Where he found himself had taught Aris a new meaning of the word dark. If he couldn't hear the scrape of his feet against the ground, Aris would have thought that he was floating through space. He was unsure of where he was, but he was certain that it wasn't the scene depicted in the leaked photo. There were no green fields or white clouds, no monstrous black tower ruling over the horizon. And everything smelt like burnt meat, the acrid smell staining his perception. Rocks threatened to sweep his feet from under him if his concentration lapsed, seemingly scattered randomly around the floor. Aris stumbled into something that resembled a mossy wall. Happy to have something to ground him to his current existence, he slumped down against the wall, hugging his knees to his chest as he decided on a course of action.
"Okay, okay…. Clearly, I've been sent somewhere that no one else has. Unless I'm dead, but in that case there's not much that I can do about my current predicament." Thought Aris. "What was that voice before? It said something about a trigger? And that I wasn't selected… Is that why there is no one else here?"
Aris sagged backwards against the wall, appreciating the warmth that radiated off it. It reminded him of a stray dog that he'd met during his time on the street, who had shared his shelter from the rain in return for his company. He wondered where that dog had ended up.
"Probably somewhere better than here."
A piercing shriek shattered the silence, a noise like steam escaping from an old locomotive engine. The wall behind him shuddered and began to move, as if it were rolling away from him. Aris fell backwards and yelped. The movement stopped suddenly.
And like a pinprick, fear began to seep into Aris' mind. He started to wonder why the wall had been so warm. A massive, glowing red eye slowly blinked open, bathing his surroundings a crimson hue. Aris dropped flat like a sack against the ground. He stifled a groan as he saw that the rocks that he had been stumbling over were in reality an assortment of bones; crushed, splintered, cracked or intact. He'd caught a glimpse of a giant thing, its fur bloodied and matted. It seemed to vaguely resembled a bear, only much bigger. Whatever this horrific creature was, it didn't subscribe to the idea of a vegetarian diet, and clearly had the muscle to decimate hundreds of carcasses with ease. The red glow passed over Aris, and dimmed as the creature closed its eyes, huffing as it settled back into its slumber. Aris breathed out as slowly as he could, frantically trying to come up with a plan. The light hadn't revealed much of the area, much less an exit, so running would only get him killed faster. There was a chance that he could sneak away quietly, but something stopped him from getting up; the creature seemed too fearsome to have simply fallen asleep after being disturbed. He suspected that it knew something had intruded on its territory, whatever it was, and was waiting for a prime moment to strike.
What he needed a weapon. He had nothing on him.
"Maybe one of the splintered bones?"
No. Considering the monster's size, a bone would barely be sharp enough to scratch its hide.
"Think Aris, think." He closed his eyes, willing for a solution to come. He had survived for this long in the world on his lonesome, what was one more monster that he had to deal with. That said, the people who he would have called monsters back in the city didn't have blood-red eyes and they certainly weighed less than a pickup truck.
"That voice before… Didn't it say something about a skill?" Aris knew that he was grasping at straws. Hanging onto the idea that a disembodied robotic voice would bestow some unbelievable skill to him seemed daft, but stranger things had happened today.
"Skill… On?" He thought. "Activate?".
Nothing.
"Skills open."
More nothing.
"Yeah, I'm a moron. What did I expect, some fantasy superpower that would miraculously get me out of this situation? Get a grip…"
Thinking of one more thing to try, Aris figured that one more foolish try couldn't hurt his pride any more.
"System." As soon as the thought formulated in Aris mind, he felt his mind being sucked away from his body in a vacuum. And suddenly, he was floating around in a great white orb, unable to tell up from down.
"Welcome, Last Light." The same robotic voice rung out from earlier. "Current action is not advised. Danger present nearby."
"Yeah no crap lady." Snapped Aris. "Who are you, and can you help me get out of this mess alive?"
The voice made no reply, but shortly after, an old leather bound book appeared in the middle of the orb, floating alongside him. Stretching out to grab it, Aris finally clawed his fingers around the edge of the spine before ripping it towards him. There was no title or markings to describe the book's contents from its exterior. Opening it, Aris saw the first page had printed in large, elegant letters, Last Light. He wondered why the voice, or the system if that's what it was called, kept referring to him as that.
Flipping the page again, there was a summary of its contents.
[Titles]
[Weapons]
[Abilities]
[Blessings]
[Curses]
[Special]
Intrigued, but too busy to look into each further, he flicked immediately to weapons.
"Come on, come on. Just give me something to kill this thing with." He mumbled under his breath. There was only one listing on the page.
[Lightning Dance]
Grows in strength and lightness with each enemy slain, feeding on the light within their souls. Unparalleled in ferocity, this blade will take on the form most suited to its user. Damages the opponent's soul with each strike.
[Current souls: 0]
"I can work with that. Ah… System? Get me out of here."
"Exiting pocket dimension."
With a flash, Aris landed back on the cold stone floor amid the bones. The creature stirred, the ground quaking at its movements. Against every grain of his being, Aris rolled sideways towards the monster, hoping that this plan wasn't insane. As he rammed into the wall of fur, he screamed as clearly as he could muster, thrusting his empty hands towards the beast.
"Lightning Dance!"
A crackle of electricity ran down his arm as a blinding white blade appeared in his hand, sinking deep into the creature's flesh. Howling, the beast tried to rise, but its enormous black limbs seemed to be devoid of strength. Aris thought for a split second that he could see its lifeforce wisping across the surface of its body, being channelled into the blade.
He could see the creature clearly now from the light of the blade. It took the shape of a hulking bear, as he had suspected, but with terrible differences. The eyes were crimson fire, they seemed to burrow deep into Aris' soul. Its mouth was jagged and warped, with more teeth and mangled flesh than any normal creature. Its skin was black, covered in a blood-matted fur that had been ripped off in chunks around its body. Muscles rippled under its skin, like a twined rope, knotted and taught. Two horns spewed forth on its head, a twisted black crown adorning its terror. It looked like a demon that had taken the flesh of an animal and twisted it until it was unrecognisable.
Dark blood poured out the side of the beast as its last part of life drained out of it with a whimper, coating Aris in black bile and blood.
He had gotten lucky. His roll had positioned him directly under the creature's heart, granting him a shot at a single lethal blow. He doubted that he would have survived otherwise. Or so he had thought. Looking closer, a tiny red ball that matched the glowing eyes showed through the gash in the beast's thick hide. After thinking for a second, Aris grabbed it, wiping it clean on what was left of his shirt, and gently placed the orb in his pocket. He had no clue what it was, but it seemed valuable on a personal level, like a trophy that he had worked so hard to get.
Panting from the entire ordeal, Aris felt hot tears streaming down his face as he knelt beside the slumped monster, channelling through the blood that smothered his face. He didn't feel sadness, but they kept flowing. In truth, he didn't feel much of anything at that moment. On a whim, he stood, picking up his blade, and stumbled off in a random direction, leaving the corpse in his wake to be bathed in absolute darkness, entombed amongst the boneyard of corpses.