Constructors: New Beginning

Chapter 2 A Fall from Grace

"Simon, why are you here?" I gritted my teeth and got in front of Cher. 

"Well, the boys and I were just minding our own business as we took a stroll on the docks when he suddenly heard a voice that sounded familiar to me. And wouldn't you know it, that voice was yours. Now let's finish what we started." Simon swung out his hand to summon fire. "Show me what you can do James." 

I've had it with him! "For the last time, I don't know any magic, Simon! Why do you always insist I'm a mage like you!?" I roared at him, and I noticed that the water along the shoreline beside us was getting shaky. 

"Don't lie to me! My teachers told me I was excellent in sensing magic aura in people, and yours is a powerful one, so I know you know magic now show it to me!" he yelled back at me and the water was getting shakier. Out of nowhere, we all heard a loud, ominous moan. 

"Unknown entity approximately twenty feet away and coming in fast," Cher said in a robotic-like tone, "the killer." A monstrous cry was heard coming from the waters. 

"What is making the cry?" one of Simon's friends asked. I then saw him immediately grabbed by a tentacle and taken into the river. I felt my heart sank in fear seeing the guy get taken in so quickly. While everyone panicked, I held my arms out in front of Cher so the tentacle wouldn't grab her. 

"What the Abyth is going on?" another person asked, and they were taken into the river. Everyone started to scream and panic. As Simon's group tried to back up the tentacles kept taking them until it was just me, Cher, and Simon left. The three of us stayed quite horrified to even move, but I could tell Simon specifically wasn't going anywhere. He looked down at his hand that was still engulfed in flames and then back at us. He made a face that I didn't like the look of, and I watched helplessly as he wound up his arm and was about to hurl his fireball at us. But just as he was about to let go, a shape came out of the water and sliced off his hand, leaving Simon in a panic and causing the fire in his severed hand to go out. 

I couldn't believe what I was seeing in front of us. Father Alric told me that these things were long gone, but here it was right before my eyes, an Archangel.

As the story goes, Seraphim wasn't always a peaceful country. Ten thousand years ago, the country was facing an apocalypse against these beings called Archangels. Archangels were believed to be ancient beings that came from the heavens, some people even thought they were the creations of the mother Goddess, Galicia. In the beginning, the Archangels came down peacefully, wanting to help advance the Early Men by giving them knowledge. But the more time they spent with the Early Men, the more they became feral to the point they couldn't be stopped. In the Scriptures, the Early Men faced these bizarre creatures for months on end and were on the losing side for the most part. Then, out of nowhere, five mysterious mages came and devised an utterly outrageous plan. The idea the five mages came up with was to build a country-sized castle. The castle's name was going to be the Great Bastille, and with the cooperation of all the races in Seraphim, the construction of the Great Bastille began. 

It first began with the creation of the walls where one of the mages created an impenetrable rock called Corite. That mage constructed the walls thirty feet thick making it able to withstand harsh weather and any other perforating entities for all eternity. It took the mage several weeks to finish the walls and towers on each corner of the country. Next came the ceiling. By the time the walls were done, the other mage responsible for the creation of the ceiling and windows took over. That mage made the ceiling and windows out of a glass like none had seen ever before. The mage called the special glass Crystal Mora. They described Crystal Mora as a glass ceiling that'll let everything but the Archangels through and will never shatter unless the creator commanded it to do so. It took a week for the mage to set up the ceiling and windows with the Crystal Mora, but when it was finished, this meant that Great Bastille was complete, but the fight was far from over. 

While the two mages were creating the walls, windows, ceiling, and glass, the other three fought alongside the Early Men and the others races against the Archangels that were still inside the magnificent castle. Legends and rumors spread about each of the fighting mages during battle. There was the mage that could slice Archangels into pieces with nothing but their breath, the mage that could scorch a wave of Archangels with a snap of their fingers, and the mage that commanded armies of the dead to fight against the Archangels. After the completion of Great Bastille, the two mages joined the fight. One mage used the ground around them to crush the Archangels into dust, and the other mage used Crystal Mora to defend the armies against the Archangels.

It took the five mages and the entire country a year for them to wipe out all the Archangels that were still inside Great Bastille. After they killed the very last Archangel, it's said that those on the battlefield dropped their weapons and all cried. They were finally safe, and the celebrations began almost immediately. The entire country raised their cups to the five mages and called them the Constructors for what they did for the land of Seraphim. But during the celebration, the five suddenly disappeared without a trace just as they appeared from nowhere. No one knows where they went or who their true descendants are, but many in the past have claimed that they're the descendants of them simply to receive glory and fame, but they had no evidence to prove such claims.

"This can't be possible; the Constructors killed every last one of the Archangels. So why is there one here in Rocksteady?" I asked, hoping for an answer. I stayed firm because I wasn't gonna let it get to Cherry. "Cherry we gotta go!" 

Cherry didn't disagree, and we tried to run, but as I took my first step, I felt a stinging pain on my chest and on my right arm. I looked to see a huge gash across my chest and half of my right arm on the ground. The Archangel had attacked me with its tentacle cutting deep into my chest and slashed my forearm off. The Archangel's attack was so quick that not even the fastest person could react to it. I fell to my knees, watching the way my arm and chest were spilling blood on the sand and rocks. With everything that was happening, all I could think of was why I couldn't die here right now at this moment. 

Damnit James, get up, who's gonna take care of the kids back at the orphanage, of Julia? You need to move now! 

"James!" I heard Cherry cry out to me as she held onto me. Her tears fell on my face as I felt myself drift away. 

No, come on man, get a hold of yourself. You need to stay awake! Get up, get up, GET UP! 

"Cherry," I coughed out with blood coming out of my mouth. "Please tell Julia that I'm sorry." 

"James...JAMES!!" She tried to shake me, but it was pointless. I drew my last breath. I was dead. 

Before the dead can go to the heavens, they must first drift the nothingness that is known as the Void. Father Alric taught all of us how life and death worked. We first come from the Void and then are born. Then, when we die, we return to the Void before we go to the heavens. I drifted the nothing, staring up at nothing, and I felt nothing. If Abyss really exists, this must be it, because it's horrible. There was no concept of time here, so I didn't know how long I was drifting for. Maybe hours, days, years? 

So, I'm really dead...I wonder the kids at the orphanage are thinking right now? What might Julia and Father Alric be feeling right now? 

Tears ran down my face but even those I couldn't feel. This was truly what it feels like to feel nothing, and I hated it. 

Suddenly I heard the sound of a hammer hitting an object, and I started to look around. I saw, way off in the distance, someone chiseling at a stone. "Hey..." I called out to them, but they couldn't hear me. "Hey!" I tried again and this time they stopped chiseling at their stone. They turned their head towards me, but before I could see their face, a bright light came through and I was dragged away to where I could only assume was the heavens. For a moment, the light flashed and then it dissipated to reveal a room I was in. It felt cold, and I felt pain again. I couldn't help but laugh even through the pain. After feeling nothing, I knew where I was. Somehow, I was at the hospital. I fell from grace and returned to the land of the living. I was given a second chance, and I will not take my life for granted.