Each new torch,
each new flicker of light,
felt like a confirmation that he had no choice but to follow this path.
No other option but to move forward.
Is this a trap? A manipulation? Or... is it my only chance to find what I'm looking for?
A dull fear crept inside him,
but it was tangled with a strange kind of curiosity.
Doubt was growing,
but the anxiety of losing himself without that light
pushed him to keep walking.
A strange sense of urgency.
What if I stop?
What if I don't follow that light?
The darkness around him
kept twisting,
blending,
shifting as he advanced.
It was as if space itself
was bending to his steps.
As if the darkness was alive,
aware of his presence
and of his need for direction.
There was no turning back.
He had to keep going.
Follow the light.
Follow this guide.
Even if every part of him screamed that this wasn't natural.
That it made no sense.
With each step,
he felt less and less in control,
swept up in a flood of conflicting emotions.
Uncertainty smothered him,
but the need to understand,
to reach an answer,
to go wherever this darkness seemed to lead,
was stronger.
As he drew closer to the bluish flame,
its light grew stronger.
The darkness pulled back,
as if letting him pass.
Then, suddenly,
a series of torches ignited in a cascade,
one after the other,
almost hypnotic in rhythm,
forming a circle around him.
Each flame floated,
suspended in midair,
with no visible source.
Their flickering glow
outlined a strange shape,
a silhouette slowly taking form before his eyes.
There, in the center of the circle,
stood a staircase.
But not just any staircase.
No.
It was made of three large rings,
stacked on top of one another,
forming three monumental steps.
Like a spiral staircase,
but divided into concentric layers.
At the heart of this surreal scene,
a black cube seized all his attention.
Flawless,
without a single flaw or seam,
its surface was unnaturally smooth.
And on every visible side,
the same symbol
as the one carved on the black stone door
he had crossed.
Kael couldn't look away,
entranced by the object.
A shiver ran down his spine
as he realized
he had stopped thinking about everything else —
his stress,
his fear,
the exhaustion crushing him.
All that remained
was the cube.
A sharp snap echoed through the silence.
In an instant,
a new ring of torches flared to life around the platform,
their pale flames
casting a ghostly light across the scene.
The cube's shadow stretched across the ground,
trembling,
as if alive.
Kael blinked,
his breath caught.
What he had taken for a simple black block,
perfect and impenetrable,
was not what it seemed.
Through the now slightly translucent surface,
he saw faint, indistinct shapes,
like illusions trapped in obsidian.
He stepped closer,
muscles tensed.
Each footstep revealed more.
This was no illusion.
There was something inside.
His heart quickened.
Lines, etched with supernatural precision,
ran across the cube's surface,
marked by the same symbol as the door.
But it wasn't the carving
that made his chest tighten.
It was the silhouette within.
A black skeleton,
seated in lotus position,
trapped inside the cube's dark mass.
Stiff.
Motionless.
Almost too perfect
to be just a remnant of the dead.
Its bones looked like they were made
of a material both matte and deep,
as if they absorbed light
rather than reflecting it.
Another shiver.
The sight should have inspired fear,
or at least instinctive mistrust.
Yet,
there was more.
A strange feeling.
Unsettling.
A faint stir.
A subtle sense of closeness.
Of a bond—tenuous, but undeniable.
As if he already knew this skeleton.
He couldn't resist.
A blend of fascination
and unstoppable impulse
pushed him forward,
urging him to reach for the cube.
His curious mind
resonated with the artifact,
even as each step
amplified his discomfort.
His heart beat faster.
Much faster.
He didn't notice right away.
Was it because his mind
was fully consumed by the cube's mystery?
Was he in some kind of trance,
too absorbed
to notice the warnings his own body was sending?
No one would have known.
But the sound was there.
A deep thumping,
like a distant drum.
Barely perceptible at first,
then louder.
Beating again and again.
Steady.
Grave.
An omen.
A warning.
Or maybe…
a consecration.
Kael couldn't explain it,
but that rhythm wrapped around him,
drew him in,
as if he were part
of a ritual he didn't understand.
The pulses grew stronger.
More violent.
Nearly hypnotic.
Then,
his finger brushed one edge of the cube.
A nonexistent whisper.
A soundless breath…
And everything vanished.
The cube disintegrated
as if it had never been there,
its tangible presence erased.
Kael was left kneeling,
facing the black skeleton.
Instinct tore him between two opposite urges.
One part of him wanted to flee,
to step back
from this thing he didn't understand.
The other...
was captivated.
Then, right before his wide eyes,
the skeleton's edges began to dissolve.
The dark matter of the bones
faded into the air,
merging with the atmosphere
in an unreal way.
Kael had never seen anything like it.
His mortal mind
could only observe,
analyze,
drink in each detail
with childlike awe.
A scientist
witnessing an impossible phenomenon.
The drumbeat grew louder.
More insistent.
Chants rose,
faint at first,
then swelling into a crescendo of indistinct hymns,
like a hidden choir
singing a truth he could not grasp.
Then…
he felt it.
Something strange in the air.
A tension.
He could still breathe,
but the air was heavier.
Thicker.
Another chill down his spine.
The pressure built.
As if a weight unseen
was crushing his being.
And suddenly—
a bolt of pain.
His left arm.
A sickening crack
rippled through his bones.
His humerus shattered
into countless splinters.
He gasped.
A strangled breath.
He didn't even have time to react
before his elbow burst open
under invisible pressure,
pulverizing the joint.
The shock was unbearable.
Then his forearm.
The radius.
The ulna.
Crumbling.
Disintegrating
in unspeakable agony.
His hand—
his fingers—
He tried to scream.
But no sound came.
Then,
his other arm followed.
His shoulder imploded,
sending a wave of pain
throughout his body.
Then the elbow.
The wrist.
Every finger…
Collapsing.
Reduced to ashes.
From the inside.
Then his spine.
Vertebra by vertebra.
Methodically.
One after the other.
A nightmare of agony.
His back folded inward,
each disc breaking in turn,
from coccyx to skull base.
His ribs snapped.
His body collapsing
in a slow funeral procession.
His pelvis...
His legs...
His ankles...
His feet...
There was nothing left to hold him.
And finally…
his skull.
A freezing wave surged through him
as his cranium fractured,
splintered
under the same unstoppable force.
And yet,
as his body lay shattered,
one primal instinct screamed:
If I pass out now… I'll die.
⋯
Then came ice and fire.
Two opposing sensations,
yet inseparable,
filled his being.
Overlaying each other,
twisting together
in an infernal dance.
A glacial cold,
biting,
pierced his nonexistent flesh.
He had no body,
no bones,
but he still felt.
And with the cold…
came the burn.
Not comforting warmth.
No.
A devouring fire.
A blaze beneath vanished skin.
Flames coursing through veins
that no longer existed.
⋯
It began with his skull.
He felt something forming.
At first,
just a hint.
A formless sense,
as if an invisible weave
was stitching him back
from the nothingness.
Then—
a crack.
A new material
twisting,
compressing,
taking shape.
A searing pain
flared at the back of his head
as his skull
began to rebuild.
⋯
He saw.
He saw himself.
His gaze fell
upon what he had become:
a mass of limp, shapeless flesh,
collapsed like a discarded garment.
But that ruined body
was rebuilding.
His vertebrae.
One by one,
they returned.
He felt them stretch,
tighten,
fuse
into a structure denser,
more rigid,
more resilient
than anything he had known before.
His spine
rebuilt itself in a rising motion,
climbing slowly
to his neck,
the chill and fire
ever-present.
Then his ribs.
Solid rods
shot from the void,
connecting in perfect symmetry.
They bent,
twisted invisibly,
merging with a sternum
taking shape once more.
Then his pelvis.
He felt his hips return,
bones locking precisely
into a flawless symmetry,
shaped to this body
mid-transformation.
The feeling was beyond description.
This wasn't just
a human body
being restored...
...it was something else.
His arms.
The humerus formed
in an instant,
stretching as if forged
from a tougher material
than anything he had known.
His elbow rejoined.
His forearm aligned.
Then came his fingers,
moving with
unnerving fluidity.
He clenched a fist.
The pain was still there,
but compared to what he'd endured...
it was almost bearable.
His legs.
The femur.
The tibia.
The kneecap…
All rebuilt
in ruthless precision.
At last,
he felt his feet touch ground again.
A foundation.
And as the final piece
locked into place…
Kael understood.
These were no longer his bones.
They were something else.
Something different.
Something greater.
And he still didn't know
the price.