Moonlight Mirror

Chapter VI: Those Who Seek for Him (Part 1)

“Please uncle!” Neo pleaded, knocking at his uncle’s door. He has  been out in the cold trying to convince him to grant his yearly Christmas present, which is a tradition in the country. He kept knocking and calling out his name, but a couple of minutes later…

    “I knew it.” He sighed. “He’s no longer at home. Looks like I’m too late…again.”

    It was the afternoon of December 26. Flurries have started to fall through the whole city, which accumulated casually forming a thin layer of snow. It was nothing like the breezing blizzard in the second stage of Agartha, and that seems less likely to be recommended.  School’s over for the Christmas break, and everyone has started to wear their winter apparel.

    Neo escorted his bike away from his uncle’s porch and rode throughout the streets of the countryside. His mom allowed him to visit his uncle and stay there for a few days but it turns out he isn’t home, so he decided to go back. “Another broke Christmas for me.” He thought to himself. He was wearing a normal brown parka jacket with a blue shirt inside, paired with regular denim jeans and a pair of black winter boots.

    He unmounted  from his bike and stopped in front of a rail crossing when he heard the sound of a train coming. He waited patiently as he looks at the series of windows  passing by in front of him. Finally, he had a glance of the last car of the train. But before he could pass and ride again, something unusual caught his eyes.

    At the very far end of the car stands a man hanging on the side, his left hand holding to a handle. He had a strange distant glare at Neo. He wore long leather coat being blown by the wind, and grayish cluttered hair which made him look to be a man in his 40’s.

    The next thing happened so fast that Neo suddenly felt a chest breaking sensation crash into him. The man leaped off the train and tackled him, sending them both away 5 feet in the air before taking a good impact on the grass fields. Neo found himself in disadvantage, as the man quickly regained his balance and stood before him. Now that they are close to each other, Neo didn’t realize his smaller details— like his  hollow black eyes that look empty, a gaze that looked distant. It’s brown formal pants was badly distressed, and it was murmuring inarticulate words. Behind all of these unnatural anomaly, Neo became certain that he is absolutely a malevolent.

    Neo reached for his pockets to grab the mirror—but in an unexpected turn of events— it wasn’t there. He groped both of his pockets and still cannot find it. Without it, he is practically at risk.

    The malevolent’s hands shook uncontrollably and as follows its skin melted ice. Mixed trails of pallid and bloody red goo drifted off, only to reveal a pair of spiral, black, skeletal drills. It had a unique pattern put into it. Nonetheless, it still looks deadly. “Give me…” It said with a little difficulty while point at Neo’s chest, drills starting to spin. “That…”

    And then a sudden thought hit Neo.

    Malevolents are hunting him. They all have something in common, and that is to retrieve the Eternal Struggle, the curse affixed into Neo’s soul. But one thing put him into confusion…How did they manage to get in the real world?

    “I said…” It said forcefully. “Give me that!” It raised its right drill and burrowed it towards its chest, but Neo rolled sideways, leaving a hole on the ground. It caught up to him and drove its left drill towards him. He shifted left, and  it thrust its right drill—thus, he shifted right. The malevolent thrust its spinning drills left and right alternately at him and evaded them by shifting to the opposite side. It may sound easy, but it was gaining momentum—allowing its attacks to become faster and faster. Neo’s action varied directly and quickly evaded each attack, but this just made him to also quickly lose his energy. He is once again put into a situation where the opposite party continually strikes for him. Now he must think of a way to stop the streak.