The Game Before the Fall

Chapter 2: Before fame. (Part 1)

Chapter 2: Before fame.

3 days after the Fall:

A flash of lightning lit up the night sky staining my eyesight. Skyscrapers once standing tall now collapsed against each other, leaning at odd angles creating a concrete maze. They stood haphazardly and would fall to the ground frequently from the impacts. Despite it all, many still took shelter beneath the behemoths. After all, being crushed by a concrete slab was better than the alternative, pierced by the bone white claws of a Rift Walker.

"Ardy..., where do we go?" Aria shivered beside me. The small fire pit tried to heat up the bodies of dozens. Their eyes just as weary as ours. "Is Dad really...."

I tried to speak confidently, "We don't know. He might have escaped too."

"I hope so."

A figure passed over us. The man stood confidently wrapped in armour and wore a large axe on his back. "Don't worry young lady. Now that we've found you, we'll guide you to a safe place."

His companions nodded. Three in all. They dressed a far cry differently to everyone else. The desperate around us looked at them with shining eyes filled with hope.

"Once the storm passes, we'll make a move." He stamped his hand against his breastplate. "The three of us reached the rankings before. Those white monsters are nothing compared to what we've faced."

He looked so proud I couldn't help frown, "You shouldn't underestimate them. They're strong."

The man's eyes narrowed to a condescending grate, "Were you a player as well? Don't compare us."

"I'm saying this for your benefit but-."

It was too late. A shocking scream broke through past the thunder. Only a few dozen metres away, a family confronted the storm and were running towards us. Behind them, scrapping in chase, the bloodied bone white body of a Rift Walker.

"Everyone, ready up!" the man gathered his companions as they lifted their weapons.

I took Aria into my arms.

"Ardy- what are you-?"

"We're running," I snatched up our bags, paused and as those around us were distracted grabbed a few others as well. Aria's eyes were planted on the sight before us. The three jumped to save the struggling family and just like that, full of confidence, the Rift Walker's claws cut through their armour leaving a bloody mess on the ground. It was over before it had even began.

Mana charged through my body as it strengthened the muscles within. Wings made of light burst from my back and with Aria in my arms we fled.

"H-hey don't leave us!" one desperate woman pleaded. "No!"

Aria gripped onto me, eyes staring into mine, "Ardy."

"I can only protect you," I grit my teeth as the sound of screaming and terror reigned behind us.

*

Every night I woke up. Nightmares of a past that hadn't come yet. The regrets I couldn't live past. The people I couldn't save. The decisions I made to survive. In a cold sweat I'd rise out of bed. Struggle and pull back the curtain the separated us. To see Aria alive and sleeping peacefully. It was the only way I could go back to rest.

*

I felt like throwing up. Hunched over a sink in a random public bathroom, my mind was reeling from nausea and my body shaking. I had been pushing myself the past few days, running further and faster, the feeling I had now wasn't new. It was my body complaining that it wasn't used to the torment I was forcing on it. As sick as it made me feel, it also proved to me I was really alive in the past. Still, it wasn't enough. The difference between the two selves inside me was extreme. I could handle the physical differences but there was also the more supernatural. The air was fresh but lacked the relieving feel of the world's energy, Mana. The same energy that could create magical phenomenon. Earth had almost no mana and it wouldn't till after the Merge when things changed.