Silence. That was all that encompassed the world around me. A dark, menacing silence. There was no light, no sound, no feeling. Just an emptiness that stretched out infinitely. Farther than the eye could see.
No body, no mind, no feeling—I was just there. There wasn't a single thing that tethered my experience, nor was there a single thing that gave me the feeling of being alive.
But there wasn't anything that gave me the notion I was dead either. No spirits, no pain, no light.
There was nothing. A limbo, as if I was in-between both life and death. Maybe it was because there was no feeling in this empty void that I didn't start to overreact. I couldn't see my own body, if I had one. I tried to open my mouth, but it was useless; I had no mouth to be opened.
I was truly just a part of the darkness. Another part of the shadows that consumed this world without light,
What is this?
My thoughts were neither muddled nor clear. I was trapped in an in-between, unable to even feel.
And that's when light slowly began to explode into the world. Not explode.
At first there was only one strand. One single thread that shot its way out of the eternal darkness. With nothing else but the darkness to compare it to, the thread seemed to be both moving infinitely fast and not moving at all. The thread was brilliantly bright, and it was in a range of color that wasn't quite white, but not quite any other color either. The thread pierced through the fog of darkness like a knife through butter.
Still, the iridescent thread gave off no sound. I wanted to reach out to the radiant thread that gave off a warm glow, but I had no hands and no physical form.
If that was the case, why was I able to feel the warmth of this thread?
The thread continued to shoot off into the darkness before, slowly, it began to split. Like the branches of a massive tree, the thread split, and then split again, and again, and again. In an instant the once dark void now transformed into the backdrop of a work of art too beautiful to be real. It was as if I was staring at a watercolor painting brought to life in extreme detail.
From the one single thread, hundreds of thousands—no, billions; no, even more than that. An uncountable number of divergences occurred from that one thread, and from each new thread, another uncountable number of divergences occurred, and so forth.
It was impossible to count. to even fathom. An array of spider-like webs etched across the world around me, so large that I was sure looking upon it could drive a person insane. A massive web of iridescent glowing light that was still branching off. Still diverging for what felt like forever.
I was about to lose myself in the unfathomable web of threads when I noticed it. At the very center of the darkness. There was a figure. I couldn't get a gauge of anything telling, like height, features, or outfit. All I could see was a figure in the darkness.
In their hands was a glowing blade that had the threads wrapped around it. They moved their arms like the conductor of an orchestra, and with every swing of their arms, more and more lines were twisted together and separated. He alone manipulated all of the infinite threads in the air.
Weaving them together.
Tearing them apart.
The sole conductor of the infinite rainbow sky.
With one dramatic flourish, the figure ended their show. As they did, one singular thread fell and wrapped itself around their neck. The figure then turned, and I got a look at them. I couldn't make out anything except for the eyes. Radiantly shining black eyes, if that made any sense. Inside of the black pupils were flecks of gold so bright they shined like stars. It was as if the eyes themselves gazed upon the universe. Their gaze encompassed stars and galaxies whole, leaving nothing unseen.
Despite the fact that my body had no physical form, I could feel their transcendent gaze land upon me, and I could feel the air quiver. If I had a body, I would have been shaking at the moment.
And then in a moment of pure horror, the infinite threads within the sky seemed to all turn towards me. As if they had sensed my presence. They shot out, wrapped around my nonexistent body like vices, holding on tightly. They squeezed my wrists, my ankles, around my arms and shoulders, and a thread wrapped itself around my neck.
Suddenly, I was no longer just a formless bystander watching the brilliance of the rainbow sky in front of me. I had been given a body, one that was being devoured by the threads of radiant light imprisoning me.
When I looked up, the figure had moved closer, standing right in front of me. They were tall, and they wore an old-school black tailcoat suit. Their eyes appeared even more ethereal than before, and their skin was glowing brightly. Their hair was glowing the same color as the golden threads that kept the both of us bound now.
Now we were both trapped, imprisoned in the beautiful and otherworldly golden web. The man's blade was still at his side. He raised it into the air and brought it down in a slash, aiming to slash through the thread that bound us.
When the glowing blue and gold blade was only inches away from slicing straight through the thread, however, it stopped.
The man's sword arm had been wrapped in a thread; its movement was stalled.
The man looked me in the eyes once more, smiling.
The thread around my neck tightened once more, and I could feel the life leaving my body.
A beautiful rainbow butterfly flew around our heads, landing on the thread between us. As if it was watching.
He spoke. His voice was clear and radiant, just like the light all around us.
"In the end, the threads of Fate consume us all."
Before I could respond, react, or process,
My eyes closed as the life was sapped out of me.
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"Hey Raiden!!!! Raiiiiiiiideeeeen~'
I groaned as I slowly opened my eyes to a bright light and someone shouting my name. Opening my eyes, I saw Hikaru leaning above me, her face only inches away from mine.
"Guys! He woke up!" Hikaru said, after flashing me a smile and moving away from my face. I slowly pushed myself off of the ground and into a sitting position, grabbing my head, which hurt like hell.
My mind flashed back to everything I had seen. That limbo world I was in. The beautiful thread that sliced through that eternal dark. The way I'd split apart to create an infinite rainbow web that covered the darkness.
That mysterious figure and his cryptic message. None of it made sense. Just what the hell was any of that?
"The threads of fate consume us all." I repeated the man's words to myself while rubbing my neck. I could still feel the effects of the thread around my neck. It felt like those threads were still there. I got a tingling feeling all around my body, as if I was still being held down by those threads.
"Is that the excuse you use to justify being such a lazy ass?" A harsh voice asked. I looked up to see Alice looking down at me with her arms crossed, more than just a bit angry.
Blinking a few more times, I realized that I was now within a massive supermall, eerily empty aside from the rest of my group members. We were standing in the lobby section of the massive mall. There was a large fountain spewing water in the center, and looking up, I could see the mall stretch up for easily 3 more floors. All around them were many different large stores selling designer clothing and major brands.
I then looked up at Alice. "How long has it been?"
"You've been out cold for 3 minutes. You do realize that you're burning our time, right?' Her voice was controlled, but I could sense the well of anger boiling beneath that calm.
Standing on my feet, I slapped my face with force. "Why the hell..."
"Don't ask me, dumbass. If anything, you should be the one explaining to us what happened." When I was about to open my mouth, Alice cut me off. "But not now. I don't care. We've got planning to do."
She wheeled around and stormed off towards a section of the mall that had a massive table. Luka followed after her. Blade just walked off mumbling about 'but when I do it."
The only people who started to look at me were Aven, Nova, and Hikaru. Aven reached out a hand that I gracefully accepted. My feet were a bit shaky, but I managed to stand.
"You good, bro?" He asked.
"If I'm being honest now. But don't tell Alice that. She might actually kill me."
Aven laughed. "She's taking this thing seriously, and who can blame her?. Doing good here is our entry ticket to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And even if it wasn't. Alice isn't a person who takes pleasure in losing."
I nodded. That much was obvious by the way she spoke and carried herself. She was no-nonsense and wanted to win. As Aven walked away, Nova came up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Talking all big, and then passing out from just being transferred into the battleground?" There was a teasing tone in her voice that I didn't like, but I couldn't refute anything she was saying.
"Even if I were half dead, I could still outperform you all. Don't get it twisted." She just laughed before walking to join the rest of the group.
"We'll see about that."
Just as I moved to join them, Hikaru grabbed my hand. I turned back to look at her, and I saw the confused and concerned expression on your face.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Normally I would have just thrown up a "Yep, I'm doing great,', but this time I stopped myself. I had already learned from my mistakes. I wouldn't repeat those again.
"Honestly, I have no idea what happened. I don't know if I'm 'okay.' But right now we need to handle what's in front of us first before we can worry about anything else." Giving her those determined words, I placed my hands atop hers.
"Come on, give me a smile. Don't think I didn't notice that gloomy expression you had on your face outside. Even if we aren't completely fine at the moment, we can still push through. Come on. Open wide. EEEEEEE." I gave her a widely exaggerated smile of my own.
Hikaru stared up at me with widened eyes for a moment before putting a hand over her mouth. "God, you really are a cornball."
I turned away from her and didn't look back. "Way to trample on someone's confidence." I shouted back at her while she laughed.
As I made my way towards the table, I tried to get in contact with Ariel, but I couldn't. Just like the last time I was under an illusion, it seemed like my connection with Ariel had been cut. I made a mental note of that.
Once everyone was gathered around the table. Alice pressed a button on it, and it opened up to reveal a holographic 3D map of the entire area. From the table also emerged 8 communication earpieces. As we slid on the communication devices, Alice began her speech. At some point she had picked up a coat from one of the stores, a long flowing one that she wore around her shoulders, and it made her look like a decorated general giving orders to her soldiers. Her tone of voice and manner of speech also gave off that vibe.
"First things first. We need to take everything we think will work as a proper strategy and throw it out the window. This entire terrain is designed to be unpredictable. She pressed a button, and the map was split up into eighths. While our good friend here" She threw a pointed glance at me that reminded me of the one Ms. Elmer used to give me. "I was dozing off. I had a chance to look over the information provided, and I've come to understand everything." She pointed at the map.
"Starting off with this. There are 8 zones from which the 'waves' of mana nullification can emerge. As Credo stated, every so often and at random times, random sectors will activate, preventing the use of mana in those sections. The only section that will always be a zero-mana zone is the center. Now, it's important to note that this whole thing is designed to fuck you over." She snapped her fingers, and 3 sections of the grid lit up, equidistantfrom each other. "Multiple zones can activate at once. The lowest amount being 3 and the highest being 7. That means at any moment you have a 38% chance of the zone you're in being hit by the mana nullification wave. That also means at all times at least 1/3 of the map is a completely mana dead zone. Because of those high chances, we should approach every battle under the mindset that using mana will not be your key to victory. That means traps using mana could just poop out when we need them most. So we will focus a majority of our strategy on using the terrain around us. It's massive, and we can destroy and manipulate it however we like."
"Use the terrain to create your strategy. Let the use of magic be the icing on the cake, not the cake itself."
That much was easy to digest. Going into every battle reliant on mana would leave you stuck in a hard place when the wave did hit, and mana in the entire zone was nullified completely. Inside of my head, I noticed the fact that she seemed to be the type that laid things out in full. It didn't seem like she was planning to gloss over any details with this strategy. It was a testament to the type of person she was and how seriously she was taking this match.
"Before I get into any details of the strategy, we first have to go over the capabilities of our opponents. I don't want you to memorize their entire abilities, but if you could, then that's great." She snapped her fingers, and the table displayed images of the whole enemy team. I could tell she was enjoying the control that this was giving her a bit too much.
"Starting off with their captain, Masayoshi Shibai is secretive, and his ability is known as the Scales of Justice. It allows him to deem people guilty or innocent. He can use it to provide buffs to his allies and debuffs to his enemies. His main form of weaponry is chains."
Internally I wondered how she got such information, when I realized that since this was Credo's illusion, he must have placed this knowledge in here. That made me wonder just how thorough Alice was to have gone over all of this information in just three minutes.
I tuned out her explanation of Erika's ability because I already had an idea about how it worked. It essentially allowed for her to be supercharged when she was under the sun. I tuned back in when she mentioned Yuri's name, because I realized that I actually didn't know what Yuri's ability was.
"Yuri Hamanai's ability is...unknown. At least according to this database." That shocked me, and I could tell how worried Alice was about it too. It was a wildcard, one that could mess up this entire thing if we weren't careful. "Main weapons are a pair of dual pistols."
"Hold on." Alice glared at me, but I had to get this off of my chest. "There's something you need to be aware of. Yuri Hamanai possesses a technique that allows him to teleport by swapping places with anything imbued with his own mana. Even just raw mana that belongs to him floating in the air works. In battle, if he's ever expanding the amount of mana he's outputting, that means he's going to use it."
Alice stared at me in shock for a few minutes, but she nodded. She seemed like she wanted to ask more questions, but time was ticking, and she still needed to actually go over our main strategy.
"Moving on, Misa. Her ability is called Quantum Tunnelscape. It's essentially her own world of portals, all connected to each other, so vast that only she can navigate them. Her ability involves using portal spells to create chains of portals that she can either use to fire off magic, trap opponents, defend, or use for surveillance." She didn't have to explain why that would have been dangerous. "Note that she has a hidden ability where she can trap people inside of a separate area, or dimensions she creates. Nobody knows what it is. While watching out for her spying, keep in mind that ability."
"Seele." A hologram of a girl I didn't recognize appeared. Purple hair and purple eyes were the most noticeable features. " Her ability is called Red Phantom. In simplest terms, all blood is her own weapon. All she needs to do is cut you once with her scythe to imbue her mana into your bloodstream, and she can control your blood. Unpleasant, I imagine. She also has an unnatural supply of blood to manipulate for herself. The only way to beat her is to not get hit or to not engage all together."
These abilities were starting to worry me. Mostly because of the fact that a majority of them were not the kind of abilities you would want to take into a one-on-one battle. In fact, I could imagine their strategy would be to isolate things into multiple one-on-one battles instead of team fights.
"Clyde: His ability is called 'Cataclysm.'" Clyde wields power over nearly all the elements, and he can wield them with destructive capabilities that rival even some of the strongest storms and hurricanes. Fire, lightning, earth, ice—anything you can think of, he can use to the level of a category 5 hurricane."
Great. They even had someone who could zone and crowd control effectively. It really felt like we had just loaded into a match with a hard counter.
"Touka is an assassin who uses illusion magic to mess with senses. Besides that fact, she's mostly a hand-to-hand fighter while also being extremely quick."
Alice then moved on to the last person.
"Myra. The bloodhound. She doesn't make use of much magic. Instead, she's a raw physical fighter. And her strength is not to be underestimated. She's the most dangerous because even if mana is taken away, she'll still be fighting at pretty much 100%. My verdict on her will be discussed within the plan. Just know this. She's exceptional at hunting people down. They'll most likely pair her up with Touka and Misa. And that will be a nightmare."
I didn't need to be warned twice. I had felt her power one-on-one before, and I wasn't exactly itching to go back.
With that done, Alice launched into an explanation of her plan. She laid out her entire strategy, every single part of it from beginning to end. She was stopped multiple times for clarifying questions. Once she was done, she glanced at everyone and asked,
"Got it?"
Everyone nodded except for me. I raised my hand. "What about me?. My role wasn't clearly defined in the plan."
Alice nodded. "I have one task for you. In order for all of this to work, we need to make sure that the two wild cards don't intervene. Yuri I can adapt to it, but Myra is a force of nature no plan can stop. I want you to make sure the bloodhound stays busy until we win this."
I swallowed and nodded, ruing the death sentence I had been given.
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"You guys got it?" Masayoshi asked as he finished explaining his plan.
His team nodded, and Misa raised her hand. "I do have to say. Don't you think it's a bit of a... barebones plan? I'm sure Alice has already plotted every single step she'll take by now."
Masayoshi nodded. "You have a point. But that's why I opted for a strategy like this. If pulled off correctly, it's a direct counter to Alice's method." Masayoshi pointed towards the communication devices. "We'll use these. Report everything you see. We're going to play reactively. That way, we can adapt to Alice's strategy. The huge flaw in Alice's method is that when you plan everything out, and things don't go the way you want, there isn't much room for change. We're going flexible to beat out Alice's hyper-focused strategy."
Everyone around the table inside of the conoid nodded at Masayoshi's logic. There was a minute until the test began. "Anything else?"
Myra raised her hand. "I have a request."
"Anything."
"Raiden Chisaki. I'd like to have permission to go out after him. It's a bit of a personal reason, but I think he's the most threatening one. And I have a score to settle."
Masayoshi took note of her serious expression. "On one condition."
Myra raised an eyebrow but nodded.
"Give him absolute hell."