Sky awoke to the sound of harsh winds outside. Slowly, he raises my head from the uncomfortable desk and looks around the classroom to see that it's empty.
"Jerks, didn't wake me up!" He hiss out, before looking through the windows and seeing a violent storm outside.
"What the? It's so dark outside, is it night time?" The brown haired boy wonders to himself, before an earthquake shakes the building.
Sky decides to run out of the school to try and find anyone, but what he finds outside could only be described as…
The end of the world.
Mouth wide open in shock and fear, he looks up to see a large black hole in the sky, surrounded by purple mist, swallowing large chunks of land, buildings, vehicles and people. To make matters worse, those who weren't being swallowed by the black hole in the sky, were left at the mercy of strange shadow-like creatures with yellow glowing eyes. "What the hell is going on?" Sky shouts out, frantically looking around.
Snapping out of his panic, he looks back to see the school being ripped from the ground and swallowed into the black hole. Alas, he doesn't have time to process this as the Shadows begin to make their way towards him. He tries to walk backwards, away from the dark creatures, only to trip on a pipe and fall on his butt. He tries to crawl back as one of the Shadows leaps at him, swinging it's claw, but barely missing. "Oh, crap! Is this it? Is this how I die?" He cries in fear, managing to get up and run away from the Shadows.
"HELP!" A voice cries out, garnering Sky's attention.
Without even knowing it, he sprints towards the cry for help only to see a young girl his age, one of his classmates, surrounded by the dark creatures. As he runs towards the helpless girl, he notices a rather long pipe on the ground, he picks it up, continues his dash and with a powerful swing, strikes a shadow just as it is about to attack the girl. The shadow creature is sent flying back and Sky stands in between his classmate and the other Shadows
"SKY?" The girl cries out, surprised that she'd be saved by the bullied kid.
Sky on the other hand cringes slightly at the fact that a stranger knows his name, whilst he doesn't even know who the girl is. "Are you hurt? Can you move?" He asks, holding the pipe with both hands, as if it were a sword.
The girl hesitantly stands up. "Y-yeah! I'm not hurt." She looks around in fear seeing the destruction surrounding them. "What the hell is happening?" She asks with a trembling voice, as Sky swings the metal pipe at another shadow, not harming it at all.
"I don't know!" He says, frustrated, that his attacks are useless. Looking around he notices that they are completely surrounded by the Shadows. Thinking quickly, he steels his resolve "I'll try to clear a path, you get out of here and find some survivors." He says, shocking the girl behind him.
"WHAT? Are you insane?" She asks, stunned that Sky would willingly sacrifice himself like this. "Why? Why help me, when i-"
But she doesn't finish her question as she sees that, despite fear being present in his eyes, Sky was smiling. "Because, if i'm gonna go out, at least i'll do it saving someone!" With that, he leaps forward and strikes the nearest shadow.
However once the hit landed a bright light enveloped the area.
Once the light dissipated, Sky slowly opened his eyes to see that he was no longer holding the metal pipe but a different weapon entirely. If he had to describe it, it looked like a key shaped sword.
Keyblade…
Starlight…
Sky's eyes widen in surprise as he feels the words enter his mind, giving him information on the name of the weapon in his hands. A warmth in his chest. It started as a faint flicker, like a match being struck, but it quickly grew into a blaze. "What…" He is snapped out of his daze as he notices that the shadows seemed to have vanished, no longer surrounding them. "Let's go while we still can!" He says, grabbing his classmate's wrist with his left hand and holding the Keyblade in his right.
As the duo made their escape, they attracted the gaze of many of the deceptively harmless Shadows, but took note of their hesitation. "I really hope this Keyblade is a kryptonite for these things!" He says, as a lone shadow bravely leaps at him, it's claws out, only for Sky to swing his blade and cut clean through the shadow, as if his Keyblade were a hot knife cutting through butter. "Score!" But his celebration is cut short as now more Shadow's surround the two of them.
"Oh, god! Oh, god! We're gonna die!" The girl behind Sky said, having freeing her wrist from Sky and curled up into a fetal position.
"No we're not!" Sky declares as he charges at the dark creatures, hacking and slashing. As Sky continues to cut through the Shadows he feels a spark igniting in his heart. The Keyblade's tip begins to glow orange, responding to his burning desire to save this stranger.
"I see it!" Sky points the tip of his weapon at the nearest shadow and calls out "FIRE!" A large fireball is summoned from Starlight and launched at the shadow causing it to explode. "Magic, huh? Neat!" He swiftly slays the rest of the Shadows, with a mix of poor swordsmanship and his newly discovered fire magic.
Sky turns back to the girl only for the ground to shake and split off, being swallowed into the tear in the sky. "Come on, we gotta go!" He tries to call out to the girl, but just as he gets a good look at her, she pushes him off the platform, a gleeful grin on her face. Sky's eyes are wide in shock at the betrayal as he is plummeting down to his supposed demise. Sky's back lands on something, momentarily knocking him out.
Sky awakens seconds after, rubbing the back of his head. "That backstabbing little bit-" He is cut off and the platform that he is one begins to rumble and a guttural roar echoed through the destroyed remnants of his world. Sky looked up to see a massive Shadow, towering over all the previous Shadows he had slain before.
The Shadow is a massive, muscular, humanoid with black skin. Its legs are rather short and its feet are very thin and curl upward. Its arms are quite long, and it has two relatively small, twisted wings on its back. There is a large, heart-shaped hole in the Shadow creature's abdominal area, which penetrates straight through from the front to the back. Its head is covered in dozens of twisted, black tentacles. Only its small, glowing yellow eyes are visible.
"Of course there's a big one!" Sky exclaims, letting out his anger, the betrayal he experienced earlier fresh on his mind. Fortunately, he is snapped out of his anger once he realises that he no longer holds Starlight. "Wait, where's the-" He is cut off as the Keyblade manifests into his hand. "Cool…" He says blanky, before turning his attention back at the humongous Shadow looming over him. "Alright big guy, let's dance!"
Sky charges forward, swinging his Keyblade at the Shadow's stubby legs, only for the attack to be bounced back. "The hell? It's like hitting metal!" Sky yells as the large Shadow reels it's giant fist and punches the ground sending a shockwave of darkness that sends Sky flying back.
"Okay, if physical attacks don't work, then let's try magic! FIRE!" Sky shouts, launching a fireball at the dark creature's legs, once again the attack seems to have no effect. "Dang it! Then let's try this!" He launches another fire spell at the giant's face this time, making it reel back in pain. "So your face is your weak spot? Yeah, that checks out, after all only a mother could love something as hideous as you!" He insults the world destroying creature.
And so Sky continues to battle the gigantic Shadow monster, throwing fireball after fireball at it's face, the giant Shadow countering with it's own orb of darkness, Sky eventually discovering another weakness in the Shadow's arms. Until eventually, Sky realises too late that it is all for nought. As his world is beyond salvation.
The giant shadow sends one more punch at Sky attempting to crush him, but Sky blocks the attack at the last moment. With one knee planted in the ground, arms raised, Keyblade holding back the giant fist, Sky grits his teeth as the weight of the giant clearly overwhelms him.
"Come on! If that bitch didn't push me I wouldn't be in this mess!" He curses, a black and purple mist surrounding him. "But this is what I get for helping others, betrayal when I'm no longer needed!" The Keyblade's tip glows an icy blue color. "BEGONE!" Sky shouts as the Keyblade casts a powerful ice spell, sending the Shadow back, it's fist completely frozen.
"What the…" Sky eyes the keyblade in surprise, shocked that he can use ice as well. But his confusion is short lived as the last bit of life his world had vanished.
The black hole in the sky began to swallow him as well. Sky anchors himself by stabbing the Keyblade into the ground, but not enough. The Keyblade loses it's grip and Sky is swallowed into the darkness with the rest of his world.
*******
In the void of darkness a lone light could be seen.
Falling…
Fading…
Just as the light is about to fade away, a string of golden light would wrap around the fading light and pull it towards another direction.
Towards another… world.
*******
In a white void, twenty marble white pillars of varying heights could be seen, each one holding a white throne. All of the pillars surround a large marble white platform, displaying a recording of Sky's world being destroyed.
Thirteen of these thrones were occupied by people wearing hooded black coats.
"Do my eyes deceive me? Is he truly wielding the Keyblade?" A deep masculine voice asks. "His heart is weak!"
"Hey now, give the kid a chance!" Another male voice says, his voice a bit more joyful. "Sky's been through some rough patches this last decade, i'd say his heart's in the right place."
"It doesn't matter." Another one says. "So long as Sky follows the path we have made for him, our plans will succeed."
One of the black hooded folk, typing away at a floating computer keyboard, let out a hum of disagreement. "Well then I'm afraid that our plans have derailed completely." His youthful voice echoes throughout the white void garnering the attention of the other twelve hooded people. "Sky has not landed in one of the worlds in between." His announcement caused several of the hooded people to cry out in rage.
But before the hooded people could continue their mock anger, the hooded man sitting on the highest throne, but below the seven empty ones, tapped his finger on the armrest of his throne, letting out a little bit of power, silencing his comrades. "Tell me little brother, what world has Sky found himself in?" His deep voice reverbed through the white void.
"He has landed in the world of Teyvat." At that several groans of disapproval were heard.
"Aw man, why that place!"
"Hate it there!"
"It's so difficult to navigate!"
As the hooded figures continue to voice their displeasure. The hooded one sitting on the lowest throne raised her hand. "Excuse me?" Her emotionless tone of voice called out. "Why is it that you all seem to dislike Teyvat? Are the beings living in that world stronger than we are?"
The one on the tallest throne decides to answer. "There are many reasons as to why we have trouble with Teyvat, but none of them are stronger than us." He looks at the one typing away at the keyboard. "Tell us, which of the siblings take the role of the traveler in this timeline?"
As the one typing away does his search, he discovers something odd. "Strange… the sibling who is to take the role of traveler is supposed to be Aether, but I am unable to locate him." He says garnering everyone's attention. "I have found traces of Aether wandering around Stombearer Coast in the last twenty-four hours, but his present location still eludes me."
The one on the highest throne thinks for a few moments… "I see, so that's how it is." He says, drawing confused looks from his surroundings. "I believe we should let Sky do as he pleases in Teyvat. That world can prove to be an excellent place for him to train and grow stronger, we shall adapt our plans accordingly. Not only that but he still has the Recusant's sigil on his person, so we can continue to monitor his progress." He concludes, gaining nods of approval from the ones around him. "Now go, we haven't a moment to waste."
With his orders given almost all of the hooded people disappear in corridors of darkness, leaving only the one on the highest throne alone.
He looks up at the seven highest empty thrones for a bit, before looking forward.
"Now then Sky, how will you change the world of Teyvat and beyond."
*******
To be continued in, The Key to Freedom