Chapter 1: Descent into Darkness

A man paused as darkness enveloped him. He had stepped into a narrow tunnel, as wide as two people standing shoulder to shoulder. Its sides were carved from smooth stone, sloping gently downwards with no end in sight. The solid walls had blocked everything. The gentle ocean breeze was replaced by an eerie stillness, and the deep blue sky by the pitch-black ceiling. Permeating the air was a stale scent of something long dead and gone — it was as if he had entered a different world altogether.

Clack. Clack.

He continued forward, accompanied only by the sound of his slippers against the stony floor. When the light from the entrance disappeared in the distance and his eyes could no longer guide him, he reached out to the wall with his hand.

Then, far in the distance, a flickering speck of red-orange light appeared. It was so small and dim that one might have dismissed it as an illusion. But as he got closer, the speck of light steadied and grew, taking the shape of a symbol.

Carved into the wall of the tunnel, glowing defiantly against the black emptiness, was a single rune. And when the man reached it, the rune brightened, as if it had recognized his presence. It was the first of many.

In the beginning, they were few and far in between, but they became more and more numerous as he continued on. Their light illuminated the tunnel, basking it in an orange glow.

It was another minute before he saw the end of the tunnel. It opened into a large, hemispherical room with 5 robed figures standing within, whispering quietly to one another.

His footsteps announced his arrival, and the figures turned to greet him.

"So you came." A middle-aged female voice acknowledged him.

"We were starting to think you didn't have the guts to carry this through." Another voice, belonging to a younger man.

"Just in time," said yet another.

The man made no reply. Instead, he examined the room he had entered.

It was about 30 feet across. The floor was in the shape of a circle, and the walls curved towards the center of the room, where they met to make a domed ceiling — it was a perfect hemisphere.

Every surface he could see was covered from top to bottom in runes. The runes formed long chains, like twisting vines, curving every which way, crisscrossing, coming together and splitting apart. The floor was completely flat and polished to a shine, with a number of thin, dark lines were etched into the stony surface. The lines formed a large pentagram, with two larger concentric circles around it. Carved in the empty spaces between the lines were even more runes.

The man nodded in satisfaction. He checked his watch, "7 minutes left. We can start."

The others nodded and spread out onto the diagram, with one person at each point of the pentagram, leaving the man alone at the entrance. For a moment, they all stood in silence. Then they began to chant.

It was a steady sound, yet filled with anticipation. At first, they chanted in unison, but then, one by one, their voices broke off from the collective, finding their own rhythm. As they did so, their voices grew louder and harsher. The stone ceiling echoed them, multiplying their voices. One voice became five, then ten, and soon it was a cacophony of hundreds.

The runes changed their color, yellow, then blue, then a brilliant white. Wind came and encircled them. The ground began trembling beneath them.

The man, who had been standing outside of the circle watching, took another look at his watch.

"Two minutes!" the man announced.

In response, the chanters quickened their pace, and the chaos grew. The shaking grew violent, their robes flapped in the wind, and the noise was almost deafening.

"One minute!"

This time chanters gave no indication they had heard. But the man seems unconcerned. Instead, he walked to the center of the room.

30 seconds left. He looked down at his watch, counting down the seconds, waiting patiently for the moment to arrive.

10 seconds. The room was now brighter than day, and the wind grew into a vicious cyclone, picking up loose gravel and flinging them across the room. The ground shook so violently that cracks formed in the dome. A few pieces of the ceiling broke off and fell, narrowly missing the ones standing below.

4 seconds. The man steadied himself.

3... He took out a dagger from underneath his robes,

2... gripped it with both hands,

1... held it high above him,

... and plunged it into himself.

And then it all vanished - the brilliant light, the deafening noise, the violent shaking, and the whirling winds, leaving the room in complete darkness and silence.

Seven thousand miles away, in a country called Japan, a young girl woke with a start. She had a very strange dream, one filled with a sense of foreboding. If she didn't know any better, she'd say it was a prophecy, and a very important one at that. But that's impossible, prophecies only come to people who can use magic. Though she might have more magical knowledge than any other person alive, she cannot use any of it.

And then her stomach growled - a rumbling reminder that she was hungry. She had a tiny dinner last night thanks to her penny-pinching roommate, and he is about to pay dearly for it. As the girl contemplated how she should inflict pain and suffering upon her unsuspecting roommate, her strange dream was quickly forgotten.

Author's Corner

Touma: I have a very bad feeling about what's going to happen.
Author: Oh don't worry about that, I don't like killing people that much.
Touma: *Looks at Index* I have a bad feeling about her too.
Index: Oh don't worry about that, it's just your survival instinct.
Touma: Shouldn't I listen to that? Wait, why are you bearing your teeth at me?
Index: I'm a bit hungry that's all.
Touma: What does that have to do with me? And why are you licking your lips? You're making me very worried.
Index: *Approaches slowly*
Touma: Uh... uh... a bit of help here?
Author: *Hands him a whole cake* Here, use this.
Touma: Ah thanks! *Turns to Index* O great one, calm thyself, for you shall hunger no longer. I, your humble servant, present to you this marvelous cake.
Index: Oooohhhh... *Nom nom nom*
Touma: Did that work?
Author: It's super effective.
Index: *Finishes the cake* I'll let you off this time. But don't make me eat cup ramen for dinner ever again. Understood?
Touma: Sir! Yes sir!