for something.' After scrunching her eyebrows in slight confusion, Alex flopped herself onto her bed, changing into her sleep clothes.
After sending a quick message to Miko about how their date went, she received a picture in response.
"Oh my god. He only acts like that around her. What a dork." She giggled, looking at the picture showing her brother holding Miko over his shoulders, posing like some wrestler next to a movie poster.
His eyes were filled with mirth, his mouth open in what she could tell was one of his weird laughs. However, Alex's giggles slowly came to a stop, her face twisting into a frown as she turned her phone closer to her face.
'Aren't his eyes….blue? And his hair is darker in the picture too.' Getting closer to the picture allowed her to see the features of her older brother, the blue light coming from the phone burning into her eyes as she closely examined the picture.
'Why are they so differen-'
A blank expression came over her face, and her confused eyes unfocused. In the process of the magic influencing her mind and memories once again, her phone fell out of her hand.
Unbeknownst to Alex, while she was examining the picture, her 'brother' was observing her. When it noticed her looking carefully at the picture containing the real Fen, it activated one of the special magic formations engraved onto its true body, the runes near its center burning with eerie blue light as it snapped into place the connection between it and Alex's mind.
Seeing as the magic had taken hold of her, the construct stepped quietly into the room, until its eyes were inches away from her face. Staring into the unfocused eyes, it turned its attention back towards the phone that had fallen onto the bed.
Its arm mechanically took hold of the phone, its mouth turning downwards past human limits when it saw Fen posing in the picture. As a construct, it couldn't feel emotion, at least, not the way real humans did. At least, it wasn't supposed to.
Instead, the mana circulation system built within the golem worked with multiple arrays to mimic the response humans had when they felt emotion in order to best imitate the Guardian candidate.
Although the emotional response would not imitate the specific candidate, it would emulate the average human response while the mental magic would handle the more specific details of the mimicry. Details such as a fuller smile, creased eyes, and furrowed eyebrows were included within the specific range of the magic, meant to create a more genuine image of the candidate, or at least, a more genuine image of the candidate within their mind. Everyone would see a different version of Fen depending on how they thought of him.
There were limitations within the magic as well; for example, anybody who barely knew Fen would see a terribly rendered version of the golem, with a blurry face and disproportionate features. Somebody with no connection with the candidate would just see the golem, spelling disaster for the VPF and the Program if they managed to spread what they saw through any source of media. If they managed to survive, that is.
Given the massive scale of the program, there was little that the Foundation could do to fix that issue, and thankfully because of the Rifts they had no need to. The Guardians would be ready within 24 hours, so they only needed the constructs to remain out of public sight for that duration.
After deleting the photo, the golem quietly excited from the room, its mouth twitching, until it formed back into Fen's signature half-smirk. What was shocking was that the construct itself mimicked the action, not using any memories as a base.