***
Welcome, Enlightened...
The trial shall commence.
Any failure in completing the target in due time will result in one's forfeit of life.
Objective: Alter the Event.
Participant: Alice The Divine Maiden, Arthur Fredrickson
Trial scenario: B.
Required time: 24 hours.
May your journey lead you towards Enlightenment.
***
He couldn't see, he heard the soft monotonous voice of a neutral voice he knew all too well. They fell through the rift seed's tearing light, the dislocation so sudden and violent that Arthur had no time to brace himself, one moment his boots were planted on the damp sand beside Lucid and the next he was tumbling through an endless grey void, he saw Lucid plummeting beside him, a slight smile visible beneath that perpetual mist, and then the world split open and swallowed them whole.
Arthur plunged into the cold water, the shock of it driving the air from his lungs as waves crashed over his head, he tried to swim but something was dragging him down, the weight of his armor, the pull of currents that seemed to have a will of their own, and he realized with a jolt of terror that he was inside a rift and that its designation was far too dangerous for the two of them, had Lucid even known what kind of seed he was activating, had he simply grabbed it without checking its classification.
Arthur's head broke the surface just long enough for a gasp before another wave slammed him under again, he knew how to swim but being dropped into the middle of an ocean during a tempest while wearing armor was a death sentence for anyone, he could feel the metal plates dragging him down, his limbs growing heavier with each desperate kick, his stamina draining faster than he could replenish it, and through the stinging spray he caught faint glimpses of something in the distance, a dark shape that might have been a ship or a rock or merely a trick of the storm-light.
His lungs were burning, his vision darkening at the edges, he was going to get pulled under and drown.
Then something wrapped around his forearm, hard and metallic, and pulled him upward with such force that his shoulder nearly dislocated.
He broke the surface of the water and found himself flying through the air, suspended for a moment like a fish on a line, and then a kick connected with his side that sent him tumbling helplessly toward the dark shape he had spotted earlier, he caught the faintest glimpse of his attacker, a figure suspended in the air with chains coiling around them, and then he was crashing against the wooden hull of a ship, his sword already in his hand, driven into the planks to stop his fall.
"Hey, an intruder!" a voice called out from above, and Arthur looked up to see a girl with a cloth bandana wrapped around her forehead and hair, she wore a white shirt and thigh pants and something that looked like a pirate's rapier at her hip, and she was staring down at him with a mixture of fear and defiance, Arthur was beyond confused at this moment, how had they gone from the calm shoreline where Lucid had been wearing that ridiculous orange life jacket to this hellish nightmare, he scanned the storm-tossed deck and found Lucid suspended in the air by his usual chains, looking more battered than usual, blood streaking down his arms and chest, and before Arthur could call out to him something massive burst from the surface of the ocean.
It was a whale, or perhaps a creature that had once been a whale, its skin shimmered with the iridescent scales of a pearl fish, the same kind they had caught just days ago, but this one was the size of a building, its maw opened wide enough to swallow a carriage whole, and Lucid was hovering directly above it, his legs spread apart, his body positioned just under those terrible teeth, the moment stretched into an eternity as Arthur watched his partner disappear into that gaping mouth, the giant fish suspended in the air for a heartbeat before its jaws clamped shut.
"Holy Mother Alisia," the pirate girl whispered above him.
Arthur remained frozen in quiet shock, his mind refusing to process what he had just witnessed, Lucid was gone, swallowed into the depths of that thing's stomach, and then the creature began to convulse, its smooth ivory skin shuddering as chains burst from its side, then another chain, then a spear that tore through its belly and dragged across its flank leaving a gaping wound that spilled thick purple blood across the heaving deck, the beast split open from within, its scales peeling back like the petals of some grotesque flower, and there stood Lucid in the midst of the carnage, his legs braced apart, one hand gripping a spear, the other holding a chain, his orange life jacket somehow still intact though covered in viscera.
Arthur could not help but smile, a quiet, relieved expression that softened the hard lines of his face, this was the tenacious Lucid he had come to know, the one who always found a way to twist a situation into another trajectory, the one who refused to die even when death seemed certain.
"The enemy is close, fire!" the pirate girl shouted, and Arthur turned just as a cannon on the deck erupted, the shockwave ringing in his ears and sending splinters of wood flying past his face, he yelled Lucid's name as the cannonball hurtled toward them, and a chain pierced the hull as Lucid met the projectile head-on, severing it in half with a swing of his spear, the force of the impact visibly shattering bones in his arm before white light flared and knitted them back together, Arthur gritted his teeth at the sight, the willingness to hurt himself, the casual acceptance of pain, it made him uncomfortable every time he witnessed it.
Lucid extended an arm and a chain flew from his hand, wrapping around the crow's nest of the main mast, he quickly took Arthurs hand with his newly formed one and the two of them were airborne, descending on the pirate girl who scrambled backward across the deck, Arthur rolled as he landed, sword ready, but Lucid hit the ground in a hard plunge that splintered the wood beneath his feet.
"Anyone, get them!" the girl cried out, scrambling away.
Arthur moved to strike, his blade already raised.
"Wait," Lucid yelled, and Arthur stopped, not again, not the chivalry of Lucid playing the savior for women in need, he put his hand away from his sword and regarded the younger man with a quiet, judgmental side eye.
"We are in a rift," Lucid said, his voice steady despite the blood dripping from his chin, "a Zeta rift."
Arthur sighed, he had guessed as much from the sheer intensity of that rift seed, the way it had torn them from reality and deposited them into this stormy nightmare, such classifications were dangerous but manageable.
"We do not need to kill anyone," Lucid continued, "Zeta rifts are similar to Delta rifts, we need to alter something in the past, it never has to be in a good or bad way, just different."
Arthur nodded slowly, his eyes still fixed on the cowering girl, "good, then we do not have to keep her alive, she is an illusion anyway."
He raised his blade again.
Lucid extended his arm once more, and Arthur stopped midway, looking at him with exasperation, leaving the girl alive and the ship intact would only complicate whatever conclusion they needed to reach, inside rifts everything was an illusion, the people who acted like humans were not real, that was what he told himself, that was what allowed him to sleep at night, there was no need for chivalry inside rifts, Arthur reminded himself, and yet he found himself hesitating, because if there were no real people then that would prove them right all along, that would mean he had not become what he desperately avoided.
A voice cut through his thoughts, sharp and accusing, "It is her, good, that is what I needed to confirm."
Arthur looked at the girl, then at Lucid, "wait, you know her?"
Lucid looked back with an amused expression beneath the mist, "she is the one who scammed me, but that is beside the point," he walked closer to Arthur and pointed at the girl, "you see her, keep her alive, do not let her die, if she dies then we die too."
"So we do not need to change the past," Arthur said slowly, "we just need to survive."
"Well, yes, but with extra rules," Lucid replied with a shrug.
The girl stood up, her bandana askew, her hand gripping her rapier, "tell me who you are," she demanded, her voice trembling slightly, "tell me what you want, or I swear on Mother Alisia I will run you both through."
Arthur glanced at Lucid, who simply crossed his arms and waited, the storm continued to rage around them, rain lashing against the deck, waves crashing against the hull, and somewhere beneath the churning water the remains of the great pearl fish sank slowly into the dark, Arthur let out a long breath and sheathed his sword, he had no idea what they had walked into, but he knew one thing for certain, this was going to be a very long expedition.