The Strange Apocalypse

Chapter One: The Portals

Kovas. Jade Kovas. That's me, though people just call me Kovas or K. Where I'm from, you never ever give anyone your first name, too risky. Especially in my line of work, assassinations to be exact. I'm the bad guy in the cinemas paid to kill the good guy. But that's all I've ever known, my purpose. That all changed the day portals became known and spread across my home, Kaladria. Some scientists managed to open a portal to an unknown dimension, a small and unheard of planet, Arth and these supposed "genius scientists" let loose the undead plague, (which is native to our planet) or as we call it, the Blacker, because it infects non-immunes; people too genetically weak to be immune to the diseases of Kaladria. These non-immunes are few and far between because most of them are already dead, but every now and again you see them walking down the street begging for their lives. They'd get sick and their skin, eyes and teeth would turn black and they'd roam around  unless their rotting corpses fell apart, earning them the names "roamers" or "rotters". Now these roamers weren't what you're thinking, zombies. No, they were simply normal people gotten sick. They have no desire to eat or drink, only roam around aimlessly until they ceased to exist. You might think my job would be to clear away the infected, and no, that's what cleaners are for, those workers you always see on the side of the road or in the streets washing away the remains of a recently fallen roamer or picking up body parts left behind. My job was, as I mentioned, an assassin. I was "friends" with the royal family and wealthy mercs as well as a few Keepers. They'd hire me to kill annoying people or criminals, because our society didn't believe in jails and such, we were a secluded society away from the other provinces and kingdoms and had no need for jails or prisons. That's where I come in.

Today, I was on my way to the palace for a urgent meeting with King Verion, that there had been some issue come up when a trigger-happy scientist fucked with one of the gateways that created an unstable portal to some small planet somewhere in the Milkyway, somewhere across dimensions and galaxies to a planet called Arth.....Erth....something like that. How I get mixed into the whole portal situation is beyond me. Maybe some wryth or fae got away through the portal and I had to track it and ensure it doesn't do something to start some intergalactic war? Who knows, it wouldn't be the first time.

I walk through the shop filled streets with loud merchants shouting out deals to passersby. Their shouts echo off the walls of houses and buildings surrounding the town hall and walls surrounding the kingdom. I'd just passed through the gates away from my home, the Forest of Teubaria. After taking 3 lefts and a right as I see the palace gates within sight. Before I approach them, I stop and take a moment to adjust the long sword at my side, the crossbow on my back and check the arrows, ensuring I've not "mysteriously" lost any on my way. I shake my black shoulder length hair out of my hair and lick the cold from my lips. I walk from around the last corner and stop before the gates.

 The guards look down at me and one yells "State your business."

"I am Kovas, the King has requested my presence urgently."

The black iron gates slowly swing open and I begin my walk towards the never-ending steps leading to the palace. Once again its beauty overwhelms me and before I know it I'm nine feet in the air, trying to get a better look at the gigantic shimmering palace with its lush gardens and sprawling trees. The village looks like a dark and grimy disease ridden place compared to it. No matter how many times I see it and walk up its black marble steps I can't help but be in complete awe. I slowly and gracefully descend back to the ground and feel my leather jacket fall back down around me, hiding my weapons once again. I suppose you're wondering "How the hell can she fly?" Well, only certain people are born with gifts, and different people are given different gifts, we are born with them and gain full control of them with we come of age eighteen. I am way past that age by a couple three thousand years, as my people are immortal, but I look to be around twenty three or twenty four.