CALAMITY CORE : FREE THE WORLD

PROLOGUE

An everlasting nothingness expanded endlessly around him. It took shape, encapsulating him in a peninsula of brick walls and concrete ground, golden-brown weeds wilting where they sprouted in an instant after their manifestation. The boy with no name awoke standing to the view of an infinite nothingness before him, a solid wall below him, and an empty sky of television static overhead. From the nothingness came crimson-black light, burning light, which reeked of burning rubber and fresh steel. His senses were overwhelmed, and he fell from his knees, then backwards, as though some sort of primal terror had overtaken him.

He didn't know why he was here, or even who he was, but he was returned to the reality that was his situation when the light began to take shape and the sound of steel chains dragged across the alley sidewalk. Picking himself up, he turned to run, but felt as his body was slammed into a solid metal door, his mass reverating on the cold steel which gave way to an unknowable exit. He stumbled backwards, then attempted to open the door. As his hand made contact with the knob, he felt his weight dragged out from beneath his feet. Crying out in shock, the boy's hair was sent every which way, and he fell flat on his face before being drawn back towards the light, a chain now wrapped around his leg. Blood burst from his lip after it connected with the ground, and he grunted as the chain began to burn, and the burning found more of itself to wrap around his arms now.

He did his best, attempting to bring forth words that were his own, but only the orchestra of chains which sung out in the endless abyss of static was known to either himself, or the now personified crimson before him. The light itself died down now, and he was able to see the alley around himself a slight bit better... it had been built of already worn red bricks, and graffiti coated the walls on either side of himself. Where there wasn't vandalism, signs of shapes painted red and yellow, each riddled with bullet holes, covered the walls. The signs, street signs, were split off from him by a chain link fence, which was rusted and decaying as though the bones of some greater being. A flash of red light on the aluminum which hadn't begun its slow destruction brought him back to the light before him, and he began to hear as indecipherable echoes called to him, dancing a rugged ballet on his ears.

It was then that he remembered who this was that he had been running from for so long through the inky blackness. Tensing up with a sudden anger, he strained against the hot steel, but his muscles quickly grew sore, and as a tinge of monstrous red flooded his irises, he found it in himself to shout out. "Bastard...! Grk..."

The boy was forced into a choking submission, a chain binding his mouth as it opened. His grunt of frustration led to him growling with anger. Chomping down on the chains, he watched as the being before him raised its burly, scale-plated arm. Only now could he perceive the reality of this beast's true form, now that he embraced the burning sensation which stoked his anger. The being, an entity of a sinfully divine nature, was incredibly well-built, with the muscles of a Greek god, and the form of a demon. Deep red scales armored its body, and tendrils of burning hair formed twin tails flowing down from its almost humanoid head and the single sharp, angled horn atop it, down to its clothed waist. Its molten yellow eyes were wide, filled with a smug sort of confidence that squared them off from the rest of its menacing face.

In its hand, it held a flame which split every which way, forming chains of magic from primordial shapes and symbols which gave themselves shape in the fires. The crimson-black embers lapped at the being's claws, and it began to close its hand around the fire, crushing it and constricting the chains even further.

"Give yourself, Andrei." it said.

Crushing the primal, crimson-black fire now, the demon before Andrei chuckled to himself. The weight which the boy's name carried hit him as though it were some sort of vehicle, slamming into him at full speed. A flash of light melted away the alleyway, and the memory stole his attention from the being as everything began to fade to black. Was he dying? He couldn't breathe anymore, and he couldn't see. If he wasn't dead, his senses had lost themselves, completely swallowed up by the depriving void of his mind.

His name ran through his head thrice, once in remembrance, then once more as a sort of confirmation. Thirdly, acceptance. He was Andrei, but who was it that he had brushed death against just moments earlier? Right. He was Ra, and Ra was he. They had been trapped together in this void for years, it felt like a millenia had passed as what little he remembered came back to him... his voice, how to speak. His name, his personality. His sworn rival, his mind. There was no longer blood on his lip, and he realized now that he had sealed his eyes shut out of pure, unadulterated fear. As what felt like smoke began to choke him, he couldn't help but begin to cough up a fit. As the last ounce of oxygen left his lungs, the boy tried to call out to something, anything, even the fatal mercy of the light which had dragged him here. With a final hack of air, he felt his body seize up, and he threw open his eyes, no longer tinged with red, only a glassy golden-amber.

Then Andrei woke up.