I stared at the pulsating crystal.
I pressed it against my chest. The greater the surface area in contact with my skin, the faster the energy would transfer.
It felt like swallowing boiling mud. The raw emotions of thousands flooded my system, threatening to tear my sanity to shreds. My eyes widened; the veins in my neck bulged. It tasted bitter—the distinct taste of absolute despair.
But beneath the bitterness lay an explosive surge of power. My fractured bones burned, forcibly knitted back together by the alien energy.
Within minutes, the crystalline sphere dimmed, fractured, and finally crumbled into fine sand in my hands.
I gripped a knife in each hand. I looked up toward the shrinking sliver of stormy sky.
With the last dregs of my strength, I leaped. Drove the blade into the earth. Pulled myself up. Drove the other blade in. Fighting gravity and the crushing walls.
One meter.
Two meters.
Ten meters.
My muscles screamed. The friction of the dirt scraped agonizingly against my burns. But I kept climbing.
Until, finally, my hands grasped wet grass.
I hauled myself out of the chasm, rolling onto stable ground just as the fissure snapped shut behind me with a muffled, earth-shaking boom.
My chest heaved. The rain washed away the mud and blood plastered to my face.
I had survived.
I sprawled flat on my back against the sodden grass. My ragged breathing was the only rhythmic sound left amidst the fading chaos of the storm.
Inside my body, however, the war was far from over.
The energy from the Earth Eye crystal was still circulating. It didn't flow gently; it burrowed deep into my marrow. I could feel my previously fractured shin bones shifting on their own—click, crack—forced back together by an accelerated surge of calcium.
It was scorching.
It felt as if my blood had been replaced with boiling mercury.
This wasn't some gentle, divine healing. It was a violent anabolic fever. My body was cannibalizing every remaining ounce of fat and protein to rebuild the structural damage in a matter of minutes.
"Argh..."
I let out a low groan, my fingers digging into the muddy earth.
Inside my head, the voices were finally fading. The screams of the farmers, the wailing of the children, the frantic barking of the hound... they all receded into a static echo at the back of my mind. Like tinnitus ringing after a bomb blast.
I forced myself into a sitting position.
The world spun for a fleeting second before snapping back into focus.
I stood up. My knees wobbled, but locked into place.
My nervous system was executing a hard reboot. The agonizing physical pain from earlier had mutated into a ravenous, predatory hunger. My metabolism was demanding its toll.
I began to walk.
Step by step.
Every footfall felt incredibly heavy, as if the gravity in this forsaken place was pulling me down with a newfound intensity.
And so, a new day dawned.