Huff. Huff.
Alex's breath ran long and dry; the hot air seemed inescapable.
His new body was completely lacking perspiration. His scales remained chilling, refusing to settle.
Within him, an even greater heat rose.
"If… if I—"
Alex cut himself off.
He knew what he was going to say.
"There's no point. They're gone. I'm alive because I did what I did."
"I'm glad, honestly. I never have to see them again. Everyone is so goddamn annoying. They always got in my way. They always judged me. They always looked at me, asking for more."
"I'm what you wanted—Milo, Sera, Dad, Mom. And whatever God or fucking being is messing with me."
"I'm awakened now, and you're all shit. I've seen the void realm you loved so much, dad. Honestly, I'd forget my family too, just to be here. But I must confess—
I feel like a monster. AND I LOVE IT."
Above Alex remained a single star. It looked at him with glee.
Laughter echoed throughout the forest—not the mechanical laughter that tried to imitate a human, but the stringy, pungent resonance of expanding vocal cords, a sound that crushed the throat that held it—primal, foreign to the world.
Suddenly, a comet emerged and crossed paths with the sun. Its motion froze, then slowly coalesced with it, forming an eclipse.
Tremors arose.
The world around him reformed.
The forest melted into pools of blood, leaving Alex naked.
Alex stood under the eclipse, again.
— — —
What surrounded Alex was not a sea of blood. Rather, it was a thin layer carpeting what had once been dry dirt, preventing him from seeing beneath it. Even pressing his feet into it left no mark.
Before him, the mantle that had enveloped the coals had merged into pools of blood. The flames returned to the hell from which they came, leaving only the shale they had defiled, slowly cooling as it drowned.
He glanced up and down, compelled to search.
He clawed and dug through what should have been hard mixtures of rock and dead life—but it was spongy, fleshy, still breathing.
"Where is it?" he muttered—
No. It was something else entirely.
Though it used his body, it was not Alex—and it did not belong to this place.—no, it was the world itself, controlling him. And yet, unlike Alex, the will viewed this hellscape with disgust. It was clearly not from this nightmare.
Each time he grasped, he felt ecstasy.
Each time it searched, it felt disappointed.
It was as if it had this desperate drive to save Alex
Yet it failed, and Alex was left alone in the wilderness.
— — —
A disgusting yet violent shriek filled the air, Alex was found, he did not know how he could tell, he just knew.
Then he saw it
A man?
A deer?
A demon?
No, it was far worse, its tendons reached from joint to joint, leaving almost no room for muscle pale skin fused onto bony segments of flesh, its ribs and organs vivisected for its prey to behold, right before its ebony claws pierced a whole deer's body, it had no face what remained was a skull that was piled with rotting skin, each socket emitted a ghastly wisp of intense lumination, a blue light that emulsified it's putrid smell, fluids dripped like molten lava, forming the most rotten painting imaginable, on the blood canvas floor, yet it somehow allowed for charcoal antlers to sprout out its skull.
In one leap it closed the distance between the edge of Alex's sight and lay limber in front of Alex
— — —
[ ENEMY DETECTED ]
Fleshkindred
Threat: 3
Existence: 3
Karma: 5
— — —
The Fleshkindred's skull tilted.
Blue light from its sockets intensified.
Studying him.
Alex's body moved.
Not toward the Fleshkindred.
Not away.
Into the hole the intervention had started
Into the flesh-ground.
Into the furnace.
His hands tore at the membrane—blood and meat parting easily, welcoming him.
The Fleshkindred watched.
Didn't stop him.
It couldn't.
White flames arose on it's thick skin.
It did not respond with frenzy yet it was clearly dying.
It stood there.
Smirking.
— — —