1 Stranger
In the midst of a monsoon that poured down on the streets, a woman's heartbeat raced in tandem with her footsteps as she rushed at full speed through a labyrinth of dark alleys.
The glowing neon lights were her primary source of light, among the usual thundering that lit the sky every few seconds.
She was wearing a hoodie that covered her long, brown hair and a half-mask, only leaving her pearly, green eyes visible.
"Don't let her get away!" a man wearing a ski mask shouted from one of the alleys as dozens of others followed behind.
The woman jumped over a wall to an adjacent street, which was just as narrow as the one before, and kept running at full speed, hearing gunshots behind her that ricocheted from the walls.
["Turn left ahead."] A woman's voice chimed in the runaway's earpiece.
Just as she turned into a street filled with closed-off shops, the woman kept running while doing parkour to avoid the boxes obstructing her way. Still, her pursuers weren't giving up and kept shooting.
Suddenly, amid the chaos, the sky lit up for a moment with a purple light that startled everyone in the vicinity.
The runaway girl looked up and noticed a figure plummeting from the skies, crashing down in the narrow street right in between her and the gang pursuing her.
The thugs stood still momentarily as the dust and smoke settled, seeing the figure of a man standing up in the center who was disorientedly holding his head.
["Megan, who is that!?"] Asked the woman on the radio, who had been watching everything from a small camera encrusted on the runaway girl's jacket.
"I don't know…" Megan replied, detailing the mysterious man.
He had dark hair and foreboding red eyes, wearing nothing but baggy pants and a necklace that dangled on his bruised chest.
The man was quite tall, and his muscle structure made it seem like he had been working out his entire life, with a lean but defined body that was covered in old and new scars.
A drop of blood trailed down his temple while he scanned his surroundings, glancing at Megan to his left and the gang of thugs to his right.
Just as his gaze landed on the men, they felt a rush of fear in their bones that made them point their guns at him.
["Megan, get the hell out of there, now!"] The radio woman exclaimed, but Megan's body was frozen with unsettling fear and confusion.
The thugs, driven by adrenaline and terror, decided to shoot without warning as soon as the man lifted his arm and pointed his palm at them.
The first bullet of the dozen pierced through the stranger's hand into his right shoulder, causing a momentary wince on his face.
Before any other bullet could get to him, he uttered a single word, "Destro."
In an instant, a surge of an invisible force emanated from his pierced palm, and everything in front of the stranger imploded and disintegrated into thin air, leaving the narrow street like an empty canvas of destruction.
The gang members and the projectiles that traveled at him had evaporated from existence, along with twenty meters of asphalt that were now missing from the street and the facade of the walls and windows on the adjacent buildings.
"Cami… Did you see that?" Megan asked the woman on her earpiece with a confused tone and her eyes widened in shock.
The stranger grunted and lowered his arm, using his left hand to dig into his wound and remove the bullet from his right shoulder.
He squinted and looked at the projectile covered in his blood before dumping it on the floor and turning his head, seeing that Megan was still standing there.
The man took a step forward towards her, but his legs wavered momentarily, making him halt his movements and let out a tired sigh before plummeting face down on the floor.
["Megan, change of plans. Get that guy out of there and bring him here."] said the woman on her earpiece.
"I was already going to do that…" Megan replied indifferently.
____________________
After the stranger passed out, he reminisced about the moments before he found himself plummeting from the dark skies into the narrow alleys.
He was in the middle of a flaming battlefield with his three companions—a bronze-skinned elf with white hair wielding a staff and wearing an elegant robe that showcased her thighs; a bulky man wearing an armored harness and oversized shoulder pads, holding a massive axe behind his back; and a man fully clad in black leather armor, wearing a mask that left nothing but his eyes uncovered.
The party of four found themselves tired and wounded before a giant monster that was seemingly made of shadows, the evil god Zaratross, who had just killed and absorbed the power of his siblings to destroy the world of Terra.
The skies were lightning up with colorful lights shrouded by the smoke and ashes that rose from the battle, and as the party rushed toward their enemy, they were prepared to attack one last time.
"Soren!" the stranger shouted at the axe wielder, who skillfully avoided a meteor shower of attacks that landed around him as he approached the giant with inhumane speed.
"I got it!" the burly man yelled back, jumping high in the air with his superhuman ability and striking Zaratross in the chest with his axe.
Simultaneously, the black-armored man landed on the side of the monster's torso and using the two swords he was wilding in each hand, he stabbed the giant and slid down, leaving a massive wound.
"Sylas, step back!" the elf woman shouted at her dual-wielding friend.
After being struck by the two party members, Zaratross released a dark energy around his body that repelled the two melee warriors away from him, destroying part of their armor and making them crash with a force that shook the ground.
"Dante, I'll try to get his attention away from you. Get ready!" the elf exclaimed at the stranger as they were the last two standing.
She had used the time that Zaratross was busy fighting the two warriors to charge a powerful spell, gathering energy from the environment around her and her staff, which emanated a powerful and threatening aura.
However, as she released a massive blast of magical energy like a light beam, Zaratross extended his palm and covered his face from the spell, producing an explosion that caught the elf in its wake.
"Faelyn!" the man shouted with a worried tone, seeing his friend getting blasted away from her position.
"I have no choice…" the crimson-eyed man muttered to himself as a black and purple aura emanated from his body.
Using the last of his strength, the stranger launched himself at Zaratross, who tried to stop him with one hand but was pierced by the sheer force of the energy that covered his body.
As he landed on the giant's chest, black and purple lightning appeared around him, shocking the evil god and making him halt his movements.
"Dante, stop!" the elf woman shouted as she tried to stand up weakly.
"Don't do it. We haven't lost yet!" shouted the warrior, utterly covered in his blood.
"I'm sorry, Faelyn, Soren, Sylas…" the man muttered.
"Ultimate-Destro," he continued, generating a massive blast that resembled a black hole and disintegrated everything that came in contact with it.
In his last moment, the man found himself floating in a white, empty space, and when he opened his eyes, he saw a humanoid creature staring at him.
"Aamon?" he asked with confusion.
Aamon was known as the demon of life, and he was a beast who had the body of a wolf, the head of a night hawk, and the tail of a serpent. However, in his humanoid form, all he had was the tail, the fangs, and the black wings.
"Dante… Looks like you activated our contract…" Aamon said with a deep and unsettling voice.
"How? It should have been impossible to save me from that…" Dante commented, seemingly indifferent to his fate.
"It was difficult. I could only fulfill it thanks to the Celestial Alignment Convergence…" the demon explained.
During his encounter with Zaratross, the sky was lit up with colorful strands of glowing energy, a phenomenon that happened in his world every few decades.
"The convergence creates a bridge between realms. My only option to save you from certain death was to send you through it," Aamon continued.
"So, I'm alive?" Dante asked.
"Barely. Though you could say that the Dante who lived in Terra is dead…" Aamon replied.
The man shrugged and said that he didn't mind if his life ended there, as he believed he had died in the best way possible—saving his friends.
Nonetheless, the demon wouldn't break his contract.
"I've fulfilled my part of the deal…." he said, snapping his fingers and making him and the white space around them disappear.
In the blink of an eye, Dante found himself plummeting down from a dark and rainy sky into an unknown street, utterly dazed and confused.
