• The shadow of one the ravage of millions.

    Silence echoed in a world where not even a breath could be heard. This was her story her world she had created in nothing but complete insanity. She stood there in silence admiring her last victim’s efforts to end her existence. But clearly like all the others she would not be defeated. She then turned to realize what she had achieved: And that was absolute desecration of all life in the place she was once a fond member of. She clenched her fist with rage boiling inside realizing this was not enough... More had to suffer to make her feel better.

    At this point you probably think this girl is nothing but heartless, and you would be correct. She has lost her feelings and compassion to all living things, but is she truly to blame for that? Is there a scheme to all this destruction and madness? Why does she do this? This is her story……

    Chapter 1
    Quaint and simple

    It was clear spring day, the trees rustled with the blowing of the wind, and all that could be heard were the songs being sung by nearby birds in the forest. “Huh ?” I looked around and noticed that my roommate Ruri had gone out which confused me somewhat: Usually she tells me when she’s leaving. I rolled to one side then helped myself to my feet and yawned loudly. “Hmmm wonder where she is then ?” Looking around I couldn’t find a note or anything. I thought to myself, “Maybe she has gone ahead to work.” I checked the time realizing it was still early, so I began to prepare myself for my day ahead. It was a simple life I lead well…. To an extent I guess you could say my life wasn’t exactly easy. I wasn’t rich or anything but I learnt to get along with that factor.

    As far as a job went I was in the employment of the imperial armada. The armada was the worlds largest army, and to a most part had quite a dictatorship directing it. Countries were forced to live with the armadas rule. I know it seems rather heartless to aid such people, but I had to think about myself nobody was going to give me money and a frozen shop assistant just didn’t fit for me.

    I began to remove my cloths and turning the shower on, climbing in moments after the feeling I got from a warm shower in the morning set for me for my day. Another day of trudging and taking orders from someone who was so stuck up there own a** it must hurt... "Sigh... Maybe I should try and find a better job, I mean its not like I am unskilled or anything...” I turned the water on a little more then finally climbed back out feeling refreshed. “Maybe I’ll be lucky and get a good trainer today... Sigh. But I doubt it.” I began sorting through my documents to find my planner. “I know its here somewhere... I put it here in the pile not that pile I am sure.” To say the least I wasn’t your most tidiest of people and Ruri would complain a lot about it, but provided I could find stuff I felt okay to continue that way. In fact I had about 5 stacks of junk I probably did not need by my bed, but stricken by the 'I don’t care for cleanliness' bug I just let the piles grow bigger and if it tipped over then pile number 6 would be made. I finally found my planner still in good shape. Upon finding it I felt a little bit good about myself: I felt like maybe today wouldn’t be such a kick in the teeth to live through, and I was right ! “Alright!! Weapons training with Ren.”

    Rushing around to find a hint of food I searched every cupboard me and Ruri had, but needless to say I lacked results. This couldn’t alter my mood because I was happy with who I had for training today. “I shall train hard then life will be easy !” And with that I walked out of the door and began running to the armada training base.

    The base was a good 30 minutes walk, but I was late so I didn’t have that choice. “Dammit why do I do this every time.” I thought to myself, “Maybe this is the time I should try that new cronos dash technique Ruri taught me.” Personally I did not think spreading your arms outwards and making yourself slightly aerodynamic would not alter your speed that much but it was a remarkable speed increase... After all it was a old but powerful skill. You see the armada focuses heavily on its research of the lands of old, for the world of old was extremely more advanced then our current one to date. But nobody had a clear reason to why this technological world was destroyed.

    The main goal of there research and excavation of these old world relics was to find anything remotely like a talic. Talics were little devices that could teach the brain to react in phenomenal ways: It allowed what would generally be physically impossible to be possible. The cronos dash was a skill I received from a talic Ruri purchased from the armada. I carried on running in the cronos dash and made it to the gates just in time to clock in on time. “Phew that cronos dash takes it out of you but at least I am not going to get disciplined for being late.” I clocked in and went straight to my training room. “Morning ma’am.” I said to Ren. She turned and said, “You’re on time today, what happened ?” “Huh its not like I am regularly late Ren.” She laughed. “No, but 98% of the time you are !” Looking down I twiddled my thumbs. “Well its tough you know.” she laughed. “Its okay seems like you’re the only one here anyhow.” I looked around. “So where is everyone else ?” She drew her sword. “Well they have all gone training with Zanar.” I never liked Zanar: He was c**k, arrogant, and a womanizer, the sort of person you wouldn’t mind punching and hoping be bounced back up so you could do it again. “Oh I see.” She began to polish the blade of her sword. “Your free to join them if you want.” “I am fine without that, thank you Ren.” She laughed. “Okay then lets get down to training.”

    Ren was the sort of person you could rely on for almost anything. She was a great friend of mine and taught me a great deal of what I know today. There were a lot of trainers on the armada but Ren was one of my best: She taught me how to duel wield and other such talents.

    “Ren I have a question,” She looked up at me with her attention fully drawn, “why is it I can duel wield and other use talics to teach the talent ? Wouldn’t it just be easier to talic train every person ?” She agreed to an extent then said, “But the duel wield I taught you is much more powerful then a talic. you see talics are good but they can only teach you so much. Personally I don’t use them. Never have.” Come to think of it Ren didn’t posses the major league talents some of the trainers did, but I had a lot of respect for her regardless: The duel wield she taught me allowed me to beat any talic taught duel wielder. “So why is it you don’t believe in using talics ?” I questioned. Ren looked at me and said, “Simply put there must have been a reason old world is what it is today. I feel what’s done is done there is no sense trying to restore it to its former state. What if its destruction happens again ?” I looked at her stunned, “Still you have a good point there”

    The two swords I wielded were given to me by both Ruri and Ren, and they had a great feel to them, as Ren stated. “Now Chii, friend or not don’t hold back. I want to see if you have perfected that little skill of yours.” I dashed straight at Ren unsheathing my swords. As I charged she dodged my attack easily, which I then followed up with a quick hit which smashed Ren against the left wall of the training arena. “Hmmm you have improved a little Chii.” I smiled feeling rather confident with my chances. But Ren would soon show me differently with a sharp uppercut to my chin which threw me into the air, where she further smashed me one more time but into the floor this time. “Jeez, you never go light on me do you Ren. Would it kill you to cut me some slack.” I thought to myself. “My turn to catch you off guard this time Ren.” I again charged Ren then upped to a cronos dash and hit her with a swift right hand. Ren hit the wall with force. “Nice move Chii, that’s enough.” 'Was she scared ?' I thought. "I can now see I made the right choice for that mission.” She threw a bolt of energy at me which I smashed with the twin blades I had. “What do you mean a the right choice ?” She smiled. “You will like it. Check your post when you get home.”

    I left the training facility, a lot of things in my mind floating around. I needed answers. I could not just settle with confused answers. I wanted to clarify so I headed to the library to head plow through my questions. Upon reaching the library I spotted guardian. “Hello jo-jo” I said happily. He nodded and waved asking me if I was okay. “Yeah I’m fine jo-jo, just a little confused about things I guess.” He seemed worried. “What’s up Choo ?” Choo was the nickname I got back from guardian through my nickname I gave to him. I smiled and said, “Nothing don’t worry about it, really its nothing to worry about.” he looked at me with a suspicious look. “Hmm... Okay if you say so choo.” I lighten up at him. “Well, I'll be going now.” he waved and I left for the library. “Hmmm... Where to begin” I thought to myself about all the keywords floating around in my head. The ancients, Talics, what Ren said about it. “Hmm, history seems the logical place to start.” I looked along the shelves for a book about the ancient world. "Sigh..." My search didn’t bear many results. All I found was somebody’s lost card key and a semi old book. It seemed somewhat dilapidated. “Hmmm, this might have some answers, but I doubt its going to solve all my issues.” I took the book and the card. I browsed along the card carefully wondering who it belonged to. The picture was faded and I could barley make out the name. All I could make out was that it was a 5 letter name, but it was incredibly smudged and old in more ways than one. I was surprised to find something this old, but then I guess that goes to show you just how regular the cleaner does a good job here. I went to the counter and checked the book out then began walking home from the base. For some reason ,I couldn’t get rid of the card. I was naturally curious as to who it belonged to.

    Before I knew it my legs had taken me to the front door of my house. “Huh... Guess I’m home.” I pressed the key in and unlocked the door. “Ruri,” I shouted out, “you here ?” I got an answer. “Yeah I’m home Chii.” I looked at her as she poked her head around the doorway and waved at me. “Hey there, where did you go this morning?” Ruri looked at me and said. “Well I had to go to the base. Apparently it was urgent, I think your letter there has something to do with it.” Looking at the letter I realized that it must have been the letter Ren had told me about in training. I moved towards it and opened it with the nearby letter opening knife. I pulled the letter from its casing and began looking at it. “Huh,” Ruri walked up to me and looked over my shoulder, “what is that ?” she said confused. “Your asking me ?" I said. There were a set of orders enclosed in the envelope along with 2 pictures. The first picture showed a beam of light emanating from a hole in the floor, and the second photo showed the hole from a helicopter view, but the light wasn’t present in that photo. I read through the letter. It read:

    Dear corporal Chii

    You have been hand chosen by a commander to take part in this operation. The photo’s enclosed are pictures of your destination. Please report to armada base at 06:00 to receive your full report on the mission and for immediate dispatch.

    ~signed~
    Zanar .H. heroushi

    “Hmm rather formal of him considering he isn’t a fan of mine.” I thought “So you got the orders to huh Chii ?” I nodded with agreement. “Yeah, well, I’m gonna go up and hit the books.” She nodded but seemed slightly confused by it, after all I was never really one to self study at all, let alone sit privately and read a book to myself. But I needed these answers and I didn’t want to make Ruri worry about my issues. I opened the door to my room, it was a small room with very little in it besides a bed and a wardrobe. The armada wasn’t fussy about decoration as you could tell. I laid on my chest across the bed and opened the book. I struggled to get comfortable first before I began reading. “Jeez thank god its slightly legible, but some of these words make no sense to me at all.” I looked at the cover again but it was far to warped to make out the title. All I could make out was a talic-like symbol. Naturally this is why I picked it up. Even if it was solely on talics, I could at least solve one problem. I browsed through the pages looking for the word talic when a page with it written in large bold font stood out to me. “Hmm... Well what Ren said I already know about what they do... But I didn’t understand why she hated them so much.” I browsed through the book longer into the early hours of the morning. Ruri was already fast asleep. I envied her that she had a peaceful sleep. I carried on reading until I came across a picture that struck me. It seemed almost a cartoon replica of the photos enclosed in my orders. I took the envelope and compared the pictures. There was definitely some connection between these two pictures. I noticed a sentence under the picture in the book. For the most part I could make out what it said. “Talics are the callers of the light of …….ion.” What ever the last word said no matter how hard I tried to make it out it was completely illegible. I yawned quietly to myself and rubbed my eyes, then checked the clock on my wrist planner. “Crap, 02:34 am. What’s the point in sleeping ?” Still I went to bed, but for the duration of my sleep it was not peaceful. My head had a hundred things running through it and falling asleep wasn’t one of its agenda’s.