The Nightmare.
A blight upon the universe that had been unleashed in a era long past, with its origins being linked to the death of the god of creation, Empyrion.
The blight itself perverted even the fundamental laws of existence, whether it were time or space, and corrupted the souls of those that came into contact with it, sentencing them to a eternity of servitude to the one who killed Empyrion, Rymgrand the Tyrant.
Over the countless years, the Nightmare had expanded and engulfed most of the universe, and as entire planets, stars and black holes fell into the black waters and were consumed, it grew faster and faster, accelerating the cycle of despair.
Our planet was, as the astronomers predicted a dozen years ago, probably the last celestial object left in the known universe, if not the universe itself.
Worse still, most of the planet had already sunk into the waters of oblivion, having swept away most of humanity. Right now, as far as the eye could see, the black waters had formed a bubble around us, looming ever so dreadfully. And on the small Isle that used to be a mountain, the last few humans were trying to continue their pitiful existence.
The supplies were running dangerously low, and they would not last us any longer than a few more days with the already frugal rationing. Worse still, the men in the surroundings had started openly showing their gazes filled with lust when they looked at my body, with me being the only girl out of the 8 of us.
Thats why I was hiding next to a withered tree near the black water, so that if anyone tried anything...
"Mom... Dad... Please tell me this is all a nightmare..." the girl, without any sort of lights in her possession, started crying, the faint sobbing noise resounding throughout the all encompassing darkness.
"Erina..." a faint voice echoed in the darkness, sounding strangely female.
'But i am the only girl here?', confused she looked up and started trying to make out anything she could. Slowly, her eyes adapted to the darkness, and she saw a silhouette.
Out of the black waters, she saw a womans figure protruding, with her spotless white skin, that gave off a faint glow, making her slightly more visible in the darkness. As for other specifics, she couldn't really make out anything.
But none of that mattered.
As soon as she realized the woman was in contact with the waters while seemingly unharmed, without breaking down and starting to scream like so many other humans did, did her alarm bells ring out louder than ever, reminding her that that thing was not human.
Jumping up, she tried running away from whatever that was, not daring to look behind her.
Whoosh!
Yet a sound rapidly approached her from behind.
"ERINAAAAAAAA!" the voice resounded next to her ear. As the sound passed through her body, Erina froze up in dread.
With tears in her eyes, she guessed this would be how she would meet her end. She collapsed and awaited the inevitable end.
Suddenly, the sound stopped, before it rapidly distanced itself from her. The roar of the woman resounded once more, yet this time it contained boundless fear.
"LET ME GO, LET ME GO, I HAV-!"
And finally, a splashing sound was heard.
Silence.
After what felt like an eternity, she mustered up her courage and stood up, her legs still shaking. Slowly, she turned around, and gazed upon the dead forest. There was nothing else besides dead trees and rocks as far as the eye could see.
Slowly, she collected herself, before heading in the direction of the camp to warn the others of the thing she encountered.
As soon as she saw the comforting light of the lanterns in the distance, she accelerated her pace, wanting to get away from the endless darkness.
Yet no sooner did she enter the camp did another scream resound, this time it was from the man in charge of the camp. Turning to the direction of Alex's scream, she saw him near a corner of the camp.
Alex, collapsed on the ground, pointed his finger at her.
"She's corrupted! SHE'S CORRUPTED!!!" he repeated those words. Soon, the others in the camp arrived due to the screaming, and upon seeing her state, they also put on frightened expressions.
"NO! I'm not corrupted, there was a scary thing that-" wanting to explain herself, she wanted to point at the area where she was nearly killed. Yet as soon as she lifted her hand, she saw a faint line of darkness undulating under her skin. To the others, starting from her hand, it currently reached all the way until her neck, and spread out all over her back and legs.
"The... No..."
"Please leave the camp, youre corrupted already, you're already a lost cause. Sacrifice yourself to the black waters so that they may not spread their influence here." one of the older men in the camp said that.
"Yeah get out you evil thing!"
"Begone foul thing!"
"Go away!"
Under the frightened gazes of the men in the camp, I slowly left this area, with more tears pouring out of my eyes.
As I walked to the waters once more, I started hearing unknown whispers in my ear, one of the certain signs of corruption. Looking at the black waters, and remembering the twisted expressions of those who came into contact with it, I was deathly afraid.
Yet I was more afraid of what I would turn into if I didn't walk in there. I was afraid of killing of the last few humans by my own hand. Of ending the last lights of humanity.
Slowly, I walked to the edge of the waters with black tears streaming down my face. One more step and I would be in direct contact with them.
And as I was hesitating to take that last step, I saw more and more heads peak out of the waters. Some of them were human, some of them were not, yet the one thing all those pairs of eyes had in common was that they eyed me like hungry wolves.
Slowly, under the excited gazes of the things, I took the first step into the waters... Towards my watery grave.
Countless memories flowed into my head the moment I stepped into the waters, causing a unimaginable amounts of pain. Some of the memories were human, some were from animals, and yet others were from alien species.
Like that, my consciousness slowly faded away under the storm of memories, while I recall the things from the waters jumping out and charging at me with excited expressions.
Yet the last thing I recalled before my consciousness faded was a rage filled shout coming from the depths of the universe.
"HOW DARE YOOOUUUUUUUU!!!"
RUMBLE!