A bright, cloudless sky greeted Aksel as he finally awoke. For a few moments, he simply lay there, the grass tickling his back, wondering what he was just doing before his mind snapped into gear. He sat up in a flash, his hands pressing to his body, searching for the wound on his back he was sure he had, yet he found nothing.
“Huh?” His confusion became audible as he began processing the rest of his surroundings. He wasn’t on the streets of Carnifex anymore, or… anywhere, for that matter. He was alone, the sole human in a vast, barren field of green that stretched out as far as the eye could see in all directions. There were no hills to break up the landscape, nor trees to fill it out. There were no lakes or rivers, nor craters or buildings. There wasn’t even a single flower or plant of colour to mar its surface; there was only the grass, stretching wider than any ocean in Mythrin. The soil under his feet was also wrong. Though it had the appearance of dirt, the feel and textures were all wrong, almost metallic, so hard and smooth to the touch. No life should have been able to grow from such infertile soil, yet his eyes gave him a million pieces of evidence to the contrary.
Getting to his feet, he noticed the stillness of the air, devoid of any wind or breeze to breathe life into the landscape. It was unnatural, almost suffocatingly so. With little else to draw his attention, his eyes drifted back towards the sky, but just like the ground he stood upon, the sky was equally desolate. No clouds dotted its airspace, no moons or stars to fill out the vast emptiness above. However, most striking of all was the absence of the sun—the celestial body meant to provide the lands with light and heat. Despite this, the world remained as bright and warm as if it were mid-afternoon, with no discernible light sources his eyes could see. The light and warmth simply existed.
“Hello!” Aksel called out to the world, but no answer came. Then, the answer hit him. With an, “Oh.” He slumped his shoulders, his expression relaxing. “I’m just dreaming again.”
I guess I must still be unconscious… or dead, he concluded grimly. It’s still strange though, the world is so fake, yet it feels familiar somehow, Aksel thought to himself. He’d never set foot in a place like this before, that much he was certain of. But, like an old memory buried deep within his psyche, he felt a connection to this place. His attention was quickly drawn elsewhere, however, as a bright light began to glow in his chest.
“What the–!?” Aksel spouted, as a golden white orb of light shined inside him, warming his body with its presence. Though jarring, it also felt comforting. Aksel softly pressed a hand to his chest, embracing everything the warmth represented.
My blessing.
Up above, the vast open sky began to change, the boundless blue giving way to a sudden formation of clouds that glimmered bright in gold and white, the same relaxing colours that shined inside of him, and he knew not to be afraid. With a smile that intoned nothing but contentment, he looked toward the newly formed clouds as they began to part, which revealed to him a sight that almost caused his eyes to weep in joy.
It was an angel. A genuine, heaven-sent angel descending from on high. This was the first one he’d seen in his life, and she was everything he knew they would be. She was the very definition of beautiful, his eyes unworthy to even look upon her gorgeous form, yet he could never look away. Her long, flowing golden blonde hair shined resplendently under the heavenly light, a single strand of which was worth more than all the gold in Mythrin. Her crystal blue eyes, so deep and pure, could get you lost for days in their hypnotic allure. Her skin was white, flawless, and looked so soft that the combined comfort of every pillow ever made couldn’t hold a candle to it. Her dress was elegant, yet simple, a white that matched her skin and exposed just enough to make his heart flutter, and her feathery wings, so white in their purity, they were almost blinding to behold. She was his perfect angel, from head to toe.
“Aksel Malory,” her velvety words made his ears shudder in pleasure, arms held out as if in a welcoming embrace. “My name is Gabriel, and it is my pleasure to have been chosen to personally bring your soul back home to The Heavens,” she spoke to him, her voice so pure and enticing. “Normally, I would be welcoming you within the golden clouds of The Heavens themselves, however, your soul appears to be in a place where our authority is being contested. Nevertheless, there is nothing to be concerned about,” Aksel listened to her words, but at no point was he ever concerned. There was an angel in front of him, and it felt like his very purpose for living was being fulfilled right now, as an angelic hand was extended in front of him. “Please, take my hand, and I will personally guide you to your next stage in life.”
There was nothing else more important to Aksel than fulfilling Gabriel’s words. His life in Mythrin, his family, his friends, his companions, his goals. None of it mattered anymore. The Heavens awaited him. Aksel held out his hand and moved closer to the angel, yet, as he approached, the sky began to dim.
Gabriel’s face turned from one of overwhelming love to concern, her gaze turning upward back towards the golden light above. Aksel paid no mind to any of the changes, however, his mind was still filled with contentment, continuing to reach for the angel, wishing nothing more than to join her in the realm of the divines. It was only when Gabriel’s form began to flicker that Aksel halted in his approach.
“Something is wrong,” she declared, gazing down at her hands, the flickering and glitching of her body intensifying as time ticked by. The sound of static filled Aksel’s ears as the golden light of the heavens above began to disappear. Gabriel looked at Aksel one more time, as something appeared in front of her eyes. “Error code 500… what the–” And with that, the angel vanished, disappearing into motes of light before his very eyes, as the world turned back to its stagnant self once more.
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“Gabriel? Where did you go?” His calls went unanswered, the constant static sound still echoing in his ear, refusing to leave. Aksel placed his hands over his ears, yet the noise reached him still. It felt like it was everywhere, all around him at once, never stopping, and only growing louder, until–
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE–
The piercing, unrelenting beep replaced the static, cutting right through him, making his body run cold even in the warmth of his blessing. Sweat overtook his forehead, and his knees began to weaken.
*BLARG*
He emptied his stomach’s contents across the floor, collapsing to his knees with a hand over his mouth. More burning liquid flushed up his oesophagus, adding to the growing pool beneath his face.
What’s happening to me?
His body shivered, reluctant to move, lest it trigger another bout of vomiting. Rarely had he felt so ill in his life. The blessing of The First had always shielded him from disease, with only an extreme case of food poisoning having ever brought him low before, but this was on an entirely different level of discomfort. And all the while, his eardrums continued to be assaulted by the never-ending noise.
Then, he saw something ahead of him, a dark object out of tune with the green of the land. Weakly, he tilted his head up, wiping at his face with his sleeve, and understood.
“It’s you,” he resigned himself to defeat in an instant, too weak to resist this time. The black figure from all his nightmares stood over him, a dark pool swelling around its ankles, masking its feet, if it had any. “Funny, I’ve never usually been this lucid before. How are you going to kill me this time? With some incurable disease?” he grunted out, not expecting a response. “Why are you doing this to me?” He turned his eyes back to the ground, waiting for the fatal conclusion to come. “Just… get it over with already.”
Then, for the first time,
It spoke.
“■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■”
Its voice sounded like a synthesised interpretation of what a person should sound like, with a low pitch and a slight echo accompanying every word. Though calling them words might have been generous. The language, if it was a language at all, was one completely unknown to him, sounding more like a broken garble than any sort of fully fleshed-out vernacular. There was a moment of disbelief, as he raised his head to look at the creature once more.
“A-an angel?”
Its form had changed, no longer a simple humanoid. The shadow had transformed into an angelic figure, disturbingly similar to the one that just descended from the heavens. With a lucid mind, he looked it over. Its wings were black and oily, dripping with a mysterious substance like sap tapped from a tree, failing to become solid. At the same time, parts of the creature were missing entirely–an elbow here, a wrist there, even a chunk of the chest was absent, revealing a cavity his eyes could not peer into. Despite the disconnection between body and limb, they appeared to function as normal, as though a physical bond was more of a suggestion when it came to its use.
He searched the area that should have housed its face, yet he still saw so little. It had a nose with no nostrils, with no eyes to see nor mouth to speak, yet it still managed the task all the same. The only part of the head that had any form to it was the hair, long and straight, hugging its body as if soaked from rain.
The long beep began to fade, lowering just enough to blend into the background. Its head tilted to the side, oddly reminiscent of Vine when she didn’t understand a topic. Aksel stood up, his guard raised for whatever that was worth, and after he gulped back his fear, he spoke.
“What do you want with me?”
“■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■”
The same synthetic voice responded to him, though it was still beyond his understanding.
“■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■”
The entity leaned forward, and Aksel prepared himself. Though it wasn’t openly hostile yet, he couldn’t bring himself to put any faith in the creature. That caution, however, did him little good. The creatures counterfeit angelic hand rushed towards Aksel, its limb extending far beyond its host, and pierced his chest like a lance. Before Aksel even knew what was happening, its limb had passed straight through his body, ripping a hole through his back. His eyes wandered down to the undulating blackness sticking out of him as he fell into shock.
The light being projected into the world began to dim, just like the light of the heavens before it, turning from mid-day to midnight to complete darkness in a matter of seconds, so all-consuming that even the ground beneath him fell beyond Aksel’s sight. The only things remaining visible to his eyes were himself, and the entity, whose body was outlined against the void. His arms trembled relentlessly as he gripped the limb running through him, its skin so oily a firm grasp was impossible to achieve. Daring to look back, he turned his head and saw the entity’s fist clenched around–
That’s my blessing! He witnessed the final glimmers of light in the world fighting to shine through the blackened hand. As if prompted by his gaze, the oily limb ripped itself from his torso just as quickly as it entered, taking the light from his chest along with it. He staggered forward, barely able to prevent himself from toppling over as he placed his palm over the gaping hole in his ribcage.
Despite the fatal wound, he found he was still able to function. While he didn’t wish to see the state of his internal organs, he couldn’t fathom his heart, lungs or even his spine were intact. Yet, he was breathing normally, his lower body responding to his commands. There wasn’t even a drop of blood spilled, he just felt empty where he should have been whole.
His eyes fixed on the golden-white glow still attempting to illuminate the world, as the counterfeit angel also looked down to behold it.
“Wait! Give that back!”
“■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■”
It spoke once more before placing the blessing within its own chest cavity. The small orb bubbled and seared its surroundings, a minor display of resistance that went unnoticed by the dark angelic monster as it was absorbed into its body. The moment it disappeared from view, its light vanished from his world, Aksel began to feel cold, disconnected, and empty. He wrapped his arms around himself but couldn’t find any warmth.
“W-what did you do to me?”
“■■■■■■■■■” The entity began sinking into the pool beneath its legs.
“Where are you going? You’re just going to leave me like this?” his words were ignored, as the shadow vanished, the constant beeping turning to static, then to nothing. Aksel was alone, a part of him he’d always taken for granted now missing, leaving him in complete darkness. A deep drowsiness overtook him as he stood, his thoughts jumbling in his head. “No, get back here, I have… I have… questions… don’t…”
His eyes closed once, twice, three times, and failed to find the strength to open again. Without a body to sustain him or the heavens to claim him, he was left adrift as his soul fell into a dreamless sleep.
To be continued…