Squinting her eyes, she raised a hand to shield herself from the blinding light. The roaring sounds of cheers shook the entire arena... chaos. The light finally subsided as it swerved to the man holding the mic.


  "WELCOME TO THE ARENA! WE CONGRATULATE ALL THOSE WHO MANAGED TO SURVIVE THUS FAR. ON THE RIGHT WE HAVE OUR REIGNING CHAMPION 'PHANTOM' AND ON THE LEFT WE HAVE A VERY LUCKY NEWBIE 'FAIRY'! ~~ WITHOUT FURTHER ADO...." pointing at the sun, the rocket sounded loud and clear, indicating the start of the match.




  She looked forward at her opponent. The young man couldn't have been an Immortal, and his age seemed to be no greater than 17 years. Sympathy immediately overwhelmed her senses. Yet another youngling would be killed in this twisted fate.
  Slashing the air with her blade, she charged forward. What seemed to be a great distance was instantly covered in a mere moment. The air shifted and whirled around her as she neared her opponent's neck. What luck? The young man, barely making an audible yelp, soon became silenced forever.

  "As I thought... not an Immortal..." her eyes lowered and her face twisted. "How unfortunate...." the sun held the moisture within her eyes, "how badly I wanted to have an opponent who couldn't die..." Letting out a sigh of contempt, she withdrew her blade back into its sheath without bothering to take off the blood. Magic wasn't even really needed in this fight besides the spells already cast on her shoes.

  "AS EXPECTED! THE WINNER OF THIS BOUT IS .ONCE AGAIN, OUR REIGNING CHAMPION, "NIX THE PHANTOM'!" The audience stood up at once in harmony, cheering and clapping for their favorite contender.
  Nix looked up in disgust. These people didn't give a two cents about people's lives. Whether they lived or died, as far they knew, it didn't concern them. They were just there for the fun of it. This was a game. A game to witness a fun contest between two people who fight for their lives. Fun? Only fun for the audience. If they were the ones in this stadium, they wouldn't think twice to run away. Cowards. All of them.
  
  Making a turn for the exit of the stadium, Nix was met instead with two policemen. They towered over her, not much of a surprise considering her height. One of their hands made a move to grab her arm, but instead met the blade of her still bloodied sword. "Yes officer?" her voice seemed to cut deeper than the blade which she wielded. "Surely you're not trying to get rid of me now?"

  "S-s-such insolence!" The officer managed to find his voice somewhere where his pride lay. "I'm an officer of the law! I'll have you know I'm part of the new generation of Shinings!"
  "Oh no. Help me. I'm so frightened," her face obviously said otherwise. Sheathing her sword once again, she made way to the nearby hallway, totally disregarding the officers behind her. After what seemed like a short while, the policemen finally gave up on trying to make her come with them and, most likely, left to go report to their superior officers. Things were getting troublesome.

        -----
        
  Fixing on a fresh shirt from the laundry quarters, Nix grumbled at her lack of skill. If she were truly a master of the sword, she would have no trouble beheading a small boy without splattering blood all over herself. Of course, her teacher never completed her training because he ended up dying the Arena. A shame, truly. Perhaps she should use long ranged magic instead? No, that idea isn't even worth pondering about. The consequences of using that magic is much too risky.
  "Hey~!" A voice snapped her back to reality. "What the heck are you ignoring me for??" An even smaller boy appeared at the entrance of the room. His hair seemed to always be a mess no matter how much she tried to fix it. "You should learn to stop thinking sometimes..." his hand caught the apple that he tossed in the air. "You'll end up ignoring someone important otherwise."

  "Zachary...." Nix couldn't help but letting out a sigh, "maybe instead of worrying about me thinking too much, you should worry about yourself. Being too dumb can hurt you after all."
  Zachary gaped his mouth wide open in offense. Sniffling, his voice shaking so dramatically, he said, "well... if that's what you tink then I s'pose we can't be friends no more." He lifted a hand to his forehead, "oh the pain of the loss of a beautiful friendship."
  "Drama queen."
  "ehehe"

  The two laughed and began talking away as the hours passed. Both were ignoring the blatant fact of the following day's match. The day only one of them would smile again. In this cruel and twisted world which the two found themselves in, one would only see it right to wonder how it even came to be. The story goes like this....

  Once upon a time, the world saw itself peaceful. The birds chirped happily in the air, the insects crawled among the ground, and the people went to school or went to work like any other day. A small percentage, by mere chance, were in someplace remote or deep underground where nobody else was. What seemed like a normal day soon turned into the turning point for humankind.

  The ground trembled and the sky cracked. The moon showed itself blue in the afternoon day. Clouds immediately dispersed and birds impacted the ground. Screaming arose among humanity as the end of the world began.

  or so it seemed.

  When the clouds formed again the sky lifted, the remaining humans came back to the surface. The land was suddenly a luscious green garden. The trees stood tall and firm, the ground was covered in grass and flowers, and the surface was once again overcome by nature. However, the most notable change in all of this, was the essence of pure energy floating among the air, ground, water, and sky. New animals never seen before roamed the surface of the earth for the first time.
  Nix stood among the grass and greenery, amazed at the wonder and splendor which she saw. Compared to humanity's previous actions towards her, she knew no kind of sympathy towards its eradication. She walked for what seemed like days, her old wounds recovering, and a new understanding making anew in her mind. Whenever contact was made with the floating energy, or the energy planted in the ground, or the energy flowing in the water, she felt a wave of warmth overcome her, and the need to nourish herself decreased.
  It wasn't long before she didn't have the need to eat, sleep, or drink any more. It seemed as though the energy in the new earth gave a sort of resistance to death.



  It was paradise on earth.

  The start of the new earth's year calendar at this point now counted 138. This was when, once again, the sky grew pale and the moon shone blue during daytime. However, instead of wiping everything off the face of the earth, a new organism spawned. An entity which resembled that of a human made their way from out of the forests of the earth. All of them seemed to range between 3-6 years of age. They're magical abilities far surpassed that of the animals but none of them seemed to possess the magic of Immortality. Perhaps since the original humans were around even before the destruction of humanity.
  As years flew by and eventually three centuries passed, Nix discovered the secret of the new humans. After around 100 years, all of the new humans would die, but every 100th year, without fail, the sky would turn white and the moon would shine blue. This would once again birth humans once again. Nix had happened upon a glowing orb of a significantly stronger amount of energy than all the others she had ever encountered. She had been about to absorb it when the rebirthing took place. The orb elongated and formed the shape of a human child, and once the sky turned normal again, the child opened its eyes and gained a self-awareness.
  A realization set in. The world was destroyed so that it could make room for a better version of itself. A better human race. A better ecosystem. A better world. Were the originals too much of failures to redeem themselves? Were they too far gone from the right path that they had to be killed?

  -----------"kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk----nnnnnnnnn----iiii---x-x---xxxxx"-----------

  Nix snapped back to reality. Of course humanity was too far gone. After all they had done, after all they did, after all the ruin and destruction they caused, of course death was the only real answer to fixing the world. That underground hospital lingered inside her mind, even after all the centuries which had passed, those damned memories still clung to her like a persistent parasite.

  -------

  Shoes clacking on the paved ground resounded throughout the small town. Local shops were built and people stood and laughed with one another. Standing tall among the crowd, the Immortal Charon found a new city to inhabit. He knew one fact remained after all these centuries, no new human could reproduce. It was a common fact and the most fatal flaw of the new world. He figured it was to keep the population size in check so that the world wouldn't become corrupt again. Although not that he cared all that much. His family and friends died to this ordeal and his immortality proved to be a problem. He cared no more for the living world but had no choice but to endure it. His heart was impenetrable and his blood only served to keep him alive without pain. Any way to die, he tried it, and inevitably, he failed. With the new rebirth that happened, he only had one goal in mind. "Destruction"
  Raising one hand in the air, he looked upon the mass of the crowd. He clenched his hand into a fist, and from it burst forth hellfire. The city was quickly enveloped in the heat of flame, and a single soul which resides in that town soon perished. All but one, that is.
  
  "....why....?" a quivering voice shocked Charon to the core. A survivor in this heat? Impossible. "Why?" The voice repeated itself, obviously being strained by the heat all around. Immortal as they were, they still felt pain.
  "I wasn't aware there was another like me in this town... tell me, where do you hail from?" Charon carelessly shifted his hand to the side, dispersing the flame so that he may see the other who questioned him.
  "why, why, why, why, why, why?!" Nix voice slowly increased in volume, "Why do you do this to innocent souls??!"
  "Innocent you say?" He scoffed in disbelief. "Tell me, for what purpose did everyone die on that day? For what purpose did my father and mother perish? Surely you know? Or shall I enlighten you?"
  "They died so that a race far superior could take their place you absolute idiot. You think this race of humans will mindlessly go to war like our humankind did? These people were born from the pure energy which shrouds this beautiful land and you dare accuse them?" Room 302. "Our human race deserved to die. Every one of them deserved it."

  A flash of fresh fire once again erupted from underneath Nix. It seemed as though Charon was done talking. A battle ensued between the two. Of course, in a world where the original humans couldn't die, there stood no victor. It seemed this way until an unexpected discovery was made. Out of pure rage and desperation, Nix dug her fingers into Charon's chest, gripping his heart. Without a moment passing, the body of the person named Charon shriveled into a mere shell of what he had once been. He was indeed alive, but a soul residing in a corpse was merely a prison. She dug for hours in the soft earth beneath her, letting Charon make his final whishes before eternity in death.
  Without so much as a warning, she threw his prison into the whole she made and refilled it with the dirt she had previously dug. No more would he terrorize the new human race. No more would he threaten the peace which finally found itself on earth.

  However, the damage was already done.

  The humans couldn't find it inside themselves to trust the Immortals any longer, not after what had happened to that town. Since that day, the citizens of the town began making logs for future generations of humans. They were warnings. Warnings telling the future generations not to trust Immortals.
  Not even 20 days passed before construction of Arenas began to be built in every town. Arenas to pit prisoners of each city against each other. The prisoners would be death row convicts. They would wear a magical suppressant at all times. Most cities didn't have many criminals since the human race was somewhat pure, but occasionally the worst of the original humankind would be born again in a few. Those few would be held against their wills so that peace would be ensured.
  However, with the creation of the Arenas more ill will began to grow inside humankind and over years, a new kind of magic was birthed. A magic far surpassing that of normal magic. It was called Dark Magic. Dark magic was customarily used in the Arenas but drained the life force of the user significantly. It was a prime weapon that Immortals could use at their disposal seeing as they couldn't die. The dark magic took an unexpected toll on the world. When the rebirth happened, instead of humanoids being born from the light, there would stand humans with horns of an animal.... or a more appropriate word would be demon, would form upon their heads.
  As centuries passed, the human race became increasingly more corrupt, and it seemed as though even throughout the centuries, human nature still persevered. Evil was inevitable. And so, at the end of a century, somehow evading capture, Nix found herself in a clearing in the forest. The clearing had small shining orbs which were the orbs which birthed the humans. She touched one of them, to see if somehow she could purify it. The orbs used to be pure white. But now they were shrouded in darkness, only a small part in the middle shined brightly now.
  
  The orb didn't react to her touch, it's light didn't brighten. An image of a scalpel flashed in her mind. She looked again at the floating orb. An orb which would birth a child of evil. She clenched with the intent of vanquishing its energy, but instead, the energy flowed inside of her. The evil which lay dormant entered her mind. It was as if someone took control of her body, as if someone replayed on tape all the wrong that had been done to her over and over and over again. Nothing she saw could make a clear image, the sounds of birds and the trees rustling grew distant and muddied. She tried to get it to stop. The memories. They just kept going. They kept repeating. More than anytime in her life, she wished she would die.
  She awoke in a large clearing and on soft dirt. At first she had no idea what had happened, other than the pain which she experienced. She swerved her head in a autonomous motion to see what had happened. As far as she could tell, she had been lying in a very large ditch. Who had put her there? Surely not one of the newborns since at this stage they would not have been strong enough. Did she walk there and then lay down? No recollection of any memory of going or moving to this ditch had been found. Simple confusion and curiosity had taken place. Wincing from a sudden pain in her head, she lifted her hand upwards to grip it.
  Feeling a rock on her head, she tried to throw it off since she presumed that was what caused the pain. But indeed, it was not a rock. From the feel and size of it, it seemed that, just like the newborns who also possessed it, she had a horn sticking out from her head.

  A sign of corruption.