Crash! Fragmented glass scattered throughout the once peaceful room. Turning into a hail of sharp, dangerous crystals.
Lumbering through the new open windows was a mass of grotesque flesh. A shambling mass of deformity. Faces sagging, skin and flesh practically on the verge of falling off as they repeated an endless cycle of melting and reforming. Stuck in an eternal state of trying to maintain the unstable body. Innumerable hands full of cuts. Some even missing fingers sprang forth from the amalgamation of distorted flesh.
The hands came for me. The sense of sudden fear or shock stunned me in place. Before I could even move, it already seized me.
Lanky, pale white malnourished arms rushed at me.
"Guh!" It lifted me up in the air. All of my limbs restrained by multiple hands.
This is bad! I can't move!
Hefted high up in the air, melting faces crying tears of blood drew nearer. The scent was horrendous. This thing just reeked of the scent of death, the scent of flesh corroding and rotting away.
Hands gripped tightly onto my limbs. Even my neck.
It hurts. I can't breathe.
The abomination's eyes shook. Those black lifeless pupils seemingly stared down into the depths of my very own soul.
I could not speak nor struggle anymore.
Those eyes...
"AGH!" Ah gut wrenching scream left my mouth. Something warm dripped from my eyes as a fishy scent assaulted my nose. The insides of my body Damn it!
It hurts! It really hurts! I'm dying!
My head!
Regaining control of my body, I tried to struggle free again but it was to no avail. It was painful. Painful to the point that I just wanted things to end!
"K-Kuh!" I can't breathe.
I'm starting to suffocate.
Everything was starting to become blurry. And I feel cold and dizzy. My mind is a mess.
Planning? I can't focus. A skull splitting migraine was preventing me from ever thinking of a decent plan.
It's already taking all of my remaining will power to grit my teeth, refusing to scream and to stay awake as possible.
"..."
My mouth opened. But no voice came out. My lungs begged for air. But there was no air.
My chest heaved up and down faster. The heart despairing, resulting to speeding up its blood pumping to alleviate the lack of oxygen in the human system.
It was useless.
My body's refusal to die. It's struggles proved to only worsen the pain that I feel.
Is this really it? I've reincarnated. Only to be killed helplessly by this... This thing.
Just when I finally felt what it meant to be spoiled and pampered by a gentle grandmother.
Just when I was finally having dreams of the future.
I'm gonna die?
Just like this?
I refuse! I don't want to die!
How the hell is this peaceful? I want to live a peaceful life!
At the verge of death. At the utmost limit of consciousness. I heard a lovely voice whisper into my ears. The voice of a gentle, loving older sister.
[ Mythical trait [Ill fated star] has been deactivated.]
[The fate of death had been fulfilled.]
[ [???] (???) has reached a conclusion!]
It was the system.
Pain assaulted me again. My neck! My neck!
Another hand had grasped my head like a fruit.
It was pulling upwards while the rest of my body was pulled in the opposite direction.
" I l L h E l P yO u" It grinned and laughed at me with its many faces.
Riiip!
I saw it...
My body... It was...
My head... Where... Where is it?
Realization struck in.
The last thing I saw was that the abomination had stood up. The chest region parted. A hideous gigantic mouth full of serrated rows of sharp teeth greeted me. At least what was left of me.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
Bones broke.
Spine shattered.
Limbs devoured.
Organs scooped out.
It didn't hurt anymore. But I was forced to watched my body being devoured. Shredded piece by piece.
I couldn't help but watch.
Because the rest of my body had been separated from my head at that point in time.
-----
[ [???] (???) has activated.]
[Your soul has been damaged.]
[ Skill [Fate Palace] (Mythical) is now accessible.]
[ A portrait has been deposited in the palace.]
What... Was happening.
The world was spinning. Everything was extremely blurry. My senses were a mess.
A loud ringing tune drowned out everything else.
It was hard to focus.
Another mythical skill?
Fate palace?
What did those question marks represent?
Am I dead?
Am I alive?
My thoughts were all over the place. I was in shambles.
[Trait [Ill fated star] (Mythical) has re-activated.]
[A final conclusion shall be reached soon.]
[You will die...]
I will die... But why!??!
I just wanted to live! Is that really too much to ask? Why have I been given this stupid trait in the first place?
I was panicking. Unlike my usual calm self, I couldn't get my thoughts to straighten up! This feeling. This sickening feeling. It was comparable to being naked and having hundreds of eyes stare at me. Judging my worth.
[You will die.]
My head panged with even more torment. I felt sick. Tired.
I felt lethargic. Like my body or soul had been sucked dry of some sort of essence.
As the world spun around me. I could hear something again. It was familiar. A voice of a gentle old lady.
Grandma...
"My cute grandson. No matter what you hear. No matter how curious you get. Do not open the door. And do not look through the windows." Her tone was grave and ominous. The only time I saw her this serious was when my life was at stake as a baby.
Reality seemed to repeat itself as my eyes registered the scene before me.
It was grandmother. Preparing to head out.
I held my head tightly with my arms.
"AGHHHHG!!!" And I screamed.
My eyes throbbed. These eyes resembled nothing more than scalding balls of iron. They were throbbing. Pulsating like a heart. Each beat they grew hotter and each pulse amounted to a bigger headache.
[Soul is too weak to endure [???](???) effects.Please bear the rebound and keep yourself awake.] Her voice became the sole comfort in this painful distorted world.
Everything was blurry and unclear again. The floor was coming nearer and nearer to my face. I nearly fell down but grandmother caught me.
It wouldn't have mattered anyway.
Everything felt numb. If you exclude the excruciatingly painful throbbing eyes burning like lava. Amidst the pain. A strange state of calmness overtook me again.
This... This is bearable.
And once again my mind flowed into a stream of inquisitive thoughts. The system. It sounds like a gentle older sister. And it does not actively tell me anything.
For the past few years of infancy up to now where I am now a three year old. The system only spoke when a great change happened to my body.
But now it had been sending messages left and right.
I question whatever was happening. In the anxious embrace of my grandmother.
And there a new thought grew from emptiness. The fate palace.
I want to enter it... I want to know what it is.
I closed my hot, steaming eyes. They were still throbbing but were beggining to grow softer.
Fate palace
A portrait
A fate of death
A conclusion
All of the words previously mentioned by the system circled the insides of my head.
I envisioned myself entering a gate. And when I opened my eyes. There it was. A grand palace that dominated the whole horizon. The world around the palace was a pitch black void. But the palace itself emitted light.
Its body was made out of a highly transparent crystal. Glowing in a soothing radiance that seemed to entice my soul to enter.
Staring at the architecture. I found peace and comfort.
I took a step forward. There was nothing to step on but the void. Strangely enough, I was able to walk on nothing.
I arrived before the palace gates. Two menacing crystal doors full of runes, inscriptions and strange languages, glowing in light blue.
Dong...
The doors opened.
A wondeeful garden filled to the brim with plants, hedges and trees greeted me.
A red carpet unfurled before my feet. And I treaded that red carpet. Ignoring all else.
Examining the plants and the courtyard can wait.
Something... I felt connected to something calling to me.
I followed the red carpet and opened another set of glowing runic doors.
Silence descended. A terrifying coldness seeped into my bones.
I felt like I wanted to leave. That this place was unsafe.
The corridoor infront of me was long, the end seemingly non existent. My attention was hooked onto a the left and right walls of the corridoor.
There were portraits. But they were blank white.
The thing calling for me stopped. I guess I reached it.
I went up to a blank portrait and stared into it. It was blank, made of paper yet it managed to reflect my image as a whole.
A Small toddler with grey hair and equally dull grey eyes. His gaze was apathetic to the world. A frown was the only thing he could show to the world.
It was me.
I stared at that reflection. Unease starting to build up.
My heart became anxious.
My eyes once again throbbed in great pain.
The reflection buzzed.
It changed.
The boy full of life was nothing more than a corpse hanging down from a black tree. A noose strangled his neck. But he was grinning madly. Eyes were nonexistent. In their place were just two empty, dripping eye sockets. Crows perched on his shoulders and head. Feasting on the cold flesh of a dead child.
"Ah!" Frightened. I stepped back.
My eye's throbbing stopped. The visage of me hanged on a noose disappeared from the blank portrait.
Gritting my teeth. I stood up and looked down into the corridoor.
There were... Thousands of portraits down the hall.
Thousands of blank portraits. All devoid of work except for one. It was near me. Just to my right. Opposite the creepy blank painting on the left.
The painting was torn. As if something had slashed at it with a large claw. Three marks tore down the frame and paper diagonally.
I approached. The feeling of apprehension grew.
I touched the portrait. The world changed.
It was there again. That thing.
The demon that killed me.
"I lL hE l P y O u!" It cackled again and innumerable pale hands charged forward.