Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Three: Alex, Part Four
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Alex stood alone in the starlit expanse, unmoving for what felt like an eternity. "Just a dream," he whispered, a mantra to anchor himself. He glanced down at his hands; they shimmered faintly, reminiscent of when he had connected to the Device. But now, they appeared ghostly, hollowed out, as if half his substance had been siphoned away, leaving only an memory of solidity.
The Device… Jason! The memory surged back: the fight, the chaos, Jason’s face twisted with desperation. And then Albert—Bert—loomed in his mind, a friend so close he was practically family. His chestnut hair catching the light as he stood, shotgun in hand, eyes fierce and unwavering. Jason had to be alright. Bert would never let anything happen to him.
Alex shifted his weight. The ground beneath him felt solid enough, yet the sensation was strange, as if it held him on borrowed time. The first step sent a ripple through the world, like the surface of water trembling under a touch. Seasons shifted with every movement Alex made—one step forward and the air grew thick with the scent of spring, fresh rain on wildflowers; another step, and summer heat seared the space around him, heavy and all that was. He paused, heart thudding in his chest, and looked up. The sky twisted in an impossible kaleidoscope, colors bleeding and merging: vivid purples, electric greens, deep bruised blues that shimmered like the scales of a great serpent.
Every direction held a promise of change. He turned to the left, and autumn leaves cascaded around him, their fiery colors swirling like embers caught in a storm. To the right, the world dipped into winter, frost creeping over the ground in delicate patterns, the air biting and cold. His breath turned to mist, and the chill seeped into his bones before the next step shattered the illusion, flinging him into another, stranger place.
The ground beneath him felt as though it might break apart, shifting and reforming with each hesitant step. Soon, Alex found himself at the base of an impossible structure—a labyrinthine web of staircases, woven together like some fevered dream. They twisted and coiled, branching into directions that defied gravity and reason. Stairs climbed into the sky and plunged into the earth; some folded in on themselves, others led nowhere but to thin air.
He stepped cautiously onto the first stair. It held. His pulse quickened, the air thick with an electric buzz that set his nerves on edge. He ascended, the surreal angles warping beneath his feet, his balance teetering as the structure seemed to bend and breathe. The stars above swirled faster, streaks of light slicing the sky, some hitting the distant horizon and exploding in silent flares.
A sound, small and rustling, drew his attention. Shadows clustered in the corners of the stairwell. Eyes glinted within the darkness, dozens of them, too small and bright to belong to anything he knew. The creatures slithered into view, tiny, impish things with limbs that clicked and twitched. Their bodies were like shards of glass and black smoke, mouths filled with needle teeth that shone when they grinned. They fed on a spark of light at the base of the stairs, a dim, quivering glow that pulsed like a heartbeat. It looked like one of the fallen stars, fragile and flickering, its light struggling against the encroaching dark.
He looked closer and realized it was no star. Alex’s heart seized at the sight—a bird-like creature, no bigger than his hand, feathers painted in impossible hues of red and blue that shimmered even in its broken state. It looked like something pulled from the depths of a dream. It was alive—its fragile form trembling under the strain of holding onto life.
He felt a pang deep in his chest, a reminder of the dreams he once held. In another time, in another place, Alex would have been a veterinarian. He had always loved helping animals, being a guardian for those who had no voice of their own. But in a world that barely managed to take care of itself, that dream was as fragile as the bird before him. Still, animals remained symbols of hope and love, small, innocent reminders of a world that had once known both.
The monsters swarmed it, tiny fangs digging in as they devoured the light it emitted. The bird twitched weakly, a soundless cry on its beak.
“Shoo!” Alex shouted, rushing forward. He kicked out at the creatures, his foot connecting with a sickening, brittle crack. The tiny monsters scattered, hissing like steam as they fled into the crevices of the twisted stairways. He dropped to his knees beside the bird, hands trembling as he reached out.
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The creature’s eyes fluttered open, deep and dark, flecked with stardust. It looked at him, and then, impossibly, it smiled—a curve of its delicate beak that felt like a warm ember in his chest.
“Are you here to eat me?” The voice was deep and resonant, yet it didn’t come from its throat. It thrummed in Alex’s mind, a telepathic whisper that filled the silence.
“No.” Alex’s voice cracked, his throat tight with disgust at the thought. “I’d never hurt you.”
The bird’s gaze searched his, softening with a look of disbelief. “Then why?”
“You’re going to be okay.” His voice wavered with a desperation that surprised him.
“Help… me?” It spoke again, surprise coloring its mental tone. A soft cough shook its tiny body, and it shuddered in his hands.
“Of course,” Alex said, eyes stinging with unshed tears. The weight of the creature’s fragility, the surreal nature of this entire place, pressed down on him like a storm.
The bird’s eyes glistened with an ancient wisdom, the kind of knowing that only comes from millennia of living. “You don’t belong here, do you?” it asked, feathers quivering.
“No,” Alex whispered. “I need to get back home. I need to wake up.”
The bird’s gaze grew distant, thoughtful, before another tremor wracked its small frame. “Thank you for showing me this moment of kindness. I had all but lost hope. I have been dying here for nearly a thousand years. Unable to revive, unable to move on. I could not let the darkness consume me… I could not give it my power.”
Alex’s breath caught in his throat. “You’ve been here for a thousand years?”
A faint nod. “In my home world, I live far longer. But I lost my way, and now… memory has faded. It has been so very long.”
Alex glanced at the shifting lights in the sky, their arcs forming trails of shimmering silver. “There are so many lost souls here, aren’t there? This place… it feeds on them.”
“Yes.” The bird’s voice faltered. “Both good and evil, men and monsters alike.” It coughed again, the glow within its chest flickering dangerously. “Take it,” it said, its voice cracking with urgency.
“What?” Alex’s brow furrowed, confusion and dread tangling inside him.
“Take it,” the bird repeated, a light beginning to spill from its chest, a pure, radiant glow that painted the stairway in hues of crimson and sapphire. The brilliance of it made Alex’s heart clench.
“No.” Tears welled in his eyes, the idea of accepting such a gift feeling too cruel, too final. “I can’t.”
“You must. If you don’t, the darkness will consume it, and it will grow stronger. Please… take it.”
A sob escaped him, raw and unbidden, as the light swelled, spilling into his hands like liquid fire. The bird’s body shimmered, its eyes closing with the peaceful finality of sleep.
Alex’s fingers glowed with the essence of the creature, the energy seeping into his skin, warming him from the inside out. Memories that were not his surged through him—endless skies filled with dazzling stars, a family with feathers of flame and frost, the ache of being lost, the resilience in holding on despite the odds. He looked down and his form grew more solid, more whole.
A sudden, blinding light bloomed in front of him, expanding until it filled his vision.
You have consumed: Essence of the Eternal Bird
988,457 raw aetheric light
Calibrating rank… error.
The words seared themselves into his mind, and then his body burst with a brilliance that defied reality. Light streamed from him in torrents, radiant and untamed, sending the shadows that lurked in the crevices of the stairway skittering back in fear.
Alex gasped, the power flooding every cell, overwhelming and electrifying. His vision blurred, the twisting world bending into shapes and colors he couldn’t comprehend. His fingers, aglow with a new, unfathomable energy, stretched before his eyes. The warmth of the bird’s final gift coursed through him, filling the spaces that fear and doubt had once occupied.