Afternoon sun cast a gold light across the ruined terraces of Murrchel Academy. Broken windows shone like fading fire, the accademy displayed now like a broken architect of wonder.
Dark-green hair cutted short, a young girl walked casually along the academy terrace. A alien outifit that all those otherwordly wear, it's made of strange metallic fabric, had runes that seemed to move under the folds. Her look and form all seem to oteherwordly.
A Kamurine.
Carla Thommer one of kamurine, who was present on the declaraton day of war, known as one of the Twins of Thommer
Walking in the hall with childish face, her hands playing with a gadget. This gadget look like a cube object glowed in violet light and seemed to be a mixture of toy and weapon.
She glanced at the fallen campus with cruel curiosity and pale eyes locking at the damaged road, her lips curved upward as she quietly whispered,
"Humans... so fragile. Yet they build like they'll live forever."
A smile played across her face as she stepped through the broken corridors. Every ruin, every splinter of stone was a melody of amusement to her.
Crossing into what the Kamurine called the human colony—the section of the academy grounds still occupied by Earth's survivors—she drew stares.
Only a handful of Kamurine were ever allowed outside their colossal orbiting ship, and even fewer dared to mingle among humans.
At that same time, Maria was walking toward the central hall to finalize her leave documents. After the attack, the academy had granted all students an unannounced break.
The break would be the last not just for students of murrchel, for every human, for this planet.
The next time they will meet would be the end or new begining.
As Maria turned down the hall, she noticed a commotion ahead. A small crowd had gathered near the broken fountain. In the center stood Carla, her alien frame radiating an unnatural authority, and a terrified girl with chocolate-brown hair—one of the academy students. The girl was crying, her cheeks scarlet from two heavy slaps.
Carla's hand still crackled faintly with mana. "Watch your step, pet," she hissed, her voice carrying a cold echo that no human throat could make.
No one moved. No one dared.
The students around watched in frozen fear—because they knew. Carla wasn't just a visitor. She was a weapon born of another world, one who could erase them with a thought.
Then, a sharp voice soun out loud cut thorugh the crowd.
"Enough."
Maria pushed through the crowd, her eyes blazing like tempered steel. She stopped before Carla, her boots scraping against the cracked marble. The sobbing girl behind her hid her face, trembling.
Carla turned, curious. Then she grinned, wide and feral.
"Well, look at this. A little soldier steps up."
Her system flickered to life, translating her Kamurine tongue into human speech. Maria heard the voice echo faintly through her neural implant: "What do you want, bitch?"
Maria took a deep breath, her own anger rising like fire beneath her ribs. "Move out, bitch."
For a moment, Carla didn't react. Then her system translated the insult back into Kamurine script, and her smirk froze. Her expression twisted into something between shock and delight.
"Heh… you—" she started, stepping forward, mana flaring along her fingertips.
But before she could finish, a calm, melodic voice came from the back of the crowd—spoken in Kamurine dialect, smooth like liquid mercury. Everyone turned toward the sound. The crowd parted.
And through that gap walked Nepia Thommer, the other twin.
Her hair was long, a deeper green that glowed in last sunlight. Her outfit, if it could be called that, was woven from alien silk that revealed more than it, her breast are slighlty shown and concealed—her thighs bare beneath a twisting sash of gold runes, her shoulders glinting with reflective light. Her beauty was weaponized, predatory.
She moved toward Carla and Maria without a word. Her gaze flicked sideways—just once—at her sister. And that was enough.
Carla froze. Then, reluctantly, she stepped back, her aura dimming like a flame starved of air.
Nepia stopped in front of Maria and raised her hand—open, elegant—a gesture of truce. A handshake.
Maria stared at it, unmoving. Her arms crossed over her chest, chin tilted in quiet defiance.
"Your leader said you came here to befriend us," she said coldly. "And to be friend in your way means fight right, so why don't we be friend thorugh a dual?" Turning to carla she said with cold and funny tone.
The students gasped softly.
Carla, halfway through retreating, stopped with a wicked grin curling at her lips. But before she could speak, Nepia's voice sliced the air.
"We fight in the arena," she said flatly. "If you have the guts, come there. Not here."
Her system translated it instantly into human tongue.
Maria smiled faintly, unbothered. "Maybe you're just too afraid to fight without your big brother watching."
Nepia's mouth twitched. Her control cracked for an instant. Carla's aura flared like a volcano—she lunged forward, her arm coated in burning mana, flames wrapping around her wrist.
But Nepia moved faster.
She smirked at Maria, blinked once—and both sisters vanished. The space they'd occupied shimmered like heat in air, then fell still. Only a faint ripple of energy remained.
Maria exhaled. "Guess they'll see me in the arena, then."
71 Logun Street, Lord Vashko Town
After hour of journey finally Abraham met his destination to arena, as the wooden carriage bumped over the damaged road, its wheels crunching on what was left after the Kamurine assault on the town center. The city, once a place of importance, now scatterd in mud of wastage. Long tomb Buildings, people houses, luxarious shop were now floting in mud of the destruction, and the streets had split open like some volcano puffed up from under the surface. Ash and metal hung in the air, the whole city look like a outskirt.
Looking out the window, Abraham watched the destruction go by. They were passing the Arena of Survival, built where the worst damage had occurred.
It was colossal. A round citadel of impossible scale, its upper edge vanishing into fog. From where he sat, he could only see a fraction, but even that was enough to feel its gravity. The entire structure seemed alive, pulsing faintly with alien mana.
He exhaled slowly as he saw the arena. "So, this is where humanity fate will decide."
He whiperred to in his mind with irony. "Are they gonna give human to watch there own ragnarok, who knows."
Abraham stepped down from the carriage, paid the fare, and gazed at the arena oce again with cold stare. All around the ruined grounds, flickering screens replayed Lucias's promo on loop—his voice echoing through the dust and silence.
A gentle voice broke his thought.
"Mister, are you here to see the great battle?"
Abraham turned. A middle aged man walk towards him with hunging a small smile, wearing black overcoat and a tall hat that seemed to be fed up of it's master gray streaked hair, contrasting with a still-black mustache. He's back is slighlty leaned forward, as if the gravity surrounding him were forcing him to lean..
Abraham nodded with happy face
'The person i was waiting, here comes the first character of the slot, The road to Halloween Market begun'
"Yeah. Something like that." Abrham replied with gentle tone
The man smiled with a salesman's warmth. "I thought so. You're not from here, are you? Well, you're in luck. I happen to have a few rooms open for rent—clean, safe, and perfectly priced."
Abraham's brow rose. Perfectly priced, he thought. That usually meant either a trap or a miracle.
Still, a bed was a bed. "Show me the way, Mr…?"
"Ah! The name's Honifer Bruce," the man said, tipping his hat with a practiced grin. "Follow me, young man. I'll give you a room fit for your genereous handsome beauty to lay!"
Abraham lowered his head and faint smile popped up in his face 'Mr. Honifer Bruce... Innocent him, think he found me here by chance, Man i used my whole day on that metalic, magical train to plan the perfect schedule and timing, so he'd meet me exactly when and how I wanted'
'And what's up with this guy, he's buttering me, as if i'm the one who gonna save the humainty ass from those kamurine'