Whoosh

The wind roared as the the group stepped through the strange barrier separating the outside of that grassy plain from the outside world.

The outside world was an equally as grassy plain

The sun shone down magnificently, and the view could only be described as beautiful.

However, the only Aki could take note of was the lack of anything living.

There were no birds chirping, no animals frolicking, and no insects in between the blades of grass.

...

The group continued walking before coming upon a strange foggy forest

"Sorry we're going to have to take a detour"

Both the man and the woman behind him began walking into the forest but Aki stayed still.

He turned in the opposite direction and began to walk where his instinct was telling him to

The man turned his head in confusion with an equally confused look on his face

But he understood that he was not going to follow him, so as a word of good luck-

"Safe Travels!"

He yelled it out to Aki before the duo disappeared into the forest.

Aki, however, completely failed to take notice and began walking.

...

Aki walked in a daze

His eyes were cloudy and muddled.

His body was being controlled.

Had he been able to recognize this he would've attempted to fight back.

But his brain was essentially mush.

He followed the clear path thorough the fog in vision

...

Drip

Aki was jolted awake by a large drop of water dripping onto his head.

Although he quickly fell back to the ground

His body was extremely weak and Aki could barely move

The area Aki was in as extremely dark to the point that he couldn't see his own body.

Straining, he finally managed to sit up. And after another moment he got up to his feet.

As he stood up he could feel more liquid running down his body.

The remaining tatters of his shirt fell to the ground leaving him with only his extremely weathered pants.

"Control..."

He uttered this weakly as a flame appeared in his hand.

His experience compelled him to create another arrow but it wouldn't help him.

Aki pondered for a moment before letting go of the flame and allowing it to float.

It stretched into a ring of flame and floated to the top of his head creating a halo of flame.

With this, he could finally see his surroundings.

Rough, cold stone lay in every corner of whatever he was in. He looked up saw a Stalactite with water running down it.

Now that he got his bearings he could finally move onto the important matter.

Where am I?

Aki failed to recall anything after parting with those people.

"Hmmmm…"

"Oh well."

Aki figured that how he got here didn't matter, he just need to leave.

Drip

For the past while Aki had been hearing the sound of liquid hitting the ground but he couldn't figure out the source.

He looked down and began to closely inspect his body.

His entire chest was covered in wounds and bruises.

The most noticeable one was a deep gash down the middle of his torso which had been crudely patched with cloth of unknown origin.

Aki had apparently been bleeding out for quite some time. He wondered how he was even alive.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

In front of him he could see a long straight tunnel.

With no where else to go he might as well go down it.

Clang

"Ouch…"

He had tripped on something metal.

While rubbing his head he looked behind him saw a blood stained iron sword.

Ignoring this he quickly got back up and kept walking.

I thought dexterity was for moments like that…

…

He was halfway through the tunnel when he began to see a blue light from what was most likely the end.

With an actual end in sight, Aki was invigorated.

Ignoring his body's pleas for him to slow down he began to run.

Until he got the feeling that he should duck.

He immediately ducked and from above, he could feel the wind rush.

Crash

Aki turned around to see what caused it and he saw a large floating greatsword stuck inside of the walls of the tunnel.

He didn't want to figure out what else the sword could do so he quickly took off.

"Kyahahahahaha"

Ghastly, maniacal laughter rang out as he kept running

…

Aki had finally reached the source of the light.

Hunched over he tried to catch his breath, only to lose his balance and fall on his bosom.

"Ghhhhhh"

His teeth grinded against themselves while he tried not to let out a scream.

He could feel the pressure on his wound grow more and more intense.

Aki quickly rolled over and began to squirm around.

His body felt more active. Like something was inside of him.

"Control!"

He quickly conjured a flame and shoved it inside of his chest.

Scorching heat immediately enveloped his entire chest.

The feeling from his wound grew even more intense before something came out.

It was a near transparent orb with a light blue aura coming from it.

The pain had finally subsided and he looked ahead to see what the source of the light was.

He could see a giant crystal with something trapped inside of it.

It appeared to be a weapon but it's shape was unclear.

While his attention was focused on the crystal the orb began to accelerate into the crystal.

As it entered the crystal it's surface began to ripple, reverberating across it's surface.

The ripples began to appear faster and faster until-

Shatter

The crystal had broke.

Left in the middle of the shards was a sword that seemed to have a fog around it.

The edge constantly shifted in thickness and length.

Aki waddled his way over to the sword trying his best to not let too much blood leave his chest.

He grabbed what appeared to resemble a handle and picked it up.

The haze disappeared instantly and the final form of the weapon was revealed.

It's edge was almost transparent, it's form resembling a Falchion.

Along the broad edge was a thin layer of fog.

"Haaa… Haaaa"

Aki could feel his face heat up and his heart begin to beat faster as his mouth curved into a grin.

He couldn't describe the feeling. All he knew was that he wanted more.

Griping the sword intensely, he swung it forward.

When it collided the air however, space seemed to shatter.

Not metaphorically, but literally as a portion of space was split open.

From beyond the mysterious gap, strange beasts with incomprehensible forms, shapes and proportions floated about.

Dumbfounded, Aki stared into this great beyond before having his wrapped by something fleshy.

He looked down to see an everchanging tentacle. It's color kept changing rapidly as the inside of the tentacle appeared to break out and reseal its self in a constant cycle.

Aki started squirming, attempting to break it's tight grasp.

"Cont-"

His words were interrupted by the tentacle gripping him even harder.

Blegh

A torrent of blood gushed from his mouth.

This might be the end…

His mind began to be consumed by despair.

The thought of his incoming death began to see more and more unpleasant to Aki.

It was unlike his first time dying, where he could find no reason to hold onto life.

He had found a passion, something to excite him.

He didn't want to die before realizing this.

Through a mouth full of blood he realized that all this time his flame halo had been active.

This meant that he didn't have to speak, he just had to control it.

The halo floated down and changed into the familiar shape of an arrow.

With precision, it flew through the tentacle severing it and causing Aki to fall down onto the ground.

It quickly retreated through hole and disappeared.

Space then closed up and Aki was returned to the darkness.

He could barely move and his consciousness was flickering from all the blood he lost.

Using what little energy he could muster he crawled over and tightly gripped the sword he had just found.

Then his vision went black and his body sprawled out on the ground.

Golden light spread through the room.

…

"Let them rest"

Aki was woken up by the sound of someone's voice.

He groggily opened his eye's and saw light with no origin beaming from the top of the cave.

As he searched for the source of the voice he took in his surroundings.

Scorched corpses litter the area with small puddles of blood.

He saw a figure with a broad back and long grey hair with his hands clasped together over the corpse.

His face had many wrinkles showing his evident age.

After blinking a few times he checked on the condition of his body.

All of his wounds had closed up and he no longer felt lethargic.

Aki got up, feeling way more energized than before.

He stretched his body to relieve the stiffness and noticed the bag on his back.

It held the sword he had previously obtained.

"I hope you appreciate my gift"

The old man, who unbeknownst to Aki had gotten up held a soft smile on his face as he said this.

His body began to fade away into dust.

"You should be able to figure out where the exit is.

He gave one final wave of his hand before his body completely dissolved.

Aki looked around for a moment before seeing another tunnel.

Only this time it was shorter and natural sunlight shone from it.

…

Haaaaaaaaaa

Aki mentally sighed as he could finally relax.

He had left the cave and made it to the outside world.

The cave had disappeared after Aki left it and in it's place was an ordinary rock.

"Control"

A flame began to float in front of Aki. he was curious what the true limits of this ability was.

It began to stretch and contort until it changed into the form of a horse.

Aki walked up to it and attempted to mount it, however he forgot that flames were not considered a solid and tumbled to the ground rather unceremoniously.

Seeing that the flame was still active he tried something different.

This time the flame split into two flames.

He then manipulated them and discovered that there was a gap between them.

Attempting to control two at the same time either resulted in both of them following the same changes and movements, which would eventually put them on the course to become one again.

Or one of the flames would remain stagnant while he could manipulate the other one just fine.

"Would this work?"

He merged the flames again and turned them into the form of an arrow.

Only this time he controlled them so that mid flight it would spilt and travel in a set move.

He fired the arrow and sure enough, it worked.

However he lost sight of the flame and couldn't find it to control it so he resummoned it.

He made sure to make note of the fact that if he can't see the flame, he loses control of it.

This time Aki decided to test the limits of it's output.

The flame ascended into the sky and began to expand.

It kept expanding to the point that it could block out the sun but Aki noticed something.

The bigger the mass got, the more intensity it lost.

Aki launched it at the plain below but before it even traveled more than 3 feet the wind extinguished it.

He quelled the flames and began to decide where he travel.

But his thoughts were interrupted by a sudden pain in his stomach.

Aaah I'm hungry