"HOOOOOOOONK"
"It's the big day dickhead!"
Martyr shoots up out of his seat at lightning speed from the noise that just blasted throughout the truck. His palms were already planted on his ears instinctively.
"No shot you actually brought that." He said to his friends in the front seats, not knowing which one of the two had blown the airhorn.
Martyr didn't get any response because they were laughing like it was the funniest prank they ever pulled. The two in front seats of the car are two of his good friends Samsara And Spectre.
Spectre had already gotten to the point where no sound was coming out of him laughing anymore from being so out of breath.
Spectre was driving, so him laughing this hard would normally be extremely dangerous but the streets of this city were completely barren.
Martyr can't help but let out a little laugh at how happy it was making them. He gets up pushing backpacks out of his way to make room for him to move to the center of the backseat, positioning himself so he's sitting right between the two seats in front of him, resting each of his arms on the top of their respective seats ahead.
Samsara started to calm down a little from her laughing fit, wiping tears off her cheeks with her sleeve
"Yeah we've been planning this since the last time we had a road trip."
"Oh I'm sure you did."
This made total sense to Martyr. Spectre and Samsara have been dating for almost 4 years now and the two of them always loved messing with him. It bugged him sometimes but he could tell they clearly admired Martyr a lot which made it easier to take one of these jokes. It was clear the pranks were more to get Martyr's attention rather than to pester him.
It also made him never feel like he was a third wheel when spending time with them because he always felt like he was their main focus.
Martyr slowly started to remember him passing out mid trip. The three of them had basically spent the whole day driving. Listening to music, eating food they brought and talking about the drama they caused in their friend groups by going to champions day.
"What happened while I was out?" Martyr asked the couple while they calmed themselves down.
"You being dead asleep was the most interesting thing, I swear this city doesn't have a block that's different from each other." Spectre said while turning the car back into the right lane.
"Oh shit were in the city?" Martyr looked out his window at the indescribably tall buildings ranging from pure jet black to a gloomy grey. all of them loomed over the truck like they were watching them as they went by.
"Oh yeah, I guess you've been asleep the whole time we've been here."
He was looking at the city Deimos, The dark capital. The city thrives underground, barely anyone ever comes up to the above ground, because of that no one lives there and almost nobody takes care of the city. All of the buildings are falling apart, most buildings have ceilings peeling off or knocked over furniture. There are some buildings that have just collapsed under the weight of themselves over time. He could see rubble spilling into the streets every few blocks.
According to Spectre who was blessed with the dark element, "I don't consider it a blessing. It's good for fighting but otherwise the element feels like it has a mind of its own. It has its own preferences and ways it wants you to live your life and it sure as hell doesn't like being outside."
You could tell just from his skin too, he was really pale. He already stood out when he was with Samara or Martyr with their very dark skin but even compared to other white kids he stood out.
Spectre definitely did resist it a lot, compared to everyone else with the dark element he was normal and lived a life of his own that he liked, but you can still see the scars those powers cost him all over him. He had very big permanent circles under his eyes from his complicated sleep schedule with messy short black hair he usually kept underneath a hood or in this case a beanie. He always wore comfy or baggy clothes like the grey long sleeved shirt and black sweatpants he had on now.
He had the image that just shouted exhaustion contrasted to his more fun personality.
"I don't know how you guys are blowing air horns in a place like this." Martyr said, still scanning the city. "This place is creepy."
"Nah it'll be fine, there is literally no one around, I could count how many other cars we've seen on both my hands." Sam said a little too confidently.
Her looks exerted the complete opposite feeling Spectre's did. Samsara had a much more neat appearance than Spectre did. Samsara looked like a pretty normal city girl for somebody who grew up in the impoverished area that they had. She had poofy black hair with a little dyed strand of ocean blue. She had an oversized long-sleeved black and red sports t-shirt Spectre must've given her and ripped jeans that actually got naturally ripped rather than coming with premade ones.
Samsara had sunk down deep into her seat with her legs up on the dashboard. Her chair was pushed back extremely which would've given Martyr a lot less leg space but thankfully he fell asleep on Spectre's side.
"It's not like anyone here is tryna murder us either, and if they were we could definitely take em." Spectre said without any doubt.
He wasn't wrong, all of them were extremely good fighters.
Martyr had by far the best grade in their school's combat class even before he had his Fire element. He had been number 1 for 3 straight years. Despite the small size of their poor school it still was a big achievement that got him some recognition across the islands that only grew after he got control over his element.
Spectre didn't have the best scores when I came to actual fighting techniques but had extremely good control over his dark element. Schools didn't allow elemental fighting in their combat class as it was too dangerous but according to him he was able to show off his abilities to the school in his element class that Martyr didn't have with him.
Samsara was the strongest water element user in the school when it came to the control over her element and grade in the combat class. It made her the second most skilled girl in her school right behind one of Martyr's best friends, Calamity. He really wanted to bring her as a part of their group but she didn't get along very well with Spectre and Samsara who were the only friends of his he could find that wanted to participate in Champions day.
Plus when Martyr asked Calamity if she wanted to join, she told him that instead she could assemble her own group and they could compete together. If they both were able to qualify, that is.
So it was safe to say the three of them could easily defend themselves if some crazy person came after them. Although that didn't mean Martyr wanted to get in a fight.
"Hey guys look!" Spectre interrupted Martyr's thoughts, pointing out the front window.
Spectre had turned around a building onto a main street which revealed a massive purple pillar in the center of the city.
After a whole day of driving they had finally reached their destination in the middle of the dark city, the pillar of Astreum. The pillar is an impossibly tall dark purple and pitch black tower that ascended past the clouds. It is the one thing that holds the two islands together, it stands right in the middle of each island and their respective capital.
They all looked up in awed silence at the biggest structure that they will ever see. The height of the Pillar went beyond their sight, but the other impressive thing was its width. Up close it looked like a wall, there was barely a curve in its cylinder-like shape.
"Aight we should probably head to the portal now." Spectre said, taking a right onto the roundabout that surrounded the pillar.
As they went around the pillar a portal of the exact same colors started to reveal itself inside a small opening of the pillar. It looked like a veil over the wall that was black on the edges and purple towards the center, you couldn't see what was on the other side but it felt like if you looked hard enough you could. This was one of the many portals on the islands that Astreum created, some lead to other parts of the island others lead to alleyways on earth but this specific one leads to the light capital, Phobos. The city opposite to Deimos all the way up on the other island Borealis. The portal wasn't big either, there was only enough room for a car and not much else bigger than that. It seeped into the wall on the back of the small room the opening led into, as if it were leeching onto it.
Spectre made a left turn into the portal room and was stopped by a single guard standing in the road in front of the portal.
Spectre rolled down his window as the guard said "Sorry to stop you but there is a fee for using the portal" he said clearly bored out of his mind. "The payment is equal to 3 gold coins."
Most of the island's economy runs off of goods and services but in the richest parts in some capitals require the one currency on the islands which are coins. There are loads of different kinds of coins.
The most commonly used coins, known as the basic coins that are used as the benchmark for the rest of the more obscure coins.
These basic coins consist of 4 different coins. Diamond which is worth 100 gold coins. Gold which is worth 100 silver. Silver which is worth 100 copper. And copper which is worth almost nothing and is only used by people like Vanagloria who don't have much else.
Some people argue that diamond doesn't count as a basic coin and it fits more into the gemstone category of coins but it's widely known as the 4 basic coins. Others argue it should because it fits perfectly into the pattern, being worth exactly 100 gold coins.
Diamond is usually considered the most valuable despite there being coins worth more, like the magic metal: mythril or the extremely rare meteor fragment.
Anything other than those 4 coins is way too complicated, so much so that there are optional classes in schools that you can take to learn all the different categories and types of coins there are and their worth. A class Martyr nearly failed. For example, some categories are gemstone coins, elemental coins, vintage coins or coins from earth.
Thankfully the three of them prepared for parts of the capital asking for coins for currency so Martyr grabbed a handful of the dark elemental coins out of one of their many bags in the back seat and handed it to Spec.
Spectre carefully picked out the right amount of dark coins trying to do some mental math gymnastics to find out the right amount not wanting to give any extra or less than what was required.
After a moment of awkward silence Spectre proudly dropped the coins into the dead-eyed guard's glove.
"There you go, that should be enough."
The guard takes the grey coins and half-heartedly puts them into a bowl of other coins of all different bright neon colors and sizes he holds in his left hand. With the right he reaches into his shirt pocket and pulls out three sets of really heavy duty black glasses.
"You'll need these for the first few minutes of being in the light capital to adjust your eyesight, after that head on through."
"Have a nice day!" Samsara said to the guard as they drove by him.
"Yup."
As they each put on their pair of what look like black swimming goggles they drive up to the portal the otherworldly sounds it was making became louder and louder. It was a really quiet rumbling like hearing an explosion from extremely far away, but it was a constant sound and a quiet one that Martyr might not have even been able to hear if it weren't for the fact they were on the quietest place on the island.
As Spectre drives the front of the truck through the portal it starts to seep through the portal completely disappearing. The thin line that separates the truck from the dark capital to the light starts creeping up the hood and slowly onto the window.
"Holy shit." Said Martyr as they all watched completely mesmerized as the front window of the car slowly went through the portal revealing the other side where the light capital resided. While the line of the portal reaches the still open window the second it crosses the inside of the car erupts into noises of car beeps and people yelling.
Even for the biggest city on the islands this was a lot of traffic. Phobos looked crowded on every block.
Martyr obviously knew it was Champions day, but the sight of the chaotic city made him fully realize how important today was for him.
"All of these cars, all of these people, this city. They are all gonna watch me prove myself today."