Chapter 1: The Paradiance.
The shift, the mystery, and the happiness—the process of leaving your material dismay and embracing the immense euphoria as you welcome the blissful feeling of heaven despite the unpleasant shiver of change ripping between reality and whatnot—that's what I called Paradiance.
"Ouch! My eyes!" Eve stares too far into the sky, embracing the white.
"Where am I? Are we...there?" She turned speechless as the ground felt smoother and coarse with soft pebbles.
"Alright! We're here! Welcome to Elis!!" Charger guides Eve further from the door.
"Huh...so I haven't died yet? Impressive..." Eve stares below her foot.
*Whisper* "You're getting higher." A voice mutters in Eve's ears.
"Huh? Who said that?"
"Eve! Over here, friend! You have reached your destination to one and only..." Charger spun her half a circle to a real deal.
"Elysian!" An introduction from the creature with his arms stretched upwards to the sky.
"Huh? Oh. Oh..." The girl stares in disbelief over her eyes. The world is not a trick in her mind.
The thing you couldn't see with your own eyes that could please you as Paradiant people do. The object of happiness represents itself in a form of light that others find simple. Is it the mind that eludes these eyes into appreciating such rays? I'm afraid not for me.
Elysian, home of the sacred lights. A white empire stood afar on an island floating in space—of castles and towers built in an awestruck from materials out of this world. Of course, it would need an eternally white sky to have the void-like night concealed within the clouds to have those looks dazzling.
"From right there, we have plenty of grass to eat!" The grass is green, and the grounds are scattered with many pieces. It is a plateau house on the highlands, flowing with the essence of light that brings life to everything.
"And right there, we have sufficient water to drink!" The rivers are white, gleaming with water so bright and blight. They are upstream from the hill where they are originating.
"Isn't that amazing, friend?" Charger praises.
The far-travel from Earth to here was worth knowing the existence of the Paradiance. These people were believed to live in the sun to channel their presence away from humans, restricting people from entering freely into their floating homes.
The two were standing on an altar—marked with the same sun as the rune. Eight arching pillars connected above their heads, with a mirror sphere—hanging at the center. Before them lies a stairway to a town center.
"This is the realm station or what others would like to call Huaka'i and Shift shrine—The common transportation used for inter-realm travel by citizens."
"Common?" She was intrigued immediately. Her first paper had drawn the altar's mark.
"Well, there are several ways to travel from realm to realm here. Luckily, we used the safest one..." Charger walks off to the stairs, waiting for Eve to follow.
"Typical fantasy world." She follows Charger to the stairs, grasping a piece of torn marble from the ground. It's a simple marble—nothing more than the earthly mineral she knew.
Their next walk is towards a lone bridge with streetlamps and banners hung as a welcoming present. Here, Eve could ponder outside the altar and witness pieces of islands connected to the center of their destination. These islands appear far and low from her sight, with rubbles of stones lifting their civilization from falling to the unknown.
"Well, here we are! The City of Lights!" Their next platform lies inside the Crystal Palace.
The Elysian City is a hidden gem of a lost world, filled with sharp, thin towers plunging high above. Highway lanes are all over the ground, connecting as a bridge from home to home through a circular flow paved in concrete and woods. And those leaving the city were the ones heading to the other islands.
Legend says that Paradiance began as a manifestation of the creator's essence in the sky. They are said to be stars sent down from the sky to watch over humans, gifted by the creator's hand a paradise to house their needs, with only chosen shepherds and prophets sent to this city as the test of their loyalty.
"Watch out, friend!" Charger drags her away to a nearby post. A few people pass through the walkway, nearly noticing the two before their leave.
"We shouldn't walk around free here. Not when one of us aren't allowed to."
"What is that? Is that a human?"
Hyperians—A creature of daylight, born in the brilliance of the upper world. Their glossy spherical head, whose size is as big as a cannonball—but not their hands—who could only reach a human more than the hips. The citizens of this land bear the luminous looks of a bulb while walking with their legs like a human—perhaps as intellectually as one.
"Oh, you mean those people? They are the citizens of this place. The home of lights would always need a people of light, too. Looks cool, aren't they?"
"They're known as Hyperians. The pure form of sentience in the highest evolutionary possible. They were the settlers you'll find everywhere in here,"
"Looks like a knockoff of you, to be honest. Except brighter...and wearing more clothes that isn''t my shirt right now."
"I couldn't resist taking these off, my friend. This doubles my already cool look in this town." He had to keep the fabric clean during his visit. Charger does not like a stain in his greatness.
I was not a born adventurer, but I have a will that pushes me otherwise. It was a shard that guided me here—a piece of the sky coming down like a messiah through a study in the library. Poor little thing searches for someone as wise as me—perhaps it was right in some ways.
The two descend to a lower bridge, passing through transitioning posts and reaching the broader lane. A confusing path to reach the tower lying right afar with a spotlight from the sky itself. But on this path, they find themselves accompanied by hundreds—if not—thousands of these sphere heads walking around.
"Are we supposed to be here?" Eve thoughts at the merchants on the street. Those little shops and markets beside her had items that drew her attention, like the marble in her possession.
"Y-yeah! We just had to...blend in. You're a human so they wouldn't suspect you!"
"How's so? I'm the only one human here." Eve spread her arms across the bridge.
"Because they'll think you're a bearer! I mean, you already got the look!" Charger tucks her sweater, revealing a cold, paler skin.
"Is there anything wrong with my look?"
"Friend, can I have my clock back? I need to stay low until we reach the tower!" The creature leaps onto her waist, searching for his trinket. But the girl slaps him off to the ground with a disappointed face.
"You would leave me stranded after pulling me here, imp?"
"Aww..."
"Fresh Popoli here! Get your fresh Popoli here while you can!"
"Fresh Popoli! Take your fresh Popoli! Buy one to get one for free!"
"Hey, you there!" The merchant calls upon Eve's name from afar—seeing her passing through the bridge.
"Ahh!" The creature runs behind the girl's back.
"Are you talking to me, sir?"
"Yes. Would you like to taste some of my Popoli?" The Popoli is a white dough-like fruit with a faint pink light. They appear cushy and blobby like balloons.
"Popoli? It sounds like pizza."
"Okay. Let me try." She grabs one from the merchant's hand.
*Chewing* "Ptooh..." She spews glass and gas out of her mouth. The Popoli merely tastes like a Christmas ornament.
"What is this made of?"
"What else than the naturally preserved Popoli fruit tree? The fruit of Hyperians, my friend~!"
"Ptooh! I'm a human. This is a glass on a dough and it could kill me."
"Well, I only serve my goods. Am I a human expert?" The merchant brushes off with an unsatisfied face to its store again.
"Popoli. More like Poopoli."
"You shouldn't eat that, friend. You're eating the equivalent of a lightbulb with that teeth." Charger leaves his hiding spot.
"Make sense. I've eaten much worse than shards of glass. Is there anything I could really eat here?"
"Well, there are a few shops made by humans around here...but they are far below our foot. I mean..." The creature guides Eve to the bridge's fence, allowing her to see the higher bridges.
The journey here was not easy. I had to approach several obstacles created by the Paradiance in the form of a maze. There are too many curves and drops to overcome for legs that were made only for climbing. But in the end, my adventure leads right where these people are, their home.
Their civilization is a sufficient home to many divine beings. My travel leads me from bridge to stairs, only to find the perfect path—walking like I was one of them. Their bridges are filled with little lanterns that shimmer with clouds and glittering leaves—for what was above my reach to follow.
"So, can you explain why the coverup?"
"Because the authority might suspect the two of us!"
"So you expect a human like me to walk freely without protection?"
"N-no! It's just..."
"It's just what? Where's the great Charger that I was promised? Instead, I got a coward spark dangling around my foot?"
"Friend! How could you say that? I'm trying to maintain a low profile because there are too many people who will go nuts at me!"
"Really?" Eve stops.
"What? I'm not lying! Technically, people knew me here. Just not in a good way..." Charger defends himself with a stick.
"Hey, are you not worrying about that Quasarian criminal?" A passing group of Hyperians mutters at the intersection.
"Eek!" Charger leaps into Eve's bag.
"What for? The cops wouldn't get him—neither the bearers could lay a hand on him."
"Exactly. I don't want that thing around me while I'm walking here..."
"If it wasn't for that Quasarian, I would've gone to college by now. Who thought putting Lyte on the Obsidian lab is a great idea?"
"Whatever. I just have a feeling that he's somewhere around here..."
"Eavesdropping on us." And they left Eve without even noticing the blue sweater.
"See? They didn't see you at all, friend! Your disguise is working!"
"What is Lyte? And what did you do with their college?"
"Long story. But it was a mess I've been trying to help two months ago...Sadly, I have a lot to focus now, did I?" He smirks.
I hunted for some fruit to taste on the way while studying how these people spoke. Unfortunately, they spoke ill of me and didn't seem interested in my struggle to climb a mountain. Their culture was one of the factors that drove me here, and seeing them utter harshly at me brought bitterness to my tongue and sore muscles. Nevertheless, a shard's will is a shard's will.
"Hold it right there!" Yelled by a Hyperian from afar. A group—to be exact.
"Uh oh..." The happiness brushes off Charger's face as these people head towards him. They look desperate to see this greatness before them, but it's not what Charger was looking for.
The Hyperians officers immediately circle through the intersection, right where the two were close to the tower before the polished armor wearer appears with a yellow, bolted spear aimed from every direction.
"Quasarian, you have violated your entry into this town! Step no further into the tower!" The Hyperian guard slaps the ground with their spear, pushing sparks towards the two.
"Ooh, looks like they were looking for an autograph. Don't you want some, imp?" She teases him with a satire. But the creature's face remains indifferent to fear of the authority.
"I repeat, stay down and cease your footsteps any closer!"
"Alright, the great one. Speak." Eve taps him for a push.
"W-wait! I can explain! I'm not here to fight! I'm here to..."
*Zap* "Aah!!" And he was right to fear them. The bolt of a spear suddenly jabbed through Charger's chest and sparked a yellow burst of electricity.
"Nice job, buddy. All of that greatness for some sparks in your chest." Eve quipped with disappointment.
"We got a henchman working for the A-level criminal. Subdue!" The Hyperian aims their spear to Eve.
"Wait, what? No, I'm just..."
*Zap* "Fr-Aah! Ugh...uhh..." She fell to the ground, hearing only a faint static from the cold pavement touching her face. The Hyperians officers secure the two in a circle, alerting the others to stay off.
The crowds were shocked—even the merchant regretted the Popoli he had offered to Eve. Countless words and eyes were batted towards their passing body, with Eve's remains of consciousness being the only witness to their shame.
*Faint* "Guards, carry these two off to the containment now!"
*Faint*
"Thanks a lot, imp..." She faints to the abyss.
But I had no time to quarrel about the past, as my future lies ahead among these people. I have lots to venture through this confined space with all my time and freedom unburdened while the shard demands. Who am I to intrude on the Paradiants? Faith must push forward as they do themselves.
[Interrogation room]
An office for a criminal or a questionable person. The two await in an empty room walled in metal layers with asymmetrical square patterning—similarly known as cube-walled. This containment raises uncertainty with Eve's feelings of the dampened outside noise and lack of friendliness within the wall carving.
"What a horrendous place to be. Now I know how it feels being in an asylum..." Eve taps the table impatiently, waiting for the officers to take matters with them.
"I guess you're right, Charger. You maybe are a great one."
"Really?" Charger stares awed at Eve.
"Greatly awful, that is." She tears his hope in one answer, leading him to feel low.
"Aww...I'm sorry. Maybe we should've gone for a smaller road..."
"Great, now what? This place looks weird and this "cuff" thingy, too. Is it a cuff?"
*Buzz* A mechanism works behind the wall, giving a disturbing sound of something sliding through a rotor.
"Alright, we've contacted the Tower of your arrest, and you will be dealt with immediately." The orb appears from a hatch-like door.
"You may wait here until the bearers arrive to pick you up."
"Noo!!" The creature yelled with horror.
Eve appalls, "Wait, bearers? As in the bearer I'm applying for? Are we going to be here to have fun with magic?"
"Please do not move until help arrives." The guard mutters indifferently.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock* The wall knocks on a metal echo. A guest awaits by the door, turning the attention towards the sound.
"Oh, there you are. I'll leave it to you..." The orb left from the same hatch it visited.
"We meet again, criminal." A human appears from the door—clanking with metal sounds from his steps.
But what about those humans out there? I couldn't recall a champion sent with a sophisticated-looking before. Even surprisingly, they are not what we call humans anymore. These people and I found each other in an intense spot between truth and law—yet none of us could tell which was truer.
An executioner whose body is as hard as a rock and whose weapon is as sharp as a dragon's teeth.
A witch who seems to be affected by drugs of her own alchemies and outworld beverages.
An assassin who does not want to be seen under the light as long as his blade is not used.
"Aaah! No!!" Yelled Charger as he searched for Eve's shoulders.
"Don't think you can run again, creature!" The green witch chases after Charger from Eve's back.
"Aah! No! Eve, please! Tell them the truth! Tell them!" Charger leaps to her head for safety.
Yet the bearer grabbed him by the head with only a hand from Eve's face.
"You think you're stuck now? Don't even think about escaping with your frivolous doohickey anymore!"
"Please, listen to me! I'm not here to stop you!"
"Now, for the creature, you can have fun in the prison before the councils decide on you. Get ready to have your skin flayed..." The white-robed bearer grabs Charger by the head, dragging him off like a lump of meat.
"Noo!!"
"Please! Please! I have a defense! I'm trying to clear my name! I promise!" Charger begs.
"It's okay, lady. You can return to your home now. The creature would not bother any longer..." Said the man through the clanks of his helmet, comforting Eve with his big gloves.
"Uhm, can you please let go of my friend?" Eve stood awkwardly.
"No need to feel awful today, citizen. You may enter that chamber over there and guide you back to safety." The green witch distracted her from Charger's resistance. She pushes her far to the other door, leading somewhere that isn't their first entry.
"Uh, no thanks. I'm not in a mood for...sphere. Can I just ask how I get uhm...this?" That furnace at the center of the building was placed with a suspiciously cabled wall and blast door.
"Getting what? This scent? It's a homemade deodorant and skin-smoother when you're desperate for work."
"Thanks for telling me how weird you are, but I'm talking about getting this "bearer" thingy."
"Well, I'm afraid those aren't a thing here. Whatever that creature said to you is delusional! You were corrupted by his words, fellow human!" The witch hicks a green bubble.
"Coming from a woman like you? I'm afraid not. I have some juices to compress over this creature! And that is the juice of truth!" The drunk witch seems unfazed as Eve leaves her. Her mind is dazed and chaotic.
"Oh? Where? Where?" The witch's attention was swayed by the thought of drinks.
*Clank* The bearers caged Charger into higher-level confinement. A cage with proper sealing and space.
"There you go. No longer a trouble and deserved as you should. This time, we kept the containment safe..."
"Eve! Eve! Help! Help!" Charger shook through his cage.
"Enough! You can keep that attitude with your executioner when he starts beating the life out of you..." The witch berates him.
*Clank* "H-hey! Take him out! Now!" The girl kicks the armor of that man.
*Clank* *Clank* *Clank*
"What are you doing? Who told you to take him away from me?" Eve snatches the creature.
"I went all from down there to get that bearership he promised to me and you decided to take it away from me?" She confronts the witch.
"Might as well as just imprison me instead. I don't care how many crimes he committed, I'm not leaving."
"Five hundred and ten times to be exact." Charger corrects.
"Five hundred and ten times? All of that number for someone who had the full authority of a president to subdue an elephant with a flick of a finger. You want to scare me with your rusty bucket you called armor?"
"Watch your tone, lady. You have no excuse to lecture on us." The diver grabs her by the throat, dropping Charger from the other hand.
"Eve!" He yelled for her.
"Oh, so this is how you...uck...answer me? A helpless girl in a world where she has no...uck...power to defend herself?" She struggles.
"Hey! Hey! Please don't hurt her! Don't hurt my friend!" Charger yelled.
"Enough! You can keep that attitude with our friend later!" The witch berates him.
I was hoping for an encounter with a beast or to negotiate together about a share of fortune and wisdom. But it seems that fortune beats wisdom first. Nevertheless, my lead shall remain on a solace and peaceful path. I could rely on their help when this shard could stop dragging me out of the conversation.
"Guess I can kill you now, should I? Or do you have anything to mourn now...?" The armored man smirks beneath his helmet.
"What? What was that face...oh...uck...let me tell you something...let me just...ugh!" I slide my neck a bit further from his grip. To give myself a room to breathe while my legs kick upon his armor.
"There. You want him to leave me? F-fine! He's can go...but let me tell you something. You let him off me, you made a big mistake..."
"Hm." The diver nods away as the others prepare to leave this room.
"You left him. He'll escape your grip again. Ever think of that? Maybe you don't because you would've got him earlier if you didn't had to choke a girl for that..."
*Whisper* "Weapon." Said the voice in her left ear. Eve finds guidance leading to the driller laid on the table.
"Weapon? Weapon..."
"You are all brute and...uck...no brain. Who gives birth...uck...to you?" She kicks through his armor, only to feel the vibration around from her kick reflected to the diver's suit.
"No wonder...uck...your friends pick you here. They would've needed someone with a chicken head to...uck...do their biddings while their muscle grew loose..uck?"
"Don't you have something to spare in your head or something? Some kindness to spare? Or manners? Uck..."
"Come on...uck...ugh..." Her left leg slowly drags the hope closer for an escape.
"Wow, you really are suck at speaking, mortal. If that's really your last words, I wonder how many people would miss you..."
"Well, you're right. Not that I even care about your opinion on my grave either." She aims for the helmet through a quick, precisive lunge. Before the tank's knowledge, his weapon was already in her possession.
"Huh? Where did you get that?"
"Also, the name's Eve. Take that right." She aims for the head, and the driller's head starts spinning.
It buzzes through the helmet's glass, jostling the knight throughout his armor, and drops his shield down for an enemy to attack. It was the moment that Eve needed to leave the near-demise with an unguarded door.
"Aagh! Damn you, that armor was new! Aargh...!"
"You must be the tank of this group. Sad to see the least intellectual one here can't read a book. But I had to go!" She left.
"Come back! You're supposed to be dead now! Come back!"
I continue my journey without interfering with these people, trying to find my way further into the paradise they say exists in this land. We depart together without saying goodbye, which makes parts of this adventure too lackey.
The bearers and their prisoner carry down to a bridge, leading their leave from what appears to be a station. A barrack full of armed Hyperians enforcers, reporting for duties and authorities.
"Aah! Hey, that hurts..." Charger begged with his cuffed hands.
"Focus on this creature. Do you remember what happened the last time someone got negligent on him? We're not repeating this shit again..." The assassin reprimands.
"Aww..."
"Don't worry, criminal. You may get a life sentence somehow if you appeal like this." The witch comforts.
"Really?"
"Of course...not. You'll have to make a hundred sheet of papers to do so."
"Aww, I don't want to! I told you it was an accident!" Charger defend.
"We're just trying to do our duty, kid. You should've just plead for guilty and stay off our business."
"I'm just trying to help! Why did you always berates me for that?"
"Because you're doubling our trouble in this city, kid. Ever since you came here, you made everything a mess...let alone your intervention from realm to realm..."
"You were given a chance to redeem and you decided to repeat it again. Think of that. Maybe you can help us in the prison for eternity while you..."
An arm reaches both their heads, "Huh?"
*Brak* Eve slams both their heads together, dazing the two unconscious.
*Exhausted* "Maybe wear a head cover next time. Good thing you're the only humans in this...facility..."
"Eve? You're back! I thought you're leaving me!"
"Not while you have that rune on me! Hang on, I'll go look after their key!" Eve rummages through the unconscious bodies.
Charger interrupts, "There's no time! We need to leave now! Just carry me out first!"
"What about the bearer? Didn't we promised on that?"
"I'm afraid you don't want to listen to these nincompoops anymore! They wanted death for both of us!" The cage lifted away with Charger in it.
"Then we're getting out of here!" Eve prepares to depart with Charger in her possession.
"What the...hey! You there!" The ambient changes when the Hyperian catches them.
*Alarm* *Alarm* *Alarm*
I can feel that this was only the beginning. I am aware that somewhere, somewhen, this shard that had called upon me would lead me to glory and majestic return among the peasants in the Middle World. After all, I am the wise one.