[Bearer No.9 is selected
Deployed to Area No.7]
[Power Assigned: Blood Echo]
In another distant land, a black portal opened, throwing a woman out of it. The woman hit the ground hard, rolling through the dirt and dead grass. She groaned, eyes squinting at the strange sky above her, gray, with no sun or clouds, just a blur.
She got up slowly, pressed a hand to her ribs, and sighed seeing nothing was broken. She looked around. A forest surrounded her, with tall, twisting trees. The air smelled stale, like metal. There were no birds, no bugs, not even a single sound was heard at all.
Her name was Kaede. She used to be a mercenary team captain, one of the best at that, before everything vanished in a blink of an eye and she woke up here. Her hand moved to her side, no gun, no blade. But she felt a strange sensation in her body that she hadn't felt before.
She whispered, "what the hell is going on…"
That was when she heard it. A growl, low and far away, no, she turned around. Out of the shadows, a thing came, a creature made of sinew and bone, head shaped like a split deer skull, ribs sticking out like jagged knives. It walked on all fours, but too fast and fluid in movement.
Kaede backed up slowly. She didn't scream or did she want to make any sound. The years of mercenary experience told her to get out of here silently.
Suddenly, her heart started to race fast. Blood in her body felt like it wanted to explode, she gritted her teeth, feeling her blood flow. When her hand touched a bush, it was cut by a throne, dripping blood onto the ground.
The moment it touched earth, she felt something, a flash. The blood pulsed and an echo of herself appeared before her. A blurry, red figure, identical to her exact shape, stood beside her, mimicking her movements.
Kaede looked at it in awe, then started to run, the echo ran with her. The beast, hearing the sound, looked at them and gave chase, claws slicing through bark like paper. Kaede ducked, slid under the roots, and turned sharply. The echo mirrored everything and somehow…managed to distract the beast.
She ran, and ran and made it to a clearing, after being sure she made a distance between herself and the beast, she fell to her knees. The echo vanished beside her.
Night fell fast in this world, too fast. The darkness came with silence again. She found a tree to climb, nestled herself on a thick branch, wrapping arms around her knees.
But her blood boiled again, the same strange feeling as before. She looked down to see dozens of eyes staring up from the base of the tree. Not blinking, just….watching her all the time, she didn't sleep that night.
Morning never came. She dropped from the tree and started moving again, the eyes watching her left from here hours ago.
The air was colder now, she passed a ruined village. Stone houses, broken carts, no people, just fog covering the entire village.
Then she heard Whispers from the fog, dozens, maybe hundreds. Curious, she stepped inside one of the houses. As soon as she stepped in, her instinct screamed to get out of the house. But it was too late as the house collapsed on her.
From the ground below, hands reached up, clawing, and pulling her. Kaede screamed and tried to fight, but her blood couldn't summon the echo again. The pulse was gone. The last thing she saw were faces without mouths.
[Bearer No.9: Eliminated]
[Time survived: 1.2 days]
[Cause of Death: Lured by mirage structure, devoured by the Fogbound]
[Result: failure.]
[Started selecting the next bearer….]