The emptiness was all his five senses perceived. His memory blurred as images of a once-familiar past disintegrated. His last thought went to a particular war fought in a world he couldn't recall, and a foe so powerful that even a god would doubt his chance at victory. The latter left him shivering in fear until he also forgot about it.
An unknown amount of time passed. Days, weeks, months, years. With nothing to relate to, he couldn't tell. Suddenly, something echoed like water droplets in a covered space, replacing the cold emptiness that had nursed his consciousness.
"Don't be afraid."
The voice covered him with a gentle blanket of warmth and calmed his agitated spirit.
"And come back to us, my love."
He, who was unwilling to open his eyes until now, gathered his courage to take a glimpse at what laid beyond the curtain of darkness.
Where am I?
A scenery of black, grey, and orange crowded his vision. The floor, ceiling, and walls carved out of grey marble reflected the light of candles hanging on a golden chandelier. Pillars surrounding a central place formed an enormous circle. The gaps in between those structures led to areas where the light was nonexistent. Right at the center of it all stood a plain-looking altar with ten candles.
His body rested on the grey floor next to the structure, the coldness biting into his bones. The smell of an enclosed room—that had not been opened for years—invaded his nostrils. He didn't know what this coldness and smell were, yet he knew. Not that he couldn't feel. He simply did not understand the meaning of what he felt. But, right now, what he wanted the most were answers. Who was he? What was he doing here? Where did he come from? And more.
He looked side to side, calm despite the gloomy but graceful aspect of that place. He then started to feel confused, not that he knew what it really meant.
"Welcome, Fallen." A soothing voice called from the side.
A woman, dressed in a medieval black nun attire with a dark veil covering her face, presented the Fallen with her gloved hand. The nun's appearance, despite being out of a horror movie, did not frighten him. Puzzled and lost, he needed a guide, so he took the hand. And like a parent teaching a baby to walk, she pulled him up.
Her hand is… warm. He thought, knowing warmth for the second time.
He stared at her, calling out to his lost memories to see if her veiled face was familiar, but nothing came to mind.
"Who are you?" he said, "Where am I? And… who am I?"
"You are in Yggdrasil's Sanctuaire, Fallen. And I am its Guardian."
"Fallen? Is that who I am?"
"No, it is the title that's been bestowed upon you. Your identity, however, remains a mystery for now. So feel free to give yourself a name later on."
A name. He knew it was used to identify something or someone. Yet he did not know. Was he a thing? Was he a person?
Fallen gazed at the marble floor, ceiling, and pillars, searching for once again meaning to all this—until he inspected his hands.
"Bones?"
He was clueless about his current whereabouts, and… actually, he was clueless about everything. But Fallen was certain that his body should be flesh and skin. Not just bones.
"Ow Fallen." She sighed. "The divine tree gave your soul back, yet your life wasn't. But do not be alarmed. As your soul is the container of it all, and now that you've retrieved a body, humanity can be regained through struggle, experience, and discovery of oneself. Your life, however, will be given back to you once you've cleared all the floors."
If the humanity she was talking about is emotions, then indeed, he could feel it: the vast pallet of emotions at his disposal with no understanding towards it. At least not yet. Even weirder, he could smell, see, hear, feel the touch and ambient temperature, but his taste was gone. Which was far from logical, since he was a skeleton.
He wondered how a being could make all this possible, "How can a tree hold such power?"
She had already heard this question countless times before. Usually, that was the moment a Fallen panicked and learned confusion. "Fallen, Yggdrasil is not just a tree. It is a divine life form invisibly linking all worlds together. Its powers are near-infinite. With them, control over life, death, space, and time is possible."
Fallen stared at her and knew confusion for the first time. No, he could finally understand it. It blurred his thoughts. In such a state of mind, he couldn't accurately express himself, and just stayed quiet.
Seeing no reaction from him, Guardian just moved on with her speech. Words flowed out of her mouth in a monotonous but still beautiful tone.
"Fallen, to rekindle the destiny of your star, you must challenge Yggdrasil's dungeon's 10 floors. Once cleared, your life and a wish will be awarded to you."
Humanity? Container? Yggdrasil? Dungeon? 10 floors? Destiny of my star? My life? Countless questions emerged simultaneously. If he still had a brain, it would probably have been boiling by now.
He sighed and placed all his thoughts in an empty drawer at the back of his mind. After all, overthinking currently won't be of any use to him. His eyes shifted towards the altar.
Guardian smiled under her veil. Compared to the others she had met long ago, he kept his calm in face of the unknown. Or so she thought. But Fallen was just lost, and silence was his best answer at the moment.
"Eager to begin I see." Guardian said, "When you are ready, touch the candle alit on this altar. It will teleport you to the first floor."
It sounded awkward since he would have to burn himself to teleport. He thought it was a stupid way to activate the mechanism, and giggled, releasing some of his piled-up tension.
"But Fallen, do be careful. The worlds you'll challenge are filled with danger. Yggdrasil will resurrect you after each death, but..."
Resurrection!? Floors are worlds? The Fallen's mind awakened a second time at the statement.
"Each resurrection will gnaw at your sanity. But it is my duty to help you fight this ailment. So come to me when needed. I can ease your insanity in exchange for soul points, or sp for short."
The skeleton nodded. It was apparently a reflex. Something he'd do for not hurting other people's feelings, even if he did not understand what they said.
New pieces of information kept coming, one after the other. At this rate, he will go insane before dying even once. What alarmed him the most was the "come back from the dead" part of it. To digest this disturbing fact, he shifted the subject. "What are soul points?"
"The floor inhabitants' souls."
Killing. That's what it meant. Fallen would have to kill to acquire souls. He didn't know how to feel about all this. Should he be happy to resurrect after each death? Should he feel relieved to be allowed to buy his sanity with other people's lives? Again, it confused him.
The Fallen sighed. "Can I do anything else with sp?"
"Of course, Fallen. You can improve your basic stats at the altar for a start."
Great, something new for a change. He thought, sarcastically. "So, basic stats?"
She sighed, appearing tired of his questioning. After repeating this speech hundreds if not thousands of times, anybody would sound like a robot or be outright bored. Even if it's been a long time since she had voiced it.
"Basic stats are strength, endurance, mana, and agility." She said, shortening her usual answer.
He nodded, with a glint of interest shining in his eye sockets. Growing stronger was appealing to him, for a known and unknown reason. It might allow him to be free of making more choices in the future. To brush past any obstacles in his way. But also because it felt… cool. Whatever that it meant, it sounded right to him.
However, Fallen just noticed her voice. It had been background noises until now because of the confusion. But the more he heard it, the closer it sounded to the voice in the void.
With his mind in shambles, Fallen tried to cling to anything that could keep his train of thoughts straight. Right now, the sound of her voice would do. He wanted, no, he needed to hear it again. And so he questioned her.
"Is killing people… right? Why was I chosen? Can I regrow my body with sp, or is there another way? What are soul points exactly? Is killing the only way to collect sp? How about innocent people, should I also kill them?"
Guardian placed her finger on his bony mouth to shut him up.
"Fallen, if you have additional questions, answers to them will come at the cost of sp. However, small talk is free, hehe."
At least she gave me a part of an answer concerning the use of sp, he thought.
Her beautiful giggle soothed his worries, but what followed worsened them.
"Now, as the idiom goes: 'practice is the best teacher'," she said, gesturing for him to begin his journey.
His brainless skull felt foggy. Questions collided in his head, creating explosions so chaotic his reasoning fell apart. A simple candle on the altar next to him, with its flame flickering in the greyness of Sanctuaire, represented his only hope.
Strangely, it seemed to call out to the Fallen. He stretched out his hand toward it, like a moth attracted to a flame, but was interrupted.
"Fallen, wait. There is one last thing you should know. The floor will completely reset once you pray at the altar or die. Well, apart from certain... details."
Fallen found her last comment a bit confusing. He wasn't sure if it was the right word, but it was the one that he had learned recently. He didn't tarry on it and quickly placed it to the back of his mind. More urgent matters and challenges awaited him.
"May your star guide your path, Fallen."
He nodded towards her and touched the candle's flame. A warm light surrounded him and rapidly closed on the skeleton, devouring his existence.