Nothingness. A vast, suffocating abyss stretched beyond comprehension. No sky. No ground. Just an endless void pressing in from all directions. A silence so complete, it swallowed even the concept of time.
And then awareness.
A consciousness stirred, fragmented and disoriented. Thoughts drifted like shattered echoes, colliding and reforming in a chaotic dance.
Who am I?
Where am I?
No memories. No body. Only existence, floating weightlessly in the inky blackness.
Then, a voice.
It didn't echo it rippled through the void, vast and ancient, carrying a weight that pressed against the very fabric of reality.
"You should not exist."
A shiver passed through the consciousness an impossible reaction for something without form. The voice wasn't merely speaking; it was judging.
What do you mean? The thought formed, but there was no mouth to utter it. No voice to respond. Just silence endless, suffocating.
And then
A shift. A fracture in the abyss. The void itself seemed to recoil as a presence emerged, blinding in its intensity. It was not light, yet it illuminated everything. It was not heat, yet it burned. It was watching.
"You were not meant to be here."
Here?
Where is here?
No answer came, only a sudden, wrenching pull. A force unlike anything imaginable. Reality ripped. The abyss collapsed inward.
Then
Light.
Blinding, searing, all-consuming.
And for the first time pain.
A weight crushed down, air rushed in, lungs burned. Lungs. A gasp tore through the silence. Breath. A heartbeat, wild and frantic. A body.
Fingers clawed at the ground solid ground. A flood of sensations crashed in all at once: damp earth beneath him, the scent of moss and rain, the distant murmur of water. Cold wind bit into his skin.
I'm alive.
But…
No memories. No identity. Just the raw knowledge of existing when he should not.
Then, the voice returned not from the void, but from within.
"You are a mistake."
The words sent a cold chill down his spine. His breath came in ragged gasps as he forced himself to look up.
A vast, ruined temple stretched before him, its towering pillars cracked and worn by time. Strange symbols glowed faintly along the stone floor, pulsing with eerie energy. Beyond the ruins, a dense forest loomed, the trees whispering in an unnatural stillness.
His hand instinctively reached for his head, his mind spiraling with a single, unrelenting thought.
Who am I?
And more terrifyingly
What am I?
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Something stirs within the ruins. A presence watches. The first trial begins…