1 The Crystal

Alabaster sat on one of the few trees residing in front of his residence, silently contemplating his "home" and the lead up to the incident.

He was seventeen at the time, he been studying abroad in Beijing as a language student. He was fairly average, something he prized considering the issues and the peculiarities that tended to find him; the residence was one such peculiarity, it was almost flush to an alley - how he found and ended up in it even he didn't know - but this wasn't the strangest peculiarity, no, not at all, what was the most peculiar was a large crystalline rhombus jutting out of the foundations, maybe it was a jade? Alabaster didn't know, he was an MFL student for god's sake!

Realising he'd gone drastically off-topic, Alabaster climbed into his domicile and performed his nightly ritual, though generally bog-standard, he still had some strange habits, every night he would rub the crystal for good Fortune.

Rub, rub, rub. Suddenly, his hand ran over something sharp, something that hadn't been there before.

"Aargh", he leered back as a steady stream of blood leapt from his left hand onto the milky white crystal that was lodged into the wall. He fell to the ground, but the threads of blood were still stubbornly pulled away from him, the crystal acting as if it were a man trying to win a tug o' war. Eventually, the stream stopped, and Alabaster began pulling himself up using the makeshift wood bed to his side

*Ping*

A light appeared before his eyes

[Root Blood found, activating introduction protocol!]

In his torpor of blood loss, Alabaster merely looked around for the noise and grunted "Hu"

[Binding Root Crystal to Host]

[1% complete]

[10% complete]

[32% complete]

[65% complete]

[Binding complete]

[Releasing Sub-Crystals to the Earthen Realm of Earth]

With the final sentence's end, the noise of shattered glass resounded, and a shockwave echoed through the residence as the billions of clear crystals flew out like trained falcons, one by one. Except for a single blooded crystal gently floating in a newly formed crevice in the floor. In a daze, he outstretched his hand. Alabaster's crystal. This was his crystal, he simply knew.

*Shwuck*

[Entering Hall of Blood...]

The voice pierced his brain from the inside out, like words from a language unknown, yet familiar, appear in front of him. Suddenly, colours began warping and blending, blue then red then yellow and then, black.