Hill woke up gasping for air, clutching at his temples. The feeling of teeth penetrating his skin and skull still reverberated through his senses.
Thankfully, he didn't live long enough to experience too much pain, but that short burst seemed to send tremors through his body and cause tears to fall from his eyes.
I hope I never experience anything like that ever again… wait… I'm dead, aren't I? Why do I feel… alive?
Only when he had wiped his eyes of tears did he see where he was.
"H-Huh?" He began, looking around at his surroundings. "Wha-?"
Sitting up, he saw that he was sitting in a field of black sand that seemed to go on as far as he could see. Above him stretched a brilliant sky full of shimmering stars that shone a ghostly light over his surroundings.
"Woah," Hill whispered as he stood to his feet. "The stars are so bright!"
Indeed, he had never experienced such natural light from the stars due to light pollution from living in the city. The sight of those orbs of light instilled a sense of awe deep within his soul.
Is this the afterlife? I never expected it to look like this… He thought to himself as he took a few steps, feeling his feet sink into the extraordinary black sand.
This place was much more unsettling than any hellfire or heavenly choir he had expected the afterlife to be like. He felt isolated and alone, similar to that horrible feeling on that bridge. He still remembered his father's gaze as the old man turned away.
But as difficult as it was, he shook himself free of that memory. The only people he cared about were his mother and his sister. He hoped they had somehow reached the mountains. But somewhere deep within, he knew there was no way for them to truly outrun the monster horde.
He shivered.
A faint shimmering began before him, around twenty yards from his position. It started out as a series of glowing lines rising from the sand, and as Hill watched, they suddenly erupted into a loud shower of sparks as these lines began crashing into each other.
Within seconds, these lines had turned into glowing foreign letters that weren't earthly. They were tall and arranged in vertical columns that he assumed were meant to read up to down. Once they were thoroughly organized, they began to shimmer and shake as if they were glitching out. The foreign letters then turned into earthly letters that he could read.
[Greetings Plaguebearer! The manifestation of your greatest fear will arrive shortly!]
Hill stared at the assortment of letters before him, confused and disturbed.
Plaguebearer? So this isn't the afterlife… Just what is this place really?
Back on Earth, the reason that Agshaka city was being destroyed by these monsters was because of the plague. It came suddenly and without warning. Originating from Persul—the capital city of the Peridian Empire, it spread outwards, and within forty-eight hours, it had traversed two hundred miles to reach the outskirts of Agshaka.
More than forty million people lived in Persul, and they were all presumed to be dead. But now Hill doubted if that was true. Based on what he was reading, maybe his life wasn't over yet. Perhaps those who had died had gone through or were currently going through what he was experiencing right now.
Maybe his mother and sister could survive as well.
But that wasn't what worried him. The words 'manifestation of your greatest fear' were undoubtedly bad news.
He observed as the words continued to shimmer and shake before him, their glowing light growing brighter by the second, forcing him to turn away and cover his eyes.
A chilly breeze began to move through the area, displacing the black sand into the air and shrouding everything in darkness.
Hill brought the collar of his shirt over his nose as his body began to be bombarded by the moving sand. The wind intensified into a loud scream that grew louder and louder as the seconds flew by. Hill remained planted on the ground, feeling the sand move like liquid past his ankles.
After a few more seconds of the howling winds, all activity ceased. The winds grew quiet, and the sands seemed to calm down. Hill withdrew the collar of his shirt and opened his eyes.
And there it was, a towering spectral figure that seemed made up of darkness. Its shape was roughly human, but no features were visible—no hands, no face—only its shadowy cloak that hugged its body.
It hovered over the ground; the sands by the figure's feet seemed to ripple away from it like water in a pond.
As Hill stared at the figure, his heart began to pound loudly, the sound blocking out all thought. He staggered backward, his feet trembling as he tumbled to the ground.
Within the space between him and the figure, more shimmering markings began to clash into readable language.
[Your soul will be granted five minutes.]
[Defeat the
[Otherwise, you will vanish.]
As soon as Hill read those glowing words, the figure rushed forward, arriving in front of the frail black-haired boy in the blink of an eye.
What the—?!
A skeletal hand emerged from the cloak and slammed into Hill's chest, sending him flying through the sandy black expanse.
Before he could get to his knees, the deity's foot slammed into his ribcage with a sickening crack. He felt his ribs slightly give as he was sent tumbling sideways through the black sand.
He landed around twenty yards away, a queasy sound emerging from his mouth because all his air was forced out at once. The deity appeared above him and began raining blow after blow on his frail body before kicking him high.
It's so strong! He thought to himself as he plummeted. He tried to reorient his body to face the ghost as he fell, but the ghost vanished and appeared beside him. It threw a vicious spinning kick, sending him flying like a cannonball into the sands below.
Thanks to the sand's cushioning, he recovered quickly enough to avoid being hammered into the sand. He rolled away and scrambled to his feet as he stared at the future deity.
Think, Hill! You need to find a way to defeat it! Your time is running out!
However, he couldn't think of anything that could help him. He was never taught how to fight; his interests weren't in combat but in artistry.
And as the deity moved in to strike him once more, he could only follow his instinct. To lessen the impact of the blow by turning with it.
But as the deity's skeletal hand shot out from its cloak, he saw it, a chance to win.
He turned his torso leftwards as the skeletal hand impacted his ribcage, allowing the impact to spin him around instead of sending him flying backward. He stretched his arms out and grabbed onto the wrist of the deity's hand as it began to retract back into its cloak.
The instant his hand closed around the ghost, a jolt like static electricity that was magnified a thousand times coursed through it. It was violent, and he nearly passed out from the surge of energy. However, the shadowy figure of the deity shuddered violently as well.
Its form began to flicker and distort as if reality itself was glitching around it. A high-pitched, unearthly scream ripped from the ghost. The sound clawed at Hill's human sanity.
The deity seemed like it was unraveling in his grip, its body glitching and distorting as if reality itself was rebelling against the contact between it and the scrawny mortal before it.
Was this its weakness? Was he… pulling something into the present that shouldn't be here?
It made sense…not logically but because of instinct.
For a moment, Hill almost let go of it but he held tighter.
"You're called the 'Future Deity' right?" Hill panted as he tightened his grip. "Well, this is unfortunate for you, because I'll be dragging you to the present!"
It thrashed wildly as it tried to wrench itself from Hill's grip, but the boy was stubborn and leaned in, wrapping his entire arm around it so it clamped in his armpit.
Heavy blows began raining down on his head and body, each strike carrying significant force despite the deity's apparent distress.
Pain exploded through Hill's skull as his head was thrashed back and forth by the consecutive impacts. His vision began to swim with black spots.
But he wouldn't give up. After being left for dead by his own father, there was no way he would accept a death like this. He bit down on his lip and charged into the deity's torso, pushing it forward and causing it to fall into the sand beneath.
The distortion around the deity grew even worse, and its screams began to shake the air itself. Hill felt blood trickling from his ears as his hearing faded, but his efforts wouldn't be abated by something like that. His life was on the line.
Due to his weight being pressed against the deity's torso, it couldn't throw punches at him as effectively as before. It couldn't even vanish like it did before. Instead, it wrapped its other hand around the back of Hill's neck and squeezed hard, emitting a chilling aura that seemed to leech the warmth of his body.
Hill gasped as he felt his muscles begin to ache and spasm. It felt like ice was starting to overwhelm the blood within his veins.
No! Hill bit down hard on his tongue, drawing blood. I'm not finished yet!
Squeezing his eyes shut, Hill tightened his grip on the deity's wrist and wrapped his legs around the deity's body. The deity tried to shake him off by rolling and thrashing about, but Hill's body was tightly wrapped around it. It couldn't do anything.
The glitching grew worse as the deity's body began to warp unnaturally, bending as if it was being spaghettified by a black hole. Hill felt like its body was being dragged away, but he thought he was being pulled in the opposite direction.
The cold began to overwhelm his body as his muscles began to disobey his orders. He couldn't hold on to the deity's body. Darkness overwhelmed his senses.
The body beneath him thrashed violently like ocean waves in a storm. He felt his body thrashing, too, as if the cold seeping into him was trying to escape, forcing itself outward through flesh and bone.
The pain was severe and intense, so much so that he tried to pull away from the deity, but it was much too late.
Within seconds, he couldn't feel a thing. Not the body beneath him, not the grainy texture of the sands. He couldn't even feel his own body.
But he could see. Opening his eyes, he saw that he was falling through a tunnel at breakneck speed. The stars flew past him like whizzing bullets, and his body was twirling like a ragdoll.
Wha? Where did that bastard go?? What's happening to me!???
As if answering his frantic thoughts, runic text began clashing together before his eyes.
[You have defeated the
The text glitched towards the end, bursting into fleeting sparks of light.
Wait, I defeated the deity? That means I won! But why did it glitch out like that? Hill wondered to himself as he continued to fall.
Then, a new strip of runic text appeared before him. This time, the text wasn't so giddy.
[You died.]
Huh!? Wai—
Before Hill could understand the text, a sudden light shone below him, growing brighter and brighter as his body hurtled toward it.
Within the blink of an eye, he fell out of the tunnel and onto hard igneous rock with a sickening crunch.
"O—urgh…" He groaned, trying to recoup the air that was forcibly expelled from his lungs.
His body was pressed flat against the heated rock beneath him. The air was hot. It felt like he was standing in front of a brick oven, except ten times worse.
When he opened his eyes and looked around, he nearly passed out from the shock.