Prologue: Turbulence

"Welcome to Pactolus Airlines. Today you will be flying a one hour trip to Xavier District. Please fasten your seatbelt as we will shortly be taking off."

Upon hearing this, the man looked to his left. There was another man who sat by the window, beginning to buckle his seatbelt. Clicks to his right came from a woman who also did the same. Seated in the middle, the relevant man buckled his own and took a deep breath.

"Phew… Just one hour, good."

The whir of turbulent engines began to resonate, vibrating the seats of everyone on the plane. This was followed by a sudden surge forward as the plane engaged acceleration. Within a matter of seconds, the plane tilted back, allowing wind to carry the plane upwards.

"Deep breaths. Deep breaths. It's just one hour… One hour..."

As the plane took flight off its heels, so too did the worries of the man in the middle. Flying high wasn't exactly his thing, but it was necessary to cross a crowded river between the two districts. Travelling in the sky would be much quicker than a traffic-jammed bridge on his way to a life-changing meeting.

"I'm going to be promoted…" The man told himself. He was on his way to become the next CEO of Initiate Co; a promotion that would be held in the Heart of Xavier with the business-end individuals of the Cardinal Nexus.

"You're the next one counted in line after him," the man had been told over the phone. "Him" was referring to the previous CEO of Initiate Co. who'd unexpectedly died of cardiac arrest just the month before.

"Be safe on your way here. You're the last one on the list." The Cardinal Nexus had meant that he was the only person left, suitable for CEO, who was in association with the Cardinal Nexus. If anything were to happen to him, it's likely Initiate Co. would be left unsponsored if they were to proceed with a CEO who wasn't associated with the government.

"A hierarchy…" The man whispered to himself. There was a hierarchy when it came to corporations closely related to the Cardinal Nexus, almost as if being in such a position was royalty. The man suddenly looked down, realizing he'd been clutching his fingers into a fist, so tightly in fact that his nails had dug into his palms, leaving tiny traces of blood.

"You okay?" The man to his left asked. He looked awfully calm.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine… I'm just… I don't know…"

The man by the window smiled. "It's okay. Some people get the jitters at altitudes this high—totally understandable." The man then leaned towards him. "Though I have heard about a lot of incidents regarding this airline in the last few couple weeks. Let's keep our fingers crossed for this flight, shall we?"

And with that said, the middle man's mind was sent back into a panic. "What did he just say? Incidents regarding this airline?" The thoughts spiraled, all while the window man went back to his window-watching duties, seeing the plane bob between the sky and the clouds.

Although a future CEO, the man in the middle had just witnessed his anxiety double, and triple, in the last minute alone. Such a pressure test provided for his future troubles, if anything.

Minutes later, he caught silent whispers coming from his left—of the window man—seemingly talking to his watch.

"The height's good enough…"

The middle man was confused upon hearing this. "What's he doing?" He then noticed a smirk form at the corner of the window man's mouth.

"Now."

Suddenly, the airplane jerked. Screams and panic filled the air.

"What was that?" The man yelled. Looking to his left and right, the male and female were unusually calm—bright sunflowers standing out in a field of green, or the opposite—hidden among the fear.

Even through the bustle of passengers, an odd high pitched noise could be heard approaching the aircraft, automatically concluding with another large jerk brought to the plane.

This time, impact was heard deteriorating the plane's outer shell, and pieces could be seen flying from its beginning destruction.

Only now noticed, the airplane's rotary engines had caught fire.

"What's happening?!" Somebody yelled.

Flight attendants were rushing back and forth between the isle, attempting to get the oxygen masks on everyone's faces.

The man in the middle couldn't move, or even think. He was paralyzed. Induced with fear by the constant motion of turbulence that shook the plane with desire to end a hundred lives.

"Seems like we weren't lucky this time," the window man said. Hearing this, the man looked towards him once again, catching him grinning among the chaos.

"How could you be so calm in a situation like this?! We're gonna die!"

The window man scoffed. "You're wrong. We were prepared for this, and 'we' doesn't include you."

The middle man then turned to his right, coming to eye contact with the female he'd sat by this entire time.

"We're both here to ensure your failure," she said.

Drowned out by fear, he couldn't find a response, and instead zoned into her attractive eyes—a big mistake.

Shaking his gaze from the depths of her irises, his sight went gloomy, drowning in a hazy descending darkness.

Blindness instilled.

Now shaken with the loss of his sight, his fear came to quadruple in size.

"That's way more than enough essence to catch a fall from this height," a voice laughed, from presumably the window man. The next second, the middle man felt his heart condense, ridding itself of anything it'd been filled with previously. As his arteries felt to be congested, he was left with an immaculate fatigue unbeknownst to any man; a tiresome state in which he couldn't even beg to move, or speak.

"Phew, I feel rejuvenated," window man spoke again. "Come with me Vidia, we sat by the emergency window for a reason."

"But I need to do my job—"

"You've done it already. Look at his eyes. He's blind."

There was an odd silence, through which the man in the middle sat with emptiness, even wishing to be shocked by what he'd just heard, but had no emotional energy left to do so. He was stripped of it, by a very particular man, who then chose to speak aloud;

"Sorry Mr. To-Be CEO, but you won't be getting that promotion."

Legs suddenly tumbled over him, and he heard the latch to his left open, followed by an air suction of wind coming from the now open window in the side of the plane.

Although practically unknown to him, the window man and female he'd sat by were now gone, heading back towards earth ground zero.

"I'm sorry…" The man mumbled, to nobody. He wished the higher ups of Initiate Co. or the Cardinal Nexus could at least hear his final pleas.

Interrupting his emotional moment, the plane was struck once again, with what felt physical this time. Though according to the panicked words of passengers he could hear, nothing but wind had been striking the plane the entire time.

"Brace yourself for impact!" Someone yelled.

The plane then dove nose first into the ground, allowing for all to cease life in the painless blink of an eye.