Iago slowly opened his eyes, the sights, sounds, and smells of the forest entering his body immediately. He quickly sat up and immediately regretted it, his throbbing chest reminding him of why he was on the ground in the first place. Still, he quickly got up, feeling the wood splinters under his hands. He looked around and found his katana lying on the ground nearby.
'He must've figured that it wasn't worth anything,' he thought to himself, grabbing the blade off of the ground and holding it tightly. There was still light in the forest, but it was getting dark quickly and he didn't want to get caught by the lurking monsters hiding in the trees.
Iago emerged from the forest and was greeted by the sight of a massive shimmering barrier, towering over the trees in the forest and curving into the sky into a giant dome over the forest. The barrier near the ground had been surrounded by a giant wall, almost 12 feet tall with barbed wire on top of it. Placed in the middle of the wall was a gate with more gates every mile or so in either direction. On either side of the gate were two guards with a crimson chestplate marked with the insignia of the destruction clan, the main group in charge of soldiers and the military. They watched silently as people walked in and out of the barrier, occasionally nodding at some of them or saying hey. Iago looked around the checkpoint to see if he could find the man he was trying to save earlier.
'I'm sure he got out,' Iago said, looking down at the ground and feeling a certain numbness within himself. He didn't actually know if the blonde had escaped or not, only that he had given him an opportunity to.
"Some paladin you are," he muttered to himself, approaching the gate. The two guards flanking the gate looked at him strangely as he passed, likely due to him slightly stumbling or him not returning with any corpses to sell. Still, the guards made no move to assist Iago, or even inquire how he had come about his injuries. The boy hobbled through the shimmering wall and out into the great beyond.
A blinding flash of white light obscured his vision for a few moments as he passed through the barrier. It felt like a warm energy trickled across his entire body, almost like stepping into a shower. He emerged from the other side, the warm feeling fading and leaving him with his throbbing chest and back. He stepped out of the barrier and was greeted by a small town that had been erected right in front of the gate. The street was filled with people going about their business, either carrying monster remains to sell, buying or selling weapons, and forming groups with one another to go hunting.
This was the world of paladins, humans who had the supernatural ability to manipulate soul energy. Soul energy was the energy source contained within all living beings, human, animal, plant, or monster. The reason for this small town was because of the temporal rift that Iago had just stepped out of.
Iago lived in a world where soul energy gave rise to monsters and paladins, allowing for paladins who wanted to fight and serve humanity to kill monsters in order to make a decent amount of money compared to the average human. However, what could've been a noble pursuit to protect humanity from the threat of monsters was just a means to make even more money off of the backs of others.
Iago walked down the steps and onto the main road. The town consisted of one main road flanked on either side by shops, stalls, and a building for registering with the government. At the very end of this road was a high speed tram for travel to and from the city on the other end of the line.
'I've got nothing to sell, might as well just head back to Solus,' he thought to himself.
Solus was the capital of the Central Dominion, the central most continent of the world. There were four dominions on different landmasses. The Central, Northern, Southern, and Eastern dominions. Each was different for the types of monsters and paladins they produced. Iago slowly walked past different buildings representing the different clans, watching as their employees entered to begin their shifts and left as they ended.
The clans were a mixture of political and capitalist. They represented the different sectors of a functioning society, but often managed corporations in charge of providing services to the public. Iago narrowed his eyes. He never had any aspirations to join one of the clans and start working. His parents were both paladins who fought monsters, so he had also wanted to do the same. That was until he realized who the true monsters in society were. Iago reached the tram station, snapping him out of his thoughts as a voice announced the arrival of the next tram. Iago watched as the long vehicle glided to a stop and the doors slid open. He and several others got on the tram and took their seats.
It was cool compared to the heat of the summer day and Iago wiped some of the sweat from his forehead as he sat down, still clutching his katana in his hands. He leaned back against the window, watching as the trees began to move post them as the tram sped up. Finally getting a chance to breathe, Iago closed his eyes and let out a sigh.
When he woke up, a man in a hooded cloak stood in front of him, brandishing a pair of bloody daggers. A red aura glowed around him as he licked on of his daggers, a manic grin on his face. Iago stood in front of him, his katana held out in front of him. He narrowed his eyes, quickly taking in the situation. They were in the middle of the street, frightened people on every side of them, children watching him in awe. In the reflection of a window, Iago caught a glimpse of himself. He was dressed in the black uniform of the high guard, their crimson insignia glowing on his shoulder.
He spoke to the man, his mouth seemingly moving on its own, a calm and authoritative voice exiting his throat.
"For the charge of mass murder, you have been sentenced to summary execution." The man's crazed expression died down, a beat of sweat dripping down his face.
'He's… afraid of me,' Iago thought. Despite his apparent fear, the man took a stance and charged at Iago, slashing both of his daggers horizontally in an attempt to gut Iago. Iago moved his hands up, pointing his blade down and blocking the attack. He then let his sword move with the force of the rogue's attack, spinning around and pulling his blade back up before slicing through the man's neck, killing him.
The man dropped to the ground instantly as the crowd cheered. Iago flicked the blood off of his sword and closed his eyes, letting out a sigh.
'Justice, delivered,' he thought to himself as he watched blood pool from the man's corpse. The cheers slowly faded, however, replaced by the sound of approaching footsteps.
Iago turned, his guard up and his katana held at the ready. However, he quickly faltered as he recognized the faces approaching him. In front of him were his mother and father. His mother was wearing a light pink sweater then hung off of her thin frame, her black hair gently moving in the wind. His father wore a patterned button up with a bowtie resting on his neck, his crimson beard and mustache long and majestic. Iago looked between the two of them, his sword drooping in his grip until it clattered to the ground.
"Mom, dad?" Iago said, disbelief in his vice. He rushed to his parents, his arms spread wide, tears in his eyes. However, he couldn't reach them. They weren't moving, just standing there, smiling and waving. It was almost as if the distance between them kept increasing.
'Wha?' Iago asked himself. He looked down at the ground and then back up, only to gasp in horror. His parents' faces had changed, now with black eyes and wide grins, bloodstains all over their clothes.
"This dream isn't real," his father said, his voice heavily distorted.
"You failed to save us, and you failed to join the high guard and avenge us," his mother followed. Iago jumped back, grabbing his katana off the ground as they began to approach us.
"Stay back," Iago commanded, his voice shaky.
"That's right son," his father taunted, "Kill us, the only blood you'll ever have on your hands." Iago's stance faltered, visions of his parents demise flashing in front of his eyes.
"No," Iago replied in disbelief, "It's not too late for me to join the high guard."
"It already is," his mother said, her footsteps quickening, "You have no attunement and your soul is weak." Iago's father grabbed his blade of his sword with inhuman strength, his hands bleeding as they clutched the blade.
"You're a failure," he roared at Iago, plunging the blade into his chest. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO," Iago yelled, collapsing to his knees.
Iago was suddenly jostled awake by the tram stopping. His sword was on the floor and his forehead was shining with sweat. He sat up straight and stretched, his heart still pounding from his nightmare.
'It was just a dream then?' he asked himself, looking at his hands. They were shaking ever so slightly.
'Of course it was, I'd never be able to join the high guard,' he thought, smiling defeatedly. The voice over the intercom announced that the tram would be leaving again soon. Iago grabbed his sword and headed off of the tram. The tram platform was busy, people filing into the doors to go to the temporal rift and hopefully make a little money. Iago looked at the station, sure that it would be the last time he ever set foot there.
'Can I really go through with this?' he asked himself, looking down at his old sword. While the blade was still sharp enough to be used, there were spots of rust dotting the steel which had lost a fair bit of its luster. The fabric wrapping the handle was looser and faded, leading Iago to believe that he wouldn't get much for it.
'Still, it's something and I need money,' he thought.
'I wasn't cut out for being a paladin anyways.' Walked up the stairs that took him to the city street, each step weighing heavier and heavier on his psyche. The place he was leaving was one he would never return to. However, his mind was made up, his resolve firm as steel. He stepped out onto the busy streets of Solus and took a right, heading to the shopping center.