Chapter 1: Icarus and Gate
'Hello my dedicated fans! Welcome back to me creating stories in my mind! Today I'm especially bored so I'm thinking of making a new story. How does "Lucas joins a group of assassins that covers as a travelling circus" sound?'
As always, I was getting bored of listening to my teacher and was drifting off. Today is May 26th, 2021. Tomorrow is the last day of my senior year, and I don't have any exams so I'm just bored. I'm currently sitting through my mentor hour for Biology. I already did my AP tests for Lit, Calc, Chem, and Word History. Now my only class is my mentor hour, which is basically just me sitting in a chair and sometimes passing out papers or helping kids on tougher problems.
As always, I'm just sitting here making up stories in my head to stave off the boredom that follows me everywhere. Oh, I should introduce myself, probably. My name is Lucas Rockford, and I am an 18 year old white kid with black hair. I'm 5'8" and a little chubby, but my social anxiety and depression like to tell my that I'm fat. Most people would say that I'm pretty good looking, but not quite at handsome level. My hobbies are writing, playing video games, and reading. I used to say studying was on the list too, but I already took all of my AP tests so I'm not really doing much of that anymore.
Today is just another day of me drifting along the flow of time, waiting for another day to begin. After my finish my mentor hour I don't have another class so I just drive home and make lunch. While I'm making lunch my dogs will sit at the entrance to the kitchen because they know they aren't allowed inside. While I'm cooking I'll talk to them as a replacement for human contact. Everyone else who lives with me is either at school or work so I'm home alone with my dogs right now.
"God why is every day so boring! Can't I like, at least get a text or maybe have a mailwoman fall in love with me while delivering a package?"
At the sound of my voice my dogs will start wagging their tails, expecting a treat. When I sit down to eat today though, something odd does happen. A blue light fills the room and disappears just as quickly. I look around to see what just happened. While looking around puzzled, a Voice speaks directly into my mind.
'Congratulations Child of Humans! You are now capable of creating chains and barriers! With your new powers you must survive the training Dungeon'
Before I have a chance to respond, a red right fills my vision. As I rub my eyes and reopen them, I notice a change in scenery. I am now sitting in a cobblestone room lit only by blue torchlight with only one door. The door appears to be pure gold with two angels.
"Holy shit! Is this what I get for complaining about having a boring life?!? I wholeheartedly apologize Universe! I promise I'll be content with a boring life for now on!"
'The Universe is ignoring me I guess. Oh well, what is this? I'm in a stone room with only one door. All the light is torchlight. The torches are blue. Why are the torches blue? That doesn't matter. There are plenty of other, better questions. First of all, I should grab a torch and continue onto the next room. I won't learn anything sitting here.'
After surveying my surroundings a bit farther, I can't see anything else around, so it's time to grab a torch and continue forward. As I step towards the door, I see there aren't any handles.
"Well, this is an issue.... ummmm..... Open says-a-me?"
As I said that, the door opened.
"Holy shit! Am I magic or is this door? Either way, that's pretty cool."
Doing my best to not freak out and break into a full out panic, I continue onward making jokes to myself to cope with the situation. As I walk through the door, all I see is an identical room. mirrored. There are no doors here except for the one I just walked through. As I step through the door slams shut behind me. Every torch except for the one in my hand snuffs itself as a being made of shadows rises out of the ground. It grotesquely grows emerald green eyes and pearl white teeth as its head forms.
"Okay, what are you? Am I an anime protagonist now? Are you a God? Are you the World? The Universe? One? All? Is my Gate of Truth here?"
The being starts laughing in a childlike manner with as he begins talking to me.
"Close, I'm a servant to the 100. The 100 are the 100 strongest Deities, which I'm sure you can guess makes the origin of the name pretty obvious. Anyways, congrats on walking through that door. That door is a test of will. Everyone who walks through that door within a minute gets an amazing award, within five minutes gets a reward, and after five minutes gets to fight through a dungeon before receiving a minor reward. Since you walked through after 47 seconds, I get to give you a wonderful gift from my God, Asmodeus"
As he said that I felt extreme pain as tattoos carved themselves onto my body. My left eyes pupil became a crow with intestines in his beak. My right shoulder became blue tribal tattoos with light static radiating from it. As the pain began to subside after about two minutes I realized I was sitting on the floor with a crow and tiger cub watching me.
"Here's your prize kid, you get two familiars whom you get to share thoughts with and get to share powers with. Plus, you get to name them!"
"Oh, umm, okay, so, do I get my Gate of Truth still?"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! No! See ya kid!"
And just as he appeared, he left. He seeped into the floor as the eyes and teeth turned to dust. As I sat confused the tiger cub began to talk to me.
"Master, please name your two humble servants. I desire a name of my masters design."
"Oh, umm, okay, well I've been making jokes about the Gate of Truth and I'm too confused to think of much, so... ummm... does Gate work?"
"Of course Master! From this day forth I shall be known as Gate!"
The tiger cub began happily dancing around, and as he started repeating his new name over and over, the crow flew to my left shoulder and sat.
"Crow! You DARE touch our Master! You fly too close to the Sun you heathen!!!"
"Too close to the Sun? Heh, well it's good to meet you then Icarus"
"You too Master"