Old World’s Ruins

It had been a day since that night on the rooftop she shared with Ace, as she opened her eyes after her declaration, she had found the ginger before to have vanished. The day after the 6th was the 7th, and today was Saturday, meaning, she had the day off from school. Homework was already done, so she spent the day alone, opening the door from inside her room, she revealed the stairs leading downward. What to do, what to do.

In the end, nothing was entertaining for her to do, not to mention the thoughts of her family still plaguing her like a virus. How would it even be possible for her to do something normal… at least classes kept her occupied. Maybe read some manga, watch some anime, she at least had the freedom to do that now, or maybe even order a big meal just for herself! Though her thoughts were now plagued by memories of the past, as she stood at the top of the stairs, she couldn't help but smile laid before her. So much so she decided to just wear some of her bed wear outside, though she was still insecure with her body, as the sun leaked through the windows onto her figure, she kept up that smile. Today was going to be a good day, she could feel it in her heart, just as her foot was placed onto the last step leading downward on the staircase, a masculine voice spoke out to her,

"Ooh, so that's what you look like," Ace observed, to which she shrieked right out of sudden fear than her exposed arms…

"AH!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" Katie loudly asked her new partner, eyes closed, but as the soles locked into the bottoms of his boots gradually pressed against the floorboards- Ace examined something.

In these sorts of cliche situations, the girl would usually cover up her breast, but that wasn't the case, red eyes quickly darting to her bust, they moved to watch her hands... shielding the scars inflicted unto oneself by oneself. Most were omitted from his vision, but he could make them out, just a tiny bit, he couldn't help but turn his head with a sympathetic look in his eyes,

"Why do you do this to yourself?" Questioned Ace curiously of his future partner, and as time went by, she slid her open palms hiding the cuts down her pale arms, allowing them to rest by the sides of her exposed figure.

What she wore was a black sports bra and some short shorts, something just comfortable thanks to the summer's heat seeping in, the only downside, her arms were exposed. Her breath was shaky, her breathing starting to grow irregular, but something was keeping her still. One hand on top of her head, the other sliding to the back of her skull, their foreheads clicked against each other- just then, the electricity flowed. Memories scattered across time and space, like the erratic movement of a wave riding amongst the ocean, it crashed into her head as she remembered... an exchange,

"You looked like... you needed saving!"

"I guess you were right about that, brother,"

She had only remembered the latter half of this exchange, it seemed, but with the former parts now locked into her memory vault, she stepped back, some blood dripping out her nostrils. Ace wiping his nose with the sleeve of his whitened hoodie, Katie walked to the kitchen past the ginger so she could find a paper towel. Ripping the piece off the metal rod it had been stabbed into, she swiped away at her nose, vocals muffled, Wilder now leaned against the widened frame for entering. Shoulder resting against the wall,

"Because I hated myself... if that makes any sense. I thought I deserved it. They hated me for a reason, they made me feel like shit, they treated me like shit. I thought it was my fault, so I- I guess I helped them, heh. I know it was bad, that it wasn't good for me, but... I guess it was hard to stop, or resist," Katie confessed to Ace, but it was odd, she had never told anyone about this. Why did it come out so naturally for her, a guy she'd never even met before Thursday?

Ace lifted him from the casual posture he'd taken, he rubbed at his chin with the main knuckle popping out his index finger, thinking back to his childhood; what he remembered while spending it with that white-haired girl he called his sister. After thinking for a bit, leaving Kate to unintentionally suffer from the silence of a non-response, Ace spoke out,

"I have a little sister who I care for more than anyone. She ran away from home, but she, too, is an agent for ANZEN. I don't think she's self-harmed, for someone like her... I don't know how to describe it, but the reason she left home is because of my parents. I still live at home, but I understand her feeling if that makes any sense, yours as well. Sometimes, when I fail at a mission, she and I have to suffer the consequences, and it's more than getting yelled at. They'd give us hard beatings, some that even broke our bones. I once thought it was my fault, that I should've never been born in this world if all my purpose is to get beaten by some pathetic excuses for people. If it hadn't been for my sister, I'd never have realized they're the corrupt ones... and I intend to reset that malicious Government world. We're all a little fucked up. None of us ever get over it, well, not as teenagers, anyway. I help June, June helps me and.. I want to help you. You offered yourself to me, every little bit and fragment. You're... a good person, so don't hurt yourself, please. You, like me, like June, like everyone in this world, you deserve love," Ace's words of encouragement, were meant to motivate her, and though they brought tears to the edges of her tears, he noticed- some of them weren't really happy ones. In the end, after living a life full of hardship, abuse, and self-loathing, it would be more than difficult to accept love like this so openly.

What more could he do, but then it hit him, he remembered where he saw June every day besides just in the Remnant World, he didn't know how much Katie could get along, but it was worth the suggestion,

"My sister has a club of three people at school she made by herself. She calls it the Research and Discovery Club because it's dramatic but all we do is talk shit and goof off. After you become an agent; I'll take you there, okay?" Ace took one step forward after asking this, Katie didn't flinch. He kept moving until he was towering over her by just a little bit, his hands shaky, fingers vibrating at such an immense rate he felt like the bones were gonna break free of the skinned exterior, but he did it.

His arms entangled her body, embracing her tightly, pulling her close, limbs interlocked around her neck, her eyes wide, she let her arms linger over his back... but as just enough time passed, she yanked him close. Even though the Reaper and Detective's souls rested above the clouds beyond the Golden Gates, their children lived on for them, hugging one another, Moon let her sobs enter Ace's shoulder. Ace can attest, at this point in her life, Katie Moon was as stubborn to let out her feelings as hard it was to kick open a metal door without breaking your leg. In the morning of August 7th, as the morning sun shone against Riverton City, Kate had taken her first steps to accept love. It all began- at that same rooftop, she'd been taken to when she was knocked out yesterday morning.

Wearing the dress and the coat she wore yesterday, she rubbed her arm and admired the sight looking over the edge while Ace stood right on it, balancing his height with arms stretched out,

"I'd never really seen the city like this before... cept yesterday, I guess," Katie admitted to her new partner, the ginger then jumping into the air before sitting right down on the edge, grunting as he landed, he made a picture frame with his frame,

"Eh, it's only ever pretty at night. Every so often, the sky turns red and then it's like a horror movie, it's rather pretty, really," Ace informed the girl, though he didn't turn to her fully, maybe as a sign to show he didn't wanna make her anxious from staring, out the corner of his eye, he could make out the slightest upturning of her lips over her mouth,

"Can't wait to see that," Kate responded genuinely with anticipation audible in her voice, leading Ace, himself, to have his small smile, then shrugging looking off to the sky,

"It sort of happens every ten months so... you'll prolly be waitin' a long time," Ace retorted, leading Katie to widen her eyes, a vein popping out the corner of her head, she glared at him, noticing the way his head turned away from her,

"Why must you torture me so?" Kate dramatically asked leading her arms to fall to the sides of her body, head down to the ground, Ace chuckled at this, spinning himself around so he could be facing the inner roof, he patted her head,

"Lots of reasons. Alright, enough loitering around, I hate being serious when it's needed," Ace answered back at her, pulling her by the back of her jacket's collar, Katie dragged herself along the floor groaning in an annoyed tone.

What they were met with were two circles carved into the stone of the rooftop made with blood, incarnation marks, Katie had her own, Ace had his. Both of them across from each other, Wilder pushed together the arms of his sunglasses previously shielding his red eyes' color, then placing them right in his pocket, his lips parted,

"Here's how this works; Space-Time Blood Markings or… just Warping Circles are for novices, when traveling with someone who has no Artifact abilities or knowledge, it is only possible to transport them to the Remnant World by way of a Warping Circle. We're going to be teleported to an infested wasteland where monsters will attack you, they will psychologically affect your mind while inching closer and closer about to tear you apart. Mere human strength isn't capable of fighting back, so grab the artifact as quick as you can-" Ace advised the girl, but just as he was about to finish, his eyes opened at the sound of her voice entering his ears,

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. 'You die in the game, you die in real life.' Enough exposition, let's just do this already!" Katie shed her jacket off her body, jumping from side to side as each bottom of her foot bounced from left to right, she wiggled her arms, breathing like a boxer.

Ace couldn't help but smile smugly at her enthusiasm, this was new from her, something he'd never seen before. Her heartbeat was akin to that of an excited runner just about to go out on their first jog in the early morning, Wilder couldn't help but let out an impressed chortle, lips still closed,

"That's the spirit, babe," Whispered Wilder to himself, then raising his hand to the air, she stopped, and they both got into their positions.

Standing straight, backs kept upright, Katie's eyes closed, her hands followed Ace's in front of her, their fingers together creating that of the Creation hand symbol. Or rather, Metamorphis was a better way to describe it. All fingers are layered against one another, interlocking to form this symbol, all it took was a simple phrase. His voice deepening as if the fate of the world was on their shoulders, Katie had gotten the symbol from the way he moved his shoulder so their vocals could move in unison,

"Beasts resting deep inside, awaken from your wretched hide, reveal thineself to this wretched reality- DESTROY OUR MORTALITY!!!" The world around them had all but vanished, the sights of the metropolis behind them both crumbling to bits, it was like their home had flipped upside down.

Everything around them was purple, the sky mixed with that color and a tiny bit of pink to make up for it. Buildings slammed right into the bottom of the ground, implanted into the dirt of this realm, Katie gasped, with Ace's hands hidden in the pockets of his sweatpants, he searched around. Celestial monsters, eldritch beings, ancient beasts from legends told all roamed these forgotten lands, the only intact city of any fragment of modern civilizations was that advanced tower way in the distance. Could all of this be real…? If all of these monstrosities were bound by the chains of their reality and existed within the limits of those dimensional walls, then what did this matter?

What did her life matter in the grand scheme of the universe, and why was she still there, to begin with? These thoughts wandered around her mortal plane of existence before she was slammed back down onto Earth by his voice. Claws scraped the air forming the invisible shield protecting their bodies, Ace rested on his knees in front of her, palms resting on her shoulders, all it took was one simple sentence of reassurance...

"It'll be okay. You offered yourself to me wholly... I won't let it go to waste," Ace gently informed her, patting the top of her head yet again, her hair fluffing from the tap, he turned around, now facing the monstrous beast towering over them both.

As the shield peeled back to reveal their exposed figures, Wilder's eyes let out their regular red hue, brightening by each passing second, he enclosed all his fingers to form a fist. Thumb resting over the pointer and middle, he stretched the ring with the pinky aiming it right ahead, and anticipating smirk painted over his pink lips; Ace watched as their mouth gaped right open. Interdimensional erasure energy building up in a circular state, Wilder manipulated the infinity between his shoes' soles and the ground so he could slide on the air as if he were wearing heelies. Katie watched, her eyes wide, ignoring the nightmarish sight, her eyes locked onto Ace's skidding anatomy as if they were robotic. Deriving his technique from the negative energy coursing throughout not only his soul, the hatred for this beast, the intention to fight, but Katie's fear, he charged up his attack... it'd be easy,

"Corrupted Bolt: Red - Decimation," Spoke the Ginger calmly, and although on the surface he sounded so gentle in tone, it was clear from the final rasp in his vocalization; it was riddled with murderous intent.

Hidden bones crunching inside then hitting against one another as if fusing to create a singular amalgamation, the monster screeched in anguish, head upturned to the sky, Ace giggled at the painful cries they screamed to the air. Opening his fingers vibrating, he tilted his extremities just a tiny bit so they could be aimed ahead, smirking with a bloodlust look in his eyes- it felt like a weight against the tips. Something akin to pulling out a dumbbell forward from a locked position, Wilder heard as the bones all chomped, following the squelching of blood; he watched as its intestines poured out the gut. The gory sight led to Kate covering her mouth in disgust, yet she couldn't avert her eyes, all she could do was watch with those azure orbs locked onto this scenery.

What came out its front had been a mangled skeletal interior ripped apart, pushed together, the clattering of bones tapping against each other, though distant, sent chills down her spine. As it fell to the ground with pieces of organs coupled on top of the ball of bones, Ace yawned as the monster's outside skinned shell fell to the ground, nothing more than a puppet, Wilder felt the splash of its blood dirty the right side of his face,

"Insolent creatures. Pathetic excuses of living creatures, just losing to a monkey-like me who only has one Artifact... so pitiful," Ace mocked the corpse of the monster he'd slaughtered, calling it a fight wouldn't even be fair, seeing as how it never even got to fire off that blast it was charging... Katie watched in shock.

Wilder kicked at its destroyed gut, screaming obscenities at it, he laughed in the middle of it, a strong enough kick tore its still-intact body right half. Lower and taller half cutting apart, Ace scoffed... then turning away, he prepared to walk out the surrounding area where Katie sat,

~This guy... I've seen this sorta attitude before. The sort of person who thinks he's like a god, beyond all others in terms of strength- but where-?~ Kate asked herself in her mind, before he yelled out to her, leading to her flinching and jumping, just spotting the side of his face turning toward her seated posture,

"Oi! Make sure to take that Artifact, I don't wanna be here any longer than I have to be on my day off, so hurry up, girlie!" Advised Ace to his new raven-haired partner, to which she stood right up, and ran over to the Artifact stabbed into the ground.

The blade itself was as black as a Crow's belly, her fingers hovered over the exposed grip, then the skies thundered with the bellowing of thunder, as a stray bolt of lightning swiftly struck the tip of her finger. However, the oddest thing happened, it was as though it hadn't hurt her in the slightest, as she pushed through the supposed pain, to wrap her fingers, all ten of them, around the whitened handle of this Blackened Blade. Despite her human strength, her tightened hold over the rear end of the katana was beyond that of normality, it was almost as though an invisible unusual force had aided her. Rows of teeth against one another, inch by inch, piece by piece, the 'Blackened Blade' was ripped from the bellows of this wasteland, she winced, letting out a cry as veins popped out near her wrist sliding down her arm; Katie bit down on her tongue.

Just as Ace said when she offered herself, this was when she sought; the second her hands entangled themselves around the butt of the weapon, every single bit of information from her predecessor's memory bank came flowing into her mind. Voices layering on top of each other, strength-enhancing with each passing pull, Ace dodged over the incoming claw of a monster aiming for his legs.

Flipping sideways temporarily bringing his knees to his chest then landing swiftly, his hand stretched out, Divergence glowing in the center of his orbs of sight, he giggled happily. This creature, ridden with tendrils swirling around from their back, standing on four legs lean in size while sharpened at the ends, had felt the weight over its right claw begin to expand. A crater forming below the claw, it shrieked in shock- unable to use its other claw to set itself free, Ace ran on over so he could kick its head right off its shoulders. Turning his head at an immense speed, balls of interdimensional erasure energy came flying right at him from the left, idle to its ally's destruction- Wilder had vanished from his previous spot. Now hovering above the land, he watched as one of its tendrils ensnared his waist, spreading wide its mouth to reveal their demonic teeth, Wilder charged up his fist; wincing at the negative energy building up inside his veins, he bit down on his tongue.

Just as he was about to scream in fear for his life, he held it in and calmed his breathing, red hair levitating with the wind, a fireball alighting in the front of Divergence's dual eyes; he punched at the air to send a stream of red lightning right into the monster's gut,

~Corrupted Bolt: SPATIAL CONDENSE!~

What followed next was an explosion, Ace had now fallen right out of its grasp and now, he fell to his knees, faceplanting to the ground, the above pieces of his exploded victim flew from above to dirty and drench his outfit in a horrible stench. Looking to his hand after dejectedly sighing,

"I should really conserve my energy more..." Whispered Ace to himself, weakly standing up followed by a pained groan, he stretched his arms into the air; and groaned tiredly.

Turning back so he could aid Katie in pulling out the Artifact, suddenly, he was grabbed by... something familiar. Not a tendril, but a tongue, and this tongue was like a lengthy rope, longer than the usual one of a frog's, ensnaring his ankle, Wilder looked down. ~Right on my day off, too~ And as he was yanked into the sky, he flew through the air and right toward the Toad Monster, bumps over its green skin turned blue from the chill, another beast came forward just as the Ginger prepared a counter while soaring ahead. Roaring like an ancient warrior, its knuckles met right in Ace's chest, blood spitting out his throat, he gasped for air, before being kicked right down in the back... it was like child's play. The Ginger bounced right from the ground after being slammed right onto it, entering the air in a hovering state, messy, bloodied strands grabbed by the Monster's armored knuckles, Ace looked at it right through its rotten armor.

The menacing sight of its purple eyes stared into Divergence's red ones, and what a sight to behold, a shockwave produced by speech had knocked him back to where he started. Skull's back cracking against the plethora of pillars surrounding Katie, she gasped and turned her head... there were more approaching. Her chest rising and falling rapidly, she whimpered abruptly, grip weakening, tears threatening to drip out her eyes' corner; they inched CLOSER. It was only a matter of time before she was a victim to more punches again, even in this other world with power beyond human comprehension at the tips of her fingers, she was nothing more than a simple bystander.

Ace had been beaten, bathing in his blood, writhing and moaning in anguish, he awaited for Heaven's angels to greet him to the pathway of the dimension above. After all, that was the fate destined for him, wasn't it? But not only for him, her as well. They were coming, all she could do was close her eyes... and return home...

"NO!!!" Cried a disembodied masculine voice, and suddenly, as she turned her head, there he was. A spirit of a man she'd never known, almost as beautiful as Lucifer was written to be, this man, with spiky black hair, dark blue eyes, smiled, placing his hands over hers-

"You're not powerless... not anymore," And he was right.

Though at times it may feel like everything was weighing down on her, right here, right now, it was nearly out of its imprisonment from the ground. Why give up now when Ace had helped get this far? Why just give up like some pathetic piece of shit who tries their hardest but only at the end when they're nearly there do they give up from the work they put into it?! She was better than that, so, she didn't do this for Ace, her parents, or this man... that she knew, without a shadow of a doubt to be, her father. As a final ounce of strength surged from her soul fueling her every movement onward, what had hidden her body from the monsters was a black cloud, seemingly reminiscent of ash. Yet darker. So dark to a degree that it made the silhouette hiding within it incomprehensible to their eyes. The Celestial Spirits piled up in anticipation, and as the smoke cleared, there she was, the Blackened Blade curved and lengthened in her right hand; Katie looked up to glare at them all straight in the eyes.

This was a story of... acceptance.

TO BE CONTINUED!