A/N: (This is a complete rewrite and it has a bit of Au.)
In the outskirts of the NSQC, where death, suicide, killings and every other forms of human violence occured daily, a boy that seemed no different from a corpse was heavily limping towards the outer edges of the outskirts. His pale, malnourished body was visible through the tears of his ragged, old grey shirt and pants. But what was more glaring were the scars from needles, knives, and bites that peeked through the tears once in a while. The right side of his face looked slightly out of shape, as if it had been the end of a powerful hit from a blunt object. Aside from that, a short tuft of light auburn hair filled with dust and filth rested on his head. Blue eyes with dark bags under them shone listlessly. His parched lips were pulled into a thin line as he limped.
Ariel felt a pang of pain travel up from his right leg whenever he put pressure onto it. Pain that he had long, long accustomed to. Still, pain was pain. It will continue to affect him no matter how much tolerance he builds. It is a constant and corrupting poison. At least that's what Ariel thought of it.
As he made his way out of the outskirts, a frown smeared his face. Looking down at his right leg. He tried to move it or get some reaction from it, but he was only met with disappointment. Besides the pain, his leg was numb to the point that even if it was struck, he was sure he wouldn't feel any pain. The frustrating part was that the sudden pangs of pain still came through.
Unpleasant memories flashed in his mind as his eyes stayed on his leg, shaping his frown into a nasty scowl.
'That fucker… if I come back he'll wish he was dead. Although…' Ariel's anger deflated like a balloon as a wave of tiredness filled him 'I may not live past today because of this cursed spell. What a terrible shame it is to not have the chance to witness that guy losing all hope.'
Coming to a stop, he took a couple of deep breaths in response. To alleviate himself from the pain and the tantalising temptation of sleep as his eyes were closing and opening rapidly. This spell, this disease appeared out of nowhere one day. Affecting thousands and thousands of people, weakening them to the point of lethargy. And eventually those affected went into a deep coma that persisted for weeks, months, sometimes a year. The first batch of comatose patients woke up as horrific creatures without any resemblance to the person they were before. Attacking, tearing, and eating all that was unlucky enough to become prey. They killed thousands, causing more chaos than the previous war that happened in this already rotten world.
The military was helpless, nothing seemed to work. Guns and launchers worked on some of the weaker looking ones, but injuring them was one thing and killing them was a whole different matter. Managing to kill even one of them took a very long time. Hope was not lost for long though, one day a group of infected people woke up from their deep coma and slayed all of the nightmarish creatures using only their bodies and unexpectedly, strange magical abilities. They called them Aspects. It seemed that when they fell into a coma, they were transported to another world, a world where magic and abominations exist, a world that is beautiful and horrific at the same time. They had to overcome a trial where they would be at a disadvantage or advantage. Each of these trials varied from person to person. As if it was created directly for them. These types of people with Aspects began waking up all around the world, lessening the threat of the creatures which were promptly named Nightmare creatures. They were called so becuase of the contrastive nature of those who awoke and those that didn't. A name was also chosen for those that awoke.
Awakened.
These Awakened in turn passed down their knowledge for the survival of future bearers of the spell. Sending humanity into a new age of horrors and somewhat bleakly, redemption.
Ariel snorted at that last word when he read it in a newspaper 'Redemption my scarred ass. If the redemption they were talking about was this hellhole of shit and death, where we, the rats of society live like actual rats with near to zero chance of surviving our first nightmare while the newborns of the clans are trained their whole lives for the first nightmare even if there was a chance where they wouldn't get infected. Then I only want to know what type of drugs they were on when they wrote it. So much bullshit stank of off that fucking article that my shit started to smell better. It's all about luck. That's it. Luck and nothing else. Hence survival is as bleak as a good nights sleep in these outskirts for me.
He had made the biggest mistake by trusting hope when he didn't catch the spell at fifteen. However he made sure to never get too comfortable with his temporary safety and as time went on and on there was no sign of the spell, causing a hesitating spark of hope to be birthed in him. Which, matter of factly didn't matter as the day he turned sixteen, a wave of terrifying nausea hit him, washing away any sprout of hope or relief that had started to plague him.
The dreadful fear the spell had on newly affected people was immense, the hopelessness in the face of the despairing future was suffocating for them. But for Ariel it was…
'Liberating.'
Liberating in the sense of not having to look up to hope again. The one thing he hated the most. He hated its influence, its grip. Its inevitability. He hated it to the core of his being.
Why?
Because of its betrayal. How many times it brought him a slight amount of safety that turned into despair was many.
However, hope was infinite, its power far-reaching. Thus it was inevitable. Some day in some place he will have to rely on it again and he wasn't looking forward to it.
His thoughts halted as he arrived in front of the police station directly outside the outskirts. It was stationed there to "take care of criminal activity in the outskirts" when in reality, they were Just a bunch of nobody low-lifes that were expendable trash.
And trash was trash. None of them did their job. Hell, some of them helped the gangs in exchange for some money. A few particularly nasty ones even participated and relished in torturing or r****ng families that were indebted to the gangs they were affiliated with. Families that wanted nothing but to survive. Daughters and sons that wished to live happily, mothers that wished for their children to live happily, fathers that wished to provide so that their family can live happily.
That's the type of people in charge of "Protecting" the outskirts. It made sense though. The low is stuck with the low, and the high is stuck with the high. It was unfair. But unfairness is reality.
Ariel sighed then pushed the door open.
Creak!
The outdated looking door let out an audible groan as it slowly opened. Bright light filtered out, making Ariel squint his eyes. Compared to the lightless alleyways of the outskirts, this was too bright for him.
As his eyes adjusted, an expansive warm hall with sleek, grey walls adorned with white, rectangular electrical lamps greeted him. A waiting area with a dozen black, steel chairs covered a corner. A number of people similar to him were seated on the chairs, their clothes too, were ragged and loose, barely covering their bodies with the amount of holes in them. Their eyes were sunken, listless. Dark circular bags under them. Just like him.
The familiar smell of piss and shit hit him. He was no better either. His body smelled of rotten flesh becuase of the untreatable scars and more importantly his right leg that was beginning to leak out a trail of greenish blood across the clean floor of the station.
Ignoring the few eyes that landed on him, he limped his way to a black desk holding up a work phone, a bundle of documents, and unsurprisingly, a few bottles of alcohol. Behind it, sat a bearded man with droopy eyes that were bordering on shutting. As well as a bottle in hand That was swaying lightly. He was wearing normal police uniform.
Tap! Tap!
He tapped on the desk twice to get the officer's attention. Attention that he didn't notice or he just didn't want to respond as his eyes glanced at Ariel for a second before going back to their droopy state.
Ariel's eyes twitched before he opened his mouth.
However…
The next second, a small breath escaped his lips as a burst of pain shot up his body. Bringing along with it a sudden weakness. Nearly making him stumble. The tiredness this time was unbearable as his heartbeat quickened to an unnerving degree, his breaths became more ragged, even coming close to wheezing.
'S-shit'
By now the officer's eyes were set on his wheezing form trying to catch his breath but to no avail. This time it was different. It was stronger, otherwise he would've been good. And so realising he was losing control. He gathered the last remaining minuscule amount of strength left in him to open his mouth in a frantic hurry.
"I-I'm in-infected!"
That was all he could say as the world spiralled around him, Coming to a close on him like a maw. His eyes closed shut in a snap. His body that was straight, reeled forward, hitting the desk with a bang. The last thing he heard was the officer's urgent plea for help.
But all of it was drowned out by a loud, ancient declaration in his head.
[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your first trial…..]
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My eyes opened to darkness. A darkness that tuned out all of my senses.
Being in a void where no sound is made, where everything is nothing, where you feel your whole body is slowly turning null and empty. It was no surprise when panic over took me.
"I" looked down hurriedly, searching for my body, but all that came in sight was the corrupting, still Void.
I was nothing but Void.
Only my thoughts remained.
Time passed, my panic changed to fear overtime. The empty blackness was affecting me in an indescribable way, my thoughts were slowly turning into uncontrollable, crazy tangents.
I felt it clearly.
I felt my sense of self slipping away slowly.
The darkness was calling for me, wanting to embrace me within its wicked confines.
The darkness…
The darkness…..
The darkness.....
'Doesn't seem too bad.'
"I" smiled happily, opening my "arms" wide. Ready to engulf myself in the tantalising silence of the darkness.
Suddenly.
In the periphery of my eyes something stood out. No, somethings stood out. They were spheres of light floating in the Void peacefully. Three of them To be precise.
Curious, "I" turned towards the three spheres while the Void behind me trembled in rage as it swirled around itself. Sensing my "eyes", the spheres appeared a foot away in a blink. In response, the swirling Void behind me twisted as a horrific, unsettling cry sounded out. Space cracked, and through the crack. Mopes of light shot out, easily deafening the outcry of the void. But "I" wasn't aware of any of those events, my whole being was fixed on the three spheres of light.
"I" stared at them in a daze. Pulsing beautifully in rhythm to each other. Waiting for something to happen. The more "I" looked at them the more beautiful they became. Eventually, a blurry symbol appeared in each of the spheres.
That's when it happened.
The moment I caught a glimpse of those strange symbols, the spheres pulsed powerfully before white tendrils of light slithered out of them, connecting to what I guessed to be my head.
Then, for the first and last time in this void.
I closed my eyes.
And opened them again.
This time.
What greeted me was a crack in the familiar, sinister void. The crack released waves of white light from time to time, light that pushed the nothingness of the void away. Eventually the fluorescent waves of light managed to pry open the crack wholly. And like a maw the crack expanded and expanded until its size became unthinkable by human minds.
Before I could really observe the huge crack of space…
The scene shifted.
My eyes immediately widened in awe at the the sight in front of me. In place of the gigantic maw of broken darkness, was a city. A gathering of eight tall, sleek white towers connected to each other by intricately designed bridges. Creating a circular wall of white. Inside the circle was a variation of buildings similarly white in colour. They too were connected by bridges. And when I stared down at it from above. All the connected network of bridges and buildings coalesced to form something.
'Is that a wheel?'
I couldn't mull over my question for long as a tugging sensation much stronger than anything I've handled brought me down straight to the outer part of the city.
The scene shifted again.
Suddenly, I was face to face with a humanoid, grinning creature. Its pearly white teeth glistening, in place of its eyes were two pairs of white branches that ended in small fluttering wings.
The creature's features left me in a slight stupor, however, my stupor wasn't long lived as a cacophony of voices and sounds hammered into my head, causing me to writhe in my place. One voice though, overpowered the others. Its voice deep and ancient, surprisingly calmed me down.
"There you go child, get a hold of yourself."
I managed to barely nod through the countless voices, showing that I heard it clearly.
"Now child, let me see which one of the Esteemed Ones chose to bless you." The warm voice returned with a hint of maternal undertone as something pricked my shoulder, followed by a trail of blood. The feeling of my flesh wriggling hit me before it became solid once again.
All that followed was a deafening silence for a good minute.
Then, the voice sounded out once more, this time it was filled with an intense reverence and awe. Its deep voice quaking as it spoke out into my mind.
"A Bane… the Esteemed Ones have blessed upon us a Bane!
A/N: give me some feedback and tell me if you like it :)