Ego mos pugna pro...

[read first: I know this may remind you of a certain manga, yes, olololol i totes kinda just ripped off some of the concepts, but it's not going to be exactly the same as that manga. This is a writing exercise for me, I'm writing this to see if I got better or worse over the while, and if I get better while writing it, then yay, if I don't, then meh.]

It all started with one suggestion that would trigger one of the greatest battles for power ever to take place on Earth.

Earth date/time, EST: June 14, 1996 3:56PM

Luz would walk through the pitch-black room of his while in his human form, covered in a body of light; he decided immediately the world changing decision. “I’m bored,” he told himself, looking to the Earth through the rectangular doorway, he wondered to himself, thinking only random thoughts until he came upon a thought he actually stopped to think about. “A game…” He muttered as he stared over the Earth. “I need some entertainment; I haven’t interfered with Earth in a while.” And he wandered over to a side of his room, which no one could see through, no human at least, the room was basically just a dark space and there was a sort of doorway, allowing him to reach the Earth when he wished, he knew every part of it, though. Reaching into a part of the space, he took out items shrouded in darkness, and then waved an arm over them, revealing them for moments; turquoise diamond-shaped items glistened and disappeared. He moved his arm holding the items to the doorway, and opened his palm, the items suddenly flew forward, down upon the earth, to make the game more exciting, however he would center them in a specific location on Earth, and he grinned as he spoke. “Earth should play a game.”

August 05, 2010, 8:47 PM, EST

Arianna stepped into the elevator of the fancy hotel with a bored look on her face, everyone else was still at the pool, and she didn’t really want to stay down there, she slipped in silently, no one else in it. Random thoughts went through her head, coming and going. As she touched the button taking her to the seventh floor where the room was, she slipped out even more stealthily, trying to hide her existence, the hotel floor had a creeping vibe to it. Turning right immediately, she slipped the key card into the lock and pulled it out, the door slid open, revealing the room, two king-sized beds, an LG Television, two desks, and other common things her family used. Then she heard that noise, it sounded like a chime, she didn’t know what it exactly was, though. It called to her, and she approached the balcony, standing before the curtain covering the glass sliding door, she heard the call one last time before she pulled it back. There she saw what she couldn’t believe, there was one building directly under the balcony, which was flat on the roof, and another building directly adjacent to it, probably about forty feet higher, also flat on the roof.
____A hooded and cloaked figure, all in black approached another downed person, looked like a kid, no higher age than Arianna herself. She saw his bloodstained blond hair spiking in odd directions, his pale skin, his face covered in fear, she was ready to just jump and try to help, but all she could do was stand. The other figure had no visible features, until he pulled out what looked like a hunting knife, it gleamed in the moonlight. A cough was heard, and she saw a glistening diamond shaped object fly into the air, the blond haired kid’s eyes glowed for a moment, and the figure was on the other side of the building, the cloak flew off, off the edge of the building and disappearing from view.
________The figure also looked young, another man with oak-brown hair which was flowing off the edge of the building, his body even more pale than the other kid’s. Bleeding intensely, the now uncloaked figure reached out, and his eyes closed slowly after his hand fell down onto the top of the building, the blond kid was instantly in front of the man, as though he had claws he would slash down upon the man and the uncloaked figure would lay lifeless. The other kid looked behind him, picking something, still glistening and dropped it into his mouth, swallowing it, and then he seemed to come to his senses. His eyes widened in shock as the lifeless corpse lay before him. The same diamond-like object, sparkled as it fell out of the other figure’s wound; the blond kid picked it up and did the same as he did before, now expressionless. Turning directly to Arianna, their eyes met and Arianna gasped at the blond kid vanished. The corpse now began to smoke and completely evaporated into the air in moments, the smoke also vanished in moments.
___Arianna could only stand there, her eyes wide as she had barely made any sound or sign of life during the entire thing, she seemed to snap out of a trance as she stepped back, tripping over something that seemed like an invisible string, she fell back and braced for impact, but nothing happened. She found herself in a new place, a dark area where she couldn’t see at all, she only heard voices in the dark. “What’s going on?” One asked, “Where am I?” The other questioned. “Welcome,” spoke a deep voice in the dark, it seemed commanding and ruling, it probably knew where she was, and what was going on. “I am Luz, and I have brought you all here to address the first reap.” She heard many gasps, a sigh and one chuckle. “What’s a ‘reap’?” One voice asked. “A ‘reap’ is what I call when a player is killed, and their essence is stolen.” Arianna would look curiously, even though she couldn’t see anything. “What’s an ‘essence’?” She asked, finally saying something. “An ‘essence’ is that diamond-like object you saw today, there is one inside all of you, well, two for one of you, the one that conducted the reap.” Arianna knew she was dreaming, she couldn’t move, trying to shift her weight was an impossible trial. Luz, as what she came to know the deep voice as, would speak again while she kept trying to move.
______“Let me tell you what happened…” He began and everyone asked questions like “What do you mean?” among others. He sounded annoyed as he began again. “…Several years ago, well, in your time it was several years, I decided to start a game.” “A game…?” She asked, even though she knew he would explain. “The game is essentially something that I made to keep me entertained, I took parts of incredible power, separating them into shards, as you may call them, the things I refer to as ‘essence’. Anyhow, it is a game to see who can take all the shards and acquire the incredible power, strong enough to change the world.” As he spoke there were sounds of chuckles and laughs of disbelief. He still spoke, ignoring the sounds. “Approximately fifteen of your world’s years have passed, while fifteen hundred have passed here. Now that the first reap has been conducted, the game can actually begin.”


Two days had passed since the strange meeting, though nothing strange happened, Arianna still felt a feeling of apprehension inside her, she couldn’t tell why. She really wanted to forget about it, but she couldn’t. Walking along the sidewalk on the not so crowded avenues, “Like the odds of any of these ‘players’ being the same state, let alone continent are likely…” She would say to herself as she strolled on down the line of restaurants. She made an annoyed face as she thought about what Luz said. Shaking her head, she tried to forget about it as she looked up at the cloudy sky, making the town not as hot as it always is. She was wearing a sky-blue tank top with a tan short skirt, so she was prepared for any heat. Though she wanted to be free from the thoughts of what had happened, it had found a way of finding her. Chime~ was the musical sound she heard in her head, she didn’t know where it came from, but she had heard it when she saw the two kids fight. She tilted her head up and saw what the chime was warning her of.
______It was him, the blond kid, bits of red could still be seen in his hair, and he was walking down the street casually. Arianna gasped quietly and then grasped her mouth. He was walking right this way, but turning would’ve made her suspicious, or maybe he’d notice her. When she checked again, she knew he noticed, since he looked up too. The two were so close; it was like two cars on different lanes passing by each other. When the two met at the same point, neither stopped, but only for a moment, glanced at the others’ face to get a better look, when Arianna turned a corner, she stopped in her tracks and let her breath go. The odds were greater than she thought, if one—no, two were in the same area as her, how many more could’ve been? She moved forward quickly, in any direction, trying to get away. She saw what he did and really didn’t want to be a part of that, she could never conduct a ‘reap’ as Luz put it. She barely knew that there was a shard or whatever he called it inside her until a few days before.
_____Arianna began to hear the chime at different locations, was the blond kid following her? She had to get away, so she quickly went into an alley without thinking. The alley was dark, not too dark, and the sun was starting to warm up the whole area, she kept her head down moving through the alley quickly, but trying not to look suspicious, the red brick walls on either side, the dumpsters and trash bags lining them and the smell was enough to motivate her to go faster. Chiiiiiiiiiiiime!!! This time the sound was intense, ringing as though it was playing on maximum in invisible headphones. She looked up and saw a figure at the end of the hallway, turning around quickly, she saw another, she was cornered, she knew what was going to happen, she would be ‘reaped’ like the other guy. Filled with fear she only stood there as the two got closer and closer, it seemed like an eternity before one spoke.
____“Well, well, look-ey here…” One voice said, sounding malevolent in its words. It sounded like a boy’s voice, probably around the same age as her. She turned to try and see who was speaking, the speaker had flowing jet-black hair and emerald green eyes, he was wearing a black T-Shirt along with jeans and sneakers, but not much else, his skin was slightly tan in the light. Arianna would step back, only to hear the voice of whom she assumed was the blond kid. “Leave ‘er alone, you know she had nothin’ to do with Damon’s reap.” He said to the other in a forceful voice. Had the players known each other before the game? Arianna told herself she was crazy, in her thoughts for acknowledging the game. She actually liked the idea of power, but not at the cost of other people’s lives. Arianna wasn’t going to wait for a response from either; she decided immediately that the blond kid’s direction was her best bet at escaping. She turned and dashed, right past the blond kid. “You’re not going anywhere!” Yelled the black haired kid, who immediately appeared in front of her, with a speed so quick, she didn’t see him run. Then she understood it, the shard was on a necklace he wore, and when the shard had popped out of the blond kid’s body, he became feral; the shard was the key. At the same speed that he appeared in front of Arianna, the blond kid had appeared, kneeing the black haired one in the ribs.
_____“I’m still a lot faster than you and Damon.” He would say, two shards in his right hand. He then grabbed Arianna’s hand as he left the alley, pulling her with him and leaving the other behind. “Not much time to explain.” He told her as he continued on running ahead with her on hand. “I’m Jake, and that was Matthew, basically, Matthew wants to kill you and me because of his brother, Damon; the one you saw me…” He would put his head down as he stopped. “… ‘reap’.” I knew what he said, I heard it clear, he killed someone’s brother, I know it, but it was in self defense… She tried to believe this as she looked at him, checking back every few moments for Matthew. She then thought about how this would work, “I don’t know know how many other ‘players’ there were, and if they all were in the same area, than why didn’t Luz just reveal their identities when we were at that meeting of his…” she thought to herself. “Because, not even I know your identities—unless you reveal them yourselves.” Arianna gasped again, “What the—what are you doing, talking in my mind, Luz!?” She called out. “Your identity was easy, you attract so many other players, you’re like a huge flame, and here come the moths.” Arianna heard the chime again as Jake asked her what was wrong, she turned, Matthew in sight, she ran as fast as she could forward and Jake followed, both were running blind, but they had to get away. The mall was in sight so they took the chance and leaped forward into the crowd when they got to the doors.
____After about ten minutes of trying to hide, they felt they lost him. Arianna looked at Jake and wondered something; she never said it out loud, though. Why did Damon try to kill Jake first if the game’s existence wouldn’t be revealed until after the first reap how did he know? And if Luz didn’t know our identities, how did he summon us to where we were? She thought this over as she headed to the bathroom, and then heard a familiar voice. “Arianna, I can only track people down with the shards, I can summon the shards inside the people to me, and with them come the actual people. This game is fun enough anyway, I’ll tell you one thing though; you’ll get nowhere the way you’re going now.” Arianna shook her head, obviously annoyed. “What do you suggest then, Luz?” She asked aloud, hoping no one else was in the restroom to hear her. “I’ll give you one bit of help, I realized this a bit ago after experimenting with Damon’s shard at the meeting, while everyone was speaking.” Arianna was interested, this could probably be very helpful, or just a bit of useless news, either way, she had to hear. “The shards are the essence of the person, so that means… they hold a lot about the person… including something as valuable as…” He stopped. “… Memories.” Arianna finished his sentence; memories are the most valuable thing an ‘essence’ could hold. “So what you’re saying is…” She looked into the mirror as though Luz were right there. “An essence can hold the memories of a person, but I don’t know to what extent the memories are, remembered, no matter how vivid they feel, they’re just memories!” Arianna noticed he sounded quite unsure of himself, if Luz didn’t know the power of the things he gave out; then could she really trust his words? She remembered why she walked into the woman’s restroom, behind her outside the room she heard Jake calling, so she washed her face over and tried to rub her eyes. “I have an idea.” She told him as she stepped out of the restroom to see him standing near the wall.


Stepping into the memory was strange at first, Arianna and Jake went to a location hidden a bit far from the mall, when they held out the shard belonging to Damon, they wondered how it would work. “Do we just will it… or what?” He asked her, who replied with a shrug. They both willed it, that it would show a line of Damon’s memories. Suddenly a tear appeared in the wall in front of them it made a horrible ripping sound and in a minute there was a black darkness in there, then images began to flash by one after another, Arianna assumed it was in chronological order. “How about you look at one memory and I’ll look at the other--,” She was cut off, stepping forward and tripping over the yellow block usually found at parking lots, falling forward, she found herself inside the tear, but she couldn’t find her way, in her desperation she found herself crawling and in a new place. Standing up, it was a hall with probably hundreds of doors, thousands maybe. She decided to go step a bit until she found a way, but then suddenly she heard the chime, it was more like a calling then a warning this time, she suddenly found herself looking at a door to her right, the knob slowly turning by itself, and suddenly the door flung open and Arianna found herself pulled in. Suddenly she felt pain striking through her forehead, grabbing at it and rubbing her forehead she felt that she wasn’t herself, then she saw something, she saw Jake, walking into a home she didn’t recognize, but saw the address. Then, another image flashed it showed Jake holding a type of necklace, on the necklace were many shards, he was smiling, suddenly she knew what the image meant, Jake won the game. Then another image showed, it wasn’t much of an image, since it was in the dark, and she heard voices, voices very similar to the ones from the meeting.
____They were the voices from the meeting. “Damon saw these things before they happened, that’s why he went after Jake!” She exclaimed as she fell backward and out of the door. She turned around to see Jake outside, with herself, the tear was gone and she was on the ground. “You were gone for a moment, you just reappeared!” He told her. “Jake, Damon saw something about the meeting, then saw your address, he knew about the meeting, he immediately assumed you were in the game too, and he apparently had his shard activated a while ago, and…” She stopped there. “And what?” He asked. Arianna wasn’t going to tell him what she saw, for some reason, it didn’t feel right to. “Just random memories of him as a kid after, you know, the usual, not much else. But this means…” She looked back at where the tear was. “…Damon could see the future!” She realized this earlier, but only bothered to say it now. Jake still had the best question with him. “So what now, what do we do?” Arianna unfortunately had the answer. “We have to… kill the other players, who knows how many there could be!?”
______“I’m afraid that won’t be necessary, you’ll be dying right here, right now.” The voice came from behind, it was Matthew who found us, Jake prepared for a fight, but Arianna couldn’t, she didn’t have her shard activated, and without it, she couldn’t do anything. She didn’t want Jake to fight him, the battle’s outcome would be obvious, it was too easy for Jake, she also felt slight pity for Matthew, but it didn’t affect her opinion much. Arianna tried to look for an escape, but a parking lot was too wide, and there were fences around, so Matthew was at the only entrance. “I’m also afraid that I have to stop you there, those two can’t die just yet, I’ll need ‘em for later, you see?” Said a female voice from above, and there she was, on top of the roof was a strange girl, also about the same age as Arianna and the others. Her hair was a deep lavender colour and so were her eyes, wearing a jet black gown that reached past her ankles. Piano black, fingerless velvet gloves went from an inch down her shoulder to her hand on each of her arms, on her neck she was wearing something that seemed to be just a simple chain with a glistening shard on it, and she was apparently also a player. “Now I suggest you run along before you get too caught up in this and I have to kill you.” Arianna was a bit frightened of her, the way she said it so cool and calm. In moments she had a gun out, a magnum, desert eagle with a black finish and steel frame, Arianna watched shows about guns a lot, since she liked long range weapons when it came to fighting at all. “If you think I’ll miss, just stand there, or…” She smiled. “…if you think I’ll hit ‘ya you should really move.” She held the gun pointed down at him, directly at his forehead, Matthew would look at her, then Arianna, then Jake and his decision was clear. He turned away and left walking out of the entrance. Suddenly the girl was already making her way down, using windows and air conditioners on the outside as steps, she moved smoothly on the side of the building. She finally made her way down to the ground when she told Arianna and Jake her name.
_________“I’m Jen, you two Arianna and Jake? Word around the game is that you two have the best chance of winning, with three shards, and word spreads very fast” She held out her hand, Arianna was hesitant at first, but then realized that having another person with them would increase their chances of… well, living.

Level Four: Consideration

__Jen had taken Arianna and Jake to an abandoned warehouse far from where they met, that was the plan, immediately Jen began to tell them things about the shards that she had learned from experience, like how they activate, and other things she found out from testing. Jen had been born north of where Arianna lived, not too far, and she had the same birthday as Arianna and Jake as well, which they found more than a coincidence. Jen didn’t want to explain how she ended up with a gun; it was a rather long story. Jen began to discuss with Arianna and Jake about the shards, it became the only thing they spoke about while there, until they hit a certain topic. “What about our family?” Arianna asked. “What are we going to do about them?” She asked again after her first question. Jen looked down at her hands as she sat on a old wooden crate. “I say drop ‘em, dead weight, just a burden, family’s going to make you much more vulnerable, which is why I ran away.” Arianna took a breath, “I can’t do that… they’re my family!” Jen shook her head then looked directly at Arianna. “That is why you can do it.” Arianna knew what she meant; she was talking about if a family member was hurt during the game as an attempt to cripple her emotionally. “You have a point.”
_After minutes of silence after that, Arianna had no idea what to do now, there had to be at least some clue to the amount of players, “If only there was some way we could count them all, but this stupid chime in our heads is all we have!” Jen looked at Arianna strangely. “Chime…?” Arianna looked back at her the same way. “Yeah, chime; the chime that tells us when another player is near.” Jen then looked to Jake who seemed to be hearing this for the first time. “Arianna…” She took another glance at Jake before looking at Arianna. “I’ve never heard a chime when a player was nearby, and if I’m right, neither has Jake.” Jake shook his head as Jen said this. “What…?” Arianna muttered out, she was utterly confused. “You…” She touched her bottom lip with her forefinger as she thought. “…you can sense the presence of other players, but that’s impossible, shards don’t have pre-activation effects, do they?” Arianna and Jake shared a confused look. “Should we ask Luz?” Jen scoffed, “Luz doesn’t know anything, he knows just about the same we do.” Nodding, Arianna decided that there was nothing that could help them understand, she knew she could sense other players, but she didn’t know that no one else could. “There’s only one thing we can do now.” Jen said calmly. “And what’s that?” was Arianna’s response as she was rubbing her head in confusion. “We have to kill Matthew, obviously.”
______“I don’t think he’s going to go down easy, at all.” Jake responded almost immediately, and then continued to speak to both Jen and Arianna. “I murdered his brother, be it in self defense, he’s still going to want to kill me, he thinks it’s all just the game’s fault, he’s not going to die, however, without a very large fight.” Jen had considered this earlier. “There’s three of us and only one of him.” “Correction,” Jake interrupted, “We assumed there was only one of him, depending on the amount of players, he could probably be with others as we speak.” Jen hadn’t considered this, obviously, but Arianna could see it in her eyes, she was worried about something, it wasn’t what Jake just said, though, she saw that Jen couldn’t get that worrying look in her eye out ever since they met. Jen stood and smiled, “I’ve got to go do something real quick, I’ll be back.” Arianna could easily see that not even while she speaking did the worried looks on her disappear. Jake didn’t notice, from what Arianna could tell, and then something sunk into her, something she hadn’t considered before. As Jen walked out, Arianna thought about what she said earlier. Her family, how could she do something like this? She didn’t consider what she would have to do about her family; she couldn’t just leave them, could she? She shook her head as she thought on this. She took a look at Jake. “I’m going home for a bit, I’ll be back tomorrow.” As she left she began to take in her surroundings, inside the building, nothing outside could be heard, she began to smell the familiar odor of the garbage along the streets, and heard the same passing of cars she did almost every day of her life. Her family lived near a train station, so they awoke to that sound during the morning frequently. As she walked she immediately noticed Jen up ahead, walking in the same direction as her.
____Speeding up a bit, she caught up to Jen and tapped her on the shoulder. The girl turned back with an expressionless look on her face, and then changed slightly when she realized who it was. Arianna was a bit curious about why Jen acted the way she did, she seemed like a nice girl, one who would protect her family, and after a moment of looking at her, she asked. Jen quickly put on a thinking look, then sighed as she looked forward to Arianna. “Well…” She began, taking a breath as the cars passed by. “…I had to protect my family, so I left to keep them out of the game, and I took on a whole new look, a new personality, I had to stay this way…” Arianna still looked at her confused. “Why?” Jen looked around her then focused on Arianna. “…because I didn’t want anyone to think that my family was a weak point for me, even though in reality, family is everyone’s weak point.” Arianna shook her head, disagreeing. “Family is only a weak point if you think of it that way; family is truly everyone’s strong point.” Jen would look in surprise at Arianna’s words, then take a breath and put on a smile that would’ve been genuine if she didn’t have that hint of worry in her eye. “I guess everyone sees it different ways. I have to go now anyway, why are you leaving, though, Arianna?” Arianna showed the same look Jen did when she left the building, “I have some things to check over.” She said clearly as she looked out into the road, in the direction of her home. She knew her way around the streets well enough, she could make it.
_______“See ya!” Jen called as she turned the corner that would separate the two of them. Arianna could only wave back and smile as she suddenly remembered where she was going, in the distance, probably only about a few blocks away, she could see her home, the two story house made of pretty sturdy wood and plaster. As she entered her sanctuary, as she once called it, she was greeted by her mother, a working widow who now had short, dark blonde hair, once beautiful, bright, and long, her figure had gone down in the past few years too, now she was only eating when she got home, at night or early in the morning, it really hadn’t affected Arianna, since her father died when she was four, she really didn’t know much about him, but she felt it was worse for her sister, Lina. Lina was only a few months old when Arianna’s father died, yet even though it didn’t affect Arianna, it did affect Lina, she was a bit more morbid then Arianna was, but she didn’t blame Lina, since Lina had met death at a very young age. Lina never saw someone die in person, but she had seen the death of animals and felt that the pain was the same as the pain shared among people when dead, she believed this greatly. Though she didn’t cry when she ate a hamburger, or regret eating fish, she did feel that their pain was already shared by the ones those animals loved, she knew all life wasn’t equal, but when it came to the pain shared, everyone felt it, even those only barely close to the deceased. Lina wasn’t the kind of girl to show her beliefs out over the world though, she kept quiet and to herself, Arianna had never seen her bring friends over, and Lina was more of a solo, more reader type of girl.
____Arianna loved Lina greatly and would never let anything happen to her, but she knew her family would support her if something happened, she knew at sometimes, family was the only thing a person had, which is why she believed that family was a strong point when she said it to Jen only a while before. As she checked on her sister, she moved on to her room right beside her sister’s. Thinking about the game and how it would be played, the best way, possibly the only way to gain an advantage, would to find out how many players there were. So far she only knew about Jake, herself, Jen, and Matthew, but there had to be more, she heard more voices at the meeting, and she knew that Jake, Matthew, and Jen were probably the only ones with their ‘essence’ activated. These thoughts however, were interrupted by the tempting smell of beef ramen, her mother’s favorite thing to make, since it was so simple. Arianna loved the ramen, though Lina could bear eating it, it wasn’t her favorite, Lina’s favorite food was white rice, mixed in with almost anything, and she would eat it. The taste of the ramen felt like a flood of memory, they had been at the hotel so long down south that Arianna had begun to forget what the taste was. Dinner was relatively quiet, everyone would talk about their day, save for Arianna, she didn’t know a way to explain her day. Slipping into a new outfit, Arianna fell asleep reading a murder mystery book, she loved the way they found things out, and she always liked a good twist or two. Yet, sleep was always her best way of leaving the logical world for a bit, it was her eight hour moments reprieve from reality.