Pitch Black Grim

Chapter 6 - Justice

Burning lungs; cold feet; shaking hands; a broken ankle. A blurring vision drew out the form of a bright god-like being: A woman in luxurious clothing. In a much larger form, in front of him, was drawn the form of the man he'd been fighting for the last few minutes. They appeared to be talking about something, but his body was too busy holding onto the rope that was his consciousness in a chasm that was certain death.

In one hand, the hammer which he wielded had almost completely broken down, with only the handle being mostly intact. His sun-tanned skin was overrunning with sweat, his clothes overflowing with it. His coarse hair was muddled with sweat, blood, and dirt. His knuckles and knees bore large, surface-level wounds. Sweat dropped to the ground from his jaw and fingertips.

"What an unsightly beast." He overheard; a voice of feminine nature.

He attempted to take a step, pulling his weight onto the leg which he struck with the hammer; His body soon crumbled to the ground. The two forms faded. A large beacon of light appeared, which blinded him greatly, yet shielding his eyes would have taken every bit of strength left in his body. The rope soon fell from his grasp, as he fell to the bottom of the chasm.

...

Wind gently blew the green grass around as pupils and a teacher trampled on its blades. Birds chirped. Several minutes have passed since Glacier had run off. The fear of sudden threat has slowly disappeared, as horror and shock turned to confusion and boredom.

There were four standing in the center and spotlight of the rather large garden between the dorm and the school. Those four were of course Grim, Levin, Eolo and Anemo. Petra stood between them and the scattered few also outside, mostly alternating between walking in circles worried, and keeping watch of the few there.

Sitting in the grass, a muscular man fidgeted with his fingers. Short brown hair covered his head. His mind seemed to be deep in thought, or perhaps he was passing in and out of consciousness. His limbs looked tough; his shoes dirty. The bottom of his pants looked like they originated from a swamp.

At the other side, with her back against the wall sat a girl about Grim's height. Her expression was rather sorrowful, or dim. Her lips naturally dragged downwards, even when her eyes expressed content. Her relatively short deep blue hair was barely wiggled by the air. Her tiny fingers wore many scars. Her body-language expressed caution; her face was quite the same.

"You okay over there, Frank, Mist?" Petra shouted out at them, standing between the two.

"Yeah," Frank yelled back after a short delay. He then hopped up from the ground and began walking towards Levin and the others.

Mist nodded slightly as if Petra would see it so far away.

"So, this is common here?" Grim picked up a glass shard from the ground. "Do people really use magic for bad?"

"Were you living in a fantasy world up until now?" Levin slapped the piece of glass out of his hand. "It has been used for nothing but bad in recent years." He glanced at Frank approaching. "Look around you." He extended both arms outward as he slowly spun around in place. "It's everywhere."

"What?" Grim gasped as he tried to find where Levin was looking.

"It's so obvious even a child can see it." He stopped and glanced at the ground. "This glass." He glanced up at the city. "These buildings. Those streets." He glanced at Grim. "How long do you think it took to build these? How many people's combined efforts led to this?" He paused then glanced back at the rubble among the buildings. "And just how long did it take to destroy them? Seconds? Half a minute maybe?"

"By whom? A group of terrorists? A mere few people? Maybe not even multiple?" his voice grew shrill. "A power that allows a few to undo the efforts of thousands could never be 'used for good' in my mind."