"What the hell... WHAT THE HELL?!" Shade panicked as he roamed through Eltherum's snowy landscape, looking at everything around with terror in his eyes. "No no no, this isn't real, this can't be happening!"The rest of the group easily picked up on what was happening as they followed him through the ruined landscape. Amidst the snow covered ground were puddles of black and red that mixed together in a an unholy combination, now staining the area with the look of death.Lily glance around as her discomfort grew, the only thing keeping her calm right now was the fact that she wasn't alone in the slightest. Whatever this area was though she didn't like it, her body was yelling at her to turn around but she kept pushing ahead. She had to after all, in order to get out of this game she had to take any leads she could get. "Calm down, you're rushing things" Six spoke as his ghostly form appeared next to Lily. "Nothing good comes from rushing, especially in a place like this."Lily jumped a little at this and carefully glared at him. "You HAVE to stop doing that!" she thought back at him. "At least give me a heads up..." "That's kind of hard for me to do, since I'm just a spirit trapped inside you and all." Six looks up towards the strange anomaly in the sky. "I must say though... I never expected to see something like that here.""You-!" Lily almost shouts out, stopping herself right before doing so "You know what it is?""Somewhat." Six mutters while staring at it with a confused look. "It's like an incomplete ritual to summon an outer entity... but whoever is doing it clearly doesn't even understand the basics of what they're doing." he pauses and sighs. "that or they purposefully did something unbelievably stupid.""Care to explain instead of being incredibly vague as usual." she snaps back while trying to keep an eye out for any unusual activity around them. In front of her the group had mainly slowed down, looking at what looked to be the burnt down ruins of a town. Blood coated what snow still lingered, NPCs were strewn across the ground dead, broken weapons and signs of a struggle were evident. Whatever happened here it was clear a powerful enemy passed through. "The ritual being performed right now is incomplete and as a result isn't calling an outer entity but giving birth to an amalgam, a nightmare comprised of magic and the raw emotions in the air." he shudders a bit at the thought "and with the chaos this person caused its going to be a creature born of death and fear.""Great... and I'm guessing to stop it we need to stop the ritual?" Lily asks while avoiding one of the bodies on the ground as she makes her way into some of the ruins. She pauses and looks down, spotting a broken toy... a wooden animal of sorts. "Yup, that's about the only way to stop it without insane firepower." Six calmly responds as he examines the toy as well, a hint of pain on his face. "I don't know what will spawn here but this needs to be stopped before its too late.""Lily, come here!" Shade's voice brought the two to attention as the turned in the direction it came from. Shade was standing in front of a tower of some sort, it looked like it was barely standing after all the damage. "Come on, you're the only one who can safely climb it." A bit of annoyance becomes evident on Lily's face as she walks over and looks at the tower up close, now seeing that it'd likely fall down if anyone else climbed it. "and why do you want me to go up there?""Look, right there" Shade points to a faintly glowing mark at the top of the tower "I think that might be our clue as to what's going on here.""Hate to say it but he's right." Six chimes in while looking up, a faint glow coming from his eyes "there's a faint magic coming from up there, I can feel it." With a sigh Lily heads into the tower and begins to scuttle her way up, jumping over broken stairs and avoiding holes in the floor. "So... Care to tell me more about yourself, Six?" "What would you want to know?" he says, now staying hidden as to not distract her. "My story isn't a very memorable one." "I still want to know though." Lily stops and looks ahead, grumbling a little bit as she sees an entire set of stairs leading up to the next floor is missing. "Especially if you're going to be in my head for awhile.""Well... my name may have been forgotten here but I was once someone incredibly important, so much so that I've seen mentions of me while gazing through your eyes." he comments with a rather wistful tone. " You see even my finality here seems to be of importance.""Finality? what the is that, a fancy word for death?" Lily asks while finally hoisting herself up to the last floor, letting out a sigh of relief as she does so.Six lets out a tiny chuckle at this "no, not death..." he pauses and thinks for a moment "I suppose you could consider the ending though.""So you're saying your ending isn't death? what are you, immortal?" she absently remarks while walking over to the red glow. "Something like that." Six responds as his illusion forms next to her. "Now, what do we have here?" Before them was a glowing red circle with an upside down triangle in the center, a low hum came from it but otherwise it seemed harmless. "Looks like they do know what they're doing..." Six starts but pauses as he starts to think, pacing back and forth a bit "Now the question is where else could they have set this stuff up?""What? There's more?" Lily asks as she starts pacing as well, though she hasn't noticed it. "Yes, this is part of a sacrificial ritual, chances are they're planning on sacrificing a good chunk of Eltherum in order to complete the ritual." "WHAT?!" she shouts while whipping her head over in disbelief "Wait but if its a giant magic circle we only need to break one part and then it won't work, right?" "Potentially..." Six begins but sighs "but if this is someone who has planned well they'll be prepared for that, especially if one of their circles is in this torn down of a place.""So back up circles then?" she asks cautiously while looking for a way down. "Backups upon backups." Six confirms while raising his hand and snapping.The sound of glass shattering fills the air as Lily feels her breathing slow for a moment before returning to normal, then she sees that the snow in the air has frozen in place. "What-" "I froze time for a moment, I can't rely on this too much but it gives us a chance to stop for a moment." Six calmly states as he walks up to Lily's side. "Now, let's have a talk, shall we?"
YOU ARE READING
Astral Flow
FantasyA world in its dying days, the end of the world being held back by a powerful lord, death and decay slowly overtaking the world. That was the premise for the new full dive game anyways, one inspired by RPGs of the past. An interesting enough premi...
