Shadow

The battle between the two men paused because of the endless blue mana dust kicked that up, as it drew their attention, their gaze fixated on it – or rather, the one inside.

Neither of them could fully make out who exactly got hit with all the mana. Haruko yelled out, panicked, "Day, Leaf! Are you guys ok—" but, before he could finish his sentence, a blade came flying at his head, and he barely managed to block it in time with his own.

"Hngh!"

"Oi, eyes on me." said the man with black hair, preparing another attack. His sword started glowing a more violent and explosive blue, and he resumed swinging and swinging without a true target in mind. Blocking to the best of his abilities, Haruko couldn't find any opportunity to counterattack the man, and he profited off of this immensely.

Eventually, through a small, second perfect parry, Haruko managed to throw the man off his balance and jumped back. His hands were shaking from all the blocking, but he didn't have time to care...

Both of them, for different reasons, had one goal in mind right about now.

{"I have to win!"}

("I have to win!")

Right as they charged at each other again, their swords clashing with the same vibrant "Clang!" sounds, someone had just woken up, gasping for air. The man from earlier was laying down, in a cloud of blue mana dust. He began coughing slightly, but he soon covered his mouth and nose to block whatever he could of the dust.

He looked around, confused. He wasn't sure what just happened, as he just remembered something about a giant blue smudge and glasses. Getting up slowly, one hand still covering his mouth, he rubbed his eyes in annoyance.

["Ugh... What the hell hit me..."]

As he struggled finding his footing, suddenly, he felt a hand grabbing him by the shoulder, and violently pulling him out of the dust cloud. As he, once again, fell to the ground, he began gasping for the clean – or, at least cleaner – air.

When he looked up, he saw the girl from before, with blond hair. The man coughed a bit more, then thanked her for pulling him out. The short boy, Day, crouched down next to him, examining him. He turned the man's head around on all sides, then let out a small "Oh, no..."

The man, scared, asked "Eh? Oh no? What oh no?"

Day took in a big breath, as he struggled explaining, "Well, you see... The mana might've... went into your system..."

"The mana... went into my system...?!"

"Yes, I'm afraid so..."

"...So, like... is that bad, or...?"

Day sighed, and got up, extending a hand, "Yes, you dummy! Are you a mage, perchance?"

"I'm, uh, an artist?"

"So, not a mage?"

After the man shook his head, Day rubbed the bridge of his nose with yet another sigh. He looked around, probably for Haruko. Then, he realized something, knocking on his head lightly, "I'm pretty sure Haru carries around a Purifier with him! We'll ask later. Now..."

As he finished, more sounds of metal could be heard just behind the mana cloud, as it was obvious the battle was still far from over. The man dusted himself off slightly, then went to adjust his glasses, only to realize he didn't have any on. He sighed and rubbed his eyes, "Damnit, I still can't see clearly..."

As he removed his hands from his eyes, a sharp pain went through his skull, like before the explosion. He staggered slightly, grasping his head in terrible pain and letting out a "Argh...! Fuck!"

Leaf raised an eyebrow at him, "Hey, commoner. You okay?"

He didn't respond, as he couldn't even hear her. His head felt like it could explode any second and the static noise in his ears started up again, three times louder than before. He fell on one knee, barely hanging on to his consciousness. He let out more groans of pain, and thankfully, slowly but surely, the static started dying down. After a good twenty seconds, the static was fully tuned out, and the pain was subduing. The man, with his knees trembling, got up again.

As he kept holding his head in his hands, he finally looked up. The mana dust cloud had started clearing out, and the two men that were fighting were visible now, sparks still flying with each encounter of their swords. Leaf, slightly annoyed that she got ignored before, nudged him with her bow, "Hey, I asked if you're fine."

"Huh? Uh... Yeah, yeah, I... think so..."

Suddenly, Day gasped, and pointed towards the two. When the man and Leaf looked over, they too were shocked. The man with black hair had just pierced Haruko's stomach, as he fell on one knee. Afterwards, the man started laughing maniacally, hysterically even.

"I won! Hahahah! I fucking won!"

The man with black hair pulled his sword out of Haruko's stomach, and he fell to the ground, causing the two to start running towards the fight, as the man remained behind, still shocked. Though, he wasn't shocked that the man with black hair won... He was shocked that he could see that he won.

He looked down, at his hands, then around at the chaos surrounding them, even more shocked than before, "How the hell—"

He took a step forwards, still looking around in all directions, shocked. His hand touched his face, just to make sure that he had no glasses on. And he didn't.

"—can I see...?"

His eyes widened, as his gaze fixated itself towards the two men once again. Leaf and Day had just reached them, weapons drawn. Leaf was the first to respond, firing an arrow at him, with Day shooting out a thunderbolt as well. The man's eyes widened at the sight, as his hands dropped down next to him. How was any of this possible... Mana? Magic? Swords, elves, mages...? It didn't... make any sense...

The man chuckled, exasperated, and sat down on some nearby rubble. He placed his head in one hand, and sighed, followed by more laughing, "Hahahah... I think... I'm definitely drugged or something..."

In the distance – which he could see perfectly – the two were still fighting the man, trying to protect Haruko, which was lying on the ground, bleeding out. The man rubbed his eyes, then simply continued watching the fight unfold. He let out a defeated sigh, "Is... any of this even real?"

"Yes, my Creation."

A sharp, loud, and painful voice spoke up, right behind him. The man froze in terror as soon as he heard it, unable to look back.

["Wha— What's that?! Who is...?!"]

Slowly and barely, the man looked back and upwards, in horror. Yet, he saw... nothing. He double, triple checked even, but still... He saw absolutely nothing. 

"Wha... Where is...?"

"My Creation, I am not in a plane which your eyes can fathom... as of yet."

Again, the same voice spoke again. For some reason, each word made the man scared beyond recognition, shaking him to his very core, as if it was written into his DNA to be afraid of whatever being that was speaking.

"Pla— Plane...? What is..."

As his eyes kept scanning for whoever – or whatever – was speaking, the ground started shaking violently once again. The man didn't bother getting up, and instead opted for just sitting down like he had been doing before.

"Patience, Creation. It won't be long now. The Line... shall soon begin."

The man sighed once more, his head yet again in his hands. He didn't understand anything that was going on... or why it was in the first place. As he kept staring at the ground, in silence, everything soon followed suit, as all noise died down, except the low humming in the static in his ears. Though...

["Huh? Wasn't there... fighting going on, just a few seconds ago...?"]

Then, the man looked up, as to check – only to be met by nothingness. Pure white surrounded him, except for a maybe fifteen feet zone around him. His eyes widened, mostly in shock, as he let out a "What the fuuuck...?!"

As he frantically looked around him, more of those little zones started appearing besides him, making a gigantic circle. Each zone contained a person, as he was able to see the blond elf in one, panicked, and the man with blue hair in another. Even more zones appeared, and he even recognized some people in them – for example the journalist woman from earlier – while some had new people he'd never seen before – complete strangers.

As his head turned around, his eyes widened once again. In the distance stood hundreds, thousands of circles, formed from little zones like his own. They were all special – his was made of concrete and rubble, while some had grass, some water. The man got up, and chuckled for a bit, "I'm batshit crazy... aren't I?" as his head kept spinning in all directions, looking at more and more strangers, until eventually... he realized. Some of those zones, in the distance...

...did not contain humans.

More elves. Minotaurs. Dwarfs. Barbarians. Mages. Vampires. Dragons. Titans. Sirens. The zones, varying in size, were full of these wonders the man had seen only in his own works and fantasy stories.

Each species was equipped with different weapons or equipment, like they knew they'd be getting dragged in whatever this was. When he looked back, at his own circle, he realized why the four "cosplayers" had weapons on them. Taking an even better look around, he noticed most people had something to protect themselves with – even the journalist had a switch blade.

He was the only one left defenseless.

As he fell to his knees, he couldn't help but let out a huge sigh. He didn't understand what was going on, why it was going on. Why was this happening to him? All he wanted was a better life, for his work to be successful. How'd it come to this? As he was sitting there, in a puddle of his own regret, the static in his ears seemed to die down slightly, and it was now ringing in only one ear – his right. Out of reflex, he looked over to his left, and right next to him, in a small zone like his, was the man with black hair from earlier.

He was looking straight at him, as he was sitting on the floor. His heart stopped for a moment, and he couldn't get any words out, but the man could.

"Pathetic, and weak."

His heart dropped even more than it had before. Because he knew he was right. He was pathetic, and he was weak. But there wasn't anything he could do about it – it was way too late to begin any type of training, and even if there was time, what the hell would he train in? Karate?

Unless...

As the man with black hair looked back towards the big circle made of zones, he scoffed again. This wasn't in his plans at first, but it's not like he was against it. Just another chance to finish off Haruko Aratashi and his puny pets. He kept looking around, until suddenly, a voice spoke out from somewhere behind him. It was frightened, shaky, and quite frankly, it sounded like it belonged to someone weak, not even worth dulling your blade over. But... he did like his tone.

"The— Then teach me, you arrogant asshole!"

A smirk creeped up on the man's face, but he quickly covered his mouth with his hand, as to hide it. He let out a small sigh, still smirking, and pulled out a knife from behind his long coat. He threw it over to the zone besides his.

"Fine. Don't die."

The man, still on the floor, reached out and grabbed the knife. His grip tightened on the sheath and handle, as he read what was engraved on it – K.J. He got up, and tightly strapped the knife to his belt.

"Who do you take me for?"

"Good answer." said the man in black – K.J. His sword, still at his hip and glowing as brightly as ever, started pulsing ever so slightly. Both the man and K.J. could feel it – something was happening, right then and right now. Above all of the circles, stood a gigantic shadow, yet to reveal itself. A lot of collective gasps and whispers could be heard all around, until a voice spoke, louder than all – the same voice that the man had heard just minutes ago, the one that spoke to him.

"My Creations, be Quiet."

Suddenly, nothing. No whispers, gasps, nothing. Nobody was saying anything, and not because they wouldn't, but because they couldn't. Everyone had been silenced against their will, until this being allowed them to speak again.

"Good. Good. I have gathered you all here... not for naught. Ye have a reason for being gifted with my presence."

The shadow, slowly starting to gain the shape of a man, then a dwarf, then a siren, and so on so forth, spoke up again, "You all that are present have been personally sought after by I."

Everyone was quiet – because they had to – and looking around at their surroundings. During this absolute silence, a single sound came through... a voice. Haruko, who had just woken up, gripping his wound, pointed his sword up at the shadow. His heart full of dedication and pride, he yelled out, as loud as his lungs let him, "What are you?!"

The shadow fell quiet. A small snicker could be heard from up above, then laughter. The shadow... was laughing. It hadn't dawned on it that someone might be able to break through its Silence, so it couldn't help but laugh.

"You... are not but a mere Creation, I suppose."

With a snap of its fingers, a weird looking floating square appeared next to the shadow, which it began reading from. After a bit, it waved its hand towards the square, as it disappeared within milliseconds.

"Yes, yes. Aratashi Haruko, son of Hanabi Aratashi, who is husband of Keela Aratashi. The son of the two greatest swordmasters to ever live on Fendir. Or, do you Fhayinds prefer to call it Feneder?"

Haruko gritted his teeth, and clenched his sword tighter. Still pointed upwards, it started to glow a more vigorous blue. Haruko yelled out once again, "Don't you dare even mention their names!"

The shadow, clearly amused, waved its hand once again and made sure to Silence Haruko properly, who was still boiling in anger and fury. It cleared its throat, and kept talking to everyone within the circles.

"Enough fun. Listen here, Creations. The reason I have gathered you here... is, uh..."

The shadow mumbled the last part really quickly, so nobody got what it said. People – and monsters alike – looked around at each other, confused, hoping someone around them understood, but to no avail. The shadow cleared its throat, and tried again, "I said... I said...! Over—"

Again, nobody got that, as some more people shrugged and shook their heads. Finally, unable to hide it anymore, the shadow yelled out, "Fine! Your Worlds are so overpopulated, damn it!"

Silence so loud filled this endless white void, you could heard a pin drop. Well, you could also hear it before – for obvious reasons – but the silence seemed like it doubled in less than a second. Even K.J. was left with a disappointed look on his face. Though, the shadow kept speaking, "Any— Anyways! That's not important! Look, just... I'll explain something important now, so pay attention!"

After yet another round of clearing its throat, the shadow spoke up again, "Everyone present here will be brought into a personal project of mine... The Line!" and it continued, "The Line is a place where, to be frank with you all... there's no escape for the weak. In order to survive, you'll have to reach the very last floor!"

Again, the people looked among themselves, confused. The man looked over at the mysterious K.J. but he seemed rather unbothered by this whole thing. Because he knew he wasn't weak. The shadow started speaking again.

"I'll present the situation to all of you." it said, then snapped its fingers. All of a sudden, in front of everyone appeared a blue, floating digital square. For almost everyone, this was nothing less than pure magic. Something great, not to be toyed with! As the man looked over, even K.J. seemed slightly uneasy at the sudden appearance. Though...

["Uh... Isn't this just one of those screens you see in manhwas? Especially the system ones...?"]

His intuition seemed to be correct, as soon, text appeared on the screen. Though, all it said was [Press.] So... the man simply pressed the screen. The second his finger touched the screen, loads of information loaded into his brain. Information about The Line – how there's different floors inside, cities, something known as Plots, but, most importantly, that inside the Line, magic existed.

Though, it didn't stop there. More information kept flooding in, about the currency – Aether – and, as the man had guessed... there was a system set in place inside. The system, however, wasn't a one to one copy of what he knew of – on the surface, at least. Its name was The Blank, and it was only there to tell one about themselves. It couldn't read others' Blanks, and it couldn't even tell you clear goals, as it spoke – or wrote – in riddles.

After a while, the information stopped coming, as it seems the man had learned everything there was to learn. When looking around, it seemed everyone had also finished processing the information. The shadow once again raised its arm, and spoke up.

"Now, Creations. Go. Explore and discover all there is of The Line, and make your way out. May the best of you prevail. Godspeed."

Then, it snapped its fingers. And everything cut to black.