Rejoice!

-Alexis Lycan, 18 Years Old-

Standing inside of his bedroom, Alexis lets loose a heavy sigh. He eyes his desk, which was covered in various reports and requests, and sighs again. Lately, there was too much to do and not enough time to do it. He is thankful for the extra land he governed, just not the added paperwork that comes with it. What he needs right then is someone to help alleviate his workload. Someone who he could trust unconditionally to never betray nor stray from him.

Unfortunately for him, Sabrina is the perfect candidate, but her days are already too busy. As he stands there thinking, he eventually comes up with the perfect idea.

Alexis briskly walks towards one of the walls in his room and summons a shadow. It quickly spreads across the wood, its inky tendrils completely covering the surface. After a few moments, he can begin to see another location through the shadow. He's looking at his other room in Starfall village. Alexis grins and steps through.

-

Alexis is seated behind his rickety desk, drinking tea. It is fairly good, considering it wasn't brewed by Sabrina. Behind him stand Samantha, one of the two girls he had saved from the bandits. The two of them had recently completed their maid training and were taking care of the Starfall residence while Sabrina was away.

"The tea is quite good. I'm glad to see that you're improving." Alexis says softly, addressing the maid behind him.

Samantha's eyes flicker as she registers the compliment. A small smile flashes on her face before disappearing. Some scars still remain, deeply etched into her mind.

"Thank you, My Lo-...Alexis." She begins to reply before correcting herself halfway through. Alexis had told her to call him by his first name shortly after they first met. She often tries to formally address him, but he always gently corrects her.

Alexis smiles deeply and nods, clearly pleased to hear his name. Nowadays, he so rarely hears it spoken aloud.

As he sits there, contently drinking his tea, he feels a dark presence approaching the room. He recognizes it immediately and smiles again.

The door to his room opens without a knock and admits a young girl. Her dark hair is draped down her back in a loose style. She wears a black blouse and pants with a clock draped over one shoulder, an odd outfit for a girl as young as she.

"Hello, Claire." Alexis says to the newcomer with a small smile. The girl before him is the beggar girl who had been tortured and killed by the Oracle in that accursed cathedral. Somehow, he was able to revive her while in his maddened state. Now, she is soulbound to him and does whatever he requires.

Claire focuses her black eyes on Alexis but does not speak. She was already a quiet girl before her death, but now that she went through the experience of death and resurrection, she was now even more so.

As Samantha watches Claire's behavior, she frowns but says nothing. In her eyes, the young girl isn't giving her savior the proper respect he deserves. She does not know anything about the girl nor about what she went through.

Alexis feels the slight anger radiating off of the small maid behind him and grins. He turns and looks at her with an amused smile on his face.

"I appreciate you getting upset on my behalf, but it is quite alright. Claire is unique and means no disrespect."

Samantha blushes slightly and turns her head to the side. She is embarrassed that she had shown her emotions so easily. She decides to let the strange girl off the hook. After all, her savior and Lord asked her to

Alexis once again faces forward while resettling into his chair.

"Claire, I have a new assignment for you." He says softly with a gleam in his eyes.

The girl, clad in black, nods without saying anything.

-

- Angel Adams, 19 Years Old, Earth-

Angel sits in his room with a gaming controller in his hand. He is playing the latest Call Of Honor game that had just recently released. He had just got off of work and is relaxing at home after a hard days work. After a monotonous week, he wants to enjoy the scant few moments he has to himself.

He had worked a few extra hours of overtime to afford the new game, and he is determined to enjoy it.

Angel so rarely had time to unwind nowadays. He had opted to stay home after he graduated high school, electing to instead help look after his younger sister. Their father had run out on his mother after the birth of his little sister. His mother is a gentle woman who struggles to provide for the impoverished family. Seeing this, Angel forwent college and went straight into the workforce to help with the family finances. It was a large burden for the young man. But one that he readily bears.

As he sits in a chair and plays the game, his sister barges into his room without even knocking. She prances over to his bed and plops down, texting on her phone.

"Whatcha doing?" She asks without looking up. She dislikes being by herself, so she often forces her company onto her poor older brother.

Angel looks at his sister and sighs deeply. Despite it being a common occurrence, he still gets vaguely annoyed whenever she does this. Though admittedly, the annoyance lasts only a few scant seconds. The two siblings are close after all.

"Playing a new game. Want to try?" He asks, thrusting the controller towards his sister.

She peels her face out of her phone to stare at the screen before shrugging and tossing her phone to the side. Whenever she plays video games, she wants no distractions whatsoever.

"Sure." She says while sitting up in his bed and grabbing the controller from his outstretched hand.

-

About 30 minutes later, while they were both engrossed by the game, there is a steadily building rumbling throughout the room.

Angel feels this and looks around in concern. Something is clearly wrong. Perhaps it's an earthquake. As he sets aside the controller and turns to his sister to speak, a bright light flashes in the room.

Intricate lines and glyphs appear on the floor and continue up the walls and onto the ceiling. The lines intersect and cross, creating a beautiful pattern. The lines grow brighter and brighter, blinding the two siblings.

"Amelia!" Angel yells, calling his sisters name. He fumbles around blindly in the room before finally latching onto her arm and pulling her to him.

"What the fuck Angel?!" His sister, Amelia, yells while clinging to her brother. "What the hell is going on?!"

Before he can answer, a booming voice permeates throughout the room. It is angelic and terrible at the same time. Beautiful yet disturbing.

"Come, my dear Hero. You have been chosen. Rejoice!"

When the light in the room fades away, the two are gone and the room is completely empty.