Long ago, there was an island gripped by a cruel fate.
One day, relentless drought scorched the land, turning rivers to cracked mud and forests to stick like bone.
while an unyielding winter chilled its bones with blizzards that howled like vengeful spirits at night.
One by one, the crops withered and died, their stalks collapsing into gray ash under a merciless sun with a mockery from the endless frost.
The villagers, weakened and desperate, dehydrated and frozen through endless cold nights huddled in tattered hovels.
Fathers turned on sons in savage brawls over the last scraps of moldy grain, fists splitting skulls amid screams that echoed unanswered.
Mothers clawed at neighbors for a sip from hoarded waterskins, their nails drawing blood in the dim firelight.
Children suffered worst of all, their frail bodies dehydrating under the paradox of ice and thirst, skin stretched taut over bones, eyes hollow voids drained of life, staring blankly at skies that offered no mercy.
Slowly…
…
..
The island…
..
fell silent.
Its villages crumbled into dust and shadow, ghosts of laughter swallowed by its symphony.
Amid this despair, a barren priestess emerged.
Her blindfolded eyes held a determination unsoftened by the silence beneath her.
She climbed the jagged spine of Mount Cadensia, the active volcano's distance filled with the glow of bioluminescent stones.
At its frost-rimed peak, 13 weathered stones stood in a perfect circle, etched with ancient runes.
Barefoot and clad in rags woven from spider silk, she knelt at the center as twilight bled into night.
With her hands clasped together, and head bowed down.
A low chime echoed from the stones, resonating through the ether.
Chim...
In that instant, all living beings turned toward her: tigers frozen mid-prowl on distant slopes, monkeys dangling motionless from barren branches, snakes coiled, rats paused in their scavenging, birds suspended in flight, and humans locked in their final moments.
The world held its breath, utterly still, not a leaf trembling, not a heart beating out of rhythm.
Chim..!
Then came a sharp sound, piercing from all directions like the snap of violent strings.
TINGG!
A deafening rumble followed, shaking the earth itself—cracks spiderwebbing down the mountain, avalanches thundering into valleys below.
BOOM!
The veil tore, and as she performed the forbidden ritual.
An orb appeared from the void at the circle's center—it looked smooth, pure of colors.
A glass stone…
but pulsed with life…
something otherworldly with a blue light shimmering from its core .
The priestess held it high overhead, and it floated up, vibrating the ground under her feet.
Leaves around her lifted and spun—some drifting gently, others whipping violently around her body.
Then, it turned into fire, blazing everything around her, and then once again change into water drowing all living beings.
After a while, it become a wind that creates countless towering tornados.
Chaos,
chaos,
and chaos it brings to the island until it shaped into earth.
Once again, the ground pulsed life and greens sprouted.
The power it invoked was potent, halting the disasters that had plagued the island for so long.
Light rain showers fell in silver sheets, thawing the destruction it brings; life and energy shoots pierced the dust overnight.
Centuries slipped by, and the island once dead and forgotten bloomed anew.
a vibrant country nestled near the glowing heart of the active volcano named,
Cadensia.
*****
Near a modest stone house perched on a hill overlooking the village, a woman in her early forties called out cheerfully from the window.
"Dannie, come down here and we'll eat dinner after I'm done washing your clothes," Lira said, her carefree tone carrying over the loud chatter of villagers below and the distant cluck of chickens.
From inside the house, a fidgety, hesitant voice answered back.
"Mom, please wait a moment... I'll come down after I'm done finding that thing!"
"Just come down here! Find it after dinner!" Lira shot back, her tone turning sharp as she scrubbed clothes harder in the basin outside.
Hearing her mother's impatience, Dannie rushed around the cluttered room.
Dirty socks hung from chair backs, half-folded blankets spilled off the bed, and plates from breakfast sat unwashed on a side table.
She hastily scanned everything, fingers sifting quickly through stacks of scattered books and tossed clothes on the floor.
Just as she was about to give up, her hand brushed against something rough and thick under a pile of fabric.
She pulled it out—it was a ripped, old, worn book covered in a thick layer of dust.
Dannie blew the dust off, revealing the faded cover.
The title "Lira," made from thin gold fibers, stood out faintly.
"Mother said to come downstairs... but I know she won't be finished anytime soon," Dannie muttered to herself.
She sat on the edge of the bed and carefully flipped the book open.
The handwriting inside was cursive but faded and aged, like someone had taken their time writing it years ago.
Steadying her fingers to avoid tearing the brittle pages, she turned to the first one and began to read.
"For My Dearest Loved One,
Even In The Tangled Hours, This World shall Bend
Here, In A Place Time Refuses To End."
"Whoa… why is this text so formal?" Dannie blurted out before continuing to read again.
"Your Footsteps Fall Like a Whispered Rain,
A Dance Between Thy Joy And Pain.
Stars that Forgot Their Usual Place,
While Time Folds Softly Around Your Face.
Though Distant Roads May Twist And Lack,
I Hold Thy Moment... Waiting For Your Back."
*******
A man named Xam sat alone at the corner café table, with his crumpled resume in hand, his eyes tired and squinting at the screen of his cracked phone.
The message stared up at him coldly:
[Subject: Update on your application for assistant manager at company A.
Dear Murillo Xam,
Good day! I would like to inform you that despite your outstanding resume you did not pass the final interview….]
Xam let out a dry laugh,
"Wow…what a great way to start my day."
He muttered bitterly, looking at the crowd strolling by with their company IDs swinging like they are a badge of honor.
He softly whispered "yeah, nothing screams I got my life together and have a lifetime supply of coffee sticks."
But his early morning hum of the city suddenly breaks as a sharp muffled sound of his mother's ringtone comes from his gaming headset.
"Xam! How many times must I tell you? Get a real j*b! Your life is a joke," she snapped, puffy-cheeked and red-faced as usual.
"You're almost thirty and still mooching off your roommate, playing video games, reading novels, and eating instant noodles. What a total failure."
Xam gritted his teeth, thumbs hovering over the screen as he scrolled through a bleak list of job openings rejected, "not qualified," no calls back, an endless void of digital dead ends.
"Well, Mom... I'm trying, okay? It's not like j*bs are falling from the sky." He mumbled, a little defeated.
"Trying isn't good enough!" she barked.
"You need a plan, a career. You waste your life every day sleeping past noon. If you want, I can introduce you to my friend's nephew he's hiring at the factory. It's honest work."
Xam sighed. "Thank you for your words of confidence. I'll think about it."
Click…
No goodbye. Just the sound of the line cutting out like a guillotine.
He slumped back in his chair.
Twenty-five years old, unemployed, and with a mother who could assassinate your self-esteem by phone call.
What was he doing wrong? He ran a hand through his hair and forced a smirk.
"Modern life's got to be tougher than this, huh?," he muttered.
He glanced out the window. The street buzzed faintly but unlike his gray neighborhood, the world around him had an odd, melodic undertone, as if the city itself hummed quietly to itself. That wasn't his imagination…
it was... sound? Music?
"Getting delusional. Great."
This continues for a minute. Strangely, none of the people beside him seems to hear that strange music, making him worry and anxious and just then —
His phone buzzed suddenly. A weird notification popped up.
"Goddess Encounter Detected."
Xam blinked out loud. "What the hell is this now?"
Before he could ponder further, a voice snapped in his head. A Shrill, lazy, dripping with irritation.
"Hey hey hey, mortal! Yes, you, unemployed and angst-ridden! I'm Lili, goddess of... whatever!" The voice oozed with sarcasm.
"Ahemgh… You, sir, are about to have a change of fortune, so buckle up…Or don't. I'm kinda feeling lazy today."
Xam blinked in disbelief, dropped his phone, and rubbed his temples.
"Great, now I'm hallucinating. Either that or I'm reading too many fantasy webnovels."
Lili's ghostly laughter tinkled like wind chimes,
"Oh come on, it's me, the goddess of your destiny! You're being reincarnated? Congratulations.
Well, I'm supposed to help you adjust, but I'm too lazy to deal with you… So figure it out yourself, and also try not to kill yourself there hehehe…"
Xam leaned back in the chair, staring at the ceiling. "Wonderful, I get the divine version of customer support'."
"Can't you pick a better word..." the voice teased, then yawned.
He sighed, glancing at the sky as if hoping to find some cosmic sign but only seeing gray clouds melding in with the city's concrete jungle.
"Alright, fine. Whatever this is, I'm ready to get hit by that revered reincarnation truck, you know, the actual one, not like I believe in that." he muttered, waving a hand at the street outside.
Minutes later, Xam stood on the cracked curb, nervously shifting his weight like a newborn deer.
A orange cat was perched precariously on the edge of the road with eyes fixed on a shiny, flapping bag caught in a breeze.
Cars rumbled past, indifferent to the small drama unfolding below.
"Hey kitty. Don't do anything dumb," Xam whispered.
As the bag whirlwhipped closer to the cat, Xam lunged instinctively, scooping the creature off the dangerous edge just in time.
The cat wriggled as its claws tapped on his forearm, but alive and unscathed.
He smirked, petting the scruffy fur. "You're lucky I don't have a job or you'd be toast."
However, the street hummed once again with its low, musical, like strings tightening in some kind of invisible orchestra.
Then, with no warning, a monstrous rumble blasted through the street behind him.
A huge cargo truck screeched around the corner with a thunderous squeal of brakes and the screech of tires burning pavement.
Xam barely had time to register the danger before a deep voice in his head shouted,
"Move!"
His body reacted too slowly.
THUD!
He slammed down hard on the cobblestones as the world flashed white.
…
..
When Xam's eyelids flickered open, a strange silence greeted him.
The air was thick but not polluted… it felt charged with something intangible, something alive.
He blinked up at a sky veiled in twilight. The architecture around him didn't look modern at all.
The streets were cobbled, and the buildings shimmered faintly with the aura of sound.
Massive iron gates hummed softly, and above, some strange plants glowed dimly, bioluminescent in hues of blue and violet.
Or some sort of whatever light?
"Where the hell am I?!"