Dark Awakening

In the slums of great Griffon City, a boy of 5 foot, black hair, pale skin and caramel brown eyes could be seen dragging his bruised, limping body on the sidewalk,

In his right hand the prize he had fought so valiantly for, quite literally.

In the dirt, smoke and ruin filled slum, a good meal is worth fighting for and by good I mean relatively good.

After all, a dead rat is better than a hand full of worms, that is if your lucky to find them at all. They were after all a people favorite,

But not today, in the hands of the otherwise pitiful boy was a can of beans,

'Haha, so worth the trouble' the boy thought as a grin spread from ear to ear on his bruised and bloodied face, 'They should know that I am the king of the slums!' He screamed as he thought of the other people involved in the brawl but the exclamation was in his mind for if he said it out loud, he would find a knife lodged in him faster than he could blink.

After all, there were real slum kings as far as he knew.

BOOM!

A large bang sounded overhead causing the young man to look up and in his field of view was a human flying across the sky with breakneck speed,

"Sigh. I, Aildris Balvan, swear that one way or another, I will make humans and Akaldi alike fear my name," Aildris swore to himself.

Hmmmm

A humming sound started to resound around Aildris causing his eyes to widen, "I was just joking, I didn't mean it !!" He begged a mysterious force that in turn paid him no heed, he started to curse his luck under his breath as he picked himself up, the tattered clothes he wore worsening but he couldn't care less, his muscles clenched as he was about to run when

Katcha!

Space broke around him forming a black vortex that sucked him in before disappearing.

[Congratulations young Aildris Balvan]

[You have been chosen as a candidate]

An insidious voice whispered into his head causing his eyes to fly open and in turn causing him to gasp, he was currently floating in a black space.

Calling it black was an understatement, the space seemed so dark, the color had no name and that was why it was called the Void.

A hundred years ago, cracks of different colors spread throughout space, the milky way was like an ant when compared to it but that was only the first phase,

The fractures shattered creating a crevice and throwing out the body of a great beast but before it could move, a spear flew out of the crevice and pierced it from behind, killing it and triggering an explosion.

The second phase then begun, the explosion released a wave of tremendous energy that caused massive mutations in most of Earth's fauna and flora creating beasts and carnivorous plants that had various abilities and because of this, the world was thrown into chaos and when people thought it couldn't get worse, it did.

The third phase, a new alien race appeared threatening humanity, they called themselves the Akaldi,

Unlike humans who remained the same, the Akaldi mutated under the wave of energy giving them weapons known as Geno weapons. As the name implies, the weapons were formed from the essence of their genes,

Humanity was on the brink of extinction when the Void appeared, it sucked people and placed them in another realm and if they completed their task, they returned with superpowers and this was the saving grace of mankind and the birth of the Void.

But alas, Aildris had no interest in reveling in the Void's strange beauty for his mind was heavily occupied with curses, 'Shit, shit, shit ! How could this happen to me? Is it because of the can of beans, it had expired three months ago' Aildris screamed in his mind because as far as he knew, not everyone returned from the Void,

[Destination reached. The temple of the [Error!] ]

The voice whispered again before the space he was in seemed to collapse,

He was violently thrown out into a forest, he stood up and was stunned, he was surrounded by a canopy of trees, the shortest one being about 25 meters tall, the dry, crunchy leaves beneath his feet loudly announcing his presence.

Aildris carefully examined his surroundings, noticing it was daytime. At least that was what he could tell from the few beams of light that snagged their way through the top of the trees,

He moved sneakily, inwardly noting the distinct lack of animals, he had only taken a dozen steps when he realized the abnormal abundance of a vine, it seemed to be the same type.

Aildris had initially mistaken it for a root but after looking around, he noticed the thing was everywhere. That abnormality coupled with the absence of animals made Aildris reach for the knife in his socks, he firmly grabbed it and pulled it out,

Most wouldn't be lucky to have a weapon with them when they are pulled into the Void but for Aildris, he needed to be weapon at all times if he wanted to survive. He firmly gripped the blade and a quick motion jumped.

From afar, it would have looked insane for a bruised kid to jump unnecessarily if not for the sudden appearance of a vine where his legs had been,

Aildris had to thank his experience growing in the slums for his heightened awareness, he placed his foot on the ground and dashed off deeper into the forest,

The vine shot after its meal but its lunch was persistent, it chased after Aildris who outmaneuvered it only to its further enragement.

Aildris made several twists and turns, a lot of which didn't make sense, the vine reached out and almost grabbed him when it stopped, it tried to move forward but couldn't, it tried to move back but couldn't, it was stuck,

Aildris looked at the tangled bunch of vines he had made, his haphazard movements were well thought out to trap the ensnaring weed.

Aildris quickly ran in the direction the vine seemed to originate from and in a few minutes came across a bare land filled with the occasional patch of grass but in the center of the enclosure laid for a lack of better words an eyeball surrounded by petals,

Aildris looked in the distance and could see an ancient black temple that seemed carved out of obsidian, 'The Void mentioned a temple, I think I must reach there to complete the objective and get back home' Aildris thought so as not to startle the creature plant thing.

He approached it silently before thrusting his blade into the eye causing it to produce black blood, the vines around him started to violently shake as a high pitch screech was heard, a few vines wrapped around Aildris and threw him coincidentally in the direction of the temple but before he landed, more vines held him before they let him go and fell, the creature was dead, "That was easy" Aildris laughed as he climbed the flight of stone stairs that granted him access to the temple,

He pushed the double door open an was about to enter when he felt something pierce through his chest, he turned around and saw hundreds of animals all with glowing purple eyes and spikes protruding from their backs, he looked at his chest and saw a spike that closely resembled those possessed by the creatures.

"Fuck!" He hissed as he took notice of a purple liquid oozing out of the natural weapon, he was poisoned.