"Hah... A man can't even get a proper retirement anymore?"
The dark creature, as if regaining consciousness bent it's head downwards as if trying to look at the supposedly dead man, it had just killed, who just spoken. Lukas grabbed the creature's hand that was still in his chest, holding it in place.
Click!
A beautiful glass looking pistol, a little bit longer than normal ones pressed against the side of the creature's head.
"What? You think you're the only one who knows how to play dead?"
Bang!!!
-----------------------
The Dark creature fell to the side causing the arm embedded in Lukas's chest to be forcefully pulled out.
"Ah.. that hurts, that hurts" Lukas whispered, pressing his hand against his chest and raised his right leg up as he hopped to the side on one feet. Sound of glass shattering rang out. The floor seemed to be covered in little pieces of thin, blood red shards of glass. His reactions didn't match that of someone who just had their heart crushed, it was almost like he was just acting.
He crouched down for a few seconds, his body shaking with muffled groans escaping his lips.
"Hah.." Lukas let out a sigh of relief as his body relaxed. He stood up from his crouching position and stretched his body, with his arms raised.
Shatter!
Shards of glass fell from his body, specifically his chest.
Lukas looked down to his chest. In his chest was a deep hole the size of a human arm. It looked brutal except the flesh around the hole seemed to have frozen... No it was more like his skin had turned to glass. Even the ghastly looking cut from his forehead down through his eye was now covered up by a Glass-like membrane that seemed to have grown from under his skin. His destroyed eye was now replaced by a glass crystal that kept reflecting the golden ray of the sunset. The hole in his chest was not covered up but the flesh in the hole and around it were now glass. The Crimson thin shards of glass on the ground were without a doubt Lukas's blood.
"It still hurts" Lukas commented while staring at his own chest. He turned to face the culprit of his current predicament. The dark figure laid on the ground, it's body twitching occasionally.
'Still not dead?' Lukas thought to himself. He turned towards the portal.
'Nothing came out of the portal after this guy. I'm assuming, this one has to die before another one can come out of the portal. That should work for me'
Lukas bent forward, picking up the crystalline gun he had dropped while hopping around in pain. He walked forward and stopped in front of the figure.
'The enforcers from the tower will be here any minute and Nathan and the others might come back after hearing the gunshot from before. I should leave. Too bad, I'll miss my retirement party.'
Boom!
As Lukas turned around to leave, the creature pounced at him with a blinding speed. "You seem to like sneaking up on people" Lukas effortlessly moved to the side as if he had already expected the attack. The figure having missed Lukas turned around to attack him again...
Bang!!
The creature's head suddenly jerked backwards as Lukas shot him straight on his forehead with the glass pistol in his right hand. The creature slid backwards a few steps with it's head jerked backwards before regaining it's balance.
"No damage? Tsk... I really didn't want to use this"
Lukas sent his left hand into his hair and made a grabbing action. A golden shine appeared in his crystal eye as a bright, dazzling golden pistol also longer than normal ones appeared in his left hand. Fixed into the gun was an also equally golden feather with patches of green and red around the edges.
The dark figure that had just regained its balance brought it's head back down to face Lukas only to be met with the golden muzzle of a pistol.
Lukas shoved the golden pistol into the non existent mouth of the dark figure.
"Hah.. this is so gonna hurt"
Baang!!! Vroom!!!
Immediately Lukas pulled the trigger, first a spark, then the muzzle of the gun ignited as the gun was immediately engulfed in flames. The flames went up from Lukas's finger that was on the trigger, it climbed his arm up to his shoulder, went up his neck and straight up the side of his face, burning everything it came in contact with. The creature's head scattered as the pieces seemingly evaporated. The rest of it's body lit up in golden flames. The pile of rubble behind the creature's head blew up as well, everything around it lighting up in flames.
With just one shot the entire place had turned into a sea of golden flames.
"Ha... I knew it would hurt! Ouch!! Ouch! Thats hot!" Lukas exclaimed softly as he dropped the gun and began blowing on his palm. It was a comical sight. A young man with a terrifying 'glass' hole in his chest, a glass covered scar across his face , burnt, dirty and disheveled clothes with half of his body and face covered in burns, blowing carefully on his palm seemingly forgetting about the rest of the burnt part of his body.
After blowing for a while Lukas looked around at the destruction around him. Looking at the state of his body he sighed and shook his head. Suddenly he heard the sound of shattering glass. Turning his head he saw the dark figure covered in flames with no head frantically trying to crawl back to the portal on the pieces of Crimson glass. "Nah, no way".
Lukas grabbed the golden pistol again with his left hand and pointed it at the creature. Taking a deep breath as if mentally preparing himself for the impending pain he was about to experience.
Bang! Bang!! Bang!!! Bang! Bang!!! Bang!! Bang!!...
Lukas kept firing, reducing the headless dark creature into nothing but a deep crater in the ground. The entire left side of his body was now completely covered in flames.
"Luke?"
Lukas stopped shooting and turned around slowly. Standing there with a look of shock on his face was Captain Nathan. His body was also covered in flames which unlike Lukas was not eating away at his flesh. The contrast between the two of them painted a weird picture.
"Two boys under the golden sunset,
Covered in flames.
One standing untouched by the fire,
The other so burnt, he put toast to shame."
"Hahaha... I didn't write that poem. A friend of mine did."
As soon as Lukas recited the poem he burst into laughter.
"Do you believe me if I told you this is not the first time this has happened?" A smile crept up Lukas's burnt face as he remembered a particular memory.
---
"Hahaha, l-look how burnt you are- hah. You smell nice let me have a bite. Ah!"
A golden haired boy in a white lab coat clearly bigger than him covered in flames was laughing in front of a white haired kid the same age who was holding a test tube with a flaming strange liquid in it. The white haired kid was covered in charcoal with a little flames on his burnt clothes and hair.
The two kids were outside with glass tubes and different scientific materials and chemicals littered around them. The golden haired boy that did not seem affected by the burning flames on his body stopped laughing and said. "Hey Lucy, This just gave me an idea for a poem." He adjusted the golden rimmed glasses clearly bigger than his face with a wide smile showing the golden tooth hiding in the top left corner of his mouth. "I don't wanna hear it." The white haired kid replied patting his head in an attempt to put off the flames. "And take off that glasses, it doesn't make you look smarter." "Glasses make everyone look smarter, but hey listen to my poem." "No, la La La la ". The white haired kid covered his ears as he started making la sounds. "What are you guys doing?! Did you mix the two chemicals together? I told you not to!!" A green and white haired kid rushed in as he tried to put off the flames around them with a fan.
"Hey Berry , come listen to the poem I just came up with. Two boys under the golden su..."
---
Nathan looked at the golden flames around them then his eyes paused on the golden gun in Lukas's hand.
"I'm guessing this 'friend' of yours is a Pheonix."
Lukas's smile widen. "You sound as if you don't believe I have a frien-"
"This is a Pheonix flame!" Nathan interrupted. "And so is that feather. I would know... I'm a Pheonix."
"I know" Lukas replied still smiling.
"I know you do"
"But the fact that you don't think I can have a friend, Captain it breaks my-"
"Stop changing the subject Luke." The flames on Nathan's body seemed to grow. "How did you get that gun"
'Worst case scenario.' Lukas thought.
The Pheonix are mythical creatures and as such they are usually hunted. Mythical creatures can be used to make weapons and even pills to get stronger. Even though some mythical creatures have proven themselves and have been accepted and claimed territory as an intelligent specie that shouldn't be hunted. There are some that still hunt them. Most mythical creatures are prideful and the Pheonix are one those bunch. It's very rare to see a Pheonix out of their territory mixing with other species, cases like Captain Nathan are very rare. And because of the history of blood the mythical creatures don't accept the hurt of their own kind by another. Looking at Nathan who was staring at him intensively, Lukas knew a wrong choice could lead to a fight between Nathan and him.
Vroom!!
Lukas and Nathan looked up at the same time, a giant portal had appeared in the sky and coming out of it was a huge spaceship.
'The tower. I have to leave now.'
Lukas raised his right hand with his palm open.
Nathan turned to Lukas as he noticed his movements.
Lukas made a pushing action as if he was pushing the air.
Creeak!!
The sound of a door entered Nathan's ears. The space in front Lukas soon became a transparent glass door opened slightly revealed a dark interior . Lukas had pushed air open revealing a gap in space. The air around seem to be forcefully pulled into the dark space behind the door even the flames on Nathan's body. Only Lukas stood unaffected.
"Nathan!" Lukas called. "After a journey, comes the time to part ways. We have come to the end of this journey. I won't forget though, i don't forget my journeys. On this trip, you were my Captain."
Lukas walked towards the door, as he was about to enter a ringing noise sounded in his head as a collection of words appeared in the air before him.
"The lost: You will never find your way. Don't worry though "a lost man is not afraid of losing his way". The cosmos beholds the Tragedy of the "lost star".
A look of recognition flashed across Lukas's face. Suddenly the floor beneath Lukas cracked and shattered like glass as a suction force erupted from the ground. The glass door shut as the space it occupied returned back to normal. Lukas falling into the dark space below the ground that had now turned to glass, grabbed the edges, the sharp edges of the glass-like floor stabbed into his hands.
Nathan stood there without moving. That's when he saw it. He had been too focused on the Pheonix flames and gun, he didn't notice Lukas's body.
A hole in the chest, glass covered scar through the to right eye, burnt skin and hair. Lukas looked hideous. And yet not a single drop of blood on his body. Then he looked at Lukas's palm grabbing unto the sharp glass edges, it wasn't bleeding. Lukas's face... No look of pain or hurt...nothing. Just a seriously injured man hanging , trying not to fall into the darkness beneath him. And then for a split second something flashed across Lukas's face. Pain? No. Frustration? No.
Something in Nathan knew what was going to happen next, he wanted to stop it yet he didn't move. Then it happened. Lukas let go. He didn't fall. He didn't lose his grip.
He let himself fall.
-----
In a busy bookstore, an old looking book sat on a table, suddenly it's pages started opening. It went past a few pages that had been written on. On closer look it was the story of a certain insane man called 'The Traveller'. The book stopped when It got to a blank page and soon words started appearing on it. After a few pages passed it started writing about the dark creature that attack the 1008th district. Then it wrote how Lukas was stabbed, how the tower's spaceship appeared and how Lukas fell into the glass-like floor.
Then it wrote "the traveller arrived in Porttown the 26th" and closed itself.
After a while it opened back again and did something it had not done since it began writing. It erased. The last sentence from the book disappeared before it rewrote itself this time a little different.
"Dumb Lukas arrived in Porttown The 26th"
The book slammed shut and the sound that came out sounded like a child pouting. "Hmph"
Coincidentally or not the signboard infront of the shop also read "Porttown the 26th"
------
Beep! Beep!! Beep!!! Clank!
A finger with a golden ring on it turned off the beeping coffee maker. The owner of the finger, a man with shimmering golden hair grabbed the cup of coffee and took a sip, the little action revealing the glimmer of gold between the man's tooth.
Beep!
The man looked at his phone.
"Lucy?"
------
A quiet sea, reflecting the starry Sky. The wind blew slowly on the trees around the quietly flowing sea.
Crack!
The sound of glass breaking.
Crack! Crack!!
A shard of glass suddenly fell from the air
Shatter!!!
The space above the water suddenly broke like glass as a figure burst out like someone flying through a window and falling into the water. A few shards of glass fell from the dark hole before it slowly mended itself. Soon everything returned back to normal.
Splash!!
Lukas raised his head as he walked out of the water.
"Look at that, the cosmos is being considerate. Sending me into water for my burns huh?" He said to no one in particular, clearly displeased. He walked underneath a tree and sat.
"It's been 8 years so I forgot that darn 'Appelation'. A lost man has no fear of losing his way? Bullshit!" He threw a nearby stone into the water.
"Is that your way of comforting me?!" Lukas shouted at the sky.
"Tch" Lukas buried his head into his knees as he took deep breaths. Soon his body calmed down. He slowly stood up and walked to the water.
"I look disgusting" he said , his calm manner of speaking coming back to him."I wonder where I am". A smile crept up his lips, a clear contrast to his outburst a few moments ago. Staring at the stars he muttered "I seem to be remembering alot of poems today."
------
In a green field behind a huge house. An outdoor party was going on. A lot of men and women dressed in fancy clothes stood or sat in groups. A very beautiful woman dressed in a silver gown sat alone staring into the starry sky. Her hair was white and tied behind her head in a loose bun. She looked like a painting. Poeple around her kept sneaking glances. Soon she opened her mouth and a beautiful sound came out as she recited a simple poem.
"Twinkle twinkle little star,
How I wonder ...
...'where' you are"