Worlds

Darkness expanded in all directions, as it has always been doing, and will keep on doing, until the end of everything. Or, at least, that was the plan. At one point during this endless cycle of waiting, the dark plane had been found by a celestial being – or, as they prefer to refer to themselves, a Neverthall.

The Neverthalls are a prideful, arrogant species, who think of themselves as the prime of everything. They walk the line between life and death, which is a slim one, but they walk it as hard as they are allowed to. They're always on the lookout for Blanks – the dark plane that we had talked about earlier. They become the Gods of these Blanks, doing whatever they desire with them, and shaping them however they deem fit.

Some Neverthalls use smaller Blanks as simple homes, while some use the bigger ones as whole Clusters. A Cluster is, as the name suggests, a big cluster of Worlds, where each and every one lives out their own Path. Usually, two different Worlds from a Cluster never interact, not even once. Sure, someone might theorize about the existence of a parallel universe or something similar, but that's about as deep as it gets.

Unless their God gets slothful. Or worse, greedy.

You see, this Blank wasn't exactly a luxurious one. It was a medium sized one, perfect for one world. But that's it – just one. Yet, this Neverthall, blinded by what could only be described as fame and power amongst its species, failed to evaluate the Blank correctly. And so, it got to work. As there is no definition of time in a Blank, there's no way to pinpoint how much the Neverthall worked on it. All that matters is that at one point, it was done. Finally, its hard work payed off, and it watched from above as his Creations stood proud.

Yes. Creations.

Barely being able to fit in, there were two Worlds, both enclosed in their own little circles, each different in its own way. The first one was there as a guinea pig, testing everything that needed testing. The Neverthall threw anything it could come up with in there – from majestic, colossal creatures to incredibly small, floating, sparkling particles in the air.

It had even given most of these names. Dragons, Titans, Mana, Elixir – it was like the Neverthall was on a roll. And, once it had its fun testing, he got to work on something more... refined. A small world, where no such things as dragons, mana and whatnot existed. It was basic, simple, and to the point. Exactly as the Neverthall wanted from the very beginning.

As it watched from above, it decided to skip forwards slightly. It was growing bored, after all. With a wave of its hand, the two Worlds started spinning much faster, as time inside the circles was now going by at a faster rate. As it watched the two circles spin, the Neverthall had yet another brilliant idea. It had came up with names for the two Worlds. It raised its hand, slowly, and pointed at the simple World. Then, the Neverthall spoke, its sharp voice echoing through the whole Blank.

"Ye shall be Erdith."

Then, its hand and finger slowly drifted towards the guinea pig, as it spoke again, with the same raspy, sharp voice, "And ye... Uh... Ye can be Fendir, or... something..."

Erdith and Fendir. The two Worlds had finally gained their own names, and now, they were complete. Normally, that would've been the end of it. The Worlds would've went on, evolving as long as the Neverthall wished, and then ceasing to exist whenever the Neverthall got bored of them.

But... that wasn't the case for this Blank.

You see, the Blank did its best, holding onto two Worlds, at least at first. But even the finest of pots sometimes leak. The Neverthall noticed that Erdith, somewhere around their 67,129,288th year, began having memorials of... things that weren't supposed to exist.

At least for them.

Humongous flying creatures, amazing humans with magical capabilities, sea creatures that defied all laws of physics... It seems the Erdens had somehow started using those for their own amusement. So, the Neverthall sat and thought... How did Erdith get their hands on Fendir creatures...?! Surely, this must've been a coincidence... The imagination of Erdens – or, humans – knew no bounds, after all... Right?

But, no. No coincidence this big was just that, a coincidence. Something was going on, something that shouldn't have been. The Neverthall, now aware of this all, started frantically looking for its worst nightmare – a Fracture.

A Fracture is somewhat like a bridge between two Worlds of the same Blank. Though, bridge is putting it nicely. It is highly unstable, and never intended by a Neverthall. It is simply an error. The Neverthall, after circling around the Blank for a bit, finally found the Fracture, and it wasn't looking good. It was way bigger than it had anticipated. So big, even, that it had evolved past a Fracture.

Now, towering even above the Neverthall, was a Abomination. And it looked like the Neverthall's worst nightmare just got an update.

The two Worlds had fully merged by now, into one. And by merge, I mean they crashed into each other, creating big tears in the fabric of space that acted as portals between the two. The Neverthall watched this all unfold while still circling around the Abomination, its hands fluttering around it aimlessly. Eventually, it stopped, sighed, and slouched down on seemingly absolutely nothingness that acted as a chair.

Its raspy, sharp voice spoke up again, with a slightly annoyed tone, "I think I just... fucked up..."

Meanwhile, somewhere in Washington, Seattle, inside a small apartment sat a very scared looking man, shadowing over a small table. On the table sat a screen and a tablet of some sorts, alongside lots of papers with sketches on them. The man let out a humongous sigh, and slumped down on his cheap looking chair.

The man himself was quite short, sitting at a decent 5'7", and he had a pair of glasses on his face, slightly slipping off. He was wearing a random combination of clothes, that definitely didn't help his scruffy black hair or tired dark brown eyes. All of the papers on his desk were full of characters, weapons and what looked like rough sketches of different powers. The man ran his hands through his hair, exasperated, then moaned "What am I gonna dooo..." out into the empty apartment.

His head slowly tilted to the side, looking out the window at some birds passing by. He let out a sigh once again, annoyed, as his glasses did ended up slipping into the floor – but didn't break thanks to the carpet.

"My deadline's coming soon... And I haven't even started..."

The man kept staring out the window, trying to find more ideas for his – you guessed it – failing manhwa. The plot was apparently getting dry, and repetitive, which meant he wasn't getting as many views as he had hoped for.

"Nobody wants to read urban fantasy nowadays, everyone just wants the damn reincarnation stuff...! Urgh!"

The man kicked his desk in annoyance, and as he did, the whole apartment started shaking. He immediately reached for his glasses then quickly sat upright, frightened, "Woah, I didn't mean it! I'm sorry! I didn't know my kick was that powerful...!"

As soon as the shaking stopped, he looked around for a bit, putting them back on, "Earthquake...?" but he didn't see anything damaged, so he went right back to slouching on his chair, as if that hadn't happened.

"Freakin' earthquakes now, too... I shouldn't have taken that damn deal, who'd read something called The Gatelings anyw—"

Before he finished, now that he was once again looking out the window, he saw something in the distance. A small blue dot, somewhere in the sky, that suddenly expanded as a line all the way down to the ground.

"—ays! Eh... Wait, what's that...?"

The man got up from his chair and took a step closer to the window, before opening it and peeking his head out. The blue line in the sky suddenly started widening at the base, growing exponentially and rapidly.

"Woah...!"

Right in front of his eyes, it had evolved into a full on black – well, blue – hole. You couldn't see anything on the inside, except for a dark yet bright blue. The man's eyes widened, as he was staring into this blue abyss. His mouth was also hanging, as he exclaimed "Wait...! This is... This is...!"

In about two seconds flat, the man was gone from his window and out the door, with some dirty shoes on and a jacket that he picked up from somewhere on the floor. As he was dashing through the streets, he yelled out, "This is exactly what I needed! Fame and glory among the manhwa community, here I come!"

The big blue tear was so big that he could even see it from down in the streets, so he knew exactly where he was headed. Along the way he saw multiple panicked people, running in the opposite direction of his, but he couldn't care less. They weren't struggling artists, after all, they wouldn't get it! As the man jumped over some abandoned bicycle, he heard a sob somewhere to his right. He stopped in his tracks, and looked over at some trash bins.

"Is, uh... anyone there? Hello?"

Behind the trash bins came out a small, soft voice, "No! Go— Go away!"

Well, not his business, right? The man turned around and he wanted to run, but he heard another sob. He sighed, and faced the bins once again, "Hey, lady! Hiding won't do ya' any good, at least run!"

"Shu— Shut it, you suicidal dweeb! Leave me alone!"

The man could physically feel his anger level rising, but he took a deep breath. He took a step towards the trash bins, full of determination, "No! Listen here, and listen good!" then he took in another big breath, and shoved a bin aside, revealing the woman hiding behind it.

"You can't give up here! This isn't the end of your road, it's only an intersection! So get up, rev your engine, and floor it!"

The woman's eyes widened at the man's words, "You— You're right...! I have to, to... rev my engine...!"

The man stood proud, hands on his hips, looking out into the sky gloriously like he had just won some great duel against fifteen gladiators.

["Maaan, I sure am glad I watched that stupid race movie the other day... I don't have a driving license, I have to clue what the hell I just told this chick..."]

Though, it didn't matter much. The man, now done with his good deed of the day, turned around and started sprinting towards the blue tear in space. The woman, who apparently did not watch the movie and couldn't recognize the plagiarism, was still in awe because of the man's words, so she yelled out after him.

"Hey, wait...! I'm a journalist...! I— I wanna write an article on that thing!"

["Eh? So? Why're you telling me? Go write it..."]

The man slowed down, yet he didn't stop fully. He turned to her, running backwards, and yelled, "Err... Then follow me!"

["...Why did I even say that?"]

Now, the duo, which was officially recognized as {I Wasted My Twenties On A Bad Job} Team, was running in the city, after the tear. Somehow, along the way, more brave – or suicidal – people ended up joining them in the sprint towards the blue tear in space of doom. Or, as a random guy on the street yelled, "It's dem alien folk, I tell ye' bogus peopl'!"

Once they get closer, they could all feel the very ground below them rumbling slightly. Yet, they didn't pay mind, and kept running. Finally, after a long sprint, they arrived at the tear. The man puts his hands on his knees, panting, "Maybe I... Haah... don't do enough... Pfuu... exercise..."

When he looked up at his goal, his eyes widened. The tear was huge, and of a beautiful blue, almost mesmerizing him completely. He was so excited about it, he failed to see that it was pulsing, which caused the ground to shake.

The man turned around, at everyone that had joined him on this brave – again, suicidal – mission, and took a good look around. Among them were both young and old people, and even some kids. They were all talking among themselves and looking up at the tear too. He wasn't quite sure if he should say something or whatever, as their "leader," but he cleared his throat anyways, and spoke up.

"Uhm...!"

Silence followed, and all eyes were on him. His words got stuck in his throat, and he froze up.

["Is this a bad time to tell everyone I have stage fright..."]

"Let— Let's go...?"

Silence, again, for a few seconds. Then, a random kid in the crowd clapped, and soon everyone followed, clapping for the man.

["Wait, that... worked?"]

Proud of his victorious debut as a public speaker, he pointed towards the sky, then at the tear. Now, he started yelling, "Okay! Let's get famo—"

Right before he finished the sentence, the man felt a sharp pain going through his skull. His vision blurred and he stumbled backwards, but he soon stabilized himself. Holding his head because of the pain, his gaze bolted backwards, towards the tear. Once his eyes landed on it, they widened.

The man noticed that, ever so slightly, the tear was pulsing, and the pause between pulses was lowering by the second. His eyes lingered on it for a second, shocked, "Ah... Wait, didn't I... draw something like this once?"

His brain hadn't caught up to speed fully yet, so only bits and pieces of his own work flashed in his mind. Mere milliseconds passed, yet he clearly remembered how he once drew a manhwa with a similar beginning to this – a huge unusual thing appears, curious bystanders get to it faster than the proper authorities... and they die.

The man took a step back, yet by now, it was too late. The ground was violently shaking and the pulses turned to blinking. After taking yet another step back, he faced everyone and yelled as loud as his lungs let him, "Everyone, run aw—!"

Though, it was too late. The big tear right next to them blinked one last time, and a small eerie sound started playing, similar to that of someone flat lining. Once the sound stopped, the man turned to face the tear once again, with pure horror on his face.

Somewhere far away from all the chaos, atop a tall building stood a man, watching over what was happening. Once he saw a lot of blue dust kick up, alongside smoke and fire, he scoffed. The mysterious man gripped his swords' scabbard tighter, his teeth clenched tight, and jumped off the building. At the bottom, he landed on his feet perfectly, and started walking towards the blue smoke in the distance.

Back at what used to be the tear, everyone was on the ground, and sounds of hissing, grunting and coughing could be heard from all over. The man from earlier, the "leader," was the closest to the blast and got affected the most. He was on his back, coughing and gasping for air. His glasses had long flown away to God knows where, and he was slightly bleeding from his head.

["My... goddamn glasses..."]

When he finally caught his breath and the coughing stopped, he sloppily got up and looked around at his blurry surroundings. He couldn't make out much because of the smoke and lack of glasses, but he did see one thing that was pretty hard to miss – a huge rift, portal, gate, or whatever you wanna call it, right in the middle of the city, where the tear was.

The man coughed a few more times, and steadied his balance to the best of his abilities, standing upright, although barely. He noticed some blurry figures in the smoke, meaning more people started standing up – some even running away – and let out a sigh of relief.

Then, all of a sudden, a loud static noise hit his ears, full capacity. He quickly covered them and almost fell to his knees, but to no avail, as the sound didn't seem to stop. After a few seconds, the static noise slowly faded out, but not completely. It was now playing in his ears like a TV left on during the night, in the background. The man tried grabbing at his ears a bit, but it was still useless, as the sound didn't stop.

He let out an annoyed sigh, and once again steadied himself. His gaze looked up at the huge rift in front of him, peeking inside. Though, just as before, he saw nothing but the same bright yet dark blue. And then, just as he wanted to turn around, his instincts yelled at him not to. So he didn't. And then, he listened, closely. The static sound suddenly and unexpectedly faded completely, and he could hear something.

Footsteps, approaching from outside the fog.

["Shit."]

He didn't know why, but the man knew it wasn't anyone with their interest nor safety in mind. He could almost smell it – bloodlust. Though... not for him, or anyone present there. No, this bloodlust...

It was pointed towards the rift.

The footsteps were getting louder and louder, closer and closer. The man took a step back, unsure of who – or what – to expect.

Step, step, step.

Then, all of a sudden, right behind him, the rift started to shine and shake, and not slightly.

Step, step, step.

["Wha... Not now, are you kidding?!"]

Now, faced with threats from both sides, he didn't wanna be caught in the crossfire, so he quickly got out of the way, safely to the side. Out of the smoke emerged a tall, Asian man, with elegant black hair and deep black eyes. He was carrying a heavy-looking black long-sword, which was glowing a vigorous, unnatural blue.

Right in front of the tall man, the rift starts to spread open. More blue dust comes rushing out as it does, yet the tall man doesn't seem to mind. He simply unsheathes his sword, and swings it in front of him, the blue dust immediately dispersing as he does.

He sheathes it again and looks forwards, with an angry and disgusted expression on his face. Once the rift opens fully, not even a second later, a leg steps through it, onto their world. Then, another tall man emerges forwards, the owner of the leg. He had cyan hair, and bright blue eyes, the color of the ocean. He also carried around a sword at his hip, similar to the one of the man with black hair.

Right behind him followed two others – a small boy, with faded-yellow hair, carrying a staff, and a decently tall woman with blond hair and a bow on her back. Her ears were also a bit pointy. The man with black hair pointed his sword – which was still in the scabbard – at the man with blue hair. His eyes were still full of disgust, hatred, and a bit of uncertainty.

Nevertheless, he didn't back down, and kept his sword pointed at him. The man with blue hair finally got glimpse of the sword the man with black hair was pointing at him, and gasped.

"You...! How'd you get that...? And this world... Where are we?!"

He and the ones who followed behind him looked around, panicked. The short boy stuttered, "Wh— What is this, Ha— Haru...?!" The man with blue hair, apparently named Haru, quickly responded by shaking his head and sighing, "I don't know, Day..."

The woman with pointy ears scoffed at the two, "What're you on about? This is clearly... teleportation magic! That must be it!"

Haru wanted to respond, but he only got "Leaf, I didn't—" out before the man with black hair rested his sword on the ground by its tip, leaned over on it, and started clapping. As he did, he started snickering slightly. The snickering slowly turned into chuckling, then full on laughter. The man could barely control himself, and started holding his stomach with the hand that wasn't on the sword.

After a bit, he let out a huge "Haaahh..." as he calmed down and stopped laughing. He cleared his throat, and spoke up, "Welcome, all of you. Welcome to Earth! Long trip?"

The woman, apparently known as Leaf, hissed at the man, "Who the hell are you! What's a erdh?!"

The man corrected her with a disgusted face, "I said Earth, you halfling."

The woman, surprised, gasped "How did you—?!" but Haru cut her off.

"Hey. She asked you a question."

Then, he slowly unsheathed his sword, which was a dark and elegant blue. It also happened to have a blue aura around it. Haru spoke up again, annoyed, "Who are you?"

The man chuckled, "Hah?" and also unsheathed his sword. The two men were staring each other, eye to eye, as the man with black hair had a condescending smirk on his face and Haru was angry on Leaf's behalf.

"Answer me at once! Who are you, and what is your occupation?!"

The man pointed at himself, "Who, me? Wouldn't you like to know, traveler?"

"Fine! Then tell me where this is!"

The man with black hair took on a more dangerous stance, one battle-ready, and replied, the smirk never leaving his face, "I told you, Haruko Aratashi. Welcome to Earth."

Haruko took a step back, his stance faltering, "How does he..." but he quickly snapped out of it and fixed his footing. He took in a big breath, and readied his sword, "It seems... we have to cut you down."

The man laughed, "What, you and your little gang of losers? A half-elf, a kid who can only use Thunder magic, and a swordsman that refused training from his own father?"

Haruko yelled, "I do not know... why you know all of this! But I know one thing, and it's that I'll slay you!"

The man stopped laughing, and in an instant, appeared right before Haruko, slashing at him using both his sword and words, "We use the word 'kill' here, softie."

Haruko, barely dodging the slash just in time, jumped back to his party. He had a small cut on his cheek, that he wiped away using his hand. He let out a "Tch." and readied his stance again.

"Okay, show-off. I'll fight you."

The two men jumped at each other's throats, swinging their swords like there was no tomorrow. They both were equal in power, and sparks were flying everywhere when their swords clashed. Then, about fifty feet to the right, sat a very confused looking man, who was squinting like hell at what was happening in front of him.

["Shit... I heard people talking, but... I can't see 'em...!"]

He looked around on the floor, but he couldn't see his lost glasses. He sighed, and took another step back.

["They're talking about elves and magic and stuff... What are they, cosplayers? Those sparks don't look fake, though..."]

Suddenly, the swords clashed again, perfectly. A loud and elegant "Clang!" sound roared through the sky, and endless blue sparks flew out of the two swords. The sparks, though, didn't dissipate, and gently floated in the sky right above the two.

The man without his glasses, of course, didn't get to see much of it, anyways, but he got the general idea – it must've been a show of some kind. Surely, right?

["Ehh... I see! The tear and everything, it's probably some new boy bands' concert. Sheesh, they scared me... What was with that explosion at the start! That's gotta be a safety hazard! I'll go tell them how dangerous that is!"]

And so, he started making his way over to the group. Sparks were still flying around – normal ones this time around – and the two men that were fighting were still yelling. As he got closer, he started speaking, "Hey, guys, this ain't cool, okay... It's one thing to host a concert, and one thing to—"

Now, he wasn't nearsighted, so as he got closer, he could start seeing two men crazily swinging heavy metal swords at each other and jumping around.

"—have fuckin' sword fights in the middle of Seattle?! What the fu—!"

As he was speaking, a arrow flew by his head, barely missing him. The woman, Leaf, was the one who fired it, obviously, and hissed, "Hey, Haru. Looks like he's got companions too!"

"Is that an actual arrow?! What the hell is this! Were cosplayers always this intense?!"

As Leaf was preparing another arrow for her bow, the small boy, Day, stopped her, "Wait, Leaf! He's not with him!"

"Eh, he's not?"

"No, I used {Electrifying Background}... They've got no correlation..."

The elf sighed, "I wasted a good arrow on that, y'know..."

Now, the man still couldn't see at maximum capacity, so he wanted to get the hell away, but just couldn't. Sparks and loud metal sounds still played in the background, and he was scared shitless. He looked up, and saw that the blue sparks from earlier were still in the air, floating just above them all. Soon, Day looked up too, and gasped, his eyes widening.

"That's... mana?! From the swords...!"

The elf also looked up, shocked, "Wait, what? That man's got a Mana-Sword?!"

As the two argued, the man noticed... That mana cloud or whatever was getting... a bit too close for comfort? As he was trying to figure out if his eyes were just playing tricks on him, his head tilted to the side in confusion, he heard the boy yell, "Mister, watch out! All that mana...!"

["Eh? What about it?"]

Then, as he double checked, it looked a tiny bit bigger than before. Then bigger. Then a lot bigger.

"...Ah..."

The man tried to take a step back, but it was way too late. The mana crashed down on him, then kicked up in a huge blue dust cloud.

["I should've worn my contacts today..."]