ALGEA: Divine and Chaos

chapter 1: Nightmare

                   The cold was the first thing I noticed. I was floating on the surface of the water, but it didn't feel threatening. In fact, the stillness was almost... comforting. The sky above me was pitch black, and there was nothing around—no land, no sound, just emptiness.

But somehow, that emptiness didn't scare me. It felt peaceful. My mind, normally buzzing with thoughts and worries, was quiet. I let myself sink deeper into that silence, letting go of everything.

As I drifted, I felt my body begin to slowly sink into the water. It didn't alarm me, though. The water wrapped around me like a blanket, cold but somehow soothing. The more I gave in to that sense of peace, the more I sank.

It's fine, I thought. It's quiet. I can just stay here.

The water rose to my chest, my neck, creeping up to my face. I was almost fully submerged now, the cold numbing me, pulling me under.
But just as the water was about to swallow me whole, something warm touched my hand.

I opened my eyes—when had I closed them?—and looked down. 

A bright light pierced through the dark water, and a glowing hand grabbed mine, pulling me upward. I gasped, instinctively trying to kick my legs, but my body felt too heavy, like I was still stuck in the sinking.

The hand held firm, pulling me out of the water.

And then, everything went white.

When I opened my eyes again, I wasn't in the water. I was on solid ground—cold, damp earth beneath my feet. My breath caught in my throat as I realized I was standing in the middle of a forest, but not the kind you see in daylight. 

This place was dark, almost unnaturally so, and the air was thick with a chill that seemed to sink into my bones. Every tree around me loomed tall and shadowy, their branches twisted like gnarled fingers reaching toward the sky.

It was quiet. Too quiet.

A shiver ran down my spine as I took in my surroundings. The cold breeze carried a strange, unsettling stillness, as if the whole forest was holding its breath, waiting. I wasn't sure what for, but I could feel it—the heaviness in the air, pressing down on me.

I started walking, unsure of where I was going. 

My feet crunched softly on the leaves scattered on the ground, and that small sound echoed unnaturally in the stillness. After a few minutes, I noticed something—a path. It wasn't clear at first, but the more I looked, the more it seemed to take shape. Narrow, winding through the trees, as if it had been carved out long ago but was now forgotten.

I hesitated. The path looked like it led somewhere—maybe to a village, maybe to answers. Or maybe to something worse. But standing here wouldn't get me anywhere, so I decided to follow it.

As I walked, the air grew colder, the atmosphere more oppressive. My footsteps felt heavier with each step, and the trees seemed to crowd in closer, their branches overhead blocking what little light there was. After what felt like an eternity, I noticed something ahead—a faint, dim light flickering through the trees.