Astraeus

Chapter 0: Prologue

A forest as mesmerising at night as the goddess of beauty herself only exists in fairy tales, right? The moon's light shines the whole place over with its bluish glare.

To this day, it's a common habit for humans to let their foolish minds only see what they desire. They worship this place but do not enter it, since nobody wants to disturb the patron saint of the forest. And who is this saint? None other than the devil itself. These naïve people think they are blessed to have such a divine location near the village. Only if they could realize that it brings nothing, but death to their heads.

And by death, I mean demons, they are disgusting creatures not gonna lie. They possess pitch-black bodies and red glowing eyes. Their speed is inhuman, with their sharp claws, and teeth, they can rip a man's throat open. Puts your mind at ease, wouldn't you agree? Of course, luck must be on your side if you want to live the following day if you ever encounter one.

It's a typical normal night.... At least for an average villager. But not for our detective. "How are you holding up?" asked his partner, also known as his weapon. He is concerned about his well-being. „Let's say I have had better days in my life and being chased by 5 damned Arrancars is definitely not helping." He has been running non-stop for the past 10 minutes. "I meant your wound. It's bleeding pretty badly."

The younger boy understands his friend's worries. Not everyone gets stabbed in the stomach and still moves like it's nothing." Oh... sorry. It's hard to think straight at the moment. Until the adrenalin wears off, I think I'll be just fine. I just have to keep running." He smiles, tries to cheer his weapon up a bit, unsuccessfully.

The boy was of course worn out, he rapidly took breaths, and his vision blurred from time to time. Any moment he could collapse from exhaustion, but he had to keep his spirit alive." Only if I had been cautious, I could have avoided her... I don't know how she even tricked me in the first place." thinks the detective.

"Above you!" shouts the other. He looks up quickly, his posture stiffens while letting out an annoyed sigh. The monster jumped at him from a tree branch, ready to devour him.

He launched at the creature with extraordinary speed and beheaded it within a second. It didn't last long. After a safe landing, he starts running again.

" I don't get it. She sends a few Arrancar after me, although she knows damn well that I can deal with them fast enough in my current state too." Am I a joke to her or what?! Now the young boy feels his blood boil. The most feared person in the forest stabbed him and then ordered some of the weakest creatures in the area to play this stupid game of cat and mouse. If this isn't humiliating, then what is?

He is too lost in his thoughts, so he doesn't have time to react immediately to the upcoming attack. "Oh crap!" he thinks. While his mind was elsewhere, the creature appeared before him, and his time became short, so he only could move his glaive sideways to block the attack.

The creature instantly grabs the weapon and pushes the boy backward with brutal force. "Let me turn back." His partner orders him. "Wha...what...? No, I won't let you do it." The detective's strength fades away more with every second and his partner's uneasiness is not helping him at all. "Why?! Don't be reckless, you are no longer in the state to fight. I'm able to take care of the rest!"

Ah, it's getting irritating again. "As I said...." He bends his knees a little. "I can handle it!" And with that, he jumps and lends a powerful kick to the monster's head with his right leg. It made the monster lose his balance, a perfect opportunity to keep his distance from it again. "Listen, if you injure yourself because of me, I won't forgive my-"

He coughs up blood. A huge headache strikes the boy all of a sudden. The world starts spinning around him and he is no longer running, instead, he is kneeling on the ground. "Ngh, this one was the most painful so far..." He slowly, but surely gets his senses back. A bluish light catches his attention, it's flickering uncontrollably. „Stop trying to transform back." His partner ignores him. „Hey, I said stop, you are only hurting yourself!"

„You can't even move anymore, and we are surrounded by the remaining Arrancars!" "I beg you, LET ME TURN BACK!" He coughs again. "I-" more blood comes up; his ears are ringing so loud that his head almost bursts open. The desperate voice doesn't reach him, his weapon slips out of his hold and lands on the ground.

"H-Hey, don't drop me down now, come on. Get yourself together!" His vision rapidly fades away and the pain takes over his body, is it the end, or will somebody save him? Before he blacks out, he could hear hasty, but steady footsteps. If it's just a hallucination or not.... he won't have time to figure it out.