Examining the girl in front of me once more, I was stunned when I noticed a few defining points around her that a human being surely couldn’t accomplish.

Ignoring her beauty, the aura she exuded was comparable to that of a goddess full of apathy to the pleas and suffering of the worldly mortals. She wasn’t floating; rather the earth below her – even the whole planet – seemed to had gained intelligence and lowered itself as if it felt unworthy to be the ground for her soles. Her piercing gaze was full of omniscience: seeing through my life, lies, and guise. Magnificent, ethereal, and infinite, I felt boundless regality from her. I do not doubt that without everything being frozen including my heartbeat and emotions – not only would I had kneeled, I would’ve also offered my life as tainting her figure with my eyes felt like a grievous crime. However, I didn’t kneel, nor did I offer my life. I stood my ground and stared at her, resembling a fearless beast.

It was probably idiocy, standing toe-to-toe with this immortal as a lowly being was tantamount to a free trip to the deepest parts of Hades – much more actually smacking her in the face with a stick. I smirked a little at such thoughts though I felt nothing which made me feel an ounce of regret. Perhaps because of my monotonous life that I somehow developed the tendency to ignore logic and follow emotions instead. All for the feeling of thrill which I lack the most. In this situation where my bodily functions was frozen for some reason besides a few senses – I was able to be follow this almost instinctual habit of mine. Without fear, I am fearless; without fear, I am reckless.

I walked away from the girl, showing my back towards her while picking up the stick I held earlier which I finally found thanks to the now frozen light. I do not know why I wanted to grab the stick, maybe as a protection? Or maybe because it was amusing? I knew that showing your back to a ruler was a sign of incredible disrespect. Doing this to a goddess, I couldn’t help but felt a little disappointed at the fact that I couldn’t feel my blood boiling.

As expected, the already fuming goddess exploded when she saw what I did, in a way that I didn’t expect.

Even before I held the stick properly with my right hand, I heard a slight snap, then I felt my left arm being light. I inspected my body as to why it was so and what I’m very much assured of was that if I had my emotions, I would’ve fainted.

My left hand was dismembered.

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It didn’t flew away; rather it just stayed at the position of where it was before getting sliced. There was no blood spurting out but I clearly witnessed the flesh, bones, and veins on both of my hand and forearm alike. It was an interesting sight and feel, seeing your hand dismembered but feeling nothing like watching a gory first-person movie in virtual reality.

“Cease.”

One word, one word uttered from her small mouth was all it took for me to disintegrate into nothingness. I didn’t recede to dust nor did I became stone then broke down. I just disappeared in a blink of an eye, seemingly like I never existed.

Everything darkened… maybe this is the end.

***

My vision regained its sight once again.

I scanned the surroundings and tried to move but it was futile. Without a body, similar to a soul that couldn’t move, I was forced to watch a movie with its tape damaged.

All I could hear was someone talking while seeing a faint silhouette of a man on the ground slowly backing and crawling away from something… evil? Mysterious and alien, the unidentifiable man was facing something that looked like a wheel. The same as the man, the object was shrouded in mystery. If it wasn’t my eyes being blurry, I highly suspect that it was a greater force hindering me.

“What are you!?” Trembled the man as his voice cracked. His appearance was incredibly unsightly. I couldn’t blame him however as such behavior was normal with how those who have been visited by angels react.

The unidentified floating object didn’t answer. Whether or not it understood what the man said was unknown, but its eye, a single human eye located at its very center just stared at him. Its phantasmal appearance seemed to hover between reality and fantasy.

Then there was nothing.

Indeed, the scene appeared to have ended as what replaced the fuzzy scene was a void of darkness.

I was unable to tell what was up and down but the omnipotent acted as if they wanted to help me on my plight.

Weight.

Not gravity but rather chains were dragging me… down? Wait this isn’t the time for this!

As I was slowly being pulled, a fragment of my humanity returned. Instinct or gut, I was not sure which but it felt like it was telling me to resist if I do not want to perish. My logical side had finally took the reigns. I don’t want to die.

But how? I didn’t have a proper platform to resist against these chains. It was not like I could fly or anything right?

The chains around my body were tight enough that it even hindered me from slipping my fingers in between. It was like an octopus with snake-like tentacles that tied itself into a prey, slowly killing it by suffocation whilst dragging the food down towards it.

An epiphany struck me. I hurriedly looked towards the direction in which I’m carried away and my eyes immediately widened in both fear and shock.

It was the metaphysical dark wheel staring at me with its single eye. It appeared to me that even before I looked into the abyss, it was already staring at me.