The Game: Aether and Mind

Awaken.

I don't know how much time has passed, but the voice, this agonizing, torturous sound boomed through my mind was what forced me to awaken from my peaceless slumber. A loud, ear-piercing beeping noise rang through my skull. I could do nothing but whine like a dog and roll around in agony as the music of torture burned painfully, it was like my mind was being shredded apart, countless images flashed before my very eyes, disappeared and then were brought back into irrelevancy. I grit my teeth, forced my eyes shut while tears began to form, and the salty liquid began to fall like rain. My eyelids weren't able to hold back the tears, and neither could they shut out the burning light that forced its way into my eye sockets. In one quick motion, I pried my hands away from the sides of my pounding head and prompted to shield them from this torture. The pain didn't stop, and such, I curled up in a ball, my limbs pressing hard against my body while letting the suffering wash over me. Despite the voice-only ranging for a moment, its power still echoed through my mind minutes later. I tried to bring out a thought, but my brain wouldn't let me, they were only aggravating the spiritual menace.

"Stop..." I rasped, my throat was remarkably dry, and so was my tongue, for a matter of fact, the very air was dusty that breathing itself was a chore beyond belief. I forced my breathing to slow down, gulping furiously between swallows of air and saliva. The pain was declining moments after those words had left my lips, a wave of relief and pleasure washed over me as I could finally hear my own thoughts again.

Open your eyes.

The voice rang through my skull again; this time, the pain was but a shadow of its former self, more of a daggers sting than a broadswords repetitive cleaving. My thoughts were broken in the middle of them, their very memory erased after they were halted. I ever so slowly pushed my hands away from my face, the cold instantly invaded the wet skin and draining all sensation from it. Shakingly, fearfully I opened my eyes, my vision the vision was blurred, for just a moment, and then what lay was revealed.

"AHHHH!!!" I let out a scream, one that shredded my throat, a surprise that I didn't vomit blood seconds later before my hands dug into some kind of powdery dust or sand and pulling me backward. My gaze was forcefully fixated onto the visage of a nightmarish monster, its teeth as long as pencils and sharp like a dagger. My eyes wouldn't dare to blink and awaited some kind of reaction while the image grew smaller by the second. Two large eye sockets with purple pears, gleaming with a dark shimmer, a frightening aura radiating from those soul gates, gazed into my very being, while it was hidden some kind of tar-like coating. My eyes weren't able to wander much, but my mind took everything in, including the two great horns that protrude from the sides of its skull and the heavy armor it wore.

I jerked violently as I heard a yelp, it was my own, from the sudden cold touch against my back. I had hit a wall, cornered by the beast, and then, my eyes widened in utter shock when I realized the full volume of the situations. The creature I saw in front of me, with its great armor so heavy that it would be impossible to be worn by an average human, was impaled by lances made of some kind of white material that had seemingly burst out of the stone floor.

"What the fuck...?" I muttered in absolute terror as all my emotions were drained from me, stolen away by the horrors surrounding me. I was in some kind of chamber, one that was presumably left untouched for a very long time by the looks of it. I could make out several more of corpses, more than half of them looked identical, while the other was a mix of various creatures from mythology, all framed in posses and expressions of agony. A bipedal dragon, and a giant humanoid crab, the rest of them were all covered in too much armor to have their race made out.

With my mouth open agape slightly, my teary eyes that have just barely dried, looked at the room I was in, piles of dust and corpses surrounded me as if I was partaking in some kind of necrotic ritual. My eyes slowly wandered up in hopes of seeing the sky, but I was only met with glowing, pulsating crystals embedded in the ceiling, with a large white circle hovering in the air, stopping a pillar of pure light. Pillar? It was true, there was some kind of beam of pure white light in the middle of the chamber.

"What is that?" I asked while my gaze was drawn to the core of the laser, a floating and in, form-, shape-, intensity-, and color-changing sphere. I cannot explain it, but it somehow radiated something I can't put in words, it was so natural, pure even, that I could not do anything but admire it. I don't know why I felt drawn to it like a moth to the flame, for some reason, I saw something inside the weird orb, just a moment long, before in vanished, a voice or image perhaps, I cannot remember. I groaned silently while attempting to rise, only to stumble and fall forward. With a grunt, I landed painlessly on an unusually large pile of dust, showering the space between me and the light in a veil of ash. I coughed violently while swatting away the airborne sand while my other limbs supporting my body, the cold stone floor, was less than comfortable.

My movements halted in a heartbeat when my actions have caused a hole in the cloud, it was the door. My breath quivered with absolute shock as all hope was drained from me, and I found why this place was left untouched for so long. The exit from this dreadful place was a metal gate, over thrice my size tall and by the looks of it so heavy that required at the very least ten men to pry it open. I was trapped in here, would this be my grave? I wondered for a moment while my gaze did not differ from the grand gate.

Grasp your destiny.

This message I barely noticed at first slowly entered my mind, it was so different, there was no agony, no pain or suffering, in it or me, but instead was more like heartfelt advice. The message's aftersound was like a soft tune, a melody or song on its own right. I can't explain it, but there was a deep, primal urge within me, that I had never known before that begged me to touch the sphere. As if I was suddenly granted new power, my body rose from the dusty ground smoothly with no previous soreness or pain.

I felt nothing, but the coldness invading my very being, thick clothes helped little to warm my skinny form, but I sensed nothing as my attention as a whole was focused on my new objective. I wobbly stumped forwards, almost falling again, but managed to catch myself in the last moment and walked further. The closer I came, the clearer it became that the voices I heard weren't just imagination, but I couldn't understand what they were saying but their meaning I understood: Continue. The orb that floated peacefully became larger and larger as my way shortened, more beautiful, and mesmerizing in a way I couldn't pry my thoughts away from being solely dedicated to appreciating its magnificence. The music that wished me to only hear it suddenly changed origins and was now on my left side.

My soothed eyes became clearer for just a moment, as I came to notice some kind of control panel made out of steel and floating crystals, half of it was broken off and scattered across the floor. The realization of the connection between it and the door worried me, not much for an unexplained reason. Through what lay behind, it caught my interest even more so than the phenomenon of colors itself. A giant knight in white and scarlet armor rested against a cracked wall with a massive hole behind it, a shattered shield, a broken sword, and a vial with a blue liquid inside rested next to him and the puddle of blood underneath the metal giant. I watched in confusion as a yellow smoke was leaking out of his helmet, but a second later, it stopped, and the room became a little bit colder.

I shook my head and turned my attention back to the center of the room, hoping that whatever happened to these beasts would not be my fate as well. My footstep rung louder than before as I approached the holographic disco ball as there was no dust anywhere near it, the only object in my path was yet another knight, a giant that dwarfed the scarlet one with his enormous black and spiked armor. I walked around the corpse, the aura it gave off made me tense up and struck fear into me that even made having a gun barrel pointed at my face seem harmless.

I swallowed my dry saliva and finally reached my destination, and the sphere took notice of my arrival. The music softened, allowing me to think about more than just it. What was this place? How did I get here? What happened? I wondered with much confusion, the memory was there, it laid on my tongue, but I just couldn't grasp it before it vanished yet again. The orb suddenly glowed and blinked, the contrast between those two was barely noticeable, and the reason for it was only known by the weird object itself. I jumped back as my eyes were suddenly dominated by a great light blue wall, I was about to flee, only to realize that there was nowhere to go, and thus dared to look closer, and saw...

Are you ready to merge?
Yes/No?

As if a mirror had been shattered, the veil of comfort was all of a sudden lifted, and I could see clearly again. My blood began to boil, and my heart rate skyrocketed as I could my anger grow, and my fists bulge. This Thing had stolen me away; I was just about to head home before it kidnaped me!

"Who are you!?" I asked wearily while lifting my fists as I slowly walked backward. The sphere seemed to be surprised by my reaction, and yet, it didn't answer, just looking down at me. "Answer me, where am I, and what do you want!" I was absorbed by an anomaly, I didn't care if I was shouting at a deity or demon at the moment, answers were all I desired.

You wish for me to verbally communicate with you? It asked, it wasn't like the one before, there were no real emotions in its voice, it sounded more like a machine trying to interpret human speech, and it did a damn good job at it, so much so that it made me wonder if it wasn't alive.

"Y-yes, who are you?" I asked, surprised to hear when I didn't feel any hostility from it, just childlike confusion. "Why did you bring me here?"

Greetings, I am the Grand Aether Manipulator and Extractor, short: GAME. It is a pleasure to finally have found a user after my activation long ago, though I am sad to inform you that I did not summon you here. Entity Narious, status: deceased, had brought you here. The sphere spoke, lightning up whenever its calm voice spoke.

I lowered my guard and was about to ask who this Naious was and why he had taken me when a beam of light was fired from the sphere at the scarlet knight. I nearly jump fearfully away from the laser, gracing my side. I knew everything sounded insane, nothing made sense anymore, but for some unknown reason, I was calm in a situation where anyone else would've screamed.

I am unaware why he committed such deed, though I can only assume he wished for someone to become my host given that he used all of his remaining energy to summon a being: you. I turned back towards the voice and stared at it in surprise. Although our connection has not been formed yet, your weak mind is easily accessible, seeing that it never had come in touch with large quantities of Aether energy before now.

"S-S-stay out of my head, you hear me?!" I shouted at the colorful orb, its colors dimmed upon hearing my uproar and its changing of form slowed down, for some reason, I felt sorry. "Sorry, this-this is just too much to take right now," I spoke while holding my left hand against my forehead, feeling the intense heat from it, as if I had caught a fever. After a few moments of recollecting, in which the other entity patiently waited, I asked again. "I... am sorry, but I don't want to become your host, or whatever you're talking about, I just wish to go home. Please, just send me back." I answered while letting out a sigh, perhaps it was dumb to just straight up deny the thing in front of me, but I just was so tired beyond belief.

The sphere froze still for a moment, perhaps out of shock, worry or disappointed, I didn't know, though it suddenly burst back into life. I am unable to do fulfill your request, the location you wish to be brought to is too unstable to be traveled to at the moment

"What?" I asked in surprise, the sudden hectic reply and stared at it in confusion and worry. This creature was my only hope to get home, or at the very least out of this room, my whole life depended on this beings help as there was no way in hell I could get out of here on my own. "That's not a problem, I can wait, when is it stable enough?" I asked while I felt cold dread spreading across my back.

Never. My jaw dropped, and I could feel all my emotions being drained away. When entity Narious had summed you to this position, he created a large hole in the layer of worlds or fabric of reality as your kind calls it. At this moment, for your world's standards, gigantic quantities of Aether are currently flowing into your world and are dragging it closer to this realm of existence.

"W-What happens to earth if those two meet?" I asked, my legs were shaking, and my voice quivered with fear, adrenalin rushed through my veins as my heartbeat so strong against my ribcage that it hurt.

Total annihilation.

"No... no, you're lying, you must!" I shouted at the orb and took a step backward. It must be lying, just a cruel attempt to make me stay and play into its nonexisting hands, that must be it.

I am unable to lie to potential and current users, although I am able not to answer a request, withhold information if one of my restrictions demands it, or I simply don't know, lying, I cannot. It spoke calmy, while its ever-changing form slowed down as the color-changing did.

At this moment, my legs gave in, and I fell to my knees, I wanted to deny it, believe that this creature was lying to me in hopes to make me do what it wanted, but I couldn't feel the lie, its words were genuine. I have talked to many contractors and called out their dirt, but this was as true as it could be.

I felt my jaw clenched, but I forcefully tore it open with all my strength and spoke out my thoughts, all my hopes."If I become your host, would I be able to save it, or at the very least, my sister?" I asked slowly as my eyes were locked onto the floor, watching the giant corpse of the beast that came before me with only an emptiness growing inside of me.

Possitive, though the process of acquiring so much power may take a long time The voice spoke and watched me with caution and interest, I cannot fathom how I knew it, but I somehow could feel it just as well as it did me.

"I accept becoming your host if I can save Amber. I don't care what nightmares I have to go through if it means saving her, and perhaps the rest, those are my demands." I said as I rose to my feet and looked at the sphere with a hardened expression. I have perhaps signed myself up to a long-lasting visit to hell, but if there was one thing I knew, then that the devil always keeps up their deal, he just would sour the life of the one who signed his contract, and that I could live with. Some may call me insane for not asking to hear the fine prints or the orbs reasoning for wanting a host, but to be honest, the very fact that it agreed to my request, after seeing my hopeless situation as well as the powers it already wielded over me, there was nothing it couldn't do to me if I had not agreed to the deal.

The orb blinked up once, and all powers practically radiated as it answered me.Affirmative, The host has agreed to the request. Starting the modification process now. Please remain calm.

I slowly nodded, listening to the instruction that it gave me and took a deep breath. My eyes widened at the sight of seeing strands of energy in every color slowly part from the miniature rainbow sun and reach towards me softly and elegantly. I cannot fathom why I put so much trusted the GAME, many times more faith did I put in it than any goody two shoe contractor I have ever met before, perhaps it was desperation or even manipulation of my thoughts, but I could care less. I took a few steps forward to close the distance of the holographic vines and watched in awe as the GAME the slowly entangled me, not restrain me, but to simply gain a grip of my form. It wasn't like strings or spider webs that tangled themselves on me, it felt more like rays of sunlight, soothingly warming my skin. Some of the light limbs touched my chest and sunk into it, a fuzzy and warm feeling began to grow, taking away all previous worry as I witnessed the orb slowly gravitate towards me and eventually, phase into my chest.

The feeling was incredible, it wasn't like standing in the warm light of the sun, or even an orgasm, it felt like having reached constant joy, happiness, and fulfillment, but still leaving room for free thoughts, worry, and little fear and concern, was this inner peace perhaps? Once all the stands of light, along with their origin, have merged with my being, I felt all sensation leave me, my body became suddenly so light, and my vision began to brighten up before I was swallowed by a pure white and empty realm.

I lost consciousness yet again, but this time, I was happily accepting that fact.