It was a beautiful day outside, well, as beautiful as it could in such a world. The synthetic smell of everything wasn't as strong here in the middle parts of NQSC. What little sunlight managed to break the veil of clouds was especially vibrant today for some reason.
A young man was surrounded by noise and bustling, the streets were full of people and even the road was mostly full, there weren't a lot of private vehicles anyways so it didn't matter. The young man sighed as he began to walk, today he had school, which was a blessing for most but for Samael it felt wrong. He had never belonged in school, and what he did there wasn't something to be proud of either, lessons about a "spell" that was more akin to a curse put on all of humanity, training drills to make sure they could say that they trained the kids but in actuality was nothing more than a way to make their parents and the kids feel somewhat at ease till their death came.
Samael had always been quite pragmatic about everything, not like anyone could blame him, the age of the Nightmare Spell was, and still is, unforgiving. The only positive thing about it was that humans could gain supernatural abilities, granted that they don't die first, which usually happened. But now wasn't the time to think about his death, Samael had bigger things to worry about. For example, the fact that for some reason every single person around him was running away from one point and screaming in horror, it didn't take him long to join them, his thoughts were not very calm to say the least.
'Shit, shit, shit, it's a gate! Definitely a gate break, please let at least an awakened come, I'm begging!'
But the gods were dead and so was their sympathy. The ground behind him shook as he heard a sound that made his very being tremble. Turning his head around for just a moment he saw a monstrosity of nature, not that it was natural to begin with.
A towering beast was running in his general direction, it had a somewhat reflective exoskeleton with 6 legs that were more akin to razor sharp blades, its main body was bulky and strong, each limb was connected with a twisted biology and maybe the screams of the damned. The head was the most horrific part of it though, it had the skull of something between a human and a beetle, it's maw was wide open, ready to swallow anything whole that was in front of it, in this case, that was Samael.
He ran with all the strength and adrenaline he could, and he was fast, by all means he was moving like the wind... however, the nightmare creature cared nor for the wind nor for the streets it broke as it caught up to him with staggering speed for an abomination of such a size, it's black head was ready to transform Samael into a pancake but then something happened.
In what little time Samael had to think he saw it, a woman, right in ahead of him, on her knees as she tried to crawl away from the abominable creature, he sped up to the woman, running with even more strength now. His blue eyes wavered between the woman and the creature, unsure if he was going to survive, he gritted his teeth as the woman was finally within distance to make out her features.
She was beautiful, her long and black hair flowing down her shoulders like a dark waterfall, her eyes were also completely black, as if to compliment her every feature, he cheeks were round and soft but there was also a kind of elegance that came with her age, probably around her 30s. Had she not been covered in dirth and on her knees she probably would've looked even more beautiful, her voice, to the dismay of Samael, was also silky smooth somehow, pleading for help as she sobbed.
"Please, help me, I- my legs they're..."
Samael ran past her, leaving the monster to devour her instead of him. There was no other way for a mere mundane like him to fight the creature so he did the only thing he could, he gave it something else to eat. The sounds of screams and pleas of help were all Samael could hear, but even that didn't last long, soon the cries were replaced with the tearing of flesh and crunching of bones, he didn't look back, only crying as he continued to run, his body was trembling but he didn't stop.
'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I wanted to live, please forgive me...'
His pleas were answered with silence. Samael had made his way over to a safer location, seeing a few awakened run past him in the opposite direction, surely to kill every thing that did not belong here, Samael might as well have been one of such things...
His legs finally stopped as he collapsed onto the ground, the pain from pushing his body to the limits had taken it's toll on him, his vision was blurry and his ears were ringing, all he could make out was the ragged rise and fall of his chest as he greedily gasped for air. Currently, Samael found himself in a park, it had benches and trees, a playground that didn't have a single child or parent nearby, the only thing that he noticed was a man, sitting on one of those benches. The man looked relaxed, too relaxed even. He had grayish white hair and a beard that covered half his face and a little bit of his neck, his eyes were unnaturally orange. His body was covered in casual clothes, shorts with red marks and a T shirt that had a single flower in its middle.
"Hey boy! What're you all tired about?"
Asked the man, his tone was casual and calm, he gestured for Samael to come sit next to him, and for some unnatural reason, he complied. Through ragged breaths and wavering eyes he answered.
"I ran... I ran as fast as I could..."
"I see, say, why do you look so guilty? This exhaustion I'm seeing isn't just physical."
Samael met his orange eyes with his blue ones, as if the sky was looking at the sun. He wasn't truly sure what to make of the man, there was something about him that Samael couldn't quite put into words, as if the man in front of him was something far more than he led himself to let on. He also thought it very bizarre, the man should've heard about the gate break by now so why was he still here, why was he not afraid? He put those thoughts aside as a memory surfaced in his mind, fresh and horrifying all the same. His mouth opened to reply, then he closed it, his throat felt dry and his voice was broken, eventually though he answered.
"A woman she... she died, beacuse of me, I could've ran in another direction, I could've hid, hell, I could've probably survived if I just played dead, but those weren't certainties, and so I picked the only certainly, her life over mine..."
"Ah, so you're a coward."
Samael didn't deny the words, he simply answered with silence, his knuckles turning white as he gripped his hands tighter. He didn't know the woman, he didn't even know her name, but he sacrificed her live without the woman ever having a choice, that's what truly disgusted Samael, the fact that he himself chose to be a coward, a man who ran away from his problems instead of facing them. The silence got even more deafening, the creaking of the playground was heard from the gentle breeze that flowed. The man finally spoke, his tone didn't cary anger or disappointment as Samael expected it to.
"There is nothing wrong with what you've done, humans inherently want to keep living, and when faced with dire situations they do everything in their power to survive. What you did wasn't the right choice, it was the choice that let you live."
Samael chuckled, though his tone carried no humor, only a cry that had no tears. His eyes were already quite red from everything that had happened so far, it was quite a sad scene.
"Just tell me that I'm a piece of crap, I don't need someone trying to comfort me... ah, maybe it's not such a bad day after all, I got to skip school."
The man raised an eyebrow at that statement but didn't reply instead a shimmer of white sparks enveloped his body as a suit of armor appeared, it was a full body plate armor that had a golden exterior and a symbol of the clan Valor. A battle axe appeared in his left hand as a shield did on his right. Samael immediately recognized what the man was. His body shivering slightly.
"You're an awake-"
"A master to be precise."
Samael was stunned even more so. He had already known something was off about the man he had met in this park what with his weird eyes and all but he didn't expect him to be an Ascended, much less one who gave him advise... Did Samael anger the man well enough for him to kill him on the spot?
'I sure hope not.'
The man replied once again, looking at Samael through his helmet.
"I should go now, they're probably not holding that good without me there... oh and kid, one last bit of advice."
Samael sighed a sigh of relief internally and straightened his back as he listened carefully, his mind was having a panic attack but he didn't let it show.
"Cowards live longer... and I've lived for a very long time."
With that he left, his body was a blur to Samael as he sat there, alone on the bench and still processing it all. The gate break, the sudden meeting he had with a Master and... her. Then another though popped inside Samael's head, one that was as crucial, maybe even more so, than the others. He whispered softly.
"I'm hungry."