Panting and running. That was all they could do here. The horrors of the Void hunted them mercilessly. The only solace was that the monstrous shadows did not seem to be intelligent. Time, space, direction. None of those things had any meaning here. Yet still, they ran.

She turned and looked at her fellow shadowy comrades, fellow lost souls she had met here in the Void. No one can remember much of their past lives here in the Void. Only glimpses and flashes. She knew her name. It was Shiera An. She had a lover, but she couldn't remember his face. She knew she died, but couldn't remember the cause. She could only remember one other thing, one thing that seemed to define her very being.

Loss.

Her heart told her she must have lost many things, her lover being one of them. Though she could not remember them, her heart told her they were there. A sea of losses that stained her soul. Her fellow comrades were in no better shape. They each had different lives, of course, but no one could remember them well, all they had were their names and a few glimpses, and that was it.

"If what that Void Sentinel said is true, then we can harness our Words to form a path out of this place!" Jade panted from behind her as they ran.

"Then let's hurry on that!" urged Tomas.

One at a time, they each spoke their special Word that was imbued into them. They each discovered theirs upon falling into the Void. It was their only weapon against the Void Eaters, the shadows that hunted them now.

"Truth!" called Jade.
a sphere of green light blasted forth from her, knocking away all the nearby Void Eaters, giving them a bit of reprieve.

"Pain!" called Tomas.
The aspect of Pain filled the Void for a breath moment, subduing the remainder of their pursuers.

The other four of her comrades each spoke their Words, beginning to form them together.

At last it was her turn.

"Sorrow!" she spoke, drawing the energy straight from very depth of her being. Her soul resonated with the Word as it poured out from her. Together, the words begin to fade together, and a path began to form before them, which led to the many bubbles above them, each bubble being a different universe. They seemed so distant here, even though distance didn't exist here. The bubbles always seemed infinitely far away, and no soul was able to return to them.

But now they had this path. The way there seemed somehow shorter now. Tears began to well on the groups eyes.

One did not know how long they had waited for this. How long it took to find the right words, the right people, to make this. How many friends and comrades had she seen perish here? How many of them lost hope and became the very Void Eaters that they fled?

Too many. Far too many....

Even though the Void Eaters were no longer following them, none of them dared slow their pace. Each scared that if they stopped for even a second, it would all suddenly disappear, and they would be trapped here in this Void forever.

They were half way up before one of them, named Ruben, finally collapsed from exhaustion.
"Come on, Ruben, we can't stop now!" she urged, helping him to his feet.
"But we've been running forever!! Please! I just....I just need a break...." he begged, huffing out of breath.

For a moment, they almost considered it, but then they glimpsed a large shadow moving underneath the path. Panic filled their eyes, "Ruben! There is no time, we have got to go!"

They ran as fast as they could, but it wasn't long until the shadow beneath them surfaced. It was a Voidling, a Horror of the Void, a being that preyed on everything but the Void Sentinels.

"Oh Fuck me!" cried Jade, as she began to sob. Shiera felt the same way, but the soldier in her told her to keep going. She prayed that they would make it in time.

Ruben was the first to get eaten. He was the slowest, and thus the easiest for the Voidling to pick off. Shiera's panic-filled mind had no time to mourn, though a part of herself did ponder for a moment how a Lost Soul like them could possibly ever turn into something like that.

However that thought was fleeting, as it wasn't much time afterwards that two more of her comrades had been consumed.

The remaining four of them were all sobbing. A moment later another screech told them that it had gotten Jasmine.

Only Tomas, Jade, and Her remained. They ran as fast as they could, the bubbles getting bigger, it wouldn't be long now before they reached them. The Voidling roared behind them, it's massive maw of unending teeth thrashing just behind them. A massive clawed hand swooped above them, and only narrowly did they manage to dodge in time.

Tomas suddenly stopped, "GO ON AHEAD, I WILL BUY YOU TWO SOME TIME!" he yelled.

"TOMAS!! NOOOO!!!" both her and Jade screamed in unison. However, despite their wishes to save their comrade, fear kept their legs moving towards their escape.

"PAIN!" Tomas yelled, and an instant later, the Voidling screeched in horrid pain. Not a moment after that, it lurched forward, and devoured Tomas whole.

They were almost there, just a few more seconds and they would be out of this hell hole!

There was a lurching sound from behind them, as they noticed the path begin to evaporate behind them. If they could have run any faster than currently were, they would have. But just before they could reach the nearest bubble, a jagged, clawed hand smacked them both, flinging Shiera into one bubble, and Jade into another....

Falling.

She felt falling.

Then a sudden painful crash as she hit what she could only assume to be dirt. The impact was jarring and painful. Her body was in too much pain to move. Then it hit her, suddenly, like an ocean, memories of her past life flooded her mind, as if they were just waiting for her all this time. Tears began to flood from her eyes as she remembered him. Her lover. Her husband. And Her. Her best and closest friend....Diao Chan...

Then she remembered their betrayal.

She heaved and puked as the pain in her stomach suddenly lurched up. She tried to remember all that had happened, but found something missing. She remembered falling into the Void. She remembered running....

But she couldn't remember anything else. It seemed all memory of what had occurred in the Void had left her. And that made her sad, but she knew not why....

Author's Note

So yeah, i know the prologue is a bit chaotic, but it needed to be done.

If you are wondering about the whole Words thing, don't.
Just know that is something that it only works in the Void. Each Word is bound to a different Soul. These Words allow one to bring the Aspect of that Word into the Void, and use it as a weapon of sorts, before it fades away. To bring the aspect back, the soul only needs to speak that word again. The Void lacks any aspect of existence, so using these words grants one...little glimpses, as it were, of these aspects. And they can be powerful, briefly.

I will also already warn you ahead of time that you are not likely to see this be brought up again in the story except in a few reminiscing scenes. They unfortunately cannot be utilized as a mechanic outside of the Void.

I hope you guys enjoy it, this story is going to be a bit different from my other works.