The fall ended without warning.
Or perhaps it had never existed at all.
Suddenly… he was there.
Standing.
Trembling.
The surface beneath his feet gave slightly.
Not solid.
Not liquid.
Something… alive.
The layer stretched in every direction.
A dark sea with no horizon.
No sky above.
No true ground below.
Only void.
The place breathed.
Expanded.
Contracted.
As if all that space were the interior of some colossal creature.
He tried to take a step.
The layer rippled beneath his feet.
Slow waves moved through the darkness…
as if he had stepped on the skin of something ancient—
something that had slept there since before the existence of the universe.
The sound came after.
A dragging.
Slow.
Heavy.
Something was moving.
Before he could even see it—
he felt it.
Fear.
Not a learned fear.
Not an explained fear.
A fear that simply existed on its own.
His body—
or what he perceived as his body—
did not move.
Paralyzed.
His mind screamed.
Run.
But nothing responded.
He tried to move.
Nothing.
And then—
he turned his face.
First came a shape.
A mass of darkness denser than the void itself.
It writhed… incomprehensible.
And then—
something came from it.
Not a voice.
Something trying to be a voice.
Distorted.
Broken.
— …a… soul… here…?
A tentacle emerged.
Slow.
Approaching.
He tried to move.
Nothing happened.
The tentacle touched him.
And then—
it began.
He was being devoured.
His essence being torn away…
like living prey in the jaws of a crocodile.
It was not pain.
It was loss.
His essence was being drained from his body—
or from what he perceived as his body.
His consciousness began to fail.
Everything… coming apart.
And then—
another presence emerged.
Denser.
Heavier.
Another creature rose from the darkness.
Larger.
And within it—
a blade was embedded.
The second creature advanced.
And collided with the first.
The collision tore the layer.
The impact launched him.
He was hurled against the dark surface.
He lay on the ground.
Nearly unconscious.
The draining had stopped.
But the emptying… continued.
His essence was coming undone.
He was losing everything.
And then—
the blade broke free from the larger creature.
It spun through the air.
And fell—
driving itself into the layer…
near him.
His eyes found the sword.
Instinct.
He needed that.
He tried to move.
Nothing.
He tried to crawl.
His body did not respond.
There was nothing.
His consciousness was fading.
And then—
a voice.
Clear.
— Do you promise you'll come back?
He froze.
— …who are you…?
Silence.
— Why did I promise I would come back…?
Nothing answered.
His vision failed.
And then—
the image came.
Clearer.
Closer.
A girl.
Holding his hands.
Eyes glistening with tears.
— Do you promise you'll come back?
He looked at her.
— I promised…
The voice came out weak.
— I promised I would come back…
He looked at her.
— …but I don't know who you are…
The pain grew.
— I made a girl cry…
A pause.
— …why…?
Silence.
But something remained.
He had made a promise.
And he had not returned.
And then—
— No…
His voice failed.
He forced it.
— I promised I would come back…
— I have to come back…
— I will come back.
The blade was still there.
Waiting.
— I refuse… to stop existing in this place.
Silence.
And then—
something changed.
Not in the void.
Inside him.
His essence stopped draining.
For an instant—
he still existed.
He began to move.
Slow.
Crawling across the layer.
He managed to reach the blade.
His fingers touched the hilt.
He gripped it.
And began to rise.
First to his knees.
Then—
to his feet.
Holding the sword.
Understanding nothing.
And then—
both creatures stopped.
Turned toward him.
The anomaly still existed.
And now…
it was armed.