The darkness engulfs every corner of the basement. The chaos above rattling the shelves and glass bottles. Daichi dug into his pockets, trying to find something to make a source of light. He pulled out his flip knife and extended the blade. Kneeling down to touch the floor, he scraped the back end against the hard floor over and over until bright sparks briefly illuminated the room.
With the short window of light he got, he noticed the girl had already placed the dying boy on a bed in the corner of the room, limping from shelf to shelf with her wounded leg and navigating the darkness as if it was second nature.
The hell is it with this kid..
He thought to himself, while gathering flammable scraps and something that felt like dry straw. Gathering it in a small circle and with added effort, he scraped his knife against the hard floor even more, until the spark caught the dry straw, as Daichi covered it and blew on it gently.
A small fire started as Daichi fed it with more dry material he could find around him. He started coughing again, blood spilling from his mouth. That's when he remembered the toxic air around him was still a problem. But with his goal to provide a little bit of light accomplished, he looked toward where he saw the girl last.
That's when he saw her, desperately feeding some kind of liquid to the dying boy on the bed. She too was affected by the burning ash in the air, yet, she didn't seem as bothered by it as he was, but the little boy was affected by it too. Daichi noticed that every time the boy coughed, it was obvious how much more pain he was in.
"I'm coming to help you!"
Daichi said as he stood up to go help in any way he could, but as soon as he stood up, everything started rattling again from the chaos above, causing him to stumble, and to make it worse, the fire he made had died. The room was engulfed by darkness again, with little orange embers of fire slowly dying too. Daichi rushed over to it, and started covering it with whatever dry material he could find against the ground. He clicked his tongue as he thought to himself.
I thought I placed enough on it to make it burn for at least another three minutes
And while Daichi was busy trying to bring the fire back, he noticed something lucent in his peripheral vision and as he turned head to inspect the light. Then he noticed a flaming halo above the girl's head, providing light to the whole room. But Daichi's face twisted in horror. He stumbled back as he pointed his knife toward her. Remembering quite vividly, that the being outside in the air, had a similar halo above its head.
"W-WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!!"
He yelled. The boy on the bed flinched in fright, causing him to take a sharp breath of the toxic air, as he coughed up more blood. The little girl glared at him.
"SHHHHH!!"
She went, as she cleaned the blood from the boy's mouth with a piece of torn cloth. And Daichi stands there looking at her, more focused on the flaming halo above her head, shaking as he's glued to the far corner of the room away from her.
Then Daichi noticed the cloth he tied on the wound on her leg was....gone?. And her fingers, which were bloody, torn and bruised from her frantically moving the rubble from the trapdoor earlier, weren't bleeding anymore. He focused closer, and noticed the wounds and cuts she had were nearly completely healed, this gave him certainty, and even more reason to believe she's a threat, and to make it worse, the chaos above was a constant reminder of the incomprehensible threat outside.
S-she. Healed?...what?
He thought to himself, but being clear as to not make a move, or breathe too loud, trying to be as unnoticeable as he possibly can, even though he knows she's aware of his presence.
Time seems to fly by as five more hours of pure chaos above slowly dissipated after this point. The girl is still desperately trying to save the little boy, Daichi is still cradled in a corner of the room, right beneath the trap door they entered through, breathing as little as possible, trembling with his knife never lowering, and the chaos above seemingly coming to an end.
The silence became deafening, both above and in the basement where they were. Daichi's brain, already high on adrenaline, could only focus on the shallow breath of the little boy, the soft sound of the flaming halo hovering above the girl's head, his own breathing, and the shallow repeated thud of his heart racing.
Then the boy's shallow breathing stopped, which immediately alerted Daichi, his eyes focused on the little boy. And then, he heard it.
"CRACK"
Daichi's eyes widened in horror, as he looked at the girl, her teeth gritted, tears flowing down her face and her fists balled up. But she kept silent, slight whimpers escaping her control. And it happened again.
"CRACK"
Wh...what the HELL!?!?
Daichi thought to himself again, his eyes focused on the boy's body, which kept cracking, and cracking, as if his bones were being snapped one by one, and the cracking only increased, and got louder. The little boy's body visibly deforms with each horrific crack, and his skin becoming pale, and his whole form slowly being drained of life. Daichi's stomach twisted, as he leaned against the wall for support, vomiting uncontrollably. Then he looked up at the boy's deformed body, and from it, came a blue mist, which slowly flowed out and collected together, hovering above the boy.
And that's when something clicked, Daichi remembers seeing similar mist-like particles outside, but of various colors, floating up to that humanoid thing in the air, adding to its own golden mist-like aura. And suddenly, the blue mist flew toward him. Frightened and alerted, Daichi tried slashing at it, but it went up, seeping through the cracks of the trapdoor. Leaving Daichi shaking, as he hears his own heartbeat racing even more, beating against his eardrums.
That's when he looked at the girl, who was still visibly shaken, with her tears drying on her cheeks, but she was still very silent.
"W-what was that?"
He asked, still very wary of her, and the flaming halo above her head. Lowering his knife, he relaxed slightly, as the girl finally looked up at him.
"TSK"
"ARE YOU STUPID!?"
She said, her anger boiling over, causing her to slam her fist into the wall, as the flaming halo above her head flared slightly. Frightening Daichi with her outburst, she glared at him, and continued.
"You're telling me you don't know what life-fog is?"
"You've got to be the dumbest adult I've ever met"
She said with added venom, as she covered the horrific deformed body of the little boy. Sighing, as her anger and frustration slowly dissipates she continued.
"His life-fog, or, if you want to be technical, its also known as Vhis."
"Life...fog?"
Daichi said, testing the word, and noticing the chilling truth of the name, which caused him to shiver, and that's when he realized that this world wasn't meant for the weak.