You're not planning to jump at my throat while I sleep, are you? I'm not recovered enough yet to dodge anything.
She: (looking away slightly)
No. If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it while you were sleeping.
Winlife: (chuckles softly)
You have a reassuring way about you.
She:
Here, it's better to tell the truth than to lie. Lying, in any case, we are doomed to solitude here.
Winlife:
It keeps getting better and better.
She: (after a long moment)
Welcome to the Crypt. Where time no longer matters, and where only those they want to break are locked up.
Winlife:
...Great. I just wanted to survive a meal...
Days passed and Winlife was still looking for a way to escape. Since his confinement, no deity, neither the gods nor the guardians, had returned.
** (In the Prison) **
The icy calm of the Crypt is suddenly broken. A low hum resonates through the walls. The light trembles slightly.
Winlife, sitting against the wall, looks up. The girl remains motionless, but her eyes harden.
Winlife: (whispering)
What is that noise...?
Girl: (low, dry voice)
A guardian. He's approaching.
Heavy footsteps echo, accompanied by a metallic screech. A massive silhouette advances into the cell's mist. The guardian appears, immense, clad in dark armor marked with ancient seals. His gaze is burning with anger. A murderous energy emanates from him.
Igrex the Guardian: (in a dry, brutal tone)
You.
He points at Winlife, who straightens up with difficulty, his arms stretched out in front of him.
Igrex: (coldly)
You killed a brother. A Guardian.
How...? HOW did you do it?!
Winlife: (gasping, answers without aggression)
He attacked me. I just... survived.
Igrex: (screams)
Lies! You are nothing! You weren't even supposed to find the Gargan beast's cave! And yet... you erased it.
He takes a sudden step forward and strikes a destructive punch at Winlife's stomach, condensing his fist and enveloping it in white energy. The latter collapses, coughing, doubled over in pain. Spitting out a lot of blood.
Igrex: (crouches down, icy voice in his ear)
You should never have been summoned here. Your life... would have been so much simpler elsewhere. You are not ready for this world.
He straightens up, casting a final contemptuous look at the girl who hasn't moved.
Igrex:
Enjoy your agony, Anomaly. I promise you will cry all the tears of your miserable existence.
And with a sharp clap, he disappears in a breath of dark energy.
After this atrocious and brutal scene,
Silence. Heavy. The girl slowly approaches, for the first time without distance. She kneels beside Winlife, who groans softly, his arms across his chest.
Girl: (softly)
You shouldn't have answered. He was waiting for that.
She places her hands on his ribs without looking at him.
Winlife: (groaning)
I don't like being treated like a monster... even if I might have become one.
She closes her eyes for a moment. A slight warmth emanates from her palms. The pain subsides, just a little.
Winlife: (whispering)
Thank you...
Girl: (calm)
It's nothing. Just... stay alive.
Winlife remained stunned for a few hours, lying unintentionally in the girl's lap, then he woke up.
Winlife: (after a moment, eyes half-closed)
You shouldn't be so close to me like that, I might get some ideas that are a little... you know...
The girl said nothing. She didn't understand why she felt attached to a man she had only known for a few months.
Winlife: (with a lost look)
You know, Sofie, I wasn't supposed to be here... This world is not mine. I come from another place. From a noisy, dirty, crazy... but human world.
She listens to him, silent, without judgment.
Winlife: (distant voice)
I had a life. Friends, streets full of honking, neon lights on the ceiling. I wasn't doing anything great, mind you. Just... living.
Pause. He smiles, a little bitter.
Winlife:
The day I arrived here... I was with them. My friends (coughing) the best, everyone was special in their own way. Arbalex was the most idiotic in some cases, but he was always ready to unify the group. Dufirmo was sometimes interesting but also weird. Fullbusterm and Ivan were always there at the right place at the right time.
He forced a disappointed smile woven from good times spent with his friends.
I don't even know if they are still alive. Or if they think I'm dead. Maybe I already am, actually...
Girl: (whispering)
You are not dead.
He turns his head slightly towards her.
Girl:
This world rejects you... but it recognized you. You are here for a reason, even if it still surpasses you.
Winlife: (sighs)
And you? How long have you been here?
Girl: (vague look)
Long enough not to count anymore.
Winlife: (softly)
And do you have a name? Or should I continue to call you just Sofie the Rib-Mender?
Girl: (smiles, but doesn't answer)
Good night, Winlife.
She gets up, returns to her corner of the cell, sits down, and almost disappears into the shadow.
Winlife: (thoughts)
She's hiding something. But at least... she doesn't want me dead. That's something.
Sealed cell, pale light barely filtering through the bars of a ceiling no one has touched for centuries.
The floor is cold. The air, damp. It was another day. Winlife is sitting in a corner, still shaken by the violent altercation with the beings of this world. Blood drips from his split lip. His gaze is fixed on the wall. He is seething.
Mysterious Girl: (softly, placing a damp cloth near him)
Are you going to let the pain devour you... or are you finally going to breathe?
Winlife: (stares at her)
Sofie, why are you locked up here... and why do you seem so calm?
(...He hesitates, then adds in a low voice:)
And... why are you helping me?
Girl: (looking away, almost melancholic)
People here never talk. People here die.
(...pause)
You are the first person to enter here... alive... and be a rather normal human.
Winlife: (startled)
At least you don't call me an anomaly, that's something.
Girl: (nodding slowly)
This cell only contains the mistakes the Gods want to forget. They erase us. Slowly.
Winlife: (sighs)
Yeah, I've already realized that with these four months spent here.
(Pause...)
Before landing here, I had a completely different vision of an isekai.
Girl: (curious, eyes shining a little)
Isekai??
Winlife: (leans against the wall, eyes towards the ceiling)
Yeah... where I come from, that's what we call another world... I thought that once here, I would have a quiet life, my own harem, that I would have freedom over everything and anything, and above all, that I would be the center of attention.
At least I'm still the center of attention, but not the way I wanted.
Girl: (silent for a moment, then)
This world devours heroes. It doesn't celebrate them.
Winlife: (clenches his fists)
I was supposed to be a hero... protect the life around me, make it better... But instead, I lost everything. My friends, my strength, my illusions. And now, a guardian wants my head because I ate his cursed chicken...
Girl: (looks at the ground, a sad smile)
What you ate... wasn't just a beast. It was... a seal. You are now a problem for the balance.
Winlife: (sighs)
I'm a problem for everything, apparently...
Suddenly, the room trembles. A golden glow invades the walls. The chains of light appear again, this time around Winlife alone.
Girl: (recoils, panicked for the first time)
No... They are summoning you. The Judgment of the Heavens...
Suddenly a circle appears and luminous chains immediately engulf him and he was teleported... to...
Divine Temple — The Throne of Balance