Chapter Text
⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹
“Shit.”
Raindrops crashed down from the skies as the once bright atmosphere turned dark, the sound of running water echoed throughout the classroom. The lecturer was still going about his explanation about the human nervous system, paying no mind to the pouring rain outside.
Fal sighs, 'Of course it rains the one time I didn’t bring my umbrella,' he looked at his watch. It was 2:49 PM, class is about to end soon.
“Ah- Time is running out so we’ll skip this part…” His lecturers were skipping through a few slides showcasing the different areas of the brain. As much as Fal tried, he honestly couldn’t be bothered paying attention to the lectures sometimes. He knows he should, but he can’t help it, the way they explain the subject was so boring!
Plus, there are better things to worry about, such as how he’s going to get through the pouring rain outside. He’s also pretty confident in his memory and studying method, he could just look over the materials again after this class.
His professor finished up the lecture, and all of the other students were leaving one by one. Placing his notebooks and other stationary inside his bag, he strides out of his class, whistling a tune to one of his favourite songs, Knights of Cydonia by Muse.
Perhaps a slight bit into it as he didn’t notice the resounding footsteps behind him.
His ever so extroverted friend slipped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him in, “Fal! My broski, you busy later tonight? Me and Grays’’ gon’ go to some party at Lea’s place! Heard Lily was coming too…. Ya know the girl you fumbled with?” A tall, tan man with long hair tied to a ponytail, defined muscles and a cheeky smile stood beside him, “sooooooo you coming?”
“What?” Like clockwork, Fal turned his head right to face his friend, and an incredulous expression plastered all over him. His friend on the other hand, had what most would call a shite-eating grin, “dude- we don’t talk about that, also the hell did you even come from?”
“Been waiting for ya outside this entire time dude! Can’t a dude wait for his friend?” The arm curled tighter on his neck.
Loud, cheerful, eccentric and funny, some would call him a party animal. His name was Riva, well known around these parts and liked by practically everyone. How did Fal manage to befriend him? Well, it was pretty easy. This man practically talked to everyone he saw.
If there was a man more extroverted than him, he wouldn’t think they existed. This guy would talk to literally anything, random people on the streets, guys who look like they’d have a few body counts on their hand, and even the most gnarliest of professors.
“You know I never cared for those parties right?” Fal shot him a tired look.
“Well….. That's why I think ya need a change of pace! C’monn… There's gonna be a lot of people you know there trust!” The taller man returned a wink.
“Don’t you know how awkward I am? I just don’t- ugh, I just don’t like talking to people at parties….” His arms moved to form a crossed position, “besides, don’t you have better people to ask?”
At his response, Riva’s face turned into a visible frown. Fal paused for a moment, a tinge of guilt welling up inside of him.
“Then just talk to me okay? I’ll be there,” his arm slid down and comfortably placed itself onto his pockets, his lips pouting.
After a moment of pondering, he gives in to his nagging and nods, “fine fine, if it will make you stop bothering me…”
Stars appeared in his eyes and he pulled his friend to a tight hug.
“See? I knew you’d want to go!”
“Okay- okay! let me go please I can’t- breathe….” He swears at that moment his face was completely blue.
“Whoops! Sorry! This is why you gotta workout more man!” The taller man lets go of his arm and gives Fal a moment to breathe.
“How about you control your strength……..” Fal sputters.
“Oh dude! Can I borrow the shower at your apartment?? I can’t really be bothered going all the way back to mine right now…” He had a set of puppy eyes who shot straight at Fal- it looked like tears were about to drip down at any moment.
“Course’ you can,” he gives his friend a small smile, "no need to ask, really."
Both men continued to chatter in the hallway, slowly making their way to the exit. Fal drowned himself in conversations after conversations, slowly forgetting about the pouring rain outside. This idyllic peace entails most of his life, waking up, going to class, talking with his friends, going back home and playing video games. It's slow, there's nothing much going on but he’s content with it. Sometimes, the small things in life are what makes it all worth it, isn’t it?
Without realizing, the both of them have reached the exit door of the building, the view outside being blocked by the downpour of rainwater. At that moment, he really, really regrets not bringing his umbrella today, “yikes, uh. Do you have an umbrella?”
“Nope! was just about to ask you actually, heh!” Riva does small stretches, cracking his neck and knuckles.
“...We’re fucked...” He internally face-palmed.
“Maaan…. Let’s just run through it! Just use our backpacks as cover,” the man slid his bag down from his back and held it above his head. Without any other choice, Fal complied and did the same with his.
“One… Two..-”
“Do you really have to do tha-”
“Three– LETS GOOOOO!!” He was full on sprinting.
“HEY WAIT!!”
Using both of their bags as a makeshift umbrella, they started running as fast as they could without slipping. The both of them reached an intersection on a red light for the pedestrians. One car started speeding up and passed by, splashing a large puddle that hit Fal, but not Riva of course because he happened to be standing a bit further.
“Oh you’ve got to be kidding!” He eyed his wet, soggy jacket covered in rain water with a brown stain.
Riva on the other hand, was holding a giggle, “oh, I’m so sorry dude, uh. You go shower first,” he faced the other way trying to not burst out laughing.
The shorter man was gobsmacked, even more so at the reaction of his friend.
“Ugh… yuck. Well, not only that, now I have more annoying laundry to do...” They patiently waited for the lights to turn green before crossing, what good citizens!
Fal was tapping his legs impatiently, counting every second to get his mind off his dirty jacket, Riva on the other hand was whistling whilst watching the traffic light. A few other people waiting eyed Fal’s clearly puddled jacket, making him a tad bit embarrassed.
After around the one minute mark, the traffic light made a ding! noise, signalling the cars to stop and the pedestrians to cross. Fal, slowly feeling his patience leave him, immediately jumped to walk across, hoping to get home as fast as he could and shower.
Unknown to him, a few people behind him had been yelling to… Look out and turn back…?
“FAL! LOOK OUT–” Fal suddenly felt the force of a body on him, Riva tackled him and attempted to push him out of the way.
Fal cranked his head to the side to see a huge truck barrelling towards his direction. He stood there in shock before attempting to move away, alas he was too late and the last thing he remembered was the force of a five-ton semi-truck hitting his side before everything went black for a second.
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He opened his eyes again for a moment, he couldn’t feel anything. His vision was blurry, all he could see was a puddle of red below him and a congregation of people.
“Call… 911!... s..eo..ne!!”
“W.. nee.. h..lp here ASAP!”
Slowly, his strength started to leave his body, his eyes becoming more and more heavy every second. In the end, he shut his eyes off, allowing the darkness to embrace him.
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Fal never believed himself to be an unlucky man, he had friends, he had people he cared for, he wasn’t… lonely or miserable. He was content with most of his life, well, he got into med-school for gods sake! That's a huge achievement already.
He’s sure his family would be proud of him.
But a part of him still felt like something was missing, he liked his life but… he can’t help but feel like he wanted more.
This desire, wanting to be something he could never be, existed inside of him. Though, he didn’t like admitting it.
Surely, the afterlife or whatever comes after death, would be much better than the life he led before.
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How pitiful.
What a pitiful and unremarkable life.
Wouldn’t it be more interesting, if you were in a different world?
Isn’t being human quite… Boring?
What if you were more?
What if you had… Power? Fame? Would you still be the same person?
The entity fiddled with the glowing soul, playing around with it as if it was playdough.
A snicker came out of its non-existent mouth before turning into full-blown laughter. Its many eyes all come together to focus on the small wisp.
It tapped the wisp a few times with its long, void-like claws.
Wake up, pitiful mortal.
“What…?”
Fal awakens to see pure darkness encompassing him, in front of him are multiple different eyes closely watching him.
“HUH!?” He felt like shitting himself.
He looked down and his form was ghastly white, like those stereotypical ghosts in movies.
“Where am I? Who are you!?” He looked towards the congregation of eyes.
I am not a malicious entity.
I will show you grace and kindness.
Tell me… What would you change from your previous life?
The entity blinked.
Have you ever wanted more?
“The hell are you talking about…?” Fal backed away as much as he could, clutching his shaking arms.
You are quite the brave mortal!
Other mortals would have not talked back after seeing my form.
Truly, you are interesting.
“You- Did I die? Is this the afterlife?” Asking the mysterious, void-like entity who could probably kill him without even trying sounded like a bad idea, but he had to get this question out of him.
I suppose you could think of it that way.
Well that confirmed it. One day he was just walking back home from school and now… He’s here. In a black void, most definitely dead and in the hands of an eldritch being.
After coming face to face with death, he’s realized just how much of his life was a blur. Fuck, he’s realized just how much regrets he’s had and it hurts. But, it doesn’t matter now doesn’t it? He’s dead and that's that.
Nothing matters anymore.
His previously troubled expression fell blank.
“What will happen now? Am I just stuck here or… Are you going to do something?” He asked the last question sitting in his mind.
Hmmm…
Well there's multiple paths you can take…
I could just send you back and make you haunt the world of the living as a ghost but that’d be boring, wouldn’t it?
“Yeah that doesn’t sound too… fun,” he averted his eyes.
How odd, it looks like you’re not even bothered by your death. Do you not miss your friends and family?
A contemplative silence took over him. Yes, he did have friends, his… family and… oh. Riva.
Fal felt his heart sink.
He places his hands over his mouth, replaying the blurred memory of his death. Riva was… he was there, he slammed his body onto Fal. But what happened next? the man couldn’t remember.
That friend of yours was quite brave, I commend him for his attempt at saving your life.
“What happened to him!? Is he… is he fine?” For the first time in his life, Fal never felt this anxious. If Riva died then… it would be his fault, his fault for not paying attention to the road, his fault for being impatient-
Don’t know! maybe he died, maybe he lived! but what matters right now is you, not him.
The words of the entity did naught to appease him of his worries, instead he was almost full blown panicking.
“No, no he wasn’t supposed to… he wasn’t…” Guilt sunk its fangs deep onto him, ripping him from the inside.
Gosh you mortals are emotional huh? If that's the case then… I can’t have you remembering him.
“What… what is that supposed to mean..?” Fal stumbled forward, still having not finished processing the situation he’s in.
I can’t have you seeing my form for too long, lest you go insane! and… become a vegetable. You wouldn’t want that, don’t you?
Soo... since you’re so indecisive, I’ll go ahead and reincarnate you already!
“Reincarnate? what… So I'll become a human again like you said before? What was that about not remembering him!?” He huffs, feeling his heart turning heavy.
I’m saying… I’ll erase most of your memories. Your memories of your… family, your friends, including him.
“What!?- no, no if you do that then-”
Sorry, you don’t have a choice. This is for your own good! And you ask too many questions. Don’t worry, you’ll still have all the knowledge needed to survive.
“Wait!-”
With a flick of its void-like arms, Fal immediately passed out. His body lay motionless on the non-existent ground before being picked up and placed on the palms of the entity.
It’s eyes carefully watching him.
Of course, I’m not that cruel. It will take some time, but, in the end, you will have to come face to face with your past.
But right now, you are too fragile.
You must get stronger first, you must find a purpose in which you can continue living through.
I’ll show you a beautiful, better world.
Live a better life, show us something interesting.
Show us the indomitable human spirit.
Become a guiding light for the many.
I will give you a power never seen before…
Go forth, take the world in the palms of your hands.
We. will. be. watching.
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A breeze bellows throughout the Heights.
It was silent, empty, nary but the sound of the wind blowing was heard.
Pieces of floating land lay quietly in the skies, connected by a series of oddly placed bridges and stairs. In the middle of it all is a large sword stuck to the ground, fiery orange halo surrounding its sides.
A figure in blinding white and lavender stood next to it, staring aimlessly onto the orange skies.
Illumina was a nostalgic inphernal, always reminiscing memories of the distant past of him and his siblings doing their… once important duty. His siblings would often say he was stuck in the past, but what was the present in comparison to the olden days?
In the centuries before he was respected as a bringer of unity and peace. As a guide for inphernals to reach enlightenment and their truest potential.
What was he now?
He was no longer needed, he no longer has a place in this world. What was he created for? He doesn’t even know anymore, only lingering memories of him and his siblings together. Modern inphernals can lead and guide themselves with no worry, all they needed to do was listen to their own faction leaders.
His other siblings had begun to carve their own paths in this world, to find their own purpose in existing. Firebrand decided to rule over a city, claiming his role as a king for the inphernals living under him, well, before the incident at Lost Temple.
Windforce took an entire continent and decided that it looked better in the skies than in the ground before turning all of it into her territory.
Venomshank… He’s quite unsure of his current endeavors but knowing the inphernal, he’s probably just living quietly under the radar.
Icedagger seems to be holing himself up somewhere in Blackrock, none of the other deities have seen him in a long while. He could only hope that wherever he is, he’s doing fine.
Darkheart... He doesn’t even want to talk about him. That inphernal is probably the happiest without a duty, simply seeking to cause chaos whenever he feels like it.
Ghostwalker, out of all of them, is the only one still with a duty and purpose left, having to maintain the life and death cycle of inphernals and ensuring the spawn works correctly.
Illumina being the sword of life and light naturally helps Ghostwalker out with his duty, both as a coworker and sibling. However, the cycle of life and death has been stabilized a long time ago and there was no need for the both of them to be maintaining it as much as they used to.
His creators had abandoned him eons ago, leaving him without any guidance and instructions. His siblings have found their own things to do, the family no longer needs each other, their existence detested by mortals. His family... was no longer united.
“Fools, the lot of them,” they weren’t just leaders, they were gods. One with the power to decimate entire cities in just a moment.
An idea most ingenious came to his mind, deep inside he knew it wouldn’t work, but… he had to give it a try.
Gritting his teeth, Illumina slashed his sword towards the sky, flickering sparkles dancing around his blade before releasing a burst of energy which enveloped the entirety of the Heights like a flashbang. Apathy often found rest in his mind, yet in this very moment, there was a spark of emotion, hatred? Anger? He doesn’t know.
The flash paled the sky and created a show like no other, it was divine and heavenly, just in character for him.
This was an age long ritual, performed by him and his siblings to summon their divine creators should they require their presence. None of his other siblings had performed this ritual in over a millennia, he was the only one clinging onto a vain hope that something would happen, anything.
“Why have you forsakened us?” Illumina breathed out, dropping to the ground on his knees as sweat trickled down his cheeks, “I can’t abandon my purpose, my reason for existence.”
"If you were still here, what would you have said to me? What word of guidance would you grace me with?”
Yet it was silent.
There was no one left to answer him. None to assuage his fears and worries.
He lets himself drown in the stillness of the moment, a small pitiful wish forming in his thoughts.
“Give me another reason for being, for living, please.”
The sky returned to its original form and the Heights stood unmoving, disregarding his show of power.
“How unsightly for someone of my status,” he sighs, standing up and fixing his posture. Sparkles formed in the air as he de-summoned his gear. He placed his left hand on his hips whilst using the other to wipe off the sweat, “enough of this, I have other things to attend to.”
Illumina turned around and started walking down the steps of the height. He took one last look behind him before opening a white portal and striding forward, leaving only a glimmer behind.
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A few minutes have passed.
Unknown to the god of light, the spawn located in the Heights has suddenly reacted. It glowed a bright purple and white, similar to his own colours. The beam of light pulses erratically, increasing and decreasing in size before the final burst of light.
The explosions shook the entirety of the Heights, shaking the floating islands and rearranging the stairs and bridges.
On the base of the spawn was an inphernal, slightly on the shorter side with two sets of black horns protruding from the side of his head. He stifled attempting to move his arm and legs, most of his muscles still sore.
Slowly, he opened his eyes to see an unfamiliar yet familiar sight…
“The hell…?”
The inphernal gripped the dirt underneath him with his… Wait-... Claws?
He tried his hardest to make out the surroundings around him, his eyes flickering around in a daze.
“Fuck, I can’t see anything…” He pushes himself up with his arms, using a nearby fence for support. The inphernal could feel something heavy on his back, almost causing him to fall back down. But, right now, he should stand up first before doing anything else.
Rubbing his eyes with his hands, he steadily walked forward towards the giant sword stuck to the ground. Facing downwards, he could see the bright orange halo pattern surrounding the sword.
“Huh? Isn’t this… No fucking way,” his eyes widened in shock.
He wouldn’t really consider himself an avid Roblox player, but any old time player would recognize this halo. Sword Fight on the Heights, one of the most iconic game Roblox games created by Shedletsky himself. Looking around the area, the map looked a bit different? He didn’t remember there being a giant sword stuck in the middle and the place also looked a lot smaller.
There was an air of nostalgia around the area, as if he’d been transported to an era of the distant past. The map looked more like a modern recreation of the SFOTH map, being more concise rather than the random mumbo-jumbo that was the original map.
Stumbling forward, he took one good look at the scenery whilst holding onto a fence for support. He was mesmerized, you don’t just have floating islands and giant halos of fire on Earth, this is as if like…
Wait. Why was he here? He was… he was… what was he doing?
Earth? thats where… where he lived before. Roblox was a… game, it was a game he played back then with his friends… when he was…?
A sudden pang of pain hit his head. The more he tried to think, to remember, the more it started to hurt.
“No… no… I… don’t remember anything, why, why, why? Just who am I? My name was.. my name is…”
At that moment, one singular word came to his mind.
“Gunblade.”
No, that's not right, that's not his name. It felt oddly natural to say but he could tell it was wrong, something was wrong about it. This was not his name.
Something was missing, it felt like a gaping hole was in his memories.
He closed his eyes, blurry images of red, a truck, rain, pouring rain, and another person came onto his mind. But the more he tried to remember, the worse his splitting headache became.
“Fuck, I can’t think… I can’t remember.. Theres no fucking way I remember Roblox of all things…”
He clutches his head in pain, only to realize that something felt missing. He… remembered something, he had… hair. Small, short strands that would normally sit atop of his head are now… gone. Not only was it gone, he could feel two strange objects protruding out of his head.
“Wait, the fuck happened to me!?” Feeling the object with his hands, he learned that it was some sort of horn-like structure? It was hard to tell without a mirror. The texture felt a bit strange, a lot more smoother than he thought.
“Ack!- ouch,” a small bruise formed as his claws brushed the point of his horns. He took a mental note to be more careful around it next time.
Next, he fumbled around with his clothes attempting to take a better look at his body, his skin was pure white and he felt slightly shorter than usual. His clothes were... a puddle stained hoodie? He didn’t remember falling or being splashed.
“What the hell happened for it to become this dirty?” He turned around to look at the place he woke up at, it was completely dry with nary a wet puddle in sight.
What he realized however, was the elephant in the room. A set of wings settling onto his shoulder. It took him just now to realize that he had them this whole time. He stood still for a solid minute, not knowing how he’s supposed to react to the situation. Looking back at the wings, it was black with a grey gradient, pretty big as well, does this mean he can fly?
At one point, he was excited. I mean wings? Everyone wished they had wings at one point. On the other hand, what the hell is happening!?
He attempted to move the two feathery appendages on his back, erratically flapping it around like a chicken. The two wings refused to listen to him and continued to flail around. Eventually, he gave up and just turned to other things for now.
“Uh… Did I get turned into a Robloxian..? That's what they’re called, right? What even am I? I don’t think I'm human anymore… Human?” The word human came into his mind naturally. He suddenly remembered, he was… he was a human before this!
But, he didn’t remember humans in any world having wings and horns. He buries his head in his palm and groans, “uuuuugh.”
Not only was he in God knows where, he had a completely new form, a splitting headache, and zero memories of who he was as a side bonus.
“Hello? Hello! Is there anyone here?” he shouted, hoping that there would at least be someone else here. Since it’s Roblox, would it be another player? Wait, is he inside a game?
There wasn’t an answer to his call, the Heights were as quiet as it was before. This could mean two things, that there weren't any hostile enemies that would attack him, which would be good. It could also mean that he was forever alone in this place, which he shuddered at the thought of.
Gunblade took a step forward hoping to venture out onto the area more, perhaps even finding an exit or a way out. After a short descent down a few steps, he eventually reached a red gate leading to nowhere.
Scrambling through his empty memories, he could vaguely remember playing this game with… Blurry figures of his friends… he thinks. According to his memories, which he hopes are correct, the colored gates would teleport the players onto other areas of the map. To activate the teleporter, all he needed was to walk right into it.
He took a deep breath and readied himself. This would be his first time attempting teleportation, or any form of fantasy-like shenanigans really.
And thus, the first human to attempt teleportation marches forward. Will this kill him? He doesn’t know, but hell no will he refuse the chance to try out magic for the first time.
The newly spawned inphernal went through the gate and felt the world dissolve around him. He doesn’t even know how to describe this strange sensation, it felt like being thrown onto ice-cold water before falling onto a ball pit and then dissolving into slime. The closest thing he could compare this to was that one scene from the Doctor Strange movie where they travelled through the multiverses.
At the end of it all, the random garbled sensations started to overwhelm him, he felt like vomiting. Fortunately for him, in the next minute the psychedelic mindfuck ended and returned him to reality…
Where he was, apparently falling through the sky.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
Torrents of wind crashed onto his body and hurled him left and right. His wings were beating uncontrollably attempting to balance the body, it ultimately failed as Gunblade started falling down even faster.
“WHY DID IT TELEPORT ME HERE?!” Gunblade continues to roll down the sky at the mercy of the harsh winds, his pitifully skinny body being beaten down.
“I’m never, ever going through a teleporter ever again!” He mentally screams.
After about 5 minutes of falling or so, he manages to somewhat stabilize his body, spreading his arms and legs like a flying squirrel. The set of wings on his back tucked closely.
With this, he’s allowed a brief moment of respite to look at his surroundings. It was night, the sky was pitch black and the sight of the moon greeted him. What caught the attention of him the most was the congregation of sparkles under him.
The sight below him was, to say the least, mesmerizing. It was an incredibly large, futuristic looking city. In the middle was a tower bigger than anything he'd ever seen before. He suddenly remembers a memory of the past, a hazy memory of him looking at pictures of what was considered the tallest tower in the world, the Burj Khalifa. But no, he’d say this tower was much larger, and much, much cooler than the Burj Khalifa ever will be.
‘’This is… so cool…” It had these weird structures that spiralled around it which looked really awesome to him. For just a moment, he forgot about his previous predicaments just to stare at this cyber, sci-fi looking city. Now that he thinks about it, the city looks… Really familiar, especially the tower.
This train of thought would unfortunately be cut short as another strong gust of wind threw him off-balance and back onto the reality that he was falling.
“Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck- I don’t wanna die!!!” It slowly dawns onto him that, hitting the ground from this height and with this speed, would definitely kill him.
It took him a short moment to recoup himself to remember that yes, he had wings. It was all or nothing, he HAD to figure out how to control his wings there and now lest this turns into a freak accident unprecedented.
“How the hell do birds fly!?”
However to no avail, no matter how hard he flapped his wings or flailed it around, he still kept on falling downwards, “I have- the world's most useless set of wings ever!” He was at the verge of crying at this point.
He closed his eyes and attempted to remember any visual memories he had of birds, the fluttering of their wings and the motion they made whenever they had to take flight.
…
A light bulb turned on in his head, or as he would like to call it, a moment of eureka. An old memory of his was suddenly unlocked, it was a movie he vaguely remembered watching as a child.
How to Train your Dragon. There was one, one specific scene in which he turned his mind to. The scene where Hiccup, the main protagonist, took a test flight with Toothless, his dragon for the first time. In that scene, Hiccup falls down from Toothless and the both of them barrel down the sky as Toothless couldn’t fly without Hiccup controlling his tail.
The most important thing was the final part of the cutscene, where Toothless angles himself downwards before spreading his wings to slow his descent.
God this movie was the best gift ever created for any child with a love for dinosaurs, him being one of them. Ever since he watched that he’d always… Always… That's not important right now. Thinking of this started worsening his headache.
“I need to angle myself-”
Without any more thoughts in the way, Gunblade tried as much as he could to follow the cutscene with his fuzzy memory as reference. He angled himself the same way Toothless did and unfurled his wings, making sure it covers as much distance as possible.
He feels the weight of gravity fall down upon him and his wings, it was as if he was being pulled back by an unknown force. The wings on his back acted as a parachute and slowed his fall bit by bit.
However, at the speed he was going a crash was inevitable if he didn't find a way to actually fly. He could almost see the ground at this point and it’d only take a couple more moments to actually hit it.
Taking one last look at his surroundings, he was somewhat ready to accept his fate until he saw a building with a cushy and leafy looking tree beside it.
His adrenaline kicks in and he uses all of his remaining power to hurl himself in the direction of the building. Coming face to face with the tree he’s about to crash at, his mouth naturally opened to say one last phrase in his head.
“Ah, fuck.”
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Beneath the dark skies, there was a group of four inphernals casually lounging on a closed skatepark.
The sound of rolling wheels crashing against a ramp permeated throughout the park, it marked a new trick performed by a skate-loving inphernal in red.
He rushes down the ramp that takes him to the sky, spinning his body in a rotating motion and flicking the board to follow him. He flicks his front foot again and completes another spin in the air and lands back on the ground, getting off his board before wiping the sweat on his forehead.
“AW, hell yea! That was a sick one, Skate!” A shorter inphernal covered entirely in green stood at the sidelines. He was holding a boombox on his shoulders and had a black visor covering his eyes. “That was a seven-twenty flip, right?”
“Yup! Didn’t think I'd land it there, guess this is why they call me the best skater in all of Playground, heh!” The inphernal named Skate replied, he was taller, wore a skating helmet and a red hoodie with a skull icon plastered in the front.
“I mean, you always do the craziest tricks. This one doesn’t really feel as impressive as the ones you do on phights,” another inphernal placed a hand on his shoulder. He had cat-shaped horns and clothes mostly consisting of the color blue.
“Well my phight tricks are a lot different than my normal ones! Kinda hard to perform them if I’m not phighting…” he shrugs.
The last inphernal of the group perked up, he had dual coloured horns and wore a bright orange hoodie with its sleeves ripped off. He walked forward and crossed his arms, “Then how about you fight me? Think you could do your phight tricks?” The tubes in his shoulder connecting onto his arm flickered for a moment.
“Seriously? You just want a reason to beat me up don’t you?” Skate sighed, “You know I’m not winning against you in a one on one fight!”
“Cmon' don’t be a coward! I’ll go easy!” He snickers in response.
“Ugh. This is why you don’t invite him, Skate,” said the blue schemed inphernal, side-eyeing the other.
“What's wrong? You’re just mad you can’t beat me, Sling,” he waves his right arm around, clearly taunting him. A vein popped in the head of the blue inphernal, clearly irritated by his jabs.
Just as a fight was about to break out- the boombox holding inphernal stood between them.
“Okay- okay you guys can stop now! It’s getting late so how about we head back home?” his voice was filled with a tinge of nervousness but he had to do something before it got out of hand.
“Yeah it’s getting late! And both of you can duke it out later on at the phight this weekend, so chill out!” Skate desummoned his gear, leaving a small flicker of lights before completely disappearing. He places the both of his hands on his hips, clearly unhappy with the constant bickering the both of his friends get into.
“Well, guess you’re right I’m pretty tired. We'll see who’s stronger later, Slingshot~!” He cracks his knuckles and does a small stretch.
“Well don’t expect to win, Coil! That victory will be mine,” he replies, a competitive air around them.
Skate scooted closer to Boombox, watching sparks appear between the two bickering inphernal.
“Thanks a lot for breaking up the fight, Boom,” he whispers to his best friend.
“Had to do something before they destroy this skatepark, dude! The damage bill is going to be crazy,” the visor on his head projects an image of a dizzy swirl.
The four inphernals packed up their belongings and left the closed down skatepark. They weren’t supposed to be there at this time, but as the saying goes, rules are made to be broken.
As they walked, they had a conversation about fighting techniques, gear synergy, their teammates for the next phight and what to expect during it. Skate wanted to try a new trick he concocted in his mind, however, he was told off by the other three due to how dangerous it sounded.
Boombox, was the name of the green inphernal wielding the, well, his namesake gear, the boombox. He talked about releasing a new album and wondered if the others liked the sound of it or not. Skate and Slingshot liked the music, Coil thought it needed more fire beats, whatever the hell that means.
Next, Slingshot spoke about adding a new dessert onto the menu for his cafe, special love dove themed macarons with strawberry and cherry flavour. Skate suggested he adds a midnight crow themed macaron as well inspired by a previous phestival, perhaps blueberry or ube flavoured.
Thus laughter echoed throughout the night, a group of friends sharing yet another moment in their lives.
“Huh, it’s oddly quiet today, wonder where everyone went?” Skate mused.
“I don’t know if you realize this, but it's two a.m. in the dead of night,” Slingshot replied bluntly.
Boombox brightened with an idea, “I could play some tunes if you guys want! It’d be a lot less quiet.”
“And wake up the population?” The dual coloured inphernal remarked sarcastically.
“Not that loud!”
“Well it’s a lot nicer like this isn’t it? S’good to take a break from the chaos sometimes,” The cat-like inphernal absentmindedly scrolled through his phone, looking at messages from his two roommates at home. “My cafe has been really busy lately, which is good but wow is it tiring!”
Skate turned to him, “You got work tomorrow?”
“Yup…! Though I’ll be coming in a lot later than usual so it’s fine, I got Shuri and Vine helping me out.”
The two continued to chatter about daily lives. Coil on the other hand, yawned and started stretching his arms in boredom.
“Ugh, this is kind of boring though, I wished something happened,” he looks up at the sky. Though with the insane amount of light pollution Crossroads had, it was difficult to see anything, “imagine, if an explosion just happened right in front of us.”
Boombox turned to look at him with a confused expression, “why would you think of that?”
“Naw, nothing. Just bored, really. It’s not like anything’s going to happen–”
“Hey do you guys hear that?” Slingshot scanned the area around him, but most importantly, the sound came from the sky, “huh, what is that–”
CRASH!
A loud explosion thunders near them, something had crashed on a nearby building along with the tree beside it. Coil immediately activated his speed coil and rushed towards the area, Skate summoned his board and followed closely behind him. They jumped and weaved through a few rubbles on the way and was met with the sight of an Inphernal bleeding on the ground.
“Shit- I’ll go check on them!” Skate gets off his board and dashes towards the injured inphernal. He reaches him and immediately checks for his pulse.
Boombox and Slingshot appear and rush to meet the both of them, “is everything okay?”
“Okay, they’re still breathing… They most likely passed out from a concussion. Fuck, their head is bleeding though.” He scrambles to rip out a part of his undershirt, using it as a makeshift bandage for the inphernals head. Coil followed suit by switching onto his regen mode and tethering onto them, hopefully allowing his injury to heal faster.
“None o’ their limbs are dislocated either, we’re pretty lucky!” After a short checkup, it looks like the inphernal didn’t have other injuries, just minor cuts and bruises.
“Dude… Are you seeing those… Wings on their back?” Coil finally addressed the elephant in the room. The three others took a closer look at the feathery appendages on the inphernals back, and all came to a shocking conclusion.
“Are they a demi-god? What…?” Slingshot mutters, kneeling to gape at the wings.
“Wait, wait. Aren’t Banhammer and the Flipside brothers the only demi-gods right now?” Skate chimed in.
Coil crossed his arms, “then that just means this buddy here… Must be a new-spawn. Or they were hiding.”
Looking at them, they looked incredibly young. Their clothes were tattered and dirty, a large brown stain covering the white hoodie. Some parts were damaged and cut, this thing has definitely seen better days.
“But, why would a demi-god look… This ragged? What were they doing?” Boombox asked, “If they’re here then… Their caretaker…”
“…”
Slingshot took this initiative to look around hoping to find any sight of the SFOTH deities around. Alas, there was nary a presence,“theres no one.”
“So, they’d just up and leave them like this?” A confused expression plastered itself on Coil’s face.
Boombox contemplated for a moment, growing nervous by every second. If they messed up with dealing with the newspawn, they’d be smited immediately. An old memory of him and his former leader flashed for a moment.
“So… what do we do now?” The four of them gathered around the newspawn, each ruminating on their next action.
“I’ll take him to my apartment for now,” A determined yet anxious voice spoke up, Boombox desummoned his gear and looked at the group.
Skate looked at him with concern, “are you sure? Boom, with what happened–”
"It’ll be fine, if anything happens I… I can somewhat deal with them...” The shorter inphernal looked at his best friend with a slight smile, “besides, we can’t just leave them here!”
Slingshot sighs, his apartment is already filled with two other people and he couldn’t possibly bring home another one, let alone a deity’s kid. Shuri and Vine would probably be fine with it but… He doesn’t want to get them in danger. Skate and Coil lives way too far right now and they would have to go through tons of public transport to reach there.
If any of the general public were to witness a new demi-deity, it would certainly cause a huge scandal and ruckus.
“Boombox, just be careful alright? Tell me if you need anything.” He places a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder, Boombox gives him a nod.
The cold wind of the night has started to tire them out. They would much rather return home as soon as possible than stand outside waiting, “let's go back to my apartment before anyone else comes here.”
“Let me carry them!” Skate carefully lifted the newspawn up on his shoulder, making sure he didn’t cause a new injury.
“Wait, use my jacket to cover his wings up, can’t let anyone else see this,” Slingshot took off the blue jacket he was wearing and blanketed it over their back.
Whilst watching his friends work, Coil shot a look at the three of his friends, “do you guys realize how suspicious as hell we look?”
“Well… Let's make this quick!” Skate gave him a thumbs up, Coil sighed and the four of them walked towards Boombox’s apartment on the second layer of the city.
Not even 20 minutes into the walk, they were met with a problem. In order to get to the second layer, they needed to go through a tram that would move them down, the tram is transportation for the public.
Putting his hood up, Coil stayed in the back of the group along with Skate, hoping to draw as little attention to him as possible. Being a criminal in this world isn’t easy, y’know?
They walked in the tram, nervously attempting to act as normal as possible. Thankfully it was 3 A.M. and there were barely any other inphernals going out and about. Three other people were in the same tram at them, eyeing them worryingly.
One then pointed towards the body being carried by Skate, “are they okay?”
“Oh uhm, yeah, yeah! My buddy here just got into a phight and got themselves knocked out!” He replies with a tone of uncertainty, Coil and Slingshot felt like facepalming themselves there and there.
The unbearably awkward ride continued for another 10 minutes, every second feeling like an hour having passed for the four of them. A ding noise was played and the tram stopped at its destination, the group left first hoping to avoid as many people as they could.
Just around half-an hour later, they reached Boombox’s apartment complex, it was decently sized and had a comfy atmosphere to it. Guitars, keyboards and more assortments of musical instruments were lined up in his living room. Posters of the Flipside and other popular bands were plastered on the wall.
Boombox hurriedly tidied all of the instruments and Skate went to place the newspawn down on the sofa. Coil put his hood down and took a good breather, comfortably sitting down near the unconscious inphernal which Slingshot followed.
“Sorry Boom, ya think me and Coil could crash here for the night? It’s getting really late,” he asked his friend who had just returned from grabbing a medicine kit.
“Of course you can! Don’t need to ask!” Boombox gave him a smile which Skate returned.
Coil, in the meantime, was too busy inspecting the unconscious inphernal. Using two of his claws, he carefully opened their eyes…
“Woah, you guys should take a look at this...” Slingshot scooted closer to take a better look, Skate and Boom walked to the two of them to check up on what was happening.
The newspawn had completely white eyes. He had no sclera, or at least it wasn’t clearly visible. Boombox widened in recognition while Skate and Slingshot were shocked.
“Dude, that's gnarly… Wait, are they okay?” The red inphernal took a closer look, they really had no eyes!
“Like hell I know dude! All demi-deities are weird. I mean, Banhammer has four eyes?” Coil shrugged.
“Then they should be fine, maybe it’s just one of their traits?”
“Who’s child is this anyways?”
The question was asked, arguably the most important one right now. It definitely isn’t Windforce or Firebrand since they already have their own. Other than those two, the SFOTHS are somewhat of an enigma, none of them sounded like they would bother having their own children.
Boombox stayed quiet for a moment, realizing the amount of danger they were in, but he forced himself to talk.
“Illumina.”
The three turned their heads to look at him, a puzzled expression on their faces. “How do you know?”
“It was back then when I was still working under… Her. It was only once, but I remember glancing at Illumina when he visited. He… He had the same eyes as this guy here... And also the same wings,” Explained Boombox.
“WHAT!?” They cried out in unison.
Slingshot pondered for a moment, “Wait but, Illumina is known for being all-high and mighty, right? Why would his child be… This beaten down?”
“I don’t know, something feels off about this,” sweat trickled down Boombox’s cheeks. Something about this isn’t right. Did Illumina punish his child? Or abandoned them? The only way those can be answered, is when this inphernal wakes up.
“So you’re telling me, we basically just kidnapped the child of the deity of light?” Skate sputters nervously.
It was then at that moment, that the four of them realized. They might have just gotten themselves into something they couldn’t possibly escape from. Being involved with the SFOTH was never a good thing, you would be hated by the public and have conspiracies constantly written about you.
While all of this was happening, Gunblade had been sleeping oblivious to the panic around him. The next day would be a bright and sunny day for his first life as an inphernal!
⨯ . ⁺ ✦ ⊹ ꙳ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹ . * ꙳ ✦ ⊹
Reference art for Gunblade!
