The Story of Cassius Blake (TBATE)

The sirens blared, the TV continued the same message,"Take cover, brace for impact. God Help us." Over and over with the presidential seal taking up the middle of the screen along with the words 'EMERGENCY BROADCAST, THIS IS NOT A DRILL' right below it.

I was hugging my sister while we sat on the couch. Our parents had been away on a trip for their anniversary, so it had just been me and my sister at the house when this happened. No warning signs, everything had seemed normal. I'm sure our parents wouldn't have left out of state had they known literal nuclear missles would be launched at our country.

"Cass, what do we do?" My sister Sara asked, tears filling her eyes. I'm sure I had tears in my eyes too, but I couldn't feel them. I just felt numb. I was only 17 for fucks sake. What do you do during a nuclear threat? We lived on a farm, 30 minutes from the closest neighbor, and nearly an hour from town. And the town just had a truck stop, a barbershop and a small grocery store.

The best we had was a storm shelter, but it had flooded just a couple weeks ago and dad hadn't had the chance to get someone down here to fix it.

I just hugged Sara tighter, as the sounds melded together. Her body shuddered against mine as she began sobbing. I couldn't blame her, she was only 13. I was thinking how this could happen to me, but I at least had made it to 17… She was still so young. I closed my eyes as well.

Moments passed and soon I realized I couldn't feel Sara in my arms anymore. Alarm surged through me as my eyes shot open, but instead of our old farmhouse I was met with an open field. The field was just green grass for as far as the eye could see except for a lone desk where a young woman sat.

"Where- where am I? Where is Sara?!" I jumped to my feet looking all around, but every direction was endless grass. I had dreamed about such a landscape before. Before it had brought me peace, but now it only filled me with anxiety as I had no clue where to go to get to my sister. Where had the farmhouse gone? Why was I here? Was I…?

"Yes." The voice was smooth like velvet, an aged tonation that contrasted her youthful appearance.

"Yes what?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yes you have passed on. You, Cassius Blake have died." She stated as if we were talking about the weather. I had expected to be shocked, or anything besides calm at such news. But my previous anxiety seemed to flow out of me and a chair appeared where their previously hadn't been. She's gestured towards the seat across from her and I slowly sat in it, staring at her as she watched me.

"Good. Now we can began. Cassius your soul has been selected to be apart of the Mass Soul Exchange Program." She said with a smile. She preempted my question and continued.

"It's just as it sounds, souls get exchanged on a massive scale. I don't oversee your previous world, but from my understanding it seems that another one of your world wars has occurred. Not to be insensitive but this is good for everyone! When enough souls die at once us Overseers come together and exchanged the souls of the fallen with each other." She paused as I followed along before continuing once more.

"You might be wondering why I'm telling you this. After all normally you wouldn't even remember your previous life. Well that's because the place I oversee is a little different than where you came from. I like to have a more hands on approach to my worlds and that means picking souls that I think can do what I need them to do, and you're just one such soul!

You see there is a soul on this world I'm sending you to that is messing with things he should not. Pulling souls from other worlds, and I can't have that. I'm sure you're also wondering why this should be your responsibility and don't worry I added the perfect motivator. Your sister Sara will also be reborn in this world! Though you will have to find her, after all you might not do as I wish if you were with her right from the get go. Yes I learned from that mistake.

I'm sure this is all very confusing and you might not believe me, but think about. Think of all the fantastic worlds people from your world created in books and various other media. You think you silly souls could come up with such things on your own? Haha no. Their souls just carried over bit of their memory from their previous world and wrote about them.

It's the same with people that become furries, they were actually beast men/people in their previous world. Transgender is from people who were that gender in their previous world. The souls are supposed to be blank slates each time, but some Overseers get lazy or just don't care and that's why your world was over run with mental health issues. Did you know that your Overseer has the same amount of suicides as every other Overseer combined? You should be thanking me honestly." She finally finished her rambling and I found myself reeling with the information.

"Alright enough talk, bye bye Cassius Blake. Make sure not to disappoint me, who know what will happen to your sister if you don't stop Agrona. Oops, I wasn't supposed to reveal his name, oh well." She grinned, the grin completely different from the pristine and nearly angelic face she had had the entire time. It was almost devilish, enough to make me shudder and in the span it took me to blink I found myself no longer in the endless field.

The first thing I noticed was the blue sky and the edges of trees, broken wood also took up my vision. I tried turning my head to follow it but was met with something preventing me from turning. It was a blanket, a soft blue blanket surrounded me on all sides.

Next thing was the smell, I had lived on a farm so I knew the smell of blood, and this area was thick with it. I struggled with my arms and legs eventually pushing the blanket off of me. Everything seemed bigger and I couldn't help but wonder if the Overseer had dropped me off into a world of giants.

When I stood however I had to hold back my vomit as I took in the sight of dead bodies littering the ground with blood pooling around them and together. I had been inside a practically destroyed wagon, that creaked and groaned before giving way when I moved to one side.

It had been so damaged that my movement had collapsed the last of what had been keeping it up. The unexpected motion caused me to tip and lose my balance, tumbling out of the cart into the mud. I got to my hands and knees and tried to wipe the mud off my face, but I froze when I realized it wasn't mud. At least not normal mud made by water, no this dirt had been watered with blood.

I retched into the bloody mud and scooted back on hands and butt, eventually hitting the wagon again. I reached around for the blue blanket and quickly wiped my face. When I could finally see, I stared at the body where I had fallen near. It was a man in leather armor, an empty quiver across his back and shocked expression on his face.

It was hard to tell which wound had killed him due to there being so many. I got back into the wrecked wagon to get away from the bodies and blood. Finally looking down at my own body I realized these people weren't giants but I was small. I was younger. I no longer had the strong body from working on the farm, I was in a small weak body of child. One even younger than my sister, by my guess only 5 or 6.

I was dressed in a simple shirt and pants, small leather boots on my feet. Every piece of my clothing was stained with blood from my fall. I searched the wagon and found a small bag that had clothes for my size. It seemed that the owner of this body had been traveling somewhere, but as for who his parents were I couldn't be sure.

I looked for the cleanest way off the wagon and growled in annoyance that the other side had been completely spared of the blood bath that made up the other side. There was also a small brook running alongside the dirt trail.

Grabbing the bag of clothes I hurried to the stream and disrobed. Only wondering for a moment whether I should be worried if whatever had attacked would be back. I shrugged the thought off with my clothes and slipped into the stream, finding it came up to my waist.

Quickly scrubbing the blood from my body and clothes I set them out to dry on the grassy bank. Thankful for pleasant heat of the sun fighting the chill of cold water. Once I had dried off enough I looked through the bag and grabbed out suitable clothing, and came across a small piece of paper.

"Only you are able to read this letter. Once read it will disappear so commit it to memory and heart.

Cassius Blake, you have been tasked with a nearly impossible objective. Though the Overseer is not as all powerful as she led you to believe. While Agrona is not blameless, he is not the only one deserving of punishment. The Indrath clan is also deserving.

I know these names will mean nothing to you, just know that unless you surpass the strength of a white core mage, you will never truly be able to fight these beings.

I cannot incite the drive for you to grow stronger and neither can I tell you that you will ever reach that point. However I can help you. Focus on your left bicep, focus your will upon it. This body has had its core forcibly awakened, this is a boon that you do not realize yet. The core allows mana to flow through your body. Find that flow and focus it on your arm.

Once you do, something we call Runes, will appear. It is a spatial rune that can hold items, it currently holds a sword that will grow with you. Only needing mana to be repaired. Once you take it out it will link with your core.

I'm sorry I cannot tell you more. Good luck Cassius Blake. Be wary of the Asuras. Wary of the Indrath clan and prepare yourself for the coming war. You have 10 years."

As I read the last word the paper flashed and by the time I finished blinking it was already gone. I had now lost count how many times I had been left reeling at new information. Just who was it that sent me that paper? Why did they expect me to fight all these people? What is a white core mage? What are Asuras and clans? What the fuck is going on here?!

All the emotions finally caught up to me and i collapsed back on to the ground staring up at the cloudless sky. I couldn't stop the tears from falling as my heart ached. I was just a normal high school kid, just what was I supposed to do in a world that supposedly had people pulling souls from other worlds? How was I supposed to find my sister?