A silver-black soul fell from the endless entrance of the sea of darkness.
It was as if a bright star was piercing through the void, falling into the ground of a lifeless world.
The silvered soul was not alone within the darkness, yet it was the only living soul standing on the ground. He stood upon the earth, eyes sweeping the horizon, hunting for a reflection of himself—yet finding none.
Yet it was the darkness that had engulfed them.
Soulless statues decorated the land, merged with the darkness, becoming a part of it. The silvered soul sensed all of this and realized one thing clearly — If he stopped now, he would eventually become one of their kind and rot for eternity
So he decided to keep walking, searching for a way out of this hollow world.
It was not his conscious mind that warned him of the danger, but something deeper—his subconscious—telling him that if he stopped, he would lose something he could never forgive himself for.
The soul had now walked a fair distance from where he was first summoned. He was entering a place much darker than before; it felt as though the darkness itself was swallowing the very light he emitted.
Yet, he kept walking, no matter how dim the path became. Only the bravest soul could have ventured this far. The few statues he could still make out were becoming scarce, making it hard to find any landmark to pass by.
Suddenly, he felt an icy presence looming behind him, as if it were trying to warn him. But the walking soul had no intention of turning back.
At a distance, he saw something huge—a monument shrouded in shadow. It gave off a vibe that was strangely different, yet hauntingly familiar. His pace quickened. The light that had been scraped away began to return to him, granting him a renewed sense of direction.
The air was closing in around the enormous cathedral.
The cathedral grew more immense as he moved closer to it. From afar, it appeared like a simple monument, but up close it didn't seem to be made by any human — perhaps not even by a god.
A staircase stretched upward, too long to belong in a world where nothing else stood. At the top, there was no gate, no entrance — only a massive skull resting beneath a crown, as if watching everything below. The structure rose toward the sky, its sharp triangular edges cutting into the darkness. Pillars surrounded the cathedral, their forms rigid and unnatural.
The sight alone was enough to make anyone shiver, and the thought of what it meant was enough to unsettle the soul. It was far too vast for the human eye to fully comprehend, leaving him with only one choice — to move forward and discover what lay beyond.
The stairs were vast and endlessly long, making the climb feel more like ascending a mountain. He moved at a steady pace, pausing briefly halfway to catch his breath. After hours of climbing, he finally reached the top — alone and safe.
He stood at the edge of the surprisingly vast platform of the cathedral. On all sides, it was surrounded by flat land — not a single statue or structure visible as far as the human eye could see. It all felt too unreal for a human mind to comprehend.
Among the endless darkness, the tower loomed, its sheer height calling to him, promising answers he didn't yet understand.
Yet how could he be the only one who had ventured here?
The answer he sought could only be found inside.
It stood before him, but the sheer scale of it kept him rooted in place. The height alone made him hesitate, stopping him from taking even a single step forward. Still, fate had already led him here to uncover what lay beyond.
So, quietly, he began to walk.
In no time, he reached the entrance. Despite its mammoth size, he couldn't see a single thing inside.
A sudden thought struck him—a sense of déjà vu. He had experienced this feeling once before, and it had led him to this very spot. Was it intuition or mere instinct? No one could say for sure.
He found himself inside the cathedral before he even knew how he had entered. The air thickened, suffocating and cold. His soul trembled violently, a voiceless scream tearing through his mind, draining the strength from his limbs and forcing him to bow before the presence ahead.
He slowly regained consciousness, forcing his trembling body to stand.
His vision remained blurred, the world spinning faintly around him.
And then he saw it.
A shape forming within the darkness.
The darkness did not move like a shadow — it gathered.
It existed. It breathed.
The shape had no face, no edges, no defined form.
It was neither solid nor empty.
Yet…
It was staring at him.
"You finally see me?"
The voice did not echo — it resonated within his soul.
He looked around, searching for its source, but there was nothing.
Nothing… except the formless presence before him.
"W-who's there?" he asked, his voice unsteady.
Silence answered him.
Then—
"I have always been here."
A pause.
"From the moment your soul crossed into my domain… I have been watching."
"Was it you… who brought me here?" he asked.
"Your soul has been walking toward me for a long time," the formless entity replied calmly.
"Why… me?" he whispered.
"Because the darkness cannot consume you."
Silence fell between them, heavy and suffocating.
A fragment of memory—forgotten, buried—stirred in his mind, as if some long-lost choice had already marked him.
"Endure," the entity spoke, its voice less a sound and more a vibration in his marrow. "For death would be too simple a mercy.... we'll meet again."
The darkness surrounding the formless entity began to stir. A portion of it slowly separated, twisting like ink dropped into clear water. It didn't just block the light; it seemed to consume the very concept of it.
The swirling mass drifted toward him.
He tried to step back—to flee, to flinch, to do anything—but his nerves had turned to stone. His body was no longer his own.
The darkness seeped into him, threading through his very soul. It pressed against his chest—not tearing flesh, not bruising bone.
An agonizing, hollow cold surged through his veins, turning his blood to slush. His breath hitched, trapped in a throat that had forgotten how to gasp. He wanted to scream, but the darkness had already filled his lungs.
It sank deeper, anchoring itself to the very core of his being.
Then, the floor vanished. The air dissolved. The silence screamed.
The world didn't just end; it tore itself apart, leaving him falling through a fractured void where even the shadows were broken.