Gray's eyes flew open to a sky that wasn't a sky. Gold and silver clouds churned in violent spirals above him, twisting endlessly as though some vast, unseen force was stirring them. The wind screamed in his ears, battering against his skin as he tumbled end over end, his arms flailing for something, anything, to hold onto.
"You've got to be kidding me!" His voice was shredded by the roar of air, disappearing into the sky below.
Panic gnawed at the edges of his thoughts. The memory of death was still fresh, its cold teeth sinking deep into his mind. He saw the spider's enormous fangs, the glint of its eyes, the web tightening around him. The final moment of weightlessness before everything went dark.
Even if this was some miracle, even if something had dragged him back from nothingness, what could he possibly do now? The spider was too strong, too fast. Facing it again would not be bravery. It would be walking into a second grave. He needed to ask not only for a second chance, but for power itself.
The wind howled even louder, but beneath it came something else.
A sound.
It was faint at first, like the lingering ring of a bell far away, delicate and stretched so thin it seemed ready to snap. The more he fell, the sharper it became, cutting through the rush of air until it pressed against his skull.
Gray twisted in mid-air, his body lurching violently. That was when he saw it.
A door of light, hanging in the darkness ahead.
Its glow bled into the surrounding black, blurring at the edges. The ringing surged in intensity, the pitch climbing higher and higher until it was almost unbearable. There was no choice to make, he was being pulled toward it.
'Ahh shi—' his thoughts didn't finish as the brilliance consumed him.
Sound ceased. The air vanished. The fall ended.
The world changed.
Somewhere else entirely, far removed from the sky, the man Gray had met sat in stillness. His eyes narrowed as if studying something distant and unseen.
"Is he… the one…" The words were quiet, but they carried a weight that pulled at the air. His gaze lingered before he shook his head. "No. Not yet."
The vision dissolved like water slipping through his fingers.
When Gray's senses returned, he was standing in the abyss again. This time, he could move. Walk.
Black nothingness extended forever in every direction. There was no sky, no ground, no horizon, only endless dark pressing in. The silence was suffocating, so complete it felt unnatural. His breathing sounded too loud. His heartbeat thundered in his ears.
"What is this? Did he lie to me?" His voice cracked in the stillness, vanishing as quickly as it came.
The questions rose faster than he could keep track of them. Why had that man brought him there? Who was he really? What was his true purpose? Gray cursed himself for not asking when he had the chance. He had accepted the deal blindly, desperate to survive, but now the weight of what he did not know pressed heavy on his chest.
A glimmer appeared in the distance.
It was so small at first he thought it was a trick of his eyes. But the longer he looked, the more it grew, a faint thread of gold against the endless dark. Drawn forward by some unspoken pull, he began to walk. Each step made a sound that did not fit this place, sharp, echoing, as though striking stone.
The glow became clearer. It was a tree.
It rose impossibly high, its bark the same golden hue as the light it radiated. Yet for all its beauty, there was a sickness to it. The branches sagged low, weighed down by withered leaves curling inward, their veins blackened. It was the image of something once great, now decayed.
At the top hung a single apple.
Small and flawless, it glistened faintly, untouched by the rot that had claimed the rest of the tree.
Without warning, it fell.
Gray caught it against his chest, startled by its warmth. The scent it released was rich, almost intoxicating, and it stirred a deep hunger that pushed away his doubts.
Something about the apple didn't feel right however. His gaze was drawn towards it. His emotions surged for some reason. His thoughts stopped entirely like an engine malfunctioning.
He felt like eating it. Even though he was dead, a primordial hunger grinded in his stomach.
He uncontrollably brought it to his mouth.
In a place so empty, so devoid of life, this apple felt like the only real thing. It felt...like salvation.
He sunk his teeth into it and bit it. The soft texture replaying in his mind.
Sweetness filled his mouth, sharp and overwhelming. But the taste shifted in an instant, turning hot, burning as though molten metal had been poured over his tongue.
A violent shock tore through his body. His back arched, the force lifting him off his feet. The apple tumbled from his grasp, rolling away until it fell into the dark.
His heart slammed in his chest, each beat faster and harder than the last.
"What—What the..."
Heat spread through his veins, pulsing in time with the pounding in his ribs. His vision blurred, the edges turning black. Breath came in short, shallow bursts, his muscles twitching with every wave of pain.
The darkness swallowed him whole.
All that was lwft in the abyss was a Withered tree and a half eaten apple lying on the floor.
Quietness filled the darkness again.
Time passed slowly.
When the light returned, he was lying on stone.
Cold seeped into his skin from the floor beneath him. The smell of rot clung to the air, woven together with a faint, sticky sweetness from the webs stretched across the cavern walls. Dim light glinted along silken strands, tracing an intricate pattern overhead.
Pain stabbed through his chest, dragging a gasp from his lips.
A sound followed.
Not the chime from before. Not anything human.
"Vh'laen… dosk thrynn… ashaar…"
The words burrowed into his mind, bypassing thought. They carried no meaning he could name, but each one pressed down on him like a weight too heavy to bear. When the voice faded, the silence that followed was even more suffocating.
'What... Where—' Gray sat up slowly, his breaths uneven. The realization crept over him, bringing with it a sharp rush of disbelief.
He was alive.
He looked at his body only find the gaping hole in his body missing, his suit covering where it should've been. All of his other injuries also had vanished.
His gaze swept the cavern. The cocoons still hung in place. The spider corpses lay where they had fallen. But movement caught his eye, the massive spider was still here, moving toward Lira with the same deliberate speed as before.
Fear quickly crawled up his spine, locking his limbs for a heartbeat.
Then a chime rang in his head.
[Anomalous state detected.]
[Subject has consumed the Apple of the Waning Dawn.]
[Effect: Vital essence restored.]
His breathing quickened. The Apple of the Waning Dawn… It had revived him.
The chime came again.
[Corruption threshold breached.]
[Unnatrual substance assimilated.]
[Corruption: 4%]
He frowned, confusion mixing with unease. "Corruption…?"
A third chime followed, deeper and longer than the rest.
[Congratulations! Your Affinity Has Awakened!]
His heart lurched.
[Affinity: Darkness]
Something stirred within him, a slow, rolling tide spreading through his veins. The shadows at the edge of the cavern shifted, as though leaning toward him.
Gray reached for his sword. The weight in his grip was grounding, steadying the rush of power that threatened to overwhelm him.
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Darkness seeped from his hands, flowing along the blade in curling tendrils. It coiled up his arms, draped over his shoulders, and spilled down to pool at his feet like living smoke.
The cavern's light receded. The spider hesitated, its legs pausing mid-step.
Gray moved forward. The shadows followed, wrapping around him, bending to his movements as if bound to his will. Each step deepened the gloom, the air cooling as the light shrank away.
The whispers returned, not words, but a rhythm, matching the steady beat of his heart.
The monster suddenly stopped and turned around.
It's many eyes reflected the writhing black that surrounded him.
Gray lifted his sword. The darkness surged along its edge until the steel itself was swallowed, leaving only the outline of a weapon shaped from shadow.
The ground hummed beneath him. The air tightened.
The moment hung suspended.
And then—
The darkness moved.