Battered and bruised, Sagil lay against the trunk of a grey tree. With painful deep breaths, he looked up past the leaves of the forest roof.

The sombre night sky stared blankly back. The strange, grey, black, and purple mist had dissipated and the usual black mist returned.

Sagil clutched his blunt sword tightly and brought his gaze back down to the dull forest.

A few trees were splattered with crimson that glistened as a fiery light grew beneath one.

Sagil’s red eyes widened as a fireball flew towards him.

Quickly, he dove out of the way. The fire singeing the grey bark of the tree he was resting upon.

“Shit,” Sagil grimaced, as another fiery light grew, this time from the sleeve of his tunic. He tore it only served as a distraction.

“Arghhh!” Screamed a body, hurtling itself onto Sagil and pinning him to the ground.

Sagil struggled to move as an ethereal dagger grew from a silver ring wrapped around the enemy’s bloody finger.

Sagil gritted his teeth as he reached for his sword to find nothing but air. “Shit,” he spat, followed by a headbutt.

The ragged man gave him an elbow back. It ripped flesh from the bridge of his nose and the growing dagger caught a chunk of his cheek.

Sagil just didn’t have the strength to knock the burly swordsmage from his body.

“Look, I didn’t want to stab you but I had no choice-grhhg!” Sagil’s explanation was squashed shut as big hands tightened around his airpipe. The ethereal dagger dug into Sagil’s jaw as it grew.

“Otherworld scum!” He spat as Sagil tried reaching around for a weapon behind him. “That black mist is because of you!”

Those words rang in Sagil’s head as he finally clasped onto the hilt of a sword. He lifted it up as his vision grew black and his mouth numb; and swung.

Splat.

His body grew light and his vision stopped fading but he didn’t have the strength to swing again.

He rested a few seconds as the ringing in his ears were replaced with the screaming of a man.

Sagil’s vision returned to a man scrambling backwards in pain. His strength returned as well and he wiped the sweat off of his face.

A fiery light grew and crimson glistened in his palm.

The black katana his other palm clasped lifted him up.

A fireball blew in his direction. Sagil was too frazzled to move, only standing with the dark katana to lean on. Yet, the fire didn’t burn into him; it fizzled out in front of him.

Sagil struggled forward, making a squelch as his boot sank into a puddle of blood. His next step caught on something and he stumbled to the ground Floating atop the puddle of blood were two arms. Two clean-cut cloth-covered forearms.

He glanced back to the man, struggling to his feet as lights and shouting approached.

“You…You attacked me…” he stammered, the shouting growing closer. “I h-had nothing to do with that Abyssal D-disaster...that black mist.

The living corpse could only wheeze in response, its breaths quieting by the second.

“I was j-just protecting myself,” Sagil muttered, noticing light of torches encroaching. However, as he took off, the last words of the dying man fell upon his ears.

“My daughter is dead thanks to you.”

 

* * *

 

Sagil’s eyes shot open as a sharp pain erupted from his stomach. His whole body convulsed, buckling against the object that fell on him.

 “Good morning, brother!” an annoyingly cheerful voice forced Sagil awake. “It’s the morning bro! Wake up, wake up! Come on!”

Sagil groaned, shoving his hands over his ears and closing his eyes. He needed his rest. He was thankful for being beaten out of the nightmare but he didn’t want to be beaten out of bed. His sister had other ideas; his skin was gripped and twisted into unbearable pain that forced his eyes open wide.

He shoved his hands behind him and glared at his little sister who twirled her black twin-tails whilst smiling cheekily back.

Sagil tried turning over to ignore her but her pale thighs pinned his body and her hands quickly pressed his into the bed.

Sagil groaned and stared at his sister who shook her head in disappointment. He wouldn’t give up though and poured his strength into his legs to try and flip her over.

She smirked in response as two ethereal green wings materialised behind her back and pinned the legs to the bed.

Sagil smirked back as her grip on his hands weakened. He grabbed her wrists and tried swinging her to the side. His hands were instantly blown back into his bed by gusts of winds shot from her hands.

Sagil’s face was frozen with embarrassment. His sister giggled and averted her gaze to study the small world map Sagil had tacked to the wall next to his bed. It was obvious she was feigning her interest. She couldn’t help sneaking a peek back at her brother to see if she got a reaction out of him.

“Get off,” he told her calmly with a sigh.

“You asked me to wake you up,” she reminded him disappointed at his tame reaction. She quickly got over that, however, as a cheeky grin emerged. “In fact, I’d say this wake-up gave me, like, um, infinity points!” She swung her said from side to side and hummed in obvious satisfaction.

“If a wake up that involves jumping on my stomach and pinching my hands would give you that, then next time I want a negative point-wake up,” Sagil mumbled, swallowing his irritation and patiently waiting till she dropped her guard. “And I'm awake now, haven’t you done your job?”

“Uh…no,” she lied, trying to hide that she wanted to mess with Sagil before she changed the subject back. “And, you are stupid.  A negative point wake up wouldn’t wake you up,” She started, actually seeming to be serious for once. “It’d actually make you sleep for a longer and-”

Sagil grasped her ankles and arms, tugging her to the side so he could slide out of bed. As he released her though, she struggled to get her balance and fell off the bed with a thud. Sagil quickly backed away and threw his hands up to better respond to the air she would slap him with in retaliation.

“Minus infinity points to you,” she chose to sulk instead.

Sagil glanced down at her. “Misaka, you think I care? I should have plus infinite points anyway for asking you to wake me up,” he sniffed disdainfully.” I’ll be sure to remember this the next time I’m asked to wake you up.”

“Fat chance of that,” she retorted defiantly. “You always sleep longer than I do.”

Sagil simply sighed in defeat and sat back onto the bed. She was right about that. Though that was because he barely got any sleep each night.

“Anyways, I would have woken you up without you asking,” she began excitedly jumping to her feet as she glanced between Sagil and the world map, “are you not excited?”

Sagil watched her for a moment as she bounced around his room. He wished he had that energy of hers but spending the last couple of years grinding D-Rank quests just to get by and never ranking up wouldn’t help his case. At least Cerrin finally decided to make that a bit easier by getting me this room and some Dracones every now and again.

“Hello? I said are you not excited?”

Sagil forced himself up with a sigh and looked towards the map. His eyes fell upon a blot of ink splashed onto the left edge next to a continent labelled ‘The DragonLands’. Sagil sighed again. Who was he kidding? He didn’t have his sister’s energy because he couldn’t get much sleep. It had only been a week since his sister came and it was all for this day.

“I…” He mumbled, dropping his head, “Not really.”

“What?!” Misaka froze, “But we finally get to see what’s out there?!”

“I…I know.”

“All the cool things we might get to see!”

“Yeah…”

“We even get to fly on the Dragon Ship!”

“I kn-”

“IT’S GONNA BE-”

“Who cares about that?” Sagil mumbled, falling back into bed.

“We mi-might be able to figure out how to stop the darkness and abyssal disasters…” Misaka mumbled, averting her gaze. “If we don’t stop them, it’ll consume the whole world eventually.

Sagil didn’t reply. He didn’t have a reply. He just closed his eyes to prepare himself. This time had finally come after all. He only found out last week, when Cerrin found him Inside one of the many Eld Tree roots on a D-Rank quest. The news he carried along with the gift of income and a room in the guild inn forced Sagil into submission.

“Why are you like this!?” Misaka broke the silence, stomping her feet as she cried. “Ever since Father disappeared you stopped answering Mother’s calls, kept on the move so we couldn’t locate you, purposefully did low-rung quests so we couldn’t get information on you, and now we finally get the chance to join the expedition into the abyss, the first one in years, and you don’t even care!”

Sagil would have been stunned if it wasn’t for one knife she stabbed into his heart.

“You honestly think I purposefully the shittiest quests available just so you wouldn’t find me?”

She scowled at him unhappily before running out of the room.

“Surely in the week that you’ve been here you know what goes on?” Sagil yelled, running after her, only to have the door slammed into his face.

“Shut up!”

Sagil pounded the door in frustration before that frustration turned to sadness as he slumped to the floor.

“Spoiled Imp,” he mumbled, throwing his face into his hands, still dirty from fighting the night before. “Ever since that father left this town-no, this whole floating island started to hate me.” Sagil glanced at his half-packed bag under his bed, the other half was strewn on the floor along with a grubby brown teddy bear. She was way too old for that yet Sagil still flipped out at the kids who took it. He didn’t care about the stuff they took from him but that set him off.  Sagil sighed, realising he fell asleep in his clothes and not for the first time. Whether it was that, being charged higher prices for everything he needed, or only being allowed to take on D-Rank quests, he wasn’t welcome in town. People at least dealt with him until the last abyssal incident.

Sagil sighed as his thoughts turned to the nightmare he had. And he mumbled, “It was so scary because it actually happened.” He turned to the blunt sword in his hand. It was a piece of junk, worn down by the last few years of killing weak monsters and pests. It couldn’t help him in that nightmare either.

Sagil tried shaking those thoughts off and forced himself up. He quickly changed into his only other set of clothes and repacked his bag. Luckily, everything he needed was already in the bag or on the floor so it didn’t take long. It was probably because he was moving around every day until Cerrin got him this room, and even then, he was still out making ends-meat with D-Rank quests.

He needed to go after his sister but his mind returned to the nightmare. It was exactly what had happened a year ago, after all.

His gaze fell under his bed and he scrambled over there. He pulled it back to reveal a chipped wooden plank. Sagil paused as he studied the damage. He gritted his teeth as he suspected what happened.

He tried wrenching it free but it wouldn’t come loose. It had been forced back in a rush.

Sagil lifted his sword up and brought it down with a huff.

The plank splintered in two and Sagil tossed them to the side.

“That imp…” he muttered and clenched his fist. The black katana he was looking for wasn’t there. He threw his sword in anger and rushed to his bag.

He slung it around his back and left for Misaka’s room. He creaked up the stairs from the basement to the ground floor. He glanced around but all he saw were a couple of drunkards making a fuss with some C-Rank adventurers. Thank the Elder Dragon, Sagil mumbled as he rushed upstairs, glad the C-Ranks were too busy to give him grief. He marched right up to his sister’s room, ignoring the lock with a spriggan incantation he learnt from his mother and-

“Where is she?” Sagil sighed and walked over to the window, “Cerrin could get her a nice room but I got stuck with the basement… guess it’s ‘because the innkeeper knows me though.”

He leant out of the window and saw nothing but the wall of the guildhall in front and a few stalls to the right. However, a group of kids headed by a large chubby mage around Sagil’s age were passing through the alley between the inn and the guildhall.

Sagil watched them walk by, into a forest, and then perked up, remembering something. His sister had said the night before that she wanted to practice swinging a sword which he couldn’t help but scoff at. Then, his eyes widened when he realised who that mage was.

With no hesitation Sagil vaulted out the window, landing with a thud on the stone ground. “Fuck,” Sagil groaned, tripping as he tried running after the kids. The unpleasant landing had slowed him down but he tried his best to not falter.

* * *

“Leave me alone!” Misaka cried, swinging a black sword against a barren and scarred tree in the middle of a clearing in the forest which.

She was surrounded by a group of kids of a variety of ages. The older ones all seemed to wear the same kind of white robe.

“Maybe if you ask a bit nicer,” one of the kids giggled.

“What if you give us that sword you got there?” Another asked.

The others continued to annoy Misaka before the largest stepped forward. He was too big to be a kid and wore a white robe adorned with gold and sky-blue thread. A dragon head was centred between each breast.

“You shouldn’t mess with her guys; she’ll bring an abyssal disaster.”

“W-Why would I do that?” The girl muttered. “How would I do that?”

The large guy burst out laughing, “How? You should already know!” He pointed to the dark mist that clouded the morning sky. “We haven’t had a bright day in years but we still have blue skies. The black mist is dense today!”

The other kids began pulling stones from pouches tied to their waists.

“Th-That isn’t me!” Misaka cried as the sword finally cut into the tree. “I don’t know anything about it except what everyone does!”

The big guy snickered, “Why don’t you ask your brother?”

“…” Misaka swung the black sword belatedly.

“Oh yeah. I guess he said he didn’t know either.” The big guy snarled; his laughter gone as he grabbed the girl’s wrist. She dropped the sword and the mage grinned, “But he ain’t here to fend us off.”

As he said that, Sagil finally stumbled into the clearing with deep breaths, his ankle worse than he thought. He saw Misaka but hesitated in charging in as he noticed specks of black blowing in the air. He looked up to see the sky a very strange, grey, black, and purple. He had seen the colours before. The usual dull blue sky was gone. The usual dark mist still clouded the sky across the world, except for right above the clearing.

“I said leave me alone!” The girl cried, swinging the sword up to create space, nicking the large kid’s arm as she did.

“Bitch!” he growled, pulling a black half-staff topped with a white sphere from his bag. “Go back to your father’s world!”

“Misaka!” Sagil belatedly yelled as he looked for the hilt of his sword to find nothing but air. “Shit!” he cried fumbling through his mind for an incantation to help as the other kids started pelting rocks at him.

Luckily, Sagil’s appearance stunned the large kid and gave Misaka an opening. She swung her leg upwards, crashing her boot into his crotch.

“Geh!” The kid collapsed.

Misaka’s eyes were wide with anger and glowed with magic. “I said leave me alone.”

“Misaka! Just run you can’t beat Paul!” Sagil yelled, struggling to get past the kids with his sore foot and no incantation he could think of.

“But-!”

“Trust me!” Sagil shouted, locking eyes with his sister.

Misaka gave in and shook off the attack she was building. Two ethereal grass green wings materialised behind her back and-

Thud

Paul slammed the butt of his staff into her cheek, forcing her to the ground.

“Hah! I might actually get you this time Sagil! No good with no sword and one leg. He chuckled despite the lingering pain and made a movement with his half-staff which started to glow. “Remember, I only meant to give her a welcome, she didn’t have to ahead and attack me.”

Sagil gritted his teeth in anger when an incantation came to him. He ignored the bruising rocks being pelted at him and muttered the words. He reached Paul within a couple of seconds.

“Magic weapons are too slow!” He cried and clenched his fist to hurtle it towards Paul’s round cheek.

“Argh!” Misaka screamed as she leapt up from the ground and thrust her sword at Paul’s throat.

Paul narrowly avoided it as Sagil’s punch sent him stumbling to the floor. But the attack wasn’t done. A dark sphere burst into the ground from the sky.

Everyone froze in fear, barely managing to look up as grey, black and purple mist swirled in the air.

“Misaka!” Sagil was the first to react as he pushed his sister to safety. The ground where she stood cracked and the grass turned black.

Paul was pinned to the ground in fear, only able to mutter, “A-An actual abyssal disaster?”

Misaka materialised her wings and tried taking off but specks of black mist weighed them down.

Sagil had no idea what to do. He could only dodge the balls that the grey, black and purple whirlpool spewed. He thought he had been through an abyssal disaster before but this was different, he knew he would be dead if he was caught with anything it spewed.

Another ball burst from the whirlpool. Misaka screamed as it flew towards Sagil who tried rolling out of the way and instead stumbled to the floor. His bad foot had cost him his life.