Time felt slower, if time was even a thing.
Then, Ethan saw something glimmer in the darkness—a faint, sapphire light surrounding him, trailing from his hands, legs, and hair. He blinked in disbelief.
'Light? Here?'
He looked down, his breath caught in his throat.
His leg… it was cracking.
He moved his gaze to his hands and watched in silence as the skin there crumbled, fragmenting into little, shimmering sparks. Each piece drifted off, dissolving into the abyss like scattered stardust.
His whole body was breaking.
Ethan simply closed his eyes.
'I finally got it, old man.'
"I sit where the day grows thin and slow,
my breath a tide that knows its shore.
The sun lets go of what I know,
and I wait for less—and nothing more."
He sang his mind, his cracking lips twitching. 'I understood why you kept singing this poem.'\
"The sky means nothing, still I breathe its blue…"
He looked at the dissipating sapphire.
"…and in the hollows, I choose to move."
'You were waiting for it weren't you?'
He smiled a bit.
'Death.'
He had nothing in his life anyway. It was strangely… nice. Dying in such a painless way.
That was when he saw it. A bright gold light making its way to him. He continued to look at the light, closing the gap when–
CRACK–!
A thin fissure of white light that was blinding against the black that seemed endless. Ethan couldn't move, but more cracks appeared, splintering and branching out until they fractured the darkness, spreading until—shatter. The world turned white.
The light was relentless, swallowing everything, a harsh and overwhelming brightness that felt worse than any darkness. It pressed in on him, burning into every corner of his being.
Then, suddenly… pain.
A brutal, wrenching agony gripped his soul. He wanted to scream but he couldn't. The pain was like claws digging in, ripping through him with a cold intensity that made his very essence recoil. Fear wrapped itself around him, sinking deeper than anything he had felt before.
This wasn't death… no, it was something far, far worse.
A slick, nauseating noise came from behind, the sound of something dragging itself through mud". Ethan forced himself to look, every instinct screaming to turn away, and then he saw it – a figure climbing up from the ground, coated from head to toe in black, oozing slime. Its eyes radiated a dull threatening red light that seeped through the brightness with a blasphemous glare and it emitted a sound – a throaty, rasping sound that words could barely describe in such a twisted, disgusting manner.
"@&&T#%!#&!"
The sound hit him like a hammer to his chest, and a sharp, searing pain rippled through him, stabbing deep into his very core. His whole being seemed to tremble, as though even existing in the presence of this creature was enough to tear him apart. It moved closer, its slime dripping down in thick, black drops that stained the white ground, spreading like ink on paper, bleeding into the light. Its hand stretched toward him, the blackness seeping into him, as fear petrified him.
His soul was being crushed beneath the weight. His vision blurred, a black haze creeping in as Ethan's consciousness threatened to slip, pulling him toward oblivion that felt worse than death.
But then—a golden light flared, slicing through the darkness, throwing the creature back with a blinding radiance. It howled, a terrible, piercing sound that reverberated through everything, amplifying his pain. The white ground around us began to bleed black as the light faltered, and Ethan made a desperate effort to hold on, knowing that slipping away would mean a fate he couldn't bear to imagine.
The golden light enveloped him, lifting him away from the creature as its claws swiped in vain, leaving dark trails behind him. He felt its touch turning the light to black as it chased, tainting the very glow that held him. But right before the light was entirely devoured by the darkness, he felt himself slam into something solid as he though he broke a window.
His last vision was of himself, racing down into the wasteland below, helpless against the inevitable.
***
"Gosh Ethan! Wake up!" Ethan heard Samantha yell. Opening his eyes, he blinked rapidly, his eyes adjusting to the light.
'What… was that just now?'
He saw Samantha, then Gilbert followed up with Reyna. Ethan bit his lip, his heart finally relaxing as he let out a tired sigh. Or at least he wanted to.. But his body didn't listen.
'Strange.'
He looked around.
They were… in the clouds?
His classmates were gathered together, some with wide-eyed looks of awe while others were still trying to catch their breaths after the shock put upon them. However, Ethan's eyes were drawn upwards to a figure lying on what could hardly be described as a bed, propped up under her head with one hand in a position which suggested she had been there for a long time.
Leading up to her were a series of marble pillars that depicted her as some sort of Greek goddess.
The figure was stunning, with an almost dreamlike beauty that defied earthly standards. As ocean-like hair cascaded down the bed, a faint, soft halo floated above her head, casting a gentle warmth over her relaxed features, giving her an otherworldly radiance.
Her gold eyes, though, told a different story. They sparkled with a deep, knowing light, but also a hint of distance—as if she wasn't fully here. There was something he recognized in her gaze, a laid-back ease bordering on the sleepy.
Ethan considered himself a connoisseur of laziness, but she made him feel like an amateur.
Then, with a slow, almost leisurely smile that was both serene and oddly infectious, she murmured a greeting. The gentle curve of her lips and the unhurried grace of her expression made his heart stumble.
"Hello, everyone," she said, her voice like a crystal chime. "I am Aurelion, the messenger of the gods… and your guide for this hour."
____
[My two chapter quota for today!
Y'all know the drill.
Let's start with a PS goal of 30... hopefully.]