Black on White

"Your profession? Just leave it blank, you aren't part of any division yet, so you don't really have one."

I followed his advice and left the line blank, then came to the last one.

Name.

I didn't have one.

Numoral called me 'anomaly' when he wanted my attention, but I don't want to be called that for more than what is necessary.

However, I had already decided what I wanted to be called.

Alias.

Simple and short, and to some extent represented me as well.

The receptionist took the paper and put it into a drawer.

"Thank you, you are now a registered guest at our hotel."

I nodded at her and looked at Eric.

I picked up the key from the table and held it up to his vision.

"Congratulations."

I held up my hand for her to stamp my palm.

Once that was done, I found my way to my room with Eric trailing me.

I opened the door and looked inside.

"Well then Mr.Alias," Eric called out to me.

"If there is nothing else, I'll come tomorrow to pick you up for the next part of your initiation."

"Are you leaving?"

"I have some work to attend to, but if you need anything, just give me a call."

I nodded, and he left.

I closed the door and looked around the room.

It was... good looking at the very least, and it looked well-maintained.

I put my brand-new bag on the table and plopped myself on the bed, sinking into the mattress.

I stayed there for a few minutes, thinking about the day's events.

"I'm hungry." I declared to the air, then got up and descended to go and get myself a meal.

***

The next morning, I stood outside of the entrance and waited for Eric to arrive.

It took a few minutes for him to arrive.

"Sorry about that, got distracted by something."

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and offered me an apology.

"It's alright."

He sighed, relieved that I wasn't offended by his late-ness.

"Are you ready? Have you had breakfast?"

I hummed in the positive.

"Okay? Shall we go then?"

Another hum.

"Before we leave, one thing I should ask."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Do you want to take the way we came here and go slowly, or would you rather I call transport and get us there a dozen times faster?" 

I wondered if the transport was the thing that flew over us yesterday.

"Call transport." I made my decision and informed Eric, who nodded and pulled out a black, object that I recognized as a phone.

It had marks of use, unlike the one he had given me yesterday.

He didn't call anyone, but he did tap many times.

He then stood still for a moment, looking at something.

"Please wait for a minute for it to arrive."

He turned to me and spoke.

I nodded.

A few moments passed as we stood in silence, waiting for whatever was going to arrive.

He seemed a little uncomfortable with the silence, so I just stared directly at him to see if could understand why.

For some reason, he squirmed.

I was about to ask him what was wrong when the sound of something moving through the air appeared in my ears.

I turned to the side to see a man dressed in a suit and tie carrying a small handheld suitcase.

"Transport's here." I heard Eric speak so I turned to look at him.

I conveyed my question through my gaze and a 'hm?'

He answered my unspoken question, but by speaking to the recent arrival.

"Open it up, will you?"

The man nodded and tossed the suitcase onto the ground.

When it hit the ground, it opened up, but not in the way I was expecting.

It unfolded, all of it transforming into a black square with a side of about 4 meters.

He climbed on it and gestured for me to do the same.

"He will control this," Eric spoke, gesturing to the sheet. "And take us to wherever we want to go."

He looked at the man who had his palms on the sheet.

"They provide the service for a small fee. A lot of people use it."

A blue glow enveloped the edges of the sheet, and a transparent cube covered us.

We started to lift off from the ground when a beep sounded from three different directions.

Eric pulled out his phone as I did the same.

Our movement stopped as the controller looked at Eric.

Eric clicked his tongue.

"To the site please."

The man nodded, and we started moving again.

"Sorry about this." Eric apologized to me. "but I can't leave this alone, it's part of my duty."

I nodded and looked down at my phone, which was displaying a map, with two notable things on it, my position, and a red dot, which we were now approaching.

'Is it a corrupted?'

A piece of information I had learned went through my head, and I recalled the time I had learned about it.

I had been brought a small cage, with a black misty object inside it.

"Are you curious?" Numoral had asked me, and shook the cage, causing whatever was inside to emit even more mist.

I nodded.

"This is a part of a corrupted spirit." He continued speaking when he saw my confusion. 

"Corrupted spirits are formed souls that have been completely consumed by negative energy. They feed on other spirits, absorbing them and turning them into their strength. Most of them are in Noxtheīa, but some of them make their way out of there due to spacial tears."

He had frowned after that.

"There have been more and more tears recently, but that's due to the expansion, something that we can't avoid."

I looked at the creature as we landed on a roof.

It was five meters tall, and wreaking havoc on everything it could see.

Eric leapt off of the roof and into the air above it as a sword appeared in his hands.

A glow appeared on his sword and he swung down, launching a wave of energy from his blade.

It cut into the creature's shoulder, and it screamed as a black liquid emerged from its wound.

It looked up just in time for Eric to drive his sword into its face, cutting its head into two.

Its screams stopped and it collapsed into a building, toppling over a bed inside it.

A memory struck me and I jumped down, much to the worry of our transporter.

I walked up to the creature that was now dissipating into the air and placed a hand on it.

Suddenly, the entire body was pulled into my hand.

"What...?" Eric was dumbfounded. "Did you just absorb the Cor? How did you do that?"

I looked at my hand, which now had a large black four-pointed star in the middle of my palm.

"Change of plans," I said in a calm voice, contrasting with Eric's. "Please drop me at the R&D building."

"Okay...?" Eric was still confused, but he didn't ask questions, he just waved for our transport to come down and informed him of the change in destination.