When Isle came to, he awoke in a bed of roses. There were a few roses on top of him, he wiped them off.
He looked around, all he could see was this cloudy blue sky as far as he looked it was all he could see. The floor was white with pieces of shattered glass scattered around.
Roses bloomed on some pieces, blocking what seemed to be faces.
'What the hell is this place… Is this Shattered memories?'
He noticed each shard had a different face on them, but most of them had the same rosé colored hair that he had.
He suspected that they were all him or different versions of him.
Was Shattered memories supposed to be this personal?
He walked over and picked up one of the shards.
He was about to examine it before he felt a sharp pain shoot across his body. He yelled and dropped the shard, immediately as it left his hands the pain subsided.
"You are not worthy of viewing that."
An echoing voice appeared from behind him, he quickly turned around and saw a tall figure sitting on a black throne where the bed of roses was before.
He had the same rosé hair as him, and a black cloak that hid his figure, It was long enough that some of it laid on the floor.
Reality around the throne distorted, making it hard to see the world around it.
It generated an uneasy feeling in Isle.
"Are you me? Where am I?"
Isle asked the man in front of him, he attempted to use his quantum but it failed. This further increased his unease.
"Am I you?"
The man laughed with his head in his hand, he found Isle's question to be stupid but he was still amused nonetheless.
"That's funny, Isle Calamitas."
At the mention of his name Isle ran towards him and attempted to punch him, before his hand could make contact with the man it was ripped apart by a shredding gale.
Isle screamed in agony, his shirt sleeve was bloodied and the floor was painted a deep crimson.
Roses sprouted from the blood on the floor.
"Kneel..."
After he spoke Isle's left leg was shredded as well, he screamed again with tears of anger running down his face.
He kneeled, it was all he could do at that point.
"Hm… You're weak. Is this really what we were waiting for?"
Isle looked at him in confusion. Who were these other people he spoke of? If Isle's earlier guess was correct. He could assume that the man was referring to other versions of him?
The man got off of his throne and ripped off his cloak, he wore a thin shirt with many luxurious waist accessories and long baggy pants, he was barefoot.
"I'm going to kill you now."
He instantly appeared in front of Isle and punched him in the gut.
Isle managed to somehow block the blow but the result wasn't much better than it would've been otherwise.
He was knocked away from him, His arm was broken. On the floor, he scratched at the ground.
He gritted his teeth and stood up again he held his chest, it was oddly reminiscent to how he was when he was fighting the demon in the forest.
He tried to use his quantum again to make a weapon, this time it worked but his weapon didn't appear in his hand. it appeared in the man's.
"Oh, for me?"
The man held up the crimson sword made by Isle's quantum and inspected it.
This had solidified Isle's earlier guess, This man is him or atleast some deranged alternate version of him. Shortly after inspecting the sword, the man threw it at Isle. It was much to fast for Isle to react to, it cut through Isle's chest easily and pierced his lung.
Isle coughed up blood and took a step towards the man. The man's eyes were domineering, Isle should've been long dead by now, but he wasn't gonna give at this point.
"I suppose I should tell you who I am, I am Vermilion."
Isle had no reaction to Vermilion's name, Vermilion seemed almost insulted at Isle's lack of a reaction.
As he gave his name, he was once again upon Isle. Before he could make it to him, Isle spit blood into Vermilion's face and activated his quantum. Like before, the weapon appeared in Vermilion's hands but this time Isle grabbed it while he was blinded and stabbed at him.
The blade didn't even scratch him, it bounced right off.
Vermilion grabbed the blade and stabbed Isle once again. Isle fell to the ground and cried out in pain. Vermilion wiped the blood off of his face and looked at Isle with a cruel smile.
"Did you think you could beat me because you were a little crafty? That's real funny."
Vermilion ripped both of the blades out of Isles chest. His blood leaked onto the floor, more roses bloomed, greedily drinking it up like it was ichor.
Isle looked around and saw all the blood and the roses blooming, he'd realized just how much blood he had lost.
His arm was a bloody mess, and his leg wasn't much better but his chest was the worst.
It had been punctured twice already, and it was almost impossible to make out any detail of it due to how damp it was with blood. He could barely breathe as a result of his punctured lung.
Isle was on his back, he weakly stretched out his right arm to touch one of the fragments of glass on the floor. The pain returned but he pushed through it.
The face in the glass glanced at him with an uninterested look and walked out of sight, Isle heard a small whisper in his ear shortly after.
"I'll help you, but you're now indebted to me. I am Caeruleus."
Caeruleus' voice was elegant and ethereal, almost like a ghosts.
Isle's eyes changed to a deep cerulean. His hair started to flow in the air and the tips turned to the same cerulean as his current eyes.
His wounds had healed and he felt as if his quantum had been altered in some way.
"Ah… So you finally made a contract?!"
Vermilion had an excited look on his face, his previous personality had all but vanished, as if he was holding back until Isle made a contract, or maybe he'd been waiting to fight something or someone interesting.
"Well come now, don't expect me to hold back anymore though."
He had a huge child like grin on his face, As opposed to Isles terrified look on his face.
"If that was you holding back then how in the hell am I supposed to beat you?!"
Isle's mouth was wide open in horror.
"I dunno, that's for you to find out."
Vermilions voice was so nonchalant that it was infuriating.
Isle charged towards Vermilion again then attempted to punch him. Vermilion easily caught his hand and punched Isle in the face, Isle was knocked away again and his cheek was bruised but it wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been.
"You really suck at fighting, Isle Calamitas. Did you really think attacking the same way you did earlier would work?"
Vermilion had an almost unconvinced look to him, he found it hard to believe that Isle was this bad at fighting.
"Are you even trying?"
At this point Isle was fuming, He was clearly growing tired of Vermilions countless taunts. But it was true that Isle wasn't good at fighting, In fact it was a bit odd that he had made it this far like this.
"Hm, maybe I should actually kill you for not taking this seriously."
He rushed towards Isle again, this time Isle was able to slightly keep track of him. It wasn't much but it was enough for him to prepare.
Isle used his quantum and a weapon was made. It was in Isle's hand but it wasn't at all what he had thought of.
He looked down at the weapon that had manifested in his hands and realized it was a pair of gauntlets.
This was already bad enough because it was abundantly made clear that Isle had absolutely no chance in winning hand to hand against Vermilion.
But to add to his problems they hadn't even manifested on his hands so he had the choice to either block with his barehands, or try to put them on quickly then block with them.
Neither of them seemed to be the best for Isle, but there were no other ones that he could think of so he attempted to put them on. He slipped both his hands into them then quickly looked up and saw nothing but the blue sky, he looked around but it was as if Vermilion had vanished.
Sadly for Isle, Vermilion hadn't gone anywhere.
In the time that Isle spent while he was looking down and putting on the gauntlets, Vermilion had already passed Isle, he was now behind Isle, he'd moved around with Isle when he looked around, making sure he wasn't seen.
Isle was about to look over his shoulder when Vermilion pummeled his face, Isle staggered but Vermilion grabbed him and slammed him to the ground.
Isle was now pinned down to the ground, stunned, though he quickly came to and punched Vermilion in the face once then pushed him off.
Vermilion was on the ground for a second and Isle rolled away from him and got up.
His face was bloody but the actual wounds had already closed up. Was it because of the contract he had made with Caeruleus? He assumed it was.
Vermillion got up quickly to face Isle again, he still looked exactly the same as he did when the fight started, except for the hole in his shirt from when Isle had attempted to stab him earlier, and some blood splatters on his clothes from Isle.
"I hope you find a way to beat me soon, Isle Calamitas…"
He taunted him once again and sauntered towards him, there were dark crimson horns on his head that weren't there before. They seemed to be draconic. He was grinning ear to ear.
"And I hope you don't die before I'm finished with you."
Isle wasn't amused at all, in fact his emotions were quite the opposite. He scoffed, clenching his fists in his gauntlets and walked towards Vermilion.