A Pilgrim's Beginning

"Useless..."

A mumbled word that one couldn't help but let slip her tongue as she knelt beside yet another soulless vessel. With a fine appearance and ideal proportions it would have made an exceptional project to undertake, though, with such a putrid essence emanating this corpse, it was clear that time had passed long since they met their end.

"..."

There was nothing more to be said. Nothing more to be done, regardless of how much Arilian wished otherwise. As blank eyes gazed up from Arilian's ragged grey robe the firm grip she held on its arm would loosen as she placed it across its torso before continuing to move the body off of herself. Now, standing to her feet, she was ready to push on towards primary objective once again. Finally... She was almost there. She could feel it, however faint.

Sword after broken sword had gone by as her trek across this crimson land went on. Such a sight would certainly have most in awe at the thought that each once held a warrior behind it. Warriors that could have been of a high caliber at that. Yet, even so, each had still managed to meet their end here among one another. Yes, such a sight...

"Hmm...?"

It was only brief, yes, though even so Arilian's eyes found themselves gazing upon the glowing beast that passed her by. Her train of thought now broken away from her surroundings she watched as the wolf walked onward with intents unknown. An action so mundane would have usually been dismissed though Arilian took quite the liking to its appearance. It was something she had never seen occur in a creature before and thus needed to be looked into further for the sake of her research. A piece of her nature she simply could not go against. She'd follow behind the beast, making sure to keep it within a reasonable distance. However curious, she was still wary of the dangers this situation could hold.

No sooner than the 'Dark Wolf' had passed would a young man step forward, looking somewhat rough around the edges, with his hands in his pockets. "You saw it too, huh?" He seemed to be somewhat gelid in his tone, and stagnant in his movements, but had a clear idea about where he was going and what he was doing. "... The Dark Wolf." Arilian seemed interested in it, for whatever reason. Whatever it was, that was left up to her. He paused only briefly to see how this new person would respond, before he got back to what he was doing, himself.

A shaking scene to have undergone as Arilian stood there wide eyed barely having kept her balance in the entire ordeal. Her gaze lay locked on the bolt struck city though her mind had not even begun to comprehend what she just witnessed. It took several seconds after recuperating to realize that the beast had no longer remained within her sight. Even more so to piece together the relation of the two. It was clear now that she had just witnessed something truly fascinating. An opportunity she could not possibly turn away from. With eagerness fueling her curiosity she would attempt to make her way over to the town at a pace quicker than her usual trot only to be halted by the sound of an unexpected voice.

Her head quickly flung in his direction as she took on a semi-defensive stance. She didn't really appreciate being surprised like that, but at least he hadn't taken more deadly actions while he had the chance. At this point further words of his had been dismissed with only questions filling her mind. She opened her mouth, the words that came out as fierce as fire to balance out such an icy tone.

"Who are you? Actually, where did you come from?!"

The young man looked at her up and down, checking her out in more ways than one. With his hands still in his pockets, but his ears open to her fiery tone, he would suddenly look her in her eyes, somewhat curiously. "Terumi," he said directly, rather bluntly. "And I wouldn't even know where to begin to tell you." There were so many fresh new things in his head that he was dealing with that actually finding the starting point on where to begin explaining brought him to a loss. Terumi needed to gather his thoughts a little more.

"Who's asking?" he snapped back at her, quickly matching her fire in tone. "What's your story, huh?" Part of his inquisition was curiosity, and another part of it was investigation. The two certainly went hand in hand, but seeing someone like this in a place like this was almost asking to look for trouble. "... You ain't from around here, are ya?" He squinted his eyes, starting to piece some things together on his own, but he wouldn't continue until this strange person responded.

"Heh, Terumi..."

She scoffed, crossing her arms together and taking up a more comfortable stance while doing so. Though still wary of this unknown character Arilian found his change in tone quite amusing. Yet, even so, the man lacked what more that was required to keep her interest at hand.

"My origin and business here are of no concern to someone who can't even tell me his."

She spoke, her tone cooling down after coming to realize what her original business here had been. Her expression had changed as she looked away with concerning thoughts putting her in quite the internal dilemma. Mumbled words slipping through her teeth she spoke once more.

"The old world..."

Terumi's eyes narrowed to slits at the response of the newcomer. His frustration was rising already. "Watch it," he'd say with restraint in his voice, "Those are fighting words around these parts."

As much as he didn't want to say anything more to this new person, something about the words she muttered under her breath made him change his mind a bit. He closed his eyes, sucked his teeth and crossed his arms. "You're in No Man's Land," he found it best to tell her, before she started mouthing off at the wrong person, "So watch your back. Someone might just come around and stab you in it, looking for help from the wrong people." Immediately, Terumi turned around and started on his way. "There's a lot of shit going down, so I'd suggest finding a place to stay. I'm about to head to the hotel I live in. But there's a city over yonder you might want to look into." He pointed behind him with his thumb in the direction the lightning and the Dark Wolf traveled, not sparing this woman anymore of his time or attention.

It was a confused look she had given him when taken from her thoughts. His tone now seemed more as though he had become upset with her; for what she could not fully grasp an understanding of. It was a level of social comprehension uncommon to her and thus rarely met with the feeling of guilt. At some point, however, this mentality would outstay its welcome. One day.

"I'll keep that in mind, thanks." She spoke calmly as Terumi began to take his leave, but she hadn't finished yet. "Also, I am known as Arilian. If we ever meet again you may call me by that name."

A simple gesture in attempts to mend whatever ill-mannered action of hers caused this agitation in him so that such a meeting can be reconciled. Regardless of his response, Arilian would start off towards the distant city as she did not expect one from him. The time had come for them to go there separate ways from this rather brief encounter it would seem.

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Now, with the rising pressure, the earth actually began to tremble, and cracks appeared in the ground, as did powerful craters from the buildup of energy on both ends. This pressure exerted by the powerful forces, including the planet's own tension, shook the planet like a snow globe in hand. This caused a visual distortion from nothing being a stable image whilst the planet, as a whole, was in a sort of high speed motion, such as a powerful vibration. Nothing could be seen clearly.

Throughout all the high speed trembling and earth quaking, Terumi, as he walked away, seemed to not stumble a single moment all during the time. His body, which flickered and wavered just as swiftly as the shaking ground would carry left a distorted image of him walking away, yet all of him walking casually and without tripping, or even seeming to be effected at all by the rumbling earth.

"I'll remember that," were his last words to her before eventually, the quaking earth's distortion of vision became too great to see through conventionally, and Terumi would have exited the Warrior's Wasteland.

It was sudden and ground breaking. The magnitude of which Arilian had never come to witness in her life and would not have been missed if she never had. Now, with her footing offset at the trembling of the land beneath, she would stumble to a knee. Her mind became a mess shrouded in what her eyes could not comprehend; it was nauseating. The quaking earth accompanied with this sight distortion was almost paralyzing, coming to the point she had to shut her eyes in attempts to counteract the feeling. It was at this point the air around her began to quiver. The presence surely unnoticeable to most among the rest of the chaos. It would go on to expand and contract repeatedly in rapid succession until, ultimately, it broke. Just like that the air had shattered as if it were glass revealing a onyx hand reaching out from an opening, a gate of sorts, just as dark.

Not a moment had gone by after its appearance that this extremity had cupped her within its grasp and went up towards the sky. As it moved forward the area only further further broke away exposing what lay attached before piecing itself back together as if it never happened. It was a colossal figure surely to be noteworthy of scholars and just as much a mystery to even the most seasoned of travelers. A unique sight indeed.

Now hovering about in the sky the beast looked on at what was taking place. This sight had it puzzled for a moment until what could be considered its eye pulsed outward, the radiant pupil it held expanding throughout the blackness of its visor like optic. While its attempts to assess the situation went on, Arilian would sit still within its palm quietly awaiting what outcome it would decide.

The analysis was complete and with it the creature's eye would retract into a single orb once more. It went on to move back a forth across the face looking over the settled land. The landscape in all its glory was a magnificent sight. Even if it seemed mostly barren, the vastness of it all was surely something to behold. Now, without anymore trouble seeming to follow, it flew on forward towards Arilian's original destination with her still held safely in its hands eventually reaching the city. He'd then go on to search an arbitrary area for danger so that they could land without issue.

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"Shit," the Valparaiso Denizens cried relatively unanimously, trying to find out how and when to escape. Fortunately, many of them remembered the power of darkness and began to use 'Distortion' in order to attempt to get their way and escape through the darkness. Some of them exited into the streets, or somewhere unknown.

When the distortions from the area settled down fully, some Valparaiso Denizens could be seen out in the distance around the city that Arilian was approaching. They seemed to be hastily making their way out, and were in her direct path. They saw her enormous creature and were immediately terrified or on guard, finding themselves rather quickly trapped and unable to go back to the city or move forward, or go to the other city that they just came from. Some of them broke up and defected from the group to go rogue on their own, and then would become lost.

Others would remain and confront the giant. "Get that thing's meat, we're eating for a week, at least." They already knew what this was, and they were homeless. It was a pirate's life for them, certainly and absolutely. They drew their respective weapons, which they needed to have on their person at all times, and would begin to surround the giant in a threatening, but somewhat orderly manner.

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Once the Valparaiso Denizens that did escape exited into the darkness, the Darkness would cloak their movements and carry them elsewhere, picking only the select few from the group that entered the darkness and taking them away from the group. This would look like some of them being lost when they ended up all appearing out of the darkness again, since none of them knew what the other was Distorting, nor where the Distortions would lead them, nor what counteractive effects the Distortions would have on themselves and getting their goals accomplished as a unit.

Some of the lingering distortions from the Valparaiso Denizens' movements lingered, and some of them would mysteriously disappear before everyone's very eyes, going completely silent and totally unseen, like they never existed.

"Hm...? Is that...?"

Arilian mumbled to herself as she heard the shouts from the denizens down below. She'd peer from between her companions clutch and see what group would cause such a commotion. It was a sight that gave her great amusement as they looked to be nothing more than sheep begging to be slaughtered. She, of course, would be happy to provide the wolf.

"I was hungry anyway. Weren't you, Barion?"

And just like that the beast would descend on the group as if falling from the sky before crashing down onto individuals around the outer edge of their formation. Barion cared not for whoever was so ill fated to succumb beneath this crushing impact, if any, immediately pointing an open hand at the others amidst the kicked up dust and debris. Those in its site would face a blast of force concussive enough to render the average human unconscious from the shock. What outcome would have awaited the rest?

"Yeah, we're hungry, too, girly," some of them grumbled at the arrogant brat on the tasty looking giant. Each of the Valparaiso Denizens, which were the ones that came from the Darkness, were able to use it to their advantage. "Quick, get to the shadows!" They were surprisingly swift, and many of their weapons were actually relatively useful for long range combat. They hurled chains and grappling hooks and their images would begin to blur as they all ran to either side of where the feet would crash, and their images fading out completely once the force blew them away. The bodies were not found. Many of the slower ones were knocked about, either bursting upon impact or being at the very least hurled off into the sky, if they had the durability to survive the impact.

The area was cleared out once the debris faded.

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Some Valparaiso Denizens that were shifting about the two cities that were abandoned noticed that there was something going on way out in the barren stretches of the desolate land. It was a giant and some haggardly looking folk, looking like Valparaiso Denizens. "Oh, must be eatin time," they said, looking at all the food that was mouthwatering before their eyes. Friends, family and children apart were of no limitation, when they saw what looked like next month's food supply. Giants always had a lot of meat to eat, and they were starving.