(*Bong*..... *Bong*.....*Bong*) in pitch darkness a women floats along the endless expanse. No idea of where she is, no idea of where to go, she cries tears of fear from not knowing what happened to her and feeling nothing but loneliness. As she continues to cry she hears the sound of a bell tolling in the distance and every time it rings, a speck of light peaks through the dark.
As she sees the light she starts moving towards it, acting as if she was swimming in water. Every time the bell tolls ahead she follows its chime. As she gets closer and closer to the light the bell tolls louder and the light suddenly flashes! bleaching the pitch black darkness in white. Thus as her eyes adjust to the brightness the white fades away and she finds herself laying upon an alter surrounded by tables covered with hundreds of black candles lit with a blue flame. As she looks around she hears the bell toll once more (*Bong*.....*Bong*.....*Bong*) this time being the loudest. Due to the large bell tolling above her, it causes the girl to cover her ears as they begin to ache.
"Where am I?" the girl questions, looking around and noticing the giant bell high at the top of the building she was in. The girl continues to look around, noticing banners of a black spider with the symbol of a red moon on its abdomen draped across many of the chambers walls. After a few moments of curiosity she lifts herself off of the Alter. with a slight stammer the girl moves forwards towards a part of tower that looked somewhat more important then the rest.
As she approaches an important looking wall covered in jewel encrusted sconces and tapestries and beautiful women spinning silk, she suddenly finds her vision bending and twisting. in the direction of a certain spot directly between the evenly spaced sconces and tapestries. She shifts her eyes towards the center of the distortion and finds a strange door sitting there. The reason why it was strange was because it was not attached to the wall. Instead it was standing straight up on its own, accentuated by the distortion in space that emanated from its edges, almost like the edges of a black hole.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
"Well this is certainly strange" thought the women. "This makes no sense." she spoke with a slight sense of wariness to her voice. Slowly approaching the door, she notices a plaque was attached to the front of it and moves in to read it. The plaque reads: Beyond this door lies a world unlike any other. Full of dangerous beasts, powerful people, mysterious landscapes and endless events that tend to lead thousands to their deaths. Enter at your own discretion, for once you enter, you may never leave.
With that the women walked back to the alter and sat down to contemplate her choices. She could either stay within the tower and die of hunger and thirst, or venture through the door and embrace what comes next. With some thinking and deliberation, she decides that she should go through the door and see what this supposed world had to offer. With a hop and a rush of steps she approaches the door and proceeds to push it open.
With a flash of blinding sunlight she opens the heavy stone door and walks out. As she moves, she looks back towards the building she came out of only to see a broken archway where a door used to be and a massive pile of rubble behind it. "Didn't I just come out of some bell tower?" she ponders as she inspects the archway in confusion. She ponders for a bit until she suddenly hears the sound of a wolfs and the clanging of metal against metal. With a startle she turns towards the direction of the sounds and rushing towards it to investigate, not knowing what could have caused the sounds in the first place.