It was just another normal day in Atraxia
The suns sent red Solarium flares to the Sunseekers as the moon occasionally sent down moonstones to the devotees of the Moonwatchers alongside the star dust sent to the Stargazers
Painting the skies in speckles of red in the day and white in the night, the world sea's continued to ebb and surge as the wings blew across the world with the blessings of the elemental Gods.
Ancient beings of all wakes of life intermingled with the populace, to none the wiser as they acted like any other.
Guardians of old guarded bastions of the past, standing stalwart against the sands of time.
Just another normal day amongst the denizens of Atraxia.
But today, that normality was destined to be interrupted.
The skies suddenly darkened as the clouds covered the eyes of the sun and moon and the stars.
The winds surged as the descendants of the roc felt what was to come, warning all those who came in contact with them.
The earth rumbled as the guardians awakened one by one, white eyes scanning their surroundings.
The seas quickly ebbed as they retreated from the shores as the flames lighting the pyres of volcanoes quickly dimmed in fear.
Ancient beings once in a slumber woke up one by one as they sensed the beginning of the new age.
And in the middle of a white tower surrounded by nothing, an aged figure opened their blinding white eyes staring at the white orb that the tower orbited.
Wrinkles covering their face, their white cloak intersped with black lines revealed a scarred body that was taut with muscle as silvery hair fell down their back.
Eyes gleaming with an experience that could only be seen with several years, their parched lips opened. "The end of times..."
Several white eyes opened up all over the interior of the tower.
"It has come."
Staring at the white orb, the figure directed their eyes to the surrounding blackness.
"Awaken the rest of the Void keepers"
The figure stepped towards the impending darkness.
"I fear the invasion of the Other world has begun"
---
Tristan Parsifal was unlike anyone else in the world, shamelessly narcissistic when it comes to his own looks, someone who would actually jump off of a cliff if his friends did so and someone who may or may not try new things if pushed around enough.
This has lead to the previous will incident alongside the previous popular girl incident that had occurred underneath the influence of a very old cache of dubiously clean wine.
And by dubiously clean, the wine was found underneath the house of a friend that undergoing renovations, revealing an ice cold basement filled to the brim with expensive wines.
But anyways, Tristan felt as if he was under the influence of unhealthy amounts of alcohol again.
The 30% alcohol content seemed to be doing numbers on him.
Staring wide eyed at his surroundings, an ethereal white veil covered his eyes as he vaguely made out his surroundings.
Black shadows flitted about in small flocks as they streaked across his vision like gunshots, disappearing into the distance only to be replaced by more of them.
White mist giving way, they slowly revealed a hardwood floor with an incredibly grainy feel to it, as if someone had turned down the saturation and video quality to 144p.
Black shadows flitting about suddenly and erratically, they just as quickly disappeared as a small shadow appeared at the edges of his vision, staying in place unlike the other shadows that seemed to have stopped appearing.
Turning his attention to the shadow, it slowly enlarged, getting closer and closer to him before revealing itself before him.
A light blue hand, followed by a black and gold tailored doublet.
Bare feet slapping against the grainy floor boards, beige sand colored petticoat breeches walked forwards.
A bare chest adorned by a dark blue spider like scar, it's jagged limbs hugged their body as the clothes on their body followed a unique form of physics.
And finally, the face of the woman who had deigned to grace him with their presence that seemed to belong to a ruler,
Carrying themselves with a grace that couldn't be emulated by someone who didn't know what it was like to carry the lives of others on their shoulders, a beautiful woman's body came in front of him.
And why would he say that it was a beautiful woman without describing her face?
Well how could he describe a face with the lack thereof a face? You can't describe something that didn't exist although the blue line of cracks glowing a cyan glow looked like a very pretty necklace.
'...Oh what am I thinking, this woman looks like someone had just put her through the french revolution.'
|You|
'It sounds like she did fine though.'
Listening to the silky voice that sounded downright ethereal with the amount of echo it generated, Tristan was caught off guard with what she said next.
|Make a deal with me.|
'Wait what?'
Making a grabbing motion, Tristan felt his body fly towards her swiftly as he lost control over his body as she grasped his neck.
|Hmm? What is with this soul strength?|
'What the fuck is happening.'
Tristan didn't exactly know since it was all going to fast, but it was something about making a deal with his body? Maybe?
Not that he could understand, but if the internet had taught him anything about deals with the body this could go several ways.
One was the naughty route which could be understood with a glance.
The other one was just pure cannibalism.
And the final one was slavery if that made sense since possession was way out of his league since it was black magic.
'Oh wait... I don't think she could survive without a head it it wasn't for magic...'
Well it seemed that possession was back on the menu, a menu which he preferred didn't exist, but oh well.
'Maybe even resurrection if possession is on the menu' Entertaining those thoughts, Tristan slowly tried to understand just what in the hell was happening.
'On that note, what did she say again?'
|This can go two ways.|
The headless woman raised two fingers as the hold on his neck slowly tightened to the point that he started to feel light headed
|One, you submit to me and I shall grant your wish.|
A magnificent aura that bordered on something holy appeared before him as lights seemingly turned on inside of his brain, blinding his senses as he instinctively felt his body weaken in her grip, begging to kneel.
Not that it was happening while he was being strangled in a way that was starting to feel good with the aura she was giving off.
'Oh god I'm turning into a freak.'
|Two, you disappear into the ether and I shall make it as if this conversation had never existed in the first place|
The holy aura swiftly turned around into it's direct opposite as his body shivered and instinctively weakened again and begged to kneel but for a different reason this time.
|So what'll it be Traveler? Life? Or Death?|
'...'
'...Oh am I supposed to speak now?'
Awkwardly feeling the smooth porcelain like hand clasping at his neck, Tristan didn't know what to say.
A part of that had to do with the fact that he was way to flustered to form coherent thoughts, but the other part mostly had to do with the hand cutting off his ability to speak as it was all reserved for breathing.
And perhaps noticing this fact, the woman loosened her grip on his neck but still kept tight hold on it as he hung above the ground.
On that note, she was a very tall woman.
'But... what am I supposed to choose?'
On one hand, he didn't even know what was happening since he had just died.
Like was this some sort of ritual he had to follow? And if so, which type of religion was this?
Hell, by now he wasn't even sure that he was dead since this was so surreal.
And maybe he took to long, but the woman holding him up by the neck slowly tightened their grip around his neck causing Tristan's long lost business sense to start acting up again.
'Ah fuck Tristan, remember what she just said so you can make a decision!'
Hurriedly cursing himself out as his neck slowly became more and more devoid of oxygen, he recalled the past few sentences that this woman had just spoken with his own conjectures.
'A deal, but what deal!? Cannibalism? No, she said I'll live or die, so no cannibalism.'
'Naughty stuff isn't possible since I've lost the body to do the deed with.'
The grip around his neck tightened causing Tristan to hurry up his thoughts if that made sense.
'PossessionOrResurrection?OnlyOneOfTheTwoMakesSenseInThisContext.'
'IHaveNoBodySoPossessionIsOutOftheDeal,ThatOnlyLeavesOneThingLeft.'
'She wants to resurrect me!' Finally reaching that conclusion in meer seconds thanks to his death threatened mind, he quickly continued along that train of thought.
'Why does she want to resurrect me?' A flash of insight struck his mind as the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. 'She wants something.'
Tapping the hand clasped around his neck, the hand held onto it released its vice grip allowing oxygen to finally reach his brain.
"HAA-ah?" Hurriedly trying to take in a deep breath of air, Tristan belatedly realized that he could breath perfectly fine all this time.
"..."
|So have you made your decision mortal?|
Flopping onto the ground and coughing as he massaged his sore neck, Tristan awkwardly stared up at the headless woman as they shoved their hand in front of him.
|Take my hand if you desire to live again, decline it, and you shall merge into the ether reaching permanent death.|
"Yes Ma'am" smiling lightly as he moved his hand besides hers, he just as quickly slapped her hand away.
The woman in front of him emanated a dangerous aura as they looked at their hand that had just been slapped away.
|...Perhaps I wasn't clear enough, if you decline my offer you shall disappear into the ether and fall deep into the pits of hell.|
"And if you aren't stupid, then you would know that I had just declined your offer lady."
Massaging his neck and slapping away the hand a second time, Tristan slowly stood up once again and cleared his throat.
"In fact, I was hoping to fully understand this deal that you want me to follow through with, My mother always told me that you can't make a deal without understanding the terms."
A glint flashed through Tristan's azure blue eyes.
"And I intend to follow through on my mother's words."
He put out his hand in front of the stunned woman a head taller than him.
"So tall headless lady, can we negotiate terms?"
Silence befell the white veil around him as the veil itself seemed to freeze from the absurdity that Tristan had just spouted.
It seemed as if several hundreds of eyes locked onto him at the same time as they silently pressured him for the crazed decision he had just done.
And as the one subject to all of these stare's even a the shadows around him froze in place eyeing him like a madman, Tristan gave zero fucks.
Since he already died, Tristan didn't give a damn on what happened next.
Whether he die permanently from the wrath of this lady or he lives again in a world that may just be the desperate conjurations of his mind, the end result were only two things.
He lives or he dies.
And since he had already died, might as well bet on his survival.
|You dare negotiate terms?|
An echoey voice resounded all around him as the spider scarred woman stood in front of him in a daze.
|You. Want to negotiate terms?|
The words to absurd to be angry at came to Tristan's mind as he gave a calm smile to the woman who's body looked as if they could grind cheese and melt butter.
|Hah.|
The woman gave a disbelieving laugh as they stared at Tristan as if they were seeing an internet sensation on the level of Harambe.
|Do you know what the end is like? It's eternal damnation as you burn in the fires of hell!|
His business senses forged by the fires of his parents tingled as he caught onto her words that had contradicted themselves.
"Didn't you just say I would disappear into nothingness? Since when did it change to me being burned in the fires of hell?"
|...| The woman fell silent as the aura around their body fluctuated, a stream of chaotic thoughts flowing through their head.
But before they could form a coherent train of thought, Tristan pressed the initiative.
"Tell me pretty lady" Smiling a smile that didn't quite reach the eyes, his voice dropped "You want something from me."
|...| Even more silence as they subtly took a step back.
Something that Tristan caught immediately.
"And although I don't know what it is that you want, I do know that it's important enough for you to want to make a forceful deal with a mortal"
Emphasising the word mortal, Tristan gave a small smile as the woman in front of him stayed silent.
"So then lady, let's try this deal again and introduce ourselves."
Holding out his hand and moving forwards, the headless woman took a step backwards.
Blue eyes twinkling as the instinct forcefully engraved by his mother filled his body with the euphoria unique to making a deal, he spoke slowly.
"The names Tristan Parsifal, a man who has something you want, what's yours pretty lady?"
|...|
The headless woman stared at Tristan in disbelief as their body froze at the absurdity of it all.
Just mere moments before, she definitely held the initiative.
Holding the boy in front of her by the neck and about to fulfil her desires, the next thing she knew the roles were reversed and she was now at the mercy of the boy in front of her.
And the worst thing?
She actually did want something from Tristan.
Something that she couldn't fulfil otherwise without the unknown boys help.
'Fuck.'
Cursing in her mind, she unwillingly took his hand, her hand encapsulating his own.
|My name is Era, the Spirit of Freedom and fallen deity of the sea.|
+++
There are no diamonds in the rough, only unpolished gems that fit into different sockets.
Tree