Life Continues Regardless

 /Hey, it's been a while, and while I'm not confident in a consistent upload, I can say that I still have no plans on dropping this story indefinitely, so don't worry about that.\

/Anyway, here is the usual warning, expect problems with Grammar, fast-paced sentences, unreadable sentences, hard-to-understand sentences, lack of character personality, overly detailed sentences, or lack of therefor, and finally, expect problems with pacing, and dialogue. Hope you enjoy this mediocre masterpiece. Toodles.\ 

 Soft words constantly played on as my mind lay blank. "Clementine," it repeated, almost as if it were trying to lure me somewhere.

 "Clementine," it said again, this time in some more familiar tones, each sounding as if it had come directly from the mouths of people who were long dead.

 But both my body and mind looked to glaze over that fact, as I could feel myself turn to face whatever was calling me, it's allure too much to ignore.

 I didn't even get a chance to react as whatever was mimicking those voices ponced; the pain was brief but prominent, and I could only wonder with fading vision, why could I see my back?

 My body jolted up in terror as my singular arm began to pat down every bit of it. The Amber eyes I bore twitched around frantically, their current nature making it impossible for them to settle on one singular thing.

 Jumping again, my hand bolted from exploring my body to nearly ripping a chunk out of my face, as it desperately tried gripping the salty tears falling down.

 When my mind registered them to be none life-threatening, my arm slowly receded before falling limp at my side, leaving the tears to follow their unpredictable course.

 Letting my head fall to the side, I followed as my amber eyes drifted from place to place, their frantic behavior from a second ago long since settled, leaving them to wander on their own, looking for anything that would do well to take up their attention.

 After more than enough time to let myself drain, I wiped away the remaining tears before standing, my thoughts pushing for the idea of stepping out for a bit, both to get motivated for the walk ahead and to let myself breathe something that wasn't the stench of my own sweat.

 With a dull sigh, I reached out for two items of clothing hanging off of some shotty hooks I cooked up a few weeks ago; one was a hat with the letter D on it, and the other was a cloak that looked loose and thin but completely defied both descriptions.

I struggled to put on the hat before draping the cloak over my bare form, yet to find a replacement for my missing dress.

 I took solace in the fact that no matter what I did, the cloak seemed to be magically bound to my body, keeping any of my nudity from showing and saving me from eternal embarrassment, should I ever reencounter an actual person.

 Walking up to the doors leading in and out of the cart, I gently pulled them open and hopped out with little difficulty, this time able to keep my balance perfectly, unlike a few months ago.

 A familiar and punchable-looking face popped in at the thought, his old and wrinkly face telling stories one could never begin to imagine in their wildest dreams.

 I started walking while my thoughts ran amock.

 It's funny really, I used to watch these things called anime before everything went to hell; I'd see a character lose people close to him and cry like a bitch because of it. I used to think it wasn't that big of a deal, and they shouldn't cry over some spilled milk; I used to think if I were in their position, I wouldn't even bother throwing a second glance, let alone crying.

 But now, after having everything I held dear ripped away by the cruel fate that was life, I could only follow the same path those characters took and blame myself.

I was useless, a burden that only knew how to drag others down, and a selfish bastard who snatched the only spot in the living world, leaving the rest to cover the bill.

 As I was about to continue beating myself up, I tripped, my footing having been lost to what felt like a large piece of rough wood. And to add to the already unfortunate situation, my face had found itself in what I hoped to be a pile of mud.

 Not even five seconds after this, I was upright doing my damnedest to wipe off the substance, however, this part was only partially successful, as with my one arm and the fluidity of the substance, I was only able to wipe off the bigger clumps, leaving the smaller and damper parts to be smeared all over my face in my futile attempts to rid myself of it.

 After a few more frustrating minutes, I gave up trying to use my hand, and just let the chaotic mess that was the Bloody Mana eviscerate what my hand couldn't.

 Looking back, I glared daggers at the fallen piece of wood before angrily walking back over to give it a nice kick to the moon. This didn't go so well, as without mana to enhance my body, it was just as brittle as anyone else's; and so, I wobbled away with my pride hurt and shin damaged.

 All the while, a frown drawn and tears sprung, the full package.

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 It was about halfway to my destination when I spotted the usual beast prowling around the streets, its form resembling a stag that had taken steroids, and those steroids on some other steroids, and so on.

 The point is, the bastard was big, and I'd rather jump into sewage than confront the thing.

 I shivered at the memory of doing exactly that, specifically the part where the red glow from its eyes was able to penetrate the mounds of shit on top of the water, giving me a first-class horror-movie encounter.

 It was safe to say I contributed to that shit mound that day.

 Ducking behind a large dumpster, I counseled myself in the black mana I procured a while ago, its form having been subdued enough to be used for basic applications, such as concealment.

 And while it was nothing special, its prospect for stealth far outclassed the others, utterly stealing the competition without any resistance whatsoever.

 However, that's not to say the others were completely outclassed, as over the past few months alone, I'd been able to discover what each mana specialized in, with Red being mostly offensive and self-destructive, and Green mostly consisting of defensive and mitigative properties, or in simpler terms, healing.

 For the Tar mana, I hadn't really found out much about it, as it resisted me at every turn, barring me from discovering any of its potential abilities or uses, besides the concealment of course.

 I ducked under some debris as I weaved through the winding alley.

 However, I couldn't say I had figured out all of the pools in my body, as the Transparent pool was still somewhat of a mystery, with the only time I could recognize its use being back when I was pushed into unconsciousness while dunking a random boy in its contents.

 Looking around, I made sure nothing was close, walker and human alike, though I had a gut feeling every human in the city was either gone or rotting, the ladder being the most likely outcome.

 After confirming that nothing was around, I reinforced my leg with a mix of red and green, utilizing the raw strength the red provided while applying the green to fix up any overexertion or strain the red would inevitably place on said leg.

 Bringing my leg up, I kicked out at the pile of rubble blocking my path, its many small and large stones getting sent flying as a result of my foot's collision.

 I winced as I stood still, letting the green mana repair any ripped or torn muscle the red mana may have caused; this has been happening a lot nowadays; or more specifically, when I tried heavily using the aforementioned mana.

 The reason for this sudden resistance was easily discovered a while ago, as the mana had only started doing this when I began trying to assert control over it.

 Not long ago, the thought of controlling and mitigating the effect the mana had on me hadn't even crossed my mind, but after the last time it took control, I was left confused and alone; spurring me to try and get a grip on it, lest I end up as I did then.

 It was after my first time practicing control over it that it started giving me some trouble, said trouble ranged from resistance to outright refusal, its form adamant about not being controlled or subdued; basically a dulled-down version of the Tar mana.

 Even so, after about a month of off-and-on practice, I had managed to make it usable while keeping it from affecting my head; however, as a result of doing this, when I try to use the mana, it starts fluctuating, making it volatile to not only what I was using it on, but also myself.

 Think of it as trying to draw inside the lines when you were in kindergarten, except the thing you were drawing with was actively trying to go outside the line.

 Picking up the pace, I leaped over a giant crack that spread through most of the city, its form having come to being when the gas station exploded, resulting in the collapse of many underground tunnels that ran under said location.

 Moving on from the vicious mana, the last one I had yet to fully understand, was my personal mana pool, the one I felt most connected to despite not having used it much.

 So far from the small experiments I tested with it, the pool seems to be what one would compare to a jack of all trades, having the ability to adopt other abilities from the pools around it, using them as well, if not better, than the one it adopted it from.

 Spotting my destination in the distance, I grew impatient and decided to amp the green hexagon barrier around me before plowing through a large pile of debris blocking my path.

 I did this with confidence as I knew the beast from earlier didn't have an interest in noise, preferring to actually see its prey before going on the hunt, hence why I was able to kick that pile of debris earlier. 

 As I spotted a few more piles of debris in the distance, each a reasonable size, I felt this would have been a fine situation to put my Amber mana to the test both to affirm and reaffirm my theory on it.

 Getting closer and closer to the piles of obstacles, I watched as the green hexagons slowly shifted into circles that looked to be made of amber.

 A bit surprised by this sudden change, I resolved to file this note away for a later date, intending to try and understand why it took the shape of a circle rather than stealing the shape of the hexagon.

 Picking up the pace, I applied some red mana to my calves and an immediate increase in speed was shown as what I had estimated to be the time until collision with the rubble drastically decreased, and before I could even blink, the amber shield had clashed with cement pile, utterly obliterating it.

 And I wasn't even joking as I could see the concrete turn to dust almost immediately as it came into contact with the amber.

 However, before I could marvel at the display, the amber shield, much to my dismay, flickered before abruptly disappearing. Out of reflex at the impending collision, I pulled at the Emerald pool, leading it back to power the familiar hexagon-shaped barrier that I was using previously, and saving me from having my head run through with a piece of metal rebar.

 It was thanks to both the quick reaction of the Emerald mana, and the small bits of Red mana lingering in my calves that I was able to force myself the rest of the way, my feet tripping over themselves as I exited through the back.

 Unable to properly reorientate in time, I braced as my body acted like a flat stone skipping over water, though that was probably over-exaggeration as the hexagon barrier kept me from harm and took the brunt of this tumble.

 As I slowly came to a stop, I groaned. 

 "God," I dragged my only hand down my face in annoyance, "I should really start being more careful where I test this kind of thing."

 Sighing, I let myself lay flat, just watching what should've been the night sky, its dazzling stars only visible to me when the sun should've been rising and the moon setting.

 Now, don't get me wrong, I don't hate or dislike the way it is now, hell, aside from the mana pools, it's probably one of the more useful things I took advantage of; seeing things in a bright setting instead of the intended dark one would help a lot with spotting things ahead of time.

 Grunting, I sat up before pushing myself off the ground, where I continued, instead choosing to walk and walk at a far slower pace for that matter, all the while continuing to think or pounder on the broken day cycle.

 It's pros and cons going bar for bar, with neither truly getting the upper hand on the other.

 But even when thinking of it, the pros and cons drew no interest from me, thus I was quick to drop that train of thought, instead opting to look in the distance, my destination popping into sight.

 Now, I've been here before, and I can say with confidence that I've looted most of the things inside, however, that statement was run through a bit before I packed up and left the last time, as exploring the empty halls had led me to find a secret underground section, its large and spacious room filled to the brim with sealed and stacked boxes.

 At the time of its discovery, I already had most of the things I was using to camp out there packed and ready for the journey back, so unless I wanted to go through the trouble of unpacking and setting everything back up, then the only logical option I could see at the time was to simply continue on with what I was doing, and go back another time, hence this little trip I was on now.

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 Sliding open the oversized hanger door, I stepped in, letting the door return back to its closed image, not a peep made with its closing.

 Silently praising whoever made it so silent, I continued on deeper into the winding blackened halls, a specific door lingering on the edge of my mind, its red and blue hues more noticeable than the paratha of grey counterparts scattered around the halls.

 After a bit more walking, the door in question came into view, its bright colors acting as a beacon in the dark.

 Walking up, I didn't even bother with caution and pushed the door open.

 Confident in my sense of direction, I started making my way down the ever-darkened hallway, even more confident I wouldn't slip or run into anything unexpected on the way down.

 Soon after, I was past the threshold, staring at the bountiful supply of boxes, all neatly stacked up to what I could only assume to be the ceiling.

 Grinning a bit, I pulsed the most cooperative mana I had, which resulted in many Emerald pulses dancing out from my position and spreading out in circular motions.

 Now if this wasn't familiar already, this was an ability I cooked up using a sonar as the base; its inspiration came from a book on ships I found and read a while back.

 Moving on, it wasn't long before the pulses had returned, each with their own slice of colored picture.

 It was after the last of them returned that I saw the full picture in all of its bright color; though said picture was nothing to behold as it was still just boxes.

 Speaking of boxes, I walked over and rested my single hand on its surface, after which, I used the ability I used a second ago on a far smaller scale, gathering the information on what was in it.

 I sighed while shaking my head; it was empty, in a sense; it was empty to me at least, as the only thing in it was a bunch of plastic toys that one would expect a baby to enjoy, and as one could tell, I was no baby, or a child for that matter, figuratively of course.

 Moving on from that, I started going box to box doing the same thing, only to be met with the same disappointment over and over again.

 It was after going through nearly every box my short body could reach that one brought hope to my ever-frustrating situation.

 Walking up to the finale box of the fourth row, I frustratingly slammed my palm against it, as a result of this, the box that once rested on a shelf was sent crashing into the wall a few feet away. Noticing my sudden increase in strength, I looked toward my arm, a familiar red glow emanating out from under the cloak.

 With a frustrating glare, I reached up and pulled the cloak to the side, revealing the Red butterfly dancing within.

 Scoffing, I let go of the cloak and closed my eyes; after a few seconds, I could feel my senses shift and contort, and when I opened my eyes again the once-boxy surroundings were gone, instead being replaced with nothing but a black void and a few seemingly random colors taking up residence in the center.

 Paying no mind to this sudden change, I walked up to the bloody red pool, watching as the violent and seemingly frantic waves bashed against the chains and walls holding it back.

 After less than a second of doing nothing but stare, I snapped my fingers.

 Not long after, multiple long and eerily black chains erupted from the void-like background; their forms fluent like water but harder than steal. Letting them linger, the Bloody Pool eventually took notice of their presence before settling down, letting the loose chains above it retighten.

 With a few more minutes of observation, I eventually snapped my fingers again, letting the chains that still lingered at my side fall back into the void they were formed from.

 Sighing, I glanced at the other pools, the Emerald Pool acting as it usually did, with calm and gentle waves to show its content. That much couldn't be said with its neighbor, layers upon layers of chain tightly woven together to form a strong enough cap for the pool of Tar under it, its violent and destructive form unrelenting in its attacks on its containment, yet never able to carry out this endeavor.

 Ignoring that mess, I looked at my personal pool, its contents holding an Amber liquid that seemed solid, with not even a small ripple to show it was actually still a liquid.

 However, this facade of gentle calm wouldn't work on me because, as I saw earlier, the sheer destructive capability was terrifying. Exciting, but still terrifying.

 Think of it as an Undertow current, you know, the ones that are super calm on the surface but highly chaotic underneath, so much so that if you were to get trapped in one of these, the most likely outcome would be suffocation as it pulls you deeper underwater to never see the light of day again.

 Shaking my head of the eerie description, I turned my gaze to the final pool, its Translucent liquid faintly mimicking the colors around it, its form constantly shifting from glassy red to glassy green and then glassy black, before finally ending on glassy amber where it would then restart the cycle, doing it all again.

 Over the past few months, I'd made some effort to try and understand what the pool truly was and what it was capable of, only getting minimal results in return for the endeavor.

 Sighing, I closed my eyes and woke up back in the unlit room full of boxes. Looking down at my shoulder, I made sure the glow of red had truly disappeared before making my way over to the fallen and broken box, its contents spread out on the stone floor.

 Reaching down to pick one up, I could only think of how odd it was to store what looked to be some pretty secure black cases in what was arguably an inferior container; but hey, I'm not one to criticize someone's way of thinking, so I'll keep that part to my quiet mind.

 Bringing it up to my face, I gave it a look over, doing my best to spot anything that might put a name to what this case was, or held for that matter; that part was pretty hard given how dark it was.

 After a few more seconds of looking, a sharp glint on the side of the case caught my attention, it's shin too cool looking for anyone with half a brain to ignore.

 Turning the case more to its left side, I caught the name, its form being the one to have reflected the law-defying light that didn't give a damn whether one could see it or not.

 "Standard?" I questioned as I read its name aloud.

 With my curiosity peaked, I squatted down before plopping the case on the floor, my aim being to discover what was inside and to satiate the newfound curiosity of mine.

 After flipping the case around a few times, I eventually had it upright, where I would then proceed to unlatch the two latches keeping the thing shut, revealing to me the utter disappointment that was foam, its form taking up the entire interior of it.

 Sighing, I clicked my tongue before flicking the case closed again and sliding it back across the concert floor, where I heard it come into contact with its most likely equally empty brethren.

 Standing, I turned around before walking back over to the shelves, from which I would continue on with my search for useful items in their confines, looking to get lucky with at least one of them.

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 Unknown to our little protag, something lurked close, its monstrous body toppling small trees as it walked through the forest, its form guided by what looked to be a burning red moth.

 With each flap of its wings, red and almost bloody liquids flew off, getting flung on its immediate surroundings, where this liquid would proceed to go alight, setting the things they landed on ablaze in crimson flames.

 Even worse, this pair wasn't going on at random, as not far in the distance was the very same warehouse our protag had entered a little while ago, her goal being to seek any supplies for her hinted departure, that way she may last her long trip into wherever she wandered.

 The behemoth bellowed as flames of crimson set it alight, but this didn't seem to bother the moth as it continued with its destructive flight, ignoring the blazing corpse behind it.

 With a single hind kick to the ground, the behemoth created a gust of wind strong enough to send out shock waves and sharp enough to put out the flames upon it, doing well to display the sheer power the thing held.

 As it continued on like nothing happened, we looked back to find that most of the trees had been put out, but toppled, their fate being left to decay.

 Truly a pitiful end, but one that wasn't in their control, nor could they have done anything about it.

 What will Clementine do in the face of such an opposing power?

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 It didn't take but a beat to feel its approach, nor did I need any time to think on what to do about it, because, by the time I could even register my own thoughts, I was blitzing down the hallway, my Emerald mana already putting up a sphere of hexagons in preparation for the inevitable clash.

 But don't get it mixed up, as my clash would be with the hanger door leading out, not with the monster slowly making its way over; I'm depressed, not suicidal.

 As I picked up the pace, I burst through the thin metal making up the door, where I then sprinted for the forest opposite of its presence, my aim being to lose him somewhere in the deeper parts, with the most likely place for such a thing to happen being the large and rapid river some miles in.

 "God, why me?" I spouted to myself, "I mean come on!? Surely there had to be someone else in the city for it to chase?!"

 She said, completely oblivious to the crimson flames eating away at the very city she spoke of, its overwhelming heat melting even the concert below it. It wouldn't be long before the city was nothing more than a pile of molten slag.

 Glancing back, I watched as distant trees shook violently before ultimately succumbing to the might of the beast and toppling over like a building block one would see a child playing with, except the aforementioned building block didn't weigh nearly as much as its raw variant, the weight in question able to send out large cracks of sound when colliding with the ground.

 My thoughts were interrupted as I, yet again, tripped over something before falling headfirst down a steep slope, the bottom of which contained what looked to be very pointy rocks; not a nice sight for sore eyes.

 Extending my arm, I managed to stop my descent by grappling a stray root, its form unbothered by my sudden appearance, nor the extra weight I added to it.

 Dangling, I cursed my luck before looking to the other side of the slope, where I found what looked to be an even vaster array of roots poking out, their forms also unbothered by my presence.

 Snapping my head back in the direction I was running from, I was quick to put my ear to the dirt, looking to listen for those heavy steps the beast made, all the while hoping the thing had lost me, and I nearly believed it had, however, that belief was quickly dashed as I could hear them prowling around in the far distance.

 Without a moment's hesitation, I turned and leaped from the root I was dangling from, looking to grapple the roots on the other side and climb up from there.

 But, considering my track record of bad luck, there was a 50/50 chance of that going extremely wrong very fast, so I could only hope that for my sake, I won that 50/50.

 And so, without any hesitation whatsoever, I planted my legs on the dirt wall behind me before drawing them into my core, and when my knees eventually reached my stomach, I pushed off with everything I had, letting go of the root in the process.

 Soaring through the air, I extended my remaining right before grappling onto the most sturdy root I could see, after which I made no stop and continued these fast-paced actions by using said root a slingshot, launching myself up and over the raven lip, where I landed on a bare and rough dirt patch.

 Not even bothering to look back and admire this accomplishment, I booked it down the simi empty path, only dodging the few trees I absolutely had to go around, or else I risked faceplanting into them. 

 After almost a full hour of nothing but running, my somewhat exhausted legs had slowed down, with the Crimson mana having taken its toll on both my calves and thighs for its continued use.

 But I chose to ignore the fact that I subconsciously applied it to myself, instead taking a little breather to let the Emerald mana fix up any damage that the Crimson mana inevitably caused.

 While I did this, my eyes drifted across the river to the other side, where I saw a lot of bare ground and an even more densely packed forest, with only the smallest of gaps to let light through. To put into frame how small these gaps were, I could stretch out my remaining arm and touch the tree next to the one I'd be leaning on.

 "Perfect," I said while standing up from the crouched position I had gone into sometime in the past few minutes.

 Still very aware of the thing still trying to make its way over, I stretched my now-healed legs before sighing.

 But don't get it wrong, this sigh had nothing to do with relief, instead bearing the weight of my dismay, as I not only had to get across, but I had to do it without falling in and getting swept up in the powerful current that inevitably lay below.

 Walking to the edge, I stood still, looking around for something on the other side that I could grab onto, and after a few minutes that felt like an eternity, my eyes eventually landed on a familiar object, its wooden exterior standing valiantly against the current, making the seemingly unstoppable flow bend around it.

 It was also very well camouflaged, as its background of taller brethren helped it hide in plain sight.

 Unfortunately, that background had done nothing to help it hide from my sight, and thus, my ticket to the other side was found.

 Crouching, I let loose some Crimson mana while chuckling to myself, as I couldn't help but notice my eternal monolog speaking as if everything in the world revolved around me. "An egoist eh?" I chuckled again, "Fitting."

 With that last word spoken, the tension I had been building up in my legs was let go, and I was sent flying into the air, my trajectory being the... Tree? 

 It was as I was flying toward the spot where the tree was that a sharp pain shot through my head, revealing the images of a few seconds ago when I was crouching and looking for a way across, I got a third-person view of what was happening.

 After but a brief second of looking through this perspective, my head all but snapped to where I was just at.

 And to say it left me frightened was an understatement, as standing there, just behind the trees was none other than the very monster I was running from, its chard and melted face watching as I pivoted into the waters below, all the while its features remained lifeless, not a spec of anything on its face.

 But I wish there were, and I wished it still had those terrifying bloody eyes because I could feel myself lose control of my bladder at the sight of the black pits where the red eyes used to linger.

 Moments before my head went under, I caught a glimpse of the last thing I would see before my world went black, and my mind blank.

 'A Red butterfly?'