I can feel the cold air enter my lungs as I breathe, it's taken me years to get everything, and as I look at the various cursed and Sacred items in my possession, I can only hope they're enough.
The world that I'm headed to is nothing more than a playground for the abominations that I've gotten so used to fighting over the years, but it's the only place that I haven't looked.
][][
The full moon is painted a bright red as he steps onto the edge of the bridge tonight he's going to end it all, he has nothing left to live for after all everyone turned their backs on him, and called him a murderer.
His last moments are being live-streamed through the internet by the cellphone that he placed nearby and even from this distance, he can see the comments of the people telling him to jump.
Maybe he should have put the phone a little further away so that he didn't have to spend his last moments on earth feeling so hated.
He takes a deep breath and is about to give his final step when something impossible happens.
He can feel the air being scared out of his lungs as a bright blue portal opens in front of him and a man wearing a brown Duster Coat steps through and pulls him away from the edge.
"Were you going to kill yourself?" the man asks him as he looks towards the city before turning his attention to every other direction but never bothering to look at him.
'Yes." he answers the man weakly.
"If you are going to die, then how bout a job, that way your worthless life will have some meaning and your death won't feel so empty." the man says to him.
"Wh..what do I have to do?" he fearfully asks the stranger who pulls another duster trench coat from nowhere and puts it on him.
"We're going to save the world or die trying.' the stranger says to him before he lets go of him and begins to walk towards the part of the city that isn't empty.
He can't help but instinctively pull the jacket off of himself, but e can throw it away, he remembers why he came here and instead he just stares at the only thread of kindness that someone or something gave him.
He puts the jacket back on and notices that it's covered in runes or some sort of strange patterns are drawn both inside and outside of it, but for whatever reason he wasn't able to see them until he put the jacket back on.
The sound of the wind blowing causes him to feel a chill run down his spine even though he's now wearing the trench coat, and his instincts tell him that whatever caused the chill to happen is nearby.
So he quickly grabs his phone and runs after the stranger.
He finds the stranger leaning on a brick wall that severs as the outside of a building, but what the building is he neither knows nor cares.
"So you made your choice.' the man says to him, but his words are more f a question than a statement.
"Yeah." he says to the stranger who points at the moon.
"Let me ask you something is it normal for the moon to be that color?"
"Hold on let me change the question, should the moon be that color tonight?" the man asks him.
He turns to look at the moon and even he knows that it's not normal, for whatever reason the color of the moon has been red and unlike other times when it just appears red on this side of the world and appears normal white color on the other side.
For the last couple of weeks, both sides of the world have seen it painted red.
Not only that there are videos on the internet that show the moon's light painting the night sky red.
'It's a countdown." the stranger says to him before he reaches into his coat and takes out a gun.
His eyes widen as the man points the gun at him, and he starts breathing faster as he curses himself for allowing himself to be tricked like this.
He lets out a small breath of relief as the man lowers the gun and hands it to him.
He hesitantly takes the gun from the man's hands and waited for him to say anything, but the man just ignores him and goes back to looking at the people that haven't left the other side of the street.
"So why are you looking at the prostitutes?" he asks the stranger.
"I'm not looking at them, I'm looking at her." the stranger says to him as he waves at someone that he can't see.
"There's no one there." he says to the stranger as he forces his eyes o look into the dark alleys but he doesn't see anything.
"She was waiting for you to jump." the stranger says to him before he waves again, but this time he smiles at the person that isn't there.
"I told" he stops talking when he realizes that he's not able to see anything anymore, there's no light anymore and the man he was just talking to is gone.
"You should have jumped." a woman's voice says to him and despite how soft her voice sounds, he can't help but feel more and more terror as she says each word.
The burning sensation of something hitting his face forces him to open his eyes and he finds himself staring at the stranger who is standing over him.
He can see the man's right hand tightly formed into a fist and judging by the fact that his face hurts like hell, the man must have punched him to wake him up from whatever he was just in.
"She's gone." the stranger says to him as the sound of sirens getting closer reaches his ears.
'What was that?" he asks the stranger.
"A vampire's trance, you were marked and she wanted you to kill yourself so that no one would bother looking for you." the stranger says to him, as he helped him get back on his feet.
"How do you?" he starts to ask the man, but before he can finish his question the man grabs him by the coat and jumps onto the roof of the building.
The man lets go of him and looks into the city.
'What are you doing?" he asks the man, but his voice is softer than he ever hears it before, maybe it's the mixed emotions that he's experienced tonight.
Or maybe it's the fact that the man just did something impossible, but his voice is loudly showing his fear and unwillingness to make the man angry.
"Looking for our prey."
"That thing marked you, you were involved long before I got here, the difference is you're on our side instead of hers." the stranger says to him, as the police finally arrive and begin to seal off the street below.
[Change ]
I can't help but take a deep breath of the cold night air as I silently order the timmer that only I can see to show itself.
I silently stare at the clock and it's hard for me to believe that it's only five o'clock, the taint of the red moon has already begun to affect the world and that means that there won't be any place safe.
I have to move but I don't know where I have to go.
I briefly turn and look at the young man who I made my anchor to this world, the poor fool probably thinks that I helped him out of some sort of kindness.
It's better that he never knows the truth.
I watch as a red drop of blood appears next to the clock and unfortunately, the situation has already spiraled out of control.
No, I have to accept the truth, I was never in control of anything, even when I was trying to get my hands on the items that I'm hoping will keep me alive long enough that I can find everyone before time runs out.
"I don't have a choice." I say to myself as I summon a bottle fairy, the tiny creature looks at me with its bright white eyes that shine with a purity that is only rivaled by the light of the saints.
What I'm about to do is a crime of the highest order, but I have no choice but to do it, if I don't I risk never finding whoever I'm looking for.
The fairy looks at me with a horrified expression as it realizes what I'm about to do.
I raise the bottle high above my head before quickly bringing it down and shattering the bottle when it hits the side of the roof.
The scream of the fairy spills into the world catching the attention of all of the creatures that are at home in the dark.
I can feel the hair on my arms, legs, and head move as a pulse of purity flows into the world and calls to heaven for help.
I can't help but smile as I see the tiny fairy fly towards me, it's no taller than my hand and while she is attractive by all means of the word, I know that what I'm looking at is nothing more than what it wants me to see.
The tiny creature flies in front of me and turns into a ball of light.
I look past the white light of the fairy and once again I look into the city below, and as I look into the souls that call the city home I notice how many tainted souls there are.
The souls of man glow a pure white, but they lack the purity of a being that was created by god or the angels because of the sins that man has committed.
The souls of the earth-born, those filthy creatures that claim that the world itself created them to defend it glow green, while the undead barely shines at all.
Their light is constantly dwindling and only recovers when it's stealing the life from others.
There's no point in mentioning the demonic or in my case the outer ones, we have no light.
I look down and I can't help but laugh a little as I see my hands glowing white with the fire that only a Human soul can make.
the scream of the fairy reaches my ears and as I turn in the direction where it came from, I can feel my senses being forced to focus on someone or something that is miles away from where I'm standing.
"Found you," I say to myself before I turn to look at my anchor.
'Do you know how to use that gun?" I ask him, and I watch as the white flames that are his soul lift the gun that I gave him.
"No, I never." he says to me but I don't give him the chance to finish.
'Good, you'll learn." I say to him before I walk up to him and force him to run toward the edge of the roof and force him to jump off of it.
I channel the pure energy that the fairy is sharing with me for setting it free into his body so that he doesn't break before we reach our destination.
"Why is everything burning white?" he screams with a mixture of fear and confusion.
"What your looking at is how Human souls look, there is no reason for your soul or anyone's soul to look like how they look in their physical form." I say to him as I jump onto another building.
Im forced to stop moving from one building to another when I see my target vanish.
"Damm." I say to myself as the fairy returns to its mortal form and loses its pure white soul fire.
I let go of my anchor and begin to look at my surroundings thankfully we landed on a parking lot, meaning that we won't have any trouble getting out of it and walking into the street below.
"Come on."I say to my anchor as I lead him toward the exit.
"So mind telling me what we're looking for?" he asks me as I open the metal door before I start to walk down the concrete stairs.
"Someone or something with a Human soul." I answer him.
"Waite do you mean you don't know?" he asks me.
"No, I know what I'm looking for I just don't know who it is." I say to him as I pass the fifth-floor sign.
I stop walking when I reach the first floor but as I'm about to open the metal door and walk into the parking lot, the door opens, and a pair of women that look and smell as if they had just been drinking walk in before looking at me and my anchor as if we were going to attack them.
I'm tempted to kill both of them, the smell of a pure soul is irresistible to the undead, tainted and demonic but I restrain myself I can't waste time in pointless fights.
Bottle fairies are capable of killing almost anything and tracking almost anything, unfortunately, their power quickly runs out because of their size.
Not to mention that they're irresistible to the very creatures that they kill and if one of those creatures were to eat one, then they would get the power of a pure soul.
I dont have to say that, that would be very bad for everyone.
To prevent this from happening the fairies allowed themselves to be put inside bottles until the day someone needs them.
When that day comes they will burn over and over again until they can't burn anymore and it's up to whoever freed them to protect them so that the angels of heaven can retrieve their souls when they die.
A compass appears in front of me, which means we're close, whoever I'm looking for can't be far.
I hear the sound of the metal door closing behind me, as the lights of the cars passing by nearly blinds me.
"Open the door" I order my anchor.
"What?" he asks me confused.
"Open the door!" I order him as my heart starts to beat faster, as the word danger flashes in front of me faster and faster.
The young man quickly opens the metal door and we both run back inside before we close the door, there's a brief moment of uneasy silence as we both listen but hear nothing except the sounds of the cars passing by.
We both let out a breath of relief as we realize that nothing has happened, but that moment quickly passes as something slams onto the wall outside and nearly breaks the metal door.
"Run!" I order my anchor as we both run upstairs and try to escape before the door completely falls apart.
I watch as my anchor is about to open the second-floor door and I grab his hand before he's able to open it.
If something is strong enough to break brick, metal, and concrete it's strong enough to jump three floors.
He looks at me with wide fearful eyes as the scream of two women reaches us, I point at him to keep walking until we reach the seventh floor again, and the sound of something hitting the metal door below us forces him to obey.
The sound of our footsteps is drowned out by the combined sounds of the metal doors being hit as several creatures try to get inside.
We finally reach the seventh floor and unfortunately, the door is wide open and I find myself looking into the empty glass-like eyes of one of the women who I had seen earlier.
I cover my anchor's mouth so that he doesn't scream and alert anything that doesn't know that we are in here to our existence.
I glance towards the image of the none existent drop of blood and I remind myself that this is what it means, every drop of blood means that more and more people will die.
A single drop can mean anything from a house filled with people to an entire office building being left lifeless.
Two drops and a town that's next to a military base and whose people are well-armed is whipped out, three drops and a city is thrown into chaos.
I don't need to say what four drops mean's and god help us all if something makes five drops appear.
I reach into my coat and command one of the guns that I collected into existence as I slowly walk towards the door, fortunately, I don't have to worry about anything seeing me, as there's nothing except the woman's organs keeping the door open.
Again something hits the door beneath us but there's something different about the sound this time, it's more hollow and I swear that it sounds as if the wall itself is about to give in.
I signal to my anchor and we carefully step over what's left of the woman's corps, as we look around to see any signs of danger we soon see a trail of blood leading in the direction that cars come in and out of this level of the parking lot.
I turn to look at the fairy who lifts both hands and begins to slowly count backward from ten, as she slowly lowers one finger then another.
I signal to my anchor to move quietly so that we don't attract the attention of something that is either hunting someone else or eating.
As I step further and further away from the stairs, I begin to hear the quiet moans of a woman, this isn't good the sound that she's making means that she is both alive and conscious of the danger she is in.
I need to, we need to get behind something before she sees us or else we risk her calling to us for help.
I can see my anchor from the corner of my eye and as I walk toward a nearby stone pillar, I feel a cold chill run down my spine.
There's a woman wearing pajamas on the other side of the street, but her mouth and shirt are covered in blood, her eyes are wide and filled with madness.
I can feel the air in my lungs being forced to stay inside my throat, as I watch as the woman lifts her hand and points at something behind me, even as she makes a mad smile, but instead of human teeth, her mouth is filled with fangs.
A burst of purity forcefully teleports me and my anchor to our destination, but unfortunately, the fairy loses its flame the moment we arrive and so she crawls into the coat that my anchor is wearing for protection.
I summon the compass that I used earlier to find whoever I'm supposed to be looking for, but the thing only vanishes, meaning that whoever I'm looking for is long gone.
My anchor runs past me and begins to vomit, but considering that seeing the top half of a dead woman didn't force him to react like this, what he must have seen must have been truly depraved.
I turn to look for whatever he might have seen and I wish I had never found it.
the sight before me is something out of nightmares, Humans, dead and undead are all melded together in some sort of twisted abomination that begs for its suffering to end.
"No." I say to myself as the timmer changes and shows me what the creature that did this is planning and unfortunately for the people of this city, it's nothing good.
"It's a flesh pillar." I tell my anchor who doesn't say anything and instead chooses to keep looking in the other direction, as he continues to empty his stomach.
This changes everything, if I destroy this pilar it will buy me more time, so I can look for whoever is in this city, but if I do that whoever made this thing will be looking for me.
My choice is clear, I reach into my coat and pull out a gas can, and pour its contents onto the abomination.
I ignore the people who beg me to save them and the empty promises of the dead and undead, before I reach into my pocket and take out a box of matches, I open the box and light a match.
I watch as the gas quickly catches fire and the fire change color as the tainted flesh begins to burn.
The fire rises into the sky as it burns the flesh pillar that it is connected to by supernatural means, there's no way of stopping the fire now and that means that whatever\ whoever is responsible for making it is already aware that something has gone wrong.
"We're leaving." I say to anchor as the smell of burning meat begins to fill the air.
"Wha, what was that, and what were those things?" my anchor says to me as tonight's events have already begun to take their toll on his already strained mind.
"I don't know what the things we ran into were, I didn't see them, but that was a flesh pillar."
"In simple terms, it's a part of something that isn't in this reality, I don't think that I have to tell you what the rest of the pillar is made of." I say to him as I walk towards him and place my hand on his back, as I try to comfort him.
I feel how he jumps out of fear, but his body doesn't react anymore than that, he isn't capable of doing anything else yet.
"If that thing was here, then there should be a church nearby." I say to him as I order the compass to lead me to where the nearest church is.
My anchor doesn't say anything, he just walks beside me in silence as we ignore the curious glances that the people give us before we find ourselves standing in front of a cathedral.
'Why are we here?" he asks me.
"It's a safe place, or as safe as any place can be in this world." I answer him as I place a seal that keeps the creatures of this world and other worlds away.
I grab the handle of the large wooden door and I listen to the door creak as I open it and let the young man walk in before I follow him inside.
Neither of us says anything and to be perfectly honest, I don't plan on saying anything either, I just wanted a place to sleep where I wouldn't have to pay.
"Who are you?" my anchor asks me.
"What have you been calling me, inside that head of yours?" I ask him.
"Stranger, because that's what you are. I mean you never told me your name." he answers me.
'I'm Stranger, that's my name from now on." we look at each other and I can't help but smile before shaking my head at his confusion.
"Listen, names have power, and it's easier to forget people if you don't know their names." I say to him before I ask him his name.
'Me, I'm no one, everyone abandoned me after what happened." he says to me.
"Hello Noone, I'm Stranger and your old life is over." I say to him as the sounds of footsteps reach our ears and we see a priest walking towards us.
'I'm sorry but we're closed for the night.' the priest says to us.
"Forgive father but we as for sanctuary on this night, we are but simple hunters that have caught the scent of a beast lurking in this city," I say to the priest who stops walking and we watch as he swallows a mouthful of spit.
I didn't say anything that has any real meaning, I just copied the words of a character that I saw in a movie back when I was still a little kid.
'I'm sorry but I'm not bound by the pact, nor have I been asked to join." the priest says to us as he tries to ec[plain something that I don't know nor do I care to know about.
'We are neither allies nor enemies of whatever organization, group, or whatever you may be speaking of."
"For we are nothing more than Noone and a Stranger who speak to a priest that is or was a Nobody." I interrupt the priest who seems t take a deep breath and begins to pray.
We watch as he prays for God's guidance before he signals us to follow him.
'I'm sorry but Hunters don't usually come my way, you know I was never trained nor did I ever expect to be chosen by someone that isn't a part of the church." he says to us.
"Damm." I say t myself, even if I don't say the word out loud.
"By the Heavens are you mad." the priest says as the fairy flies out of Noone's coat and waves at the man.
I watch as the man lifts his hands before kneeling and starting to pray as he gives thanks to God for allowing him to see one of the last pure spirits that exist on earth.
"I have to contact the Vatican, they have to send reinforcements if one of our God's children is here then." he begins to say but I place my hand on his head and he immediately closes his mouth and stops talking.
"Do you know how to fight Father?" I ask him.
The priest looks at me for a moment before he stands up and seems to inflate and grow inside.
"I use to be a troublemaker when I was young." he answers me.
I reach into my coat and take out several items, that will help the man defend himself as well as help him grant us blessings that neither Noone nor myself could use because we aren't Holy Men.
I watch as the priest's hands tremble as I hand him the items and despite the items being things that I ran into over the years I watch as the man holds them tightly as if they were made of gold.
To think that he would be smoking a cigar, at one point in his life, he would have never touched the thing.
Not because he didn't want to or because he wasn't curious, but because his health wasn't ever the best.
He can't help but look at his blood-covered hands and hope that he is nothing more than just another serial killer, just another madman amongst the many that have been driven mad by this uncaring world.
If only things were so simple.
If it hadn't been for that man he would have already been dead, and ever since then he neither cared about contacting the people that turned their backs on him nor going back to the life that he couldn't go back to.
Who knew that his old life wasn't normal either?
Now the people that did care about him, are revealing themselves to have never been human or to have already known about the world that he has been forced into.
It doesn't matter, not anymore, he was Noone and he is still Noone.
If he had ever been something other than that, then that person died the day the Stranger pulled him away from the edge of the bridge, saved his life, and gave him this new life.
He is Noone, he is just another Hunter named Noone.
Stranger
He is from another universe and is looking for his friends.
He doesn't know how long he's been traveling from one world to another, but he does know that it's taken him years to get his hands on a nearly endless supply of items, from worlds that people once believed to be fictional.
He also knows that he has no way of knowing if he can even get back to his original world.
Those that meet him, think that he has the answer to anything and maybe he does.
Others think that he is just the latest person to use the name Stranger and that the name has been used either by a secret organization that has been active for years or a modern incarnation that only took the mantle recently.
What people do know is that whoever meets him and knows he's in the city will immediately rely on him and place their trust in him regardless of how hopeless things seem.
][][]
Nobody\ Priest
The only good thing that he ever found in this life was when he heard the voice of God call to him.
That was more than enough to help him turn his life around and work to become one of his servants so that he could help those that are caught in a downward spiral and see no hope for their meaningless lives.
Never did he imagine that he would be called once again, and be tasked with walking between the lines of mortal men and the creatures that share the world with us.
He has sworn to heal, clean, and guide back the creatures that can still be saved as well as vanish those that can not or will not be saved.
For this he has accepted the title, the name Nobody for that is who he is, nobody, he is neither a man nor a being of power, he is just one more of gods servants.
He is just one more face amongst the many, he is Nobody.
"Thank you." Nobody says to me before he puts the items into his pocket and stands back up before he starts walking again.
"As I said earlier, I never expected to be contacted by anyone, I am but a man of God." he says to us.
I'm starting to understand why the man doesn't stop talking, he's afraid.
Hunters or whatever he thinks we are must be something that exists outside of the ordinary in this world and if we arrived here then he must think that we want him for something.
I probably shouldn't have said that we were Hunters and that he was a priest named Nobody, it's better if I try to calm him down.
"If our presence is too much trouble then I ask of you to excuse us, we neither seek to bring you into anything that you are neither prepared to face nor capable of fighting," I say to him before I signal to Noone to follow me out of the cathedral.
"I am a man of God and your presence is him Calling to me." the man says with a low but powerful voice that forces me to stop walking.
"If one of his children has arrived at my door, accompanied by a seasoned Hunter and his apprentice who grant me both a name and tools, I have no right to deny my Kings call."
I turn to look at the man who a moment ago looked so small and frightened and what I find myself looking at is a man that has a sharpness in his eyes that show years of fighting experience.
He isn't any bigger than myself or my anchor and yet the man seems to tower over us, by will alone.
The bottle fairy flies to his side and kisses the man on the cheek before patting him on the head.
"You should bring him with us." she says to me, with a voice that doesn't use words but instead speaks directly into our souls.
"No, this man has his own life if he wishes to aid us then I only ask for a place to rest and heal my wounds." I say to her as I lock eyes with Nobody.
"Nobody allowed you to stay here, and nobody has ever or will ever heal you if you come here injured." Nobody says to me as he smirks.
"Father, I cannot tell you why I am in this city except that I'm looking for someone, but I do not know what that person looks like, or even if they are Human."
"Noone was targeted by a Vampire and it will be up to him to tell you his story and explain why he was about to take his own life."
My anchor turns to look at me with wide eyes, that show his disbelief and feelings of betrayal after I just told someone what he was about to do.
"I'm sorry my son, you must have endured a lot."
"Those abominations and their kind destroy the lives of countless people just for their amusement and care little for those that they turn or the lives of the people that they destroyed." the priest says to my anchor, and for this long moment, we are just normal men standing inside a church.
][][Change ][][]
I gasp for air as I try to shake away the nightmare that has haunted me ever since the red moon appeared.
It was different this time, something had changed, it was different, and I was different.
I looked at the items that the Stranger gave me and I can see the Grace flowing through them, each item is extremely powerful and a part of me wishes that the hunter had never chosen to enter the cathedral.
The tiny figure of one of the last pure angels that remains within the physical world sits on my desk, I can't even begin to understand how or why she allowed herself to be set free in these troubling times.
"You are needed, not for them but for others." she says to me as she looks at the red moon that hangs high in the night sky.
"I don't know what to do." I say to her.
I watch as her pure flames grow and she is now standing over me, she is now a giant of a woman who can barely fit inside the room.
I can't help but let out a small gasp as she wraps her hands and wings around me in an embrace that reminds me of how my mom held me when I was still a small child.
My body begins to feel warm and I realize that she has returned to her original size, but she is still burning with the light of purity.
"Look at your hands." she says to me.
I do as she says and I nearly scream in shock, I can't believe that my hands are burning with the, no, I was about to say that the white flames that cover or make up my body, were similar to hers, but they pale in comparison.
'What am I to do?" I ask her but she only smiles and turns to look at the moon.
"That's up to you." she says to me.
The tone of her words suggests that her presence here doesn't have a greater meaning, but if that was true then why did she say that earlier, and why did she give me this power?
I rise from my seat and walk towards the window maybe if I open it and let some of the night's air in, I can clear my head with the cool wind.
I can't help but freeze in place at what I'm looking at, it's as if the entire world has become infested with depraved abominations that walk next to ordinary people.
I quickly step back and in my horror, I end up walking into the chair that I had been sitting on and fall onto the stone floor.
I gasp and try to control my breath before closing my eyes and pray to god for his protection and then I feel a warm hand on my face, as I open my eyes I'm met with a horrifying sight.
I see something, yet at the same time, I don't see anything, it's as if my nightmare has replaced the waking world.
I can't help but let out a scream as the overwhelming terror of what I'm forced to accept is now my reality falls upon me like an avalanche and I curl into a fetal position as I start to cry.
"Breath."I hear her say as loud and powerful footsteps approach me.
I close my eyes tightly and once again I feel her warm hand on my head.
I open my eyes slowly and I see the Hunter, The Stranger standing over me, and the fairy holding my head with her tiny hands.
I listen to the stranger as he walks towards my fallen chair and puts it back in its proper position before sitting down and, he doesn't say anything he just watches over me.
As the fear that I felt earlier begins to leave me, my thought begin to clear themselves until I can replay what I just did.
I can't help but feel disgusted at my cowardness, God has sent to me one of his Hunters, God is the Sheppard and I am the one that helps him guard his flock.
I pick myself up and look into the eyes of my senior, he may not believe himself to be a man of God, but if the angel is with him, that is more than enough to prove that he is.
"Sorry, it's all so new to me." I say to him
The stranger just smiles at me before standing up and walking towards the window.
"What happened here?" the Stranger asks me and t my surprise the fairy is the one that answers.
'I granted him my flames." she says to the Stranger who doesn't bother to turn and acknowledge her, this act alone is an insult to the heavens themselves.
I want to protest, to chastise the Stranger for daring to treat such a pure being with such disrespect, but I can't muster the strength to do so, not after failing as I did.
"I shouldn't have come here, I'm sorry." the Stranger says to me.
If there was any doubt of my failure of both in my faith and as a man I can now say that it is gone.
My senior is a man that can look upon the twisted reality that exists beyond the safety of the cathedral and not falter regrets ever coming here.
"For my failure, I ask your forgiveness, Stranger."
" I was not prepared to see the reality of our world, for me, the people that call this city home have always been Human, and I was overwhelmed."
A heavy silence settles in the room and I watch as the stranger reaches into his coat and pulls something that shouldn't be possible out of it.
The man is now holding a great sword and I watch in amazement s the sword comes to life and it takes the form of a cat before covering the Strangers right hand and vanishing from sight.
"Father you said that you were overwhelmed and judging by the way I found you, you saw the monsters didn't you?" the Stranger asks me.
"Yes." I answer him.
"Tell him what that means." the Stanger orders the fairy who flies towards my side and looks into my eyes
I can see the fires of purity burning within her ad I can't help but be overwhelmed by how kind and welcoming both her eyes and the fire within them are.
"Father if a man and a dog are drowning would you try to save both of them?" she asks me.
"yes." I answer her honestly.
"What if it was just the man or just the dog?' she asks me.
"My answer doesn't change," I say to her but I'm confused by what she is trying to say to me.
"Then if a monster that was once good was cursed to be evil, but was not itself evil would you try to save it?" she asks me.
I want to answer her, I want to say no, but at the same time, I know that the answer cant be so simple, or else she wouldn't be asking me this.
'There are things and people that were tainted, not because they wanted to, but because something tainted them or their situation left them no other choice but to be tainted." she says to me.
"I swore to protect and guide man, not the beast and not those things," I say to her.
'And yet your fighting with yourself to say no" she says to me as she leads me towards the window again, but this time I see people walking down the street, and there are no signs of any monsters.
"Nobody I have things to do, 'll give you some advice."
"Don't worry about it, you already chose your path, it's what allowed you to see them, so you will do what you need to do when the time comes." the Stranger says to me before both he and the fairy leave me alone with my thoughts.
If there was ever a time when man needed things of legend, myth, and things that we once believed to be fiction it is now.
From what we have seen the Stranger has all of these things and perhaps more.
Perhaps it has something to do with the age that his name is linked with.
Perhaps it's just the things that he has encountered over the years that led him to acquire so many objects and beings but the stranger has been seen using weapons that by all-natural law should be impossible for a normal person to use.
A Gun that is capable of firing different kinds of spells, some of which are so powerful that even some of the strongest of monsters run in fear.
The day that I met him, he bestowed upon me a gun and over a thousand bullets, I am ashamed to say that I thought that he was looking down on me when he gave it to me.
The gun is a devastating weapon that has killed what many once believed to be unkillable, its only flaw is that it's only capable of firing one bullet before needing to be reloaded.
It's unknown if every member of the Unknowns is capable of accessing the stranger's armory, but considering that the ones that we have been able to find, are all in possession of several mystical artifacts, it would be foolish for us to believe the contrary.
Stranger is a name so ancient that no one knows when a person first spoke it, Nobody and Noone are just as ancient.
Unlike the Stranger, these two men have been seen gathering several tainted beings, but for what reason is unknown.
The battle in the sewers, the war of the hour, and the battle for the gate are just a few of the events that I have found linked to these men.
Nobody is a priest who seeks to save everyone be they man, beast, or tainted.
Noone is a man that has turned his back on the life that he once lived after everyone and everything turned their backs on him after he was framed for crimes that he never committed.
Unlike the Stranger whose motives are unknown, and Nobody who seeks to save the souls of everyone, Noone doesn't care to spare anyone that he deems too far gone.
I will continue to follow after them and will update you as time goes by....
"I want you to stay here." I say to Noone who looks at me with wide eyes.
"Why?" he asks\ begs.
"You aren't ready, your mind isn't ready for where I'm going, the priest's mind isn't ready either. Stay in the cathedral for tonight." I say to him.
I watch as the young man walks away from me and sits on the floor, he knows that I'm right, and even if he wanted to argue with me he can't.
I can feel the fairy's fire return to my eyes and once again I can see the location of the person that I'm looking for, I could easily have her teleport to his or her location, but I risk entering a place filled with monsters or armed men.
The fairy' might be able to call upon her power repeatedly, but if she uses it before her recharge time is up then it will be even longer for her to be able to use it again, making her even more vulnerable to a monster or Human.
The fairy's fire allows me to see beyond the veil and I can see the creatures that walk amongst us, and I can see what nearly drove the priest insane.
Unfortunately for the man what he saw wasn't the entire truth.
While it is true that as I walk down the sidewalk I walk past all kinds of abominations, the fact that several of them turn to look at me is proof that what he saw wasn't the entire truth.
Depression, anger, greed, all of these, and more are things that have spirits that either represent them or use them for power.
These same spirits possess a person without the person ever knowing it, so if someone like the priest were to suddenly be able to see the possed person then they would mistake them for another monster.
I can hear them whispering and shouting to each other, warning and daring each other to stay away or attack the fairy.
By the end of the night, there won't be a place in the city that hasn't heard about the fairy's presence and by the end of the week, the entire country will have heard about her appearance.
I ignore the smell of blood and unlife the vampires that call this city home aren't my problem and neither are the shapeshifters that live here.
Again the fairy's fire is put out and I find myself walking in the material world once again.
My instincts tell me to look into an alley that is light by several lights that hang over the metal doors of several apartments from each side of the alley.
Both the runes that cover my coat and my instincts tell me that the place is safe but for whatever reason, my instincts tell me to head there and look for something that isn't there.
As I walk into the alley I find myself looking at nothing, because there's nothing here, I'm about to turn around and leave when I see a bracelet on the sidewalk.
As I pick it up I notice that it's covered with designs that don't exist in this world, maybe it's a clue to help me find who I'm looking for, or maybe it's nothing more than something that is being used to lure me somewhere.
Regardless it's something that I can use, my coat begins to fill with power as several tracking spells activate and I find myself looking at the locations of several of the objects that are scattered about this world.
I reach the first location and it's only because of the wards that cover my coat that I don't immediately die from the heat and radiation that poisons the world around me.
My coat consumes the ancient power from before the modern records of history, it pulls into itself all of the information that it can from this place but it's nearly impossible for me to breathe much less walk.
The fairy's fire creates a protective bubble around me but instead of using it for my protection, she orders me to pull this place and the other places into the warehouse, the place where I keep all of my weapons.
Since I was the one that freed her prematurely, I have no choice but to do as she says and so I pull this place, whatever it may be into the warehouse.
I can hear the warehouse systems, both natural and magical as they work to keep the contamination of the place from spilling into the rest of the warehouse.
It's going to take days, but they should be able to clean the radiation and whatever else infested this place.
The world around me begins to shake as whatever kept the massive tunnel from collapsing is no longer keeping it from falling into itself and so I teleport back to the alley.
"What are you planning?" I ask and demand the fairy to answer me.
She just places her hands behind her back and smiles at me with a kind smile. "I don't know what you mean," she says to me.
"First you grnat that priest your power now you send me somehere I had no place being."
"There's no way that the bracelet had a relation to wherever that was." I say to her the irritation in my voice can be heard by anyone that hears me.
"Watch your tone, I don't care for it, but no I didn't do anything to your spell, whoever went there in the past didn't stay there for long." she says to me before she points at her wrist and reminds me that time is running out.
She has existed since before Adam and Eve, she was there when the first corrupter disobeyed the Creator.
She had been amongst those that begged God to spare Adam and Eve from their punishments and it was for their kindness that they were punished by being forced to watch as Humanity lived.
They would and could interfere, but they had seen what the others had become and how far they had fallen from grace.
Not only that but the filth that plagued the creator's creation had learned of their power and sought to make it their own.
So they called to those that could hear them and allowed themselves to be put in the bottles, they would sleep within the bottles until the day that their power was needed.
Yet in their sleep, they would watch as Humanity grew, was destroyed, and was remade anew.
She had seen how the filth attacked her creator's creations, calling them a plague that needed to be stopped.
When she fell into the hands of the Stranger she does not know but what she does know is that the man seeks to find something or someone that is his equal, and so she prepares to stop him should that being be a servant of the fallen or cursed ones.
Yet in the few hours that she has been awake, she can sense the presence of the first corrupter and so she prepares herself to deal the final blow to her.
[][][]
Lilith
Innocence and Beaty are not things that prove one's purity, they are just as much a weapon as a blade or a spell.
It's easy to seduce anything and anyone, you just need to know what they want even when they don't know themselves.
She has become a master of an endless number of arts, so many that she is certain that she has forgotten several of them, oh well it's not like she doesn't have time to relearn them again.
She has seen the world turn and watched as empires rose and fell, yet she always remained.
How easy it was to whisper into the ears of a lord and watch as he taxed and killed his people so that he had enough to pay for some prince's hand in marriage.
Only to find that the woman that he was so interested in, was already carrying the child of another man.
Sometimes she regrets her actions after all there hasn't been another kingdom like Camelot for a long time.
Yet the world grew boring and so she learned to step back and allow it to grow and the people to forget about what happened before.
So once again she steps into the world and she finds herself at the end of another age except that time something interesting is happening.
She can taste something that immediately reminds her of Eden and so she begins to plan.
If this is the end of another age and an old friend has made her presence known, then perhaps this time she too will join the festivities and not watch as everything falls into ruins.
[][][]
The warehouse
It's unknown if the Stranger knows where or even if the warehouse ends, what is known is that the stranger has everything that he needs in it.
From the man's own words, it is his first and last line of defense.
If the situation ever calls for it, he will release everything and everyone to fight and either defend the warehouse or invade wherever he has to.
That is a frightening thought that no one ever wants to see happen, as entire realities or perhaps continents exist inside of it.
What have this man and those before him seen that drove them to fill this place with so many terrifying and amazing things?
This world is nothing more than one big playground for spirits and other supernatural beings, and while Humanity isn't defenseless we aren't at the top of the hierarchy either.
"I thought that I would have more time," I say to myself as I see a pack of dogs walking in front of me, from the corner of my eye I can see the rats that infest the lower areas of the city moving.
The fairy just hums to herself as she lands on my shoulder and sits down.
"You're enjoying this aren't you?" I ask her.
"Hey, a girl likes being the center of attention." she says to me before she points at something that's caught her attention.
"No, you are enjoying this." I say to her as her fire returns to my eyes.
The cities just like any forest or field are alive and they are homes to not just creatures that people can see but spirits too and it's those same spirits that are gathering around us.
Some sing praises to the fairy as they try to gain her favor, while others look at her with hungry eyes, unfortunately, the fairy isn't the only one that caught the spirit's attention.
I can see twisted abominations, that once were something else, or have no right to exist within this realm, pointing at me and are either cursing or threatening me in their language.
At the same time, twisted creatures that have managed to clean themselves of taint, that stand alongside clean spirits look at me with envy and rage.
Amongst these two groups is a third group one that specializes in deception and temptation, it's made of beings that surpass the beauty of any mortal being, and just being near them draws my eyes in their direction.
The animals and people that I pass are just as threatening now, I can see the truth in their eyes.
There is a power there an unnatural kind, the kind that is meant for things that work within the vail, not for things that walk in the mortal world.
The fairy places a finger on her lips as if she just realized something, she opens her wings and flies in front of me.
"You know, it's odd when we found the Flesh Pillar there was no one there, but there was no way for anyone to leave the area because of the monsters," she says to me as I walk past everything.
The creatures keep their distance as if judging me, maybe they don't want to anger the fairy, or maybe they just want to make sure that they can kill me, but I ignore them the best I can, as long as they don't attack I have no reason to do anything to any of them.
"What I mean is, there was no way for anyone to move above ground, and since we teleported somewhere underground when you used the bracelet." she says to me and I stop walking as I understand what she's saying to me.
"They're underground.' I say to myself and immediately I notice all of the animal's ears and heads move as if they had just heard me order them something or heard something that was important.
I ignore them as I start to look for a way into the sewers or subway.
The Wall
The Wall is well a wall that separates the Wearhouse from our world, surprisingly we know a lot about it considering that the Stranger doesn't shut up about it.
The man has claimed that it is responsible for separating and categorizing everything that goes in or out of the warehouse.
He has said that it's a barrier that anyone can pass, as long as they aren't an enemy.
One time he threw an entire group of people and monsters into a portal only for all of them to bounce off it.
I should point out that all of them were critically injured when he did this, but when they landed on the ground they were in better health than how they were before they were hurt.
The Fairy claims that the wall was created to keep something in and that the Stranger's reckless use of the warehouse has freed what's ever in there, but she has no idea why it hasn't tried to escape.
At least that was before she went through the wall and saw with her own eyes what was inside the warehouse.
I should note that I have never seen a none married woman yell at a man for so long and make so many demands before today.
When the fairy was done chastising the Stranger she exhaled and looked pleased with herself, before casting a spell that increased the power of the wall, but this time it was to keep evil spirits out.
When I asked her what she had seen she simply said that the stranger had copied every version of paradise that he had seen in the many worlds, when I said that there was only one paradise, she gave me a look that still irritates me.
regardless I tried to pass through the wall but was unable to, I have to say that pretending to be unable to use my legs is something that I don't like.
However, having to answer people how I suddenly gained the ability to walk again isn't something that I look forward to either.
The Pact\ The Watchers
The pact is a group that the fairy has been gathering to stop the Stranger if he proves himself to be a threat, I am pleased and at the same time afraid to say that I am a member of this group.
We work with Noone and Nobody as well as the Stranger.
It's up to us to write down and make sure that a record of everything that they get themselves wrapped up in is never forgotten, as there might be a pattern that shows itself as time goes by.
While we do have our adventurers as some people would call them, we prefer to watch what the Unknown do.
This is the reason that some of us have started calling our group the Watchers.
The reason I write this is that we have reason to believe that we aren't the first group that has been gathered, not by the Fairy but maybe by another of her species.
While none of us are surprised by this revelation, we are worried about what it implies.
The name Stranger might be a Title granted to a person who has been Judged worthy, of being able to stand against the creatures that share this world with us.
Yet at the same time, we have reason to believe that the Stranger might always be the same person who appears when the world is at the edge of its destruction.
If this is true then what does the man see in the people who he deems worthy of wearing one of his garments?
But enough about that group.
Our group or organization if you want to call it has somehow gained access to a small part of the Wearhouse and I have to say it is quite frightening to be here.
There are all kinds of spirits wherever we chose to stay and while they aren't a threat to anyone, seeing a lamp that looks like a person and has eyes that follow you when you walk by isn't something that you want to see regularly.
We do have access to something called the Endless Library and while it is filled with all sorts of books, computers, ancient tablets, and scrolls, I prefer reading the comic books in it.
They help me relax and forget everything that I have seen.
[Noone and Nobody]
"Forgive me, Father, for I have failed a friend." a young woman says to him while she sits in front of him, her eyes are low, and despite her beauty, she doesn't show the slightest hint of confidence.
"Do you believe in monster's father?" she asks him, but he doesn't answer as a sad smile forms on her lips.
"I didn't until I found out that I was one, I can't tell you more than this but." she chuckles to herself as she remembers something painful.
"Today I left my pack, my family...because I wanted to save him, but when I got to the bridge...I was too late." she says to him.
Nobody can feel the hairs on his body stand as he senses the danger that he is in, but even if he tried to run away or do anything he's too close, and he's sitting in front of the woman.
He watches as she lowers her head even lower than before and starts to cry.
"I tried to help him, but that woman had him under her control and when I tried to warn him, he wouldn't listen and then she destroyed him." she says to him.
"Did he jump off a bridge, or should I say, did you track him to a bridge where he would have jumped but didn't," he asks her.
"Yes," she answers him quietly.
'This is between you and her!" Nobody says to Noone who has been listening to their conversation.
The young woman lifts he head and he watches as her eyes widen with shock before she loudly asks with a voice filled with shock, terror, and confusion.
'What did you do!?"
Nobody turns towards Noone as his body is covered in white fire, Nobody quickly turns towards the young woman who backs away from him with an unnatural speed and grace that no Human can possess.
"Did he do this to you?" she asks Noone as she points a finger at him.
"You can see the fire." Nobody says to the young woman who calms herself down.
"I guess the church must have found you and made you one of them." she was about to say Noone's name but he stops her from saying it.
'That man's dead, you, my parents, everyone abandoned me." No one says to her before he turns around and starts to walk away from the cathedral and into the living area.
'I'm not Human and you aren't either at least not anymore." she says to him as the pure fire vanishes again.
"he spirits the ones that call the city home they're awake, I've never seen it so alive before." she says to Noone who stops walking.
'What's going on?" Noone asks her but he doesn't bother to turn and look at her.
"They call it..." She starts to explain something to Noone but she stops herself and begins to choose her words carefully.
'The elders say that it's the end of the world, that soon the moon will be lost and it's going to be filled with blood and rage."
"They say that it's only a matter of time before we lose the sun."
"Before I came here, I was told by one of the outcasts what happened while I was looking for you."
'They said that something ancient, something pure, something that has existed in the world since before mankind has arrived and with it a Stranger. A Human, that smells strange." she says to Noone.
Noone turns to look at her and starts to walk towards the blue-haired woman who fearfully looks into his eyes.
'You smell old, you smell like something that shouldn't exist anymore." she wis[pers to Noone.
'if you came here looking for the Stranger, he left, he said that he had something to do.' No one says to the woman who immediately hugs him and judging by the cry of pain that Noone lets out, her grip is pretty strong.
'I came looking for you, I left everyone so that I could save you, but I was too late." she says to him.
If I were to ever have t describe our more spectacular allies or acquaintances, I would say that they are odd, to say the least.
For example last night, I ran into a giant turtle and an alligator man having a conversation about ancient Egypt.
I didn't even know that they lived here much less that they are our allies.
The pair kindly passed me several raw finely cut pieces of meat and several sweet types of grass before they went back to speaking about the past, Ias I listened to their conversation I found myself losing track of time.
Before I knew it, I was so wrapped up in their stories that I couldn't help but ask questions.
The pair treated me as a child that wanted to hear their elder's stories about the past, perhaps I was if I look at things from their point of view.
'Hey, let us ask something, and stop hugging all of the food." I heard someone say to me and when I turned around I found that several different creatures had gathered around me and were listening to the stories of the pair.
Being a Watcher\ Record keeper or a member of the Pact, whatever title or position with our group that you will want to use is stressful, so having something like this from time to time, helps relieve some of the nightmares that we have.
..........I know the Wearhouses secret..........
It's not a secret and it's the reason why somany spirits and monsters have dedicated themselves to joining our organization
I will not say when, because I'm not certain if I was awake, if these events happened in another reality, or if something else happened entirely.
Our world has three major spirits, or should I say all of creation has three major spirits.
Creation, Order\Chaos, and Destruction.
Creation creates the spirit of Chaos because it creates things that need to find their way into existence, wherever that may be.
Order, is what allows even the people that seem to have nothing going for them a place, be it the highest of buildings as a wealthy person, a homeless person on the street, or an animal in the wild.
We have a picture of where these things are supposed to be because finding a skyscraper in the middle of nowhere wouldn't make sense, that is what order does.
yet order gives birth to the spirit of Chaos, as all of these things must end and as a direct result something new must find a way to replace them or erase them.
This is where the spirit of Destruction comes into play.
Destruction makes way for new things to come into existence and give relief to those that are at their end from the stress of life.
The Spirit of Destruction, or should I say a piece of it is here in the Wearhouse, but it has a small part of itself connected to the two other spirits because of what the Stranger did.
This is the Wearhouse's secret and the reason why the Fairy is so fearful that one day the Stranger will be corrupted if he finds those he is looking for.
I must go, I have said too much and I fear that something might be watching me.
Okay let's go, one of the most unusual things that have occurred ever since we arrived or became a group is or was the creation of the Burning Ones.
What are the burning ones you may ask, well for one if you're asking that then you shouldn't be reading this, not because you aren't one of us, but because I know that you will look for one and end up fathering one, giving birth to one or dying in the process.
The burning ones are a result of a Human breeding with one of the creatures that can turn into animals and or a combination of the two, add a touch of the Fairys power and you have a burning one.
I'll say this as bluntly as possible, you will have to find a man or woman from one of the other races and overwhelm her or him and force her or him to mate.
That person will turn into every form he or she has and will try to tear you apart.
Believe me, when I say this, there is a reason for this.
Because of how bad things have gotten those that can change have to find people that can prove that they can survive whatever comes their way and this was both the easiest and hardest way they found.
If you can overwhelm a woman or man during the act of mating and not die, then you have a mate for life.
Why because you proved that you can survive impossible odds, it's no mystery that any of them could and will tear a normal person apart and yet we have so many burning ones now.
That should tell you how bad things have gotten.
The fire of the burning ones is no different from the fire that the Stranger and his group use, it purifies any taint that it comes in contact with, so it's both a weapon and a shield that the burning ones have.
The burning ones can breed with each other and are expected to put up just as much or even more of a fight if they do try to join.
If one of them mates with a human it can never be a Burning One going after a Human partner, it has to always be a Human going after one of them, the same goes for the other races.
the reason is simple.
A Burning one will always be on fire, granted their flames will never hurt a living person, but their flames will burn anything that's tainted or wants to hurt them and their parents.
They are special children who even if they can't change, will always have the Fairy's blessing.
Some of them are even eager to put themselves out there and hope that someone takes an interest in them.
This is the problem with their kind, they bring people into this world and hope that the person that they choose can have the ability to handle the stress of dealing with the supernatural and the stress of everyday life.
I guess I can say that I'm glad that they are our allies as they wish to see Humanity prosper and one day ally itself with the other races.
gaia
Gaia, what can I say about her other than that woman or spirit just does whatever she wants?
Oh sorry, you are probably asking yourself what the hell did I just read, let me explain, haven't you wondered how so many different, oh let's say not friends ended up together?
Let me just say that it wasn't because of the Fairy even if that woman loves to take credit for it.
No, it was because of the Stranger who summoned a version or maybe she is the real spirit of Gaiato his side.
I'll spare you the details, but as soon as word spread that Gaia's spirit was bound to the man and that she called him master, well let's just say that the Stranger has an endless supply of enemies.
Yet the man doesn't use her for anything except keeping the spirits in the warehouse under control.
The woman enjoys spending time with everyone, but good luck finding her, despite how giant she is, she vanishes from sight every time someone is looking for her.
The woman is covered in injuries, that are just getting worse, and oddly enough those same injuries are healing even as they are forming.
Most of the monsters that live with us and work with us came here to either commune with her, or help ease her pain, and yet the woman ignores them.
The reason for this is that she believes that the monsters failed her, she gave birth to them for a purpose, a reason, and instead of fulfilling that purpose, they killed each other and allowed her to be in the state that she is now.
Humans, on the other hand, when we aren't being manipulated by others, we are constantly looking for ways to undo the damage that we have done.
She looks at our advancements with pride and is more than happy that we are willing to build on her, but wishes that we could do so without hurting her.
And yet the woman knows that we are at the end of the story, but she doesn't care, shes just happy to be alive and see it all end before it can be reborn again.
"Heavenly Father grant me strength for I do not know the path of which I walk." Nobody prays to God as he looks at the two youths in front of him.
He doesn't know what to think, the woman that he had been speaking to now resembles a horrifying creature that can only be called wolf and only because of its head and yet when the angel's power left his eyes she returned to her human form.
"You said that something ancient had arrived?" he asks the woman.
'Yes and it's because of its presence that the city has come to life, everyone and anything that can sense beyond this world knows it's here." she says to him.
The sounds of chains being dragged through the floor make them all turn around and nobody can't help but widen his eyes in a mixture of confusion and fear when he sees that the prayer beads that the Stranger had given him were floating towards him,
The beads floated in front of him and he hesitantly took them, next came the bible that the stranger had entrusted him with, and finally the hilt of a short sword or perhaps knife.
An uneasy silence descended upon the cathedral as the three of them began to sense the danger they were in, something that none of them could see had entered the cathedral and was now walking its halls.
The flames that covered Noone's coat engulfed him before firing themselves at something that roared in pain, but the creature's scream of death wasn't what forced them to keep their eyes locked on the spot.
the three of them could see, hear and feel something that wasn't there, they could see the tiny levers, springs, and gears that made an ancient weapon that had been changed into a gun.
They could see the burst of fire as the weapon fired its single bullet.
The craking sensation filled them with a primordial fear that shouldn't have existed and yet did, but it was the howl of the creature that filled them with a mixture of fear and rage.
"The Stranger he's fighting." Noone says before the flames stop burning again.
The young woman lets out a howl filled with rage as she turns into the abomination and Nobody can see her struggling to control herself from running towards something or perhaps towards where the Stranger is fighting.
Nobody can hear the city coming to life as it's filled with a mixture of howl and grows from the abominations that haunt Humanity, amongst the cries of the beast he can hear the frightened screams of the people.
The walls of the cathedral begin to twist and bend into themselves as a white fire begins to burn itself into reality as the Stranger steps through and with him a giant wearing black armor.
Nobody can see that on the giant's black armor is the emblem of the Templars that has been drawn with white paint.
"How could you let her escape!?" the Fairy chastises the Stranger who grabs onto his ribs as he struggles to control himself.
"She wasn't my target." the Stranger answers her.
"Indeed but she is right, now that the creature knows that we can both fight her and kill her, she will be a threat to us and them." the giant says to the stranger as he turns to look at the three of them.
The stranger gasps for air and nods to the giant, who simply nods and walks towards the wall of the cathedral that has stopped burning, and yet the giant somehow leaves the building.
The Harems
It's no mystery that with so many different people coming together that we would eventually create our own cultures.
The harems are a result of this, it's always several women and one man never the other way around and in case you are wondering, there can never be a group made of only females\ women.
The reason for this is because of the event that occurred [ deleted] this made all of the higher-ups including the Stranger who never turns to look at us or even deal with us, to step in.
They all argued and pointed fingers at one another until they all agreed that having a group made of only females\ women was a bad idea and must never be allowed to occur again.
For this reason, every Harem must form around a single male\ man who will be responsible for them, many would be envious of this man\ male but then those same people remember who the women are.
Let me remind you that every single one of the female \ women is a combination of teeth, claws, muscles, and can use spirits, magic, weapons, and technology to attack you if they are just having a bad day.
This is the reason why most of the women in the Harems look for a man or their daughters, yes you heard that right, the women or mothers of the girls look for a man that can keep their daughters under control.
One group of women will work with another group so that their daughters can all have a mate, but if they fail to find one and one of the girls finds a man that she likes.
And if her mother takes a liking to him, it's not out of the ordinary for the girl's mother, to catch him and trick him into marrying all of her daughters.
Notice that I haven't mentioned any of the males \ men that are born into these groups.
The reason is that their fathers are the ones that raise them, or if you were to ask the men, their fathers keep them safe from the women that surround them, as even from a young age, the women of each group are trying to decide who will get them.
The Harems are surprisingly controlled by the men, despite the women deciding who will get to marry who, as it's the men who make most of the decisions because of the incident and the events leading up to it and what happened after it.
Every harem is a family, and that's easy to understand.
Every family answers to an elder family who they descend from, regardless if the man that was brought into the family is a Human or something else.
The reason is that every family must be represented in a harem, so if a man is brought in, he will have a woman from one of the other families.
Now if one of the women dies, there will be a brief time when the family will be allowed to grieve, but a relative of hers will be given to him to replace her.
Now if one of the women or simply the man is unable to have children, then that woman or all of the females will be separated from him, as the whole point of a Harem is for the creation of children.
Granted it's also to keep the females\ women under control and not repeat[p deleate] but what good is control, discipline, and tradition if there's no one to teach them to?
The only exception to this is if the individual lost his or her ability to have children because of a battle.
No shame falls upon the females or male and their relatives as this was simply unavoidable, and while the whole family will grieve for their loss they will always bring their children to the member that lost this ability.
When the Apocalips started... the Stranger freed everyone from the, you know what it's better not to talk about it for now.
In the end, he marched his entire army into the world and began to fight everything that was trying to kill us.
At first, we cheered, but then the fortress began to emerge and began to pull everyone that hadn't gone insane, changed, or was injected into them.
We watched with what hope we still had as the stranger and his armies brought time for everyone to escape into the warehouse.
The cities or fortresses are exactly that, except one fortress might be filled with fish and it's made of nothing but water, which is just as deep as the ocean once was.
Another can be a forest that is slowly regaining its size and is waiting for the day it can return to Earth.
Another can be a city filled with the remaining Human population of those that were left somewhere, while another can be a field or a massive desert.
These places are what's left of our homes and for those that have been born in them they are home and Earth, the world that we send our best to fight in is nothing more than a dream that we lost.
Because of the many, many threats that the cities face, all sorts of defenses have been set up inside them and around them.
For example, while we do have some Vampires here, they use everything that they have learned over the years to keep their kind out, and all that they ask for is blood as payment.
The Changelings have several towns where they live and as a result, they are constantly afraid of being captured and it's because of them that we find any cracks in our defenses.
If something manages to get through, it's immediately destroyed and their method is studied before we create a way to stop it, then we send an extermination team to deal with the threat.
Hey, I'll be the first to say it, the cities or fortresses don't get along and infighting is a problem, but no one wants the problems outside of the warehouse finding their way in.
The war that never occurred
I'm going, to be honest with anyone reading this, just writing the events that happened is nearly impossible.
Noy because of everything that happened but because whenever someone trie to say what happened or talk about what happened the words leave.
I mean I tried writing this already five times and the letters stood up and walked away.
The war started like most wars, with the Stranger arriving somewhere no one welcomed him too.
The Changelings in the area were avoiding him like a plague, but they couldn't stop him from finding their stronghold, fortunately for them, they were currently being attacked by a Huntsman.
I don't have to say who won, because that's obvious, but I can say what happened next.
Back then I had been captured and it was the Stranger who rescued me before I was taken to the Realm of the True Fay, needless to say, I was cowering behind a counter hiding from everyone while those two fought.
When the fighting ended, the Stranger demanded that the Changelings tell him everything and that they better tell him all of the details.
Look I'll be the first person to say it, the Stranger isn't the most patient person in the world, but I haven't seen him or the Fairy's eyes be filled with so much rage than when he heard everything.
He demanded that all of the Courts of the Changelings gathered and told him everything of the True Fay's world and if it was too dangerous for them to do so, then the one she had met should tell him where to find the others.
It took him months to gather the information, and unfortunately, I had already been replaced by something that the Stranger letter killed in front of my parents before he explained everything to them.
Then he went back into the Wearhouse and came out with an army each carrying weapons, and this is what he said.
"Each one of these things is made for destroying reality.", then they opened a tear in reality and went in.
There isn't a single being that didn't feel what happened next and all over the world people started to come out from the strangest of places.
Under people's beds, dark corners, closets hell these were even videos of people coming out of crack mirrors.
I wish that I could write down what we all dreamed and saw when reality tore itself open and showed us the hellish war that was being fought on the other side.
When it finally ended, the Changelings had so many people that they were forced to make groups that are only made to write people's names down.
I can still remember seeing the Image of the Stranger and his army entering our reality, no one that saw them dared to say anything, he just turned and looked at a police officer and nodded.
The man nodded back and that was it, the Stranger and his army vanished.
They say that the Sun turning black was one sign of the end of the world, the next was the awakening of the Fairy, then of Lillith and another sign was the appearance of the Stranger.
We owe him so much, but I think that they're right.
The Armory
Name a weapon, tool, or medicine and the Armory has it.
The Stranger gathered everything in it over the years, he has seen countless realities die, and everything in the Armory is nothing more than what was left after the worlds died.
He doesn't know how to explain it, but for whatever reason, everything people ever made, be it a child's drawing, to reality-ending weapons always came back into existence.
This includes super soldiers because they weren't naturally made in that universe.
He spent years studying and figuring out what everything did, and it's even a mystery to him why any of the sentient beings even listen to him.
There are roles upon roles of stasis tanks and spheres that hold moments of time repeating themselves and the creatures in them are just waiting to be set free.
I'm sorry can you ask that again, oh you want to know about the incident, I'm sorry remind me which incident.
It all started when the world ended, no that's not right after the world ended and everyone that was either Human or just wanted to survive made it into the Wearhouse, we all started separating the cities into different groups.
There were two reasons for this, the first reason, was that we needed to figure out where everyone was, so this city's name is this and these people live here.
Simple enough right?
The second reason was that since everyone that could fight was on earth fighting the literal forces of hell, it was up to us to figure out if anyone that wasn't supposed to be here somehow made it through.
That's the reason why there's an entire city filled with Vampires that no one is bothering to kill.
With that out of the way, now comes the extremely painful explanation that I can cut down to these simple words.
The people that thought that they were unbeatable found out that they weren't and begged us to let them in, name the group or a powerful being that didn't just want to destroy, rule, corrupt, or control everything and it ended up finding its way here.
Normally this wouldn't have been a problem, after all, it's the end of the world, and everyone that isn't crazy or evil should help the next person survive.
Unfortunately, they didn't see it that way, the problem was and still is that they were\ are some of the most prideful and stubborn creatures that you will ever meet.
They wanted to take one of the cities that didn't have anyone living in them and rule over it however they wanted, normally this wouldn't have been a problem, but back then we were still trying to survive and get ourselves together.
So we couldn't let that happen, the reason was simple people need to eat, and while housing wasn't a problem, things like water and medicines were still an issue back then.
They didn't see it that way, from their point of view, we Humans had brought the apocalypse, and as such we didn't have a right to put any rules in this new reality.
It would have been another war and to be honest, I don't think that any of us would have survived, had Gaia not made her presence known and called the Stranger into the Wearhouse to put things in order.
The fact that Gaia was the one that demanded that they keep their mouth shut as the Stranger told us what we were not allowed to do, was honestly terrifying, she looks so kind but back then no one could even look at her.
That was one of the incidents, and it's the reason why most of the fighting in here s done behind the scenes, as anyone who is caught killing someone in the open, is sent to earth to fight.
Hey if they think they're tough and can kill whoever they want, then they can do it over there.
What? Ohh you didn't want to know about that incident you wanted to know why that happened, you see the reason was. [deleted ]
