Kary woke up in a strange, yet familiar place. A white, infinite void, so impossibly bright it would blind any mortal who dared look at it with its puny physical globes. Thankfully, just as it had been the last time she had been brought here, she had no physical form whatsoever, even her ethereal soul eluding her as she looked around, evidently confused as for why she had been brought here… again. Still, being dragged here brought some old questions she had yet to be given an answer. How was she able to think without a physical brain to produce thoughts? How was she able to see anything if she had no eyes? Whatever it was, Kary decided to simply chalk it up to some weird divine power from Limo. Speaking of which, where was Limo, the master of this place and probably the one who had once again brought her here? And why had it dragged her here out of seemingly nowhere? Sure, some months had passed since she had arrived on her new planet, the name of which she still hadn’t learned. At this point, she wasn’t even sure if the planet had a name. After all, in a world seemingly resembling medieval Earth with a lot of magic ingrained into the society, would they even be aware of the roundness of their world? But what made her believe the world she now resided in was, in fact, a globe, other than the knowledge she had brought from Earth? She didn’t know if there existed other universes, with different rules and fundamental building blocks, so, as long as Limo refused to spill the beans, it was hard to be sure of anything. Her earthly logic had worked pretty well so far, but there wasn’t really anything preventing her worldview from collapsing at a moment’s thought. It had already been shattered once before, when she was made to discover that death was not quite the end, in this very place, in fact, where she had been forced to confront the fact that her understanding of reality wasn’t quite right.
By now, she didn’t think she could ever forget what Limo had done for her, reincarnating her out of its search for fun into ruins haunted by a terrifying monster. Even now, months later, she could still remember that thing that had pursued her through dusty alleyways and fallen rooftops. But at least the god had given her the chance to become someone, not just a mere name in the presence list to be marked, a specter in her own house, her interests buried beneath the twisted desires of others, trampled until there was no more meaning in accomplishing them. At the same time, though, she still had some lingering resentment towards the god, its fun-induced mindset, coupled with its twisted understanding of what constituted ‘fun’, meaning it not always had her best interests in mind, like throwing her in those ruins, or directing her to a territory in war, even if she had managed to go far away from the actual battlefield. It felt weird to be treated as nothing more than a toy, a temporary distraction, a clown made to dance to whatever tune Limo decided to play that day, holding no certainty that the choreography would remain unchanged tomorrow, forced to adapt to the whims of the nightmarish god. All in all though, the girl couldn’t help but feel some small amount of gratitude towards Limo, since not only had it given her a new life for her to suffer anew, it had also relieved her all the fighting, the gore, the… piles of bodies, the blood seeping into the pavement below… ugh. Remembering the bloody scenes she had so stupidly pushed herself to witness, Kary could feel shivers descending through her now non-existent spine. At the very least all that she had now was the memory of those awful scenes, not the actual flesh and blood and white bone and crumpled metal for her to stare at. That, however, did very little to prevent the bile rising up from her ethereal throat to continue its trajectory, rising, rising, like a rocket of putrid, rotten liquid, filling her mouth despite her lack of any, its acid taste burning her sensitive palate, and then — nothing.
“Hello, there, little Kary. It has certainly been a while since we last met, hasn’t it? And then when I do make time for us to catch up, you go on and try to dirty my pristine white carpet! Outrageous, I say!” Swallowing down some of the ruder words she wanted to say, knowing very well Limo would still receive them, she replied, a smile so fake on her lips it made plastic plants look real:
“So you have a carpet in here?”
“No, not at all. Even if I had, this place is so big you’d be hard pressed to find it. I don’t have any furniture, though.” Although Limo had yet to appear before her, she could feel from her ethereal body a cheeky smirk plastered in some Greek depiction of deity, beautiful, muscly, and buck-naked.
“Hey, hey, hey, don’t think of me like that! That’s very unbecoming for a young girl like you.”
“You let me see decapitated heads and mangled bodies, but comparing you to a nude statue is where you draw the line?”
“I didn’t allow you to see anything, my dear. Everything you did after I plopped you into your new world has been the fruit of your decisions and nobody else’s, and that includes the sight you saw. That, my dear, was no one’s fault but yours. So please don’t blame me for it, okay?”
“Sure, I’ll pretend to believe you, and you can pretend to believe that I believe it.”
“It’s true, though! I completely forgot about you for a good while! How could I coerce to do something when I didn’t even remember your existence?! Truth be told, there have been some pretty interesting things happening in your world, so you’ve kind of taken the back seat… There’s just so much fun to be had watching these many small men think themselves to be kings of the world. Wars, conflicts, revolutions, conspiracy, so much happening all the time and I just can’t —! There’s simply no way for me to pay attention to all things equally, so I had to let some toys gather dust… sorry…”
“Why… Why call me a toy?” Although she had asked that, Kary was pretty certain of the answer. Still, she couldn’t help but question the insane god that for some reason had taken its time to chit chat with her.
“Well… I didn’t actually specify anyone, now did I? But, if you want to consider yourself my toy, then who am I to deny you this tiny pleasure? More toys mean more options for me to choose from, more replacements, more fun for me to have, more everything! There are no downsides!” Staring into the white void stretching seemingly infinitely forward, Kary couldn’t help but wonder what it was that made this particular being so immensely irritating. Even though she knew it was able to pry into her every thought, she was simply unable to muster any semblance of respect for this god that had been slowly making itself just as punchable as the girls who refused to leave her alone back when she was just a miserable little student struggling to live. At least now she could be miserable in a different world, with some people who actually seemed to care for her, so, in that regard, she was begrudgingly grateful to Limo. Still, how was it possible that a being without a face, without a body, without expressions, nothing but a seemingly omnipresent voice talking nonsense from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, be so incredibly irritating? It was honestly impressive, in a bizarre and twisted way, though it hardly made her feel better about the need to entertain the god. It was, after all, quite terrifying to think that one wrong thing thought could lead her to be simply erased out of existence, just poofed out, no explanation given, because why would a god need to justify itself for a being that was already gone?
“Come on now, dearie, you know I would never do something like this, right? I’m not that mean… most of the time, anyway. I could, of course, just delete you out of reality, but then where would the dread of the possibility of this happening go? There would be no more Kary to shiver in her pants whenever she thinks about little old me, no more Kary to think about what I could do if I so pleased, taking care of what comes out of her mouth, even though she knows that I can read her every thought, that I can see her fear, smell her terror even in this very realm. Whatever would I do if I were to throw my most promising toy away in some tantrum or another?”
“If… if I am so important to you, then why… why —”
“Why didn’t I interact with you? Why did I leave you to your own devices for so long? Why didn’t I drag you here sooner? These are all excellent questions, my dear human, very thoughtful questions that once again I could tell you exactly what it was that kept me from pestering you for this long, but why would I ever want to do that? Wouldn’t it be better if I just let you find it out on your own time?”
“Then what was the purpose of bringing me here?”
“Well, you seemed to have free time on your hands, so I figured I might as well just yoink you here, and, lo and behold, here you are.”
“Hmmm… But, if you did tell me what it was that has monopolized your attention, wouldn’t me knowing about it make the future much more unpredictable? That would make for a way more interesting game than me not knowing anything until it reaches my life at a predictable moment, now wouldn’t it?”
“Well, well, well, looks like someone knows what they’re doing. I congratulate you, little miss Kary, for being able to provide me with a fairly sensible reasoning for me to provide you with the information you so eagerly seek. Very well, my dearest human, sit down, sit down, you’re gonna be here for some time”
“Wait… how long, exactly? Will I be okay? I mean, my —”
“Yes, yes, yes, don’t you worry your silly little head, if you keep going like this you won’t be able to remember a thing I tell you, right?” Although Kary couldn’t see the rude god that insisted on cutting her off, she could just feel its smile whenever it was able to tick her off like that. Taking in a long, deep breath to calm her impatience, the girl reminded herself that not lashing out would perhaps net her some useful information about the world she lived in.
“Well, that remains to be seen, doesn’t it, my pretty little doll. Whether or not I give you anything worth of your time only you will be able to tell. My only job is to make sure you keep on entertaining me, preferably enough that I don’t get distracted by random events elsewhere. Your first few days were so eventful! Fighting for your life, finding some good people to take you in, traveling the empty landscape, and as soon as you got to the city everything became so… dull and boring. Honestly, if it wasn't for that little party trick you used on those mind-controlled knights, I might have not even recalled you were still alive.” Although Kary felt a little bummed that that what she had done to keep herself alive was nothing more than a ‘little party trick’ in the eyes of this being, her nonexistent ears immediately perked up the second those bizarre knights in full armor that had forced her into a corner in the first place were mentioned. If what Limo had just mentioned was indeed true, then it made quite a lot of sense for those behemoths to chase her down deep into the woods, refusing to leave her alone no matter how far she went, refusing to give up until she was lying dead on the ground. Maybe that was also why they were so keen on hunting down every other resident nearby. But why would anyone brainwash the kingdom’s knights? Was it the work of the king himself? But why would he do that? Purging the corrupt nobles, maybe? But what would lead the ruler of a country into being forced to remove a substantial enough part of nobility while remaining in the shadows? Had he stepped up and claimed the capital needed to be cleaned of the filth that inhabited its manors, he might be able to gain some credibility with the population. Instead, the only thing this accomplished was killing off a bunch of the troops, a bunch of the nobles, and frightening the local populace.
But… that didn’t make a whole lot of sense, now did it? The men in the city kept disappearing, and the gates had been closing for a good few weeks. If everything that happened was indeed orchestrated by the monarch, then what motivation could possibly have had to simply disappear with most of the men in the capital of his own country? Unless he was a complete lunatic, which was not out of the question, he, and by association everyone responsible for the welfare of the country, were utterly imbeciles to do this nonsensical purge in this moment of surging friction with the neighboring empire. If the king indeed had his head stuck up in the moon, well, there was really nothing that Kary, a little teenage girl who had been in this big wide world for less than a year could do to understand the motives behind the madness. Then again, if Asteria, who seemed to have a pretty good head over her shoulders, better than most folks anyway, was willing to exist under this potentially insane king without so much as a complaint, then he might not be as much of a nutcase as she had speculated, nor stupidly incompetent. Should that be the case, then —
“Well, well, well, looks like we have a little Sherlock Holmes with us here today, ladies and gentlemen. Impressive, quite impressive indeed.”
“Who are you talking to?”
“Nobody, girl, nobody, just talking to myself. It’s not like we’re being broadcasted as some sort of intergalactic TV program.”
“Huh, so you know what TV’s are… I don’t really know what to think of this…”
“Of course I do! Who do you think I am?! A Neanderthal stuck watching over a medieval world moved almost exclusively by magic, letting every other form of science slack behind? No! No need to answer. I know you do think like that, and here I was praising your skills. Seems like I may have overvalued your brain faculties. Oh, what a shame, to be perceived as nothing more than a brute, a primitive god incapable of appreciating the finesse of the Earthian technology. But that matters not in this conversation, and, despite my heavily hurt feelings, I shall continue the observations you thought thoughtful to interrupt and in doing that questioning my preferred manner of speech, which I have also found quite saddening. With that being said, though, what I was meaning to tell you is that you have a surprisingly good intuition, my dear, and you pretty much just worked out what happened without me even having to give you a feel more nudges. What that means is that I need to be a lot more careful with what I do decide to share with you, in case you are able to make some bizarrely accurate guess and ruin all the fun to be had when you go back and struggle to put everything in its place. Now, though. hmmm, what should I tell you… any suggestions, my dear princess?”
“First, please don’t ever call me a princess again, I might just die again. As for what I should ask you… hmm… could just tell me what is the cause of this recent tension between this kingdom and that neighboring empire… which I still don’t know the name of?”
“What do you mean you still don’t know!? It has never occurred to you to just… ask? It’s impossible that there is not even one singular individual incapable of answering such a basic question, right? Weren’t the folks at the guild supposed to help you with whatever questions you might have regarding your job? What happened to those? Or are you just that lacking in intelligence? Girl, you’ve been on that one city for the past… few months, at least, and yet I bet you don’t know the its fucking name!”
“Well…”
“Hah… the more I interact with you, the less I can see you as that weird, miserable girl living day by day on Earth. Did transporting your soul into another world mess up your head or something? Hmm… I might need to ask Ele later, though I don’t think I’ll be able to catch him free.”
“Who?”
“You know, Ele, the devil, the primordial evil or whatever, the dude in charge of processing your soul when you kiss your life goodbye and send it into its next life. That guy.”
“The one you said would be very mad at you for snatching my soul out of his pipeline?”
“The one and only, yes. Thankfully for me, he is far from the most trigger-happy gods I personally know. I was banished into the deepest depths of what you humans so fondly call hell, but it’s not like he has the power or the disposition to keep someone like me locked for very long. It only took a few tens of years for me to break out.”
“…What do you mean it took you multiple years to leave? Hasn’t it been only a few months since we last saw each other, from what you yourself said?”
“And I thought you were intelligent. Oh how the mighty have fallen. But I guess it makes sense for you to forget, or perhaps I never even mentioned it in the first place? That matters little in this present moment. The thing, my dear princess, is that time flows quite differently outside of the mortal plane. Yes, us gods do age and may retire or even die at some point in the distant future, but it’s so far into the future no one can accurately tell when it’s gonna happen. Well, I guess there is one god at least that might have a pretty good estimation, though I prefer not to talk about her.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
“Who?” Kary asked, genuinely curious about this being who could elicit such a visceral reaction from this god that thus far had shown nothing but amusement in its many depraved ways. If she had at the very least the name of this god, she might be able to do some research on her own once she made her way back into… the planet she currently resided in, which she had yet to learn the name. Perhaps it would be wise to start asking the obvious questions she had yet to gather the courage to voice, fearing they might sound quite strange given she was supposedly a resident of the… kingdom she lived in. It wasn’t just that she didn’t know the name of the planet, even the county or the city she was living in had yet to be given names in her mind, even though for a normal citizen that should be common knowledge. But then again, there were people close to her that she could trust would at worst laugh at her before providing her with every tidbit of information she could ever want. Now that, that sounded like a plan. Considering she was already going to leave this place with some stuff to study, if there was ever a time to be asking questions it would be right then and there.
“But that is assuming I ever let you leave my domain, isn’t it? When have I ever given you the assurance that I would be throwing you back there? If I wanted, I could just keep you here forever and ever, and you would have no choice but to accept! Wouldn’t that be nice?”
“But it wouldn’t be very entertaining, would it? I mean, you saw how I was at home, considering your earlier comment, and you should know how easy it is for me to become just as bad if not worse than that. Do you really think locking me in a white space for eternity would bring you the potential fun you saw in me?”
“I could always find a new toy, my dear Kary. When you pretty much own the toy factory, finding replacements is just a matter of knowing where to look.”
“So, what you are saying is that you are willing to waste your time looking for someone to entertain you just because you feel like I deserve to rot away for the rest of eternity in an endless room?”
“Not endless, my little mortal friend, nor timeless. Because infinity is boring, incomprehensible, a meaningless word that at the same time describes everything and nothing at all. You cannot comprehend the size of infinity, there is nothing your puny little brain could conjure that could be accurately associated with infinity, and there is nothing I could possibly do to make you understand it. Infinity is much better represented through finity, a bounded infinity, seemingly infinite but whose constraints allow a lower being such as you to appreciate its impossibly vast size. Should I keep you here forever and ever until the end of time, well that is a finite amount of time, is it not? The universe as you know it would eventually come to an end and all the gods I have ever known would be ground into cosmic dust, including this illustrious figure to whom you speak.”
“So you won’t lock me in here, is that what you’re implying?”
“Oh, come on, don’t need to say the quiet part out loud, otherwise someone might hear you. They are always watching, you know. Always vigilant, lying just outside what both you and I can perceive, lurking.”
“What… what are you talking about?” Although Kary wanted to dismiss it as nothing more than a silly little joke, a sense of unease still crept from deep within her body, the simple idea of the nonexistent privacy thanks to some eldritch being was more than enough to shake the poor girl. After all, if there was something capable of watching her and yet at the same time make itself functionally invisible for her, then what else could it do? How much of a threat did this creature pose for her and the world she knew? What was the difference between revealing the existence of this thing and placing a guillotine over her head, ready to snap down at a moment’s notice?
“Well, I could tell you that indeed there is nothing to be worried about and that I was only joking when I said that, but why should you take anything I say at face value? Should you believe my previous statement or believe on this instead for a meager sense of security? Or should you dismiss everything that comes out of my lips? The choice, child, I leave entirely to you.”
“Oh, wow, how generous. You permit that I have an existential crisis should I choose to. I don’t think I have heard of a more benevolent act than this, letting the poor girl face the truth of the world that might not even be the truth. I feel flattered by your friendliness. Not many have been willing to go this far for me.”
“Now you’re just being dramatic for the sake of it, girl. If you do want to have a crisis right in front of me, feel free to do so, but be aware that I will be making fun of you. But since you seem stable enough to hold a conversation, I might as well continue on that line of thought you so rudely interrupted me earlier… what were we talking about again?”
“Well, you were telling me some information about my world, since I did manage to convince you to let me ask you questions… wait a second, why are you asking me this? I really doubt the memory of a god could possibly be this bad… right? Could gods even have dementia?“
“I… don’t really know. I have never thought to ask. How would that even work anyway? Hmmm… I might have to think deeper about this later. See! That’s why I like you so much! You are such an insufferable nerd, such a grand seeker of random and utterly useless information, who once in a while you do manage to do something interesting!”
“Didn’t you decide to reincarnate me because I died with a brick to the head thrown by a dog after nearly surviving a car crash?”
“Details, details, not really relevant at the moment. Now could you please stop interrupting me for the love of god?” Resisting the urge to comment further, knowing that was exactly what Limo was baiting her to do, she kept on listening, her ethereal mouth sealed tight.
“Now, since you asked so kindly about the current political tensions of the two countries you failed to bother to learn the names of, I should tell you at least one useful information, now shouldn’t I? Though I do worry about this very unnatural and perhaps forced way to learn something you very well could over the course of the next few days, I shall entertain you, though I will not say much. It'll be more fun to watch you struggle with whatever incomplete facts I give you, now won’t it?”
“No it won’t, it’ll just make my life miserable.”
“Perfect then. So, I’ll just say that once upon a time the empire, that empire I shall not name, was grander and larger than it is today, its influence reaching far and wide… though that last part is still mostly true today. Then a certain region got mad at the central power and went on a revolution to free itself from the evil clutches of the darned empire and its tyrannical rule. Or at least that was how they framed it. Then lo and behold, the kingdom you now reside in, whose name I shall also not mention, was born, and so after quite a few places began trying their own luck revolting against the empire, though only a few ever succeeded for a myriad of reasons.”
“But that doesn’t explain the reason for the sudden tensions, does it?”
“That, my dear, I leave for you to figure out. I gave you all the background you could possibly need, now you just need to make the hamster in your head spin your brain-wheel. I’m sure you’ll figure it out in time. If not, well, it’ll be even funnier to watch you struggle forever and ever until you are either killed or die with the world eventually.”
“Oh… oh, right, I don’t age, right? I recall that panel saying something like that.”
“Silly Kary, status panels can’t say stuff, they are but visual interfaces you are allowed to interact with. Now, do you have any other questions I might be willing to answer? Think fast, your time here with me is almost over.”
“Is it really?” For a second, Kary was genuinely worried, worried that she might not be able to properly utilize this opportunity, something that might not even happen again during her lifetime, depending on how Limo felt. Although she wanted to process the god’s answer to her question about the international tensions, that would have to wait. For now, she should just try to ask it the maximum amount of questions from the ones that had been bugging her for the past while. If it decided to answer her, good, great, amazing even, depending on how good of an answer it provided and if it decided to keep its mouth shut… Well, it wouldn’t be like she had lost anything, after all, it wouldn’t really be mature to be sad over not having information you never had.
“Now that is quite true, my weird little human, there indeed is no point in getting disappointed by the stuff I most definitely won’t tell you. Yet for someone so hungry for knowledge, you have yet to ask me any meaningful questions. Are you that uncreative or is the pressure of being in front of me that overwhelming?”
“Not really, no, you don’t really inspire that much fear.” Kary lied through her teeth, even though both she and Limo knew that was not the truth. However, what mattered was making the whole dynamic as fun as she could, both for her psyche and to soften the god. Contrary to what it had said, the girl had been thinking about what to ask, and she found out very quickly that it was surprisingly difficult to come up with something she wanted to have answered, and yet wouldn’t ‘spoil the fun’ for Limo. In the end, she decided to first ask a safe question, that it would probably be willing to answer.
“Will there be a war in the near future?”
“Well, well, well, starting strong aren’t we. But… hmm… that’s quite the good question, quite the good question indeed. I could very well tell you nothing, but that would simply mean that you knowing too much would ruin the fun, which would imply you have the power to alter the course of whatever it is that is happening. However, in telling you, I would be just affirming that you are powerless to stop anything that happens and trying to see you scramble around fruitlessly trying to find a solution would be much more fun. Did I understand your thought process in its entirety?”
“Well, yes, but you can kind of see what I’m thinking, can’t you? That renders your understanding practically moot.”
“Oh to be so fiercely attacked by these barbed words! Do you take this much pleasure in watching me squirm, shiver in shame at these verbal constructs you insist on relentlessly throwing at me? Oh if only! If only they could hurt. But they don’t. Not even tickle me, in fact. If you want to admonish an ancient god like myself, you really should improve your game, kid. But whatever, that is not the point we’re discussing here. Now, I get it, you probably thought you were being oh so clever with that question, but you really weren’t, dear. It is exhausting to have to explain my unparalleled genius to you inferior creatures every single time, but alas, I must be as verbose as I need to be. You see, my dear princess, that strategy would be effective if, and only if, I was forced to only answer questions with either a yes or no. But I don’t have to do it, right? I have never said I had. So instead I’ll do something a little different. You’ll see.” Although Limo had no face, Kary could feel the growing smirk on its smug face, as the white void evaporated into nothing. From a moment to the other she could feel the world itself turning, reality breaking apart and rebuilding itself in the molds of Limo. Not that Kary had been able to perceive any of these changes. For her, what had been white simply turned green, as grass plains far, far below sprawled through the horizon.
From high above in the sky, she could only helplessly watch the land below, the lush greenery at times interrupted by brown and gray human constructs. Interestingly enough, even though she was high enough that it should have been impossible, Kary could still discern a level of detail that left her stunned for a good moment. It wasn’t until she saw a little human head coming out of what seemed to be a tent that she finally snapped back to reality, her mind hastily working out the analysis of the situation it was supposed to have done quite a while ago. She seemed to be atop a camping site, though the constructions hinted at something a little more permanent. Yes, there were tents, but there were also small wooden towers, barriers, tables, chairs, and even what seemed to be training ranges. How could she deduce all that from her far away top-down view? Well, simply put, the place was quite well populated. People came and went with some regularity, wearing everything ranging from full plate shining armor, which was enough to send shivers down her spine, to simple clothing, those folks probably being non-combatants. Time passed painfully slowly as the girl could do nothing other than watch the little ants scurrying around, each doing their own thing, going over their repetitive routines for days on end. Some spent their time training, sparring with each other or fighting against what probably were dummies with wooden staffs. Others were practically bound to their tents, seldom leaving for anything other than bathroom breaks, in a small little place that stood not far from the congregation of tents, though still far enough away to give whoever needed to use it some amount of privacy. Everyone’s routine seemed to be pretty strict, though it seemed to have worked, since there were very few times when someone was admonished. Things were slow, boring, mindless even, to the point where Kary spent the days following engraving into her mind the uniqueness that permeated each individual, the different paths they took each they, which activities they usually did, at what time they ate, what clothes they were, who they liked to interact and who they didn’t.
Although they were wholly unaware of her existence up above, watching them for days at a time, Kary very slowly grew attached to these silly little beings, always watchful, always diligent. She worried about their health, the extremes to which they seemed to be willing to go in order to follow commands, the amount of time they slept. The girl knew they were capable, and yet she worried nonetheless from her powerless position. And then, just like that, everything was gone. One night. One night was all it took for everything to go up in smoke. One attack, under the veil of darkness, not a lot of people, for there was no need, hastily moving through the moonlit grass, making their way to the camp as quietly as they possibly could. Heck, if Kary hadn’t been bored out of her mind, she might have not even noticed them. Of course, they couldn’t remain hidden forever. Eventually they were seen, and then all hell broke loose. Fire lit up the sky, falling down the tents and the grass, spreading with unnatural haste, as if it had been lit over dry foliage. Whatever able-bodied folks who were awake at that point in time promptly took on their arms, but it was in vain. The enemies speed didn’t decrease at all as they closed in, swinging their weapons left and right, flashes of silver following gushing blood as they effortlessly tore limb and bit bone. The actual knights, or at least the ones who seemed to be ones, managed to fend off for themselves quite better, being practically walking tanks, sealed-off killing machines. But they were not enough, their speed was not enough, their dexterity was not enough, their strength was not enough. They were, for all intents in purposes, inferior to the attackers in every way, except in how difficult they were to kill. That was where some of the black-clothed, nimble assailants faltered, dropping dead much the same way they had done to the ill-prepared gate guards. And yet, the knights also went down, knocked to the ground, their swords grappled out of their hands, helmets taken off, a stab to the face following right after.
With the few knights down, the rest of the camp soon turned to ashes, not one person remaining, only burning rumble and soon-to-rot flesh. As rapidly as they had come, the black-clothed individuals retreated into the night, leaving nothing behind, no one spared to later tell the tale. Only Kary, stuck up above, screaming into the void, could see the atrocities that had transpired, the ease with which a life was taken. It was horrifying, a stark reminder of the reason she sought to pursue strength. She refused to allow the world to dictate her future, whether she lived or died, whether her friends lived or died. Human life was fragile, and she had just seen how easy it was to get attached to that frailty. The girl wanted to cry, to spill the tears she didn’t have for those people she didn’t know, whom she never knew, who never knew she knew them, but whom she had watched, observed, gotten attached to, like an owner to a pet, a human to an ant colony, a god to a civilization, until a rival group, someone with a grudge, people simply following orders from above, decided that affection was fated to wither away and drown in blood. Although she wanted time to tick, to take her back when there was neither fire nor gore, when she could simply watch people walk around, do their things, live their lives, she could only watch as the fiery night gave way to the morning sun, a bright sunny day, for which there was no one to enjoy. And then, just as suddenly as she had been placed in the sky and fixed into the universe, she was plucked back to the white void, no warnings, no nothing.
“So, my dear friend, how’d you like that experience? Fun, was it not?”
“You and I both know it wasn’t, Limo. You know I’m terrified, you know I don’t want to lose everything I have built in this world, and yet you just go and make me watch my greatest fears from the position of a third person. Why? Why would you do this, you disgusting fuck?”
“Woah, woah, woah, let’s calm down a bit there, okay? Now, I could tell you exactly why I did what I did, but —”
“Heh, so you’re not even giving me the reason. You have all the freedom in the world, to torture me, to toy with me, to in the end keep your mouth zipped as for the why. You could simply say that you thought it would be fun! Even that cold bucket of an answer would be better than you keeping your mouth closed! Just tell me your reason for this! Please…”
“Alright, alright, I’ll tell ya, even though I have no mouth. But I won’t say everything, otherwise how exciting would life truly be? All I ask is for you to think of what you asked me, and in exchange I will say that your fears are very justifiable, though you should probably worry about yourself before thinking about friends or family. Sometimes, danger lurks closer than you might think.”
“What are you —” Before she could formulate a coherent sentence, her mouth was sewn shut, muffled sounds echoing through the vast space, an echo that had never been there, all of the sudden assaulting her, overwhelming her, pressing down on her nonexistent body, whispering to her incomprehensible words she knew all too well. Then the void itself started to break, cracks spreading like cobwebs across nothing, dark lines dancing and running through the landscape, without a single sound, a single noise, taking back the white, surrounding her, dragging her deeper and deeper into darkness, tying her up and depriving her of her senses. She felt nothing, even though she couldn’t budge an inch, saw nothing, except for the dulling white, and, eventually, heard nothing, not anymore, not even the sound of her own throat struggling to emit anything that could be considered noise. Fear quickly morphed into terror and then into panic, as her muscles contracted, heartbeat increased, saliva thickened, pupils dilated as her body prepared her for the worse, whatever it was that Limo would throw at her, what sick prank could he have planned now? That didn’t matter, not as much as surviving anyways. Her whole body felt heavy, exhausted, like she had just run a marathon, back pressed against the soft ground, eyes as dense as lead struggling to open, barely processing the ceiling above as blackness once again found its way to Kary, this time comforting, a blanket enveloping her whole, a lullaby for her shattered thoughts, gently guiding her weary mind away from her drained body.
