Chapter 2: Fear

  I woke up surrounded by darkness.

  I couldn't feel the the ground beneath my feet, but It didn't feel like I was falling.

  I stayed there, floating in the abyss.

  'The pain felt soo real, I guess it really was a dream.'

  "Hahah, what a horrible dream"

  Everything that's happening isn't possible, to first be inside of a forest and then be in the middle of nowhere floating without a body.

  '.....'

  Despite believing it was a dream, I couldn't just act normal.

  I still remember everything, all the bites, being ripped apart, all the pain, all the fear.

  I didn't want to get up, I didn't want to figure out where I was, I wanted to stay still. I wanted to rest.

  As I floated through the abyss, I felt a warming presence enveloping me. Slowly, all around me turned into this light glow of gold.

  Suddenly it became so bright I couldn't see.

  After the light dim a little, I could see that I was in a cathedral.

  To the sides there was hundreds and thousands of empty seats.

  The light coming from the stained glass window was a faint morning light. It was a mirage of colors, like a rainbow.

  The stained glass windows had a depiction of a Shepard hearding his sheep.

  The air around me felt soft despite having no body to feel.

  It was like all the pain I felt was gone, I didn't feel fear, anxiety.

  A voice suddenly called out "Child"

  It was soothing low voice.

  I look ahead and saw an angel.

  There I saw a man white robes. He was the shape of a man but seem to be made up entirely of light.

  "You seemed to be in pain" the angel said. "I hope being here can soothe your worrys"

  I only stared at him

  'He's, an angel' I thought in disbelief

  "Tell me what has been bothering you" the angel asked

  The feeling of being in this cathedral was comforting, hypnotic even!

  "I.......I don't know what's happening" I said.

  This is a dream, so I should be allowed to vent, right?!

  "I suddenly found myself in this forest, there was someone else. But but they were killed by this monster."

  I started to tear up

  "That monster was trying to kill me, and then i.......I was eaten.....it......it was...."

  By this point I was start up crying. I couldn't hold it in anymore.

  "It hurted so much. I I-" I didn't know what to say. Words couldn't describe what I felt.

  "Don't worry child, your safe now." The angel said "don't worry, no one can hurt you anymore"

  "Child, would you like a hug?" He asked

  " ..... "

  I didn't even respond, I just started walking towards him.

  'I hated the forest, even if it was a dream I wanted to live. I wanted to survive...but this is nice.'

  I was about to hug him until something inside me told me to stop.

  'Stop, why should I stop?'

  I ignored this gut feeling and hugged the angel anyway.

  "Thank you" I said.

  "....." the angel was slient

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  "No thank you for being so stupid" the angel finally said in the most demonic voice I ever heard.

  The angel began to hold me tight, almost crushing me, everything began to change.

  The cathedral slowly became a room of flesh. It was like the cathedral was becoming a stomach

  From the top of the stomach, acid stated to fall.

  The 'angel' become this black figure with a disfigured face. Screaming, the 'angel' said, "Did you think you could eat a part of me and go unscathed. You Fucking Bastard. I'm going to take your soul and torture you for all entirety!!!"

  This wasn't an angel. That much was obvious now.

  "Let go" I shouted.

  I squirmed but couldn't escape, it was futile.

  Slowy the stomach room was closing in on itself.

  'Damn, no no NO. I not gonna die, I don't want to suffer anymore'

  Unlike like before, I was beyond desperate, I was crazy, I fought like a mad man trying escape his grasp despite it being futile.

  I fought and struggled until something strange happened. Suddenly I burst into flames.

  "Aaaaah" the 'angel' screamed as he let go.

  I didn't let this opportunity slide, I ran like hell. I ran despite there appearing no where to run.

  I ran, but the stomach closed in on me. I ran for as long as I could, and when I couldn't run, I crawled, and when the stomach was almost crushing me I dragged myself with my fingers.

  The thing that drove me this far was FEAR, fear of dying again, fear of going through that hell again.

  'I not giving up, I'm gonna give my all this time.'

  Suddenly, the roof exploded, there in the dark abyss was a Phoenix.

  The Phoenix burned the entire stomach.

  "Noooo, why how! You shouldn't be here, you can't be here." The 'angel' said in outrage. "Your shouldnt be allowed to interfere"

  The Phoenix only looked at the 'angel' in silence before charging up a fire ball.

  "Shit, I'm leaving. You" the 'angel' said while pointing at me. "Mark my words I will find you again and when I do I'll torture you until you beg me to kill you!"

  With this, the 'angel' left.

  The stomach slowy disappeared.

  The Phoenix decended, as it did it transformed into a Human in red robes.

  "It was impressive how you fought back desperately" the human said in a low voice "My name is Aaron, nice to meet you"

  Not responding, I only looked at him.

  'Am I able to trust him. Is he like that 'angel' I thought to myself anxiously

  'Am I able to kill him if I have to' I thought

  "Woah there's no need to go crazy. I'm not gonna do anything"

  'What, it's like he can read my thou-' I didn't finish my thought before he spoke

  "That because I can" he said smugly

  "Anyway, I guess I should explain to you some things since you probably have many questions. Before you even ask me, no unfortunately this is not a dream."

  "....."

  'This....is real?!.....but how?' I thought shocked

  "That's because you have been transported to a different world, to different universe to be exact. You see, in this universe Magic exists, as you can see." He says as he gestures to the last remains of the stomach

  "As of right now, we are inside of your mind, your conscious to be exact" he waves his arms around as he talks, smiling as he does so. " So all this black space can become anything you want if you just use your Mana and create something, since it's your conscious, it won't take much Mana as it would in the real world"

  "Why am I here." I asked exhausted

  Hearing this his smile fades, his arms rest by his sides, before he crosses his arms

  "I'm sorry, I know this really has nothing to do with you but I needed your help" he says "Well not exactly YOUR help, but someone's help. That's why there are more people here that were transported. I need you Humans to help me find something in this world your in."

  "What, No. Send me back, I don't care about what you need or whatever, I want to go home. Send me home, I'm NOT helping you" I said angerly

  Facing the ground slightly he says "you see. That's gonna be a problem" looking up at me he gravely says "Earth's been destroyed, even if I send you back, there's nothing left."

  "What?!"

  'Destroyed, how can it be destr-'

  "I don't have much time to explain so just listen to what I have to say" he says

  I was gonna make a remark but he just continued talking, "There is something that has been corrupting every living thing in existence and it's been spreading. On the planet I sent you and the other humans, there is a fallen angel somewhere in the World tree, the biggest tree on that planet. That angel was known for his specialty in healing magic. I'm hoping that with his power, I can get rid of this corruption. The fallen angel is dead, so you'll have to find his corpse. Even if he's dead I can absorb his body and gain his abilities. With this I can fix this corruption"

  I was overwhelmed listening to him, he talked as if this was easy to understand.

  'Corruption? Fallen angel? World tree?! What is he talking about? Wait why can't he just do it himself and absorb the fallen angel. Why does he need someone to retrieve the body?' I thought puzzled.

  "That's because I don't have enough Mana to manifest myself in the real world. You see, I'm was created by a higher being, by a 'Real' Angel. So I'm unable to manifest myself in the real world without his permission. Unfortunately, my master's isn't himself anymore. If I want to manifest into the real wolrd. I would need a tremendous amount of Mana to break the 'Bond' with my master and even more to make a suitable vessel to enter the real world."

  Before I had time to react he took off his red robes revealing his chest, there was a crack on his chest that was jet black. The crack seemed to grow slowly.

  "You see, I've been corrupted myself and only have a limited amount of Mana, and since I saved you, I have even less now." He said solemnly "I have a few months at best, but I doubt I can make it that long......I just realized, I never asked your name"

  "My names Colt." I said with a more friendly voice.

  "I see Colt. If I'm unable to survive until you find the fallen angel, I want you to preform a ritual. This ritual will bring him back to life but it will need a tremendous amount of Mana." He says sternly

  "I'm going to give you something" out of no where, a leaf shaped necklace appeared

  "This is what you'll need to preform the ritual, make a cut where his heart is and then pour your mana into this necklace, then finally bury the necklace in his chest, the necklace already has the engravings for the ritual"

  I couldn't grab the necklace, I tried but because I had no physical body I couldn't do anything about it.

  "Don't worry, when you'll wake up, you'll find it right next to you. Don't lose it" he explained "and before I leave, I have one thing left to say, are you listening"

  "...." I didn't responded, but he continued anyway.

  "You have a special Trait. Your trait is immortality, you can't die, Colt. But don't think you are invincible, even if you can't die, you can't regenerate. If you lose a part of yourself, it gone for good. If you eaten alive and there's still some part of you left uneaten, you'll be there just suffering, never being able to die." He said gruesomly "So be careful out there. For this time only I'll restore your body, but next time your on your own."

  Everything around me began to fade as I felt my eyes slowly closing.