Bell gently opened her eyes at what felt like noon. Rays of golden sunlight filled the bedroom, and Bell realized that the angle of the ceiling was strange.
"Wrong, you're on the floor."
A strange and disembodied voice echoed into the room from somewhere infinitely far away.
"I'm not disembodied, and I'm standing right above you! Get up, lazybones!" Oldie said with a tone of annoyance.
Bell stood up and looked at her older variant in the eyes.
"So that wasn't a terrible nightmare." Bell managed to say between her voice cracking and the pain in her throat.
Oldie started to pace around the room before stating, "Firstly, call me something other than 'Oldie.' Secondly, you need to start packing, now."
Bell then sobered up from her post-sleep grogginess. The fog shrouding her mind had started to rapidly vanish.
"I'm a challenger, now!" Bell managed to glean from the situation.
Oldi... The Hag- "Not the hag."
"Well, what do you want me to call you?" Bell complained to her older self.
The woman then paused and offered a name, "The Impaled?" To which Bell immediately dismissed the idea.
"You're telling me that we never get better at naming things?" Bell complained.
Then, the woman pointed up in a pose similar to an old cartoon character who had a bright idea. "You can call me Gong! You're Bell, and I'm Gong!"
'You're older than me... shouldn't I be the Gong?' Bell thought before ridding herself of the thought. 'That doesn't matter now.'
"You're right!" Gong said with far too much enthusiasm for someone with a claymore stuck in her chest. "We have to pack up!"
Bell started to look around for whatever she might need to pack, but before she even began, she noticed something and remembered another thing.
'The floor! The others!' Bell frantically thought.
Gong then stated calmly, "You need to calm down, we still have around twenty-four hours to head out. You can get plenty of things done in twenty-four hours!"
Bell took a deep breath and thought up of a plan.
Firstly, she would test if Gong could be seen by others; Secondly, she would explain the burn marks on the floor.
'Jeez, they're real bad.' Bell thought with beads of sweat starting to form on her brow.
Thirdly, Bell was going to begin packing anything that she needed for the coming months.
If one was a Challenger, through means unknown to her, Bell was going to be marked as a Challenger and required to attend the nearest Terrarium. Luckily, she had planned everything out, even quitting her previous part-time job a few days ago. Unluckily, her plans were forced to occur more than two weeks early, and with no forewarning.
'Crap, crap, crap!' Bell started to lose a grip.
Gong then said with a hand on Bell's shoulder... "We have to come up with a better name for me. I know I'm here to help you out, but this name sucks."
Bell nodded and added another thing to do after she began packing.
'Fourthly, give Gong... Oldie... Hag... Impaled... a new name.'
The older version of Bell then spoke up, "There's no way that we're this bad at naming things... right?"
Bell, who opened the door, whispered to the older version of herself, "Yeah... we're this bad..."
Then, Bell and Gong appeared in the living room that connected itself to the space that acted as kitchen and dining room.
Bell's mother, Sarah, and her father, Joshua, were sitting on the couch and simply watching a movie in the middle of the afternoon.
"Morning, Bell..." Sarah droned off while greeting Bell.
Joshua didn't bother greeting Bell as he simply exclaimed, "You ascended?!"
Bell nodded silently, clearly not having to say anything.
"It looks like they can see you, Gong." Bell stated to the older variant of herself.
Her mother then said, "Who are you talking to, who's Gong?"
Gong then stated calmly, "I don't think they can see me."
'Yeah, I don't think so either.' Bell attempted to transmit her thoughts to Gong with rosy cheeks formed out of embarrassment.
Gong nodded before Bell's father started speaking.
"Have you looked in a mirror?" Her father said while holding both of Bell's shoulders. "There's no way you haven't ascended!"
Bell then thought about something, 'Wait, does ascending do that?'
"Yeah, you lose most of your impurities upon initial ascension." Gong stated.
Her mother started applauding from the couch while saying, "Happy birthday, Bell!"
"Happy sixteen, Bell." Her father said with a wide and warm smile.
After a moment of silence, the three said at the same time.
"Thank you, Mom, Dad." Bell thanked her parents for the well wishes.
Her mother looked panicked, "We have to get you packed up!"
"Do you want brunch?" Her father had stated.
After a moment of awkward silence, the three then blurted at the same time once more.
The three started to look rosy out of embarrassment of the mistakes. Then, they all took turns speaking.
"Thank you, Mom, Dad." Bell stated.
"This is a big moment for you!" Her father said after a momentary pause.
Her mother then asked with a look of curiosity, "What Shard did you get? What Fragment?"
Bell didn't even remember that she had attained a Shard after completing her ascension. She shot a glare towards Gong, who looked away under the scrutinous eye of the sixteen-year-old Bellona Finley.
'And to think you're twenty-six...' Bell thought, shaking her head.
Her father and mother then looked extremely worried, "What happened?" They asked in unison.
"I passed out after finishing accepting the Trials..." Bell stated, putting a momentary pause for dramatic effect. "I don't know what type of Shard I have."
With dejected looks, the three took another momentary silence to think of what to do next.
It was rather unfortunate, but Bell only had the chance to see information on her Shard, and Fragment with either a special tool or when completing a Domain or Trial.
The Shard was an item that granted the person blessings and curses depending on what specific Fragments a person had, as well as how many. A Fragment was a two-sided piece of magical glass that attuned to a person's brain that allowed them special otherworldly abilities.
That, all tied into the fact that upon completing a Trial made a person physically stronger made for a deadly combination for an experienced Challenger.
Unfortunately, however, most people didn't get too much information regarding Challengers, Trials, and the Domains. Bell had to dig deep into whatever public information that had been reserved in the back of the archives in the New York library.
After a while of inaction, Bell's stomach rumbled.
'I should eat something before we start packing...' Bell thought.
Her father's expression returned to a smile and said, "Let's get you a meal, huh?"
To which Bell obliged, sitting down at a chair in the dining room as her father quickly cooked a full meal. Bell spared no speck of remaining food, making sure to devour the entire thing before washing the plate and letting it dry.
After she ate, Bell and her parents went to the local supermarket and bought a suitcase and other essential materials to leave home. Bell's siblings joined in the mayhem of rapid preparing, seeing as how they didn't know anything about the situation unfolding around them, they had a blast.
It was on the way to the supermarket that Bell and Gong realized that Gong couldn't stay farther than around one hundred meters away from Bell. Instead, Gong would repeatedly appear near Bell and wait to be moved once more.
Another thing that the two found out was that Gong could anchor herself to Bell and simply be dragged around in the air. From the looks of it, Gong was mostly unaffected by the sheer speed that the Finley family was moving from location to location.
Before dinner, the family returned and cooked a delicious meal shared with one another.
It was after the meal that Bell felt that she was at a crossroads. Her family had begun a family together, and Bell had to pack as well.
'What should I do?' Bell asked Gong through whatever strange telepathic connection that the two shared.
Gong stated clearly after the two realized that Gong couldn't really interact with the real world outside of brushing against Bell. It wasn't only things that Gong couldn't touch, she was unable to be seen or heard as well.
Gong seemed to be a bit disappointed by that fact, but quickly sucked it up, as she had some purpose that Bell was unaware of. The claymore stuck in Gong's chest didn't seem to be unconnected to the situation that Gong found herself in, either.
"Just pack up, you'll have plenty of time in the morning if you get ready now and go to sleep on time." Gong stated while taking the pose of The Thinker. "I'll help you get enough rest tonight, and then we can tackle things from there."
So Bell rapidly packed whatever she found that she needed to bring across the sea. There was no Terrarium in New York, where Bell lived, so she would have to go to a Chamber where Bullet Trains lay in wait. Then, Bell and Gong would meet a few other people and head to the Terrarium across the ocean.
'Sounds like a plan!' Bell thought, proud of herself.
After about two hours, Bell was halfway finished folding and getting her things ready. Despite the fact that every movement related to packing her belongings away brought Bell nearly physical pain.
"Oh, you'll be fine." Gong said in response to seeing Bell's current somewhat sorry state.
Bell sucked it up and continued packing, finishing before Ten P.M.
After she packed up, Bell left the suitcase standing in her room and bid her parents and siblings good night.
***
"Bellona Finley will be alone in the end."
'Not if Gong has anything to say about that...' Bell thought to herself.
The two found themselves in a forest on some sort of hillside, and in a clearing were two people. One was a knight while the other wore light brown priestly robes.
Bell fought the knight while Gong fought the one in robes.
After a long fight on the defensive side, the pained grunts of the one in robes led to Gong being able to help Bell out in her fight. It didn't even take another half-minute to bring the other one down.
"Bellona Finley was alone in the end."
***
Bell awoke to the sounds of her father moving the suitcase out of her room, rolling over the burnt areas of the floor.
The sun was yet to fully rise, but with the location of the family house being higher up in the city, loose rays of the golden sunrise illuminated the room enough.
Bell's father looked to hold back a tear while muttering to himself, "It's fine, we can rebuild it..."
Bell then sat up and said with a sheepish smile, "My bad... about the floor..."
Bell's father continued dragging the suitcase, "You're fine... I can replace it."
His tone carried a deep melancholy.
Gong then stated, "He'll be fine, you have to get out of here."
Bell looked up towards Gong and thought in reply, 'I thought we had the morning?'
"Oh... yeah, about that. The train leaves at noon." Gong shrugged.
Bell's expression grew into one of confusion and withheld fury, 'You lied?!'
Gong shrugged once more, "Well, I wanted you to get enough sleep. What can I say?"
'The truth?'
Gong didn't look to want to reply to that, so the Finley family quickly loaded into the family car and departed. They couldn't very well leave Lucas and Audrey, Bell's siblings, in the house alone, so the two had to wake up.
Lucas was quite feisty, but Audrey simply fell asleep in their father's arms on the way to the car.
Within half an hour, the five were on the road towards the Chamber.
'The plan for August was to get up early anyway... why'd I think that the Bullet Train would leave later, anyway?'
The wait line to get into the Chamber was awful, so the earlier that the family left their abode, the better.
The ride to their destination was quick and nearly entirely uneventful. It was a blue cube appearing in one of the skyscrapers nearby that made the ride somewhat eventful. Luckily, due to the early hour, as well as the fact that it was a weekend, there weren't many cars on the road.
Thus, they reached the Chamber quite easily, and found parking even easier.
Bell dragged her suitcase into the building with her family close behind.
The Chamber had four levels, but all had an overlook to the two railways that led into and out of the building. Only one had a supermassive armored Bullet Train.
Bullet Trains often had thick plate armor and several Challengers of higher class on top of the train. They acted as bodyguards for those who were inside, but despite that, the Bullet Trains were raided often.
Bell turned to her family before descending to the loading platform.
"I... uh, guess this is see you later," Bell said after a moment.
Her father looked like he was on the verge of melting down into tears as her mother grabbed Bell into a bear hug, "I'll see you at last snow, may the Blue Moon light your path."
Afterward, Bell's mother let her down. Bell wheezed out whatever air was left in her lungs as she touched the ground.
Audrey and Lucas looked a bit confused at the entire situation, but waved with smiles, "See you!"
Bell's father regained his composure before hugging bell
Bell found her way to the platform and displayed proof of identification while entering the Bullet Train.
Gong was close behind the entire time, and during the entire trip, she didn't say anything, simply looking around with a bored expression. It was when they reached the Chamber that her expression turned to one of apprehension.
As the doors closed behind them, Gong finally spoke up.
"Be cautious, bad things are going to happen soon."