Apocalypse rerun pt1

While he waited for Lucy to appear Jason decided to have a look around the, now abandoned, makeshift base that, while it didn't come off as a beacon of activity, didn't seem like it would fall overnight.

There were no signs of a struggle, nor a mad dash to leave the premises, all of the doors were in pristine condition, albeit swinging wide open. Food was littered all over and mugs whose contents still occupied that circular space, the heat long gone.

`Why's it colder now than it was at night hours ago, I might freeze to death at this rate.` Jason relented on investigating the scene so that he could huddle himself in a corner, his breath making its presence visible.

"Hey Runney, why's it colder?" He asked through chattering teeth that made his words nearly unintelligible.

"It's because the world itself is dying, tomorrow it will be even colder, and eventually all life will cease to be."

`What a depressing thought, but does it really have to get this cold 1 day after.` His face felt cold enough to start forming icicles along his eyebrows and nose.

"So how long would you say this world has till its death?" Jason's question echoed throughout the surrounding area as he covered his mouth with his hands, he had spoken much louder than he had wanted to.

"It will last until the last human dies, souls keep worlds together so when there aren't any left they start to crumble and decay." Runney sounded almost sentimental as if he was recounting from his personal experiences.

Jason had no time to pick up on that as he listened out for any sounds coming up the stairway that would indicate a horde.

Several tense seconds went by with no activity being audible or visible, just a somber quietude that permeated the dead landscape.

*THNK*

The sudden noise caused Jason to flinch and involuntarily raise his fists which would do very little against whatever was out there, dead or alive.

"Calm down, it's just me, we agreed to come back together, remember?" A soft voice that he recognised instantly spoke to him from just out of his view.

Lucy stood towering above him in a parka dress that came down to her knees and sneakers that glowed as if they had been transplanted with RGB lighting on the rims and laces.

Jason stared at her slackjawed as she went through the same process that he had of checking the surroundings for evidence as to what happened.

"There were people here earlier today, right? So why is it completely abandoned, and why is it so damn cold?" She held her arms tight around herself which gave the impression that she was hugging herself.

"There were definitely people here, and apparently the world's dying because of a lack of souls to keep it running, and before you ask, I don't know anything more than that." He shrugged off her comment as she was opening her mouth to speak leaving her wordless as she came up with something to say.

"There's not much more to add to be honest, although I would advise you both to be more cautious as other people will have started to join up by now, but the loot is better to compensate." Runney spoke those last words before becoming a text screen again, this time of his own free will.

"Do you think that people would actually kill each other over this, I mean sure you can get rich, but other than that there doesn't seem to be any other reason to be sadistic." Lucy asked while she walked towards the stairwell preparing to make her descent down.

Jason got up and followed her, the chill of the air biting into his limbs more ferociously than ever, "With what I know about humanity, I wouldn't put it past people to get a kick out of killing others, though there's nothing to say that if you die here you'll die back home."

Lucy had vanished from his view as she shouted from a few floors below him, "While it may be true that dying here doesn't hold any real-world consequences, I have this feeling in my gut telling me that death is permanent, no matter where it happens." 

*Tk Tk Tk*

Both of them stayed silent for a few more levels, Lucy having stood still to let Jason catch up to her, "Why don't we try checking a few of these office blocks for items, we might as well while we're here." Jason broke the silence, having found it nigh-on unbearable.

He gestured towards the floor that they had come across which seemed more like a file storage room than a typical office block, papers were stacked precariously to twice Jason's size in height, many of the stacks having been knocked over by activity either in or on the floors around the room.

"I don't know what you think we'll find rummaging through so many files, but if you do it I can't really say no." 

"Well then Lucy, follow the leader." 

He walked into the room with little caution about what could be awaiting him in the corners or what could be hidden behind one of the plentitudes of walls that dissected the room into three pieces, each holding its own colour palette, from the drab yellow of the room that they were currently in, to the punk red of the room to the left, and the dull purple of the room to their right.

A quick scan of the space in front of him revealed to Jason that there was nothing of note to be found, there were no chests nor those bright pillars of light and as such he spent very little time searching before he moved onto the punk-red room on the right.

"What do you want to do here, do you want to be cautious and stick together, or do we save time and both take a different room?"

Lucy thought about it before responding, "I think we can afford to be a little reckless for now, but if anything shows up give me a call and I'll do the same."

He started his search off by knocking down all of the columns of files to the ground to see if they formed an outline or if anything was hidden behind them, which both to his relief and frustration, nothing showed up.

`And here I was getting my hopes up...well they can't all be winners, there's plenty of time anyway.`

A few more minutes of his time went by before he finally decided to call it quits after not finding anything of use.

That was when something small and brown caught his eye under the piles of paper rubble that surrounded everything, it was large enough to hold something like a knife in, but too small for much else.

When he picked it up it took up one and a half of his hands, its smooth surface and cold metal finish around the rim giving it an almost fantasy-like look.

`Please let it be something good, I know my luck isn't great but please, let it be for once.` Jason silently pleaded in his head as he slowly opened the chest, its cold feeling numbing his hands, his stomach being filled with butterflies in anticipation for what was about to be his.

As he fully opened the lid he gazed his eyes upon two blackened daggers that mirrored his image back at him, their blades were slightly curved and serrated, the handles made of rope wrapped around a glowing stone that peeked out in the middle as an added flair.

`Never again will I call myself unlucky, they're beautiful." Jason was immediately smitten and couldn't wait for even a second to pick them out of their current resting place, striking several poses that he hoped would never be seen by anyone else.

As he went to place them in his pockets he felt them disappear from existence, his heart sank as he frantically looked around for them, having no hope because of the mountains upon mountains of paper smothering the floor in their snow-white image.

"Relax, they've just been stored in your inventory is all." Runney re-materialised himself in front of Jason who was searching through layers of paper with all of his might to reclaim what he had unboxed.

"I hope you're right about that 'cause for some reason I've already become attached to those blades, and I'm not even a weapons expert or enthusiast."

Runney had already turned back into a screen leaving Jason talking to the air. The first thing he did when he realised was to check his inventory which displayed the dark-as-night daggers prominently as his only item. He tapped on the icon to try and re-equip them but instead, an info box popped up describing what they were and the ability that they stored.

Blades of the dark moon:

Shadow slash - consecutive slashes with both blades will leave a hollowed-out space instead of a wound that can not be healed by conventional means.

Dark-stalker - Allows the user to teleport short distances using the power of shadows and the dark (Not possible in light conditions e.g Daylight, Torches, Street lights.

Stolen from the moon goddess of Polra these blades have been used for generations by assassins famous across dimensions for their efficacy and danger.

Jason couldn't stop the grin forming on his face as his childhood delusions of becoming a figure from the shadows that came in unannounced, kicked arse, and then left started to seem more like they could become reality.