Snow woke up with a sharp pain in her shoulder and stomach. She couldn’t move her right arm. It was hanging off the side, swinging back and forth. Her shoulder was out of socket. She groaned.
Who kicked her?
The unexpected kick threw her off balance and into the dark abyss. The only thing she knew was that she was in the dark abyss.
With heavy breath, she pushed herself up with her uninjured arm. The right arm slipped to the side, giving it an awkward look. The clatter of her armor echoed. Snow’s ear perked, listening to the echo. Her gut instinct was telling her that she was in some kind of large area.
Quickly, she grabbed her injured arm to get it back in place. Her other arm tapped around her in the hopes of finding some form of stability, and when her hand touched something hard, she felt around.
With a snap of a finger, she summoned up two small balls of light that floated slowly around her like a planet. She tried to summon up more power, but for some reason, her magic wouldn’t go any further than what she brought out. Frowning, she knew that something was wrong. Her eyes squinted, blinded by the sudden light. It took a few moments for her eyes to adjust, and when she did, she noticed where she was.
Everywhere around her was barren with large rocks and boulders jutting from the ground. She noticed that there was a gap between the two rocks. Placing her listless right arm into the gap.
With a few deep breaths, she readies herself. Her muscle tensed, she rolled her shoulders, getting ready.
Taking everything out of her, she made a move. Yanking back in an odd angle, where she felt was right, she pulled her arm. Following after, she hears a loud click of the joints going into place, and blasting pain rebounded throughout her whole arm, down her shoulder, and into her legs. A tingle was even felt at the base of her pinky toe.
Her magic swirled around her, lightly touching her injured shoulder. A soft trickle of heat gently pressed onto her shoulder, lessening the pain overtime.
It took a good moment for Snow to be able to control the throbbing pain. Her rapid, deep breathing cooled down, becoming softer and softer. Eventually, she was able to block out the pain.
She gently pulled her right arm out of the gap and let it rest on her side. She took a moment to look around.
“Where am I?” She blinked a few times, trying to figure out where she was.
Snow was alone. Alone in her bubble of light, darkness wiggled and surrounded her in the attempt to swallow her whole. Her light magic wouldn’t allow her to go back into darkness and instead extended furiously outward, combating against it.
The whole area became flooded with her light, allowing her to see further than before. All she could see was the endless amount of barren landscapes and rocks with large cliffs that disappeared into darkness.
Snow got up, checking to see if there was anything else wrong with her. Jumping up and down and even shaking her hand, she found nothing else broken or bruised. It was a miracle that she only had an out of socket shoulder. From the height, she would have had broken bones and probably died.
Still, she was grateful that she didn’t die.
Snow wondered if she could climb up the steep cliff. With nothing to lose and she didn’t know where to go, she picked a direction and stuck with it. For hours, she walked mindlessly, trying to find something that would give her a hint on where she was. Nothing came her way but endless grey rocks and giant cliffs that disappeared into the dark clouds so far.
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There were a few times, the black clouds sparkled and thundered as if it was announcing contempt. Lightning flashed as static was heavy in the air. Quite often, Snow could feel the tingle on her skin.
The sharp blow of a wind came from behind, blowing her hair to the side, covering half of her face. She pushed it aside, so she could see better.
It has been a few hours since her long walk. Eventually, she saw a well-shaped boulder that looked decent to sit on. Walking over, she sat on top of the rock, crossing her legs. She couldn’t continuously wander through this path without an answer, and this time, she decided to use her magic to sense her surroundings.
Awhile back, the magic around her didn’t listen too well, and she was only able to summon up the light energy ball. It was as if the surrounding area was canceling out most of her magic. She noticed that the further she went away from the spot, the more her magic came to her, filling her back up to her original status.
Snow got as comfortable as she could, closing her eyes and slowly breathing in deeply. She exhaled, letting out the air from her lungs slowly but surely calm her, beating her. The deeper she continued to breathe, the stronger her magic came to her.
Her mind opened up. She was able to see even further than before. There was one problem, she couldn’t quite see through the direction that she had come from. It was a giant blob of black that dyed her mind’s eye. Even if she wanted to look into the dark abyss, she couldn’t. Only an uncomfortable feeling could be felt, lingering in her guts, telling her that it wasn’t a good idea to head to the dark spot.
She searched. Every twist and turn led her to a different location, but each time she came to a dead-end, she could map her mental image bigger and bigger. Time flew, the number of dead ends, and failures had accumulated quickly. Any normal human would have given up by now and wallowed in despair, but Snow wasn’t going to have that. She needed to get out of here and go back home.
A day quietly passed by, Snow continued with her mental search through the intricate maze-like place. She could map out a large portion of the map, which she realized was in a circular motion around the black fog.
As time went by, she had an ugly feeling that she had gone the wrong way, telling her that maybe the exit to where she really needed to go was the direction where she could not see.
Eventually, the maze came to a sudden halt as her last route was blocked off. Scanning through the mental map, she tried to find another way, but there weren't any other openings that she had missed.
In frustration, Snow punched the wall of rocks, but her hand slipped through. Even in her spiritual form, she wasn’t able to do anything but to scout around. She spat, annoyed that she couldn’t go any further. Releasing the magic, Snow came to her senses. She was back to sitting down on her rock.
The ground trembled.
A burst of powerful magical energy trickled in the air. Snow's forehead furrowed, her position slightly shifted. She could see that whatever was coming from the location she had come from was heading straight toward her.
Snow couldn’t make out the shape, but she knew trouble would be arriving fast. Quickly, she wrapped her body with light magic, giving her armor a slight glow. She summoned out the box of six swords. With a loud click, it hissed, and smoke spilled out from it.
Reaching over, she grabbed both White Gryphon and Black Widow. Both were kicked out into the air, landing in different locations. Then she reached in and grabbed her large sword, Eye of the Horus. Bracing herself, she swung the blade into an arc, throwing it into the air as it landed with a thud a good distance away.
Finally, she took out Lady Luck. The blade fit in her hand flawlessly, making her feel light and powerful. Something about this blade that she couldn’t quite tell brought a sense of familiarity and confidence.
Gripping it tightly, she waited.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom!
The loud footsteps shook the very ground and even the wall.
Snow’s leg buckled. She squatted low, so she wouldn’t be thrown to the ground.
Creeping out from the darkness, eventually coming into the light, a giant demon appeared. Its head was twisted with knots. Ugly boils were present as irregular black horns jutted out from its head, giving it a look of a crooked crown. Its wide-mouth was filled to the brim with jagged yellow teeth and one blow of its breath. Snow could smell the foul smell. It’s bulky body strutted out with thick armor, which covered its muscles.
In its hand was a large sword that was severely chipped, but one could see that the sword's weight could be difficult to hold without a powerful body. A scraping sound could be heard as the blade left an ugly indentation in the ground as its long arm dragged the blade.
Its black eyes were empty. With a snap of its head, it.
Snow glared at the monster before her. It was pointless to try to run away from this monster. She had a gut feeling that it could find her in this wretched maze. She either faced it head on or die, and the second option wasn’t something that she would easily give up.
Licking her lips, she burst forward.
In alarm, the demon was shocked by Snow’s aggressive attack. Most of its prey would squeal in horror and run away for free. There wasn’t a single person who would ever dare and fight against him.
Its arm lifted up the large blade in the attempt to squash her whole.
Snow jumped to the side, letting the blade crush into the ground a few inches away from her body. She gulped.