She wore a smile.
Looking at her, my eyebrows furrowed as the cold realization hit me. I was caught in a trap of my own making.
She leaned back with clinical indifference.
"However," She whispered, her voice sliced through the silence, "you do not amuse me in the slightest. Therefore, let us proceed to a game, and test what value yet remains."
"The hell are you..." I narrowed my eyes.
She simply raised a single finger, her eyes locking onto mine with a predatory gleam.
"You are granted one hundred eighty seconds," She said.
That's too specific...
"I will grant you precisely one hundred eighty seconds to—" She flicked her wrist, and a flower popped into her hand, identical to the one from the ground. "—bring me a flower like this."
"Bring the flower into my hand, I shall confer upon you any desire you name—be it dominion, strength, or power beyond measure." Her smile didn't waver.
"One hundred eighty" She repeated.
I let out a short laugh before I could stop myself. It came out thin. "What? Get a flower? Are you messing with me right now?"
She tilted her head, considering me the way one might consider an insect; curious, detached, not particularly invested in the outcome. "Simple enough, is it not?"
That answer did absolutely nothing to answer my question. I agree with her, but something's off.
She hadn't moved. She sat still, relaxed, holding up that single finger.
"Time commences," She said gently, "now."
Her arms swung down, palms brushing the stone as her fingers tapped the table three times.
The table between us sang.
A thin clean sound sliced through the air, loud enough that my ears rang after it passed. For half a second, nothing happened.
Then the table split.
Not cracked or shattered, but it was cut perfectly down the middle, smooth as glass. I stood up, as the far half slid away from the other half.
[I offer thee a covenant carved in my father's blood; let our intentions be bound in an oath beyond defiance, a confluence of ours wills shall be forged. May my father's blessing rest upon you. ]
"Oh—"
The floor vanished beneath me. I reflexively squeezed shut my eyes off and gasped, but immediately regretting it. For some odd reason, the air was cold, tasted metallic, thick with a mix of damp soil and ash.
Then I snapped my eyes wide open. I wasn't falling anymore.
I found myself lay sprawled in tall, dead grass, surrounded by ruins of broken teeth stones as their surfaces gnawed with moss and time. I pushed myself up onto my elbows. Everything felt… ancient, worn down, but not broken. The place looked like it had survived countless catastrophe and was simply waiting for the next one.
This isn't—
I walked around the uneven grass. And the way my boots crunched over the stalks felt more like walking in a land of brittle bones. To my left, a monolithic archway leaned precariously, its surface etched with silver veins, looked less like stone and more like a ribcage.
Flower.
I scrambled, searching for a flower, but everything here was dead.
Then the sky stopped me. I looked up.
It wasn't blue. It wasn't anything so simple. Vast clouds churned overhead in layers, bruised in purples and sickly golds twisting together around a massive, fractured glow that hung where a sun should've been. Light leaked through the cracks like it was bleeding.
Then the sky broke.
Something collided in the sky, two forces slamming together that I felt more than heard. The clouds were torn apart by the blinding arc of light with the space itself warping.
A shockwave followed.
The ground beneath me shook violently. Stone ruins collapsed in the distance. I threw an arm over my face as a roar of wind blasted across the distance, flattening the grass and nearly took me along. "Ugh!"
When I looked up again, the world went gray.
I couldn't move.
There—coiling through the torn sky, was a creature shaped like a dragon only in the loosest sense. Its body barely qualified as physical, more suggestion than substance.
When it swung its arm downward, a figure slammed into the ground with deafening impact.
I turned my head, shielding myself as pieces of debris grazed my shoulders and arms.
Through the rising smoke, a laugh erupted. A tall humanoid figure stepped forward, silhouette etched against the dust, raising its sword toward the sky. "▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢"
It was an old man.
His hair was long and white, pulled back with a few loose strands, and his face was worn and disfigured in places, etched with age, old scars, one side of his mouth was slightly lower than the other. His one shoulder hung lower than the other, like his body had been pushed past its limit and simply learned to keep going regardless.
He was smiling. Then he jumped.
He hovered at the creature's height, cloak snapping wildly in the turbulence, sword raised in one steady hand. High above, silhouettes shifted against the fractured light, massive shapes locked together in violent motion. Every clash sent ripples through the sky, so vast they looked divine… or the monstrous. I wasn't sure which thought unsettled me more.
Another impact.
The clouds spiraled inward, forming a massive ring around the battlefield, lightning crawling along its edges like veins of fire. For a single, horrifying moment, I felt it.
I turned and ran.
The flower...
Flower...
Flower...
My heart was pounding against my chest.
I was fortunate enough that it didn't notice me.
I had no clue where to go. I simply let my feet lead me. My heel slipped on loose gravel and I nearly went down, but I managed to caught myself on instinct. Something crashed into the ground behind me. The shockwave flung me forward. I hit hard, scraping my palm against the stone as dust exploded into my face. I rolled, coughing.
Where am I?
Where did she send me?
Debris rained from above. Chunks of massive stone crashed where my head had been a second earlier. Another clipped my shoulder. I rolled a few more times, until I was able to force myself back up. My chest heaved heavily, pressing my back against a pillar.
I scanned the ruins around me. Broken slabs of whatever it was, fragments of pillars, and shattered walls. Somewhere in the distance, rubble continued to fall, sending tremors through the ground.
For a moment, I let myself simply breathe. Only for a moment. Nothing here promised safety.
"How many seconds do I have left?" I said, glancing down at my left wrist. Nothing there. "Fuck."
I could feel my breath scraping against my throat, as I pushed myself upright.
Stone dust floated through the air, stinging my eyes.
I forced my legs to move.
Then I saw it: a flower, like the one before, wedged between root and stone. I wiped the dust in my eyes and blinked a few times. A smile crept up my face. "Finally."
However, as I reached for it, a silhouette appeared from the corner of the wall. The figure was hunched and slow, wearing a tattered cloak that dragged against the ground. A large, worn bag hung across its back, slung low, with ragged shapes sticking out—chipped rusted blades, bones, all rattling with each movement.
I stopped momentarily.
Its eyes flicked around, scanning, and when then they fell on me, its like a predator locking their gaze on the prey. My heart skipped a beat.
I moved quickly, running toward the flower.
Without warning, it moved, faster than I could follow, faster than the eye could track. One moment it was at the far edge of the wall. The next, it lunged forward with just a blur. I barely had time to react. Its shadow fell over me before I could even think to duck, the world narrowed to the shape rushing straight for me.
It was coming. And there was no stopping it.
"Ugh!" I groaned in pain.
The creature grabbed my chest, lifting me off the ground effortlessly. Its eyes scanned me like I was a specimen, tilting my body this way and that way, examining. Its face remained hidden in the shadow of the tattered hood. My eyes caught the arm grabbing me. One of the most grotesque thing I have ever seen.
"▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢"
I didn't understand a single thing. Every syllable rolled over my ears.
"▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢"
"▢▢▢"
Then, through the cracked, the wall exploded, and a hulking, eldtrich-looking creature emerged from it that looked like it crawled straight out of somebody's nightmare. Its head was elongated, jaws stretching wide than any creature I've ever seen. Its massive claws sunk into the ground. It pause so sudden that it made the silence screamed.
Then it surged forwards, limbs lashing, body convoluting, jaw snapping.
Oh, hell nah!
"▢▢▢▢▢▢▢▢" The same figure holding me, extended a hand toward the creature. A spectral light bled through its nail, lancing through air and stitching itself into the monster's very inside. The monster screamed, surging forward, but hit an invisible wall.
I need to move.
That thought cut through everything.
My eyes dropped to the ground, franticly scanning. And then I saw it.
The flower.
A few feet away. Petals trembling from the aftershocks, but still there.
A strange thing happened to me, I should be feeling scared, yet my urgency drowned out the fear.
While its back was turned, I saw a blade protruding from its bag. I reached for the rusty, chipped steel, even slicing my own palm as I pulled. Blood spilled instantly, running down my wrist. I wheezed in pain, but didn't let go.
Runes ignited like a cage of pale fire spun around the creature like chains. The shadows beneath it, detached from the floor, and rose in hunger, vicious ribbons, wrapping around the eldtrich's creature convulsing limbs. Where the shadow-stuff touched its flesh, it withered instantly, turning into ash.
It was over. The figure's eyes snapped to mine. I drove the blade deep into the arm until the fingers finally let go. "Fucking let me go, you disgusting piece of shit!"
I lunged for the flower, screaming with everything I got. "AAAAAH!" There was no room for thought, only the goal in mind. I didn't have the luxury to doubt; I had to trust myself. As long as I get it, nothing else mattered. I would leave the rest to fate.
Blood stained the stem as I snatched it, dripping of it.
I turned. The same grotesque hand that had just shredded the eldritch horror was now reaching for me.
And then—snap.
And in an instant, I was back in the seat. Hands resting on the cold stone table, holding the bloodied flower
I couldn't tell if what had just happened was real, or—
"How was your experience?"