Annabella laid her hands on the artefact, closing her eyes in concentration. She felt the powerful magic within it, causing her to gasp. Something this size shouldn't be able to contain this enormous amount of mana. Mana or something else? she thought.
Feeling out the pendant, she could tell it protected the wearer and enhanced their physiological traits, far beyond anyone living on Celvar'wen.
However, this was bound to someone, and only they could benefit from it. Hard to scry, but the owner was long gone.
But there was something else, something locked in it. Annabella saw a small faint light; that beckoned her. Reaching out, she touched it-
Her breathing was laboured. Screams of horrific monsters were all around her. Everything was coloured hues of red. Her feet were deep in gore and ichor, and monsters and humanoids littered the grounds around her. In the distance, she saw a purple mountain. It was fragmented into three parts and tinged by the red sun at its peak. A false sun, she thought.
She turned her head to her right and saw a massive black-horned monster charging toward her. Her arm swung a silvered bejewelled sword uncoloured by the light and hewed the beast in two, covering her with blood and entrails. She bellowed a victory cry in words she could not understand.
She turned to someone, a boar-man in silver bejewelled plate armour holding a two-handed sword. The sword's blade was wavy, and the crossguard depicted a serpent's head; it was silvered except for the transparent jade blade.
He was not coloured by the red light emitted from the false sun, but he radiated a glow that sharpened their outline.
They both talked in a language she couldn't decipher before sprinting across broken and fragmented lands towards a gigantic pyramid-shaped mound. Their armoured boots thunderously stomped the surface. They were unhindered by the heavy armour, moving faster than any mortal should.
Annabella looked at the top of the mountain; she could see silhouettes of giant figures fighting alongside smaller winged beings. They were losing against a lanky monster with monstrously long limbs. It grabs one of the smaller beings out of the air, tearing it into two before throwing it toward them.
The upper torso landed before them with a sickening splatter; white blood spilt out onto the red, cracked ground, filling in the cavities.
Annabella recognised the winged creature on the fountain; the white being would be more significant than mampai, maybe 10 feet tall if she had their lower half... She was still alive; hurriedly, they came to her side. Annabella dropped her sword and shield, kneeling and holding the winged creature's huge hand with both.
The boar man cradled the head, speaking to the creature and was beside himself, weeping unreservedly.
The pure white glow of the angel was fading; she looked at Annabella with confusion and fear on her face. She spoke, "I... I can't feel Celvar'wen, I can't feel the flame, child, something is wrong, something is-" her face froze, limbs limp. Her body lost its glow, the skin turning a black purple hue.
Annabella could understand her! The words she spoke were not common but a mellifluous language that soothed her despite the bloody scene before her.
The boar-man said a few words, closed the angel's eyes and gently laid her head down.
The boar man spoke in the undecipherable language towards Annabella, and she nodded as if she understood. Annabella felt sorrow for the angel as she looked at its mutilated form, then rage for the monster at the top of the mound.
They continued their sprint towards the mountain, more determined to kill the beast at the peak, cutting down the monsters trying to impede them. Annabella's gaze was fixed on the red sun and the battling silhouettes.
Then the sun suddenly cracked. A chorus of screams came from the top of the mound. Annabella could see the silhouettes clutch at their faces. The cracks spread across the sky. A cold dread filled Annabella, and she stopped. The boar man charged onwards, bellowing madly with his jade sword raised, hewing the monsters before him.
The sun fragmented, and everything around it followed. The sky cracked and exploded into shards revealing nothing but a black void that sucked them in. The mountain shattered the same way; all-around reality broke into pieces. She screamed in pain as the fractures travelled from her leg to her body.
Then nothing but blackness filled her vision.