- Heaven's Last Breath -

First Steps

"Ehhh? How did you know those goons were waiting outside?"

From up ahead, the rose haired girl stopped in her tracks, right in front of Death who had been waiting outside for us. As expected, he had no trouble with those grunts.

Death stood tall, the setting sun descending slowly behind him. A headwind blew gently, causing his cloak and hood to flow in the wind. His shirtless, toned upper body was exposed, with a pair of dark grey army shorts and laced sandals covering his lower half.

Silently, Ariel watched on at the majestic, purely coincidental display from the man in front of her. Jade turned back to me, a little unsure as to how I knew the goons would be outside.

"Just intuition, you know." I paused, deciding not to go on further. There was still time to get to know everyone and I didn't want to tell them all my secrets right away. I continued, "We should get going as the sun sets. Night will be easier for us to travel."

I looked up to the setting sun, counting out the few hours we had to prepare before nightfall. After taking a deep breath, I turned to the town surrounding the central inn.

Rosewood Town was the name of the settlement we were located at. It was a common town for new adventures to start their journey. The place was perfect for novices and just on the border of Wild Violet Forest. From what I had heard, the forest was the last chance an adventurer would have before they're thrown out into the wild lands.

Around a year ago, I had sent a message throughout all of the Nine Realms, asking other Incarnates to meet at Rosewood Town. I assumed that anyone who showed up here wouldn't be dead weight because the message was encrypted in a language that only we can understand.

Since then, I had been waiting for the time to meet the people who would eventually show up. But the hours I spent waiting at the inn before nearly pushed me to the edge of hope. Yet here I was, hours away from travelling with three people who were just like me.

As I looked up from my thoughts, Ariel had already ran off to the library at the far corner of town. Death was sat on a bench nearby, drifting into a light sleep before I knew it. I looked around for the final member of the group, turning on my heels.

"Hey, I asked you why you called me Miss Universe."

There she was. The moment I turned on my heels, Jade was within breathing distance, her emerald eyes glued to mine. I thought of a response, not thinking that it was too big a deal at first, but here I was.

"Eh? You're still thinking about that? We should prepare, there's no turning back when night falls." I turned around, stepping away from the conversation as I looked out to the quiet town.

"Don't think you can underestimate me because you called me cute. I am a-"

"Yeah, I know. I can tell you're strong but you're still cute." I shrugged my shoulders, turning away slightly, "That's all, nothing else."

I didn't want to wait here for too long. The sun was far past its peak, now disappearing behind the tall trees of the forest ahead. I looked around, seeing that the sky was bleached a deep orange, clouds nowhere to be found.

For a moment, I was in thought. Seeing no clouds in the sky was an extremely rare phenomenon and I couldn't remember the last time I had even seen such a thing.

"A cloudless sky. They say it splits apart when Heaven's gates are open."

Jade stepped forward, now stood beside me as the two of us looked up to the cloudless sky.

"Yeah, I heard that too. Do you believe it?"

There was a silence in the air as Jade thought over her answer. I could see the answer was at the tip of her tongue but at the last moment she changed her mind, "Uh, I don't know. Guess I need to see it to believe it."