Where Light Dies

Prologue - Of Good and Evil

"Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

-- Dayton, Ruins -- 2021 --

"Does balance exist?" she asked.

The innocence in her deep cerulean eyes betrayed the rough exterior she'd built around her. But she was no longer a child, and neither was I.

We knew the truth.

All we had left to do was embrace it.

"Ryan?"

Her voice rung like a chime, echoing through these winds that reeked of blood.

"I-uh... don't think it does."

"You don't trust us. Why?"

Beth had always been sharp. Besides, a lack of hope was among the easiest of emotions to pick up.

"You know why," I answered as I walked up to her.

I stood in silence as her legs carelessly dangled over the cliff's edge, my gaze wandering into the darkness that loomed over this cursed land. The dull scarlet rays of the sun had receded into the horizon, giving way to a concrete jungle bathed in moonlight.

"We need to head back." I bent down, offering her a hand.

"Boring as always I see," she grumbled. Beth shot up like a coiled spring, nearly yanking me down in the process.

"Watch my back hawk-eye," she said.

"With pleasure."

"Perv."

I watched her silhouette fade into the distance. It was getting darker.

My gaze wandered upwards, nearly trapping me in a trance. The sky was now littered with stars, transforming into a stygian mirror that belittled the facades of time. A soft breeze whistled through the silent eve, carefully passing by a city of buildings that were a feather's touch away from crumbling into the earth. Weeds and fallen bricks adorned the streets of rippled tar, a sight that left an impression of nostalgia deep in the recesses of my mind.

I don't know why I felt it though. I'd never seen these cities in their prime, after all.

"I need to patrol the eastern wall. Go ahead without me!" she shouted from a distance.

"Wait. Beth! Do not leave me here Dayton!"

It was useless. She was gone.

"Fuck."

I'd gotten used to cursing under my breath by now. Must be due to the company I keep.

Better get going.

I continued down the crumbled highway, occasionally jumping over knee-high mounds of debris. The camp entrance was in sight. Her question however lingered in the back of my mind, the words now a light whisper that refused to leave my conscience.

Just what is this, balance?

It could be defined as an assumption that things would always come back to what they were, that good and evil were equal in existence. A naïve way of thinking that spared us the sense of impending doom.

That assumption turned out to be wrong. We humans learned that the hard way.

How?

Let me tell you a little story.

On the 7th of October 1998, the sky turned red. In a single moment, the wall of lies that we built around ourselves shattered like glass. Screams of raw fear pierced the bleeding skies as they were ripped in half. Seeing our fellow humans slaughtered by the demons that emerged, we realized one thing in particular. What lay beyond us, was always an abyss of torment.

As hard as it was to believe, some of the creatures we tagged as demons were good at heart.

And so they formed a truce, a pact between the strongest warriors representing each of the two worlds, three of mankind and three from the realm of red skies. They came to be known as the Knights of Light and the Knights of Dark, a force that was regarded to be undefeatable. The sacred seal was known as the Fate of Skies, and it was decreed that anyone who chose to oppose its norms would be put down immediately by the Knights of Fate.

With this final act of righteousness, peace and order was restored to the two worlds.

Think that's what happened?

Wrong.

It's been two decades since the Fate of Skies fell. Human resistance was little to none as they were pushed to the brink of extinction. One by one, the Knights of Light and Dark fell alike to the unending onslaught of demons. In his dying breaths, the final Knight of Dark chose a seventh guardian, a pillar of justice who would one day rain hell on all who sinned, be it human or demon.

"Get in kid!"

My thoughts were interrupted as the coarse rumble of metal against road ground through my ears. Someone had opened the tunnel entrance from within. I crouched down, mindlessly stepping down the rungs one by one.

What of the seventh guardian? Couldn't that be a sign of balance? I thought as the shallow clank of metal echoed in my ears.

Well, truth is that I'm not sure. From what I know, we may have lost him already.

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