Bang “What the hell was that? I'll check it after I'm done with my food.” The girl grumbled, 10 minutes later, she angrily strolled to the door and read what was nailed to the door.

The note read ‘meet me where the world ends. I'll show you magic.’ The girl stared in shock. Her eyes, one green, one black, widened as she took in the familiar handwriting, suddenly reminded of a boy she had known who had taken her to a place he called 'the edge of the world.

The place where the world ends is a place where they went to as kids. The cliff had a thick fog that gave the cliff a deep sense of mystery. This led the kids to calling the cliff the end of the world.

The note had been written in very fast scribbling, something uncommon for this boy who was very meticulous in life. This led her to worry about him and what he had in store for her, especially if it was one of his experiments. He had been injured from experiments in the past, and she always had to get him to the ER since he did these ‘experiments’ in the middle of nowhere. Turning on her engine, she drove out of her driveway and onto the road as fast as she could, with the smoke trailing behind her, she arrived at the ‘edge of the world’.

As she approached the cliff, she could see the boy standing along said cliff with tears in his eyes. Everytime she looked at him her heart always jumped. He just had something about him, a charm that captivated her, and tonight it was oozing out of his eyes like that of a genius. The boy was of average height, still taller than her but not by much, he had dark brown hair with tints of silver through it, and very thick-rimmed glasses. As she approached him, all he kept muttering to himself was, “I think I have found it… I think I found it… I think I found it, and now I just have to show it to you.” He had a very exaggerated expression like this was his key, and he couldn't let it go.

The girl noticed a white tag on his arm as she approached him “Did you run from the ward again” she yelled.

“I didn't run, they let me go after 10’s of psychoanalysis. They determined they couldn't find anything ‘scientifically’ wrong with me, They all referred to me as their craziest patient” he laughed nonchalantly.

The girl grimaced, her friend Tom, had run a lot of experiments and had almost died so many times from his experiments that she was surprised they let him go. With both of them staring into each other's eyes, she asked him with a steely look,“why did you call me here.”

Tom very quickly changed his expression to one of pure serenity “I think I've found the closest thing to magic, and that is death, my death at least.” Without another word, he lifted his leg and tried to step off the cliff, and a gust of wind caught and pushed him back.

Without time to even process what happened, the girl screamed “Tom!” and tried to catch him. Without the time to notice that he didn't fall off the cliff, the girl, through an ironic twist of fate, pushed him.

“Fuck, Selina I was sure fate had one line it followed, you managed to fuck with that somehow.” Tom grumbled as he fell.

________

It all started with two dreams...

________

The first dream...

*spark*

*spark*

“Ha this dream again,” Kanna thought to himself, “it's only been a hundred times since i've seen it.” Kanna was but a specter in this dream, he had no means of control, and could only watch as the events unfolded. Kanna looked around as much as he could without the control of his eyes, he felt like a lifeless robot, a feeling which caused him to shiver whenever he thought back to these dreams. He was never able to remember much; it was always just the same dialogue that he only ever caught snippets of.

“We've finally created it but why did we push for this we could've just won by now” One being yelled.

“Shush”, the second being moved his arm, with one movement the the first being was thrown. After having seen this scene hundreds of times since the beginning of his memory, Kanna began to differentiate the beings. The first being to speak was known as ‘peasant’ to Kanna, the second being Kanna could only think of the nickname ‘god’.

“You know it to be true sir what can this.. this thing even do” the peasant pleaded to god. At times the dreams were longer, this again was one of those times.

“This thing is the reason you're here, therefore” God said in a low monotone voice “it's the reason i'm here”. Kanna felt a rush of energy. His form always felt cold in his dreams, but for once he felt energy, not warmth but energy in his being. This caused Kanna to see clearer, and at 18 years of age, Kanna finally saw God's appearance.

They looked like the picture of a perfect man; Chiseled jawline, slicked-back hair and very intoxicating grey eyes . In a sense, he looked too perfect, the equivalent of a doll a man created to look perfect, Kanna could only describe him as perfect, he used to refer to god as him, but ‘it’ really felt right. Peasant, on the other hand, had the same slicked-back hair, but his grey eyes felt like they were there for show. It looked like the equivalent of a Ken doll Kanna thought, Perfect but in a very artificial way.

“You're right sir but may I ask your plans for him or I guess it would be appropriate to call it, it ” Peasant said this and chuckled to himself then for the first time they looked at him. The Gaze they gave Kanna was one he couldn't describe but made him wonder what he looked like, what he was.

“Him” god corrected” The more Kanna would get referred to, the more powerful he felt, at least he believed it was power, powerful in a weird way.

In this dream, Kanna had gone to sleep, and slept within his own dream…

When he woke up he heard god talking

“The hero is attacking? Ha, it doesn't matter we can't be killed, attacking us is pointless, might as well le...ave.” Kanna felt a weird sense then he noticed something between his metaphorical eyes.

‘Have I been stabbed’ Kanna thought to himself ‘fuck this feels weird’.

Kanna then heard a very loud and booming voice “I will kill you!” it yelled, he noticed it was god, except his voice changed and sparks started to fly around him.

Kanna found it odd the dream had not ended, but he got to hear one more person talk and that was peasant “we shall look for him in the cycle, child” he mumbled depressingly.

Then it all went black.

________________

The second dream…

The second dream started off with Tom in the psych ward; Tom has been sent to the psych ward for a multitude of reasons and at multiple times. From Drawing magic symbols on large public spaces to attempting rituals that should let him fly. These may all sound insane, but to him it was just experiments. Tom was in love with the idea of magic. Not only did it feel like it should exist to Tom, It made him feel whole, and the idea of magic being fake felt like a part of Tom was missing.

The day ended with another series of tests, and inoculation of random drugs into his ass. Tom hated it, and he always looked forward to going to sleep as it would be the one place he could rest easy in this building where dreams were pulverized.

“Good night” the nurse said quietly as she left his room “I hope these drugs keep up through the night”, she mumbled to herself as she left.

Tom hated the nurses but didn't care enough to talk back, all he cared about was getting out. On that thought, Tom knew he was going to be let out soon and was very excited to see his friend Selina, the only girl who stuck around wishing to see his dream come true.

After putting his head down he felt a pulse, and then again, after 5 minutes it felt like a squeeze. Tom couldn't tell what was happening. It didn't feel like it was his heart, it felt like it was in his solar plexus, and after putting a hand on it, he felt an odd warmth. But as soon as he started investigating his drugs kicked in, and was knocked out cold.

Tom woke up, but he didn't wake up in the present time, he woke up surrounded by broken machine parts interspersed with dead people. A couple hundred meters ahead of him, a man with slicked-back hair and grey eyes stood in front of him. This man looked very artificial, and in front of him was an older looking man. The man had pure grey eyes, so clear Tom could see them from where he stood along with the confidence that poured out of them. Along with his eyes Tom noticed the man's height, he looked like a giant compared to Tom, of course Tom only stood at 5 foot 10, but compared to Tom he was a giant, this was combined with his lean build making him feel even taller . The man's last notable feature, but some may say most notable, his wing, the man had one wing on his right shoulder. The wing was a metallic grey with some many tiny pieces making up the wing, Tom believed it was from another world.

This world that Tom ended up in had a weird sensation that felt familiar; he had the same feeling in his solar plexus he had earlier, except stronger. Tom concentrated on it and attempted to move this feeling to his hands, somewhere that felt natural to him. He looked down and saw a flame in his hand. He noticed something. Tom saw a piece of paper, the paper looked like a warning sign for people to run and evacuate. The paper read Humanity's last stronghold has been breached under the text a picture of what he recognized as New York, and above it an odd date. “December 8th 2028” Tom mumbled to himself in shock, “what am i doing 6 years from the present”

As if the man had supernatural powers, he heard Tom “Going insane from mana, you crazy mage did you just realise it only took us 3 years to pulverize you fools” the man maniacally laughed. Then turning towards the tall man, he got serious and said “Kanna, if you had just surrendered yourself at first we would have made this takeover much quicker, but you” the man seethed with anger “you fought back, nothing is worse than humans standing together.”

After standing in shock at all the information just given to him, Tom heard the man named Kanna speak to him “Tom, we have one last shot we may well try” Kanna said with a smile. Tom thought that he looked like a dear friend, the type he could rely on, but then realised he’d heard his own name, leading him to one conclusion, he was currently in his own future.