"In chaos, divinity hides not in power, but in what the soul dares to touch."
The second statue towered before her, and for the first time since her death, Crystal felt her breath catch.
It wasn't a mere carving. It was alive—too perfect, too precise, too divine.
The figure was of a woman, tall and beautiful beyond words, her features flawless and otherworldly. The curve of her lips carried both serenity and danger, her long hair flowed as if moved by a breeze that didn't exist, and her eyes—closed, yet sharp even in stillness—felt as though they could pierce through souls.
At her side coiled a serpent so massive it dwarfed her, its head raised high, fangs bared. The creature's stone scales shimmered faintly under the blood moon, each one engraved with patterns that looked like runes. Its eyes were locked on Crystal—calm, eternal, yet carrying the hunger of something ancient.
The woman held a blade unlike any Crystal had ever seen. It resembled a katana, yet its design was alien—a curved serpent coiled around the blade's spine, its tail merging with the hilt, and its head resting near the tip of the sword. The metal looked alive, ready to strike.
In her other hand, the woman was gently patting the great serpent, her fingers resting just between its eyes.
Behind her glowed a halo—not of gold, but of shimmering green light. It flickered like lightning trapped in water, its aura fierce yet strangely soothing.
Crystal stared, completely still. The pressure that poured from the statue was suffocating. Yet beneath that weight was something else—a whisper that felt like a call.
"This…" she breathed. "You look… familiar."
She didn't know why. She couldn't remember ever seeing a face like this. But something deep in her soul stirred, a faint echo that made her chest tighten.
The statue's beauty was overwhelming, but it wasn't what made her tremble. It was the pull—the feeling that it was calling her name without sound, inviting and warning her all at once.
Crystal swallowed hard. "What are you?"
There was no answer. Only the endless sea of blood beneath her and the red moon above.
She hesitated for a long time, staring into the eyes of the serpent. Even made of stone, it looked like it might lunge forward at any moment.
Still, she stepped closer.
Every instinct screamed at her to stop, but her heart moved her forward.
She reached out a trembling hand.
The serpent's jaw twitched. For an instant, its fangs seemed to gleam under the moonlight, as if preparing to strike.
Crystal froze mid-step. Her pulse quickened. But after a moment, nothing happened. The serpent remained still, a statue once more.
Her lips curved into a faint, broken smile. "It's just stone," she whispered. "Just stone."
And yet her voice shook.
She stepped forward again—closer this time. The air around her grew heavier, thicker, the kind of weight that pressed on her soul rather than her body.
When she finally stood before the statue, she looked up. The woman's calm, divine expression seemed almost… proud.
Crystal's hand rose slowly. "You called me," she murmured. "So… here I am."
Her fingertips brushed against the stone.
The moment she touched it—
The world cracked.
A thunderous sound split the silence. The blood moon above shuddered violently, its surface splintering like shattered glass. Cracks spread across the sky, streaks of white tearing through the endless dark.
The ocean beneath her feet rippled once, then fractured. Lines of light burst from every direction, spreading across the blood sea like veins of lightning.
Crystal stumbled back, eyes wide. "What's—"
Before she could finish, the moon broke apart completely. Shards of crimson light fell like burning stars, crashing into the ocean below. Each impact sent waves of red fire erupting into the air.
The ground—or whatever passed for it—trembled violently. The statues themselves groaned, cracks running across their stone bodies.
"Stop!" Crystal shouted, though she didn't know who she was shouting at.
Her voice was lost in the chaos.
The blood sea began to rise. Not in waves this time, but in massive spirals that twisted upward into the air, dragging the remains of the moonlight with them.
Then the green light appeared.
It began as a faint shimmer around her body, then expanded, forming a translucent barrier that pulsed with energy.
Symbols flickered across its surface—lines of light that shaped themselves into words.
[Soul recovered.]
Confirming…
Accessing soul's host.
Crystal's eyes widened. "What… is this?"
The words weren't spoken aloud. They appeared before her, hanging in the air like inscriptions on glass.
The green light brightened, swirling faster around her, the symbols multiplying.
Access confirmed.
Initializing host recovery protocol.
She didn't understand what any of it meant, but for the first time since her death, something inside her flickered with hope.
Maybe this—whatever it was—could save her.
Then the light pulsed again.
Analyzing host body… 10%... 50%... 100%...
Error.
Host body destroyed. Access failed.
Crystal's breath caught. "Failed?"
The words shifted rapidly.
Searching for alternatives…10%... 20%... 40%... 50%... 70%...
Failed.
No compatible body found.
Her hands trembled. Around her, the world continued to collapse.
The sky broke apart completely now, shards of darkness falling like shattered glass into the rising sea of blood. The moon had already crashed into the water, sending waves so large they reached the horizon—though that horizon, too, was crumbling away.
"Come on," she whispered to the glowing screen. "Please… do something…"
The words flickered again.
Protective realm collapsing.
Recreating multiple methods to recover host body…
The green light intensified, spinning faster, its glow reflecting in her eyes. The runes surrounded her, hundreds of them now, all moving in patterns she couldn't read.
She could feel her armor heating up, cracks spreading across its surface. The light seeped through, tracing the fractures until her entire body glowed faintly green.
"Wait—"
The armor shattered.
The pieces broke apart silently, dissolving into dust before touching the ground. Within seconds, nothing remained. She stood exposed under the falling shards of the blood moon, her form shimmering faintly like light through water.
The screen's glow pulsed brighter.
Attempting to stabilize soul fragment...
Recalibrating vessel structure…
Failure rate: 82%.
The numbers and words shifted too fast for her to follow.
Crystal looked up. The sky had almost completely collapsed now. The blood sea churned violently, rising into the air as though trying to escape its own end.
Every sound blended into a single roar—the sound of a world dying.
The green light tightened around her, wrapping her in a sphere of energy.
"Please," she whispered again, her voice breaking. "I don't want to die… not again."
The glowing symbols flickered once more.
Stabilizing core soul essence.
Searching for anchor...
Anchor not found.
Emergency override engaged.
Crystal watched helplessly as the cracks around her spread faster. The statues shattered, pieces falling into the collapsing sea.
The blood moon's final fragment fell into the ocean, and the resulting impact sent a wave that rose higher than mountains, swallowing everything in sight.
The world itself was falling apart.
She clenched her fists, staring desperately at the screen. "Hurry… please…"
The symbols blurred, flickering erratically, half disappearing before she could read them.
Recreating host body... 10%... 30%... 60%...
The numbers froze.
Process unstable.
The green light flickered wildly, flashes of chaos energy bursting outward.
Crystal could feel her soul shaking apart, her form flickering between solid and transparent.
"Don't—" she whispered.
The sea exploded upward, the final wave crashing toward her.
Her eyes filled with the reflection of the crimson light and the green glow that wrapped her.
She reached out toward the collapsing sky, toward the dying moon, toward something.
And as the light consumed everything—
She hoped it would save her.
"When the world collapses, chaos writes its own beginning."