Ugh, my head is throbbing like crazy, and everything keeps spinning.
Huh, where am I? Wait, this is…
Opening his eyes to the blinding glare of an overhead light bulb, Shin, who was slumped into the wooden chair, began to grab his chest.
Why'd I grab my chest?
Regaining the focus in his eyes, the scene began to unfold before Shin's eyes. In the darkness of the basement room, under the illumination of the small light, around the small circular table with the weird symbols drawn on it, there sat two other seated occupants.
"Come on, Shin, you have to place your hand on the table." A familiar voice came from the right side.
Assa!? How are you alive? My thoughts… Feeling the sudden tsunami of recollection wash over him, Shin experienced the uncanny feeling of lucidity. A dream… But how?
Seeing his body automatically move and place his hands on the table, he knew that this had to be some manifestation of what had happened during the ritual.
"Shh! Now remember, follow the chant exactly. Assa, Shin, no matter what, don't remove your hands from the table." This time the voice came from the left.
"Let's begin," the voice spoke again.
Staring at the complicated symbols drawn in red ink atop the table's surface and with the flickering of shadows from the dancing flames atop the candle wick, Shin felt himself fall into a trance-like state, his mouth moving on its own. The three voices spoke in unison:
The spirit that lurks beside the dead.
We call thee forth from the other world.
Make thy presence known, so that we may gaze upon thee.
The three voices chanted the phrase three times. After each chant they would turn to each other, a mixture of emotions displayed in their eyes: doubt, worry, and caution. But deep down in all three of them, there was a primal sense of fear ingrained in all humans rearing its head.
The fear of the unknown.
"Pfft, see, nothing happened!" the voice belonging to Assa chuckled, trying his best to hide his unease.
Just then a single candle flickered, causing its flame to wane and then dissipate. An eerie silence settled in the basement room.
"Heh, anyways…" The words became frozen at the sight of an anomaly. Crouching atop the small table was a figure clad in shadows; its head was just high enough to remain eye level with the three boys. However, its focus seemed drawn to one person in particular. And that was Shin!
The shadow figure lifted its thin arm and pointed towards Shin. In his lucidity he could feel himself being drawn in to the figure's gaze. The shadow creature then pounced at him, enveloping his whole body in its embrace.
Shin clawed at the shadow figure; his hands only flowed through the entity's dark veil. To him, it felt like someone had pulled a bag over his head, trying to throttle every last bit of air out of him. And with no way to free himself, a visible panic started to settle in.
Flailing his legs and clawing at his face, Shin felt himself slowly losing the energy to continue.
Just then he felt the odd sensation of a hunger deep inside him begin to gnaw its way out. A dire quench that needed to be satiated.
Feeling his consciousness fading, Shin only managed to catch a slight glimpse of what seemed to be a mass of darkness coming out of his chest and swirling around the shadow figure. This dark mass drew the attention of the two other attendees and instilled fear in their eyes.
Finally freeing himself from the dream state, Shin involuntarily grabbed his chest. Trying to calm himself, he noticed a glaring peculiarity.
He had no heartbeat.
Despite the feeling of panic, there was no rhythm to correspond with. Only stillness remained in his chest. Shin's face began to contort in extreme panic, wondering if he had died and was now a spirit wandering the lands. Did he need to be killed by someone like Miss Tsuki?
"What's wrong?" Hearing the familiar masculine voice, Shin immediately raised his head to see the silver-haired Gin.
Shin wanted to explain the situation; however, the words stayed stuck in his throat. He feared what the consequences might be. That's why he decided to stay quiet.
"Just a bad dream." He let out an uneasy chuckle.
Noticing that the sun had risen, he then heard Gin instruct.
"I see. Well then, let's go."
…
The pair had made their way to the elevator and went down a couple of levels, arriving at an unknown floor. Exiting the elevator revealed a massive chamber with a gangway leading over a deep abyss to the middle of the chamber, where it seemed like an altar stood.
Crossing the walkway, Shin took in the details of the atmosphere, looking up at the ceiling, which had light sources dotted around, resembling stars in the night sky. And below the walkway was utter darkness, which seemed to swallow any form of light.
Having finally reached the altar, Shin saw a silver knife embedded upright in the stone surface.
The silver knife was a double-edged blade the size of a dagger, with a coiled silver serpent around its hilt. And on the pommel was a large blood-red gem.
"The ritual is simple. Take the knife and stab yourself." Gin's voice was devoid of any form of jest.
Heh. Shin was momentarily lost for words when he heard this: "Uh, just stab anywhere?"
"Yes." Gin said simply.
"Did you also do this?"
"No." Gin chuckled, "That's because I was a Legacy."
"Ah, I see." Shin muttered.
Removing the silver blade from its stone sheath, Shin gave it a cautious look. The blade exuded a faint sense of the supernatural, like it was the key to unlocking something different.
Raising the dagger and then plunging it towards his arm, he closed his eyes expecting pain; however, there was nothing. Not even a slight prick.
Opening his eyes, Shin found himself in a void of immense darkness. There was no light, no indication of direction and seemingly no gravity, since he was just floating.
However, his senses immediately fired warnings. In that moment he could feel a 'shadow' over him; looking up, Shin saw an enormous 'shadow' slithering through the void. The 'shadow' slowly made its way towards the visitor. It stopped its head just in front of Shin.
Its blood-red eye, which was many times larger than Shin, reflected the tiny human in its gaze.
Wondering as to what was going to happen next, Shin wanted to raise the question, but just then he felt an excruciating pain invade his mind. It felt like the injection of infinite data overloading his brain, causing a bloodcurdling scream to dissipate into the silence of the dark void.
Then an ancient voice reverberated in his head, mixed with the countless ravings of different sources, thus amplifying the torturous pain;
Blood of the old
Bonds of Eternity
Broken seal
The enormous 'shadow' then reared itself around, slithering into position before Shin. It opened its gigantic maw, revealing its fangs; they were taller than most buildings in the middle district.
And then it closed its mouth.
Swallowing Shin whole.