Shifting Worlds

The Edge of Fate

Nothing but darkness is all she saw, she couldn't see or hear anything, she wasn't surprised as she had just died. She felt sadness well up inside her, not because she was dead but because of what she left behind. Relty would be blaming himself for it and there was nothing for her to do about it. "I didn't realise that sadness was an emotion for the dead... " Suddenly a bright white light filled the abyss as light blue feathers of light swirled around her. "In life all can fall and in death all can rise, my name is Celestia, goddess of life. May the dead hear my song and rise once again into life. To you who would challenge me know that I will protect humanity!" A loud female voice filled the silence of the void as the light became blinding. Eventually Aurora could feel warmth and hear voices, soon enough all she could see was a blinding white. "Finally awake huh? Jeez you know how to make us worry." The voice was familiar to her, loud and confident but definitely mature. "Is that you Flare? What happened?" Aurora's body arched and she felt fatigued "I'm guessing I'm not dead then" "you'd be right about that, if I had known what his plan was I would have backed him up." Slowly her sight returned and she could see Flare sat at the side of the bed she was laying in, it was instantly apparent to her she was in hospital "what do you mean his plan? What exactly happened? What about the others?" She sat up and regretted it immediately as her chest felt like it was about to split down the middle. "Whoa calm down, they are fine. Right now they are at home resting and recovering from their treatment." "Wait but how? We were all slaughtered and cut down... Some even in half, it shouldn't be possible." Flare smiled and shook her head "ask the one who did it" she nudged her head downward and Aurora followed her gaze to the mass of deep violet hair with some of the ends a bright blueish green was over her core as she saw Relty's face half buried into her lap as he slept. "He hasn't left your side since he found you on the roof. We managed to find you both though at the time it looked like you were all just unconscious, it wasn't until we saw Celei's wounds healing rapidly that we knew what had occured." Aurora placed a hand on Relty's head and softly pet him like a cat, as she did so his eyes slowly opened and Flare saw this as her que to leave.

Relty rubbed his eyes as they adjusted to the light and he looked up to see Aurora awake, she immediately noticed his left eye was a deep crimson with the bottom of his iris glowing. His right eye was a vivid,  bright torquise. A smile widened on his face as he sat up, his hair a mess and the new colours seemed to glow in the light. "hey you're finally awake, you worried me" his voice was a bit slurred and he yawned just after. "I was... Dead so was Celei, Zere and Neo, not to mention the countless other students that were cut down. What happened? How can I be alive? how can the others be alive?" Aurora asked, her voice dark and lost in it's own confusion. Relty looked away from her to look out the window before speaking. "Honestly I'm just as surprised as you are, the first thing I remember is going up to the roof to confront Azure and then suddenly I felt a powerful presence appear and overwhelmed me." As he spoke he started remove his shirt causing Aurora to blush and fluster until she saw his pale slender body covered in bandages. "Apparently I went berserk and my attacks took their toll on my body, after I came to I heard from Dane that at some point a massive amount of magic expelled from my body and covered the whole school. The effect of the spell being that everyone was revived besides Azure who had been turned to dust by my last attack. Also my eyes and hair are different colours now I'm not completely sure how though. What's wrong? you're are looking at me as though I just died" Aurora was staring at him blankly, but at his comment a smile crept onto her face as she pulled him tightly into a hug. "You big idiot, thank you for saving me... For saving everyone you truly are amazing." Aurora sobbed through her words with tears of joy for being alive and able to hold the person she cherished.

An hour had passed since Aurora came to and she was still holding Relty in her arms, both of them half asleep. "I'm sorry by the way, for breaking the one rule you placed on my knightship, I must not kill." Relty muttered to her and she just let out a soft and quick laugh. "It's fine, I'll make an exception considering the situation, after all you saved more than just me this time round." Relty sat back at the side of the bed as Aurora let go of him and put back on his shirt. "Jeez this place is stuffy" Relty heard a loud, deep male voice and suddenly looked around "whose there!?" Aurora looked at him in confusion having not heard anything" Relty what's wrong" "wait you didn't hear that?" "of course she didn't you idiot, only you can hear me in this state. To make thing simple I'll take in a minor physical form." As the words from the invisible voice rang a much smaller version of the skull that
covered Relty's head during the fight with Azure appeared resting on top of his head, half buried in his hair two ruby coloured lights in the eye sockets. "What the?!" Both Relty and Aurora looked at eachother in shock "wait could you be the one who helped fight Azure?" Aurora asked as she remembered that skull from just before she fell unconsious. "So that fools name was Azure? To think I'm woken from my sleep to have to fight a person like that, some reincarnation you are little guy." The voice seemed a bit higher now and had a slight echo to it, the ruby lights flashing at each word. "Wait I'm completely lost, who are you and how do you recognize him Aurora?" Relty tilted his head slightly. "I'm the one who took over your body to fight that weirdo Azure, I was awakened by deep anger and desire to kill him. Hence my name, Crimson eyes the beast of death and destruction, the very one you all labelled as the Beast of the Great Calamity." "Wait, you're the beast, and you called me a reincarnation... Great anymore surprises like this and I'm gonna die of stress before the strain of my magic." Relty muttered to himself "you seem to be pretty relaxed about it, considering my previous hosts all freaked out about having my amazing power as part of them. Though saying that you look familiar, why is it I feel as though I have seen you before." "Your last reincarnation, do you remember what happened during your time?" Relty questioned the skull on his head. "Let's see... I recall that my reincarnation last time was a man named Zeal and my counter part the goddess of life and protection Celestia was reincarnated into a woman called Hestia. Of course at the time neither of us could manifest any sort if physical form like this, somehow you have enough magical energy for me to do so easily kid. Anyway I believe our hosts back then actually fell in love with eachother and got married, even going so far as to have an offspring a child I remember seeing only once as a baby. They called him... I don't remember the name it must have been so long ago." The voice became shakey near to the end of it's tale. "Around a decade ago that was Crimson eyes." Relty spoke quickly "only that long? But the reincarnation takes atleast 100 years between each, how is this possible?" "Because my body is made to be able to hold your soul I can see that now, after all I'm the child of Hestia and Zeal it would seem I inherited your soul straight from my father after his death." There was a moment of silence before the beast spoke once more "Zeal's death... I remember it well, he battled against a powerful foe and almost won. The last thing that passed his mind as he lay on the ground dying was the thought of the family he left behind and his son. I never thought I'd get to see that child grow or see the others again. Now to think that you hold my soul, I find it strange but this must have been planned but feels odd, the energy within you is out of sorts it's next to impossible to use any spells like this. What happened?" Suddenly a new voice came from the doorway just after the door opened.

"Hey sorry we took so long, we heard from. Flare that you had finally woken up Aurora so we came by." Flare, Dane, Gale and Sola all entered the room, Dane instantly noticing the small half skull that rested ontop of Relty's head. "Wait I remember you guys, the friends of Hestia and Zeal... A decade has passed you well by the looks of it." Crimson eyes spoke as it saw them and Dane was the first to respond. "I knew my suspicion was right, so you must be the beast that Zeal was reincarnated from, seems you finally managed to wake up after so many years. You also managed to finally take a physical from." "I have way too much to catch up on so we'll save it for a time when we can for now I want to know, where is Hestia, it's only been around ten years so I'm sure she's exactly the same. That kind heart of her's never ceased for anyone, she is exactly like Celestia that way." Suddenly black electricity sparked around Relty's body as his teeth clenched and his fists grabbed his jeans tightly. "Whoa kiddo what's gotten into you so suddenly, you're activating my power out of no where, just what kind of greif is this!?" Suddenly a memory belonging to Relty entered the beast's mind, one of the most awful things he could see. The memory Relty has of his mother's death, fire and ash and three faces that showed pure evil along with her body run through with a blade. When the memory faded into just that the lightning stopped as Relty calmed down, everyone looking at him with concern. "I need some air" Relty muttered as he walked out of the room. Flare got up to go talk to him but was stopped by Dane, "let him be Aurora, it's obvious it still hurts him. I'm not surprised by this now that we can see it through the Crimson Eye's power so give the boy time to process. After all its not just because the beast has awoken inside of him, that right eye of his, the glow it emits... I have no doubt he inherited more then just the Crimson Eyes, he also has the counter part." They all looked at Dane in confusion towards the meaning of his explanation. "He'll be back soon and you'll find out for yourselves then, its not my place to talk about. I just hope for both your sake Aurora and Relty's along with this world that he has the will to handle the future. I fear we are now on the edge of Relty's fate and it is something bigger than we ever expected."