PROLOGUE: WORLD OF LIGHT

Sitting in a table in a Minuti coffee shop, a young man typed away at his Kindle.

Man, I know being a writer of fiction isn't easy, but damn, I haven't published a thing, yet.

For the past hour, he had been editing a short story on his kindle.

So much editing to be done before I can make a killing in a sci-fi/fantasy magazine.

He was gifted with a wonderful imagination. Ever since he was little he liked to daydream and fantasize about being his own fan character in his favorite fictional stories, from his first movie, The Land Before Time to Star Wars. When the new millennium showed up and Anime became more welcome in the west, he finally found his calling. Thanks to the Toonami block on Cartoon Network his imagination exploded and he began writing stories of his own.

For the past seven months, he had been learning from an author's club how to write with elegance and immersive quality. But for an aspiring author editing one's story to make it publish-worthy takes an age.

Such a shame, learning how to translate imagination to text takes so long, another shame that the brain needs rest as much as the body.

He saved his document then shut down his Kindle. Digging into his backpack he pulled out a gift from last Christmas; a Nintendo Switch with red and blue button and thumbstick pads on both sides.

Imagination needs to fuel too.

He booted up the title screen and smiled when he saw the logo: Octopath Traveler. Then the main theme music played.

Thanks a lot for this great game Leon, my man.' Damn this is one of my favorite Asian RPGs next to the Tales series, only more replayable. Good music to greet me with too.

Indeed, Octopath Traveler was one of the most unique RPGs he had ever seen.

The young man had played his share of western RPGs such as the Witcher, Baldur's Gate and the Elder Scroll's Oblivion and Skyrim, the latter two which captured the essence of adventure, but he liked eastern RPGs equally. What Asian RPGs lacked in free reign, grit and non-linear progression of their western counterparts, they made up for in colorful storytelling and equally colorful characters.

The problem with Asian RPGs was that they took the game mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons a bit too literal and the worlds felt more like playroom mats with cardboard cutout creatures. If Asian dev teams took more inspiration from the west, they'd be able to bring both sides of the same coin together.

But with Octopath Traveler, it was a step close to splitting the difference between both worlds. What made the game stand out the most was that the game was a sprite based RPG contrasted by a three dimensional, low fantasy world grounded closer to real life situations. But the most important aspect was that the character's personal fetch quests were not simple side quests to go out of your way with - they were the main quests, and they tied into the main plot to boot.

Gotta stretch my legs while I'm hyped.

He got up from his chair, stuffed his Kindle into his backpack, then looped it's straps over his shoulder. He took his backpack and Nintendo Switch and walked out of Minuti.

Wouldn't want my pacing to bother people.

Walking along the side walk he pressed buttons and opened up the main menu.

Well it's my second play through.

He then found himself at the character select screen and began hovering over the map and the character roster. '

Who shall I play as this time, not Cyrus, already played Cyrus. How about H'aanit, Tressa, Olberic, Therion, Alfyn, Ophelia, or maybe . . . Oh yes Primrose, smoking hot Primrose, hottest game waifu to come out last year.

"Hey, look, up in the sky."

"What is that?"

Sounds like a line I heard in Halo 3.

"Ooomph." The young upcoming author looked up to see he had bumped into an African American man. "Sorry about that dude, wasn't looking."

"You obviously haven't seen it," said the black dude.

"Seen what?"

"That," he pointed up to the center of the sky. The clouds were parting revealing a large ray of light. "Still feel like playing your game, boy?"

"I suppose yes."

"Hey, why is the sun still in the middle of the sky, it's supposed to be dusk?" an old lady asked.

"Hell if I know," a man fished sunglasses from his business suit. "I've been an astrophysicist with NASA for ten years. Its like the sun just popped up in the middle of the sky when it's supposed to be dusk? This has to be some kind of phenomenon."

"What, kind of phenomenon?" the old lady asked.

"If I hadn't hit the books hard enough I'd say our orbit has stopped or a new sun has been birthed."

The young man with the Nintendo Switch looked around and saw a crowd gathering out in the parking lot with their phones out recording the spectacle on video.

As popular as this place is getting I don't want to get boxed in.

As he walked away from the gathering crowd, he noticed the light in the sky getting brighter and brighter as the clouds opened, then he saw it.

What the hell is that? It's bright like the sun, but it's not as bright, nor would Kenobi agree that it 's a moon. It looks like an artificial sun that just popped into existence.

CRASHx34, BANGx32, HONKx20, AWOWx900.

The young man looked at the scene at the adjacent road leading to the intersection.

Wow, just like in the Independence Day movie with those city-blasting alien saucers, all those cars crashing just so the drivers can oogle the space ships.

Indeed the road leading to the intersection had become a long chain of fender benders. People were scrambling out of their cars, and other shops just to gaze at the gargantuan, shining orb in the sky. In the distance he saw a mile long chain of fender benders along the highway.

Like moths and flies to a bug-grilling, street lamp, good thing I'm more like a mantis. I don't follow the swarm. Still, whatever that thing in the sky is, it can't be natural, and I'm not even a space scientist.

"You see people, the time of revelation is upon us." Skyler looked to see a Caucasian man in a white suit and black, bow tie

Just what I need, a holy roller ranting his ass off.

"The Lord has graced us with his presence. His rays shine upon us, blessing us with salvation and eternal happiness. All true believers who see the light will be raised high into the sky and see the gates of heaven open wide."

As the preacher blasted his rant, a crowd numbering more than two dozen people gathered behind him.

Screw that, more like a wannabe televangelist ranting his ass off for a big pocket donation. I doubt he even read the first page of Genesis. Not that I'm a bible humper either.

Super Smash Bros: Ultimate - "Lifelight" (Rock Cover) | AmaLee Ver

watch?v=ZcGDRjJEzak

Then, waves of energy formed around the giant light bulb and began to convulse like a heartbeat. The surface of the sphere also began to ripple out like a puddle vibrating to the ominous stomping of a T-Rex.

Somehow I know that can't be good. That light looks like an unstable nuclear reactor, and it's reaching critical mass. I think I'd better take shelter. If only there was a fallout shelter around.

The young man broke into a sprint towards the nearby mall.

Hope the light plays by physic's rules and can't get in. Or better yet, they also have a lockdown shelter like in Dead Rising 2, somewhere in there.

As he dashed past two cars that had stopped in the middle of the parking lot, he took a backwards glance.

BAWOOOM, all audience members present were treated to the mother of all fireworks spectacles.

"Wow, that's cool," said a Hispanic, teenage boy.

"That thing popped like a giant firecracker," agreed his buddy.

"Yea, the Fourth of July has got nothing on this."

That doesn't look like a nova either. Maybe I was getting worked up over nothing-huh?

The comet tails sprouting out of the shining mass formed into luminescent tendrils and rained from the sky like missiles.

"See, the lord has opened the gates to heaven. Have faith and all true believers shall be welcomed in heaven's embra-!" SHAWOOOM.

Faster than an eye blink, a light missile engulfed the preacher and his fledgeling followers. When it passed, all that remained was his memory.

More light missiles rained down on the earth at insane speed, each swallowing people like rats in a boa's gullet. Everyone they touched dissolved into nothingness.

"It's Armageddon!" a hysterical man yelled.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH !"

"RUN LIKE HELL! "

The whole shopping district erupted into a cacophony of screams and shouts. People began to panic and ran in any direction they could comprehend to salvation from the deadly light. Others more delusional like the butt kissers of the white preacher stayed where they were, like good, Christian sheep awaiting their promised salvation through photonic, slaughter.

Worst end to a dull day.

Skyler ran as fast as he could to the mall holding his Switch in his arm tightly. As he ran, a blast of a tempest blew in his face as a tendril hit a person right next to him.

Fuck, that was almost me.

Then he looked left saw a mother with a toddler engulfed by the shining missiles.

Oh, he'll no, not them too, fuck, fuck.

The mall was only twenty steps away.

If I get in there, I'll be home free. But damn, all these people rushing past me.

"Aaaaaaaaaaah," a hysterical blonde screaming like silly barreled into him. The young man tumbled to the ground.

"Oww!" Fucking bitch you just killed me!

"Aaaaaaah, daddy help-! " SHAWOOOM

Always a bigger bitch, you dumb Hollywood bimbo. Enjoy seeing the biggest spotlight.

He didn't have time to relish the idiot blonde's flashy comeuppance.

Gotta go now.

He busted the mall doors open and ran inside.

Yessss, safe! Just need to get a little cozy in-oh . . .

"Nooo-! SHAWOOOM

"Help meeee-! SHEEWOOOM

Aaaaaa-! SEEEEEOOOM

"Nooo, please God, no!" SHAWOOOM

Your kidding, even in here? No, not in here too.

His earlier hypothesis was wrong, dead wrong, the light missiles did not play by the laws of physics. Solid obstructions like walls, meant nothing to it. Even in the tightly sealed metal hallways and courts he could hear the echoes of the souls of the departing.

It's a mausoleum without bodies. I'm no safer indoors, this thing . . . It's impossible.

Instinctively he looked back at the mall door.

Ooooh snaaaap!

A tentacle beam was coming right at him, too fast and too inescapable.

SHAWOOOM.

Luminescence lit up his vision even through his shut eyes.

"Aaarrgh! Huh, what?" Why am I still thinking, I should be dead? Hey, why is it red and blue out there.

He opened his eyes, wider than intended.

"Yow, what the!" He recoiled his pinkies off the Switch, but it floated in midair.

What, my Switch, it's blocking the light like a shield? And I raised it to protect my eyes.

Then he looked all around him, he was encased and protected by a bubble-like force field, and it was coming from his Nintendo Switch!

No way, this isn't possible. How can a game console do this, magic?

He noticed that the light missile that had struck him attached to the shield like a suction cup.

"Well, looks your radioactive tubes can't touch me-uh, wh-wha, whoooooaaaah."

He felt himself along with his protective energy shield yanked into the air and pulled out of the mall, traveling at speeds exceeding Mach 5.

He recoiled and looked down below. He could see the mall, he could see his house, He could see the entire town down there getting smaller and smaller, and worse.

Those photon missiles they're zapping the whole town like the Macross Missile version of Darkseid's Omega beams, and by some one in a million miracle, I'm still alive, but that's not even a relief. Now I know how an animal feels when it's abducted from its home.

The bleak sight of the earth's photonic apocalypse was blocked by a cottony mass as he rose into the atmosphere.

"Aarrgh!" The sun blasted his face with UV, forcing his eyes shut.

Damn, I was more comfortable in the clouds, now I could get the worse sunburn. If only that was the worst thing to happen today. What is this light bulb thing, and what does it want with us? I know it doesn't have anything to do with the Book of Revelation.

The brightness lighting up his vision darkened and Skyler was relieved to open them.

Wow, I'm in space and I can see the stars. I'm the first non-astronaut in space. Huh, what the? He'll no. It's taking everybody, the whole world.

It was a horrifying sight. He saw that his town wasn't the only place getting 'beamed' out of existence the light missiles were striking all over the earth. Then they coalsced into giant tentacles, sucking all life from the surface like an industrial vacuum.

Those shiny balls, are they . . . ?

Glowing orbs, presumably the life force of the people were flowing through the tentacles like bubbles in a fish tank's cleaner straight towards the gargantuan globe. As he got closer his inner geek clashed with his terror.

This thing, it's huge, probably bigger than both Death Stars combined.

The gargantuan, glowing globe was indeed as big as it was incomprehensible. Now that he was close to it, He could see it in full detail.

Wow it's like a giant Dyson Sphere wrapped in some kind of membrane with a hexagon pattern. And what's the source of the light? Looks like the 'core'. Is this really an unfinished story by H. ? And how is my Nintendo Switch protecting me, all it's supposed to do is games and electronic mojo?

He saw the life orbs flowing through the tentacles heading into the gargantuan globe through orifices, like red blood cells to a beating heart.

Those orbs that used to be people . . . Are we being assimilated, like the flood do to their victims from Halo . . . more like computer data in a living mainframe. No, don't tell me, it's gonna . . . eat me, What's it gonna do with the 'data' when it digests it and everything that made me who I am.? Oh god.

The huge Dyson Sphere grew bigger and bigger as he was brought closer. Up close a large hatch door opened and Skylar was pulled inside with the rest of the life orbs.

This sphere reminds me of the Imperial Tibanna gas facility above Destrillion in Rogue Squadron 3, where you first meet the TIE Hunters. But there's no indication of machinery or high tech. Who or what is behind all this?

As he was pulled inside he saw what resembled a hive made from a macabre, coral reef. Spikes, and polyps decorating its appearance.

So this thing it's definitely not an artificial sun, it's some kind of alien dreadnought, or super dreadnought. What the hell is behind all this?

He floated through the entrance to coral, along with the other souls harvested by the light tubes. The passages in the reef-like structure were appropriately alien. It was decorated like a Lovecraftian Cathedral in worship of alien gods. As he went deeper he saw the life orbs were being loaded onto racks.

Just like in the freaking Matrix, whatever controls this thing, it's definitely harvesting us, but for what, science, or soul smoothies?

His protective bubble came to a stop and got loaded onto the rack gazed at a podium high above. On it was something that resembled a control hub in an alien space ship bridge. A large object suddenly moved, flashing lights in his face.

Damn, I've had it with bright lights, uhhh, ohhh. "Aaaaaaaagh!"

There it was. Hovering above him was a grotesque, monstrosity only Lovecraft himself could comprehend. It's body was black as toxic muck, it's pupil-less eyes glowed neon green, and they blasted a psychic aura of pressurized terror as it floated towards him.

(Gasp) What the hell is that thing, the result of a love affair between Cthulhu and a Tentacruel. Am I going crazy, tell me this all just stress or writer's block taking its toll. Somebody just wake me up from this fugging nightmare!

The cephalopodic abomination probed his shield like an octopus looking for the bottle cap to get to the fish inside.

He could only watch in terror as the Eldritch creature tapped its tentacles against the shield experimentally, to no avail. After a few more taps it gently laid the tip of one of its tentacles on the force field, and then, the tentacle slid through the shield like a threading needle.

"Oh, no, Oh no." Holtzman shield physics! Tell me it didn't learn this trick from Patrick Steward-when he was Captain of the freakin Enterprise!

The Eldritch being, followed suite with several more tentacles, slowly tapping the shield and threading inside.

"No, no , no, no, Aaaaaaaaaarrrgh!"

The tentacle wrapped around hiss legs and waist.

"Urrrrrrghh, unnnnggh!"

As it tightened it's grip he felt a sensation like a boa constrictor studded with a thousand hypodermic needles stabbing his skin, It hurt like hell.

What's that green glowing stuff spreading through my arteries, some kind of venom? But it's like phenol, its making me glow like a neon sign, no my whole body is glowing. I can't feel my legs! Wait, is it . . . gonna do what it did with everyone else? No, no way. I can't let it . . .

His eyes darted towards his Switch.

My Switch, it, it protected me somehow, maybe it can also . . . Gotta touch, a button or something, my body is feeling like it's full of lead.

With his body weakening from the venom, he reached for his Switch, "Ok, here we go!"

He pushed the A Button.

My Switch is . . . His Switch lit up in a flash red and blue and every sentient form of him was consumed.

The stunned Eldritch being let go of the captive, life form, recoiled it's tentacles out of the shield. What had happened to this specimen, what had the device protecting it done? Suddenly it noticed that its tentacles it had probed inside the shield to tranquilize the specimen had the same red and blue aura illuminating the shield and it was spreading through the tentacle. It was like its own venom was backfiring on it. The energy the specimen seemed to have converted to, had become an infection.

The energy spread through its whole body. The Eldritch being watched in a shocked trance as the strange infection traveled all the way to its main body and it glowed with red and blue on each side, along with a feeling it had never felt before throughout its 'tour' of the universe.

This euphoric sensation it felt from the energy, it couldn't describe it, couldn't handle it, it felt so high, so alive. This specimen was a remarkable discovery, its unique essence, its being, its-passionate thought process. There were endless possibilities. Floating back to its control hub it inserted its tentacles into a port in the central processing unit. The dueling energy of yin and yang, colors dispersed throughout the ship filling trillions upon trillions of life orbs with the unique specimen's essence.

KABLAAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

On that day, the entire galaxy bore witness to an explosion that illuminated a large swath of it. When the light faded all that was left was dust and echoes of life faded that had into oblivion. At the epicenter of where the explosion had occurred, a red and blue comet hurling past the stars towards uncertain destination.

Thank you for reading ladies and gents this is my fourth fanfic that I've posted on this site. Unlike most Isekai fics where the character dies and reincarnates or gets digitized, ala Tron into their fave fictional verse, I prefer something grittier and a more believable way to get to said verse, without the possibility of denial. In the digitized case someone pulls the plug, or in the reincarnation case, trolled as a dying fantasy. So I hired a reject, Eldritch abomination/OP'd alien to bring my self-insert to the world of Octopath Traveler. If anyone thinks I should do some tweaking, namely less exposition on what said alien did before popping his own ship is more, (insert voice of Red Guy from Cow and Chicken) JUST SAY SO IN THE REVIEW SECTION!