Worlds In Limbo

"Even if Lord Acheros commanded me to fall back, I wouldn't. My lord bestowed upon him the abilities of Calamity so that he could see Calamities before we impose them, but he refuses! Calamity is a loop of finality and beginning, but he dares to think he can break it?!" The nameless was angry, ranting to two others as the energy covering his figure flared.

"Meh, I'm more annoyed that they confuse the both of us." This one shrugged, pulling back her garments as it got too close to the angry one.

Then, a clap echoed.

"Blah, blah, blah. No one cares." This one with no figure mocked, but the other two weren't amused. "Now then. I completed The Sundering. It's time for you two to act." He pointed his 'fingers' at the one with clothes and the one made of energy.

They nodded as the one with energy spoke. "Can we find somewhere that's better restored? This place is ruined."

The hotel room they were in was still somehow standing, but the furniture was destroyed and burnt. "Eh, good idea." The one with no figure agreed.

I gave that to him because I wanted him to learn, but he didn't. Nevertheless, this can serve as his Calamity.

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They surrounded the crackling bonfire as it flared from the passing wind. "It was a pebble...?" Rhian was holding a pebble filled with little black fading spots, turning it around as she inspected it.

"It was hard, but I managed to null your sense of fear." Kouki chuckled at his own statement while the red Runes lining his body crawled onto Gideon, spreading over to his left arm as they engraved themselves. 

"Why do you- Ack.. Why do you keep letting fear take over you?" Gideon questioned Rhian, wincing as he slowly cauterized his wound.

Rhian was taken aback before looking down toward the blazing fire. "I-I... don't know... I just- I just don't want to die...again." She muttered quietly, sighing heavily before she noticed her mistake. 'S-Shit!'

Her eyes darted at Gideon. "That's- That makes sense. I wouldn't like to die either," Gideon said with a melancholic tone as he slowly looked up toward the sky.

Then at Kouki. "...Death... is a luxury, I would say. It only comes when you're ready to be brought over. Even so, I understand you, Smyra." Kouki's only activated Rune was his 'sense of pain.' 'Alright... I almost blundered...'

The bonfire crackled, filling the desolate and incomplete forest with a little bit of life. Fog still weighed on the air, but it wasn't hard to breathe, and vision wasn't a problem. Rhian recalled it was still the afternoon, but the quiet 'night' this place provided gave them their much-needed moment of peace.

"So... what should we do now?" Rhian posed a question, which was answered with musing silence.

Kouki retrieved his Runes upon Gideon's request, standing up to look around. "There's a field." Runes surfaced over his eyes, allowing him to see a lot farther. "And a town...?" 

It was a unanimous decision.

They left the bonfire to finish, following Kouki's lead toward town. The forest was dense, but in comparison to Gaia, it was nothing. With a few sparks of Gideon's fire and slashes from Kouki, they made it through the forest.

"A road..." Kouki raised his eyebrow, looking left and right as he noticed a crater in the road with a flipped and destroyed truck stuck inside. "Stay here."

Kouki enchanted his leg, tightly grasping his glaive as he jumped down the crater. The back of the truck separated from the front, causing Kouki to think it was an Abberant, but the lack of a Sanctuary and the evident marks of explosions and flames disproved that theory. 'What in the hell is this place?'

He recognized the car model. It was one of the more popular ones that were used to haul food and other stuff, but why was it here? The driver and passenger seat were empty but bloodied. The car doors were still intact, but there were no remains of Humans anywhere. 

'There are traces of blood on the steering wheel and the dashboard... but where is the person? That 'Amalgamation' probably wasn't the cause of the disappearance. After all, the windows are intact.'

Kouki climbed out of the crater, quickly relaying the information to the two.

'A model he recognizes...? If this is actu-'

[This is Okinawa, Japan. Liminalis, Sanctuary of Chimaeras was largely built upon Asian and Japanese architecture.]

'W-What...? Wait... was I actually reborn in another world?'

[I am unable to relay the answer.]

Rhian's eyes widened. 'WHAT?! AM I ACTUALLY ON EARTH!?'

[I am unable to relay the answer.]

'W-Wait- then, it perfectly explains I felt Gaia was so eerily familiar! The trees, the buildings! EVEN THE PEOPLE! 'HUMANS'! A-Are they a copy- a replication?! Am I seriously in reality?!'

[You are, indeed, in reality.]

[The answers you seek are obtainable when he and she exact the next Seasons.]

' 'Next Seasons'?!' 

The panel of words broke apart before returning to a simple 'options.'

Rhian was horrified, but the constant questions flooding her mind halted as soon as Gideon called out to her. "Kurayami says the fields are up ahead." He gestured as he said, looking back to the front to follow Kouki.

"A-Alright!" She shook her head, pushing her anxiety toward the back of her mind as she quickly caught up to the both of them.

The road forward was similarly filled with potholes and craters, but there was an absence of life. Wrappers of food, empty tires, and entire car radiators were littered on the road, but no blood or anything that suggested life's prevalence.

"These are just... fields." Gideon pointed out the mundanity of the scene. It was a golden paddy field with some bald spots, but the large Abberant corpse lying in the middle of the field was an abnormality.

The trio walked up to it, noticing claw marks and a severed neck. 'There's.. blood.' Rhian pointed out that several wheats were stained with fresh blood, prompting them to get close before noticing a giant footprint in the road.

The footprint of an overgrown bear was ingrained into the ground, being bathed in the light of a lampost, somehow. Kouki spotted more footprints in the crushed fields in front of them, noticing an increase of blood in the paddy fields. "It headed this way."

[Equilibrium Shift has been activated!]

"It's still walking, slowly." Kouki's Runes surfaced, spreading all over his body as the ones over his ears fluctuated. "I hear faint drops of liquid... saliva or blood." 

Everyone tensed up as they heard, deciding to tail it silently.

"It's a bus?" Gideon whispered lowly, peeking over the wheat as they shook with the footsteps of the Abberant.

"Creatures of Chaos... After all." It was a bus, but it possessed the front legs of a wolf and the hind legs of a bear. The bus was its torso, but it didn't seem to have any organs, only the conventional passenger seats. No mouth and no arms, but it was somehow carrying the head of an Abberant on the bus, steadily walking on all fours through the road.

"This one is especially bizarre, however..." Kouki stood up from the hiding spot, startling Rhian and Gideon as he quickly ran to a paddy field beside the road the Abberant was traveling on.

'How did the head enter the bus?' Kouki questioned, while the other two silently caught up to him, ducking behind the wheat plants as they all intently observed. 

'It seems... docile,' Rhian thought, observing the calm yet heavy footsteps of the Abberant, she noticed it didn't possess anything to hunt with, and the head inside the bus was just there. 'Nothing is happening to it...'

Rhian stood up, alerting the two as she darted toward the Abberant. 'It's not attacking me!'

The Abberant stopped moving, noticing Rhian as it quickly lowered itself, blaring a deafening horn that startled everyone. 

'Is it telling me to board it?'