Atlas Mercer
I drifted for what seemed like ages, within a dream where centuries could pass in the span of a breath, or a single moment could last for what seemed like forever, all the while drifting within an endless dark abyss that held me there, drifting listlessly.
But somewhere in the distance, I heard a whisper.
Except it wasn't a voice. Not exactly.
It was as if the world itself were trying to speak in a language I couldn't understand.
With that quiet cadence came the familiar sensations I had only just realized were missing. My sense of self returned slowly, piece by piece, until I became aware of the twisting pull curling deep in my gut.
Like I was falling.
The realization struck just as my eyes opened.
But what waited for me wasn't some world of light and life.
It was much the same.
Darkness.
Total, suffocating darkness.
There were no stars to break it. No distant glow to give shape or direction. Only the void, pressing in from every side like a shroud, hiding whatever might lurk within its depths.
On instinct, I reached out, grasping for anything that might stop the fall, but all I found was oppressive nothingness. It clung to me with a thick, tar-like weight, making every movement feel as though I were straining against the world itself.
Yet even with that pressure dragging at my body, I continued to plummet downward faster than the suffocating embrace should have allowed.
And then I saw it.
Like a sun in an expanse of nothingness, there was a glow.
Just to my right, descending with me, was a small orb no larger than my fist, looking so out of place that, for a moment, my mind almost rejected it entirely.
It didn't belong here.
Nothing should have been able to shine in this place.
Still there it was, with its soft pulses of blue and gray swirling within it, while veins of lightning danced across its surface like echoes of a distant storm.
A storm that had no place in this endless nothing.
Slowly, I reached out with trembling fingers, drawn to the light like a drowning man to air. The second my hand closed around it, an electric shock ripped through my veins.
Still, I held it tight.
Afraid to let go of the feeling and return to that oppressive silence, so I pulled it close and hugged it to my chest.
Then something changed.
The fall didn't stop, but the darkness around me began to shift. It thinned at the edges until it was like something grabbed hold of me, then yanked me downwards at impossible speed, fast enough that the impact should have killed me, no matter what waited below.
But that death never came.
Suddenly, I found myself standing, though that seemed impossible. There was no floor beneath me. No walls. Nothing to support me at all. I was just… suspended in stillness, with the only real sensation being the warm orb cradled in my arms.
And in every direction, there was nothing.
No horizon. No light. Just that endless void, so complete it seemed to smother even the sound of my own breath.
But then, like a thought suddenly manifest, something appeared.
There, sitting in the middle of the expanse, stood a door.
Its frame was eerily familiar, standing defiantly against the darkness around it. A faint glow bled from its edges, spilling into the void and pushing back the suffocating pressure that had dampened my every thought.
Only then, as that weight was washed away, could I finally consider the absurdity of my situation.
It was the door within my dreams. But how?
Stepping closer, I hesitantly reached out, allowing my fingers to brush against the grain of its dark wood, completely stunned by the fact that I was standing before it once more.
"But if this wasn't a dream, then where was I?"
I remembered the rifts and my frantic escape through them, but what happened next?
Struggling to come up with an answer, I looked down at the orb cradled within my arm, its electric buzz reminding me of that monstrous titan that had hunted us to the very end.
And that's when it dawned on me.
"I never made it out…" I breathed.
The truth of those words seemed to resonate through the space, causing the door to unlock and silently slide open, bringing with it the dread that this was the real thing.
Death's door…
Taking a step back, I stumbled slightly, intimidated now that I was actually before it.
Wait… hold on.
Double-guessing everything I had done, I began to backpedal, suddenly terrified that it actually was the real thing.
"Wait. I'm not really dead, I can't be."
But there wasn't much I could do about it, so I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable doom waiting for me on the other side.
However, as the seconds passed with no force taking hold of my body or dragging me forward unwillingly, I slowly opened my eyes, expecting the worst.
Only to find that what stood behind the entrance wasn't some figure draped in a robe with skeletal fingers, or the pits of hell, but simple glass spires that rose through the nothingness far above before vanishing, forming a hall that seemed to surround a central monolith made of the same glass-like material.
A little confused by the sight before me, I hesitantly stepped forward as if to test if anything might try and grab me. But as the seconds passed, I took another experimental step forward, and then another, before crossing towards the other side.
"What is this place?" I breathed.
Looking around, I eyed the glass pillars all around me, now doubting the death door theory. Though maybe it was still death's door, just not what I would have expected.
Though eyeing the luminous core within my hand, I soon began to doubt that.
I mean, why would I have this if I were dead?
"Plus, I could just exit whenever I wanted to. It's not like…"
Looking towards my back, I found nothing but the void.
Oh shi—
Just then, all around me, the glass spires began to illuminate. The once-hollow insides began to glow, filling with stars of all kinds, though sparse compared to the monolithic structure within the center of the hall.
Its surface shimmered like glass, yet within it, there lay a masterpiece of galaxies and stars spiraling through its impossible structure, as if it had been carved from the bones of the cosmos itself.
Moments later, I felt the weight of it.
Like standing at the bottom of a vast sea, wondering if at any moment my body might be crushed as easily as a bug underfoot.
Making it all but impossible to run or think of anything but the sight before me, as symbols began to appear.
Fiery runes seared themselves into its surface, burning lines and shifting geometry bending in on themselves in ways that defied all logic.
I couldn't look away.
They weren't just symbols. They were living concepts, ideas too vast for a single mind to contain.
Each one branded itself into me, carving deeper and deeper until my skull felt like it might split open.
My vision fractured. Images slammed into me in a torrent–worlds colliding, languages I didn't know flooding my tongue, voices screaming in thousands of dialects that all meant the same thing: ending. Death upon death. My mind reeled as it was force-fed histories of entire civilizations, their rise and fall crammed into the space of a heartbeat. I tried to breathe, but each inhale caught in my throat, my chest locking tight as if the knowledge itself was choking me.
I clutched my head, nails biting into my scalp, but it did nothing to hold back the flood assaulting my mind as I watched countless cracks begin to spread through the fabric of existence.
Realities bled into one another, horrors and wonders fusing together into a writhing, endless mass of chaos.
And then the pulse hit.
A concussive wave of energy tore through me, ripping away the storm of visions in one merciless sweep. It was like being punched by the universe itself. My lungs collapsed as the air was wrenched out of me. I hit the ground hard, except there was no ground. My hands met nothing, my knees slammed into nothing, yet the pain was real. It spread through every joint, every muscle, as if my body was being unmade and remade in the same instant.
But even through the agony, my eyes never left the monolith.
The symbols writhed like living things now, wriggling in and out of dimensions I couldn't see. Each one pressed heavier on my chest than the last, like I was being slowly crushed under a mountain of knowledge I was never meant to understand.
Another pulse. Stronger this time.
I screamed, but no sound came. My vision blurred as my skin began to crumble, flaking away like ash caught in a dying wind. I stared in horror as my fingertips dissolved into glowing dust, as if I were being erased.
Every instinct told me to run, to flee, to do something, but I was locked in place, frozen in awe and terror. My mind buckled, trying to hold itself together as the monolith pressed deeper, stripping me down, layer by layer, memory by memory.
And then warmth.
Along my neck, the mark I'd carried since Mars pulsed once. Then again, stronger.
I felt it rise inside me like a tide, pushing back against the pressure that threatened to crush me. With its help, I was finally able to breathe once more, though barely.
I gritted my teeth and forced myself to my feet, my legs shaking beneath me. Pain surged through every nerve, but I welcomed it.
No, not just welcomed it—I needed it.
I bit down hard on my lip until the taste of blood filled my mouth. The sting grounded me, reminding me that I was still here.
Still me.
The monolith pulsed again.
But this time, I didn't fall.
I stood my ground, legs trembling beneath the pressure of something too old to name. Each beat of that impossible structure hit like a tidal wave, trying to bury me beneath its godlike presence. But I didn't break.
The warmth at my neck burned brighter with each pulse, pushing back against the force, acting as a shield between me and oblivion. I could feel it, like a second heartbeat inside me, beating in rhythm with the chaos. Every time the monolith tried to crush me, the mark answered, absorbing the blow, giving me just enough strength to keep standing.
And then something changed.
The symbols.
The searing runes that had once felt like knives in my mind began to shift. The fire dimmed, and the lines started to flow, becoming fluid and alive. Shapes twisted and danced, forming spirals and stars, fractals I somehow recognized even though I had no memory of them.
In my hand, the core began to tremble.
The gentle swirl of gray and blue within it became a storm. Colors darkened, and at the center, a void started to grow with each passing second. Small dots of light began to form, each blinking in one after the other, forming a brilliant tapestry of colors and motion. And then at the center, a black hole took shape, its edges warping the light around it, consuming all things. Black lightning tore across its surface, arcing like celestial veins through collapsing stars. I stared, unable to look away as my breath stopped altogether.
And then the black hole imploded.
Everything collapsed inward, not in destruction, but with purpose.
What remained was a beautiful sphere of galaxies, spinning in perfect silence, sealed within a glassy shell that somehow held infinity.
In that instant, it felt as though its transformation had finally finished.
At last, it released a pulse that resonated through the void around it.
And as if confirming it was ready, the void answered.
A force seized me, yanking me upward with such violence that the darkness blurred into streaks of light, overwhelming my already strained mind as I let myself go.
Amelia Grayson
I stood there, motionless, staring out over the field where the rifts danced, swallowing everything in their path. The storm that had ravaged us was gone, and in its place, the sky had become an eerily peaceful expanse of slowly shifting debris.
It was as if the universe had decided to mock us, offering tranquility after the chaos and death we had just endured. My thoughts weighed heavily on me. Ethan, Owen, and now Atlas. Each name struck like a stone, their losses settling on my shoulders, pressing down with a suffocating weight.
"Why couldn't I save anyone?" I choked. What was the use of these powers if all I could do was run and hide?
I tried to shove the thoughts away, to push the grief down where it couldn't cloud my mind. But even as I turned to face the others, my eyes fell on their stunned, broken expressions.
What's next?
I couldn't stop the thought from creeping in.
Who's next? Ella? Henry?
The idea chilled me to my core.
Taking a shaky breath, I forced myself to shift my attention. Looking down at my leg, I grasped the jagged piece of wood embedded deep in my flesh and pulled. I winced, watching with a distant sort of detachment as deep crimson blood flowed freely from the wound and spilled onto the forest floor.
I doubted we had any bandages left, so I willed the stone to rise from the ground and form tightly around the wound, sealing it enough to trap the blood inside.
Once satisfied, I drew in a deep breath.
"We… we need to get out of here," I muttered forlornly. "Let's find Owen's remains… and give him a proper farewell."
For a moment, no one said anything, too absorbed in their loss. Then Benjamin extended his hand.
"Let's go," he said, giving me a weak smile. "I believe we could all use some rest."
I looked up at him and saw the pain in his eyes. But there was also something like hope buried there. Small. But still there.
I took his hand, and with his help, he pulled me to my feet. To where I found the eyes of everyone around me waiting.
They were in pain. Every one of them was beginning to lose hope that we would ever make it through this alive. But with that simple direction, they seemed to grow a little less listless.
So, with a quiet nod, we began the simple act of walking through the valley.
But nothing about it felt simple.
Because every step away carried the aching reminder that we were leaving Atlas behind.
It felt like a betrayal. After everything he had done for us, were we really just leaving him there? Just like that?
Gritting my teeth, I couldn't help but glare out at the field beyond, at the place that had taken one of our own.
But then I noticed something strange.
The rifts were beginning to vibrate.
A few of them flickered, as if resisting their own disappearance. One by one, they unraveled in the air, spiraling violently as arcs of residual energy crackled across the sky like lightning trying to find purchase. The distortions circled one another, swirling faster, growing more unstable by the second.
The winds began to pick up, forming a whirlwind that dragged in nearby platforms before the spiraling rifts tightened their rotation and converged—drawn inward like water down a drain—collapsing into a single, massive tear suspended high above the center of the field.
And for one long, terrible moment, everything was still.
I looked at Henry.
He looked back, his eyes full of something wild. Fear. Hope. Disbelief. All of it clashed behind his gaze, barely held in check.
Then something appeared.
From the rift, a figure fell—his tattered clothing fluttering uselessly around him before he struck the ground with a sickening thud.
A moment later, the rift flickered once and vanished.
And with it, whatever force had been holding this strange world together collapsed.
Bringing chaos as chunks of stone to entire floating islands, broke free from the mist far above, threatening to crush us beneath their unimaginable weight.
Acting on instinct, I grabbed Henry by the collar and dragged him back, willing the earth beneath us to rise. Stone surged upward, forming a cocoon around us just as the first wave of debris came crashing down.
The impact shook the dome violently.
Each strike sent tremors through it, the walls groaning under the strain, leaving me wondering if the next would shatter it completely.
A moment later, something massive slammed into us.
I grunted and dropped to one knee as the weight bore down, thousands of tons pressing against the barrier, threatening to crush us flat.
I tried to reinforce it, forcing the cracks to seal, but for every fracture I mended, two more split open in its place.
Soon, the entire dome was riddled with fissures.
It wouldn't hold.
Teeth clenched, I forced the walls to narrow, screaming from the strain as my heart pounded wildly, each beat feeling like it might tear through my chest.
Reaching past the dome, I pushed into the mass above us—grabbing hold of the crushing weight itself—and with a final surge of strength, I tried to tear it apart.
Pain exploded through my chest.
I collapsed a moment later, a stabbing agony lancing through my heart like a sudden rupture, as the last of my strength gave out all at once.
Above us, the ceiling began to crumble, but instead of an avalanche, the broken remains of the dome fell away, revealing not stone nor mist—
But the night sky.
Far above, through thinning clouds, it stretched out in quiet, breathtaking contrast to the chaos we had just survived.
Then, just as the last of the ruins cleared, Henry vanished from the remains of the dome and into the outside world.
"Wait, Henry, don't!" I called out to him, only for my words to fall on deaf ears as he moved toward the spot where Atlas had last been seen.
Beside me, Benjamin dragged me from the remains of the dome, which had already begun to crumble, revealing the monstrosity that had hit us.
It was, for lack of better words, a chunk of the forest, with an assortment of trees and greenery growing on top of its once-majestic form, now ripped in half and crumbling from the force of its descent.
It wasn't just that either. All around us, the world had changed. The mist was gone, replaced with the sky above, while the forest lay in tatters from the falling platforms, creating new hills all around us from the wreckage.
Far in the distance, the ground rumbled like the beginning of an earthquake, the crumbling mountains no longer held aloft by the strange gravity.
Turning from that far-off sight, I tried to imagine what could have caused all this.
Only to come up empty.
Looking to Benjamin, he seemed none the wiser, despite seeming to know everything, as he helped me forward and gave me a look that told me we'd better catch up to Henry.
Sighing, I nodded and shifted my weight so I could walk better. With his help, I was able to navigate the chaos around us, only to find that in the center, untouched by all the destruction, lay Atlas's still form.
Henry had already dropped to his knees beside him, his hands hovering over him as if unsure whether to do CPR or not.
I couldn't blame him.
Atlas looked like a corpse, with his pale complexion and bloody rags for clothes. If it weren't for the steady rise and fall of his chest, I would have thought he was dead.
Still, Benjamin moved from my side to check on him, leaving me to stumble forward, where I looked on in stunned silence.
He was alive.
I mean, how many times did this guy have to nearly die for it to finally stick?
But who was I to complain? Just knowing he was alive relieved a weight that had been pressing on my chest ever since I saw his nearly crippled body. Only for him to miraculously recover.
And yet, he didn't just come back from the impossible. He brought something with him, too. Something beyond words, filled with cosmic wonder and crackling black lightning.
And still, Benjamin did what he did best.
Kneeling before Atlas, he checked his pulse, only to be interrupted when Henry hesitantly asked, "How is he?"
"He's breathing," Benjamin said. "But we won't know anything until he wakes up."
I nodded, forcing my ragged voice to sound more commanding than I felt. "We need to get him back to camp."
Then, eyeing the strange core-like object beside him, I added, "But be careful with that thing."
Henry nodded and reached for it without thinking, only to jerk back the moment his fingers touched it.
"Ouch! That is one spicy ball," he yelped, staring down at his hand for any injuries.
"What's wrong?" Benjamin asked.
"I just got a little shocked, that's all," Henry muttered before trying again, this time scooping it up with his shirt.
To which Ella rushed up and held her bag open. Henry dropped the orb inside, and for a moment, both of them just stared as it lit the fabric from within with an array of colors.
"You don't think that's a core, do you?" Ella muttered.
Henry only shrugged.
"Well, we'll figure it out later," Benjamin scolded, dragging Henry back toward Atlas. "Right now, we need to get somewhere safer than this place."
Relenting, Henry helped him lift Atlas's corpse-like body, each of them taking an arm as they dragged him forward.
Ella soon had to do the same for me when the aching in my chest caused my legs to nearly give out beneath me.
"Hold on," Ella said, catching one of my arms before I could hit the ground. "I've got you."
I wanted to tell her I was fine.
But I know I was far from it.
So instead, I let her pull my arm over her shoulder and help drag me forward through the destroyed forest until we finally reached Owen's final resting place.
Or what was left of it.
A scorched patch of land, with little more than a handful of ash remaining after the chaos of the storm.
Off to the side, Henry helped Benjamin lay Atlas on the ground, while Ella dropped the unresponsive core into his lap without a word. Then she moved to Emily's side, where Emily had collapsed beside Owen's remains, her sobs breaking the silence.
The rawness of her grief was a knife to the heart. I couldn't bear to look at her, not when my own chest felt like it was caving in under the weight of it all.
I stepped back, giving her space, and with a quiet sigh, collapsed to the ground, utterly spent from using my powers. Exhaustion and grief hit me like a tidal wave now that the immediate danger had passed.
We were so close, I thought. If that lightning had just been off by a little, we all could have made it out. Yet even now, I knew we wouldn't have. If Owen hadn't been the one to sacrifice himself, it would have been Emily's ashes drifting in the wind, not his.
And if not the two of them, then it could have been someone else's ashes, washed away by this cruel world. A reminder that no matter how strong we were, how clever, how prepared, death was always waiting.
I watched the ashes scatter across the scorched ground for a moment longer.
Then I forced myself to move.
I dug a hole in the earth with my bare hands, feeling every bit of stone bite into my flesh the longer I dug. Like I was trying to bury the pain along with him. Then, with Emily's and Ella's help, we gathered as much of Owen's ashes as we could and placed them in a stone box. My hands shook as I lowered the small container into the ground, my mind numb as I worked.
There was no ceremony. No words to offer comfort.
What could I possibly say? That we'd make it because of him? That his sacrifice meant we'd survive?
I couldn't promise that.
But if there was one thing I could promise, it was that I would try to do everything I could to make whatever life was left for us in this world, better than this.
Even if that meant killing every damn creature out there. To feed whatever was inside me until I grew strong enough to protect the people I had left… no matter what this world threw at me.
Atlas Mercer
Ahg… my head hurts. Why does it feel like I was hit by a bus…?
Blinking through the confusion, I slowly cracked my eyes open, only to regret it a moment later. From the blazing inferno that stabbed into my vision, worsening the pounding in my skull until it felt like someone had taken a drill to bone and flesh.
Groaning, I raised a hand to shield my eyes from the light. It only helped so much, but after a moment, the blinding radiance faded, leaving nothing but a small fire in its wake.
Along with it, shapes slowly emerged as the world around me began to bleed back into focus. My gaze wandered, trying to make sense of the scene around me. The makeshift shelter. The flickering fire casting long shadows across the ground. The faces of my companions, each one marked with a different mix of emotions.
For a moment, everything felt foreign.
My mind was a mess of disoriented memories and a gnawing sense that something important had happened. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't piece together the events that had led me here. The last thing I remembered clearly was the lightning bird chasing us through the storm. I remembered the rifts, the frantic run, and then…
Nothing.
A void in my mind, like a black hole swallowing the details.
My gaze drifted to the orb still resting in my hand, glowing with a quiet, pulsing light. The galaxies within swirled lazily, streaked with black lightning. There was something hypnotic about it, that pulled me in. But before I could fully grasp what it was, a familiar sensation pulsed through my neck.
Then the orb shifted.
It liquefied in my palm, melting into my skin as if it belonged there.
Startled, I jerked back, expecting pain. But there was none. Only a strange warmth unfurling through my chest, spreading into every limb. My skin prickled, alive with something I couldn't name.
And then, as if answering a thought I hadn't even had, a screen blinked into existence before me. It hovered in the air, translucent but sharp, its letters glowing softly against the night.
I stared at it, blinking once.
Then twice.
"Huh… so they weren't going crazy after all," I muttered under my breath.
Because somehow, I had a stat screen.
Atlas Mercer
Race: Human
Level: 1
Stats:
Strength: 6Vitality: 5Agility: 7Endurance: 4Intelligence: 4Dexterity: 4
Skills:
Lightning Enhancement: Rank 1
Lightning Control: Rank 1
Lightning Resistance: Rank 1
Identify: Rank 1
Unique Skills:
Multilingual: Rank 1
Void Creation: Rank 1
Astraheim's Inheritance:
Effects:
??????????????????
Titles:
Primordial Inheritance:
+10% to all stats
???
???
???
It was all so surreal…
A stat screen. Just like the ones in the games I used to play, yet it wasn't the same. This one felt natural, as if every part of it was tailored to me. My strengths, my weaknesses, all reflected back like it had known me longer than I had known myself.
But even as it fit, it felt wrong. The longer I stared, the more a weight settled in my chest, the sense that it wasn't just displaying information but learning from me.
I didn't know what to make of it. Part of me wanted to be impressed, to laugh at the absurdity of finally having something like this. But there was an intrusion buried in the glow of those letters, the feeling that the screen wasn't mine at all. Not truly.
If it had been part of me, I might have welcomed it. But this… this felt separate. A presence standing just outside myself, peering in.
The thought kept gnawing at me, no matter how much I tried to shake it. It wouldn't fade, and neither would the many questions piling up behind it.
And from the looks on everyone else's faces, I wasn't the only one searching for answers.
Amelia's voice cut through my daze, snapping me back to the present.
"Atlas, are you alright?"
I blinked, focusing on her. She was watching me carefully, concern clear in her eyes. I tried to gather my thoughts, but everything felt jumbled. "I... I'm not sure, I don't remember much," I admitted.
Her brow furrowed as she absorbed my words, but she didn't push. Instead, she glanced at the orb, now gone from my hand but somehow still with me. "So, that orb... it gave you skills and stats?"
"Yeah," I muttered, still trying to process it.
The screen flickered slightly, responding to my thoughts as if it were waiting for my input. I couldn't help the shiver that ran down my spine. The power it promised was incredible, but at what cost?
I still didn't understand how this wall worked. And with how exhausted I felt, trying to make sense of it only made my head ache worse.
Benjamin must have noticed, because his expression tightened. He stepped closer, his gaze sweeping over me with quiet concern.
"Are you alright?"
I willed the stat screen away. The moment it vanished, a wave of exhaustion crashed over me. I swayed where I sat, barely catching myself before I tipped to the side.
"I'm fine," I breathed. "Just… a little tired."
Benjamin nodded then turned to the rest of the group, studying each of their faces in turn.
"I think we've all had enough surprises for one day," he said gently. "We all need rest. Especially you, Atlas. And with what we have to do tomorrow, we'll need whatever strength we can get."
Amelia nodded, though her eyes lingered on me a second longer than the others.
"He's right," she said. "We'll figure it all out tomorrow. Just get some sleep."
"Alright," I murmured. "Just… wake me if anything happens."
Benjamin gave a small nod, then moved toward the edge of camp to keep watch.
I lay down, head resting against a folded cloth, but the moment I closed my eyes, the silence hit differently.
It wasn't peaceful.
It was loud and Oppressive. The kind of quiet that presses in from all sides.
Things had changed.
No things were still changing. Whatever the core had done, it hadn't stopped with unlocking abilities. I could feel it. Something had shifted inside me, making it seem as if the ground beneath my reality no longer felt solid.
On impulse, I called the stat screen again.
The black panel shimmered into existence, its surface faintly translucent, like glass stretched over shadow. But this time… it wasn't quite the same. The golden letters that etched themselves across the screen pulsed faintly as if they were breathing with me.
And there, tucked in the corner, still waiting for me, was that phrase.
Astraheim's Inheritance
What was it?
The screen flickered, just once, like static in my vision. I blinked hard as the Fatigue pulled at the edges of my awareness like hands dragging me underwater.
"I'll deal with it tomorrow," I whispered, though I wasn't sure who I was saying it to.
I dismissed the screen.
And without warning, the world tilted.
My limbs went numb, my vision swam, and the firelight twisted into strange, unfamiliar shapes before Darkness overtook me.