1 The Start to an Adventure

Fire. Rubble was scattered everywhere, as multiple different buildings had been destroyed. The stars were out, but that hardly mattered. It was dark, as it was a new moon. Blood stained the rocks as well as the 'clouds' underneath them. It was such a beautiful place, Heaven. But, it had all been destroyed, by a single person.

"Hm? What's the issue, God?" She said tauntingly. "Did you possibly care about them? Oh, it must have pained you so much to watch it all crumble to the ground!" They laughed, as it echoed through the night sky. "Hahaha, you couldn't have seen this coming? I thought you were all seeing." There was silence, the figure grinning quite smugly. Her long purple hair was waving in the wind, her black eyes gleaming with murderous intent. The dark red fabric draped over her shoulders drifted from side to side, the rest of her blue and white robe staying still by her side.

God had had just about enough, gritting their teeth. "Shut. Up." God commanded. "What was the point...? Why did you do this?"

They tapped their chin. "Hm, I don't know! I plainly wanted to!" A couple flames appeared in their hands. "Isn't it plain to see? Killing them would get me exactly what I wanted. So I did it. I took what should be mine."

There was silence between the two, the wind blowing their hair around. God was crying silently. Of course they were. Someone they had decided to trust, just murdered every single other person they loved. "Xanterai..." They started.

"Hm? What is it?" Xanterai asked. "What's the issue?"

"I've never done it before..." God took a step forward. "But, I'll do it now." Xanterai didn't move, staring at them, very confused.

"What do you mean?" She started. "I've accounted for everything, you couldn't possibly stop me now."

God stared at her, unknowing of what they should do. An idea suddenly struck them, but they weren't sure about it. They spent a couple seconds in silence, before they shook their head. No, she deserves it. They inhaled deeply, before placing a glare on their face. "Xanterai, you're crimes against the world shall not be going unpunished."

Xanterai played with her earring, seeming uninterested. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." She yawned, before she turned to God, flames appearing around her. 'I'll kill you before you can do a thing." She threw the flames at God, but they quickly evaded. Xanterai smiled, flying forwards and ramming herself into them. God staggered, but they didn't fall down. They raised their hand up, striking Xanterai with a quick lightning bolt. Xanterai pushed through the smoke, a gleeful smile on her face.

She leapt forwards, pushing God down and placing her hands on their throat. "Hm… I thought that would have hurt more…." She shrugged a little. "Ah, well. I thought this would have been a lot more difficult. Guess I was wrong! Oh well! This was easy enough!" Xanterai leaned forward, and whispered into their ear. "You'll be leaving the world in my hands, now. Goodbye~!"

God hesitated, before they smiled. Xanterai blinked, immediately realizing her mistake. A flash of light went out, blinding Xanterai for a moment. She growled in frustration, whipping around wildly, trying to spot them.

She spread out her white wings, now stained with black and flew into the sky. Xanterai looked around, trying to find them, but spotted them far too late. God quickly appeared below her, and threw her back down to the ground. She landed onto the floor with a low grunt, God landing on top of her and tearing the earring off of her ear. Xanterai hissed in pain, pushing God off of her. "What the hell was that?" Before she could do anything else, she felt herself fall forward onto the ground, and was incapable of movement. She struggled for a moment, before her eyes widened in the smallest amount of fear. "W-What? What happened?"

God brought up the earring they had stolen. It was a pure white feather, with a small silver gem embedded onto it. Of course, I should have realized it. I should have known, the moment I gave it to her. They shook their head, removing a button from their clothes, and stared at the jewelry in their hands. God used to have many other buttons on their clothing. However, this was the only one left out of the multiple other ones they;d had. But, they didn't intend to keep it for long. "Xanterai, you're crimes against the world shall not be going unpunished."

Xanterai blinked, connecting the dots. She laughed once, before a sick smile spread on her face. "So, that's what this is about? I didn't think you'd ever be capable of doing that." She let out a low chuckle.

God grit their teeth. "This is my last option, Xanterai. I'm never forgiving you for this."

"Hahaha! Of course not! I never expected you to." Xanterai replied, that annoying smile still spread across her face. "All I wanted to do was surpass you, y'know. Either in name, or power." She laughed. "I'm sure I won in the name category….".

"It won't." They replied to Xanterai's statement. "I won't allow that. Word of what happened here today, isn't' spreading. I won't let it."

Xanterai shook her head. "You really think so? You really are naive, 'God'. You placed far too much trust in people! You put all your trust and me, and look where you ended up!" Xanterai gave God one last sinister grin. "Even if you banish back down there, I'll come back. I'll come back, and kill you."

There was silence. God finally spoke up. "That is, if you survive the fall." Xanterai's eyes widen for a moment, her smile falling off. She opened her mouth to say something, but God was done with her bullshit. "Bye bye, Xanterai." They broke the button, and the feather earring disappeared. Xanterai fell through the clouds, leaving God completely alone.

There was silence. Dead silence.

They hated that silence. It made them realize just what had happened. God had let all of them get killed, all because they were too blind to see the obvious signs that Xanterai had been giving them.

The fire crackled around them softly, filling up the silence.

God dropped down to the ground, sobbing. They covered their eyes with their hands, trying to stop the immeasurable amount of tears flowing down their face. Their heart was shattered. The very first person they had ever trusted, had backstabbed them in the worst way possible. Any other person they had cared about was dead.

They'd lost it all.

How would they ever recover? How could they ever go back to the way they used to be?

Their sniffles suddenly cut off, their sobs going silent. No, wait a minute. They remembered. I… I haven't lost everything. They stood up, and rubbed at their eyes. There's at least one person I can turn to now. I'll ask my friend. She'll… she'll know what to do. She always does…. They paused for a moment, staring at the starry, night sky.

But... can I ever…

Move on...?

~~~~~~~

It was a bright, sunny day. A few clouds scattered the sky, but there wasn't much of a chance for it to rain. The town was bustling with people, looking for jobs, asking for help, or simply exploring the place.

This included a young adventurer, with dirty blonde hair, tied up nicely into a ponytail. She had dark blue eyes and long eyelashes, along with rather fair skin. She was pretty tall, wearing a dark teal vest with a pink undershirt. Over their shoulder was that of a sword sheath, holding a blade with a cobalt tinted hilt. This adventurer's name was Miracle. She wasn't particularly well known, but was always out looking to do people's favors for small amounts of money.

Miracle stretched, and spread out on the table in front of her. "That lady was nice. She gave me a gold coin!"

However, Miracle was not on this adventure alone. She was traveling with two other people. "Really?Just for doing her groceries?" In front of her was a peculiar boy, one with long green hair and magenta eyes. He wore a long gray jacket with gold buttons and pauldrons. He had a light brown undershirt with green ribbon cross over it, a red ribbon keeping it all attached. They were about an inch taller than Miracle, making him the tallest of the group of three. This person's name was Pedro, also an adventurer. However, he wasn't just any normal adventurer. He was half dragon, having both a pair of wings and horns. He was fiddling with the golden coin Miracle had gotten, seeming a little interested in how shiny it was.

"Yeah, I mean, she was having some issues." Miracle replied, picking up the coin from the table and placing it in her bag. She rolled her shoulder, and turned around. "Right! Should we go try and find Scarlet?"

"Yeah." Pedro stood up, grabbing his own stuff. "Do you remember what she was doing?"

Miracle thought for a moment, putting her finger to her chin. "Hm... I think she was doing something in the forest? If I remember correctly, she was out hunting for some people. Or someone, I don't quite remember." Pedro nodded.

"That seems about right." Pedro turned in the direction of the forest. "Right. Should we head over, or should we wait for her?"

"We might as well go help her." Miracle replied. "Plus, while we're walking, you can tell me about how your delivery went!"

Pedro paused, before he shrugged. "Sure, if you want to listen to me talk about that." He began walking, and Miracle followed after him. "It was just a letter. But I mean, the receiver of that letter was a little freaked out when I landed on his doorstep."

Miracle huffed. "You should really work on not scaring people. You know how easily you do it."

Pedro laughed awkwardly. "Haha, I guess." Pedro was very nice, but the issue was that no matter how he acted, or what rumors were spread, people were still terrified of dragons. Most people know that dragons don't intend to hurt people, but still. Seeing one suddenly just... appear in front of you isn't something that is easily accepted. "That was pretty much it. The owner of the letter gave me a couple silver coins for it." Pedro showed them off to Miracle. "I can't do too much with it, but it's useful."

Miracle nodded. "Hey, every bit helps!" She laughed. "I bet Scarlet would get a lot for her job. She's doing a rather difficult task, after all." The two continued walking, traversing the forest carefully. They were having occasional talk, but mostly stayed focused on getting through the bushes unharmed. "Where is she? She really went deep, didn't she?" Suddenly, a girl burst through the bushes. She had pointy black hair, part of it draping over the side of her face, and dark grey eyes. She had dark skin, wearing a bright red shirt and dark pants. A brown bag was slung over her shoulder, speckled with blood as if she had been in a fight.

She immediately noticed the two there, breathing heavily. "Why are you guys here?" She asked, quickly dodging to the side to avoid another charge from the wild animal. "Are you trying to get yourselves killed?"

"No, we just wanted to help you out Scarlet!" Miracle said, drawing her sword. Scarlet frowns, dodging to the side and slicing her knife across the side of the creature. Miracle stepped forwards, jumping over it and swinging her sword in an arc, creating a clean cut on the backside. Miracle landed on the ground. Pedro quickly leapt onto the creature, the two tumbling to the floor. Scarlet stepped forwards, landing the killing blow. The animal went limp, as Scarlet pulled the knife out. The blood splattered onto her, causing her to growl in discontent. She opened up her bag, bringing out a small cloth and wiping the blood off of her. Pedro stood up, putting his hands on his hips.

"I'd call that successful." He said simply.

Scarlet huffed, walking over to him and handing him a separate cloth to wipe himself off. "I could have handled it just fine by myself."

"Well, it didn't hurt to have us around, did it?" Miracle shrugged.

Scarlet paused for a moment, before she sighed. "I guess not." She walked over to the creature, crouching down next to it. "Anyways, help me carry this back. I've got to go turn this thing in, for whatever reason. The person who told me to kill it... wanted it for something. I have no clue what, though."

Pedro shrugged, handing Scarlet back her cloth. She quickly stuffed it into her bag, as Pedro came to crouch down beside her. "Well, we're in no position to judge." The group brought the dead animal to their employer. He thanked them, and gave them about ten gold coins. "Sweet." Pedro grinned.

"Hey, that's my money." Scarlet huffed, taking it from him. It really didn't matter, since they all shared their coins anyways. Pedro and Miracle laughed at Scarlet's pettiness, Scarlet giving them a smug smile. "Anyways, we should go get something to eat."

Pedro nodded. "Agreed." The three of them walked around town, not quite sure what to get. Miracle huffed, trying to decide.

"There's too many places!" She complained.

Scarlet shoved her a little. "C'mon, whiny. Just decide." Miracle puffed out her cheek, crossing her arms. She opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by a sudden rain droplet falling on her cheek. Miracle flinched, not having expected it.

She looked to the sky, seeing the sudden abundance of clouds above her. "Oh no. It's going to be raining soon." Miracle observed.

"O-Oh, really?" Pedro seemed a bit uneasy, staring at the sky with disarray. Oh, right. He doesn't like rain. Miracle thought for a moment.

"We can take a stop or something inside one of the buildings. We could find something to eat in there!" She offered.

Pedro nodded. "I would like that. I don't want to be caught out in the rain."

"No objections here." Scarlet added. The three walked towards a nearby building, when something streaked across the sky. Miracle looked up, having been the only one to notice. She hesitated. What was that? She wondered. A bid? Or something else? "Hey, Miracle. You coming?" Scarlet called out to her, seeming impatient.

Miracle shook herself out of the thought, and nodded. "Yeah, sorry! I got distracted by something!" Scarlet held the door open for her, and Miracle walked in with a quick 'thank you'. The three of them were able to find something to eat in there, sitting down in the corner of the room. They were mostly quiet during their meal, but occasionally would throw around a sarcastic comment towards one another. When they finished up, Miracle stood up and stretched. "Right, well, what's the plan?"

Pedro walked to the window. "I don't know. It's raining pretty hard."

"Damn." Scarlet admitted. Both her and Miracle walked up next to the window. It was true, it was raining. Quite heavily, in fact. "Guess we'll have to wait for tomorrow, then, to continue working for money." Miracle sighed, nodding her head. She was just about to turn away from the window, when a sudden lightning bolt hit the road outside. Scarlet seemed to flinch, as Miracle was shocked by the sight. Wow. That was close. And, unnatural.

Miracle hesitated. "Hey guys, did you see that?"

"Yeah, I did." Scarlet pushed past the two, heading towards the door. "I'm going out to investigate. That's not normal." Miracle's eyes widened, thinking quickly and ran after her. She reached her hand out, grabbing Scarlet's wrist. Scarlet turned back, raising an eyebrow.

"Wait! You can't just go out there!" Miracle shouted. "You could get hurt!"

"I'll walk it off." Scarlet pulled her wrist away. "I'm too stubborn to let a lightning bolt kill me."

"Scarlet, that's physically impossible." Pedro spoke up.

"I'm aware." She responded, yet she turned towards the door anyways.

"Hold it, Scarlet." Pedro stated. She turned back around. "We're coming with you."

"What?" Scarlet asked. "No, stay in here."

"If you're intending to do something, we're coming with you!" Miracle confirmed. "We're a team, Scarlet. Don't just run off by yourself." Scarlet sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"God, you're annoying." She caught herself after her sentence.

God.

Both Pedro and Miracle felt uneasy at it. Having gone around to many different places, they had known about God. But, the thing is, is that God wasn't just some random deity. They were the deity that was causing destruction across the world, for unknown reasons. Make a wrong move, and you could get caught up in one of those disasters. Miracle knew that very well, as she'd seen it beforehand. She'd gotten out alive, but others… weren't so lucky. Scarlet sighed again, turning back to the door. "Sorry. Let's just, go I guess." She flung the door open, hastily walking outside. Pedro and Miracle follower after her, being immediately pelted with rain when they were outside.

Pedro shrieked, then immediately covered up his mouth. He looked towards the ground, a small blush on his face. "U-Uh... s-sorry." He was clearly embarrassed by his reaction.

Miracle giggled to herself. "No problem!" But she would admit, there was something off about the rain. It was abnormally warm. Like, summer rain. Miracle wouldn't say it was comfortable, but it wasn't too distracting. She looked around, seeing that the sun was still out.

"Anything out of the ordinary?" Scarlet asked.

"No, nothing that I see." Pedro stated. He held his hands out, smiling a little. "Y'know, this time the rain isn't terrible, at least."

"That's good!" Miracle said brightly. "The only thing I would be able to list as 'out of the ordinary' would be that the sun is still out. But I mean, that happens naturally anyways." She looked around again, and then she spotted something that was out of the ordinary. There was... a person? On the roof of the building they had just exited? Miracle blinked, not sure if she was seeing correctly. That building's really tall. How'd they get up there? "Wait guys."

Scarlet turned to her. "What is it?"

Miracle hesitated, pointing to the top of the building. "Up there."

Scarlet and Pedro looked up, noticing the same person Miracle has seen. "Oh." Pedro admitted. He turned to Miracle. "Do you think they're stuck up there? Should I fly up and get them down here?"

Miracle paused, a small feeling of dread crawling up her back. She didn't know where it was coming from, but her heart was beating rather violently in her chest. She shook her head uneasily. "Hold on for a moment. There's got to be a reason they're up there. I'll talk to them for a moment." Miracle took a tentative step towards the building, and called out to the silhouette on the top of the roof. "Hey! Are you okay!"

The person perked up slightly at her voice, quickly turning around."Hm~?" It was hard to see them, as the clouds were blocking sunlight from reaching the top of that building. However, their voice gave away that they were a boy. "Oh! Hey there!" He walked to the edge of the building, and waved at Miracle. "I'm surprised! I've been here for like, two years and no one's ever seen me before!" He clapped his hands together. "Congratulations! You won the game of hide and seek! You deserve a prize!"

"Wait, hold on." Miracle said. "Two years?"

"Huh?" He looked at her for a moment, before a smug smile appeared on his face. "Nope! I was lying! I've been up here for like, three minutes." He laid down on the roof, hanging their head off the edge. Miracle could finally distinguish his silhouette, and could see a little bit more clearly. However, it was still hard to fully see them, making her not be able to distinguish any colors. "Anyways, what's up with you three? It's raining pretty heavily, shouldn't you be inside?" He asked.

"Shouldn't you be as well?" Scarlet pointed at the figure.

"Nah, I'm good!" They replied. "But seriously, you all are drenched! You'll catch a cold, y'know." At that comment, Miracle suddenly realized something odd. The boy on the roof, didn't have a single drop of water on them. Even she would be able to tell, since his hair would be a lot shinier, and his skin would be visibly slick. But, his hair was completely dry, and there were no droplets on his face. Miracle hesitated, thinking over those facts. It's raining quite hard, but he's not drenched? What could that possibly mean? Maybe… are they not human?

"Wait a minute." Miracle stepped in front of her friends, stretching her arm out to keep them back. "What exactly... are you?"

He froze for a moment, blinking innocently, before a smile appeared on his face once again. "Aw man... caught out so quickly." He stood up, crossing their arms and pouting. "No fun! I thought I could at least get ten minutes before the gig was up!" He sighed, turning around. "Well, nothing I can do about it now." He walked backwards, balancing on the edge of the building. He turned back to look at Miracle for a moment. He palace a sinister grin on his face, before falling backwards, headed directly for the stone pebble road.

Miracle was shocked, and ran forwards. Before he hit the ground, he spun in a circle, suddenly flying upwards. Miracle stood there, confused, when a small, white feather dropped in front of her face. She looked up, and saw the boy. "Hehehe, did you really think that I was going to fall and die? I thought you were aware I wasn't normal!"

It was quite easy to see what the abnormality was, with the stranger. There were large, white, feathery wings protruding from his back. That wasn't something you saw everyday. He was short, having dark purple hair. One part was rather long and kept together with a cream button. There was a small black cloak over his shoulders, kept on with a golden chain. He wore a white robe that transitioned to a light lavender, with teal cuffs, along with bright teal eyes. There was only one person that could come to mind with that description.

God himself.

Miracle's previous expression changed to that of an angered on. "Why are you here?"

He laughed. "Oh, but why not, missy?" Without another word, God flew upwards.

Miracle ran to Scarlet and Pedro. "We've gotta go!" Almost to punctuate her choice, a sudden lightning bolt struck behind her.

"Uh oh! Seems my aim is a little off today..." God laughed childishly, as if this was something completely normal and amusing. The group of three sprinted away, leaving the clearing behind. The rain suddenly was coming down harder, but it never lost it's warm feeling. A large group of people started congregating in the streets, looking up at the figure flying in the sky. Miracle and her friends were trying to navigate through the crowd, pushing through them.

"Why are we leaving?" Scarlet hissed, pulling a little at her wrist. "Let me go beat his ass."

"You can't!" Miracle shouted. "I know how you feel, and that he seems reckless, but I've seen it before! This isn't something to scoff at!" Miracle was freaking out at this point. She'd already been through something similar, and it was much worse than what was happening right now. She just wanted to get her friends out before anything happened to them. Like... with what happened to Matias....

Miracle grabbed their hands, attempting to drag them away. Miracle looked back, seeing a line of mages. They cast some type of fire spell, but it was put out of the rain.

God looked at them confused, batting his eyelashes at them. "Uh, nice try? It's raining, idiots." He sighed, crossing his arms. "Alright, here, I'll demonstrate." He snapped his fingers, white flames appearing in the air. "See? You've gotta try a little bit harder when you're trying to fight me! Don't just use the Level One spells on me, it'll never work." He paused for a moment, thinking. "Huh. I really don't know what to do with these." He smiled. "Well, you all can have them!" The flames dropped from the sky, landing on the road. There was immediate panic, and people were screaming in fear. Miracle stared at them with wide eyes, frozen in panic.

Miracle was having trouble keeping her head straight. She was breathing heavily, terrified out of her mind. She had developed a post-traumatic stress disorder, ever since her very first encounter with God. She felt tears come to her eyes, as she squeezed them shut. No, no! Leave me alone, I don't want to think about that! Scarlet grabbed Miracle's hand, dragging her out of her thoughts as well as the streets. Scarlet sent her a small glare. "What are you doing? You said we've got to go."

Miracle was brought back to reality at that moment. "R-Right!" She turned to run, Scarlet letting go of her hand. The three were running away from the scene, as multiple different magical spells were being thrown around the streets.

Miracle hated it. She was reliving the worst moment in her life. Miracle blinked her tears away, glad that her friends didn't notice. Honestly, she was too terrified to think at all at that point, running on pure adrenaline alone.

"Look out!" Pedro pushed her to the left, as a chunk of debris landed where she was standing a few seconds ago. "What's with you, Miracle? How could you not see that coming?"

Miracle blinked, running her hands through her hair. "I-I, um..." She didn't answer, instead resuming running forwards. She went past Scarlet, leaving the two behind.

"Miracle!" Scarlet called after her, quickly catching up. Miracle came to a stop, finding herself completely out of the clearing that her trauma had started. Miracle covered her eyes, sobbing quietly. She dropped down to the ground, wishing she could still keep running. Running away from her past, from all her struggles. But, that wasn't nearly possible now, as she couldn't get past her own trauma.

Scarlet came up behind her, going silent. Pedro caught up soon after. "What's wrong?" Pedro asked, glancing at Scarlet.

"I don't know," Scarlet answered Pedro's question. "Miracle, what's the issue?"

Miracle didn't want to think about what the issue was. She turned back around, seeing the far off figure of the person who she hated with all her heart. She let out a shaky sigh, rubbing her shoulders. "I-I'm sorry, but, I'm not doing so hot... I've been in a situation like this before."

Scarlet hesitated. "Really...?"

Miracle nodded. "Yes, I was… and…" She shivered a little. "I… I lost someone. Someone very dear to me. They… got killed in the disaster." Miracle rested her head on her arms. "I-I'm scared it could happen again. T-That's why I was so insistent on dragging you all out of there….

Scarlet hesitated, before she nodded slowly. "O-Oh. I… I understand. I'm sorry… I forgot all about that…."

Miracle shook her head, wiping her eyes. 'N-No, it's not your fault." She stood up, sniffling a little, before she inhaled and exhaled, determined to get out of here as quickly as possible. She stuck both her hands out for Pedro and Scarlet to grab. "C'mon, let's go! Before anything else happens!"

Scarlet smiled softly, taking Miracle's left hand. "There you are. I thought you'd gone all emo on us there."

Pedro laughed softly, taking Miracle's other hand. "Alright, let's go. We can finish up here later." Miracle nodded, turning the group around as they started running. As they were running, battling was going on behind them, but they didn't bother looking back. All that mattered to Miracle was getting them out, to avoid the occurrences that had happened in her past.

Those three didn't know at that moment, but that attack would lead them to find themselves on quite the special adventure. One that would lead to new friends, new abilities, and new places.

But, like any journey, it would be long and hard. One that wouldn't just contain victory, it would always contain loses. But those three would face them head on. Where this journey will end, shall only be known through a time.