Lucas sat down on the bench staring straight into the night sky, his hands were sweaty, and his face was bruised.
He had worked throughout the day after lying in a containment facility for weeks. He stared at the device on his wrist, a device to suppress his Ruin energy.
He had accumulated too much Ruin energy over the years that he felt that he would soon have to go to the police station for his First Imposition.
He got up from the bench and made the long arduous journey to the police station on his feet.
He got to the police station, knocking before he walked in, the officer on duty stared at him with a sour expression.
"What do you want?" He asked, Lucas stared at him and then chuckled. He removed the device from his hand and everything immediately went haywire.
Loud beeping could be heard everywhere, red lights and sirens blared all around as Lucas's Ruin energy erupted. The officer on duty jumped over the counter and delivered a blow to the back of his head, knocking him out.
He woke up and found himself strapped to a chair, the officer on duty sat across from him, with a mug to his lips staring directly into his soul.
"What's your name kid?" The officer asked.
"Lucas," he replied, staring at the officer's eyes. He dropped the mug to the ground and sat with his back rested on the wall.
"Now Lucas, I suppose you know how this goes right?"
"Um, maybe?" He tried to shrug but he couldn't move his hands since they were restricted.
"Now, this is your First Imposition." The officer began. "It is common knowledge that those who go through the imposition are thrust into a time in the past, depending on how much Ruin energy they have."
Lucas nodded, he knew all about the Imposition and how it worked. How the world was filled with a certain type of energy. The people chose to call it Ruin, it manifested from their negative emotions, the angrier, and more frightened they got, the energy level would spike up.
But with Ruin came something else, The Writ. The Writ was what sent people with a huge amount of Ruin energy into their First Imposition, and when they were able to pass it they known as Branded, those who had been marked by the Writ and given supernatural abilities.
The Writ sent people back into the past, some thirty years into the past when there was no Ruin and some five years ago when the first gate outbreak happened, most people die during this trail so Lucas shook his head getting the feeling that he'll die one way or another.
Living alone for the past ten years had been grueling, no father nor mother, no siblings as well. He only had himself to trust and no one else.
His mind wavered to the monsters that spawned as a result of the Writ and Ruin. They were called Cursed Creatures, each having a distinct rank with the weakest of them being stronger than an Unmarked human.
Lucas stared at the officer with a sour expression. "So I'm tied up because?" He asked his head tilted diagonally.
The officer palmed his face and then signed. "You're tied up because those who die during their Impositions turn into Cursed Creatures. So I shall go get a Branded to watch over you while you're in there." He said and then finally got up from his seat walking out the door and leaving Lucas to think.
'Goodbye world. It was nice knowing you.' Lucas thought to himself, then he felt it. A sudden pang in his chest directly where his heart was. His felt as if his body was enveloped in flames as his screams echoed throughout the room.
He could hear other screams around him as well but he couldn't think under these circumstances.
His eyes turned inside out, turning white and then he fell unconscious. The next moment he opened his eyes he was at a campfire with other people with him, they all had the same expression as he did; surprise.
He knew who they were, Unmarked humans who were sent here by the Writ. Lucas looked around at his surroundings but all he saw were trees and rocks, he sighed and then he heard something. A voice so pristine and divine that he instantly knew what it was; the Writ.
[You have entered your First Imposition]
He looked around and saw the same shocked expressions on their faces, he decided to check his status. For some reason unknown to humans, the Writ manifested as a gamelike system which showed an individual's abilities.
Lucas focused and then it all appeared to him.
'As expected.'
***
Name: Lucas
Title: –
Rank: Unmarked
Ruin Attributes: –
Artifacts: –
Faculty: [Cowardice]
Faculty Description: [You will always have the thought of running away and the more you do, the more the world bends to let you escape, your enemy's attacks miss and you never get hit by what you're running from]
Lucas, who was expecting something like this sighed, he had been unlucky all his life and that luck wouldn't suddenly change now.
He looked at the others and saw them all beaming with smiles. A young boy got up from where he was seated, Lucas stared at him, the boys was incomparably more handsome than anyone he had seen. His face seemed like what had been drawn by an experienced and talented artist who had all the necessary tools at his disposal.
His long dark hair flowing with the steady breeze, when he smiled Lucas frowned.
'Seems like that guy was extremely lucky,' he thought to himself and then shifted his body a little to be a little more comfortable.
There were four people here including himself so he had to see what this guy wanted.
"Hi. My name is Karl Ardent, I'm eighteen years old and like you all I'm an Unmarked." He said with an extremely beautiful smile.
"I'm David." The guy to Lucas's left said, he was handsome as well, almost as handsome as Karl. "I'm fifteen."
'Fifteen?!' Lucas thought, people this young weren't that common, the Writ usually chose those who were seventeen and older.
"That's pretty young," the girl seated right behind Karl said echoing Lucas's concerns, her voice was sweet and mild, she had a kind face as well to add to that, "my name is Deborah Lindenheart, I'm seventeen years old."
'Lindenheart?!' Lucas stared at her with wide eyes, one of the greatest clans in the world. The Lindenheart clan had carried humanity on its back for the past twenty years and now one of them was an Unmarked like he was.
Everyone turned to Lucas, his eyes shifting from one person to the other. "My name is Lucas."
Karl nodded his head and smiled at each of them. "Since we now know each other's names how about we tell each other about our faculties. We're going to have to work together if we want to get out of this place alive. I'll begin, mine is called Soul Flame. It allows me to burn the souls of my enemies."
"Mine is Weapon Master, I can instantly master any weapon to the fullest as long as I've trained with it once." David said.
Lucas cursed. Although David's faculty was weaker than most, it was still far better than his. All he had was the ability to run away, what would they think of him then?
"Mine is Divination, I can see glimpses of the future." Deborah said, now it was Lucas's turn to speak, he summoned enough courage and then sighed.
"Cowardice. My faculty is Cowardice, it allows me to run away from danger in the best way possible." He looked up and saw them all staring at him, only David seemed somehow elated, Karl still had his smile but Deborah's expression changed to one of disgust.
'Well that's expected,' he sighed, someone from a clan as powerful as the Lindenhearts would see someone with a faculty such as his as trash.
Karl sighed and then started speaking:
"Well that doesn't matter. Since you're with us, you'll be the one who'll take care of reconnaissance, scout the area and try to figure out if there's anything around as well as trying to figure out what time we're in." He said.
Deborah raised her head. "Even though we complete this we'll still be Unmarked, our faculties would change nonetheless and we'll branded with penalties."
Lucas nodded, seems like they were all nice people. He was just being paranoid for no reason at all. But… he didn't trust them at all.
"Well, let's all get a good night's rest. Tomorrow Lucas will scout the area and find out what time we're in or what event takes place in this time so for now get as much rest as you can." Karl said to them.
They nodded in affirmation, each one of them moving to lay down leaving Karl to keep watch.
The leaves rustled, Lucas's head shot up, he stared around.
'That's just the wind right?' He asked himself as he looked around and then his eyes widened in absolute horror.