"Make sure you pick up your sister today, Lune. The serial killings have gotten worse."
"I'll make sure to." Lune waved goodbye and quickly left the house.
["Brace yourself."]
"...For what?"
Lune shook his head and looked out toward the street. His neighborhood had a pretty active base, with plenty of people jogging or walking dogs every day. However, today it was different. There were unfamiliar people drifting along the streets; they looked rather ungroomed, as if they were homeless.
'Who are all these people?' He asked himself as he walked down toward his car, and he calmly got in his car and reversed back into the road. His gaze moved toward the sidewalk, and he got a upclose look at one of the people.
He immediately hit his brakes and felt his heart drop.
"What the hell is that?"
["A remnant, a ghost, the dead. Whichever one works, remnants only began to emerge after I cracked the Veil. The fact that so many are here means something dire is happening in the world.]
Lune swallowed, turning away from the woman who looked as if she were melting.
'Just drive...' He shook his head and kept driving.
"...It couldn't be."
"What's wrong?" Lune took a glance at Aurei, who was sitting next to him in the passenger seat.
"Nothing, just a passing thought."
***
The day quickly passed, and Lune somehow found himself sitting in an isolated area with a familiar spectre across from him.
"That is Spirituality."
"So it's basically a type of mystical power that allows me to interact with the dead?"
Aurei shook his head.
"Such a simplified explanation, Spirituality is practically a gift from me to Hestia. It is a way for humans to challenge the gods through discipline and perseverance."
"Sounds like you were quite the hotshot... you've never mentioned it, but how did you end up in my head?"
Aurei stared into Lune's eyes for a moment.
"I released a calamity onto my brothers and sisters who had opposed me. I lost the battle and relied on a certain contingency." Aurei pointed at the necklace placed on Lune's neck. "A prophecy that I would return through that Divine Relic, however, it seems to have gone wrong, and I ended up a simple figment of your imagination, unable to interact with the spiritual and physical world."
"So I was meant to be your vessel?"
"Correct. Perhaps, as your Spirituality grows, I will eventually fully manifest in you."
Lune's eyebrow twitched, and he immediately stopped the breathing exercise Aurei had told him to practice.
"Wait... you're trying to use this as a way to take over my body?"
"I wouldn't word it like that, but that's not completely incorrect."
Lune abruptly stood up and slammed his hands on the table.
"I'd rather maintain my free thought and right to live than become Dr. Strange. Don't expect me to practice this shit anymore." He clicked his tongue, and the spectre immediately dissipated.
["Suit yourself, most humans would jump at the opportunity of apotheosis, even if they weren't technically in control."]
"No, actually, most people wouldn't." Lune retorted before clearing his mind. He knew Aurei well and knew Aurei would soon start to monologue. The usual topic of Aurei's torture was Armageddon, or the end of existence itself.
One that made Lune nervous, especially now that he's more or less convinced Aurei is an actual god.
"Shoot, I forgot about my sister!"
***
'The town must be terrified.'
Lune found himself parked between nearly a hundred cars. Such a thing had never happened to him, but with the talk of a serial killer, it seems the rest of the town had the same idea as his father.
Not that the walk was bad at all, especially because they lived right on the outskirts of the city. Taking the subway and a short ten-minute walk was what it took to get home from the center of the city.
Nearly thirty minutes passed, and he finally made his way to the main entrance of the school.
"Lune!"
His head quickly turned, and he was met with his sister standing outside the window, with two of her friends behind her.
"Could you give Alicia and Bella a ride? They live right near us."
Lune gave her a faintly annoyed smile and looked at her two friends. One was a young girl with blonde hair with a fairly happy expression, the other had brown hair and...
Lune blinked his eyes.
'What the fuck is that?'
A giant centipede was wrapped around her, constantly crawling around her body as if it were part of her.
["A remnant, someone who cherished her greatly. However, based on the form the remnant has taken, it doesn't seem to be a positive relationship."]
Aurei's soft voice echoed in his mind, bringing him back to his senses.
"Is something wrong?
"No.. sorry, I got lost in thought. It's fine if they ride with us."
Bella gave him an odd look before sliding in through the back door.
'I must look like a creep.' He reluctantly turned his attention back to the road, the clicking the centipede was making made him want to jump out of the car.
'Is this something that goes away naturally, Aurei?'
[" Of course, with time naturally. The remnant will move on."]
'Does it negatively impact her?'
["She probably feels a constant pressure on her body, but not enough to be agonizing. Though I'm sure she'd love to be relieved of that pressure."]
'...As long as it goes away eventually, I couldn't imagine something like that stuck to me.'
["Remnants are not all bad, some of them amass enough power to even physically manifest. I've even witnessed those with great love manifest and protect their loved ones for one last time.]
'I'm sure that centipede isn't going to do anything heroic.'
***
Thus, thirty-seven days passed quickly.
Nothing impressive happened, besides the fact that Aurei continued to urge Lune onto the path of Spirituality. It was quite intriguing, the idea of becoming something supernatural. Lune glanced over at Strevia Welhardt.
'That's a world I will never enter.'
He smiled and blinked.
...
His eyes slowly opened, and in that moment, he realized something had changed. His head snapped toward the windows at the side of the hall. The sky was red, and across the sky was a black void as if something had torn into the world.
["Armageddon... This energy... Tahli?]
Lune felt adrenaline pump through his body and thought about Aurei's words.
The end of the world was here.
Crack...crack...crack.
Lune blinked, and his eyes lowered. The window had begun to crack. Something in his body, not his soul, screamed at him to run.
...Crack!
"Ahhhh!"
The windows all shattered simultaneously, and students began to notice.
"Why is the sky red!?"
Lune looked at the boy who spoke, and then his eyes trailed to a familiar figure.
Strevia Welhardt.
Her figure was like before, except her eyes were dyed purple.
"...Strevia!" Lune called out, "What is this!?"
Strevia looked at him, and in the next moment, he felt a soft hand grasp his neck. Immediately after, he blinked, and he was in a random room that was empty aside from him and Strevia.
She released her hold, and he immediately dropped to the ground.
"How did we get here?"
"I phased us, an ability unique to us vampires."
Aurei formed next to her.
"Vampires, like the stories?" He spoke with a conflicted tone. "How has such a thing come into existence?"
Lune swallowed, "You're a vampire in the flesh?"
Strevia nodded, "That isn't important. I'm actually curious why the sky turned red, and the only way I see that answered is through you. I've been monitoring you for the past month, and you've been talking to yourself... or rather, a god named 'Aurei' who lives inside you, correct?"
"How did you know all that?"
"Like I said, I've been watching you. The final thing that confirmed my suspicion was your hair turning completely black, and your eyes turning green right as the sky turned red."
Lune's eyes narrowed, and he clutched his hair.
"...I didn't even realize."
"Hm... It's odd for such a change to occur at the moment of Armageddon; her suspicions are true. However, we know nothing. Just think about surviving."
'I should've learned Spirituality!' He sighed and shook his head toward Strevia. "I don't know. All I know is that this is something called Armageddon, the god inside my head told me that... As for why it's happened, we don't know."
The ground began to suddenly vibrate.
"RUN!"
Aurei's scream was filled with desperation, causing Lune to immediately rise to his feet.
"What's that rumbling?"
"We need to ru-"
A blinding flash of light enveloped the entirety of Hestia; no, it spread and enveloped all of creation. In a moment, the souls of countless beings were crumpled and destroyed.
Never to return.
Silence filled all, and the only thing that remained was a lone god in the void.
The truest, God. The Primordial, Tahli.
Or what was once considered The Primordial Tahli.
Armageddon, in that instant, was fully realized.
***
'...Did I just die?'
["I guess that wasn't something you were able to run from."]
'You think, jackass? Anyway, isn't death kind of weird? Why am I able to think still... and why are you still here?'
["I'm not sure, I once died. It was instant, and I was immediately reborn in your mind in the next moment. It was a confusing feeling, almost as if I had neverperished."]
"Your schizophrenia is getting worse?"
'...'
Lune slowly opened his eyes.
In front of him sat his usual middle-aged, brunette therapist.
"This can't be happening."
***
38 DAYS TILL ARMAGEDDON