He wasn’t sure how it happened. In one moment he was perfectly fine and going about his day as usual, and then darkness. Ceaseless pitch-black darkness had shrouded his consciousness. He could feel no sense of response from his physical body, as if he were cut off from it. For Cyrus Speer, the only thing he could do was plead to the heavens for his survival.

There was no sense of time in the empty void. For all he knew a hundred years could have passed by him and he wouldn’t have noticed, not that he had the leisure of trying to figure it out. A ceaseless fear clouded his mind; doting worries of what was happening to him had kept him from collecting himself.

Click.

Then, suddenly, there was a sensation. A feeling as if his mind made a connection to something. This moment of suddenness has temporarily snapped him back from his fear driven state. Then, silence. As if all though process had ceased, Cyrus remained there in a blank-minded state. It wasn’t until a split second later, after the mysterious mind click, that pain sprang forth.

“Arghh!”

Cyrus lurched. The pain that had found his way to him had taken him by surprise. There was no moment or warning for the impact. He remained there, screaming from the pain for some time until it finally dawned on him. He heard it. He heard his own scream. Wouldn’t that mean he was still alive?

“Grr…”

He gritted his teeth, trying to suppress the pain so that he could think. He could sense it, his body. Thinking on it for a bit he concluded that the clicking sensation his mind had felt must have been his consciousness somehow reconnecting with his body. This was all a mere possibility of course, but it made somewhat of a sense to him. Thanks to that, he had managed to dispel a slight margin of fear from his psyche.

At the moment he was unable to open his eyes. After a bit he had managed to move a part of his body slightly, a means by which told him he was slowly gaining back his physical body functions. Still, he was curious as to why his body was in pain. Slowly, bit by bit, Cyrus managed to move more of his body. Eventually movements had increased to larger increments.

From his movements he could tell that his entire body felt weak. His stomach felt empty, movements felt stiff, and a sense of weariness overwhelmed him. It wasn’t until he tried moving his left arm that he came to a problem. He was unable to move it. A tinge of panic settled into his heart in fear of the worst. However, after a bit of fumbling he found he was still able to feel his arm, and even able to slightly move his fingers. This meant his arm was still attached to him.

Though the question of why he couldn’t move it plagued his mind. In addition to that he felt that the most pain in his body stemmed from that very arm. After confirming that his entire being was still in one piece, Cyrus had no other choice but to wait until he possessed the capabilities of moving once more.

Once again, time seemed infinite as Cyrus suppressed the pain he was feeling. He would occasionally move a random part of his body to ensure himself that he was still there and alive. Eventually he managed to recover his eyesight, slowly opening them to allow them time to adjust to the outside world. However, the bright light he expected to view was nowhere to be seen.

Looking straight above there were no clouds, sunlight, or even stars. Rocks. A rocky ceiling, like that of a cavern, that was what Cyrus had seen when his eyes had finally opened. The walls were different though. Large, smooth bricks were what surrounded him. Ornate items decorated the walls, the likes of which seemed too gaudy for any household to have. Slight confusion overtook him at the sight. Either he was in some type of structured underground cavern, or someone threw a room into a mountain and this was the result. Of course both options were absurd.

“W…Where am I?”

A weak hoarse voice escaped his lips. Though he was unsure how he ended up unconscious, he was at least able to remember that he was nowhere near a place like this. After a bit of thought the pain from his left arm brought his attention back to it. Despite fearing what he may see, Cyrus slowly turned his head towards its direction.

Concrete, a large slab of it was currently occupying the area over his left arm. Rather, his arm was covered in ruble and debris. It wasn’t to the point of being crushed, but blood was seeping out of his arm. Cyrus was unsure of what to do. If he tried pulling it them the ruble might collapse on it and fully crush it, but on the other hand it might collapse anyways. In either case he needed to get his arm out so that he could venture out and figure out where he was at.

Cyrus gritted his teeth and placed as much energy into his left arm as he could muster. With a quick and rough tug, his arm plopped out underneath of the stone slab. After which the ruble that was already piled there collapsed further. It wasn’t the safest of methods, but the unstable condition of the ruble forced this quick action.

With his arm free, though still hurting, Cyrus cradled it as he waited to regain what little strength his body was currently able to maintain. After a few minutes he slowly stood up. Due to the stiffness of his body, Cyrus appeared as though a toddler who was just learning to walk. He wobbled side to side and there were a few instances even he thought he would fall down. Using the wall as leverage he slowly surveyed the room.

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Due to what little, if any, light there was it had been difficult at first to see everything. After allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness Cyrus was now able to see enough to tell what was around. The first thing he noticed was the state of distraught the room’s condition was in. The ceiling was smashed up, walls were tearing down, and an array of ornate object were scattered on the floor. There was one object in particular that had caught Cyrus’s attention.

It lay next to various gaudy swords, shields, and cups. It appearance was that of a small device, no bigger than a palm. Out of all the objects here it was the only one that seemed out of place with the medieval vibe of the other things.

There were four small prongs around the circular device, as if used to stick it anywhere. On the front of the metal-like device was a smooth blue gemstone. At first he thought it might be some kind of strange LED light, though further observation proved otherwise.

At first he was going to toss it away, but something strange had occurred. Some blood from his left arm had made its way to the gemstone, covering the clear blue stone with a splash of red. Suddenly, there was a reaction. The blood that plastered it seeped into the strange gemstone as though it were devouring it.

Cyrus couldn’t help but be surprised. He had never seen anything like this before. Slowly the blue gemstone had a small red dot in the center. The red dot, as though symbolizing Cyrus himself, slowly overtook the entirety of the blue and turned it into a deep crimson red before reverting back to its original blue color. This time the blue gemstone had traces of what appeared to be red decor lines over it.

Scared by it, Cyrus dropped the strange device. Surprisingly no clang against the ground could be heard. Looking at the device, Cyrus was dumbfounded. The device was there, floating, just a few centimeters off the ground as though an unknown force repelled it. Then, as if attracted to what overtook it, the device quickly flew over to Cyrus. The four prongs of the device clasped onto him, refusing to let go.

Reeling back from the shock of it all Cyrus fell down. His left arm, clamped by the device, came into contact with a nearby spear.

Vween!

An unknown sensation came over Cyrus. Confused he looked towards where the sensation seemed to be emanated from only for his eyes to land atop the strange metal device. Lifting his left arm up he found the sensation to have stopped. Wondering what was happening he slowly placed his hand back down, the device back atop the spear it was resting on moments before.

Vween! Vween!

At the moment of contact the strange sensation returned to him. It was strange, a feeling as though the device clasped to him was trying to tell him something. Unable to determine what it wanted, nor how the mental link he seemed to have with it was formed, Cyrus was left dumbfounded at what to do.

I don’t get it. What are you trying to tell me? If you’re going to do something, then do it already. As if reading those thoughts, the device reacted to Cyrus. Afterwards something even more shocking than what happened moments before had occurred right in front of his eyes.

The gemstone appeared to light up a bit as the spear faltered and wavered like it was made of water. Then slowly it dissipated into small fragments of light. Those lights ventured directly towards the gemstone and vanished into it as though it were gorging on them. Eventually the sturdy spear that was once there was now gone, vanished into the small device on his bloody left arm.

Stunned by the act Cyrus remained wide-eyed with his mouth agape. Moments later the pain in his arm was what awoke him from his surprised state. Though he was in pain he still couldn’t help but wonder about what had just occurred. Setting his thoughts on the device and the spear that seemed to have been eaten by it a reaction ensued.

Responding to his thoughts the gemstone glowed as particles of light overtook it. Slowly the clumped up lights, appearing as formless bright water, took shape. What appeared afterwards was the spear that had been absorbed, seemingly fused to the device as the gemstone was assembled with it.

“It turned into a spear?”

This time a small gasp came from Cyrus. Perhaps because he was awestruck no less than three times in rapid success that this act came off as less surprising, though needless to say it was still something to behold enough so that he still voiced out his thoughts.

Wondering on something Cyrus sent his thought to the device once more. Utilizing the strange mental link the device responded to his desires as the spear glowed and dissipated, turning back into the small device.

With his curiosity peaked Cyrus played around with the device, morphing it back and forth from its default state and the spear.

“Hmm, I wonder what else it can turn into.”

Recalling how the spear was absorbed, Cyrus reached over for other things around the area. A shield, sword, bow, chalice and what appeared to be pieces of armor. One by one he allowed the strange device to devour them. It was at this time that there was a problem.

Though the device managed in absorbing the shield, sword, and bow it was unable to take in the chalice and armor pieces. From what he could conclude from the little information he had was that the device was only able to absorb weapon-like creations.

The reason for his interest in the device and spending time learning a bit about it was due to his current situation. He was in an unknown place and could quite possibly encounter danger even if he remained here. The thoughts of this being a prank flew out the window the moment the device activated and latched onto him and a dream was out of the question as he felt genuine pain and hasn’t woken up yet. Either way this place was too surreal for him to have imagined.

Mental linking to the device and changing its form into the shield he let it absorb earlier Cyrus prepared to embark out of the strange medieval castle-cavern room he found himself in. While the option of staying was there, there was no guarantee there was anyone here to help him out. Worst case scenario he might die before any help could arrive.

Though he wasn’t one to purposefully endanger his life his instinctual means for survival made him embark on this dangerous task. Still suffering from wounds and malnourishment he steadily and carefully walked out of the room and into one of the dark caverns.

Chapter End