Miko was still lying there, motionless, without sleep. He was too nervous to close his eyes since the object seemed to be able to move on its own. If he shut his eyes for a moment, looked away, anything, it could jump out at him. But this was at the cost of his sleep, and therefore his sanity. Although it’s debatable if he had any of that left.
It was truly an odd object. It could leap towards him straight away. If it did, he would back away at the same speed. It was conscious, it realized this and so it didn't make its move. Instead, it stood there, waiting.
Although its form was unchanged, it felt like it was somehow looking at him.
It was staring at him.
Miko felt their eyes meet for a moment and then instinctively looked away.
In the next moment, everything turned white.
Miko was overwhelmed with panic. It was happening again, more suffering. His panic grew as the world around him became brighter and brighter.
He curled up into a ball and surrounded himself with a sphere, with walls pitch black. He compressed the sphere to the size of a watermelon and patiently waited. The black orb laid motionless among the sea of white.
Slowly, other colored spheres began to appear within the whiteness of the void. At first, the color was washed out, like a stain after being cleaned a million times. But slowly, the colors became brighter, bolder, more saturated, as if the stain was returning. The spheres began to grow, to take form. Some split and others merged. Details began to appear among the various shapes. Faces and bricks and spoons and chairs and more.
And suddenly, it was a world.
All the spheres had disappeared, morphed into objects and beings. All except one.
A shiny black orb fell to the ground. It found itself in the throne room of an extravagant castle.
The walls were made of a brilliant marble accented with pure gold. A deep red carpet covered the center of the room. On this carpet laid the black orb, along with two other people.
They seemed to be high-schoolers of some non-descript location. One boy and one girl who both wore gray school uniforms. They both had black hair and black eyes, standing out against the luminous white walls.
At the end of the carpet was a large throne, with a red cushion which looked even more luxurious than the carpet. On it sat what looked to be a king, dressed in yellow and gold robes. On his head sat a solid gold crown.
He began to speak.
“Oh heroes, please… save yourselves”
He then pulled out a gun from his robes. Or wait, was that a different world?
He began to speak
“Oh heroes, please… save me”
A man next to him pulled out a gun from his shirt. And that’s not right either.
He began to speak
“Oh”
Nope.
He began to speak
“Oh heroes, please save the kingdom!”
His words echoed through the hall. The two black-haired kids stared up at the king in confusion. What did that mean? And besides that, where were they? This wasn’t [redacted] was it?
“I understand you are confused, after all, we summoned you here against your will. For that, I severely apologize.” He stands up and bows, before sitting back down.
“Summoned? How? Where?” The boy asked in confusion.
“This is another world, far removed from the place you call home. You three have been summoned here to save this kingdom, no, this world from impending destruction. As summoned ones, your bodies contain latent power beyond your wildest imagination!”
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The girl broke down crying.
“Does that mean we can never go home?” She asked, in tears.
“Unfortunately, that is the case” the king answered with a heavy heart.
The girl fell to her knees, devastated.
The boy turned towards her and held out a hand.
“My name’s Bor, what’s yours?”
“...Pheres,” she replied while sniffling.
“We can get through this… together,” the boy said, trying to cheer her up.
Struggling to smile, she says thanks.
A confused expression suddenly appears on the king’s face.
“Wait, I thought there were supposed to be three of them? Mage! Explain!”
“I am not sure your majesty, the ritual was performed perfectly. It seems like that black orb was summoned instead. In fact, the energy pouring out of it is absurd for its size. This may be a blessing far beyond the likes of a simple other-world human.”
The king narrowed his eyes as he stared at the shiny black orb which lay motionless in front of him. He didn't understand magic stuff, so he was confused about how such a plain-looking object could be so interesting.
"Very well, make sure to examine it thoroughly. Failing to do so would mean that the summoning was a failure."
"Yes, your majesty, I understand."
The mage signaled to some men who carefully picked up the orb and took it away.
----------------------------------------
All Miko saw was darkness. In his panic, he had compressed himself, causing his entire body to morph and shrink.
This wasn’t the first time he had done this. At many points in his life he had wished he could curl up into a tiny ball, and one day he figured out how to do it. Just like how a portal is able to shorten the distance between two points, a reverse portal can increase the distance. This made it possible to store more matter within the same visible distance.
Miko used this incredible power to hide from his problems. And every time he entered this state, his resolve to stay there increased.
So time passed, enough such that his brain began to go numb. Without any external stimuli for so long, his brain went into hibernation. This was worrisome for Miko, as he wouldn't be able to become conscious ever again if his entire brain was to shut down.
However, he wasn’t able to think nor was he able to feel fear, so he did not realize the predicament he was in. His form was still preserved, but theoretically, his mind was unreachable.
----------------------------------------
A man who seemed to be dressed as a mage was hard at work in his magical laboratory. The room was filled with glassware, books, and loose paper, strewn about without much care.
"Soon, it's so soon I can almost taste it! The wishes of my father, his father, and our distant forefathers will finally be achieved!" He said as he furiously flipped through a large notebook, filled with words in countless different handwritings.
He flipped to a new page and began to write, seemingly referencing the many other books scattered across the room.
When done, he picked up the notebook and walked to a table on the opposite side of the room.
On that table were some candles and some vials filled with mysterious liquids with vibrant colors. A large white sheet lay flat underneath, with some runic symbols drawn in the shape of a large circle. And finally, at the center of the table, and on the center of the circle, was a shiny black orb.
He began to chant in some unknown language, intermittently looking back and forth between the book he was holding and the objects on the table. The words he spoke were of an awful nature, not meant to be listened to by mortal ears.
As the chant continued, the mage's ears began to bleed, but that only increased his fanaticism, as the smile on his face grew wider.
Suddenly, the vials on the table shattered and the candles went out.
Shrouded in darkness, the orb transformed. The shapes that it made disoriented the mage so much that it caused him to vomit. Once he recovered, he loudly proclaimed,
"I have done it, I have summoned a god!"
Miko finally awoke. His first sight was a dingy laboratory, but what little light was present blinded him.
"It’s too bright…" He complained.
The mage was on his knees and was looking down when he heard what Miko had said.
"Of…of course," he said as he hurriedly got to his feet and pinched out the flames of the few remaining candles scattered across the room.
"Better."
Once Miko was comfortable, he looked for the exit and left. Once he found the exit to the building he stepped outside into the world, for the first time in who knows how long.
Miko had no idea, as his consciousness was asleep for all of that time. And I can't be bothered to come up with a number for it.
The outside world was too bright for his light-deprived eyeballs, but he soon got used to it. It was a world indeed, a world like which he had never seen. It was quite primitive, from what knowledge of history he had, which was not much. He only studied history for 5 months, and 4 months were spent discussing different wars.
At that moment, a stranger walked by him without his noticing as he was deep in thought. This freaked out Miko so much that he almost reverted to the ball state, but he realized how much of a hassle that was just in time to stop himself.
Miko walked around the city aimlessly, avoiding eye contact and generally looking downward everywhere he went. As he wandered, the sky began to darken, and before he realized it, it was night.
In this world, there were no electric street lamps to light up the streets at night. Gas lamps were few and far between, so most places were completely dark. Miko picked a random spot in an alleyway and went to bed. Of course, he made his trademark mattress below him, but it gave him no comfort.