Seir's POV -
Nothing but soul-crushing silence.
No sounds. No special phenomena.
I began to beg and grovel where I sat. My last hope was dashed.
...
I feared death the most. I had lived it before. Death settles into the body like a snake creeping up a tree; it likes to come slowly and carefully. Even in those moments of seemingly "instant" death, your mind continues to work.
When I had died before, pushed over a railing by a reckless motorbike coming by while walking on the side of a small highway, I had caught a glimpse of something unknown.
In my last moments, I faced the falling sky with my chest pierced by a sharp branch. The rain came toward me, and so did the sweltering abyss—but I had lost my umbrella. There, I was swallowed up completely.
I thought that I was scared in my last moments by all the horror films I had watched and Lovecraft I had read.
Maybe that's why I ended up in a much more fucked up world that was not so different from mine, encroached upon by various Gods, Entities, and Occurrences.
When I woke from death like a dream, the branch in my chest was gone. In a cosmic exchange, my life had been replaced with a new one.
The place I awoke was Earth, but not like I had known it.
The hypothesis of the Earth being a living thing and not an inanimate planet floating in the universe was proven correct in the year 2040, and with over-population reaching a peak number of 8.1 billion people, she had released her ancient cells to quell the number of people inhabiting her surface.
Her sweltering heat was just a fever to clear us from her system, and her ancient children moved to preserve her body.
And we were just bacteria.
Places transformed into "Coincidences" that swallowed people up to dispose of them, eaten by her children. Only the fittest would survive. Groups were formed, and people were corrupted here and there.
People fully corrupted became beasts to do her bidding, while others that held on to their humanity would be "blessed" with powers beyond previous human comprehension. Teams were formed by the first generation of corrupted, and hope finally came to the common people. At this point, only half of the population was left.
When Earth's children saw the adaptability of human beings, they became curious. Some Gods even coveted the Earth's position as the "Supreme Being." They allowed the coincidences to collapse and entered the world to gain faith and followers. They would grant their powers to those they deemed worthy.
And a century after the "Earth's Release," civilization was finally rebuilding itself.
And now I was called Seir, formerly known as Sair, and found myself in the dungeons of the Imperial City. I was initially confused upon waking the week before, as the memories in my mind were jumbled, but once clarity hit, so did panic set in.
Seir was a shaman, of sorts. A 4th generation corrupted, with weak powers inherited from her father's side. People called them soul dealers and ghost whisperers, and to be fair, the original Seir was quite a gloomy person before the combination.
While some details were still hazy, I had been imprisoned.
It only took 2 hours once the realization hit me to decide what to do.
A pact with an abyss demon.
...
Nothing but soul-crushing silence.
My desperate thoughts went unheard, and tears clouded my vision. My fingers began to grip the now-dried and bloodied papers that I had been so careful with just minutes before. The loss of blood and anger were rushing to my head in a wave of dizziness.
Pure agony roamed in my mind, and I was unable to see through my tears as I fell into a state of melancholy.
Seir's—my—last trump card had finally failed.
Abyss demon records could only be chanced upon, and never bought with money, and Seir had been that lucky.
Her family, as seers, made their living through grave robbing. They were vultures, but they were lucky vultures. Seir was courageous and powerful, very different from me who grew up in a safe, law-abiding society.
In the last tomb her family had ever robbed together, she had stumbled upon a nook hidden behind a sarcophagus, just small enough for her skinny hand to slip through. Inside she found a scroll with a single sentence in ancient script followed by an illustration.
Instantly, information was transferred to the former Seir's head. In my head.
ⱧØ₩ ₮Ø ฿Ɽł₦₲ ₥Ɇ ฿₳₵₭
And then she knew. She didn't tell a soul, not even her father.
And now I sat there, summon failed.
Shhh
A whisper like a grassy field sounded in my ear. But I still cried. A cold hand brushed across my back, stifling my breath in my chest.
"Be still... I am here."
I was greeted with the face of a human man.
"How did you come in!? Where were you hiding?!"
Newspapers flew as I scrambled back, caught in the act of summoning as a known seer, and there were sure to be consequences that I couldn't afford in my current state.
"..."
"Were you watching me!?"
"... ..."
"... If you tell a soul I'll haunt you in this place—"
I was interrupted by a hearty laugh.
"You were the one who called for me, Seir. Tell me, what do you need?"
The papers on the wall and floor began to burn without smoke or fire, leaving no traces. The room's light flickered on and off, and the current view I had of the man in front of me began to distort.
"I am Ephanuel."