Chapter 3

He was lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

It was about an hour after Shades had arrived at his place. He managed to bind his wounds with some strips of bandages he’d found in a first-aid kit. He knew his mom made him buy one for a reason. Most of the cuts were shallow, with one or two on his arms and legs that were deep enough to have caused him some trouble if he hadn’t found something to bind them with in time. His hand was swollen pretty badly but apparently it would be a lot better by tomorrow with all the creams he’d lathered onto it and pills he drank. A few of them were painkillers, making him wonderfully numb.

Now he was just resting, trying not to move too much and aggravate his wounds further. He kept thinking about everything that had happened, kept getting flashes of the atrocities he saw. The half-eaten faces. The blood. That guy he shoved a zombie onto. He basically killed that person, didn’t he? He knew it would get a lot worse. If those hounds and zombies were only level seven and one, there were sure to be things a hundred times worse. He was shaking so badly from pain, shock and nausea that when the painkillers finally kicked in, he almost fell asleep from the relief.

Soon the monotony of the muted screams outside and the welcome numbness provided by the painkillers caused him to practically pass as the exhaustion caught up to him and his frantically beating heart finally slowed down to a reasonable level.

It was a few hours later when he woke up. This system thing came with a clock it seemed, as it slowly ticked away with misty numbers in the corner of his vision. It was nearing midnight, only a few minutes to go. It looked like he slept away half the day. The fact that he was still alive at least, showed that his place of residence wasn’t overwhelmed just yet.

He look at the misty, grey dot in the corner of his vision, bringing up his ‘menu’, as he had started calling it. He sat staring at the three options for a few seconds, wandering what his next step should be, before remembering where he left off in the bathroom, playing with his golden orbs. He went to his three planets and looked at the single orbiting light. Following his earlier idea, he moved another light to his blue planet, illuminating a few more orbs. Next he moved his first light to a moon. As if being brought to life, the moon began to have a healthy white glow and started orbiting the blue planet.

Something strange then happened to Shades. He received something, not unlike a memory, more an impression really. As if he had a newly discovered limb and was very slowly starting to learn how to move it. On instinct, he thought of that constantly warm feeling in his head and starting moving it through his body. He imagined it form a small ball in his hand. Slowly, dark smoke, like mist, starting pooling in his hand. It took all his concentration as it formed a ball, about the size of his fist, looking almost like liquid, dripping dark smoke. His other hand easily passed through it though, dispersing the smoke, before it reformed.

He then started trying to make it harder. He compressed it further and further until it was the size of a small marble. It became darker and denser. This time his hand found resistance. It wasn’t much but he had to press a lot harder than before. He tried forming more smoke but the heat in his head starting reaching unbearable levels and his concentration started lagging, as if his newly discovered limb was tired and out of energy. His smoke started dispersing and he lay his arm back down.

He went back to his three planets and saw something interesting. Something he hadn’t noticed before. The blue planet was barely glowing, as if its power had diminished. The moon, however, looked like it was disintegrating, slowly, from one side to the other, pieces flaking off. Those pieces moved to the blue planet and joined it, meshed with it, slowly adding the moon’s mass to the planet.

Now curious, he sent two lights each to the green and red planets. He first activated a moon on the green one. Once it started orbiting it, he gained more insights, ways on different uses for this power. He felt inside his body and controlled an energy that seemed dormant. Now cycling the smoke throughout his body, instead of moving it outside, he became lighter. Faster. Time seemed to move slower. He waved a hand in front of his face, a smoky mist trailing it. He played with his new-found speed some more, making forms in the air with his finger. It didn’t last long, about half a minute, and the speed left him.

‘So the blue is for control outside my body, while the green is for control inside.’

Wondering what the red one would do, he brought an orbiting moon to life there. Unfortunately, this time he didn’t notice any difference. No new thoughts entered his head, no new way of control. At least, not as far as he knew. But the planet’s light was dimming and the moon started disintegrating and joined it anyway. Curious, but not knowing what else to do about it, he mentally shrugged and turned his thoughts to the book.

Just then a sound erupted in his mind, like a trumpet call and a bell at the same time.

The dot, in the corner of his vision, was glowing golden. Focusing on it brought a message to display in front of him.

First day of the immersion protocol survived.

Journal now fully unlocked.

Companion unlocked.

‘That sounds useful.’ He thought, dismissing the message. He still had no idea what was going on though.

He went to his main screen. His eyes widened when he saw a fourth option now, instead of the normal three. Below the others was a spherical, black ball, like an egg.

As he focused on it, the black smoke, it was made out of, started rotating, seemingly drawing in the darkness of the room. Minutes passed until the darkness stopped flowing into it. Faster and faster it went, until it reached a point where the smoke seemed to fly off of it, dispersing immediately once it became detached from the main body. It became smaller as pieces left it, gaining features. An arm. A leg. The tiny details of a hand.

Eventually, the spinning stopped.

Standing in front of Shades, on a small cloud of black smoke, was a small girl. She was about the size of his hand, with perfect elfin features. Her long, pointy ears poked through her midnight hair. Even that was like a tranquil, everlasting waterfall made of smoke. Her skin was dark grey. She was wearing what looked to be black glass, which only covered the necessary parts, leaving everything else bare.

Her closed eyes suddenly opened, slightly shocking Shades, and revealing the only things about her that weren’t dark. Her eyes were the same blood red, ruby colour as Shades’. These were slightly glowing, however.

She looked around briefly, before observing Shades.

“Greetings master.” She finally said, her ethereal voice strangely soothing to his ears. She then waited, staring at him, before raising a delicate, questioning eyebrow at his gobsmacked face.

“Who…what…are you?” He managed to stumble out.

“I am your shadow companion. Your faithful and loyal servant, to do with as you wish.” She said, kneeling.

He slowly sat up, completely forgetting that his wounds were still supposed to be sore for at least a few days. After a few seconds of staring, he finally managed to drag his thoughts back into order. He became slightly uncomfortable with her kneeling figure.

“You can get up.” He said, frowning. “And you’re not a servant. That thing said companion, right?”

Shades saw a look of surprise cross her features momentarily, before she smoothly stood.

He watched her as she floated on her small cloud down to the bed. When she reached it, the cloud disappeared and she resumed her observations of him.

“Do you have a name?” He asked after a moment of staring between them.

She shook her head, her hair leaving trails in the air.

“Would you like one?” He asked.

She smiled, bowing her head.

“Whatever master wishes.”

“Let’s drop this master thing, alright?” He said. “It looks like you’re stuck with me for the foreseeable future, so… call me Shades. And you’ll be…” He paused, trying to think of something that would be appropriate. “Melaena.” He said. He remembered it from an old Latin class. Apparently it belonged to a nymph. He thought it fit.

She seemed to like it, grinning, showing off her strangely silver teeth. Two of them were sharp, like a vampire’s.

Shades shivered slightly.

‘Great. Shadowy powers, red eyes. Now I’ve even got a dark, little, adorable, shadow, minion girl that looks like a mini vampire from hell. Aren’t we just a friendly looking bunch?’

“What can you tell me about yourself?” He doubted she knew anything since, technically, she was just born.

“Only what information I was given.” She replied, surprising him.

“Given? By who?”

“I do not know.” She looked down, as if disappointed in herself, before returning to staring at him. “I will grow as you do. To help you on your path of survival and eventual victory over the other champions.”

“Other champions?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “A few select individuals of this world was given a power by their benefactor. One they must grow, in order to win.”

“Who are these benefactors?” He asked. “And what do we have to win?”

“Powerful beings in command of certain elements. I do not know who our benefactor is, but he or she created me and gave you your powers. I do not know what we have to win.” She shrugged. “Nor how long it will take.” She looked down again, disappointed.

“What do you mean by growing as I do?” He wondered.

“As you grow more powerful, so will I. But I do not know how.” She looked down again.

‘This is getting ridiculous.’

He carefully picked her up, to her wide-eyed shock, and put her down on his knee. Her skin felt oddly warm.

“Alright, enough of that.” He said. “We’re friends now Mel. Partners in crime, or some such. I know even less than you, so no feeling down if you don’t know or can’t do enough. You’re not my slave or servant. We’re supposed to learn together right?” He gave her a grin, which she returned.

“Right!”

“Fist-bump!” He put his fist in front of her… which she just looked at, confused. “Oh, right. You bump it with your fist.” He explained.

“But why?” She continued looking at it.

“Uhh…” Came his intelligent reply. “I don’t really know. People just do it when they’re happy I guess.” He shrugged. “You’ll learn these things as we go along.”

“Alright.” She still looked confused, but bumped his fist with her tiny one anyway.

Shades leaned against his headboard, growing thoughtful. She’d given him a lot to think about. A lot of his questions still went unanswered, however. Who were these benefactors that had all this power? Why did they turn Earth into a hell-hole? Did they do this to other planets as well? Was he going to meet them? Who were these other champions? How many were there? Did he have to fight them? It sounded like he had to fight them. Why was Melaena only given some information?

His eyes sought her out when he thought of her. She was floating around, poking some things, picking others up to look closer at them. He smiled at her child-like curiosity. Well, technically she was only born a few minutes ago.

Thinking of the egg she came in, made him think of the other things in this ‘system’. He thought of the three planets and what they meant. Blue and green each gave him the knowledge to use this power in different ways, so he figured red had to be about it as well.

‘Blue, in games, usually represents mana.’ He thought. ‘And I could control the mist outside of my body, sort of like a spell. Green is usually stamina which, in this case, increases my speed, so that kind of fits. Red would be health, but it started depleting the moment I activated a moon. What could’ve used it?’ He wondered, fiddling with his bandages.

It came to him then, and he practically heard the lightbulb go off in his head, as he stared at the ‘wound’ he’d received on his arm when he jumped through the window. Tearing off the bandage, he felt the smooth skin where the cut used to be. It would’ve taken at least a few weeks for one that big to heal normally.

Excited, he jumped off his bed and rushed over to the kitchen, a curious Melaena floating in his wake.

He grabbed a knife and pricked his finger. Immediately, black mist started rising from it. ‘Leaking’ would be a more fitting word. Opening his planetary panel, he watched as his red planet started releasing small red embers, as if it was a red hot coal. These tiny sparks would then get drawn into the red star. He felt slight pins-and-needles as the wound slowly sealed itself up. He guessed the painkillers would have numbed the feeling so he didn’t notice it the first time.

He called the mist outside of his body, around his hand, not giving it any form, causing it to look like it was on fire, in a misty sort of way. He watched his blue planet as he did this, and sure-enough, it started releasing blue embers, like he was burning up its energy. Forming it into a ball, he compressed it. He noticed it came easier this time. As he did this, the planet started sparking like crazy, releasing more embers the harder he pushed against the ball and the more mist he called into his hand.

Next was the green one. Circulating the power throughout his body, he watched as the same happened to the green planet. Circulating power faster increased his speed and slowed down time further as well as burned up more energy.

‘So they’re like wells! The brighter the glow, the more energy they have!’

He smiled widely, happy to have finally figured out what more of this stuff meant.

‘Would I find out more ways of using these abilities, the more powerful I become?’ He practically bounced on his feet, eager to explore.

His eyes caught Mel, staring curiously at the red star and glowing planets.

“You can see it too??” He blurted out.

“Of course. It is right in front of us.” She said, as if wondering why he would ask such a stupid question, pointing at the smoky planets, floating in the middle of the kitchen.

“It’s just, no one else could see it before.”

“Obviously. Only you and your companions can see your own interface.” She said, before her eyes widened and she grinned sheepishly. “Apologies. With these memories of mine, certain pieces of information feel obvious, as if everyone should know them.”

“Nah, no worries.” He said, shaking his head. “Do the other champions have these interfaces too?”

She shrugged. “I do not know, but I would assume so. If something feels obvious or resembling common knowledge, it is likely because many know of it.”

Shades nodded and his thoughts wondered again, trying to remember where he left off. His roaming eyes looked at the window as something that was nagging him since he woke up finally came to the forefront of his mind.

Where did all the noise go?

Day 1