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Chapter 2
Ascension

Aiko was shocked and stood up on her bed—waking up from a bad dream. She looked around to find herself inside her bedroom. However, she realized that something slightly wrong is happening. So, she stood up and walked to the window to see...
"...It's true."
Aiko is frozen, she saw the view that is reflected to the window—the city of Mayako, a once prospering city now partially destroyed and lands divided into pieces. She saw floating islands sitting and moving freely at the sky. She glared at the large fault line which appears to have cut the city open, giving an entrance to the abyss below. The sky is nothing but a starry night and the atmosphere is gone. This is something—distortion can only do. Aiko kneeled to the ground and asked herself, "What has the silhouette told her?" She herself doesn't know the frustration the unknown entity has gave her, however she stood and with a little confidence—walked away to open the door...

There, she entered the hallway she used to walk on when she was a maid. The roof is torn apart and the stairway that connects the hallway to the surface is gone but blocked. The only way to get out is to find the key located in the depths of the basement—and so she did. She opened the door in the other room to check to see if other of her coworkers may be present. Yet, no traces can be found. She noticed blood stains that sit at the bed sheets, broken weaponry scattered in the corridors and unknown fragments of dust that appears to be floating freely everywhere. Aiko assumed that these coworkers have been abducted, or been killed by an unknown killer. She starts to be more cautious, and then equipped a broken spear she saw laying on the ground. "Who did this," she angrily states, "all of you will pay for the damage you've done..."

Aiko hastily searched all over for her coworkers, yet no one can be seen. She then scavenged for their pictures—but it may seen to be taken. All rooms are damaged and messy, and the corridors are riddled with flickering lights and blood stains. The area she is in is the employee room that is located inside the cliff and atop of the castle. The things she've seen is nothing but remnants of once a living planet, and she glared back at the corridor she have crossed. Rays of light shine and hit the ground from the holes atop the roof. Windows broken and all she's hearing is distant explosions and the low eerie faint bass of darkness. As she walked away, a glimmer of a silhouette appears at the corner of her eye—but she dismissed it and walked away without care.

Walking past the staircase she have reached the doorway towards the basement room, but she've noticed something different—faint voices of what appears to be screams and faint bangs of metal can be heard on the other side of the wall. Aiko ignored it however, thinking it's nothing but the machinery that powers the electricity of the city and proceeds to enter the basement. Thereof, she walked slowly with caution and gripped harder on the spear she's holding. The room is dark, and the only thing she can make up is a bright door in the distance. Walking more, the sounds gradually louden. Screams of machinery is slowly becoming screams of humans pleading for help.

Aiko enters the bright door and saw herself in the middle of a room filled with large shelves with broken crates stacked together. Looking around, she notices blood stains and blood dripping from the ceiling.
"...come..." a voice whispers on her ear. Aiko flicked and turned around like a malfunctioning carousel, "...you'll be nothing but one of them now..." Aiko transitions to a combat stance and repeatedly shouts, "Who are you?!" The voice louden, and dark purplish gases faded in orbiting Aiko. She steps back more, but turned around to see a terrifying sighting.

"...and you'll be one of us, too..." The entity ends its sentence. Aiko makes up—a bunch of severed arms, legs and heads of people that appears to be attracted by bunch of dark purplish gases, and then becoming sentient—an anomaly. Aiko steps back further, helding up the spear she's holding straight. "You dreadful anomaly," she insults it with pity, "I think; you're pleading for help—however, I'm never answering." The anomaly laughs in a glitchy voice, "...nonsense...NONSENSE," the anomaly expands, occupying space, "...YOU'VE NEVER SHOULD'VE COME... INTO YOUR OWN DEMISE..."

"Is that so?" Aiko mindlessly said. "Daring gal, but you'll be history..." The anomaly marked and starts to fly around. Aiko regret at what she've said, seeing as if she just accepted a call from the reaper. Aiko ran away, but was cornered by more anomalies the same type as the other. She stepped back into a corner, held her spear up and thrusts it to a anomaly. The spear was sucked in by the anomaly. She has nothing but unarmed now, and is not prepared for her near end. The anomalies closes her in, but as soon as they merged her to them—Aiko held up her palm, showing a faint pulse of light.

"...Be, GONE!" Aiko shouted and a large burst of light emerged from her palm. The anomalies were blown away and the whole basement shakes tremendously. Crates fall from the shelves and shelves collapse from the shockwave the burst generated. With this, Aiko fell down to the floor from fatigue caused by the burst of light. She pants audibly, "Wh-What is this, power?" She questioned herself. Aiko looked up to see the room to be nothing but empty. Shelves now collapsed, crates broken into pieces, flickering lights from the ceiling hanging in mid-air and sparks emerging from live wires.

She looked around and found the spear she used mysteriously grew a pair—but it seems they're welded together.