Looking at the signs, I couldn't help but feel a chill run down my spine. Not because it was cold, but something about all the signs saying the same thing was concerning.
Sadly I don't think I have many options except to go there, or just wander, hoping to find another place to explore.
I guess I'll go to the castle and see what awaits my arrival, hopefully, they can help me with this migraine.
Walking through the streets of this abandoned city, it was creepy yet mesmerising, the ice and snow sparkling in the sun, and the snow, it's untouched.
The frozen statues on the other hand, are almost like leftover shadows of people within the streets, some walking, some seem to he holding an invisible child, others window shopping or trying to throw snowballs.
That can be seen throughout the outer city.
And every once and a while, the writing on the houses change or shift into other words.
The most common being, Do you like the statues? Is it too cold? What's your name?
Looking at the shifting signs, I realise someone is watching me and the first thought I had.
"Why don't you come see me in person?"
…
Why did I say that, that was stupid Scott!
The writing changes in response.
I can't, limited movement currently.
Can you hurry up tho?
You could be in danger if you wait.
"Oh, great so there are monsters here too, fantastic"
I then speed up my movement a bit, not by too much though, this place seems to be a bit of a maze.
"So, signs, can you guide me to where I need to be? I'm sorta lost as you've changed all the signs!" I said exasperated.
Fiiiinnne, I can do it the boring way.
As the signs soon change into arrows on where I need to go.
Following the signs Scott starts to wander mentally, coming up with wild theories on why this place is the way it is, what is controlling the signs, and how it's doing that, why did it made the statues, how did it made them if it can't come out here.
After walking for 20 minutes Scott's finally at the entrance to the castle.
The garden, is made up of ice, the grass, flowers and even bugs on the flowers, it's all ice.
The cold is getting more intense the closer I get to the entrance.
The gate itself seems to be in pieces on the floor, weapons scattered all over the place, with a frosty layer on top, what blocks the entrance is an imitation of the broken gate, made of blackened ice, it's smooth and the more Scott look at this blackened ice, the more he got drawn in, like it was taking his mind away from him, draining his ability to think.
As Scott walks towards the black ice, it starts to shake and rattle, even crack.
Scott reaches his hand out, seeing his own reflection in the ice.
Just before he can touch it however, the gate completely shatters into millions of pieces.
Revealing the interior
Shaking his head Scott walks in, confused why he was trying to touch the back ice.
Scott stands in the centre of this giant room, stairs in front of him, a red carpet covering said stairs, and 4 other doorways 2 on each side, all leading to different rooms.
As Scott stands there debating on what direction to go.
Du
A pianos soft notes began to play, filling the place with a sense of life, the lights within the castle becoming more vibrant.
More notes play soon after, seemingly coaxed into waking from the first note.
The soft and slow tunes fill Scott's ears, bringing a sense of security and safety.
The strings of a violin began to be plucked.
Soon catching up to the tune of the slow notes of the piano.
The soft music fades, almost like the music didn't exist.
The silence was only brief maybe a second or two, but it felt like minutes.
The violin strings are once more plucked. as a graceful sound fills the halls of the castle.
The piano once again plays notes like it's being played with silk, the notes are rarer than before.
The violin is the main piece in this song.
The song continues to play, filling Scott with Nostalgia for a game he once played.
It reminds him of the evil within safe room music…
It really reminds him of it.
Before Scott even realized it, he was now standing in another room.
Large, and full of empty seats with a stage at the back.
Standing on the stage are well-worn, but well-preserved, ivory piano, it has a sleek glossy brown finish, keys, almost perfectly white, excluding the faded blood stains splattered across. You can see the strings move gracefully down when a key is pressed.
The violin is in a similar state, it's a deep chestnut brown, with white strings, and its shell, dented, slightly chipped.
The music is playing but there's no one manning the musical instruments.
Scott unconsciously takes one of the seats, mesmerised by the music, his eyes and mind following the plucks of the string and pressing of keys.
The soothing music seeps into his mind, slowly spreading, enveloping his thoughts.
The boy starts losing him self in the music, his mind no longer wandering, only focusing on the music.
The room grows colder as the boy sits not seeing the room fill with frozen statues.
As the boy's eyes slowly glaze over, becoming one with the music.
I say in a soft and quiet voice into his ear, making sure he can hear me.
"It's ok now, time to rest."
It goes dark as Scoot falls unconscious and falls to the floor, only to be stopped by a single, snow white tail.
2 days later
A soft and delicate humming wakes me from my sleep.
I jolt up, sweat rushing to my back as I remember what happened, the music, what was that music and why was it something I know?
And whose voice was that at the end?
Looking around I see I'm laying on a giant bed, with frozen flowers on the nightstand next to me, the curtains partly open, letting the smallest amount of light illuminate the room.
It has a dresser in the right corner and for some reason, multiple tables surround the bed, one on each side and one at the bottom of the bed.
The only chair is in the corner, hanging from the back is a snow white tail facing me.
That's weird.
Trying to see what else is around the room, sadly seeing nothing of interest I get out of bed and head to the curtains.
Before I could get off the bed to open said curtains a notification appears In front of my face.
{Hello new user, you have been gifted a brand new system called the werewolf system, I hope it to your liking :3 }
Another panel opens after I finish reading
{the werewolf system currently runs on an energy consumption method, that energy is called moon essence.}
{Moon essence is automatically collected and stored at night, if the moon is on display without obstruction it has a slightly better collection rate.}
{Moon essence is what allows you to use abilities like your wolf ability, runes and spirits while in human form, some powers will only be at full strength while at night.}
{I will open the stat menu in a second, afterwards if you have any questions, please look to the right.}
{have a joyous day :) }
{status}
Name: Scott Grimes
Bloodline - generic human(sadly useless)
Class: werewolf pup
Level 0/10
Exp 0/10
Rank 20-
Magic -n/a
Aura -n/a
Miasma - rank 20-
Shop - unavailable
Moon shards 0
Quests - unavailable
Artifacts ice pendent
Strength 1
Constitution 1
Agility 1
Mana 0
Mental strength 1
Stat points 0
Skills
Wolf transformation(uncontrolled), heightened senses,
Starter pack( a useful one this time)
The systems panel closes once more, and I look to my right.
A pair of black and piercing ice blue eyes stares at me from the side of the bed.
Looking at those eyes, I don't know why but, I feel dread, I need to get away, so I grab the closest thing to me and throw it toward whatever is staring at me… that being a pillow and rolling of the bed.
I sprint to the door, thankfully it's unlocked and looking back, the eyes are just following me.
I run forward without looking, a mistake I'll find out in a second.
"Watch out f"
I suddenly start to flip over as I slam into something, then, I fall.
"or the railing… never mind." A sigh escapes their lips.
Hitting the ground a second later as I wind myself, still, I try to stand, with no success.
"Ahh I see what happened, um don't look me in the eyes for a tad ye, my eyes give people the scares for some reason."
"Oh, why don't you give me a look down or whatever, I hear looking at something pretty calms you."
I look towards the top of the railings and what I see is, a pair of snow white fox ears, white, long flowing hair that seems to be made of ice at the tips, and faint red lips, along with those creepy eyes.
She walks around and I can now see what she's wearing, a black choker, a loose-fitting black top that exposes the shoulders but somehow has sleeves and a blue pendant.
On her lower half, she is wearing blue jeans and sturdy walking boots and she is holding a pillow behind her back.
(AI pick for some kind of reference)
"Sooo, you calmed down yet, I really want to have a chat, like I haven't had a nice chat with someone for aggges, being stuck in this place got boring so fast."
"Oh and another thing."
A pillow hits me in the face.
"That's for throwing a pillow at your humble saviour."
"So, you're going to have a chat with me? Got a question? … something… please."
"Ummm, what's your name lady?"
Ohhh, I'm a lady, how posh… right I'm Sapphire, nice to meet you." A beaming smile on her face
"Oh Scott, how's your new soul doing by the way, hope it's to your liking."
"Uhhh, what?"
"Oh right, um so the system you were granted had, took a part of your soul, it's how lower deities make systems and stuff, like a shortcut, I fixed the gaping hole the busted system left in you when I ripped it out."
"That's a lot to take in."
"Scott, what some food? I'm getting peckish." As Sapphire waves her hand saying to follow.
A small amount of time passes
"So Scott, the neckless I gave you has two functions, the first is to protect you from certain negative affects, the seconds is to hide the Miasma radiating from your body from becoming a werewolf."
"Any other questions?"
"What happened to the city, and why are you stuck here?"
"Ah, well, the city was the aftermath of me, the entire city and most of its people were infected with a demonic disease, which affected the soul and forced them to become demons within 3 days, and well, this was the only way to stop it from spreading."
"The reason why I'm stuck here is related to that as well, so apparently the chaos deity that made and had the disease spread was not a fan of me destroying it before it could infect the planet sooo, he and his buddies jumped me. Sadly for them, me being the demon-killing badass I am, I killed almost all of them, sadly that last one was able to use some sealing magic and got me stuck here."
"So, why didn't they kill you instead of sealing you?"
"Well the last demon was not physically strong enough to do anything to me, so instead he used his demonic friend's bodies and Miasma to seal me and a large amount of land away"
"The worst part was, that demon somehow tricked the heroes of that land to band together to help him get rid of me, so that's also probably why you were sent here as well, I guess that daft deity thought I was evil and assumed I'd rip you apart, instead I'm going to help us both escape."
"And how do you plan on doing that?"
"Well, with you of course, you see I need you to be here when we get rescued."
"my plan involves me destroying a bit of the outer layer of the seal, making a bunch of energy and stuff escape. Doing this will make whatever the closest dimension, that being the one you were meant to arrive at, and it's residents think a new and unstable dungeon is here and the'll send scouts to search it."
"Before you ask why I haven't done that before, the reason is beucase I need to burn a bunch of mana and other Essenes to do so, doing this will pretty much destroy my body and leave me as a spirit of some kind, most likely a guardian spirit, but because I'm not use to that state, I could be forced into something or someone witch I don't want to happen. Mainly because whatever I'm put it will probably, definitely expload."
"So instead I'll provide you with my bloodline and become your spirit guardian instead, the reason for that is, if you have my bloodline you won't expload, sadly as I ain't a mother or have any family left, so I can't bond with anything, so you'll have to do, ok." A innocent smile is plastered on her face at the end.
"… … what do I get out of it?"
"Well, you'll be able to get out of here, you'll have a cute kitsune following you around, I can be a mentor of sorts, I can help with the system you have and guide you…and I get out of here."
"Talking about the system sapphire, why do you have a spare one, and how do you plan of giving me your bloodline?"
" the system was not just laying around, I made it like… a day ago… as for the bloodline thing, this is were an item comes into play."
Sapphire then proceeded to walk over to me, putting her hand behind my ear and pulling out some sort of ice crystal that has a red liquid inside.
"Ummmm."
"Oh what is it, am I to close to you… don't worry you'll get use to it soon."
Sapphire then put the crystal into my hand and says "now, shatter it."
{Assemulating bloodline, knocking user out to avoid unneeded pain}
"I just woke up, come on."
"Night night Scott, don't let the bed foxes bite."
Scott is then knocked out in the chair.
"Right, I guess I'll put the sleeping beauty here in a bed again, then I'll get to breaking that outer layer, I'll give him a couple more presents for when we get to that proper dimension for him, might aswell."
************
Word count 2353
Hello again I hope this chapter was good and that I explain some stuff decently, if I haven't just say in the comments and I'll do my best to explain in the next chapter or something.
Hope the characters so far are ok.
So for the foreseeable future I only plan to release 1-2 chapters a week, this is mainly so I don't give myself burn out and stuff, but if we get certain miles stones with power stones or something them I'll do my best to release addisonal chapters, the chapters will most likely be released on a Wednesday and Thursday, but it could be earlier or later depending on how busy I am.
Have a great day/night everyone and I'll see you next chapter （＾∇＾）