“Ugh…” I groaned, placing one hand over my aching head.

I was defeated—no, killed. The Holy Gods betrayed me and killed me. I clutched my hair as I remembered how I was stabbed by the very Gods I swore to serve and fight for when I thought I had achieved it all, that I had defeated the Darkness and Hellfire God, Salrak, and brought peace to the world. But then… How could I feel my hair, or the ground below me? I had to know what had happened, so I opened my eyes and looked around.

I was momentarily stunned. This was a completely unknown place to me, and what’s more, I was almost completely naked, if not for some very short pants covering my lower region.

I instinctively wanted to cover my chest, since that part of me had always been one that attracted many eyes, but I realized that there was nobody in this small room. It was quite the weird room I was sitting in, since the floor was made up of small square white tiles, all of the same size, with what appeared to be a small round grate placed in the middle.

There were drops of water as well as a few dark red marks on the floor to my sides that went to the grate. To my right, there was a curtain made out of a weird material that I had never seen before, since the water droplets would just slide down from it.

I stood up, and as I did, I noticed there were a couple of what appeared to be door knobs on the wall. Thinking that perhaps this was some sort of door made out of the same tiles, I grabbed one of them and tried pushing and pulling, but the tile door wouldn’t budge. Sensing that it could be moved with ease, I turned it, only to be completely surprised when, from a few tiny holes of another silvery grate stuck to a tube, water started running on top of me.

I quickly dodged the water and turned the knob back to its original position, which stopped the flow of water just as fast as it had started.

“What in the Gods’…?” I asked myself in a whisper while looking at this strange artifact.

I turned to the strange curtain and I could see that there was something beyond its white color. I carefully reached one edge and peered beyond it. It seemed like this curtain was placed here to split this room in two, since at the other side, only one or two steps away, I could see a closed door made out of actual wood. There were also a couple of other strange artifacts in the room, both white and with similar shapes.

I moved the curtain aside and stepped out to this side of the room. When I did so, I noticed that in front of one of these artifacts there was a mirror, one of extremely high quality that reflected everything as if it was a copy of the room. Something I took notice of as well was the small light orb that was stuck to the top of the wall, illuminating everything with bright white light. This place could belong to someone powerful.

Hanging from the wall, near to where I was standing, I could see a set of clothes—probably left there by whoever had brought me to this place. I reached out to them and I took notice of the strange material that they were made out of. It was soft, quite unlike anything I’d ever worn, and they even stretched slightly when pulled on it, particularly on the neck area.

There wasn’t much to put on; nothing more than a white shirt with a v-shape on the neck, some black pants made out of a thicker and yet softer material that would stretch even more than the shirt, and a strange large red shirt with long sleeves, a hood, and a completely useless pocket at the front that would allow you to pass your hand right to the other side.

Regardless of that, however, everything felt extremely comfortable and easy to move in. But I could also tell that whoever placed this here for me, didn’t get this for me, since they were slightly too large and the pants would slide off if I didn’t secure them in place with a small rope it came attached with.

Next to me was one of the white artifacts. It looked like a large white bowl with water on it, and behind it there was a large rectangular white sculpture. Perhaps this was placed here for people to drink from, so I lowered myself to get a bit of it, but as I was approaching, I noticed there were a few stains on it… the kind that you shouldn’t see in drinking water. I was no stranger to drinking muddy water, but it might not be safe to use, despite how clear it looked.

I lifted myself back up from the dirty bowl, and as I was doing so, I noticed that there was a small bracelet on top of the rectangle white sculpture. It was black with what appeared to be a shiny black jewel with a square shape. I wondered if it was some form of gift placed there for me, so I took it and looked at the details on it. The bracelet itself at first appeared to be made out of a black leather, but once I grabbed it I realized that the texture was nothing like that of any leather, and that it was very flexible, like nothing I had seen before.

The jewel was larger than what most people would place on a bracelet, and even stranger was that they would use a black one. The strap was designed to be like that of a belt, so it would seem like this wasn’t designed for someone in mind, but to be worn by almost anyone, which is likely why it was placed here in the first place.

I felt some faint traces of magic on it; far too small for anyone to do anything with it, but I still lifted it up to have a better look. Suddenly the black jewel started to glow, and words that I had never seen before, but that I somehow understood, appeared on it.

[System Error. Cannot identify user.]

[Status]

Name: Error

Rank: Error

Strength: Error

Body: Error

Magic Power: Error

Mana Levels: Error

Skills: Error

[Please get in contact with support at the Global Magic Technologies website or your local retailer.]

I quickly let go of the bracelet, worried that I had activated some unknown magic. It fell where it had been before, the words glowing on the jewel for a few more seconds before disappearing, turning the jewel back to the normal shiny black color it had before.

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I waited for a while longer, trying to see if something else happened, but the jewel on the bracelet remained the same. I didn’t understand what that did, but it activated once I touched it, so the magic within it was still very much active, even if it seemed like it wasn’t powerful enough to do much. However, I couldn’t just leave it there, especially if someone put it there for me, so I carefully took the bracelet and placed it in one of the pockets of the pants. Hopefully, it wouldn’t do anything else besides the glowing words.

I turned to look at the next bowl in the room. It was still large, and it had no water in it. I also noticed that on top of this bowl to the far side, there were a couple of knobs similar to the ones on the artifact at the back of the room. I reached one of them and turned it.

Water started running from a silvery piece stuck in the middle. I was amazed at how it somehow produced water without any traces of magic involved. But I didn’t know if it was drinking water, so I lowered myself to have a better look at it, carefully smelling it and looking at the general color of it. It seemed like it was normal water, so I placed my pinky into it, trying to make sure it was indeed water.

Nothing happened and the water felt as refreshing as the clearest water you could find, so I took a handful of it and tasted it. It was perfect, the cleanest water I had tasted after years and years on the battlefield. I couldn’t help myself as I stuck my mouth into it and drank as much as I could.

Magic water would also be perfectly safe to consume, but it always carried a strange taste to it, something that this water didn’t have, so I kept drinking. Once I satisfied myself, I lifted myself up from the bowl and looked forward. There I saw my reflection on this perfect mirror. However…

I approached much closer to the mirror, and I touched my face. “It can’t be…”

My skin was milky white and smooth. My hazel eyes, which almost seemed green, were bright and clean, and my light brown hair was long, soft, and silky to the touch. I took a step back and lifted the shirts to look at my body again. My skin was the same pale milky white of my face, and it was soft to the touch, same as everywhere else on my body.

But none of this could be. Once I was chosen by the Gods, almost all manner of luxury was gone from my life. Years under the sun of battlefields had burned my skin; the rain, the cold of snow, and the mud of the ground had turned it rough and hard to the touch; and what’s more, I had suffered a great amount of injuries, which had left my body scarred.

None of that was there, I was looking just as the beautiful fair young lady I was when I turned nineteen and was chosen as the Hero of the Holy Gods. I got closer to this perfect mirror and looked at my facial features again. Even the slight golden glow that I had in my eyes was completely gone.

As I was opening my mouth to inspect my general health, I heard a low buzzing sound coming from beyond the closed door. I quickly turned to look over, wondering if that could be a bug, or something completely unknown, but after a few seconds, I realized that the buzzing was coming at a too rhythmic interval for it to be a bug. Someone was making that sound.

I carefully took hold of the door knob and turned it as slowly and quietly as I could, opening the door with all the care that I could muster to not call the attention of anyone standing behind it. Unfortunately for me, the room beyond the door was darker than the room I was standing in, so if there was anyone on the other side, they would notice the door opening.

I abandoned any idea of stealthiness and completely opened the door. “Hello? Anyone there?”

There was no answer from anyone, but the buzzing sound kept coming. I looked around to see where it was coming from and found that it was being produced by a small rectangular glowing painting that lay on top of a simple white table. I carefully approached it to closely inspect what it was, and unlike the bracelet from before, I couldn’t sense any magic from this one.

This glowing painting was quite unusual, and the language written on it was just like the one on the jewel, and like on the jewel, I could also understand what the painting said. There was a set of numbers with the words ‘Unknown’ written below it. At the bottom of this painting I could also see a couple of circles, one green with the word ‘Accept’ under it and another red one that said ‘Decline’.

I didn’t understand what this painting was about, how it was glowing or why it was buzzing, so I decided to ignore it. After another few seconds, it stopped buzzing, and the painting completely and suddenly changed to another one. In the middle of it said ‘One missed call’ in a box, while under it in very small words it said ‘Use your finger or swipe to unlock’. Not a second later, a white box with a message written on it appeared on top of the other one.

It was the same set of numbers from before and under it it said ‘Please touch the green circle’. However, right now, there was no green circle, only a very realistic portrait of a cat. Again I decided to ignore this painting and after a few seconds, the painting disappeared and it stopped glowing, leaving only what I could describe as some sort of black mirror.

It likely ran out of power. It was better not to mess with things that I didn’t understand, so I left it alone and took my time to look around this mostly empty room. There was what appeared to be a light orb stuck on the ceiling, but it wasn’t giving off any light like the one from the other room, which made it so the only light sources were the light from the room I walked out from and the few rays of light that were coming from below the closed curtains.

There was a small simple white table and on top of it there was this black mirror next to a slim rectangle box that could be mistaken for a large book. Next to the table there was also a simple white chair. I also noticed a mattress on the floor with some blankets.

A few steps away from the door I walked out of, I could see another closed door, and close to it I took notice of a large silvery coffer—or wardrobe—that was standing next to a table with a silvery hole, full of dirty plates and glass cups.

I noticed that on this particular table there were knives of different sizes, with the largest one missing, so I looked around and noticed that it was next to me on the floor, with a couple of red stains that led back to the room I woke up in.

“Could that be…?” I whispered as I took a closer look at the red marks. It was dry blood. Old from what I could tell.

I wasn’t hurt and I didn’t have any bandages on me—or even scars—so it couldn’t be mine. But regardless of who it belonged to, it was better to take this knife and keep it in case I needed to defend myself.

It was quite the impressive knife. It was very thin but also very sturdy; the material it was made of almost seemed to glint, and most importantly of all, it had almost no imperfection. The blacksmith that made this must be one of the most talented ones of this realm.

As I was inspecting the knife, the buzzing from the black mirror started again, with the same painting from before glowing on it. I remembered what the message from before said about pressing the green circle, so despite the doubts I had about touching such an unknown artifact, I decided to do it.

I placed my finger on the green circle. It felt like touching something similar to glass, and the green circle expanded on the painting, but beyond that, nothing else happened, and the painting kept buzzing and vibrating. Not sure about what to do about this, I slid my finger across the painting, which made it change once again.

A number appeared on the painting, going up in value with each second that passed before a deep voice came out of the painting. It was too low for me to understand what it said, so I lowered my ear to the painting.

“Hello?” it asked, with a gravelly voice… a familiar voice… but perhaps it sounded like that because of the artifact.

“Hello,” I answered with my ear still close to the painting.

“Ah, you’ve finally awakened, Althea,” the voice said with some relief. However, I couldn’t help but frown.

“How do you know my name?”

There was a soft chuckle from the painting. “How cold of you, we’ve known each other for so many years… in fact… I even embraced you in your final moments.”