"What's the Void?"
That was the question Connor had asked his father when he was little.
"Curious, are we? Well...it's the unknown. A nightmare dimension that is said to coexist with our world. But it's just a legend so don't worry about it. Anyways, how's school?"
"Fine. I've made friends with commoners."
"That's good to hear. We don't want you to end up like an arrogant snob. As nobles, as House Gardeva, we have a duty to use our privileges to serve the people. Some say that noblesse oblige is condescending, but it can be good."
Those were fleeting days. Now, years later, his father was currently in prison for the exploitation of low-class workers.
What a hypocrite, thought Connor.
The bright sky's sun shined on his dark blond hair.
He got up from the grass where he was sleeping and walked out of the mansion's gardens. Four hours of mana practice had amounted to little progress and had exhausted him.
In the living room, his mother had a traveling bag. "I'm leaving the capital to go visit some family. So, take care."
She turned towards a little girl sitting in front of a puzzle. "Come on, Lyra. And don't forget to say bye to your brother."
As his family left in a carriage, Connor thought about the Aether Festival, a once-every-ten-years event that was coming up later in the evening.
I wonder if some S-rank mages are gonna show up?
He grabbed a sketchbook. His drawings were average, but he was practicing for almost a year. The inside of the mansion was generic, what you'd usually see in a noble's house. The heating system was off, so the cold autumn air seeped in. His family's wealth had severely declined since his father's downfall, but he didn't really care.
After a while, Connor sneaked out, avoiding the mansion's two servants.
***
The streets of Centuria were alive: bright banners fluttered in the wind, an ocean of people wandered around, stalls selling different mana products and foods were set up, etc. Connor met up with his friends. They wandered around a lot, before heading to a duelling event.
I only have two friends...but it's not that bad, thought Connor as he walked towards the duel arena.
"Do you want to bet on who's gonna win?" said Anthony.
They walked past some commoners who talked amongst themselves while glancing at Connor.
I don't really care that much about social class and bullying is uncommon now, but I've seen nobles harassing nobles, commoners harassing commoners, and so on. There's levels to this.
"The one who's most famous, obviously," responded Kazuto, a tall Asian guy, before continuing, "Or maybe the weapon with the most aura. But, I would prefer a battle between C-ranks or higher...I'm tired of lame ass duels."
"You're so spoiled. We should be glad we can even see duels between professional mages for free," sighed Connor.
"Spoiled? I'm not the noble here."
Connor rolled his eyes, before stepping into the large arena. Multiple battles were ongoing in their respective sections.
The three guys sat at the only section with available seats: an E-rank duel.
The fight was between a brawny man with iron gauntlets and a bearded man with a staff. They both wore light armour. A small tension distorted the atmosphere as they both charged up with mana.
In this world, mana can only boost speed, strength, agility, stamina as well as create forms. The real power comes from Arcane Armaments (weapons and armour that enhance mana to generate elements and spells) that certain mages are compatible with. No weapon is more powerful than the other, or so they say...but it's true that it's mostly the skill and hard work of the owner.
The mage knight hit the ground hard as modest flames erupted from his gauntlets. The mage jumped back and aimed his staff at him. Connor munched on some popcorn.
There were cheers...but they were coming from the other battles in the arena. The Mage conjured a barrier of stone that blocked a fiery punch. But then, a piece of broken-off rock hit his foot. He dropped his staff and fell to the ground, clutching his leg exaggeratedly. A look of frustration crossed the brawny man's face as the flames in his gauntlets died down. The bearded man got back up and pointed his staff, but nothing came out so he started swinging his staff as he jumped around. The fight turned into a hit-and-run.
"This shit is so ass," muttered Kazuto.
The brawny man must've had super hearing, cuz he turned to face the three boys in the crowd.
"Excuse me? What did you just say?"
Anthony stood up and intervened. "We're sorry, sir. He didn't mean to-"
"I'm working my ass off for some minimum wage and now I get mocked by some kids? That's it."
Well, shit. We all know where this is going, thought Connor.
Connor, Anthony and Kazuto were a bunch of 14-year olds with F-rank status...so the E-ranked man would definitely beat the shit out of-
They ran.
He's probably gonna say: "Come back here, you bastards!", thought Connor.
The man jumped into the crowd. "Get back here, assholes!"
Nevermind...but I almost got it.
The three boys got separated as they ran into the streets. Connor approached a stall while panting tiredly.
"Sir, might I interest you with a mana knife?" asked the vendor, a middle-aged woman.
Did she just call me "sir"? Wow, I feel like an adult, thought Connor.
She showed him a fancy knife with a blade made of blue metal, enlaced with silver patterns.
The boy almost considered buying it, but then he saw the price. "Do you have something more lowkey?"
Connor walked through the crowd, trying to rejoin his friends. The mage knight probably lost interest and gave up on assaulting them up. He purchased a simple black blade. It was forged with obsidian, mined from the mid-levels of a dungeon. It was a decent knife for the price of eight silver coins.
A voice erupted near a food stall. "Tteokbokki for five copper coins! Try this excellent street food from the Eastern Continent!"
A nearby vendor scoffed. "Five copper coins?! Don't eat that overpriced shit. You should eat local! For three copper coins we have-"
Connor was suddenly interested with the food stalls, but then he opened his wallet.
I'm not hungry anymore.
As he approached the more crowded areas, Connor saw displays of Arcane Arts that truly befitted the name Aether Festival.
A mage was controlling a large wolf made of ice, with cold mist in the autumn air. Her mana tool was in the form of bracelets that flowed like branches.
Geo mages were sculpting large statues, shifting them into heroes and beasts.
On a stage, a mage specialized in the nyx affinity was teleporting the spectators around with shadows.
He saw some famous, up-and-coming mage knights surrounded by swarms of people.
"Woah, it's really the Spear of Venti! Congrats on getting to B-rank. You always wore a helmet so I didn't know you were a girl."
The mage knight went on to sign autographs with a tired smile. Suddenly, a guy pushed past Connor, before launching a fire ball at the mage. She reacted quickly, holding out her hand to fire a gust of wind. Her spear was probably inside of her dimension ring, but it could still attack by launching mana through the ring.
"GYAAAAAAAAH!" yelled the attacker in a goofy voice as the wind mixed with the flames and hit him, lighting his body on fire.
The mage knight panicked. "Shit! I didn't mean to- Quick, we need someone with aqua mana!"
The nearby mage knights were surrounded by people and couldn't intervene quickly.
A blast of water put out the flames as the man fell to the ground, unconscious. The source came from a woman-
Oh, no.
The mage knight turned towards the aqua mage. "Thank you so much! He caught me by surprise and- well, I didn't mean to go that far with my anemo!"
"It's no problem. There's a lot of crazy people during festivals like these. We gotta be care-" said the woman, before noticing Connor.
She dragged him away from the scene, towards a less crowded area.
"Monika...Can you let go of me? People are staring."
The maid was in her late teens, a college student earning a decent pay at House Gardeva. "Young master-"
"Can you please stop calling me that? It's so cringe."
"Very well. Then, Mr. Gardeva-"
"Just call me by my first na-"
"I told you not to leave the manor. What if something went wrong back there?"
Connor sighed. "There was a B-rank mage so there wasn't any danger. Stop being overprotective, it's almost comical."
"I'm just following your mother's orders."
"Oh, yeah. You're also B-rank, right? Between you and that Spear Knight, who wins?"
Monika looked at him with her intense green eyes. "I'd win."
Two people were walking towards them in the crowd. It was Kazuto and Anthony.
Kazuto's eyes lit up as he saw Monika. "Woah, Connor. Is that your maid?" He turned towards her, "Is it true that maids follow any order? As a friend of your master, can I ask you to shower with me?"
She curtsied sarcastically. "I respectfully decline."
"Hahaha. Just kidding," laughed Kazuto.
Anthony looked at the dark-haired boy with exasperation, before pushing up his glasses. "The Archmage of Centuria will be holding an event soon. Let's go there."
"I'm hoping it's not some lame ass speech. The guy's powerful, but he seems arrogant and boring," said Kazuto.
Just like you, thought Connor, although he didn't have the guts to say that corny insult out loud. After all, Kazuto was on the stronger side of F-rank.
"Well, now that you're with them, I guess you're safe. I'll be going now," said Monika with a relieved look, "I was supposed to meet my friends at the Ark Bridge."
Connor got confused, before noticing that she was wearing casual clothes, not her maid uniform. "Wait, you're at this festival to have fun?"
She smiled. "Yes, I have a social life. See you and have fun, young master."
Connor facepalmed before walking towards the Archmage's event.
***
The Archmage of Centuria stood at the balcony of the City Hall building, which was located in the middle of the capital, elevated over all other structures. He was far away, but large mana screens were set up, floating across the city to display the mage. He was in his sixties with grey hair and a hardened look. His voice was also augmented with a spell:
"Citizens of Norva and friends from every region of the world...Welcome to the AetherFestival-"
Connor lost interest in the speech, his attention was focused on sniping small stone golems with a wand at a stall. After five minutes, he felt too old to be playing at a game booth and returned his attention to the speech.
"-Which is why...today, on the celebration of mana, I welcome the Elven King and a Demon Lord, both representing their two races."
Anthony and Kazuto turned to look at each other as a multitude of gasps filled the festival. Connor froze in surprise.
A tall man with pointed ears stepped out of a grand door to stand next to the Archmage at the balcony. An eight-foot-tall giant of a man soon followed and, although the horns on his head gave away his race, he wore a suit which made him look like a politician. A huge tension filled the air, people began shouting. Some of the surrounding guards also looked confused. Humanity was currently at peace with the elves (although the elven kingdoms had huge tariffs), but the presence of a Demon Lord was what shocked everyone.
"It is time for the Norva Kingdom- no, THE WORLD to make peace with the demons. For now, I have invited the Norvian Archmages and they're on their way to this grand festival-"
The Archmage then explained that humanity needed to forgive the demons and to put the years of war behind them. Although, it was true that there hadn't been any major conflicts between demons for the past ninety years.
Connor was a sheltered kid who didn't really know anything about the real world, but even he had to admit that maybe it wasn't a bad id-
Then it happened.
The Archmage had offered ceremonial blades on a plate, a part of Centuria's tradition. But suddenly, in the blink of an eye, the Elven King and the Demon Lord were both standing close to the old man, both of them had plunged the gifted blades into the mage. Then, they disappeared as if teleported away. The body of the Archmage of Centuria fell down the balcony with a thud.
Nobody had time to process it all. They all stood frozen. Connor heard Anthony letting out a panicked shout next to him, as deafening screams soon followed. The boy stood frozen as a sea of people started running away from the scene. The guards were rushing towards where the Archmage fell, but they were more focused on controlling the large crowds.
What the fuck just happened?
Kazuto shoved Connor away from a horde of running people. "We have to get out of h-"
The ground started shaking, making the shouts grow louder as-
Crack!
Surrounding building collapsed, raining debris on the citizens. The rumbling intensified, making the Centuria City Hall collapse into itself...as if it was pulled into something. Dark energy shot into the sky. Once the dust cleated, a mass of dark energy loomed where the City Hall once stood.
Black hole, thought Connor.
It was a concept he remembered reading about at school. A zone with intense gravity, trapping everything within it, even light. Connor snapped out of his trance and saw that a huge, dark rift had opened itself on the ground where the City Hall once stood...and it was spreading, as if swallowing everything in its way. He was still far away...he could outrun it.
In the streets, carriages were crashing into people as mass panic ensued.
"Over there!" shouted Kazuto.
Near the canal, there was a group of mages with powerful auras...the Archmages from across Norva, probably having just arrived at the scene. They listened to the explanation of the panicking people, their expressions darkening as they noticed the chasm in the distance, spreading across the land. Soon, spatial spells were set up, they were planning on teleporting as many people as possible away from the capital.
A silver-cloaked man approached them before they could step into one of the circles. "There are no spaces available."
Connor, Kazuto and Anthony's expressions mirrored each other: uncertainty and fear.
Then, the Archmage looked into the distance; his eyes widened, before he teleported away along with his colleagues and the few hundred people in the circles.
"Wait!" exclaimed Kazuto in confusion before turning around.
Large humanoid creatures, shrouded in flaming shadows were rampaging throughout the streets. Connor looked up to see them landing from the sky...as if they were jumping out of the rift...fortunately, they were still a few kilometers away.
His mind was racing: A dark rift in the ground....unleashing monsters and devouring everything in its way....no, it can't be...is it the Void?!
The people nearby panicked and continued running away from the devouring darkness. Connor looked at the section of sky near the rift, it was darkening in an unnatural way, as if affected by the abyss.
Kazuto turned towards where the Archmages once stood. "Weren't you guys S-ranks? Couldn't you defeat those monsters? Fucking cowards! You're all a bunch of frauds!"
"We don't have time to complain! Come, on! We need high ground!" shouted Anthony.
Connor thought that, although Anthony only pretended to be smart, right now, he actually came up with a good idea.
The rushed into a nearby building and quickly climbed up the stairs, reaching the roof.
Kazuto fell to his knees. "What's even happening? Is my family even okay?"
"So, your idea is for us to travel on the roofs. We'd avoid being crushed by the horde of people," said Connor, still not believing that what was happening was real.
Down below, he saw a bunch of mages fighting off the shadow creatures. Among them, he thought he recognized the Spear of Venti and...Monika.
Anthony jumped in surprise as a mutilated body hit the side of the building like a bullet.
"Come on, I'll use my geo mana to generate a stone bridge. One of you will need to support me," he said.
Kazuto quickly went to Anthony's side and put a hand on his shoulder. The bespectacled boy then held out his arm, which had a mana bracelet and lifted some stone to form a bridge to the next building. Kazuto had an affinity to pyro, but his mana still enhanced his friend's. They both crossed the bridge, before waiting for Connor. Once all three were on the next roof, Anthony got ready to release the bri-
"Wait!" yelled a voice.
A group of six people came out on the roof.
A young man with brown hair pleaded to them. "Please let us go with you."
Connor looked at the surroundings. The shadow was fast approaching. Further away, he saw other people running on the roofs, but they were quickly swallowed by the Void. He also heard the sound of a steam engine and, looking far below into the distance, he saw that the city's train couldn't outrun the darkness as it tumbled into dark nothingness.
"There's not enough time! Let's go," said Connor.
Kazuto nodded.
"We have to save them. Kazuto, don't you dare stop sharing mana," said Anthony with a determined look.
The people crossed the bridge, before it collapsed.
Anthony and Kazuto looked exhausted.
"I can share mana with you," said the young man.
They used the bridge technique to cross again. But the Void was looming even closer.
"Come on, we need to quicken the pace," said Kazuto, before turning around.
The tall boy stood still. Gasps and screams were heard on the roof. One of the humanoid shadow creatures was fast approaching, crawling on all fours across the roof. Upon closer look, it was unnaturally large, with long limbs and a distorted face.
The young man, Connor and Anthony all supported the stone bridge. The six others quickly ran to the next roof.
Anthony pushed up his glasses, covered in sweat. "We can do this. There's still-"
The shadow creature suddenly dashed on the roof, with a quick movement, it slashed across Anthony, ripping him into pieces. The dark monster began devouring the corpse.
"Ah....AAAAAHHHH," screamed Connor.
The brown-haired man also let out a scream as he ran to the entrance that would lead him down the stairs. Connor quickly followed him, a chill going down his spine every time he heard the thing take a bite out of his friend's corpse. They descended two floors, before Connor had an idea.
"We could jump from the windows. I saw a ladder on the other building!" yelled the boy.
They reached the open-windows and , sure enough, there was a ladder. Connor channeled mana into his legs and jumped. He barely reached the ladder. Turning around, he saw the man preparing to jump-
The shadow creature appeared, then ripped the man apart.
Connor quickly climbed the ladder. On the roof, he saw that Kazuto and a few people were already on the next building. A middle-aged man and a boy his age were using anemo mana to propel someone with wind.
"I can't use anemo for long...my mana's almost depleted," mumbled the middle-aged man, his eyes were teary from fear.
Connor shared some mana, as they pushed the boy to the next building. Then, the man propelled himself, leaving Connor alone on the building.
"What?" exclaimed Connor.
"Sorry," mumbled the man.
The boy could hear Kazuto shouting in surprise. His friend grabbed the man.
"What're you doing? Go back there! Why did you leave him there?!"
"How about you go there? I need to save mana."
"My affinity isn't anemo!"
"That's not my problem."
Connor couldn't hear them clearly because of the sounds of destruction, the screams and the clash of fighting all round the city.
Kazuto and the man began arguing. A few people stepped in and shouted their opinions. Finally, Kazuto looked at Connor with a sad expression, before turning away in shame. They used wind to push themselves to the next roof. They went further and further away.
I don't blame you, thought Connor.
A shadow loomed over him. It was the humanoid. Connor closed his eyes, before hearing a hiss. He opened his eyes to see the monster evaporate into gas, as if reabsorbed by the Void. He sighed in re-
A large, bird-like creature grabbed him and lifted him into the air. It had grey feathers and glowing eyes. Streams of shadow came out of it. The creature opened its beak, revealing a set of deformed teeth and, there were eyeballs on its tongue. In a panic, Connor, grabbed the knife he bought during the festival, which he kept on his belt and slashed at it. The massive bird screeched as shadows poured out of its wound. It let go of Connor.
The boy was plummeted through the air. He was frozen in fear, as if accepting his death. He looked down at the city as wind hit his body. The dark rift was spreading throughout the city like a large dot of ink on paper.
The sky darkened as the Void approached. The boy closed his eyes as he hit the ground, but he didn't hit a solid surface. Instead, he fell into the Void.