Parallel World: Fated Oracle

Chapter 1

"Predatory, Valor, Demise, Preservation, Oath and Hollow. These paths grants power that guide people's ambitions, dreams, and beliefs. However, does everyone truly make their own choices? No, people think they make choices. They think they're going to die for a reason or full with regret, yet humans didn't build the paths. The big choices were already made for them...a long time ago."

Parallel World: Fated Oracle
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Chapter 1: Over here

Under a starry night. Screeching of horrifying entities filled the air, the scent of blood carried by the cold breeze. A fortress made of stone and bricks, the entities tried on breaching on all sides but the people inside fought back. Their black hodded cloaks snapped with the breeze. They were almost identical, white shirts under black leather vests, their shoulders carved with a symbol of exorcism, a scattered skull. Each one fighting their own battles against the entities, barely hanging on.

Inside the fortress. A latern brighted the inside of a large green tent, a middle aged man focused his gaze onto a map of the fortress' landscape, the gates marked with an x. Tapping his finger on the wooden table with a stressed sigh, their resolve of defense against the entities filled the background. The green cloth snapped.

"Commander!" One of the cloaked men uttered, panting heavily as he entered the tent.

"Status report." The commander replied as he lifted his gaze onto the cloaked man.

"One hour before dawn, forteen casualties in total. The source of the curses still uncertain." Immediately the commander rubbed his temples with one hand.

"Carry out this message. 'Hold your ground until dawn. Retrieve the bodies of your fallen comrades, or at least, what's left of them." The cloaked man gave a nod then left.

Back to his own thoughts. The commander gazed back onto the map, circling a large cave at the north, a thick forest by the east, a mountain by the south west, possible areas where the source of the curses is located. Each scribble he ruffled his hair from stress. The moutain he circled, there was another group of robed people, watching the situation of the fortress.

"What do you think, Reina? Should we find the source ourselves or aid the exorcists?" A tall woman asked as she stood behind another, addressed as Reina. Her gaze still lingered onto the fortress. A brief of silence followed with the rustling of branches and leaves being carried by the wind.

"It would feel good to help those government lapdogs right, Trisha?"

"Based on the horde of curses, there's at least a special grade curse nearby." Her words paused, lifting the hood of her cloak as she turned around facing the tall woman, named Trisha behind her.

"But I'm not taking a cheap reward, we'll be taking the special grade's core from its carcass, the value is over a hundred curse cores on the market." Her tone was confident, almost arrogant yet the weight of her words were at least reliable.

"Well then, Nathaniel. You're up~" She called out, the group slowly parted as a teenager walked forward, he lifted down the hood of his cloak, Reina's magenta gaze met Nathaniel's hollow grey eyes.

"We'll partake on the hunt. Carry out this message to their Commander."

"Your fortress is pitiful, a sore eye for myself to watch. Therefore, my group wishes to aid the hunt for the curses' source. As long as the source is not found, my men will aid on defending the fortress as well."

"Once the threat is eliminated, whoever located the source gets to have its core. This is a chance for those who do not wish to sacrifice themselves on a meaningless death." Reina explained as she shifted her gaze back at the fortress.