POV Shift—————————————————

I froze when I noticed the strange shadowy figure by the spatial rift. It had crawled out of the rift right in front of me. For a brief moment, I could see a cold light staring me down

“Bow,” a voice told me and that is what I did.

I could not see how powerful the shadowy shimmer was and that was very worrying. My breath caught and my thoughts were interrupted when a spine-chilling maliciousness targeted me. And I could feel death hovering above me.

“Don't move, ” the voice told me.

Despite how easy that sounded It took all my will to just not pass out there and then. As quickly as it appeared the cold wave of maliciousness withdrew and the shimmer’s cold eye slowly looked me over meticulously. After a bone-chilling second, it seemingly lost interest and slowly paced the room.

I wanted to escape while it was distracted but my legs wouldn't move. My instincts also told me that running was a terrible idea. Time moved ever so slowly as I could feel the shimmer's presence move around me. I could feel its gaze focus on me once more. I began to shake increasingly more as it slowly slinked up behind me. As it drew increasingly closer my fear returned until suddenly, the presence vanished from my senses. I stayed still for a while just in case.

When I found no sign of the thing I carefully looked around.

“Wha-what was that?”

My voice came out in a rasp because of the panic I just faced.

“A relic,” the voice responded.

Not really helpful, but better than nothing. I shakily returned to my mission, but not before noticing all the gold items decorations had disappeared. Whatever that was, it was powerful enough to hide from my eyes “she” gifted me. I moved to the door,

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“Three knocks, six resonating lines, four insertion points.”

I followed the voice's instructions and the door slid open in a shudder. I did not know how much time I had but it couldn’t be long, I needed to hurry.

With the door, open two shocked guards stared at me, but I was prepared for it. I reached through their eyes and froze their souls. My small size was great in many ways, but direct combat was not one of them. I drew my knife and slit their throats ear to ear before pushing their bodies back to their stations. With that done I rushed down the absurd sized hallway in search of the spell.

It took a while but soon the voice stopped me at a certain point. I turned and followed its instructions causing a hidden door to slide open. My excitement grew when the smell of aged books drifted through the air and I rushed up the small staircase. I looked around the room in awe of the spiraling bookcases but was snapped back to reality when the voice said,

“Second floor, fourth bookcase, seventh book.”

I followed the instructions and scaled the nearby ladder. 1, 2, 3, 4, good. 1... 4... 7, there it is. In front of me was a large thick book with aged yellowish pages. I excitedly flipped through it, ignoring the fantastical sketches and diagrams, until I got to what I was looking for. My hands shook and my breath grew heavy. It's only been a few days since I even knew this existed but my every thought since then has been consumed by it.

It was a spell made by an ancient hero, but the voice disagrees with that, in an effort to banish a fowl darkness. I carefully stored the book and left before my presence was noticed. Even though there was no set time constraint the clock was still ticking. I made good time through the hallway but I was getting antsy for some reason. I tried to ignore the hair rising on the back of my neck but it was quickly becoming unbearable.

Was I stressing out over this mission? This was indeed a very dangerous infiltration but I have done similar things these recent years. I speed up uncontrollably and began to look around frantically. Somethings not right. I couldn’t see anything in front of me but when I caught something from the corner of my eye I turned my head to catch it. It was some sort of rift, but that wasn’t the worst part.

The shimmer was back, and it was right behind me. In a mass of swirling shadows, a dog-like skull was showing. It had dagger-like teeth and what looked like significant wear and tear. Its left eye socket and the surrounding area were severely cracked and broken. And other than that there were cracks and scarring crisscrossed its surface. In its right socket cavity shown a pinprick of light that seemed to peer into my soul.

I turned to run but my control of my body ceased and I was forcefully made to turn back and bow.

“Don’t move.”

The voice told me, not like I could anyway. Though i was no longer looking at the terrifying figure I could feel its aura slowly increasing. It went from the equivalent to a small insect into something truly monstrous. Soon my control was slipping and my mind was thrown into chaos but my body still stood. In front of my eyes the shadows waved and I could swear i caught glimpses of the faces of the damned screaming in agony within the twisting mass.

I stood there for I don’t know how long before my insides started to turn and I was coughing up some blood. Before a single drop of it hit the floor though, the creature in front of me disappeared into thin air. The control over my body that was holding me up stopped, and I dropped like a puppet with its wires cut. I coughed uncontrollably and began making attempts to calm my insides. I was out in the open and I did not like that so as soon as I could I limped back to the closest place to hide, the library.