Water gathered as it turned blue, veiling him, in a watery pillar, floating him up. Blood curls, scars, scratches… everything from him started to heal.
At a great distance, a colossal shadow shifted, repeatedly flapping its wings.
Zizz!
Its wet wings scattered waters flying like bullets, whilst the waves of air cleared the water, exposing the ground below.
The water flew to him, integrating into the water pillar.
Parting the thick fog, moonlight shines upon Xin's eyes. With its light, blue hue, it reveals its surroundings.
A depressing yet calming atmosphere.
Splash!
The pillar exploded, scattering water everywhere. It flew away as the water as the wate exploded.
Xin dropped to the ground muttering something whilst his fingers moved, rippling a wave in the endless shallow waters.
*Gasp!*
'I dreamed?'
It was something that he was sure he felt, yet nothing he could recall to ponder. For his own thought, he brushed it aside and stood up.
Above him, a giant looming structure towers, piercing the skies with its height. It was something he couldn't ignore due to how large it is.
Plop.
Rain trickles; 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.
A faint, stony clapping echoed through the waters.
"The moon's really making it rain," an old man's voice said awkwardly.
Xin frowned as he understood them, filling his heart with suspicion.
He looks around for something, something that he can do something about this situation. There, he saw beside a structure sticking out.
It was the same kind of structure he had been trapped in.
Suddenly, someone from the three stops.
"Lim'ur… Are you sure you saw and heard the Simurgh here?"
"It was here! The divine creature walked like a chicken!" The man named Lim'ur moves his hand, readying his spear.
He hurled it, throwing it in the same direction, where Xin had awoken.
Slam!
As it drops, loud tremors can be felt throughout the area. With it, ripples in the shallow waters started to form.
'Huuwatt?'
Xin hides instinctively behind the structure as he then ducks flat to the ground. He felt squeezy, wet, and cold on the ground.
"Do you know why?" someone asked with a distinct voice.
A teenage boy's voice.
Xin peeked, then glimpsed three men with spears and indiscernible expressions.
They were dark as ink. Everything about them felt ancient.
"Probably Lim'ur just got tired and saw something—" He glanced in Xin's direction at the corner of his eye, though he continued speaking. "Something like that," said the third man.
The two men bickered like couples. Though they look like three black men.
Their two eyes definitely met. Xin sweats, trickling down his face
He hurries, like a rat, there he opened the lid, without them knowing. But doubt gnawed at him, as in his mind. As he found the interior far too deep.
How could he escape again if he hid there?
"Kras! Trust me, I really—"
Clunk.
"That's strange—where did this come from?" The third man said, as he then approached, shifting the tone.
Below, Xin hid and clung to the lid's ring as it closed, trapping his fingers. Inside his mind, he screams.
Thump!
Someone from them jumped above the lid.
Inside, Xin heard muffled voices overhead, punctuated by a heavy thud. The lid pressed down on him harder.
'Tutu…'
In agony, he whimpered, shuddering with paranoia, afraid they'd caught him, whilst tears blurred his vision as he dangled helplessly.
Clang.
A lighter sound this time—like a stick tapping out a rhythm. Below, where Xin hid pressure increased, and he heard them arguing.
'An orchid… A witch…'
He wept quietly, enduring fiery pain in his joints. Cramped below, he recoiled—his hand brushed against something musty beside him.
A corpse.
He gagged and arched his back in anguish as he felt fluids start dripping onto Xin's forehead, painting his clothes red.
Something moves inside the corpse.
__________________________
Alone, someone above twirls a severed head on his spear. Skewering it with a spear, beside it is another decapitated head.
Its face didn't bleed.
Dangling attached to his spear, inside its skin, hair stuck out, flowing like threads, trinkling down blood. Its skin slowly peels due to its weight, revealing a face.
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—"
Silence fell—Xin didn't hear the others anymore. He felt the pressure lift as something crawled at his feet.
It gnawed at him.
'It hurts.'
Xin echoed in his mind. But he endures, waits, and waits.
Until he can't take it anymore…
With his hands in pain, he pulls himself up and pushes with his head, opening the lid.
A stunning brightness stabbed at his eyes, blotting out all detail. It smelled of metallic stench, assaulting his nose.
He can't see, but still climbs to escape. 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 hurls as he covers his mouth, and tears start to form.
As before him lay two headless bodies, sprawled like butchered animals. Their bodies were intertwined like dogs, blood gushing like fountains.
A psychopath works.
He felt his vision swim and was hungry. His hand bled, fingers purple and useless, pain radiating from his limp arm joints.
He questions himself—did he deserve this, was this really it, who to blame?
'Tutu… Kras… Tim'ur…'
Names, all of which he hears. His mind is all in shambles, as he screamed before retching uncontrollably.
Blood drips as he stands still; there, senseless, he can't walk anymore, his body won't move.
'Move…'
The thought of dying again broke him. As he closed his eyes, someone whispered.
"You can't," said a childlike, ghostly voice.
Splash!
He fell, rippling the blood-waters, soaking his white clothes. Fully permeating it in red.
When he opened his eyes, everything was white—a vast void stretched into eternity. The opposite colors of the world.
'Am… I dead?'
There, he felt ethereal and strange.
He looked around but saw nobody. Only the giant pillar stood afar. There he tried to speak, but he looked down and saw nothing.
Just a single eye floating alone.
Floating alone, something before him materialized.
A stat panel—Within it reads.
Ye Xin /█/ Lvl. I
HP: 1/10 Stats: Normal
Mind: 22/30 Stamina: 09/15 RP: 10
STR: 10 AGI: 5 DEF: 3 INT: 12
◙|Survivor|5| Inventory: [][][][][][][][][][]
↓Maximise↓
|4| In an instant, his battered body materialized again.
Thump.
He collapsed to the ground, unmoving—just a husk—Lifeless, as he can't move, he has no skull, just a skin on the floor.
Senseless.
Water seeped through the ground and formed a pillar around him, lifting him upright until he stood.
His blood swirls and curls around his body. Encased within the water as it washed over him, head to toe, piece by piece, slowly mending and restoring him whole.
Between his eyebrows, he felt something rest, like an insect. Within seconds in out of thin air, the world changed into—
'A bustling town.'
Xin noticed the numbers had changed, whilst it disappeared completely, still he ignored it as he was distracted, as in front of him, the world changed.
Rows of wooden houses, tiled rooftops, adorned with lanterns, in every corner, wooden stalls stood above, stoned pavements.
*Foosteps*
People walked around, dressed in a single garment. A flowing robe consisted of multiple layers of cloth.
'A beautiful morning.'
In red without a face, he walks, sticking out like a sore thumb. He climbed atop a stool and opened a large book before the gathering crowd.
'A shaman in red.'
"Hear me as I recite the words of our creator." He turned the pages, his voice rising, "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.
"Time streameth always forward; none may return, nor may it be halted, nought endureth forever as all that is, shall come to his ende in time..."
"You hear that? That's a joke!"
Without a care, he continues, but this time, he spoke in a higher tone.
"As thou livest, while time remains, dwell not on days bygone and cherish what is thine—"
"If anything's a joke, the young master is the biggest of all!"
People burst out laughing, filling the atmosphere with mirth.
"He pissed himself before 'Beloved Scholar Cheon Ma' and fainted!"
"As expected of 'The Drifting Star, Shin Iseul'—blind and deaf, and still he brings laughter."
"Hope he rots in Everell."
The shaman frowned, but he pressed on and wrapped up his speech…
Clap!
With a clap, in an instant it changes again into.
A land in green.
A horizon, a garden where a house stood alone. Merging with nature.
In front of him, a man with a sword speaks. With his wooden sword, he carved letters on the ground.
"One, two, three, four, five, six, and finally seven. With these, you can manipulate fate through luck—"
Xin blinks. It again changed.
'A man… Holding a rock.'
"And you got 300 of those?"
It wasn't just a rock; it was shiny. The man holding a shiny rock inspects it again.
'Where is this?'
He waved at him, dismissing his melancholy with a wave.
"Hey!"
"Yeah... I'm sure."
He muttered as he instinctively fiddled with his rings.
"My name is Go, the merchant… And yours?"
Go offered, handing over a plaque and a bag of coins.
"Go on."
"Ye Xi... Ye Iseul…"
|3||2||1||0|He was unconscious, encased in a watery pillar. Within, a butterfly rests on his forehead.
It was Ye Xin.
Looming between the moon's light, it falls above him. Heavy, as waves of air cleared the waters, exposing the ground.
Crash!
It crashes into the ground, sliding closer and closer as it finally crashes into him. Sending a huge wave of water everywhere.
Creak!
Staying still, the water pillar pierces across the hull as it crashes into him, splitting the ship into a wreckage as it slides far from him.
Wood groaned and scattered all around. Rippling waves of water as it turns into simply a wreckage.
Splash!
The watery pillar exploded, and water sprang across the barren shallows, whilst the butterfly resting on him drifted away between his eyes.
As it flew, Ye Xin rose. Clad in red, he stood up. Within seconds, he wandered across the endless shallows, past the ruined hulk of the ship—
Like a corpse, empty as he wanders.
Suddenly, he stopped and stood still. His eyes widened, whilst his chest puffed as he then gasped for air.
*Gasp*
Everything about him changed; his flimsy and thin body, toned up.
Fweet!
A sharp whistle rang out—a call for reinforcements. Xin tensed as water ripples raced over the water. Within seconds, a spear flew at him.
Without thinking, at his waist it swatted it aside—His tail.
They encircled him, scattered around the wreckage, spears readied. Adorned in feathers, his head painted in white, stepped forward.
"A talking game," The white headed man shouted, beating his chest as his warriors advanced.
Suddenly, before him, the weather whirls. water gathers encircling him below.
Boom!
A pillar of water erupted between them, knocking down all of them.
Xin grew dizzy, and his vision began to blur. Before him, feet crowded his sight.
Flat on the ground, they dragged him away, and he stared blankly at the sky. As above the skies, it floated, a translucent panel. Within it, it reads.
Ye Xin has met the conditions for the quest [Aegere & Aefer.]
-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…