Modern Paladin

His mind drifted into the sea, body slumped on a small row boat. The currents of the water carresses his hands as he relaxed his body over the edge of the small boat.

The blue skies was all he saw, gazing away endlessly the blue clear sky.

He raised one hand and pushed on it to raise his body to see his surroundings. All he saw was a cloaked man handling the rows of the boat, slowly paddling away into the distance.

The sight would've surprised him but nothing could be felt at the moment, he silently passed it off and continued to lay down. The skies were much different when he first saw them, small clouds numbered the area, each in all strange shapes in a pattern that couldn't be described.

It gave a warm feeling over his body as he observed further.

The clouds were clear and the change of time was imminent, slowly getting darker as the trip goes. The clouds did not mind and continued their erratic movements. The world was revolving the whole instance as he watched silently.

The cloaked man seem to grin and chuckled at the scene.

"Welcome to the edge of the world. Enjoy your stay, and don't forget...."

"███ ███ █ █████████. █████ ███ █████, ███ ████ ███ █████."

"Farewell, your journey might be long, but move forth."

Them an mumbled words but the sound was of silence, he tried to make sense of the utter silence but after listening to his farewell, his vision slowly went astray. As he lost his senses and his eyes were about to glimpse into something unknown, the man spoke once more.

"Godspeed."

All went blank and the world engulfed him into uncertainty.

-

"Ugh...My head.."

He awoke from an aching pain as if he was facing the aftermath of a drunken stupor.

"Where am I?"

No one answered his question as he regained his vision. The ceiling of wooden planks stared back at him as he used his arm to stand up.

It was an open area with an enclosed garden. white coarse sand was in the middle, unscathed of human touch. The natural beauty of it was mellow but as one could feel that the pattern would be ruined if they were to touch it.

Bamboos numbered the area along with a small sakura tree overlooked a small hill it was grounded on.

A pond with two koi fish swimmed in unison to form strange patterns of the trail of displaced water.

A small sculpture of what seems to be from the renaissance period of the depiction of angelic beings was near the pond, standing over the small body of water where these two fishes swim onwards.

A simple clock illuminated the sky in a strange manner, though it was bright, the clock ignored any laws of nature and stood hanging.

The hands read 11:59 with the fingers slowly crossing clockwise to the 12.

After finding out about the clock, he checked his surroundings to see four others in different locations of one another.

One was sitting on the steps towards the enclosed garden, meeting the gaze of one another. After realizing their eyes met, the man watched with full intent of what he was gonna do. He had rather long hair that stood up with some gel or if he just woke up with it, his clothes were very simple with a coat along with a button-up and a pair of black jeans. His short black hair appeared to have some highlights with a bright yellow. He seemed to be a leader type in terms of stereotypes.

He checked the other as well, a man whose messy hair covered his body, he had quite a large sturdy body though his height could be a bit more taller. His eyes were closed as he leaned against the columns placed along the walls to support the wooden ceiling. His black messy hair covered most of his left eye along with a simple t-shirt and jeans. He looked very closed with his personal life and very hard to keep a conversation with.

Another was sitting with his legs and arms crossed. He had deep defined eyebrows which curved naturally to form his face. His eyes were closed but from the contortion of his facial structure, he did not look awfully happy with the events going on. His eyes opened to catch his eyes.

"Oi! Who're ya lookin at?"

He dragged on some of the pronounciations and his language wasn't properly taught. When he said those words, his unbuttoned dress shirt with formal pants showed. He looked like a typical gangster who seemed to have some time in the underground society, simple black leather shoes and a watch was on his wrist which showed his social standings to the rest.

The last of the four was a different scene than the rest. A girl in a fetal position was to his right. If she wasn't weeping silently, he probably wouldn't have noticed her. She was also in a school uniform, preferably a highschool uniform with a long skirt and a ribbon over a coat. Her long black hair covered the most of her face and her fetal position also acted to cover it. She would tremble at times with each cry.

He wanted to walk towards the girl to see what was wrong, something like a parental instinct or to that level.

But the ticking of the arm of the clock finally landed on 12, in a slow movement, all hands of the clock were on 12.

The sounds of the clock approached their ears as he heard the symphony of a gong playing monotonous manner.

After stopping, the ground started to shake, all were in full attention to what was gonna happen. The tremble was kept to a minimal but the statue moved much more violently than the ground that they were on.

The movements were so strong that cracks started forming all around, slowly building up as time goes on.

As minutes go by, the cracks fully developed over the entirety of the statue and all eyes were on it.

-Crack-

The statue couldn't handle the force anymore but instead of the natural crumbling of a statue, small pieces of skin was formed from the cracks, similar to that of an egg shell.

The shells soon call came off and out was a flesh colored child, which appearance was more on the younger side. If not for his crystalline clear eyes, he would pass off as any ordinary toddler.

A small sizzling was heard as small wings popped out of his back. Slowly hovering over the floor, getting the hang of flight.

After stabilizing, it finally took notice of its surrounding. The giggles of a newborn was heard but it was also in monotone as the clock was as well.

"Welcome'th to the Trial, the sooth awaits"

The words came out the child's mouth, the tone was off by mile and sounded strange. Unknowing if it were the sound of a newborn's cry or a cry of an elderly. It was void of all common sense.

And that was when everyone began to react differently to the flying child with white feathered wings.