I was walking back home with Emilie, my girlfriend. "Leo, we're almost there..." she murmured as she squeezed my hand.
"Yeah, looks like it..." I replied monotonously.
We finally arrived at a two-story house in an upper-class neighborhood. I stopped at the front of the house and kept silent. "Aren't you gonna say anything?" Emilie spoke with tears on her face.
I closed my eyes and stayed silent for a few seconds. "I'm sorry... Good luck, Em." Without another word, I turned around and left without even looking at her. I could hear some of her sobs as I walked down the street.
An hour had passed since I broke up with Emilie. As I walked, I stopped for a moment. 'Where am I? I don't recognize this neighborhood...' I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I hadn't realized I'd wandered into an unfamiliar area.
"I hope it's not dangerous... although, well, it's not really a big deal..." I muttered to myself. As I continued walking, I suddenly felt a very sharp pain in my head—so intense it made me drop to my knees, clutching my head.
"W-What's happening—NHNHNNNNNnN!!!!!!!!!!"
After what seemed like an eternity, the pain suddenly stopped. I was on the ground, trying to catch my breath while vomiting. "T-the fuck was that..."
Then suddenly I heard a voice speak. "Quick, Leo. Stand up. We don't have much time." I looked around me, but no one was there. However, I could hear the voice as clearly as if it were inches away from me.
"Get up, Leo, we don't have time." As I stood up, still bewildered, I noticed a translucent blue figure in front of me. It was a tall man in his forties, maybe fifties, with tired green eyes, a scruffy beard, and short brown hair. He looked tough—not just because of his build, but because of his aura. Also, there was something strangely familiar about him.
"Who the hell are you?" I spoke.
The man looked at me and turned around as he started walking. "Follow me, Leo. I'll explain on the way." I was sure something wasn't right—my Instinct was warning me.
Without thinking much about it, when the man turned around, I tried to grab him from behind to punch him. However, my hand passed right through him. He was like a ghost. "W-what?" I stepped back.
The man didn't flinch and continued walking. I looked around for a second, trying to make sense of the situation, but after a few moments, I decided to follow him.
'Damn, I have a bad feeling.' My Instinct was now screaming at me, all over my body. In a rush, I got back on my feet and followed the man. "Wait, tell me what's going on," I said while staying alert to my surroundings.
We slipped into an alley, then into a house. The house didn't have a door and had some vegetation growing along the sides of the walls. It looked abandoned.
The man went inside, but I didn't. 'Something's wrong. This place gives me the creeps. There's no door, no lights, no people. And the neighborhood is too quiet.'
As I hesitated, the man who had already vanished into the darkness of the house spoke. "There's no one here. Come in, quickly." I froze. I didn't enter. My Instinct screamed danger.
"No. I want answers now," I said.
After a few seconds, the man, whom I could no longer see, spoke again. I could hear his voice as clearly as if he were standing right in front of me.
"In exactly 7 minutes and 7 seconds, the world as you know it will end."
"W-what? The end of the world?" I held my breath, trying to hide my concern.
"What you're hearing now is my consciousness speaking directly into your mind, that's why you can hear me." He took a small pause before speaking again. "However, in 6 minutes and fifty-three seconds, I will also disappear. So come in now, or you'll regret it forever—Me."
'Me? Did he say Me?' Suddenly, the man's appearance, strangely familiar all along, clicked. I had seen that face before. I had seen it when I used a face filter to see how I would look when I grew old.
The man who looked like an older version of me spoke again. "Six minutes and fifty seconds..." he rushed me. This time, however, I stepped inside. If what he said was true, the world might end. And time was running out.
As I entered, I walked through the darkness until I could see the figure of what was supposedly my future self. He seemed to illuminate the abandoned house, but it wasn't that. He simply stood out. It was like a light that doesn't actually emit light.
When he saw me, he started walking again, and we went down some stairs that led to a basement.
He pointed with his finger to where the light switch was. I pressed it. Instantly, the lights came on, and I got a better look at the basement of the abandoned house.
There were cobwebs on the walls, some shelves, boxes, and unrecognizable trash scattered across the place.
The blue figure of my future self walked along the basement and began pointing at different things. "Move those two boxes and grab the two books at the back, the oldest and heaviest ones. Do not open the books." The way he said that last sentence felt like a threat.
'This fucker...' I cursed in my mind.
"Grab that hatchet and that hammer. Also, check under the stairs and take out everything you find."
I hesitated for a second, but nodded and started moving the boxes. There were two books that looked like encyclopedias. Both books, one green and the other purple, had engravings and embroidery and looked extremely old. I took them out of the boxes and grabbed the tools that were on the side.
The hatchet looked rusty, and its wooden handle was rotting. The hammer seemed to be in better condition. Finally, I went under the stairs and found what appeared to be old newspapers, some rotting cardboard, and an old tablecloth.
I gathered everything and placed it in front of the blue figure while wiping my hands on my pants. My future self looked at the objects and nodded. Then he sat down in front of them. "Good. We have five minutes left." I sat down across from him.
"Are you going to tell me what's going on now?" I asked.
The man, looking at the objects, turned his gaze to me; he seemed a little calmer. "I'll die soon, so listen. I'll condense everything as much as I can. In the meantime, wrap the books in the tablecloth. Make a small pile with the newspapers and cardboard, just like you would to light a fire. Keep the hatchet and hammer handy, you'll need them soon."
I nodded and began wrapping the things in the tablecloth while he continued speaking.
"In a few minutes, 99% of life on Earth will cease to exist." I froze for a moment, then kept wrapping the books. "A meteor shower will destroy it. And nightmarish creatures will emerge from it, killing all the survivors."
I finished wrapping the books and began to put together a small base with the wet cardboard and newspaper. It looked like the foundation for starting a fire, but it lacked the fuel to keep it burning.
"Some inhabitants of Earth will be teleported to other worlds before the meteorites hit and will awaken special abilities called Gifts. They will be called Remnants. You will be one of them. Unfortunately for us, you will be transported to the place of origin of the creatures that will come to destroy Earth, Vulkris"
I paled, but remained silent. I didn't want to interrupt him yet.
"You will survive, because I did. You have much more than I had when I started." He gave a quick glance at the materials I had with me, but kept staring at the tomes a little longer.
Then he continued. "Some Gifts are born intrinsically with the person, others are learned through life experiences, and others are only granted when you connect with a god"
"Huh? God? What do you mean?" I raised an eyebrow.
"As you can hear. There are Gods out there. We are their entertainment. It's not only Earth that will be destroyed, but many other planets. Some of them bet on us like horses, others see us like a reality show, and others like to get more involved as if it were an interactive game."
'Fuuuuck. No way. This shit is way bigger than I thought.' As I was starting to sweat like a pig, my future self only smiled with a cocky grin.
"Yeah, I also panicked back then. I think I even shit my pants."
"Asshole. Why are you so calm, old man? Is it because you already lived through this shit?" I shouted.
"Shut up and listen, little shit." He barked before continuing. "Our Gift is from birth, and you have already used it your whole life. You know what I mean, right?"
"The Instinct," I mumbled. 'Of course it is that.' Since I was a kid, the Instinct had always helped me know what fights to avoid, the ones that would certainly kill me.
"Yeah. And that's the reason why you should not accept any Gift from the gods, no matter how tempting it is. Don't do it. Don't make the same mistake I did."
"Got it," I answered carelessly.
He stopped and frowned, then spoke with a threatening tone. "Don't do it. Once you accept the gift of a god, your soul will no longer be yours."
I noticed the change in tone. He didn't take my light response well. "Okay. I get it. I won't," I responded more seriously.
Suddenly, I got a chill. My Instinct started to kick in. At the next moment, a small tremor shook the ground. It was slight, but it was enough to knock some things off an old shelf in the basement.
"We're running out of time." He looked at the tablecloth, then spoke again, looking a bit rushed this time. "The books you just took are tomes written by the ancient witches who hid their legacy here. I found those tomes when I was able to return to the remains of Earth, after twenty years."
'Witches? What's that?' I wanted to ask, but I knew we were running out of time. Every word could be vital information, and he had already decided what was most important to know, right? I just nodded.
"It's unlikely you'll be able to read the tomes, since they're written in Aparaní, a dead language spoken only by the coven to which these witches belonged. Those tomes are the only thing that can truly make the difference between you and me."
He stopped for a moment. I managed to notice the change of tone when he spoke again. "I couldn't decipher them in time... and many things went wrong... the witches don't like men, so they wouldn't help you..." I nodded. I didn't know what he meant, but I knew there was no time and I shouldn't let my future self wander.
Seeming to understand my actions, he spoke again. "It's thanks to these tomes that I'm talking to you now... one of the spells allows you to travel to the past... kind of..." He took a small pause. "I actually wanted you to absorb my memories, but I guess it's impossible... I failed."
'He wanted me to absorb him? Something like reincarnating with his memories? Is that what he was thinking?' Without saying a word, I continued to stare at the man. He nodded and spoke again.
"Copy the hand movements I'm going to make, and recite the same words. I'm going to teach you a spell."
Skepticism welled up inside me. I didn't completely trust my future self. But I also had no reason to distrust him. Something inside me knew he wasn't lying.
The man pointed at the mound of old newspapers and moldy cardboard. Then he created a square with his index finger, starting from the left side, then the right, closing it at the top and then the bottom. He drew a symbol resembling an 'x' whose lines were inverted Latin i's. Finally, he pressed it. Then he chanted a word: "[Sigil]"
I nodded and copied the movements. As I repeated the word Sigil, a set of previously nonexistent purple lines formed, following the path I had traced with my finger in the air. When it was time to press the 'x' symbol, the square advanced toward the mound of papers and set it on fire. It was a purple fire.
Instinctively, I stepped back. "Woah. This is..." I said with amazement.
"This is The Sigil. It's how witches access magic. Put your hand in the fire and say [Legemens]."
I put my hand in carefully. However, the fire didn't burn. "[Legemens]" I chanted, copying what my future self said. The purple fire expanded a little, becoming larger, but it didn't burn either. I pulled my hand out. There, I noticed a purple pattern resembling an Egyptian eye had formed on my palm.
The Leo of the future looked at my palm and smiled in relief. I felt a slight twinge from my Instinct. Then I noticed the ground around us had begun to shake more violently. "Three more things." He began to hurry and frowned as he spoke.
"First: [Legemens] can read minds. You need to make physical contact with the target first in order to use it."
My eyes widened. 'Reading minds? Something like that exists?'
"It won't be of much use to you where you're going, but it'll help you read the tomes, since they have consciousness and... aren't fond of men"
"What? T-the tomes... are they alive?" I asked, genuinely concerned.
"SHUT UP!" he yelled.
'T-this is... too much... the end of the world, remnant people, other worlds, monsters, witches, talking books. It's too much information. My brain is frying right now.' I didn't share my thoughts, though. My future self ignored my concern and kept speaking.
"When you're transported, the first thing you'll see is something resembling a volcano. The entire world is like that. made of volcanic rock and lava. The creatures are too. They're made of rock and magma. Although some have flesh, you'll feed on the latter."
"You'll have a few minutes before the volcano erupts. Ignore the message from the Moderator, and don't waste time listening to her. When the volcano erupts, all the abominations will begin to emerge. From beneath the earth, from the rain of fire, from the eruption, and especially from the volcanoes themselves. Turn around and run as fast as you can. You'll find a cave about 7 kilometers away. You should find th—"
A piece of the first floor of the house collapsed next to the roof, a few meters from me. I could see something like a shower of stars—no, a meteor shower—crossing the sky, while one seemed to be approaching directly toward us. 'Great,' I thought.
"Grab your things and put your hand on the sigil." I picked up the tablecloth with the volumes and grabbed the tools tightly. I quickly placed my hand, which had the purple pattern similar to an Egyptian eye, on the fire of the same color. I looked at my future self.
"Now what?" I asked.
He put his own hand over mine and looked at me. However, I couldn't feel anything. "Don't stay in the cave too long. No, nowhere. Keep moving. You have to get as far away from the volcano as you can. You have to hold out for a year. After a year, you'll be transported to another place."
I felt the air escape from my body when he said those last words. 'A whole year??? What place? Fuck.' I wanted to ask, but I knew I couldn't.
I noticed how the whole house was collapsing and the meteorite that was approaching us was getting closer and closer. Before I could speak, he shouted again. "Last thing."
Suddenly, my Instinct sent a shock through my entire body, urging me to pull my hand out of the fire. Before I could react, I noticed that my future self was holding my hand there.
'What? No way! Did he always—'
Then he spoke, interrupting my train of thought. "The magic of Witches requires a price. Only women can wield it... forgive me." He whispered something that I couldn't understand.
After that, I felt a shockwave of pain all over my hand. The fire that had not been giving off any heat began to burn my hand as if oil had been poured on it. Before I had time to scream, the whole fire spread to my arm and the rest of my body. I was being burned alive by the purple fire.
I could only scream in pain, and with all my willpower, I directed a look of hatred and resentment toward the blue figure. Traitor. I wanted to say it, but the fire was destroying my vocal cords, making it impossible for me to form words.
I could see the meteorite about to hit the roof and noticed how he was speaking hastily. It looked like he had forgotten to say something... but I barely managed to catch some words since the pain was clouding my mind.
Beware... the Seer... kill... future...
Before I could hear anything else, the meteorite hit, and my consciousness faded away.