Wandering aimlessly, mindlessly through an eerie dark forest is a young boy with a dark, red jeweled ring on his finger.
purple particles seemed to be emanating from the ring, and a string of these particles seem to be weakly connecting it to...something.
Something ominous.
The further into the forest the child walked, the more strange it became.
yellowed grins and red eyes shone in the darkness beyond the shadows.
Growls, snarls, and cackles sounded from the trees and echoed through the forest.
The child noticed none of it, still unconscious from the shock of losing part of his soul. His body carried him nonetheless, following the weak string that led him deeper and deeper into the forest.
An unsettling feeling sank into his mind, nudging him, trying to wake him, trying to tell him to stop moving forward.
But he wouldn't wake.
He feet kept dragging his poor spirit forward.
Suddenly, the tree line before him parted into a massive, charred clearing with a castle that seemed to be made of glowing embers laid in the center.
Ashes and smog floated through the air.
A large amount of purple particles surged from the ring and struck at the young boy, startling him awake.
"W-where am I..?" He looked around, confused. The last thing he remembered was throwing up at the base of a tree, after all.
his hand, or rather, his ring, tugged him toward the castle.
The child attempted to struggle for a few seconds, heaving against the strong, stable force of the ring, but upon seeing the eeriness of the forest, decided against it.
"A-alright I'll obey you" he stuttered.
walking into the structure was a true experience. His feet didn't hurt as he expected them to, and it was really dark aside from the light that streamed through the mosaic.
tall scorched glass mosaic, on which the child could make out a pair of ominous eyes with dilated pupils gazing down at him.
he shuddered and continued moving into the large castle. Eventually, the ring pulled him past creaking stairs, strangely clean rooms and swinging chandeliers to a long, long corridor.
It was very well lit, floor to ceiling lined with scorched windows. At the end of the corridor was a large door, at the top of which was another, smaller semicircle mosaic of that same pair of dilated eyes from the mosaic at the entrance.
His body grew strangely cold upon seeing them.
They reminded the child of something...
Something he wanted to forget very very badly.
He pushed at the door flinchingly, slowly opening it with a very loud creak.
The door opened to a room lined with armored statues-all holding identical golden halberds and wearing intricate golden armor.
Down the center, at the end of the room, was the statue of a middle aged man with hair down to his shoulders and a scraggly beard wearing simply embroidered leather armor, and a peculiarly shaped sheath at his waist.
What was truly peculiar about this statue was the eyes. Or rather, the apparent lack of them. The eyes of the statue appeared to have been removed rather crudely with a chisel...or even brute force.
Suddenly, a those strange purple lights burst out of the ring once more, this time engulfing the entirety of the castle apart from the statues.
Before the child could even think of falling, Another flash of purple particles burst out of the ring and the child reappeared at the edge of the forest.
Back where he started.
[Malum Is Satisfied]
________________________________________________________________________________________________
[-253,-3000]
[our dear physicist.]
While this happened to the poor child, our well armored physicist has stumbled upon a full fledged city, walls towering over him, topped with gigantic wool woven banners with the sigil of a bright green sword with golden adornments. It extended to his east and west as far as he could see, and seemed to be protected by bronze and iron armored guards all over.
"018, estimate the height of these walls for me." asked our physicist, gazing up at the structure in awe.
"Estimating..." The robot calculated for a moment before replying "158 meters."
"Goodness....That's..." he started, trailing off toward the end of his sentence. "Not again..."
A small group of bronze armored guards came rushing at him, panic and wariness in their eyes.
"Who are you?!" demanded one.
"I am the physicist. I am here to trade" replies our physicist, clearly attempting to make a better impression than before.
"Why are yo- oh you already answered." The group let out a collective sigh of relief.
"Sorry for the hostility, you have to understand, it's not everyday we see someone in equipment as...." He gestured at our physicist's steel armor-coat "Prominent...as yours."
"Thanks..." he replies, slightly annoyed.
"Well, come on follow us, we'll lead you to the entrance!" says one of the guards at the back of the group.
A murmur of agreement spreads through the group, and they set off along the long wall in a very awkward silence.
"So..." started one of the guards "Where're you from? There isn't a village for ages the way you came."
"Ah...That is the village I come from." Our physicist lied through his teeth "It was attacked by infernals and endermen-I had to run to survive. I've been a wanderer ever since then..."
"Oh...I'm sorry..."
"No it's fine, it's fine. I just needed to find somewhere to start fresh y'know..."
"Yeah, yeah I get that, I get that!"
The rest of the walk was silent and uneventful.