Surrounded by a seemingly endless forest, an eye-catching dirt trail seemed to stand out. A frail teenager stood there with his jaw hung loose in bewilderment.
His disturbingly skinny arms dangled from his sides with a loose long sleeve shirt that was dark in color hiding his slender arms. His face was sharp, his hollow cheeks and sharp jaw complimenting the pitch-black eyes the youngster possessed that seemed to resonate with coldness.
His long and dark disheveled hair hung loose from his head. Standing at a towering figure of five-foot-five he believed himself to be relatively tall in height although others might not agree.
As clarity seemed to bring him back to reality or at least to this reality, Enyo's eyes seemingly began to shine.
'What the hell does that mean?' Enyo questioned himself seemingly unable to understand the implications.
'Wait that doesn't even matter right now.'
Thinking back to what had just occurred he needed to collect his thoughts as quickly as he could so he could decide on how to handle this current situation.
'First things first, I'm aware that by jumping through that gate like a madman I seemed to have been transported to the other plane. The other plane is where people seem to ignite their souls and gain special abilities.'
Enyo was not aware of much since he lived quite a reclusive life and did not pay any attention to the current happenings of the world. He received no education and since these anomalies only occurred in the world around the time his mother gave birth to him it was not something that was completely understood by most people, still he cursed himself for not trying to learn more about this place.
Even now though there seemed to be many mysteries surrounding the esoteric world he was in. Although he did know some extremely common knowledge that was frequently talked about by others no matter their status.
First of all, he was aware that the people who were forced into this plane and survived for the time limit given to them seemed to receive a soul card at the end. He was a little clueless as to what a soul card was, but he knew it must be some type of item or weapon if he was fortunate enough.
He knew that the system that displayed the previous messages to him was meant to help him once he survived and ignited his soul. It was supposedly a trusted aid that gave sparks information on their powers and the soul cards they possessed.
Although the system seemed to serve no purpose other than displaying a time limit during someone's first visit to this place. Meaning the user interface couldn't be utilized at all right now. He had also heard a rumor about systems apparently having a type of personality though he was unsure if it was unfounded.
Enyo knew that once he survived, he would become one of those people who had ignited their souls and entered the spark level. The only problem was, would he survive?
He was also aware of one other disturbing fact. This new plane seemed to home many creatures that others liked to call Corrupted.
These creatures supposedly littered most parts of the new plane leaving a very small number of habitable places for humans. He was unsure of their strength, but he did know one thing. He was incapable of killing even a single one of these creatures by himself right now.
He possessed no weapon and entered this world completely unprepared. He also would not possess any powers until the completion of his current survival mission.
'Come on. Even the ignited are wary of entering this world.' How would he survive any danger he came across when he was just an average human?
'No, I can't give up already. I'm going to survive using the only method I can think of. I'm going to find a place to hide.'
With that shameless thought Enyo began the treacherous walk along the trail. As he warily walked through the densely packed forest, he would occasionally hear howls from different sides of him.
Minutes upon minutes seemed to pass as he walked through the forest sporting a wary expression, deciding to fasten his current pace he seemed to resemble a frightened ant that was wary of everything in its way.
Only a few minutes after he began his quicker pace along the trail, he sensed something. From the corner of his eye, he saw a dark grey figure stalking him from behind a tree only a few meters away.
This figure was short in height and seemed to resemble a type of wolf if not for the fact that when Enyo met the eyes of this predator, he seemed to meet more than just two eyes. This Corrupted he had chanced upon seemed to have six eyes on its head with a thick layer of fur covering its bulky figure. Resisting the urge to shiver, Enyo turned to his right.
"Just my luck." He breathed out as he ditched the dirt trail and began rushing through the lush forest as fast as he possibly could. Pushing himself to the extreme he dodged past thick trees and different vegetation on the forest floor whilst he made a bid to escape the corrupted.
"Shit that thing is so scary! Why does it have to look like that" he cried.
Taking a look back he seemed to have noticed that it was not only terrifying, but it was also very fast. It seemed this wolf like corrupted was an exceptional predator too.
The creature continued to gain on Enyo as he ran through the alien terrain under his feet. Suddenly up in the distance Enyo found his escape route.
"Another river" He cursed under his breath.
It was his only choice though. Still running through the forest, he slowly came closer to the river. Whilst the corrupted came even closer to him.
Moments later, it had seemed as if years had passed by to Enyo, but he had finally reached the river. One jump was all he needed now, but as he placed his right foot on the ground and pushed off his vision turned somewhat blurry.
He was dumbfounded! At that crucial moment the creature seemed to have come close enough to strike him. Propelling him even further into the river with four gashes protruding from his previously covered skeleton backside.
The monster's razor claws left a shallow but devastating mark on him.
Thrown into the river Enyo had no time to react as he was pulled away by the fast-moving current. Struggling to stay afloat as he flipped multiple times and was mercilessly drowned by the river as he tried to gasp for air. It seemed endless.
An unknown amount of time was spent struggling until finally, he was in the air. Gasping the fresh air in, he felt relief until he came to a realization, 'In the air?'
Opening his water devastated eyes, he realized what was happening. Currently he was in quite a funny position as he ungracefully flipped through the air heading straight towards a deep-water source below.
"A lake!" He yelled through bated breath.
After splashing into the water and flipping a few more times he composed himself and readily swam towards the sky.
When his head breached the water line a magnificent view of a waterfall came into sight! But he couldn't even appreciate the view. Turning his body quickly, he rushed to swim towards the rocky shore that surrounded the lake.
Pulling himself ashore, he felt as if his back was ripping apart. He sat on the rocks trying to catch his breath after such an eventful experience. Moving his hands to brush past the wounds on his back he felt the claw marks punctured into him like a tattoo.
There was a lot of blood, but it seemed as if it was only a shallow wound and would not end up life threatening.
"That's definitely going to leave a scar." He groaned in pain. "Although I reckon it'll look pretty cool." He smiled to himself for a brief moment before the pain seemed to wipe the smile from his face.
He needed to do something about it now lest he die from an infection or blood loss after escaping that corrupted.
"That would be royal."
Saying so he ripped off his torn shirt and exposed a bleeding back. An intricate tattoo sat along his right shoulder and upper arm. Along his left shoulder down to his torso ran a deep scar that he seemed to have acquired in the past. Looking down at that old scar brought a bad memory to his mind.
Shaking his head and pushing those memories back he began to focus on the newly formed wound.
He didn't need to be thinking about his stupid older brother right now. Everything that happened was necessary. He was dead now so there was no point in thinking of it. Seemingly agreeing to his own made-up excuse, he began to wrap his torn shirt around his chest and back area. Tying it tightly to put pressure on the wound.
He seemed to have stopped most of the bleeding. Satisfied with that, Enyo took a moment to look up and finally focus on the system message again.
"Survive"
"Countdown: 42:34"
It seemed as if his strange quest had been stored away for now.
Breathing a heavy sigh Enyo looked away.
"Still a lot of time to go." He told himself aloud.
Right now, he believed that this rocky shore based around this waterfall was a relatively safe space since he could see around thirty meters behind himself before the trees once again began to litter the area. There was nothing in this area that seemed to be alive, thankfully.
Looking forward though, Enyo scrutinized the rock wall behind the waterfall. It covered the entire length of the waterfall and some, but what caught his attention was not this ordinary wall but the cave-like entrance that seemed to stick out of the side like a sore thumb.
Curiosity had always gotten the better of Enyo. Or was it greed? This cave might have something good in it. Although he knew nothing about this world, he had always imagined caves containing great treasures.
Shrugging his shoulders, he seemed indecisive as to what was making him feel drawn to this oddly placed cave. Thinking it over though he decided it would be best if he were to sit here and recuperate for a little while before he was to do anything rash.