The sudden darkness dripped like a mild poison into a person's body. Not strong enough to kill instantly, but strong enough to give a slow and painful death. Alongside the darkness, hand in hand, were fear, silence, and unease.
This horrifying quartet impacted the psyches of our favorite group, as if fate always had a hateful eye upon them.
Anyway...
Lux trembled beneath the tree, his yellow eyes reluctant to activate his night vision and see anything terrifying in the darkness. Merlin became alert, trying to decipher something in the profound darkness. Kōri appeared a little more frightened than before. Sunday simply remained alert, calm, and absolutely silent.
For the first time, Kōri displayed a genuine and raw fear of the dark, something she hadn't done before in all the dark situations the group had faced. This greatly surprised Nero, but he didn't give it much importance, because there was SOMETHING more important.
Nero shifted against the tree, slowly rising, trying not to let go of the mushroom tree. With great speed, he created a perfect wand, just as Merlin liked it.
His limited night vision activated immediately, allowing him to see up to 1.3 meters around him. With this small amount of clarity, Nero passed the wand to Merlin.
"Fulgeo!" exclaimed Merlin, though after saying it, he covered his eyes.
The wand shone in the air, confronting the darkness and narrowly winning. Fortunately for the terrified Kōri, the wand's light reached up to 5-6 meters away.
After several seconds of silence, Merlin deigned to pass the wand to anyone, then opened his eyes, looking away from the light.
The one who dared to take the wizard's sacred wand was Sunday. He helped Lux to his feet, then, together with Nero, calmed the frightened Kōri.
Nero stretched, alert, his muscles tensing at every strange noise, every unfamiliar shadow. His senses were distorted, making it seem as if the world was spinning with every slight movement of Nero's head.
"What's happening?... I feel like I'm going to throw up, my ears are ringing, are the others feeling the same?"
He turned to his companions, who seemed to be experiencing the same thing as Nero...
"Shit..."
Nero stared at his trembling hands with helpless eyes, his lips twitching almost rhythmically.
Lux nearly fell to the ground, sweat dripping down his face, and he even had to grab his head to keep from collapsing.
Merlin bent down and vomited what little he had in his stomach.
Sunday leaned against the mushroom tree behind him. Then, he began to recite the same prayer over and over again in a voice so low that only he could hear himself.
"Oh great Lord of Wind and Breath, Zephyr, protect me and those at my side..."
Kōri felt sweat trickle down her hands, while her pupils dilated dangerously.
Nero stared into the darkness with lifeless eyes and slowly began to walk toward the gloom.
"What?... What's happening to my body? I'm moving on my own like a damn zombie!"
Suddenly, everyone began walking into the darkness with an almost lazy slowness. Their minds filled with desperate doubts and restless questions, so many that even the ruthless Sunday felt afraid.
Nero tried to move, but his body wouldn't obey him. In that very moment, he realized that he was a slave to something he didn't even understand! His eyes flicked to his friends, who were in the same state as Nero.
Nero began to despair; a cold sweat ran down his decidedly unobedient body, making him feel that if he weren't being controlled by "it," he would vomit.
"Calm down, Nero, calm down... ugh..."
Nero was about to shake his head reflexively, but he instantly remembered that he wasn't in control of his body.
Then, he began to think...
Nero realized that he could only move his eyes and fingers; apparently, "it's" body manipulation wasn't entirely perfect. Besides, at the rate he and his comrades were going, they wouldn't last more than five minutes in the darkness...
"Darkness... Darkness?... Darkness!"
Nero smiled inwardly and stared at the darkness, his eyes showing a newfound determination.
"It's you, damn darkness... it's always the darkness, it seems like my damn enemy!"
Nero began to think of thousands of ways he could break free from his body's control, but none of them worked. Until he thought of digging his nails into the palms of his hands.
"Maybe so..."
Nero dug his nails into his palms, and a small but sharp pain shot through him like a bullet, forcing his mind back into coordination with his body.
"I knew it!"
With a speed that would surprise even a sprinter, Nero gently tapped his friends' bodies to wake them.
Kōri, freed from the mind control, jerked away, waving her arms in a pathetic attempt to dispel the darkness. Lux stared at his hands, his eyes regaining their usual yellowish glow.
"What was that?" Sunday asked. His voice was heavy with doubt, but his gaze cautiously pierced the darkness.
Nero's heart was still pounding, a thump in his chest. His ears were ringing violently, preventing his open mouth from uttering any sound in response to Sunday.
"What's wrong with me?" he thought worriedly. "I can't speak, my throat won't let me."
Merlin realized what was happening to Nero and pinched his arm. Then, with a hint of understanding, he said, "It seems the darkness here is a mind-controlling entity, but a person who feels pain escapes it."
Nero nodded, his discomfort dissipating with the pain...
Kōri trembled, sweat trickling down her forehead, plastering her hair to it. Her hands moved erratically, while her legs twisted.
Nero turned to look at her.
"Kōri?"
The young girl with white hair hugged herself, her eyes turning completely white, from iris to pupil.
"Kōri!" Lux shouted, catching her to prevent her from falling.
...
Kōri's POV:
Kōri opened her eyes, but she saw neither Lux, nor Sunday, nor Merlin, and certainly not Nero. She was surrounded by fire, destruction, and screams... things that assaulted her mind with force.
She quickly hid in some rubble that wasn't burning. Then, her mind began racing, searching for answers to everything: Where was she? Why was she there? And was this real?
"What happened?" she asked herself softly.
Suddenly, her body was teleported into the sky. The white hair that had been plastered to Kōri's forehead just moments before was now flying with almost insulting freedom.
Kōri smiled as she felt the wind caress her body, but it was only for a fleeting moment. Then, her eyes widened like a window as she realized she was more than 250 meters in the air.
Kōri screamed inwardly as she began to plummet to the ground.
"No, no, no... no!!!... no, I can't die now, I haven't killed them yet... if I die now... they won't rest in peace, my people won't be able to live in peace."
Memories of a past that Kōri tried to erase, gnawing at her conscience, but right now she was about to die a horrible death.
She began to cry and beg every god she knew to please help her... From Zephyr to Adran, all the gods and all the churches, a total of 8.
Seeing that no higher or divine entity wanted to help her, she began to cry, her whole body trembling. Then she closed her eyes, resigning herself to her fate...
When she opened her eyes, her body lay on a black floor, a luminous point in a dark sea.
This place was softly and dimly lit by a pale blue crescent moon, which seemed to gaze at Kōri with recognition, as if she were an old friend.
Kōri glanced back at the moon, but quickly looked around.
Suddenly, almost a second after Kōri blinked, rows upon rows of chairs appeared, totaling 50 rows of 10 chairs each, while a large screen—an object Kōri had never seen before—manifested in front of them all.
The screen reflected the moonlight onto Kōri's face, while a giant silk carpet, tinged with blue, appeared, dividing the 50 rows of 10 chairs into two.
"This place... can it be considered beautiful?"
Kōri began walking along the carpet, her mind trying to comprehend and process everything that was happening to her.
A chair of dark ice and blue-gold, with touches of silver, appeared at the end of the carpet, its direction pointing toward the screen.
"A throne of frost..." she said, looking at the throne-like chair.
Then, she sat down somewhat hesitantly and began drumming her fingers on the side of the chair. Her mind was very confused, yet also curious, since she was in a strange place, but one that didn't represent an immediate danger to her body, soul, and mind.
She stopped drumming the chair and rested her head on her right arm, while the enormous black screen was stained with two strange images.
The first image was of a very elegant place: chairs of finely crafted, well-cut wood, tables of the same wood, a quartz floor that looked like crystal because it reflected everything, and about 50 people, men and women, dressed in very elegant black clothing.
Kōri frowned.
"Is this a vision?"
The screen flickered in black and white and showed the second image: it was the same place, but it was stained with blood, the tables and chairs were overturned on the floor, and the people who had previously appeared happy were now dead, their faces etched with pure horror.
"What?!"
Kōri opened her mouth for a second and then closed it. The change between the two images was so abrupt that Kōri couldn't help but be surprised.
"What could these visions mean?"
The screen went dark again, leaving the already dark place even emptier than before.
Then, suddenly, everything shattered and began to corrupt; every object in that place broke like ice under immense pressure.
Kōri's body shattered into large pieces of ice, causing her excruciating pain.
All she could do was close her eyes...