When I woke...the smell was the first to hit me. Everything reeked of rot and burning, corpses littered the streets while buildings blazed aflame. As I noticed the building the car was in also was on fire I hastily got out, on my way out I remembered something as I glanced at the car keys inside the car. I took the keys and opened the locker under the wheel where my father kept his personal gun, I took the gun and the spare ammo. Holding a heavy pistol in one hand while covering my nose with the other I got out from under the car, that's when the view hit me. Wherever I looked blood and gore filled my vision , I momentarily strared in horror and shock. I then looked back at the car and then to the side, a jumbled corpse lay there. I walked over to it while tears fell down my face in between sniffles , it's clothes were ripped to shreds while the body itself was indistinguishable from the others. Only a single thing stayed intact...His gun lay by his side...The only thing that remained...I put the 9mm inside my jacket's inner pocket and grabbed the P226. As I walked away I glanced back at the mangled corpse, my tears quickening in pace. Right now only three things passed through my mind...Home...Mom...Lia... I had to go back.

I walked the bloody street for what seemed an eternity, the stench of blood forcing me to bend over from time to time but nothing came out. I press on down the street towards my home, carnage and blazing fires surrounded me as I walked. My body hurt all over, my head was spinning with slight nausea but I still kept on moving. The beasts were still lurking around the town but were too busy on which ever corpse hit their fancy at that time, the smell of blood and fire covering my own. The crackling of flames as buildings collapsed covering my every step...my every sniffle...my every tear drop. For a moment I stopped as I stared on at one of the creatures while it ate, I held my father's gun up while my hands trembled. Anger swelled up inside me but was quickly engulfed by fear as I remembered how easily their armour deflected the bullets. I dropped my arms as I turned to sneak around the gnawing beast, slowly and shakily I made my way through the wreckage of cars and buildings.

I almost missed it as I passed by, stopping upon my sudden realisation. I was home, a collapsed wreckage of a building. I walked down the front lawn towards the rubble, my hands dropping down from my face as I inhaled the smoke and smell of blood. Nothing was left of the house, not a single wall stood of it nor most of the surrounding buildings. I walked as close to the rubble as I could without getting too close to any flame as it ate, I knew it...I should have realised already...nothing could have survived that collapse...but I looked anyway. I scanned much of the rubble until my gaze stopped on a single spot, something that stood out of the rubble and flames. There underneath the rubble I could see a foot poking out from under, bloody and beaten. I took off...I ran while gaining some minor burns, I couldn't stop myself. I knelt down next to it while I stared emptily, I should have known...I should have stopped there...I got lower and turned to look under the rubble. It was already night time but the burning flames gave me some slight light enough to see. As the light from the fire flickered I caught glimpses of what lay under the rubble, a broken down body...casual clothes...a blue apron...Long brown hair....half crushed face...and a single dead green eye staring into the depths of my soul.

I jumped up to a standing position but fell backwards as I tripped on some rubble, I crawled quickly backwards as hastened breaths escaped my mouth. Then I sat there staring at the leg, later turning to gush out what ever I had left inside my stomach. I lay there on all fours for a couple moments staring down at the meagre pool under me, my gaze switched to my right hand and what it held. The pistol was greatly disproportionate to my small hand, too heavy for me to hold up with just one arm for longer than a couple seconds. I stared at the dark grey pistol...its barrel...its handle..its trigger...I then looked up and looked around me, for the first time realising and taking everything in. I was alone surrounded by death and monsters, everyone I knew and loved was gone. Sweat, tears and saliva dropping down my chin I looked back down at the gun, my hands trembled as I sat backwards and held it up to the sky. Then turned it back and held it to my face, then my chin. My hands trembled as my fingers lay on the trigger, tears gushing down them and down my arms. I raised my gaze at the unusual sky, stars covering every inch of it almost hiding the moon. My young mind couldn't take it...

I closed my eyes...

I tensed my grip and then my whole body...

I pulled on the trigger...

...

...

Nothing...

I pulled harder...It didn't move an inch...I slowly lowered the gun as my gaze fell on it. "L...Locked..." the words escaped my mouth as I gasped for air, I clenched my hands around the handle.

With the crackling of the fire and the ringing in my ears I barely heard it until it got close enough. The loud flapping of wind as something flew overhead, scattering flames and attracting the beasts. A bright light momentarily hovered over my position to then move back onto me, focusing me in the middle. I heard loud shouting aimed at me, but I didn't respond. I heard gunshots and suddenly turned, awoken from my stupor. Multiple Blackhawk helicopters hovered over the town shining beams of lights all over, two singled me out of the corpses and beasts. Soldiers rushed out taking positions around the blackhawks taking shots at anything that moved while a couple broke off heading my way. They had to drag me back to their platoon and onto the heli, I just lay there balled up on the floor as two others were dragged to the blackhawk before it took off.

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14 Years Later today.

"Those bastards...they tricked me..." I spoke to myself under my breath as I walked down the street, I stopped once I reached my destination. A large building beckoning in front of me, more precisely a school. Some backstory; I'm Matthew Anderson 21 years old, I was discharged from the military and decided to join a private military group. The group was Etyrian in origin but after the EFRP (Etyrian Foreign Relations Policy) was founded us humans were permitted to come and go between Earth and Etyria with airport like regulations while also allowing employment for Etyrian groups, the same went for the Etyrians but with further regulation. This obviously was a government move to spy on our new "friends" and map their world, even though research and information was exchanged thirteen years ago. Also with the exchange of our scientific and medical research we gave Etyria they passed on to us their knowledge of a certain power... Magic. Being what we are us humans studied and tested with various things with the Etyrian's close tuition, creating what we have today.

In the past ten years our world...our life changed completely, magic and science combined to create what we now know as Aethercraft. Which it in itself divides into multiple other crafts, the obvious weaponisation called Bound Aethers, the medical path called Aetherics and engineering for vehicles and other everyday utility called Aether Mechanics. Each of these sectors worked together closely combining Humans and every other Etyrian race. Me? I studied beginner Aether Mechanics and master Bound Aethers allowing me to wield these weapons and maintain them. Without going too much into detail how Bound Aethers worked , basically its the binding of a customised weapon to it's user with spirit magic, binding one's soul to the seals inscribed on the weapons. Once the binding is complete the users, called Martial Aethers, can fill the weapon with the resource that is magic called mana. Mana does not reside within the body but flows into it through another realm directly connected to all the others through living beings, this realm is called the spirit realm. That is at least what the Etyrians teach, as we hold no proof nor are we able to tunnel to it.

Tunnelling... Oh right... With the arrival of the Etyrians through their "portals" we insisted on them teaching us what they knew about the wormholes that dove through space. Surprisingly utilising various old theories and magic we were able to produce our own "portals" which we called tunnels. We could tunnel utilising a mixture of human and Etyrian crystal technology letting us accurately create stable tunnels, but to do so we needed mechanisms on both sides. The entrance and the exit, as with only the entrance being powered by the machine the destination would be completely random or sometimes lead nowhere at all. We still took advantage of that though, opening tunnels to uncharted realms ripe for exploration. But...only one such expedition was ever made and only after a week the scout team along with the research team made up of both Human and Etyrian disappeared, we lost all contact for three straight days. The next expedition? The government and the Etyrians agreed to contract a private company to venture for them, that company being my current employer...The Edge Alpha mercenaries and "utility"...

That also being why I'm here today, at this school for the magically adept. I was waiting for the arrival of my official Bound Aethers but my squad captain got the address wrong...completely wrong...on purpose. Since he was busy today he decided to make me hit two birds with one stone, going for my package and the company's package. "That damn bastard..." I scowled as I stepped towards the school's ridiculous entrance.

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Author: Hope the Aethercraft explanation sufficed :D... I'm still pondering on the actual design of his Bound Aethers but I believe I have one in mind...Thanks for reading and remember to rate :D