The sheer brightness of the space made my non-existent eyes have an itching sensation as I got used to my new surroundings. From the limited view from inside of the mess of blue appendages, I saw a space vastly different from my birthplace.
It was white all over, except for the three seas of blue with a black tear in the middle of each one... wait no those are eyes just like Mothers! But compared to the storm of emotions that were present for Mother... This one seemed... Void of anything.
Hello?
I tried anyways, but I didn’t receive a response. Maybe the colors just decided to form eyes randomly? I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t expect to get an answer to my questions.
Hello...? Do you know where I’m at?
Though I had already tried, I decided to try again, there was nothing else to do after all. This time there was a change. The three eyes had moved sluggishly, and they found me. There was no comfort in those eyes like Mothers, these ones made me wish to hide away somewhere so they wouldn’t find me any longer.
That feeling I was forced to ignore as for the first time a foreign feeling entered my nonexistent body, digging its way around it before settling someplace. I was seriously confused. I had never felt something before, my mind told me it was normal, but it was so... strange.
I tried to twist my non-existent body around to find what was causing the feeling but was incapable of moving due to the appendages. The foreign object, however, had plenty of movement as it split into an uncountable number of smaller objects burrowing deeper and farther into my body. I felt my non-existent body split before a mass amount of heat swarmed me. Then my vision blackened.
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I-I, huh? What? Who?
Where was I? My vision was throbbing, my non-existent eyes itched, and I felt a physical mass trying to drag me somewhere.
It took me a while to steady my mind allowing my memories to fill in any gaps. Whatever just happened had somehow temporarily made me forget even who I was.
Looking up from the mass of blue appendages, I immediately noticed my vision had drastically weakened and it felt extremely hard to keep my vision level. Other than that, nothing changed from the surroundings...
Wait, where did you go?!
The being had completely disappeared, just like Mother. I felt alone once again, and with that the blue appendages started pulling on me once again.
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All the white was starting to annoy me, I’ve been here for a while now, I have tried to talk multiple times with the blue appendages, each attempt annoying me further. At least by now I was able to steady my vision which was nice.
Just as I was about to try conversation once again, I was startled by a couple of turquoise boxes with strange inscriptions in them appearing suddenly without warning. It took me a moment to process the boxes.
Uh... Hello?
Silence. I waited patiently for a response, but seeing how I was getting nowhere. I tried to understand the inscriptions in the boxes but found no luck.
They were pretty, however, and a pleasant change from the blinding white and blue appendages surrounding me. Strangely they seemed to be staying in the same spot even though she knew she was being forced to move with the blue appendages.
And then one more box decided to appear, this one however, I could tell what was inscribed into it.
Title Gained
Title? What's that?
I tried to look at the other boxes, however no matter where I looked, my entire vision was being taken by the Title box.
Hey, you're blocking my vision, move already!
And then it moved to the side in one fluid motion, making me pause. I didn’t expect the box to be able to hear me! Does that mean...
Hey! Box! Do you know what's happening?
For a while there was nothing, but I didn’t give up just yet! Maybe it just can’t speak.
Can you talk? Uh... move up if you can’t talk, move down if you can.
And for once there was a response. The box responded by going up!... except it went back down again. I think I had some idea on the nature of the box.
...move closer to me
And it did so, confirming my suspicions. The box just followed my words, if it was intelligent or not, I didn’t exactly know.
So, your just something that listens to me?
As expected, there was no response from the box. Moving the box to the side I was slightly bummed out about still not having anything to talk with.
However now I had something to do! Now with the Title box out of the way, I could see the other boxes, which I could now understand what the inscriptions were saying. They were words!
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There wasn’t a single box that explained anything, they just gave me more confusion. There were two more Title boxes, a multitude of boxes with [Skill Gained] inscribed into them and two [Quest Given] boxes. I had no idea what a Skill was, nor what a Quest was, and the boxes kept silent throughout the entire thing, not bothering to explain the meaning behind their words.
However, that didn't mean I had nothing to do! I decided to test the limits of how far the boxes would listen to me. It was kind of fun flipping each one back and forth, making them appear in a row, grouping them.
Hey can you disappear?
And just like that a box disappeared!
However, no matter how hard I tried, it refused to come back.
Hey, come back already!
Being slightly frustrated, I grouped all of them together and minimized their size, so they didn’t hinder my limited vision.
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The blue appendages, however, didn't seem to like what I did for some reason as I felt the weight significantly increase. I hurriedly looked to the source of where I felt as if I was being pulled and saw something glowing.
Amidst the white infinity was a dark red circle with an uncountable number of inscriptions, none of which were legible, and other complex shapes. On the outside of the circle were 7 rings which moved chaotically and with different speeds, however as we got closer, I noticed that they had started to slow down and start rotating closer and closer to the edges giving myself a clear view of the circle.
The complexity of the rings was little compared to the middle circle. Just looking at it brought an uncomfortable searing sensation. I felt my thoughts slow down and my entire body lose any meaning of form as it became less rigid. My vision swam before the scene split into thousands and thousands copies before it stopped as a single turquoise box calmly appeared from nowhere.
It was so sudden; everything went back to normal just like that.
What is happening!?
I moved the turquoise box to the side quickly, yet nothing happened. Looking at the dark red circle, it was now changed with the outer rings of varied sizes had left the circle's side and went in an order of smallest to largest. Other than that, nothing was happening. There was no evidence of what had just happened.
I... what?
I looked back at the box which had appeared, it was another Title box. I looked at it hard, but nothing was explained, I wasn’t even sure if what I had experienced was real or just something I had imagined.
I was too lost in thought causing me to not notice how close we had gotten to the circle. I decided to just brush off what had happened and focus on what was happening now. Clearing my mind, I was able to appreciate the strange beauty of the strange rings even though I couldn’t understand a single inscription on the rings.
There was a consequence as we passed each ring however, the sheer pulling force increased every time. Until I felt myself get ripped out from the grasps of the appendages. The feeling of freedom was but for a moment as I was rushed into the middle of the circle where colors melded removing any beauty in them. The white infinity was no more.
However... I could now move! With my newfound freedom I flapped my... wings?
I had wings!?
I hurriedly moved something downwards that for some reason was connected to my supposed non-existent body, what it was my mind was telling it was wings, but I had to see it for myself.
And there it was, my wings, I had four of them, two on each side. One was smaller than the other and they were thin. There was a coat of pristine white fur on them with noticeable pitch-black lines stemming out from what I assumed my body was.
I have a body!!
Excitement was overflowing me, I briefly forgot about my strange experiences as I now had a body comparable to my siblings! Except... I was colorless?
Oh well! I have a body!
I admit I was far less pretty than most of my other siblings due to how colorful they were. But it was far better than not having a body at all.
I couldn’t see the rest of my body due to my limited sight, but I could see two of my six legs, the same colors as my wings, except the ends, which were just pitch black.
It was the only thing she could blame for the strangeness she kept feeling, one of these always seemed to appear after whatever she had experienced. That explained the sudden weight my body had gained and the fact I was inhaling and exhaling now.
Even though I was still going someplace against my choice, I felt myself get more optimistic as I settled in to wait for the eventual destination.
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This is taking too long.
It was taking far longer compared to the white infinity and my eyes had started to itch due to the ugliness of the mash of colors. I would have put a turquoise box in front of my eyes, but I was too busy making them into shapes or my best attempt at making the things I had seen in my strange journey, I was currently trying to replicate every inscription the circle and its rings held.
As I was creating the tenth inscription I remembered, I felt the entire space warp and twist. The colors around me in turn started separating from the convoluted mess and were given proper form, and I felt some sort of force move along me and what I assumed was my fur.
The space was dark compared to the rest of the spaces...
Wait, it was dark!
My excitement grew as my vision got used to the darkness, all the colors were uniform and not a mess! It was still far too blurry in the distance to tell what was what, and the blob of dark red off at one side didn't make a lot of sense. But it was far better than the chaos from before!
What wasn’t blurry was the dark grey ground with a dark red circle with inscriptions and other shapes...
Isn’t that the inscription I saw back in the white infinity?
The dark red circle didn’t exactly look at all like what I had seen in the white infinity, whatever this was it was a sad attempt to replicate it.
It was almost ugly even.
“Zolten what have you summoned? That is by no means a superior demon!”
There was a deep voice that sounded in front of me.
Wait a voice?
I looked up and noticed that the red blobs were currently... moving?
“Silence Holt! We are in the presence of something otherworldly, if you are so brazen, go and [Appraisal] it.”
There was a second voice which was gruff and had an awful sound to it.
Wait... HELLO!?
There was talking! That meant there was a creature capable of hearing me!
“Holt? Don’t just Idly stand there doing nothing! Or do those ears not hear any longer?”
“No Zolton that's not it... my [Appraisal] isn’t working?”
Um. Hello? Can you hear me?
Silence filled the space. Could they simply not hear me? My mother had been standing fairly close to me when she spoke.
With a slight idea, I decided to take my first step with this new body... and found out I couldn’t? I pushed harder on my body, but I couldn’t raise my leg at all! That’s when a certain turquoise box decided to show up, making me squint my eyes in suspicion.
Quest Given
Are you the reason so many things are happening?
It was suspicious they appeared alongside all the strangeness, but I had no proof of that right now, so I minimized it and moved it with the others.
I decided to just wait and see what would happen now as I did feel the ground slightly vibrate every now and then and one of the parts of the dark red blob was getting clearer every passing moment.
It wasn’t long until I was able to make out the shape of the dark red object that was getting closer, it was large and... wait... this was a creature of some sorts!
It had a dark red shell which covered its entire form, however there were no visible antennas, wings, eyes, claws, or even mandible! Its shell did seem to have split into some parts, like on the sides and the top of its form where a round orifice was. Most importantly, it was massive, I had to crane my head to be able to see the top of the creature.
What are you?
I stared into the orifice curiously, none of my knowledge and told of such a creature.
“What are you... my [Appraisal] isn't working...?”
The creature, or rather Holt, spoke to me quietly ignoring my own question in turn of asking its own.
So, neither of us knew what the other was? Well, I’m Eclipse-!
I planned to introduce who I was, but the horrid voice of the creature I assumed was Zolton spoke out.
“So? Are you going to stay silent? Have you perhaps forgotten our soul contract?”
“No... forgive me I was just surprised that we had summoned a lesser infernal.”
A lesser infernal? What was that? I was no such thing!
Even after I told Holt my name, it still thought I was something different!
“Bah not even a demon? Go throw it with the other failures.”
With that I saw Holt move one of its limbs towards me, its dark red shell pulling backwards allowing me to see dirty dark yellow rigid appendages connected to a flat body.
Before I could ask what Holt was doing, I felt myself leave the ground and the invisible force from before strengthening as Holt started moving.
Hey! Put me down!
I moved my wings in annoyance considering I was just freed from the blue appendages. Holt wasn’t bothered and rather just continued to move. Seeing that I once again couldn't do anything, I simply waited and decided to see my surroundings instead.
The dark red blob, which I now understood were a bunch of creatures that I simply couldn’t see, had split up and the creatures spoke in hushed tones. Their forms becoming clearer allowing me to see that they were all the same species, with the same shells.
Why does your kind hide their limbs under their shells? It seems awkward to constantly move your shells around.
I tried to ask Holt but unsurprisingly, I was ignored.
The only difference I saw was that they had varied sizes and voices.
I couldn’t find Zolton as I didn’t hear the disgusting voice any longer, but I assumed Zolton simply left as I had already seen some of the creatures leave the group.
It wasn’t long until we had left the space using one of the dark holes in the walls of the space.