Echo of Awakening
Long ago, in a kingdom bathed in moonlight and magic, lived a noble brat named Kite Mota, with her sworn protector, Rikushi Ari, whom was a loyal guardian.
Due to an incident a few years prior, Rikushi became the protector of Kite. He cooked for her, protected her against dangers, and did many tasks whenever she asked.
“Riku Riku!” Kite tugged at his shirt.
“Yes Kit?” Rikushi replied, handing the cashier some coins.
“We’ll deliver the product to your cabin by tomorrow night” the cashier said.Rikushi nods and looks back down at Kite.
“The festival is tomorrow... so can we go get drinks tonight?” Kite asks, with watery eyes.
Rikushi sighed, taking Kite’s hand as they left the shop “I’ll notify the others, but only because the annual Festival of the Celestials is tomorrow.”
Kite jumps for joy as Rikushi deeply exhales.
~~~
The mugs hit together at the center of the table with a dull clunk.
“Cheers!”
“To another year with the gang!” A man says, chugging down his beer.
Another man slams his beer down, “Someone bring me another!”
“Rikushi, where’s your sword at, it’s rare to ever see you walking around without that thing” A man asks.
“I put in a order today to have it cleaned up, the tools at home just don’t do it for me anymore” Rikushi replies, “I also put in an order for new belt, B”
“Rikush~.. get me... another”,
“Dray, how are you already drunk out of your mind, we’re only a mug in.” Rikushi says.
Dray nods before slamming his head onto the table, still gripping hard onto the mug.
“He’s gonna be out the rest of the night.” Rikushi adds.
Rikushi senses movement to his left and quickly turns, only to see one of his friends hugging Kite, leaving him to sigh and turning back around.
“You’re sure protective of her, aren’t you”
“Blaidd don’t tease the poor guy” A woman says, in a pampering voice.
“I’m used it already, Sarah, B has always been like this.”
Rikushi glances over towards Kite,“How have you been Kite?” The friend asks,
“I’ve been alright! Riku has been taking care of me lots! How have yous been Alii!?” Kite asks excitingly.
Alii embraces Kite, “Has Riku been mean to you at all” she asks, nuzzling her head on Kite’s head.
Rikushi strikes a confused face, “Hey-”
“Alright everyone, what’s the plan for tomorrow!” Another friend asks, cutting Rikushi off.
“Was thinking to just stay home and sleep” Blaidd adds, crossing his arms, closing his eyes, and nodding.
“You’re no fun Blaidd!” The friend says, stomping the ground and pouting.
Blaidd lifts one hand, “Alright, maybe I’ll come for some of the food, ZoZo”
ZoZo’s face lights up, “Everyone else on board with the festival?!”
“Where are we meeting up at?” Alii asks,
ZoZo tilts her head, “Hmm... Let’s meet at Rikushi and Kite’s place!”
Rikushi sighs, “I’ll be getting groceries in the morning, so no can do”
Kite leans over to Rikushi’s ear, “Everything is shut down tomorrow, Riku-”
Rikushi sighs and exhales, “Fine... but you two need to get here early and help me prepare, Nebu and Yuna”
“Why me?” Nebu asks.
“Because you you and Yuna been all quiet since we got here, being all lovey dovey over there!” Alii adds in.
Blaidd lifts up his mug, “Ky, go grab me another”
“What!? Why me?!” Ky asks.
“Because, you’re the closest to the barrel” Blaidd answers.
Ky sighs then stands up, “Anybody else need another, Touko, Alistar, Dray- oh...”
“...huh...” Dray says, all groggy as he pulls his head up.
“You don’t get another.” Ky states.
“...why not...” Dray says, before passing out again on the table.
Sarah and Nebu raise their hands.
“Alright, 3 beers, be right back.” Ky mentions.
“I’ll need quite a few more until I feel better about getting dragged out to your place so early in the morning.” Nebu says, snickering towards the others.
“Seems like they’re closing up soon as the festival is tomorrow, so this’ll be your last one.” Touko mentions.
“Aw man, this is why we can’t have nice things.” Nebu says, putting his head face-down on the table.
plat
Nebu looks to his right to see Ky standing above him.
“Here’s your beer, the kitchen and barrels are closed.” Ky says, in a somewhat spiteful tone.
“It would be best if me and Kite returned early, so we can prepare for tomorrow morning.” Rikushi says, sitting up as he downs the rest of his beer.
“Aweee, do we have to?” Kite poutingly asks.
Rikushi puts down the mug, “It’s way passed midnight”
“WHAT!?” Kite yells.
“We’ll see you guys tomorrow” Rikushi says, waving with one hand and holding Kite’s hand with the other.
“See you Riku!” ZoZo yells, hanging over the back of her chair, drunk out of her mind.
After exchanging their goodbyes, Rikushi and Kite walk back towards their cabin.
“Did you have fun?” Rikushi asks.
“I did!”“...But I wish we could’ve stayed longer,” Kite mumbles, as she turns her head away, puffing her cheeks.
Rikushi chuckles as he stares up at the stars. “You ever wonder if the Celestials are watching over us?” he says, mumbling to himself.
Rikushi looks back down due to feeling a small tug at his shirt.
“You think Alii is doing okay?” Kite asks.
“Why wouldn’t she, she seemed alright at the party.” Rikushi replies.
Kite exhales loudly, “She obviously was still upset that Nebu chose Yuna over her.”
Rikushi softly scratches his face, “Oh... yeah, I definitely noticed that, haha”
“You liar” Kite says, in a teasing tone.
“Well, let’s get a good rest tonight and give her extra attention tomorrow so she doesn’t get too upset” Rikushi adds on, holding out his hand.
“I’ll try my best!” Kite adds, high-fiving Rikushi.
~~~
knockknock
...
knockknockknockknock
“Agh I’m Coming!” Rikushi yells, rubbing his eyes and using the walls to navigate.
Rikushi opens the door and blinks his eyes to adjust to the light.
“Rikushi! We’re all here!”
“ZoZo... It’s way too early, Kite isn’t even awake yet”
“Oh! Then I’ll wake her up!” ZoZo says, as she runs past Rikushi to go inside.
“Just let her be” Blaidd says, whilst yawning.
“You made me wake up to come ‘help’ but you’re not even dressed yet” Nebu exclaims.
Rikushi puts up his hand, “Give me 5 minutes”.
~~~ 5 minutes later ~~~
“It’s been 5 minutes, I’ll head there first”
“WAIT!”“I’m here... I had to help Kite find what she’d like to wear today” Rikushi says, panting as he leans against the doorframe.
“Are we all set!?” ZoZo excitingly asks, standing behind Rikushi.
Rikushi moves aside and gets a glace at Kite in her crimson and white dress.“You look good today, Kite” Rikushi says, with a soft smile.
“Ah-” Kite hides her face as she walks past ZoZo and Rikushi, then bumps into Alii.
Alii hugs onto Kite, “Look what you did to missy Kite”ZoZo walks over to them and hugs them both, “Rikushi is such a meanie, isn’t he guys”
Rikushi rolls his eyes then closes the door, “let’s get going”
“YEAH!” ZoZo yells.
Alii, Kite, and ZoZo stroll in the front, with Dray, Ky, and Sarah close behind them. Nebu and Yuna follow soon after hand-in-hand, with Alistar and Touko chatting about the latest armor line. Rikushi and Blaidd follow in the back, walking at a slightly slower pace.
“I’ve been getting a strange feeling recently..” Blaidd says, looking down.
“Like what, you feeling like you got a headache or something?” Rikushi asks, worringly.
“No... no not like that... something, beyond my understanding” Blaidd replies.
“You’re starting to scare me B-” Rikushi says.
Blaidd stops walking, which causes Rikushi to pause beside him.The group continues on ahead, unaware of Blaidd’s sudden panic attack.
“...B?”
Blaidd shakingly puts his hand on Rikushi’s shoulder, with an icey-cold being felt.
“Your magic is acting up-” Rikushi mentions.
“It’s here...” Blaidd says, slowly turning his head towards the distant kingdom walls.
Rikushi squints his eyes, looking in the direction Blaidd is staring at.
“What are you looking a-”
A low rumble is heard, cutting off Rikushi.
“Um... B-, do you hear that?” Rikushi asks.
“Yeah...” Blaidd answers.
A soft vibration appears, increasing in the amount the ground shakes with each passing second.
Rikushi notices a crack formed on the walls.
In the next moment, the wall exploded outward, stone erupting and fragments of rock tearing through the windless air.
Blaidd turns to Rikushi, steadying his shaking and mentions in a serious tone, “We need to run”
From the distant smoke, large shapes emerged, each with their own figure and size.Looking like twisted and chaotic beings, they poured through the hole in the wall.
“RUN!” Blaidd yells, as he pushes Rikushi forward as they run in the direction of the group.
“WHAT IS THAT!?” everyone yells.
“Guys I have a basement in our cabin we can hide in!” Rikushi tells, pointing at his and Kite’s cabin a couple hundred feet away.
As the group sprints together to the cabin, with Alistar and Dray taking the lead.
“WAIT WATCH OUT!” Blaidd yells as he puts his arms out to stop those behind him, as a twisted figure appears from behind a nearby house.
Without a moment’s notice, a quick cleave severs Dray in half.“DRAY!” the others yell.
Blaidd, freezing the ground at his feet, ducks down and charges forward.
“Wait B!” Rikushi yells, forming a fireball in his hand.
Screams are heard behind Rikushi, to which when he turns around, he sees Yuna’s head flying in the opposite direction of her corpse.
“GOSH DAMMIT!” Rikushi yells. “YUNA!!” Nebu yells after.
“EVERYONE RUN TO THE CABIN!” Rikushi demands, throwing the fireball at the weird figure.
Another figure appears, ending Alii where she stood.
The fireball covers the figure in flames, then Ky runs in and dropkicks it from its side, knocking it over. Rikushi places his hand on the figure’s disfigured and burned skin, “HOW ABOUT THIS!?” Rikushi yells, igniting the palm of his hand in a hot blaze.
Ky and Rikushi turn around to see Blaidd freezing his target in a flurry of ice.
Rikushi runs forward to get the third figure, with Ky behind him.
The figure moves one of its limbs, moving it frantically and unpredictably, quickly slicing Touko and Alistar.
“DIE YOU BASTARD” Rikushi yells, punching his fire-covered fist into the figure, with Ky punching with his fist covered in a razor-sharp wind.
“WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING US?!” Rikushi yells at the figure.
“⏃⎍⍀⟒⟟ ⏁⟒⎍... Caelthrys ⎍⍀⏃... ⟒⟒⟟...”
“Caelthrys?” Ky asks.
“I’ve heard that name before...” Blaidd mentions, shoving an ice-shard into the figure.“Some Celestial I read in a book somewhere... which makes sense for the weird figures...”
“Save it, let’s get inside-” Rikushi says, pushing them towards the cabin.As he pushes them, Rikushi gazes back at his friends’ corpses laying on the bloodied ground, he then grits his teeth and pushes onward.
They catch up with the rest of the group, with Rikushi picking up Kite, “Hold on tight” Rikushi says, speeding up.
A loud thump is heard behind him, in which when he turns around, he sees him and Kite split off from the rest, “BLAIDD, KY, GUYS!” Rikushi yells.
Rikushi looks around and sees more figures closing in, “GUYS YOU HAVE TO RUN AROUND NOW!”
“GO ON WITHOUT US!” Blaidd yells, backing the others up slowly.
“BUT B!” Rikushi shakingly yells.
“WE’LL FIND YOU AFTER!”
A single tears runs down Rikushi’s cheek as he turns around and runs inside the cabin.
Rikushi, still carrying Kite, sprints down the stairs into the basement.
When he reaches a desk covered in papers covered in weird symbols, he sets her down, moving the papers around.
“I-I hear them outside, Riku” Kite says gripping onto Rikushi’s shirt.
Loud thumps are heard with the sounds of breaking glass and wood.
“I found it!” Rikushi exclaims, as he holds onto a sheet a paper and a cleanly-kept book.
Kite’s grip tightens as Rikushi begins chanting.
“From dawn to dusk, life flipping the page...”
Thuds are heard at the top of the stairwell.
“...I call upon the law of a timeless cage...”
“Riku- they’re coming down”
“...Let my breath become a written line...”“...Let flesh be sealed in scripted time...”
The thuds become louder and closer.
“...No dawn shall break the captured name...”“...No age shall burn the page through flame...”
Kite throws a fiery-ball, igniting the bottom part of the stairs.
“...Within these words your life shall stay...”“...Unchanged, untouched, and unmoved by day...”
Kite drops to her knees as she cowers in fear.
“...I close the world, I turn the key...”“...Be bound in this living memory...”
Kite’s grip tightens as she fears death’s approach.
“...From bone to word, from soul to page...”“...Preserved forever, sealed in a timeless age...”
“RIKUSHI!!!” Kite yells, as a group of figures entered the room.
“...FORBIDDEN SPELL, ETERNAL INDEX!!”
A bright light flashes as Rikushi grabs onto Kite’s hand, swallowing them whole and blinding the figures.
When the light subsided, all that remained was an opened book on the ground, no being, no magic, only a small touch of smoke emitting from page that it was on, depicting a picture of two beings holding hands.
The figures looked around, then returned back up the stairs, as the presence of the living disappeared from this world.
~~~ Being sealed away, years passed without notice, the time flickered between day and night through the stairwell, the room collapsing around due to age. ~~~
~~~
As the kingdoms around crumbled, the war ended, with skyscrapers rising where castles once stood, technology advancing beyond what anyone could imagine.
Enter Toku Mei, a young man, renting out his first house, which happens to be a nearly-ruined building, with its roof being held up by sheer luck, a hole in the ceiling, and cracks in the wall, nearly at the point of crumbling.
Toku drops down onto the torn and overused mattress, “Made me skip breakfast for an interview of a job I didn’t even get” Toku then stands back up, “no food, no power, nothing at all out here in this god-forsaken place!” Toku yells, angrily kicking the wall.
A pile of stones in the corner of the room even out from the vibration of the kick, revealing a small hole in the wall. Toku leans down, moving some stones to the side to reveal a hidden cellar.
After clearing a path, Toku heads down, wielding a small dull knife.
“Oh, just some book shelves”Toku places the knife on a nearby desk, then walks towards the bookshelves.
thud
Toku looks down to see a book sliding across the floor after accidentally kicking it.
“Oops”
Toku walks over and picks up the book, he then flips through the pages in a hurry whilst looking confused “Why are all of these pages blank, what’s the point?!“.He then pauses as he comes across a weird page, reading aloud the sentences.
“Ink unbind... and page undo... break the seal that held you through... words dissolve and chains unwind... return to breath and return to time, Be Free”“Ha, what kind of magic wanna-be is that.”Toku then looks around with nothing happening, he then chucks the book to the side and starts going through the other books on the shelf.
Toku notices a small shine on his hands, promptly making him look to his right to see a soft glow emitting from the book.
He slowly and steadily picks up the book and opens it up to the glowing page. Upon arrival, the book starts throbbing in his hands, in which he drops on the ground and slowly backs up.
A flashing light erupts and takes up a large area of the room, making Toku fall down from the sudden flash, then he scoots back until hitting a wall.
“WHAT IS HAPPENING?!” Toku yells.
The light then swiftly dissipates, revealing two silhouettes.
“WHO ARE YOU!?” Toku loudly asks.
“I’d assume the figures are gone... thank you B-”“You aren’t B...”
“I’m Toku, T-O-K-U-!”
“Riku... look, the cabin...”
“Sorry it’s such a dump, it’s all I could afford with the housing market through the roof!”
“Thank you for extracting us from that spell... my name is Rikushi, and this is Kite.” Rikushi says, pointing at himself then to Kite.
“What were you doing in that book??” Toku asks, with a small shaking in his voice.
“We... agh-” Rikushi grabs his head, “Holy headache...”“We were attacked, our kingdom...”
“Kingdom? They still have those?” Toku mumbling asks himself.
“Sir may I ask if you’re apart of this kingdom?” Kite asks.
“I’m from the city, the one nearby...” Toku answers.
“Like a mining-city?” Rikushi asks.
“Like a skyscraper city...” Toku confusingly answers.
Rikushi and Kite look around confused, “What’s a skyscraper? Is that an artifact of some sort?”
A loud rumbling is heard passing overhead.
“WE’RE GETTING ATTACKED AGAIN!” Rikushi yells, forming a fireball in his hand and Kite latching onto him.
Toku slowly stands up, “Relax... That’s just an Skyline Unit, they fly over here a lot.” he says, slowly dusting himself off.
Toku slowly shuffles towards the stairs.
“Agh... how many days have we been trapped in there...” Rikushi confusing asks, holding his head.
“I’ve been renting out this place for a few months now... and I’m 99% sure you were NOT here during that time” Toku adds.
“Months..?” Rikushi’s sighs.
“Mister Toku... what year is it..?” Kite asks.
“1316 I believe” Toku replies.
“Wait... that doesn’t make sense, we were in the year 1600s...” Rikushi mentions.
“OH! I know they reset the years after The Great Reset, I believe it went up to about the 2200s.” Toku adds.
Rikushi’s eyes widen, “So we were sealed away for... 2,000+ years!?”
Without a second notice, Rikushi runs past Toku, going up the stairs. Kite slowly follows behind him, before pausing beside Toku, “Sorry mister... time doesn’t go by when sealed away... it was only a few seconds for us.”
Toku gulps, “Well then... let’s go find your buddy”
Kite and Toku make their way upstairs, sighting a frozen-still Rikushi.
“What’s wrong?” Toku says, looking at Rikushi, then he turns back towards Kite, “you guys look like you’ve seen a ghost..?”
Toku then looks in the direction they’re looking, “Oh! That’s the Eagle City, largest city in all of Novae Terrae, I even dream to work in one of the highest buildings.”
Rikushi, startled by the sight, finding how his kingdom is gone, and in its place stood a hybrid of steel towers and glowing lights. Flying vehicles travelled high in the sky, winding between the buildings, with flying airships escaping the sky’s reach.
Rikushi drops to his knees in utter shock, “It’s... all gone...”
“If... you guys need a place to stay... you guys can stay here...” Toku adds, with his words going unheard, as the terror in Rikushi and Kite’s minds overtook any other sight or sound.
Rikushi scopes his eyes around, only to see a large grassy field with small ruins popping out of the ground, all surrounding the large and dense city.
Rikushi clenches his fist, “They’re all... dead... there’s no way... they would’ve come and saved us...”
Rikushi grabs onto his head, shaking it around as Kite’s hand is felt on his shoulder, “Riku... please tell me it’s going to be okay...”
Rikushi stares at the ground, with tears welling up in his eyes, before looking up and screaming, “CAELTHRYSSSSS!!! I’LL KILL YOU!!!”
Awakening in a new world, with the help of the very man who freed them, they must navigate this new area... this new millennium.
Together, an unlikely trio sets off on an adventure to uncover what happened, where did everyone go, to find who’s alive, and to enact revenge on the Celestial that took away everything they had. All shall be done in this strange and unfamiliar world, inNova Terra.
Information:
Name: Rikushi Ari Magics: Fire Status: Alive
Name: Kite Mota Magics: Fire Status: Alive
Name: Toku Mei Magics: Wind Status: Alive
Name: Dray Von Magics: Water Status: Dead
Name: Blaidd Frostwalker Magics: Ice Status: Unknown
Name: Alii Dreave Magics: Dream Status: Dead
Name: Sarah Onin Magics: Nature Status: Unknown
Name: Nebu Aeter Magics: Void Status: Unknown
Name: Yuna Saki Magics: Cosmic Status: Dead
Name: Ky Yuki Magics: Wind Status: Unknown
Name: ZoZo Deptus Magics: Rock Status: Unknown
Name: Alistar Riven Magics: Cosmic Status: Dead
Name: Touko Renai Magics: Wind Status: Dead
Author’s Note: ′Information′ will be mentioned when needed or when new characters/magics arise per person.
