Chapter 2: The Crash
The alleyway was silent except for the heavy, and ragged breathing of a boy who refused to stay down.
Hiss... huff...
Mo Seven leaned his back against the cold, and damp bricks of the wall. His school uniform was torn, and stained with the gray dust of the alley and the bright red colour of his own blood. His ribs felt like they had been chewed on and spat by a beast, and his left eye was swelling shut.
Clatter.
He reached down into the dirt on the floor, his fingers trembling as they closed around a small, circular object. It was a black coin. It didn't shine. Neither did it pulse with energy. It was just a heavy, obsidian-like disc that had belonged to his grandfather.
"Old man," Seven whispered to himself, his voice cracking. Cough. Wheeze. "You were the only one who never looked at me like I was a broken tool. You said I was special. That being different is being special. But look at me now. I'm Just a punching bag for guys like Kaito."
He tucked the coin deep into his pocket, while gripping it tight gripping it tight. It felt warm against his palm. His grandfather had died in a "accident" years ago, but Seven always suspected there was more to it. In this world, the Mo family only cared about those who could climb up the ranks. When the old man passed away, Seven lost his only shield.
Seven limped out of the alley, his shoes were clicking rhythmically on the metallic pavement of Hope City.
Click. Tap. Click.
The city was a grand sprawling masterpiece of sci-fi xianxia. There were Massive skyscrapers made of spirit-glass that reached toward the clouds, their surfaces shimmering with protective runes. Hover-cars zoomed through neon-lit pathways, while cultivators on flying swords zipped between the buildings like streaks of lightning. This was Planet Hig17, a core planet in the human overworld. He was inside hope city on planet Hig17.
Whoosh! Vroom!. The hover-cars and cultivators on flying swords zipped by.
"Look at this place," Seven thought, while he looked up at the giant holographic billboards showing the latest Warframe models. "Hundreds of years ago, humans were stuck on one planet, fighting with swords and primitive cultivators energy. There were even spirit palaces, like a normal cultivation world of old age. Then Yin Zhe happened. Yin Zhe was a hero that stole the secrets of the stars, during which aliens started attacking the primitive world of cultivators, and he pushed our tech into the future, and unlocked the Divine Essence in our blood. No more slow cultivation"
He looked at a group of toddlers playing in a nearby park. One of them was making a small pebble float in the air. Another was breathing tiny puffs of frost.
"Everyone gets a gift, and only those with divine essence can go to the spirit dimension to increase their cultivation by hunting beasts " Seven thought, his eyes darkening. "Fire, ice, strength, speed. Even the beggars have a Divine Essence. But the Gods... those hateful, laughing spirits-like being... they gave me nothing. They stripped me bare before I was even born."
He hated the Gods. And Every time he saw a temple or heard a prayer, he wanted to spit. If they were so great, why did they trap a hero's soul in a "trash" body?
He reached a massive public spire, it was a building used for communications and observation. He got into the building Instead of taking the high-speed gravity lift, Seven headed for the stairs. He always got sick from the high-speed lift up.
Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.
His legs burned. And His lungs screamed. As he climbed up the endless staircases. But he pushed through the pain. He didn't want to be near people. Neither did He want to see the pity or the disgust in their eyes.
When he finally got to the rooftop, the strong wind whipped his dark hair across his face. The view From here, was breathtaking. From this view Hope City looked like a sea of glowing circuit boards.
Seven sat on the edge of the roof, his were legs dangling over the side. He pulled out his Com-brace, it's the sleek metallic bracelet on his wrist. It glowed to life, while projecting a blue screen in front of him.
[App: Galactic Incasts]
[Chat Room]
His fingers are moving fast, He began to type.
Nova-Girl: hey seven!. You wouldn't believe what went down yesterday!. I was able hunt a hybrid class spiritual creature with a hunting group and I got my share of spirit creature flesh. Here's the twist!. I was so lucky to get one spirit point of the hybrid class from the small piece of flesh.
Seven: wow that's so cool!!. Although hunting in the first spirit dimension is very hard. Wouldn't it get harder when you advance from a mortal cultivator to an advanced cultivator?.
Nova-Girl: yeah!. But I have my reasons to take the risk and get stronger. Just like the zenith.
Seven: Just got out of school. Another day, with another bruise. Kaito is getting faster In learning new moves.
Nova-Girl: Did you use that counter-move I told you about? The one that uses his momentum?
Seven: Yeah. It worked for a second. Then he remembered he has a fire divine essence and I don't. Hard to win when the other guy can turn the air into an oven. I can't even enter the spirit dimension without a divine essence. Well at least I got to use dumb bully, kaito, for fighting practice.
Nova-Girl: hehehehe!. That's so cliche. I still don't believe you, Seven. How can you be a Null? Do nulls even exist? Everyone has something. Even if it's just the ability to grow hair faster. You're lying to make yourself sound cool and mysterious. You're like a scientific miracle.
Seven stared at the screen and let out a dry, and sarcastic sigh. "Cool? Yeah, getting my face kicked in is real mysterious, Nova."
Seven: I wish I was lying. Hig17 is great, but the medical scanners don't lie. 0.0% Essence compatibility. I'm a scientific miracle of suckiness.
Nova-Girl: Well, if it's true, then you're the bravest idiot I know. Most Nulls (if they even exist) would stay inside and hide. You go to a divine academy and talk back to people that are stronger than you.
Seven: What can I say? I'm a fan of the Zenith. Kaelen Vance never waited for permission to be the strongest. Why should I?
Seven closed the chat. Then He gazed out at the horizon, watching the twin suns of Hig17 had begun to set. He felt a strange peace while up here. Away from all the bullies. Away from his cold mother and his disappointed father.
"I'll show them," he whispered. "I'll find a way to climb without their 'gifts'. I'll take the fight to those Gods even if I have to climb the heavens with my bare fingernails."
Suddenly, the peaceful sunset was ripped apart.
SCREEEEEECH!
A sound like a tearing metal echoed across the sky. Seven's head snapped up. There was a dark shape that was falling from the upper atmosphere, through the planet shield, while trailing thick, black smoke and purple sparks. It wasn't a meteor. It was too mechanical.
"its a spacecraft?" Seven's eyes widened. "No, that's a Rakshasa scout unit. An 'soldier-Class' scout unit."
BOOM!
The craft slammed into a residential building that was three blocks away. Then A massive cloud of dust and fire billowed into the air.
"How?!" Seven's mind raced. "Hig17 is in the middle of human space! We have orbital platforms! And planet shield. We have legendary-rank guards! A Rakshasa craft shouldn't be able to get within a billion miles of this planet!"
Sirens began to wail across the city in panic. Wooo-heee! Wooo-heee!
The People below were screaming. Panic was spreading like a virus. In the distance, Seven could see the wreckage of the building. The scout craft had carved a hole through the top forth floors.
"The military won't be here for at least ten minutes," Seven calculated in his mind, his eyes began narrowing as he watched the smoke. "This is a core planet that hasn't had any contact with the aliens before. This is a peaceful planet they aren't strong elites like the zenith here. We are soft. We aren't ready for a surprise attack."
He stood up, while ignoring the pain in his ribs from kaito's beating. He started running down the stairs, while jumping three steps at a time.
Clatter-thud! Clatter-thud!
"The pilot is probably a Soldier-rank," Seven thought. "He knows he's trapped. He knows that he'll die eventually. He's not here to capture anything... he's here to kill as many as he can before he's taken down."
Seven finally reached the street level. It was chaos. People were running in every direction. There were Hover-cars that had crashed into each other, blocking the roads.
He pushed through the tide of the Running crowd toward the crash site. As he turned the corner, he stopped.
The dust was now settling down. Standing in the middle of the burning street was a monster.
It was a race known as Rakshasa.
The alien was huge, nearly twelve feet tall, with a body that looked like it was human skin. Its hair was jet black, the Hair was standing up in a wild posture, it was like sharp spikes that looked like a crown of needles. It wore a high-tech black battle suit that shimmered with dark energy. On its forearms, there were three bone-spikes—each of them was about a foot long— it protruded through the suit.
But the most terrifying part was its hands. The Rakshasa wore heavy, and mechanical Gauntlets. The metal was dark and jagged, it glowed with a red light that hummed with kinetic tech.
Hummmm... vrrr...
A man was trapped under a huge piece of fallen stone right in front of the alien. He was reaching out, begging. "Please... help..."
The Rakshasa didn't say a word. It didn't have to say anything to ants. It raised its right gauntlet. The red light in it intensified.
CRACK-SQUELCH.
With a single, and casual flick, the alien crushed the man's head into the pavement. The sound of his head squashing was sickening. It was like a dry melon being stepped on by an elephant. Blood sprayed across the alien's black suit like red paint. Splatter!.
"Monster..." Seven's heart heavily hammered against his ribs. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
The Rakshasa slowly turned its head. Its eyes were solid black, cold and hungry. A few feet away, there was a little girl that sat on the ground. She was no older than five, her yellow dress was covered in soot. She was sobbing, her hands were over her ears.
"Mama... I want Mama..." she wailed.
The Rakshasa stepped toward her. While Its heavy boots made the ground shake.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Seven froze. That girl... she looked exactly like his little sister from his past life. The same curly hair. And terrified eyes.
"Don't do it, Seven," his mind screamed at him. "You have no power. You're a Null. You'll die in one hit. Run! Hide! Wait for the elites!"
But his legs moved before his brain could even stop them.
"I died saving people once," Seven thought, with a bitter smile touching his lips. "The Gods called it a mistake. They called it an inconvenience. Well... let's be inconvenient one more time."
The Rakshasa reached the girl. It moves his arm with its glowing gauntlet. The alien looked down at the child like she was an insect to be crushed.
The girl looked up, her eyes wide with the reflection of the glowing red metal gauntlet. "Please..." she whispered.
The Rakshasa slowly swung.
WHOOSH!
The air screamed as the gauntlet cut through the wind.
CLANG!!
A sound like a massive iron bell echoed through the entire street.
A shadow had suddenly blurred across the pavement. Just as the gauntlet was a few inches from the girl's head, a foot slammed into the side of the alien's armored fist. The force of the kick was immense, redirecting the punch into the concrete next to the girl's ear.
CRACK!
The pavement shattered, sending chunks of stone flying.
The Rakshasa's golden eyes widened in a bit of surprise. It looked up to see who had dared to touch it.
Standing there, balanced on one leg with his other foot still pressed against the alien's gauntlet, was a black haired boy in a torn school uniform. His eyes were cold, filled with a defiant, and nonchalant fire.