I was trapped in an abyss of shadows, where light felt like a distant memory — a whisper that could never reach me. The cave stretched endlessly upward and around me, and every step I tried to take was a pact with pain. The darkness wasn't just the absence of light; it was a weight clinging to my skin, pressing against my chest, squeezing the breath out of me.
My trembling hands brushed against walls that seemed to pulse, exhaling a damp chill that contrasted with the burning heat running through my veins. Every sound was amplified, every echo a scream that belonged to no one but me.
And then I heard it — her voice. Emi's sweetness pierced the blackness, a delicate thread trying to guide me back to life.
I ran toward her without thinking, desperate to touch her face, to feel her breath, to cling to the certainty that she was still alive. But the cave reacted: the closer I got, the dimmer the light became. My steps stopped echoing, my lungs barely moved air, and her voice — that melody that had given me strength — faded into dark silence.
"Emi!!" I shouted, my voice shattering like glass.
Nothing. Only the void.
A cold fear slid down my spine, crawled through my limbs, and settled in my chest like a thief. The images came unbidden: her lifeless body, sand stained with blood, memories of so many others who no longer breathed.
And the world, as if sharing my despair, grew darker, heavier. Every step I tried to take was a river of pain flowing from my legs into every fiber of my being.
Finally, I reached a clearing where a faint ray of light fell through a gaping hole in the ceiling. My heart, against all reason, pushed me a step forward… and that was my mistake.
The ground vanished beneath my feet. I fell headfirst into the abyss, a void that swallowed me like a hungry mouth.
The impact at the bottom was brutal — my legs snapped with a crack that echoed in my mind like a hammer striking iron. I tried to rise.
My body didn't respond. I could only feel the pain — a frozen fire piercing through me — each breath a torment, each heartbeat a hammer reminding me I was alive only to suffer.
I fell to my knees, gasping, screaming. My throat was a desert, and my tears a torrent mixing blood and sand.
Then the voice returned.
It was Emi… but no longer. The sweetness had been replaced by a sharp edge — a mockery that slid into every fiber of my mind.
"What's wrong? Wasn't I the one you were hoping for? Did I disappoint you?" — her voice was rough now, playful, cruel. — "Your legs… they broke, didn't they? I heard it from up here."
I looked up, unable to move, and saw something fall on me — a strange liquid that soaked me completely, sticking to my skin, cooling and burning it all at once. Each drop was a reminder of my helplessness, of the infinite distance between my broken body and the shadow laughing above me.
I tried to scream, to beg for help, but only moans of pain came out. Every attempt to move was a lost battle against my own body.
Then the woman changed weapons: a sphere of fire formed in her hand — small, perfect — and she threw it with the precision of one who had practiced the art of destruction for centuries. The orb struck my arm, and the pain was instant, pure, uncontrollable.
I tried to extinguish it with my other hand, but it was useless. The fire spread, as if it knew where to find my flesh, how to wrap my shoulders, my arms, my chest. It devoured me, and my scream turned into a lament with no escape.
The air filled with smoke and sulfur; my skin seemed alive, vibrating with a fire that would never yield. I tried to summon my magic, the water that had always answered my will... but every spark that touched my body turned into agony, every attempt to move an act of desperation doomed to fail.
"WATER! SOMEBODY!" I screamed, my voice breaking, merging with the roar of the flames. "PUT OUT THESE DAMNED FLAMES!"
No one came. Only her. Only her voice — sharp, relentless, mocking.
"You're alone…" she whispered. "And you'll die alone."
Each word was a hammer to my mind, a reminder that I was trapped in pain, in darkness, in fire, and in the mockery of the one who had once been my sister.
The heat was unbearable, the smoke clung to my lungs, and the strange liquid coating me refused to let the fire die. It was an endless cycle: my flesh healed, but the flames consumed it again and again, as if existence itself conspired to torture me. Every second was an eternity; every heartbeat a reminder that there was no escape.
I tried to close my eyes, to flee into my mind, but even there I was trapped. Her laughter echoed, each chuckle a dagger piercing my consciousness. Each breath was an attempt to cling to something — anything — while my body became a living canvas of suffering.
And then, from above, her final act: a magical spear. It shone for an instant — a focused ray of pure energy — and drove itself into my heart. The pain was indescribable, the sensation one of total emptiness.
My body finally stopped responding, and the fire that had devoured me fell silent.
My flesh went still, my senses faded, and the torment ended. For the first time since I had fallen, everything was quiet. Everything was calm. My body, at last, was still. My soul, freed from the prison of pain my flesh had become, faded away among flames that never should have burned.