Sezel marched with stumbling steps towards the yellow light, each step a negotiation with the screaming agony in his body. Hope was a fragile, stupid ember, kindled by the cryptic words of a mysterious girl who may or may not have been a hallucination.
Right. Follow the light. What's the worst that could happen? Oh, wait. I'm already in hell. So, I guess the answer is 'not much'.
The sky was empty as it always had been, the forest was a terrifying labyrinth. The only constant things in this realm were misery and the eerie purple glow of the Spirit Essence.
The stench of his own blood, seeping from his chest and arm, drew hungry beasts, their eyes glinting in the gloom.
But he was not the same weak, pathetic boy who had entered this realm. He was now a weak, pathetic boy with a chain and a sliver of borrowed power.
He didn't know how, but he could use Spirit energy, to enhance his body, even enhance the metallic chain and turn them into something that could actually hurt these monsters.
"How long have I been wandering this hell?" The thought was a dull, repetitive ache in his mind. His sense of time had dissolved, lost in a fog of pain and exhaustion. An hour? A day? A lifetime?
He'd fought and fled, slaying weaker beasts with Spirit energy-enhanced chain strikes, dodging others to preserve his dwindling strength.
Every frantic heartbeat was a victory against the grave. Every step was a clawing attempt to seize a life he'd only ever dreamed of. A life beyond this hunt, beyond the betrayal that had thrown him into this hell.
He walked through the dark and cruel forest. The oppressive forest finally relented. The trees parted, revealing a jagged hill with a yawning cave at its base. The yellow light pulsed within the cave, its stone glinting in reflected light.
A breath he didn't know he was holding escaped his lips in a ragged, broken sound. "I've... reached it."
He stumbled into the cave's mouth, the metallic chain clattering against the uneven stone. The interior blazed with a light so bright it was painful. Suspended in the air was a floating crystal shard, impossibly bright, like a piece of a star torn from a sky that had none.
So, this is the 'Awakening Shard'. Looks expensive.
It pulsed in rhythm with his faltering heart, calling to him.
But he was not alone. Of course he wasn't. That would be too easy. Footsteps echoed from all directions, the scrape of claws on stone a familiar, unwelcome sound. From the shadows lining the cave walls, figures emerged. Ten of them. The dog-like beasts from before.
A goddman welcoming party.
He raised his bloodied right arm, the chain, painted with his own lifeblood and the black ichor of his previous kills, gleaming in the shard's golden light.
"Come on," he snarled, the words more for himself than for the beasts. "I'm not dying here. I've already made other plans."
They lunged as one. A synchronized wave of claws and teeth from all sides. There was no room to dodge, no path to retreat. Sezel dropped into a low squat, his muscles screaming in protest. As the closest beast leaped, its jaws snapping for his throat, he exploded upwards. Channeling as much Spirit Energy as he could, he slammed his chain-wrapped fist into its skull.
The sound was a sickening crunch of bone and wet flesh. Black blood sprayed, and the creature was thrown back, its body skidding across the stone floor, lifeless.
One down. Nine to go.
The terrifying struggle between the beasts and the human carried on. A beast lunged for his leg; he smashed its spine with a backhanded blow. Another tried to flank him; he spun, the chain catching it across the muzzle, sending it reeling with a pained yelp.
He was bleeding from a dozen new wounds, his vision blurring at the edges, but he fought on, a cornered rat with nothing left to lose.
Finally, the last beast fell, its throat crushed. Sezel stood, swaying, in a lake of black ichor, his body a tapestry of agony. He had won. A one-armed, half-dead boy had massacred a pack of monsters in their own lair.
Someone should give me a medal. Or at least a nap.
He took one step towards the shard. Then another. His legs gave out.
Just a bit more. Maybe then i will go back.
He crawled.
With the last iota of his will, he reached out a trembling hand and his fingers brushed the radiant surface of the Awakening Shard, untouched for an eternity.
A blinding flash. The golden light intensified, searing his vision, then vanished completely. The cave was plunged into absolute darkness.
His body, finally released from its duty, gave up. Sezel collapsed face-first into the warm pool of monster blood.
He heard a voice as his consciousness faded.
[The Awakening Shard has been claimed.]
[Resonance with the soul of the claimant is complete.]
[The Awakening Shard has marked your Soul Worthy]
[A FABLE IS BEING FORGED...]
The shard, its purpose served, did not just disappear. It crumbled into a billion points of golden light, a swirling nebula of incandescent sand. The particles danced, weightless, illuminating the cave in a divine radiance.
[You stood at death's door and refused to enter. You faced oblivion and spat in its eye. The God of Death, in his infinite irony, has granted you a measure of his own domain]
Half the golden sand convulsed, hissing as it coalesced into a card—pristine, marked with golden edges, an image of a king with a broken crown etched on it. The card was a mark of an awakened, tying their souls to the Spirit Realm, allowing them to awaken the Spirit Meridian.
[Awaken, Lost Child of Stars]
[A Golden Fable has been Forged]
[The Master of Death]
In the lightless eternity of the Spirit Realm, a Golden Fable, an event of cosmic rarity, had been forged.
The remaining half particles surged, swirling around Sezel's unconscious form. They pierced his flesh with a sudden strike, Golden light flooded his veins, burning away exhaustion, sealing wounds with incandescent energy, radiant as a star, wounds knitted, his cut-off arm grew back into place.
The Spirit Meridian within him awakened. Sezel had awakened as a bearer of the Golden Fable.
Awakening with a Fable was very rare, and there was no known slayer with a Golden Fable in the world currently. Receiving a Fable meant that the awakened will be at least a Rank 3 or above.
Sezel lay on the ground, lost in the void of unconsciousness, ignorant of the miracle that had reshaped his soul.
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"Ugh, my head hurts."
Pain lanced through Sezel's skull, he tried to move, but his arms refused, restrained by cold metal.
"Huh, what is this?"
His eyes fluttered open, assaulted by a harsh, white light. Blinking, he turned his head. His right arm was shackled to a metal frame, a bed of sorts, his left arm—once gone—was now healed and was similarly bound.
"What? What is going on?" His mind, still foggy, struggled to catch up. Am i dead?.