Sundered Paradise

[Zach Kaiser]

A large plaza--in the center, a fountain. Brightly decorated, friendly, warm, inviting, and at all times attended by angels whose sole purpose was to guide the souls that arrived there and ease the transition into the afterlife.

Several months ago, that was what would have greeted the fortunate souls that found themselves in Heaven after death.

Now, the buildings around the plaza were in ruins: windows and doors were smashed, walls had caved in--some were reduced to little more than rubble on a bare foundation. Craters pockmarked the marble bricks around the fountain, and blood both fresh and dried painted large splotches on all surfaces.

Even since the End, Heaven had become a war zone. And the worst of it was centered here, where new souls arrived in the shallow fountain. White winged angels and mortal souls battled ceaselessly, with weapons, with powers of all kinds, and the rare brave one with nothing but their bodies.

It was this scene that would greet Shin Shiden as he found himself in the Fountain of Souls.

[Shin]

The experience was pleasant to say in the least, his chi becoming one with everything around him and carrying him in its flow, it was unlike anything he had ever felt before. There was no sense of time as he was moved from point A to point B and yet he didn’t mind.

Heaven. He had always wondered what such a place would be like, white pearly gates, angels with trumpets, or would there be a long line of ancestors to greet him as he came? Shin still couldn’t believe that Heaven was his destination, how he wondered? What could he have possibly done to warrant there and not hell?

Shock would be the only way to describe the look on Shins face as he came to in the Fountain of Souls. His mouth hung open in surprise as he came to a different sort of Hell, this surely couldn’t be heaven.

Blood, the familiar scent reached his nostrils nearly as quickly as he soaked in the scene around him. Something was terribly wrong if this was supposed to be heaven there were angels, but they were in battle, dying and killing.

“Can I not escape this…?” He whispered as his left hand came down to rest on something that had not been there a moment ago, the hilt of a sword. Shin, still in shock, did not register the difference. The hilt was foreign yet familiar to Shin and he hadn’t the time to question it nor could he tear his gaze off what happened before him.

He stood stationary either unable or unwilling to move into combat. The feeling was one that Shin had never encountered before; he had always been able to throw himself into battle and simply pick a side, usually helping carry them to victory. But this battle was far beyond him and powers that surely exceeded his own. He did not think he could bring himself to strike an Angel, at least not now, not while IN Heaven.

“What do I do?” He mumbled, ghostly blue eyes surveying the chaos around him.

[Zach Kaiser]

A few yards away from Shin, an angel swooped down, picking up a young girl and carrying her away, even as she screamed in panic. "Let her go!" cried a young man, who arrived leaping over the fountain and began to chase the angel down.

As Shin observed the situation, he would notice that for the most part angels were fighting humans; however, a few cases of angels fighting angels and humans fighting humans indicated the conflict was not as simple as a race war. The only indication of sides seemed to be the colors on the combatants clothing: gold sashes were worn by most of the angels, and blue ones worn by most of the humans.

Plenty weren't wearing either color, though it was impossible to be sure if it was part of a tactic, if they were part of a third side, or if they were, like Shin, people who'd just arrived and were caught in the middle.

[Shin]

Shin was forced out of his contemplation by the sound of yelling directly next to him, his eyes followed the young mans eyes to the small girl being carried away by one of the angelic creatures. This was certainly wrong, why were angels and humans fighting, what sort of chaos was this?

It took but a moment and Shin was acting, he didn’t know if it was the right answer, but he had never been one to sit around while there was a fight going on around him. Shin propelled himself into action, and at an alarming pace at that. Assuming the man and flying angel weren’t moving at a tremendous speed Shin would likely catch up to the Angel in the matter of seconds, if that.

He was thankful he had full control over himself again; there was no lingering weakness or sickness. In fact, Shin couldn’t remember ever feeling better.

Shin would use natural speed and powerful legs to propel himself into the air after the angel. Katana drawing forth from the scabbard in a powerful airborne upward Iaijutsu strike, Shins natural speed and precision would make sure he didn’t strike the girl and instead send the blade directly towards the Angels groin area.

Something was amiss; the strike didn’t feel right to Shin and for good reason. When the blade came forth from the sheath it was not what Shin expected, not what anyone watching would expect, the blade was made of wood. A bokken, and though Shins hits would certainly be debilitating they would not kill unless he specifically struck an opponents skull or spine.

[Zach Kaiser]

Shin would feel something else odd about the area he struck, notably that there was no particularly vulnerable part there--the angel seemed to lack it. However, that didn't mean his strike was ineffectual; far from it. The angel dropped the girl and reeled, twisting away from Shin as it lost control of its flight. The girl landed safely in the arms of the boy who'd been chasing after her, who gave Shin a thumbs up before taking off towards the edge of the plaza.

However, Shin had much bigger worries than the safety of that girl; namely, the safety of himself. Even as he descended from his jump, a half dozen angels began to close in on his position, now seeing him as a threat.

And as fast as he was, it would do him little good while he was still airborne...

[Nayt]

Six angels converged upon Shin Shiden all at once, spears brandished and waiting for the taste of blood. And soon enough, they all gored him, all six at once. They jabbed their spears into his hide-- one into his stomach, one through his back, one up through his chest and passing below his throat, one through his thigh, a fifth through his shoulder, and a sixth directly through his throat. There was no denying it: this man was dead. He'd taken six well trained killing blows. He was no longer breathing. All functions had ceased.

Shin Shiden was no more.

They'd all feel the same way about it, those six angels. They'd all experience the taste of victory, and they'd all find a need to return to their prior duties and the havoc they intended to wreak upon these people.

Except Shin Shiden wasn't dead. He was upon the ground, having safely landed. He was perfectly healthy. The very first of these angels to notice the body no longer punctured by their spears would also find a most dissatisfying image: a single black feather, carried by the wind, that passed the six angels by . . .

[Shin]

Shin was happy to have helped the two, though he realized his own error when the other Angels converged on him. Instinct demanded he Shunpo to the ground, but there wasn’t enough time. He brought the wooden bokken in front of him in an attempt to fend off any attacks…

They missed?

Shin fell to the ground unharmed. What in the hell had happened he wondered, gazing about to maybe find an answer. If there wasn’t one Shin would follow in the direction the boy and girl went, assuming they were headed to safety. However, if there was an answer to be found or a reason to stay Shin would hold his ground.

[Zach Kaiser]

The six angels converged, intent on destroying the soul that had dared raise a blade against on their kind. And indeed they thought they succeeded; every sense they had told them so. But shortly after they began to look around in confusion, realizing their spears were crossed in empty air.

They were unable to determine the cause of this, but it did not matter; they did not have the capacity for reasoning to figure out what the black feather may have meant. To them it was just another piece of irrelevant color.

Shin would not find escape so easy, if that was his intent. The angels quickly began circling above him, like vultures around a piece of carrion, but they did not strike immediately. With their last attack ineffective, they were taking a more measured approach, waiting to see how he moved.

It did not occur to them that perhaps it wasn't him they should have been primarily worried about...

[Nayt]

Of course, they wouldn’t quite reach Shiden. The angels were on the path, but Shin was far ahead of them by then—and all it took was a single musical note, a low, melodious twang, to cut their pursuit short. Seven steps began in a wave, and were someone gifted with the ability to perceive time slowly, they’d bear witness to each step as they came. But without such an ability, there was only a single, brutal occurrence to behold—yet Shin Shiden was already too far off to notice. At first, that is . . .

The first step came in the form of a stop. The angel farthest on the left simply lost its ability to progress forward. Paralyzed, it had little choice but to remain focused in place—but a split second did not allow its fellows to progress much farther or even notice that one of their fellows had stopped moving. A split second did not allow them the opportunity to know much about what happened at all. They simply didn’t see it coming.

The second to sixth steps all mirrored one another. They came in the form of collapse. First, the leftmost angel’s chest cavity became weak. A force pressed against it harshly, and soon it caved. Ribs ejected through organs until their breaking point, blood gushed in explosive force, and its vitals spilled out with no apparent direction. A crushed heart went this way. A liver was tossed that way. Kidneys were launched in opposing directions. Organs no (previously) living human even heard of flooded out through a new hole in the creature’s back.

They all moved to the right, all involuntary—all guided by a force they previously disregarded. The wave, the sound, the deep, twangy note—it forced them off, pushed them together, and one by one instigated total and complete collapse: implosion and pressure build until their skin simply could contain their shattered bones and disjointed vitals any longer, and had little choice but to expulse its internals and leave nothing resembling a body behind.

One by one they fell, exploding in line as the sound wave reached them, but for those whose perception of was average at best, all six of them appeared to lose their lives all at once.

And in the heap that painted an entire street scarlet, the ignored black feather fluttered and landed gracefully. It would soak and sunder in the scarlet remains until it looked no cleaner than the scattered feathers of the dead.

[Shin]

The ordeal behind Shin would go completely unnoticed by him, though surely it was a spectacle he would have wanted to see. His attention was focused elsewhere, on safety really, and his legs took him in that direction with all the speed they could muster.

Shin Shiden, if known for one thing, was his speed and at a flat out run he could out sprint a cheetah with ease. Though, at the current moment in time Shin didn’t know exactly where he was headed or where too head really.

He needed to find someone, anyone really, and learn what in the hell was going on. Was this really Heaven, or some cruel joke that people like Shin went for the lives they lived? Why were angels attacking assumable innocent (as far as Shin knew) people, if they were in Heaven then shouldn’t have everything be perfect and not stained in blood.

Shin would duck behind whatever he could find as shelter, to where he could have a moment, gather his thoughts and take in the situation around him. First, he looked at the wooden bokken he carried in his right hand and the sheath that now sat on his left hip, both appearing to be nothing more then simple wood. Yet, he knew that to not be the case, because he hadn’t had them when he first arrived and yet here they were.

“Just my luck.” He remarked to himself, peering around the corner and staring into the sky. “…dropped into a situation and I’m more blind the Exitus.” Shin blew a strand of blue hair from his eyes and watched, he decided that patience would best serve him now. He had acted before he thought already, and it nearly cost him his life, again, best not to make that mistake again he told himself.

[Nayt]

On a blood soaked street, a man walked barefoot with only the smallest regard for his environment. He was tall and thin, muscular but proportional. He had shaggy, chin length black hair and a thick goatee. All that covered him was an obsidian robe, a flowing garb that seemed to only loosely cling to his form. It was not made for modesty, but this young man had no need for modesty. Even half-nude, he appeared more like an artist's rendition of a man than he did a living, breathing person. His feet settled upon angelic blood and found purchase upon a displaced fraction of rib.

He knelt down to examine it closer, only to look up to see the upper half of the corpse's torso fallen with its frame-- split from the middle of its chest and up --between a still burning building and the street. Unlike the others, this one's head was in tact. The young man frowned.

"I really hate these things," he remarked disapprovingly-- yet even still, he didn't seem at all too put off. Even in the presence of something that so clearly disgusted him, the man was relaxed to an almost surreal extent. There wasn't a single tensed muscle in his body.

"I know," called a monotonous voice from above.

The young man glanced up. A rooftop adjacent to the burning structure contained another man, this one much more clothed than the first. He was short and had a partially scrawny build to him. His hair was a silver-white tone and fell down inches below his shoulder. It appeared as if his eyes were completely covered by a long blindfold, one that had the image of an eye stitched in gold within the middle. He wore a long coat of black leather, though it had no sleeves. He also seemed to have a Cizokian blade sheathed at his hip.

The first young man addressed him with a smirk, before he stood up straight and held his hand out for the barely scathed skull of the fallen angel. There was only the briefest flash of light from his hand, before the image of a musical instrument appeared with a low and resonating pitch. It was a long instrument, thin bodied, and appeared to have only four thick strings. It looked as if it were made of red mahogany. The man held it by the neck, and the very bottom of it stopped just inches before the fallen angel's face. With the thumb the clutched the instrument, he rubbed the largest string, and a reverberating drop D made short work of the angel's remains.

"How many more you think're in this sector?" the young man asked as he flicked his hand-- and the instrument --away. In another flash, it was gone.

"Another dozen incoming," said the other.

The young man stood and looked northward. He frowned in disappointment.

"Guess I'll play the bait this time," he sighed.

"No need," the other shook his head. "I tire of these Synthetics. I propose we cease the frivolities of competition and quell this sector immediately."

"Well . . ." the young man rolled his shoulders, "If you insist."

[Zach Kaiser]

Only the ruined buildings that surrounded the plaza provided any cover; Shin ended up behind a half-collapsed stone wall. The ceiling of the building was gone, and only part of a second floor and a crumbling staircase suggested that it was once an indoor location.

As if obeying an unseen order, the majority of the angels withdrew as quickly as they were able to, darting through any available exit and some outright flying into the sky. Some would no doubt fall to the extraordinarily strong opponents before they could escape, but it was inevitable that most would get away.

Soon, the chaos surrounding the fountain was reduced to fifty-some odd people, split into two groups: those who were unarmed and terrified, and those who were armed and weary. The latter group, all adorned in blue armbands, sashes, or cloth of some variety, began to try and calm the former group down.

The peace was only temporary, as the two warriors who'd scared off the angels knew well. The second the plaza seemed under-guarded, they would be back to try and collect more souls.

[Shin]

It took Shin a few moments, curious as to why he wasn’t being pursued. He was fast, but not fast enough to outrun something that could fly, not for very long at least. Gripping the wooden weapon in hand he stepped out from behind the collapsed wall to find the plaza no longer a place of battle.

“What in the hell is going on?” Shin asked himself as he carefully, eyes staying to the sky, walked out of hiding and towards a man with a blue armband. He didn’t introduce himself or even slow, Shin was not the most subtle of individuals.

“Where am I?” He demanded, looking to the man momentarily before scanning the skies quickly. “and what is happening, why are angels killing people?”