With a worried face, the servant dashed toward the warriors, raising his arms to chant a spell. White engraving appeared atop his hand, but it was too late—the guards had already surrounded the young master.
Undaunted by their numbers, the young master let out a childish war cry and swung at them.
Not a punch landed; the guards avoided every strike with practiced ease.
"Get away from my master!"
He shouted in such force that it vibrated across the hallway. The warriors abruptly halted and began returning to their posts.
"What, afraid of my wrath!?"
Then, suddenly, the space shattered. Ominous darkness spilled forth, heralding ill omen as a looming figure emerged from the void.
Trembling, the young master sensed terror—the same fear that had haunted him before.
Below, it felt warm as water flowed below his waist. His chest felt tight, choking from terror, as in front of him, it loomed. Large as it covers the whole area in darkness.
No breaths, he faints, falling flat on the ground, as the translucent yellow water seeps towards him. In its shallow, strands of his hair floated.
There in his eyes, its yellow hue gradually deepens to blue...…
Xin, alone, lying left at the shallow waters, slumbering. Above, a creature in the dark starts flapping its wings, parting the thick fog, and its wings shine like moonlight upon his eyes.
His fingers moved, rippling a wave in the endless shallow waters.
*Gasp!*
In heavy breaths, he wakes up, opening his eyes as he then stares blankly.
A nightmare.
It was something that he was sure he felt, yet nothing he could recall to ponder. As if something in his mind is blocking him.
For his own thought, he brushed it aside and stood up. As soon as he stood up, he saw above him a giant looming structure towering.
Like it's piercing the skies by how tall it is.
'What is it this?'
At it, he saw the moon, casting pellets of shadow from the sky. He stared, sure that something about the phenomenon was abnormal.
Suddenly, he hears, faint, stony clapping echoed through the waters. Closing in, as gentle voices drifted through the surroundings.
"The moon's really making it rain."
Someone said awkwardly in an old man's voice.
Xin felt weird as he understood them, filling his heart with suspicion. He looks around for something, something that he can do about this situation.
There, he saw beside a structure sticking out, he quickly hid behind it, eavesdropping on their conversation.
It's the same kind of structure he was trapped in.
Xin peeked and glimpsed three men with spears and indiscernible expressions.
They were dark as ink. Everything about them felt ancient to him. Suddenly, someone from the three stops.
Xin then ducks flat to the ground.
"Lim'ur, are you sure you saw and heard the Simurgh here?"
"Yeah, it was here. The divine creature walked like a chicken!"
Someone from them hurls a spear and throws it. In the same direction, where Xin had awoken.
*Slam!*
As it drops, it sends tremors around. Xin jolts. It made a ripple in the shallow waters.
"Do you know why?"
"Probably Lim'ur just got tired and saw something—" In a brief second, his eye locks at Xin's direction, though he continued. "Something like that."
"I saw it clearly—the simurgh, the winged wolf," Said the man named Tim'ur, insisting.
The two men bickered like couples, though they looked like three black men.
"Maybe you stumbled across a Taec fruit—that's gone missing. That might explain what you saw."
Like a rat, Xin opened the lid, but found the interior far too deep. Doubt gnawed at him, as in his mind.
How could he escape again if he hid there?
"Kras! Trust me, I really—"
*Clunk*.
Xin, heart raised swiftly, climbed inside.
The third man approached, shifting the tone, "That's strange—where did this come from?" Pretending that he just saw it.
Xin clung to the lid's ring as it closed, trapping his fingers. Pain lanced through him—a silent, distorted scream tearing at his mind.
The third man then hopped atop the structure.
*Thump!*
Inside, Xin heard muffled voices overhead, punctuated by a heavy thud. The lid pressed down on him harder.
In agony, he whimpered, shuddering with paranoia, afraid they'd caught him. Tears of pain blurred his vision as he dangled helplessly.
Flustered, Tim'ur snapped, "You're acting weird today, Tutu!"
"I've seen too many interesting things today," Tutu replied above, running his spear through his hair.
*Clang.*
A lighter sound this time—like a stick tapping out a rhythm. The pressure increased.
Tim'ur paused just below Tutu, noticing the structure.
"Relax, it's just a flower—an orchid," Tutu declared.
Tim'ur's eyes lit up. "Wait—you mean a woman? You saw the witch here?"
"What!?" Kras barked, unamused. "You saw a witch? Why didn't you tell me!?"
"How can you tell she's a witch?" Tutu cut in, stopping them.
In fear, Tim'ur explained in a brief.
Meanwhile, down under, cramped inside, Xin wept quietly, enduring fiery pain in his joints. There, he suddenly felt his hand brush against something musty beside him.
A corpse.
He gagged and arched his back in anguish.
Below, Xin heard someone whistling a lively tune. Blood started dripping onto Xin's forehead, painting his clothes red. Something moves inside the corpse as the blood runs.
---
"Believe me, she was beautiful, her white—"
"Is she really gorgeous?" Kras pressed.
"I only saw her eyes," Tutu said, flamboyantly, whilst he twirls Tim'ur's severed head on his spear.
He skewered it with a spear; beside it is another decapitated head.
Attached to his spear, inside its skin, hair flows like threads, trinkling down blood down under where Xin hid. Its skin slowly sagged, peeling its own skin in its own weight. Under it, the sagging skin reveals a face.
It was a woman's head.
"Right, Kras," He said to the woman's head, as he dangled it above him.
"Such unique weather—and such unique creatures. At times like this, one could die of boredom," Tutu mused, leaping from the platform.
Silence fell—Xin didn't hear the others anymore. Something crawled and gnawed at his skin.
'It hurts.'
But he waited and waited until he couldn't endure anymore. A soon as he felt the pressure lift, he then slipped free.
Stunning brightness stabbed at his eyes, blotting all detail and assaulting his nose with a metallic stench.
He covered his watering eyes, painting his face red as the glare eased. Shapes began to coalesce behind the light—a nightmare made visible.
Xin gasped as he fought to hold back vomit.
Before him lay two headless bodies, sprawled like butchered animals. Their bodies were intertwined like dogs, blood gushing like fountains.
His hand bled, fingers purple and useless, pain radiating from his limp arm joints. He felt his vision swim and was hungry.
Tears were slipping down his cheeks. Questions raced through his mind—who to blame, did he deserve this, was this really it?
The thought of dying again broke him. As he closed his eyes, someone whispered.
"You can't," said a childlike, ghostly voice.
He died…
When he opened his eyes, everything was white—a vast void stretched into eternity.
There, he felt ethereal and strange.
He looked around but saw nobody. He tried to speak, and found he had no mouth, just a single eye without a body, floating alone.
Before him, he stared at a familiar stat panel.
Ye Xin /█/ Lvl. I
HP: 10/10 Stats: Normal
Mind: 22/30 Stamina: 09/15 RP: 10
STR: 10 AGI: 5 DEF: 3 INT: 12
◙|Survivor|5| Inventory: [][][][][][][][][][]
↓Maximise↓
'I'm dead… again.'
"You can't," the mysterious voice repeated.
In an instant, his battered body materialized again.
*Thump.*
He collapsed to the ground, unmoving. Water gathered and formed a pillar around him, lifting him upright until he stood, though he felt nothing. Watching his blood swirl and return to his veins.
Encased within the water as it washed over him, head to toe, mending and restoring him. Before him, it manifested in front out of thin air.
*A bustling town.*
People walked around. Men and women dressed in a single garment. Between them, a man in red without a face walks.
A shaman in red.
He climbed atop a stool and opened a large book before the gathering crowd.
With his chest puffed out, there atop he spoke.
"Hear me as I recite the words of our creator. I alone am the Truth, and by mine authority bestow thee wisdom of mine utmost order!"
The crowd paused, attention fixed on him. With newfound confidence, the shaman tucked the book away and spoke from memory.
"Time streameth always forward; none may return, nor may it be halted, nought endureth forever as all that doth exist shall meet its end in time..."
"You hear that? That's a joke!"
Without a care, he continues, this time, he spoke in a higher tone.
"As thou livest, while time remains, dwell not on days bygone and cherish what is thine. Three..."
"If anything's a joke, the young master is the biggest of all!"
People burst out laughing, the marketplace filling with mirth.
"He pissed himself before 'Beloved Scholar Cheon Ma' and fainted!" the old man bellowed, grinning.
"As expected of 'The Drifting Star, Shin Iseul'—blind and deaf, and still he brings laughter."
"Hope he rots in Everell," the youth sneered.
Anger reddened the shaman's face, but he pressed on and wrapped up his speech.
*Clap!*
Instantly, it changed to a land of green.
In front of him, a man with a sword speaks. With his wooden sword, he carved runes on the ground.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, and finally seven, and you got three hundred of those?"
"Who are you again?"
"Ye Xi... Ye Iseul...…"
Encased in a watery cocoon. Where, within, a butterfly rests on his forehead.
Above, the skies, a colossal shadow shifted, fanning waves of air, clearing the water and exposing scarred ground below.
*Crash!*
Looming above it, it crashes into the ground, sliding closer and closer as it finally crashes into him.
Staying still, the water pillar pierces across the hull, splitting the ship into a wreckage as it slides far from him.
Wood groaned and splintered all around.
As the shimmering blue butterfly resting on his brow drifted away between his eyes. The watery pillar where Xin exists exploded, sending him sprawling across the barren shallows.
With heavy breaths, he awakens, recalling, "A dream—a dream I remember."
A nightmare of a dream.
*Fweet!*
A sharp whistle rang out—a call for reinforcements. Xin tensed as warnings raced over the water.
Within seconds, a spear flew at him. Without thinking, his unruly tail swatted it aside, though it grazed his face, drawing a line of blood.
They encircled him, scattered around the wreck, spears readied. In formation, someone from them stuck out and stepped out.
Adorned in feathers and with his head painted in white, a leader.
"A talking game!" The leader shouted, beating his chest as his warriors advanced.
"To hell with that, white-head!" Xin snapped.
The ground shook, swirling the waters between, disrupting his balance. A pillar of water erupted between them. knocking them all down to the ground.
Sprawled on the ground, Xin grew dizzy, and his vision began to blur. Their jet black inked feet crowded his sight, they tied him in a rope, lying in a drifting wood.
They drag him through the ground. Xin, concussed, slowly regains vision. Above him, something floats, a translucent panel.
Within reads.
Ye Xin, survivor, has met the conditions for the quest "Aegere & Aefer."
Dragged to the ground, in each second, closer and closer, he saw it again, the monstrous, tower-like structure.
Even though he looks left or right, he only sees its large size, even though it's far.
-The words faded as a cool breeze brushed his skin.
He felt earth and grass beneath him; footsteps rustled through the blades.
"Empty yourself—you mustn't mix it. It's not alive, it has no feeling; accept it as it is."
It burns, it's out of control…