Chapter 1 - Something otherworldly...

The bell rang. Clay stood up from his seat, the lecture was over. 'Finally' he thought to himself. The final lecture of the day had dragged on, at least to him. The students around him would probably stay behind to ask questions, but Clay wasn't really bothered. 'I don't even know how I ended up here…' Clay recalled, as he had many times before. He wasn't someone who studied incredibly hard but always managed to make it to the top of his subject, Law. Even throughout college, high school and primary school, his intelligence was always noted to be quite good. However, his feelings towards people were always stoic, people were just boring.

Soon, Clay snapped back to the reality around him. Without realising he'd arrived at the city centre, and to his surprise, he was alone. Looking around at the numerous shops around him, they were all empty. Coffee sat at Café tables, hot yet untouched. Clothes which had been picked from the orderly racks laid sprawling on the floor. 'What?' Clay was, for the first time in his life, bewildered. 'Where'd everyone go?' Clay could only continue to ponder, he would at least have seen some students from his university after all this was a popular meet up spot.

It didn't take long for Clay to notice smoke rising from behind a few of the shops. Without question, he darted towards the smoke. However, soon after turning the corner. 'Christ! A car crash?' Clay didn't hesitate, he ran straight towards the burning heaps of metal, expecting to see a dead body or two. But yet again to his shock, it was empty. Soon Clay realised this wasn't the only crash, he spotted another couple of burning collisions. It was at this point Clay's instincts kicked in. 'I should be careful, these cars are probably loaded with fuel…' from then on, Clay had avoided major roads. He'd set his goal. Get home as fast as possible. He sprinted towards his destination, along the way he saw what he could only describe as chaos, houses set on fire within seconds and he even saw a plane heading straight for the ground.

But finally, he'd reached home. Practically breaking open the front-gate and dashing towards the door, keys in hand. He opened it swiftly, and slammed it behind him. And finally. 'Quiet…' Clay couldn't hear a thing, the house was empty. And for the first time since going to university, Clay relaxed. It was then it hit him. He was alone, that could be the only answer. Cities laid devoid of human life. Emptiness surrounded him. For the first time, Clay felt lonely, he hadn't realised it. But living with people, being surrounded by people. He missed it.

'But there's no time to weep, what could've taken everyone?' At this point, Clay was relating it to the idea of a Rapture, spoken of only by the bible, He wasn't a god-fearing man, but couldn't argue that paranormal forces didn't exist. He decided now was a good time to sleep on it. As the house fell to the darkness, entombing it, Clay decided that he would entomb himself in his bed, slowly walking up the stairs towards his bedroom, he double-checked the house was empty, glancing to his sister's room and then his parent's room. Deciding not to think about it now, 'I'm just a little overwhelmed…' was the final thought as he quickly undressed and laid in bed closing his eyes.

He awoke laying still for a moment before yesterday's events hit him, millions upon millions of thoughts ran through his head. 'Just what could've caused this?' Clay found any logic to be utterly useless. Until finally. 'We missed one?' an authoritative voice had entered it's way into his head. Clay's eyes widened, he had heard another voice. 'Haha! I'm already going insane.' He thought to himself. Yet. 'Not yet you aren't. Just who are you? A demon? An Imposter?' The voice rang inside of his mind like church bells. Clay couldn't help but feel he was getting a headache from the voice simply speaking. 'What? I'm just a human, like I have been all these years!' Clay defended himself. 'No you aren't. You are almost certainly not human. But then what are you?' The voice almost demanded an answer.

But finally, Clay clicked, he could use this. 'So? I might not be human, but in order for you to find out, you must explain to me what is happening to this earth.' Clay's inner-thought voice had spoken with so much confidence, he'd almost convinced himself he wasn't human. 'He' the voice laughed. 'You have no idea?' It continued, 'Your companions are no longer on earth. They've been conscripted.' The voice answered. 'Conscripted where? And to who? A government?' Clay only asked more questions. He needed to know. 'Haha! A government? You think they could hold as much power as I?' The voice responded with a question of its own, one which needed no answer. 'Show yourself.' Clay had somehow diverted the attention of the entity to what was happening, he thought that if such an entity could speak seemingly telepathically it would also have a physical form of sorts. 'Fine, you look harmless.' The voice merely murmured the last part. Clay simply ignored it. Clay had managed to grab some clothes, grabbing a t-shirt and a pair of joggers.

Before Clay could even prepare for what he was about to see. A pair of white feathered wings appeared, closely followed by a blinding light and the sound of clashing rang through Clay's ears. However, it all stopped as quick as it happened. Clay witnessed the entity in front of him. 'No, it's better to call it Deity.' The seven foot tall figure with a pure silk white hood and golden plate-armour was what stood in front of him. A sword being brandished by the Deity it was incredibly detailed, with all the carvings and engravings. It also looked incredibly sharp Clay thought to himself.

Even with it just bearing a simple silk hood, the face was shrouded in darkness. "What are you?" Were the only words to escape Clay's mouth, his brain was currently melting. "Haha! You are the only being not to pray for forgiveness!" The Deity laughed, Clay was having a mental breakdown and the Deity simply laughed. "Unfortunately, since you weren't transported with the rest. You must die." What had seemed like a heavenly, eye-opening environment just a second ago had now felt very threatening and unnerving.

"What?" Clay's senses had finally kicked in. He'd just managed to grab the last part of the Deity's sentence. Within what felt like a second a sword flew straight past Clay's head and he had somehow ducked it. "Hm?" It seemed like even the Deity was confused, it continued to speak to itself. "No matter." As soon as it finished what seemed like ten swords had formed behind the Deity, each of the same quality the Deity was holding. Clay knew he had to do something, but he felt powerless as the almost god-like being stood before him. And by what almost felt like instinct he rushed towards the Deity. "An odd choice. But alas, die!" The Deity shouted with such a force Clay's ears almost burst. Despite that, Clay rushed towards the swords firing at him, and with mobility he didn't even think possible, he slipped through them, before finally slamming into the Deity.

Unfortunately for Clay, it had no visible effect, but unbeknownst to Clay. 'Just what happened? Did he just fucking dodge? DODGE?!' The Deity's inner-voice roared.

Clay only heard the Deity grunt in frustration, looking up towards the entity which was now inches away from him, he identified one thing, It was pissed. "Die insect!" The Deity roared, lifting it's original sword above Clay's head. The sword started glowing brighter than brighter by the second, soon Clay could only see the sword and finally it swung down upon him.

Finally cleaving the skull of the insect, blood spurred everywhere. 'I'm a lieutenant and I struggled so much with one pathetic being, I'm glad Gabriel wasn't here to witness that.' The lieutenant finished his thought, before opening a gate before him.

Clay could only hear, his vision was clouded in darkness. What he could hear exactly, was the whisper of something otherworldly… calling to him.

'You are not ready to face him' The voice seemed to echo, it was like a combination of four or five voices. 'Trust us, Clay. We can guide you…' Clay couldn't respond, his voice was nowhere to be found. He could feel his body slowly coming back to him, as if the voices granted him a body. Finally he nodded, still unable to sleep.

'You've made the right decision Clay, allow us to guide you…' The voices spoke gently, it was a huge contrast to the deity Clay had met merely moments ago. 'We will grant you our physic, our sight, our hearing and finally our voices.' The voices finally went quiet. Despite the voices fading, Clay could still feel their presence, this time however, instead of feeling it all around him, he felt them inside of him.

Soon, the darkness that surrounded him began to crack with light.