YUUKI - To Move Forward: Prelude 1

Log #76: Kingdoms

Slayers are generally the most aggressive and active of the three Warrior Classes. Unlike Guardians, who seldom leave the Barricade, Slayers practically live in the hostile world beyond the kingdoms. It is not rare for parties of Slayers to remain outside for weeks to months at a time. In order to expand human territory, The ESF scouts new terrain, then Slayers repeatedly clear the area out until it becomes a safe zone for humans to claim. A Slayer’s other primary job is to clear out routes between kingdoms, whether it is to a new kingdom or a new road between two older ones. Their job may not be the hardest, but it is undoubtedly the most time-investing, and they are known for slaying the most amount of monsters out of the three Warrior Classes, hence their name. In summary, Slayers kill the most monsters, pave roads and areas for humanity, and wield only their personalized weapons; a job only for the strong-willed and the sturdiest of people.

-General Elvira Ramos

490 BPE

Newspapers: the pinnacle of our current society’s information distributors. How depressing and utterly convenient that not a single computer-building whiz survived the apocalypse, and now we were stuck with unreliable, biased, flimsy articles of paper to digest breaking new across the Four Kingdoms. That, and the television broadcasts.

That was biased too, of course.

I sighed deeply, letting the air rush out of my lungs, only to break momentarily to refill them to my heart’s content. Breathing was quite the pleasure, but eventually everyone learned to either take it completely for granted or forget about the motion entirely until it is stolen from them. Only is it when humans lose what they have grown accustomed to that they realize how precious a thing it was. The whole thought was almost hysterical, but I was a bit too drowsy to laugh. Not out loud, at least. On a less depressing note, the weekend had finally reared its gifted head towards the children of Arcos, and I was more than relieved to spend a few days alone at home.

Alone, right where I belonged.

And whose fault is that? Pathetic little traitor.

Whenever I was alone, I would find myself thinking about my life in Devarden. Arcos was a fine school, and a grand academy. I had enjoyed every hour I spent there, and the establishment had yet to bore or disappoint me.

Even still.

Past every exciting day, past every relaxing conversation, past every delightful neighbor, I was still alone. In the end, despite everything I had accomplished, my heart was never content. I woke each day alone, practiced each morning and evening alone, and drifted off to sleep alone. No matter how much how many people liked me, I was alone. The loneliness wasn’t a bother, after all, I had accepted it long ago. But it nevertheless left a gap in my life, something that I doubted would ever change. Kazu undoubtedly felt it, since he always seemed to see right through my smile. It was only out of respect and sympathy for me that he refused to broach the subject.

That’s what I believed, anyway.

I got up from the bench at the train station, and positioned my body in the opposite direction of the tracks, an object I had probably been blindly gazing at for hours. Each rail was slightly different; each had an immeasurably different amount of rust when compared to its neighbor. Each shook with an insignificantly different force, and each carried the train above with a nearly identical manner to the next. As a result, each were regarded as exact replicas to the others, and each were judged by the rails as a whole.

“Majority rules, huh.”

The words escaped my thoughts before I could catch them. Words my mother spoke often, spiteful and full of disgust. “Majority Defines the Masses” was her slogan, and it was one I was far from willing to inherit. Just the thought of Mom made my lips purse reflexively.

Zhihao didn’t support her, either. Just look at what happened to him.

Before I knew it, my legs had carried me out of the station, and were now strolling beside a road that cut through a beautiful, tiny prairie. A car flew by; I jumped at the sudden sound of the machine that had somehow travelled all the way into the era of extinction. Technology that had slipped by Shade and found use in the remains of humanity were all but random, the evidence being the lack of computers with the presence of solar-powered cars. Well, that’s what everyone was led to believe.

When my mind had returned to the world around me, I was walking past the massive gateway that welcomed all humans in Devarden to the city that cradled the well-known and well-loved Sentinal and Arcos Academies. The billboard on the gate read “团结“, or Tuánjié, which in Chinese meant “Unity”. It was a good name for Devarden’s capital city, and the citizens within its gate truly represented it well.

On the outside, at least.

It wasn’t hard to get through the gate, since all the guards needed to do was make sure that the person was human. After that, the gate was opened, and I entered Tuánjié, to return home I suppose.

Do you seriously call that home?

The sun was high in the sky, and the buildings were illuminated with a brilliant haze of mingled sunlight and pollution. It was a beautiful and depressing sight, being able to view the serenity of nature’s light in terrible harmony with mankind’s murderous smoke. Tuánjié was far from the most polluted city on Chorus, but it was even farther from being the least. Devarden, on the other hand, dwarfed the other kingdoms in terms of pollution.

Maybe it was time for another breach...

I shook my head at the terrible thought, increasing my pace.

I strolled deeper into the city, aimless muscles flexing and relaxing to carry me forth to whatever awaited me in the near future. It was nice, having the ability to free-roam all day, and the clear, sunny sky in today’s forecast was an extra gift to improve the mood of the entire situation. All too suddenly, a phone call shook me from my land of dreams.

“Alison? Hey, Alison?! You there?”

The tone of his voice was curious; why would he sound so distressed on such a perfectly polluted, sunny day? “Yeah, it’s me. What’s up, Alex? And why isn’t Tyler yanking the phone out of your grasp to scream ‘SUP ALI HOW’S IT GOING?’ or something like that?”

“Well, let’s just say he isn’t here right now. We’ve kinda split up to get help, and I decided to give you a call to see if you were free to assist.”

It wasn’t like Alex to talk so fast, but overreacting couldn’t possibly make the situation better.

“Ah. What do you need help for? Did you set another project to self-destruct? I thought Kazu was in charge of making things not blow up?”

“W-Well, something did blow up, but it was certainly not a project of ours. In fact, our friend Kazuki here is fairly devastated on what is currently engulfed in a raging inferno.” He finished that last remark hesitantly, slowing his speech to add emphasis.

It was serious.

“Where is it? I’m completely free, and I’m always happy to help Kazu.” The second he told me what was burning down, my pace rose from a stroll to a sprint. He gratefully complied with my request to fill me in on the way.

“So yeah, we don’t know a lot, but we do know that the flames won’t be extinguished by standard methods, and depriving them of oxygen doesn’t appear to work either. They’re definitely Elemental flames, most likely summoned by a magician of sorts.”

Magician was the title humans gave to those who harnessed the power of Elements, as opposed to simply fusing them with weapons. They used raw Elements in the field, which is usually as effective and reliable in disabling the opponent as it is the user. Magicians somehow projected Elements with an approximate 90% chance of success, an easy 50% higher chance than the average, untrained human. Some just call Elemental Fusion “magic”, since the term is not totally inaccurate and is much easier to say in casual conversation. Magic, after all, is simply science that humans have yet to understand. A perfect description of Elements.

As I left the main city, I saw what I had originally thought to be pollution from the buildings—clouds of smoke were billowing in the distance, and judging from what Alex had said, its origin was likely to be my destination. Before long, I was out of the city’s grasp and in a large field, an open land that separated Tuánjié from the smaller town of Zhōngchéng, our home. The biggest disadvantage to living in an outlying town, aside from the extensive trip to the city, was the land itself. It wasn’t exactly teeming with vicious Shade, but three Silverwolves in my path reminded me that it was no cakewalk, either. There was a safe pathway above me for those who didn’t mind the slower trip, but I was in a hurry.

The two on the sides leapt at me, and in one swift stroke I whipped out my baton and ducked under the advancing Shade. They barely managed to alter their courses to avoid colliding with one another, so I used that time to pierce the body of the left Shade, firing one round of my heavy bullets. The third Silverwolf also charged at me, but this one waited until the last second to kick off of the dirt, claws extended towards my chest. I stepped to the side, and impaled the other downed wolf while dodging the new assailant, sacrificing a bit of flesh where its claws grazed my arm. A few drops of blood stained the tall grass, and I winced. The Silverwolf recovered quickly, and we stood in a standoff.

The wolf circled around me multiple times before howling menacingly. It leaped suddenly, the surprise attack almost knocking me back. I sidestepped from the creature, and used my baton to increase the momentum it carried, launching it faster in the direction it had already chosen. Wasting no time, I followed it, and finished the Silverwolf with another bullet. I encountered a few more skirmishes similar to the first, but no other left any physical impression that they had existed. The only proof that the fights were not fantasy resided in my labored breaths and the bodies that littered the field.

Bodies that you stole the lives of. Since when did you started acting so human?

Silverwolves were all that I was forced to eliminate during my short journey, but they were certainly numerous. Not a single fight left me injured or overly exhausted, so I pressed on with the urgency of a desperate mother, cradling her child from the flames of abuse. In less than half an hour, I crossed into Zhōngchéng, and pungency of the smoke began to claw at my throat. An ambulance sprinted past me, so I decided to follow it in hopes that it would direct me to my destination. The vehicle wasn’t misleading; in less than five minutes I had the privilege of a front row seat of the merciless extermination of the Yuki household. It was painful to watch, yet the flames danced around each other so elegantly that it was almost mesmerizing to the point of hypnosis.

A hand on my shoulder returned my mind to reality, and I turned to see a firefighter shaking his head at the sight.

“Damn, I think this may be the first time in my job that I’ve seen one of these, but man does it not want to be extinguished! I’ve put in the order to summon Rei, but he’s one of those “fashionably late” fellas. I do hope that magician gets here in time, or else the only job we’ll have regarding this fire will be to clean up the rubble.”

I looked at the man with a bushy mustache and slight sideburns, and nodded in agreement. Reimund Zauberei was Zhōngchéng’s only local mage, and he certainly knew it. When it came to magic wielding, he knew full and well that he was the most convenient and professional magician throughout the city, so he made no special effort to be on time or do anything unnecessary that would result in more work.

“Hey, do you know if anyone is in there right now? I mean, normally you would have sent men in there to rescue any stragglers, but this isn’t a normal fire, right? You can’t just order men to rush into that magical inferno, can you?”

The firefighter leaned down to me, and responded soothingly, “Well, we have reason to believe that most of the inhabitants successfully evacuated before the inferno grew too unstable. Unfortunately, witnesses have noted that at least two people may very well be trapped in here, and regarding your latter questions, no, we can’t go on any rescue operation. Elemental flames are far too unpredictable and dangerous to willingly march into, at least until Rei gets here. Jeez, where is that damn slacker?” The captain muttered a few things under his breath, and strode away towards his crew.

At first, I couldn’t see anything but the flames and the destruction wrought by them in the inferno. As I gazed into the beautiful mess, however, I thought I saw a thing lying near a wall that appeared to have caved in recently. I slowly crept towards the blazing wreckage, careful not to get too close. When I was a couple of meters away, the thing had taken form, and I gasped, coughing out stray smoke. His lower body was buried in rubble, his face marked with ash, and a girl was cradled in unconscious arms. Ignoring my conscience warning me to keep my distance, I half-ran, half-stumbled down the slope to the boy, and immediately began thinking of some way to get Kazu and his sister out of that deathtrap.

One solution presented itself, and I grasped my baton, attempting to lever the crumbled stone and plastic off of his legs. No success rewarded my efforts, so I attempted to slash the larger chunks of the wall to smaller bits.

No avail. Then another thought came to mind. I picked up my phone, dialed a number, and waited for him to pick up.

The ringing lasted for a few seconds, until it was finally replaced with a man about my age. “Yo, what’s up? Who is this, exactly?”

“Hey, Matthew, it’s Alison. How far away from Zhōngchéng are you at the moment? I got a favor to ask of you. Or rather, your strength.”

A pause, then response, “Really? I’ll tell you a little secret: Boo!”

A cry escaped my lips, and I stumbled forwards off of my feet. Matthew must have crept up behind me while we were talking on the phone, most likely using the cover of the inferno to make his approach that much more dramatic. “Hey, Matt. I’ll save asking how you got here for later, but right now Kazu’s stuck in there. Do you think you could give him a little ‘lift’ like before?”

He surveyed the rubble that was piled on Kazu, and boasted, “Ha! Is that it? I figured I would have to charge into the heart of the inferno, heroically rescuing citizens in distress. This? This is nothin’.”

And with that remark, he strode over to the unconscious teenagers, and pulled out his weapon. A massive halberd that would take both hands for me to even lift was swung around with one arm as if it were a dagger. With one foul swoop, he knocked the majority of the collapsed wall away, and I leapt in, pulling the two out into the fresh air. He grinned at the “easy task”, and I thanked him appropriately. I soon had another excuse to offer my gratitude, as I realized that he was the only one who could carry both unconscious people to the firefighters. As we laid them onto stretchers, I took one last look at the crumbling structure.

The moment I did, the remainder of the house collapsed completely, leaving a heap of destruction and melted plastic.