Chereads / Crimson catalyst / Chapter 2 - Unexpected Ally

Chapter 2 - Unexpected Ally

"Fuck"

As he staggered forward, he saw heard something very ominous coming from deep within the tear space in the sky—a low, rumbling growl, unnatural and chilling. His pulse quickened as he turned toward the source of the sound. Emerging from the tear was a hulking figure, its silhouette barely human. The creature's body was twisted, its form covered in jagged black armor that seemed to pulse with a dark energy, it had no shape that could be described by a human. Glowing red eyes bore down on Taiyou, as if it had locked onto him.

"What... is that?" Taiyou gasped, frozen in place. His mind raced as the creature advanced, it slowly made its way out of the tear in space and landed just some inches away from taiyou and the ambulance. The creature advanced causing the ambulance staff and doctors to panic and run. It marched onward, each step leaving a crack in the ground beneath it.

The creature roared, a guttural, terrifying sound that shook Taiyou to his core. This wasn't like anything from his world—it felt like something from his nightmares, a monster born from the very fabric of the chaos that had consumed Tokyo.

"I need to run" said taiyou, but his legs refused to move. The pain in his body, the shock of everything—it all weighed him down, making it hard to think, to act."shit I'm really screwed if I don't make a run for it now, but my body is exhausted" As the creature drew nearer, it raised a massive, clawed hand, ready to strike.

In that split second, time seemed to slow. Taiyou's vision blurred he could feel a type of unnatural energy flowing through his body and giving him energy again and he dodged the strike of the creature swiftly as it destroyed the ambulance and the ground easily with just a strike. " How lucky can I be?and what the hell was that just now? I couldn't move just a second ago but now it feels like I have more energy than I did before" He could feel it in his blood, in his very soul—a power.But he couldn't just sit there talking because the monster was getting ready to strike again.

"This isn't good" he said, clenching his fists with his new found energy. "I have to make a run for it."

As the creature's claws came crashing down, Taiyou's body moved on its own and dodged instinctively "If there is a god up there I thank you" Taiyou said shedding tears, then he got up and started running as fast as he could "I simply just have to get away from here, it's not like he is gonna chase me" is what taiyou thought to himself but how wrong he was because as soon as he started to dash the monster followed immediately like a tracking device "why the hell is it following me" he complained

The creature's claws slammed into the ground in an attempt to grab taiyou but it misses, sending up a cloud of dust and debris. Taiyou continues to run for his life as the monster chased they reached a road As Taiyou sprints through the ruined streets of Tokyo, the ground trembles beneath his feet. For the first time taiyou takes a proper glance at the creature and how big it is in size in comparison to the buildings, The massive shadow of the monster looms over him—a monstrous beast, towering two stories high, crashes through what remains of the buildings, sending debris raining down. Fires rage around them, casting an eerie, flickering light on the shattered streets and broken skyscrapers. With no choice but to keep moving, Taiyou's heart pounds as he glances back to see the creature closing in, hands swinging as it bulldozes through the destruction. He knows one misstep could be his last.

Taiyou spots a pile of rubble leading up to the remains of an office building. Without hesitation, he leaps onto a tipped-over car, using its crushed hood as a springboard to propel himself up the pile of broken concrete. His feet hit the cracked pavement of the building's exposed second floor, and he rolls with the impact, barely slowing as he bursts into a sprint. The creature smashes into the building just as Taiyou leaps off the edge, its arms swiping inches from his heels.

He drops two stories down to a fractured road, landing hard but surging forward, legs straining as he takes in his surroundings. A series of broken telephone poles lie tangled in electrical wires just ahead. Taiyou runs up the first pole, gripping it with both hands as he swings his body forward, using the tension in the wires to catapult himself over a wall of crushed cars,He releases, flipping mid-air to spot his next move—a destroyed bus lying on its side across a gaping fissure in the road.

As he lands on the roof of the bus, he feels it shift under his weight, teetering dangerously near the edge of the hole. He sprints across, pushing off the rear end just as the bus tips and crashes down into the fissure below. The monster roars, lunging at him from behind, but Taiyou has already reached a row of abandoned storefronts. He grabs onto the broken remains of a neon sign, using it to swing up and launch himself onto a narrow ledge above.

Without thinking, Taiyou dashes along the ledge, feeling its cracked concrete crumble under his weight. He spots a streetlamp sticking out of the rubble and leaps, catching it with both hands and using his momentum to swing around and gain speed. The monster barrels through the storefront below, smashing through walls and sending glass and debris scattering in every direction. Taiyou lets go of the streetlamp mid-swing, landing on the edge of an overturned garbage truck just as the ground beneath it gives way.

The truck tips, sliding down a sloping section of the broken street, and Taiyou rides it like a surfboard, balancing as it careens down the incline. He jumps off just before it slams into a concrete barrier, grabbing onto a nearby drainpipe and quickly scaling it. As he reaches the top of a ruined apartment building, he sees a precarious bridge of fallen billboards and metal beams stretching across to the next building.

Without a second thought, Taiyou sprints across the makeshift bridge, every step causing the beams to groan and shift beneath him. Midway, the structure begins to collapse, and he throws himself forward, just barely catching the ledge of the next building. He hauls himself up, gasping for breath, but he can't stop—the monster has already closed the gap, clawing its way up the side of the building with relentless determination.

Taiyou spots a twisted fire escape on the other side of the rooftop. He runs for it, vaulting over vents and ducking under exposed beams. When he reaches the fire escape, he jumps over the railing, grabbing the ladder on the other side and sliding down, skipping entire flights as he drops level by level. The metal screeches, and the bolts holding it to the wall start to snap under his weight, but Taiyou kicks off, propelling himself to a nearby ledge on an adjacent building.

Now at street level, Taiyou darts into a narrow alley, where toppled dumpsters and broken pipes litter his path. He leaps over a pile of trash bags, using one of the broken pipes as a pole vault to clear a collapsed section of the alley. As he lands, the monster's roar shakes the buildings around him, but he keeps moving, running up a slanted wall to gain height and then kicking off to reach a fire escape on the opposite side.

The fire escape groans as Taiyou pulls himself up, racing to the top as the creature barrels into the alley, smashing through the walls in its pursuit. Taiyou reaches the roof, his eyes scanning the wreckage around him. He spots a crane, its arm hanging low with a bundle of steel cables swinging dangerously close. Running full speed, he jumps off the building, grabbing onto the cables as they swing him across the gap.

The momentum carries him up, and he uses every ounce of strength to climb the cables. At the peak of the swing, he lets go, flinging himself across to a nearby rooftop, rolling to absorb the impact. He scrambles to his feet, sprinting toward the edge. Below, the street is split by a massive, smoking crater, and beyond it lies a partially collapsed skyscraper.

With a deep breath, Taiyou sprints to the edge of the rooftop and launches himself across the gap, arms and legs outstretched. He barely makes it, his fingertips catching the edge of the skyscraper's shattered windowsill. He swings his legs up, pulling himself inside just as the monster smashes into the building's base. The structure shakes, but Taiyou pushes forward, weaving through broken desks and shattered glass.

He reaches the other side of the floor, where a blown-out wall opens into the sky. There's only one way down now. Taking a step back, he charges forward, leaping out into the open air. Below, a series of balconies line the building's exterior. Taiyou hits the first one, rolling with the impact before springing to his feet and leaping down to the next. He bounces from balcony to balcony, a controlled descent as he races against the monster.

Finally, he reaches the last balcony and drops down to the ground level, hitting the ground in a crouch. The creature, trapped momentarily at the top, lets out a frustrated roar. Taiyou glances down one last time, his chest heaving, and bolts into the maze of debris-filled streets. The monster bellows bellow him, "what's wrong not so scary now are you?" Mocks taiyou. He sits down and tries to bath his breath "what was that right now? How was I able to do all that and outrun this huge monster?" But the most important question was why was the monster chasing him specifically?

The creature snarled and roared, "I know your hungry but I'm not your mother so I can't cook you anything" taiyou continued to mock the monster, but this time the monster went silent for some seconds "hmmm guess he's had enough, can't blame him tho after all he was going up against ME" mocked taiyou once again. And some seconds later the building began to tilt, "huh? What's going on? Is it me or does it feel like I'm about to slip and fall". He looks down and is shocked by what he sees, the giant monster now wielded a huge axe and began to chop down the skyscraper. "What are you doing? Stop, stop what your doing" but his screams fall on deaf ears as the monster is hell bent on killing him, as the building starts to fall taiyou realizes he has no choice but to jump of the it. The skyscraper begins to fall and once it gets close enough to a smaller building taiyou begins to run of it. "I'm a 100% sure I'm dying today" he says as he runs of the skyscraper and jumps onto the smaller building, he landed on the building successfully but the skyscraper also cane crashing down into the building and the building collapsed with taiyou on it as he fell through different floors before he finally landed.

As the dust cleared we could see a taiyou but it was a gruesome sight as he had been punctured by an iron rod through his back and stomach and had numerous broken bones, he coughed up blood "ahh shit im really dead" he is too injured and all the energy surging through his body earlier had left his body. The creature made a devilish grin and was about to land the final blow on taiyou. But taiyou still didn't want to die something inside of him was telling him to live and that he had to survive. For an instant his hair turned a silver white color with silver aura surrounding him and when the creature saw this for an instant it paused, it was evidently scared infact terrified by what was happening to taiyou. But it only lasted for an instant as his hair turned black again and he went back to normal, the monster frowned and seemed more eager to kill taiyou like he wanted to end him more quickly because of what he just saw.

Before he could land the final blow, a voice called out from behind him. "Oi fat ass over here!"

Taiyou turned his head toward the source of the voice, his breath catching in his throat, the blood in his mouth. Standing there, amidst the wreckage behind the monster, was a tall figure wearing a black overall with a hood on it and a gleaming katana in hand. The stranger's face was not obscured but taiyou was losing consciousness so his sight was blurry, but his aura was unmistakable—powerful and dangerous.

He approached the monster calmly, the monster turned his attention to the other boy, he tried to attack the boy by swinging his axe towards the boy but it didn't hit him, the boy instantaneously appeared in front of the monster, almost like he didn't move but teleported, again the monster swung his axe but he deflected the attack with his katana effortlessly and instantaneously appeared in front of the monster, "too slow" he shifted his weight, the gleaming katana in his hands steady and poised. With a single fluid motion, he brought the blade down and split the monster in half. The monster let out a guttural roar as the Katana sliced through his armored hide, sending a salary of dark inky blood across the ruins as the monster turns into ash.

The figure approached Taiyou, he squats beside taiyou and studies him for a moment, Taiyou sees his face properly now, he has jet black hair, deep black eye balls, and is extremely handsome, he looks about the same age as taiyou, looks extremely calm and nonchalant, his voice calm but commanding. "You it seems you have awakened, You're coming with me."

Taiyou blinked, about to pass out and still awe struck from how easily the boy had finished that monster off. "Who... who are you?"

The boy tilted his head and glared at Taiyou so calmly. His sharp features and piercing gaze cut through the haze of confusion clouding Taiyou's mind.

"I am Ryojin," the boy said quietly, his voice carrying a weight that made Taiyou's heart race. "And you're going to follow me, don't ask why it's order from the higher ups."

Taiyou stared at him, his mind racing with questions. Who was this boy? What did he mean by "follow him, higher ups"? And why did he feel like this was only the beginning of something far larger than he could possibly imagine?

Ryojin got up and proceeded to start pulling taiyou out of the rod that had impaled him. "What are you doing? You wanna kill me?" screeched taiyou as he was coughing up blood, "shut up" says ryojin as he finally wedged him out of the rod. He pulled out a small sack out of his pocket with some dust and sprinkled the dust all over his wound and it started to close up and healed him up immediately

"Woah, what was that?" Asks taiyou "I even got all my energy back"

"Dunno what that crap is or how it works, all I know is that it heals ya up" replies ryojin

"So what are we gonna do now?"

Ryojin sat down on the ground and crossed his legs "took me a while to get here my legs are tired, let's just relax for a bit"

"How can you be so calm in this situation?" Says taiyou

Ryojin pulled out a two burgers from his pockets and tossed one to taiyou. Taiyou caught the burger and looked at ryojin, the. He grind a little and sat down beside ryojin then began to eat the burger

"My name is Taiyou by the way"

"Cool"

"How are you so strong? Do you have powers"

"Everything will be explained to you later"

"So you got any friends?"

"That doesn't concern you"

"I guess we're friends now since you basically saved my life, that's something only friends will do for each other"

"You got it all wrong"

"But seriously thanks for saving me"

A small smirk tugs at the end of ryojins lips

"Whatever"

The ground trembled again, and the dark clouds above swirled with renewed intensity. The world was breaking apart, and the truth Taiyou had been running from his entire life was closing in.

Ryojin's eyes narrowed as he looked toward the sky and got up. "Let's go."

Without another word, he turned and walked toward the edge of a random building. "What are we gonna do now?" Asks taiyou

"Just follow me"

They both walked and their forms disappeared into the chaos without a trace, like they walked through an invisible portal.

Whatever was happening, whoever this boy was, Taiyou knew one thing for certain: this was only the beginning, and if he didn't act now, there might not be another chance.