𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂 | 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐲 𝐓𝐚𝐢𝐥

o2 • the shrine of the almighty one

I apologize for such a long hiatus! But, The One Magic is back on track. Chapter One, as well as Willa's character information and the synopsis have been updated. Check them out!

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My body feels cold. No, not from the temperature, this which must be below zero by now, but by the ominous tension around me, which sends chills up my spine. Am I... dead? No, I'm still breathing. 

The dark world around me is beginning to return to its original state: the sky, slate as stone; the grass, as brown as dried blood. The trees look dead, and the soil beneath me is dry. The tree root that sticks out of the crater is shriveled and as old looking as the elderly woman from earlier. I snap my head toward her— or, at least, where I had last seen her, because now, her body is missing. 

Frantic, I stand, brushing away all the dirt from my dress. I turn on my heel, searching for the strange man, but he, too, is nowhere to be found. When I take a step forward, my foot suddenly plunges into the earth, and I yelp in surprise. I throw myself back on my hands, where they come in contact with an extremely soft object. I lift my hand and raise it in front of my face. My lips purse and my eyes widen in response to the little white flower sticking out of my palm. A nervous gasp escapes me, and I shake my hand furiously. But the flower is relentless. Furrowing my eyebrows, I pinch the stem of the flower with my index finger and thumb, and pull.

The pain is short-lived, and disappears once the roots of the flower have all been removed. I stare at the little flower in disbelief, and turn it over in my palm. When I let it fall from my hand, it withers and shrinks.

"What is this?" I breathe. "I... I demand an explanation!"

"This is the choice you have made," the voice of the man from before says. "I have entered your subconscious, and now, I am a part of you."

A searing pain scorches past my brow, and I drop to one knee, wincing from the pain. When the burning sensation relatively subsides, I open my eyes, and take in the beauty around me.

"This is the power you now possess."

In place of the giant crater, a meadow has appeared. The blades of grass around me reach past my exposed ankles. Flowers of all kinds and colours and species sway in rhythm with the wind, brushing up against my calves. In the center of the meadow stands a tree, with leaves that seem to reflect the sun— "I-impossible!"

The leaves are pure gold!

Now wanting to destroy the meadow with my father's clunky old boots, I slip them off and abandon them in a flourishing patch of grass. My toes slip through the damp soil, and I notice that, where I step, a white light appears, and I jump back, frightened, except that the only thing that happens is that the flowers grow a handful of inches taller. I tiptoe around them, and fall against the tree. The bark is smoother than even the softest of silk, and is a pale brown. I stroke it, until I reach one of the branches above my head, where I presume to pluck one of the gold leaves. It is much heavier that it looks, and momentarily, I struggle to keep a hand on it.

"I... did all of this?" I say. I touch a hand to the center of my forehead. 

"And you will be  capable of much more, in time," the voice promises.

I frown. All of these wonderful, beautiful things that have happened in such a short time span will not make up for what this man has done.

"If this is the same power you used to kill those innocent people," I start to say, "I want no part of it."

"Innocent?" the voice says, sounding amused. "Humanity is not innocent."

"There were people here that hadn't done a single terrible thing in their lives!" I argue. "And you killed them!"

"I borrowed their life energy," the voice corrects. "Without it, your body will barely be able to manage itself while under the strain of my ability."

"Yes, well, whoever said I wanted your ability?" I snap, my lip curled back.

"It is no longer your choice!" the voice bellows, and it sounds as if it had came from inside my own mind. "You have taken on your sister's responsibility— her destiny, if she would have lived to accept it! And, accept it, she would have." I can feel my body heating up. "You must understand that their sacrifice was for the world's benefit, not just your own. Do not be selfish, and do not imply that I killed them for my own self-indulgent agenda."

I have a sudden impulse to destroy the meadow, so to restrain myself, I stalk over to the edge of the meadow, and with a single, simple thought, the earth rises beneath my feet, lifting me higher and higher into the air as I willed it to into the air, until I reach the lip of the crater, where I then will it to stop. The earth jerks, and then comes to a standstill. I step off, my toes curling up against the f-freezing ground as I walk away from the edge. I step on an awkward surface, and recoil when I look down and realize what it is. 

"Dear god," I breathe, and my heart starts beating erratically, leading up to murderous scream that I do not mean to let out.

Bodies of the villagers are lined up around the crater's edge: the little boy who had warned me is beneath my feet, his features explicit against a strange brown material. His mouth hangs open, his eyes wide, his right arm extended toward the meadow. Both arms of the daughter of the old woman are out in front of her, her teeth visibly gritted. Two long, cylindrical lines crawl from the corners of her eyes to her chin— the last tears she would ever shead. 

My knuckles burn when I make a fist. I want to hit something. I have to release these emotions before they make me implode. I take a deep breath, and decide on doing something less destructive. After ripping off the sleeves of my dress, and further tearing at my dress, I crouch down, and press my hands on two of the bodies in front of me, with the same simple thought process I used before.

"Please forgive me," I say. Like my feet had before, my hands glow white, and spread along the ground, surging around the lip of the crater like a wave. It coats each and everyone of the bodies, from head to toe, in its light, and with one final push, the light disappears, leaving behind bodies covered in gold, the same as the leaves on the tree in the meadow. "This place will be forever known as the Shrine of the Almighty One."

The voice chuckles. I shut my eyes, and floating in that dark space is the hideous man of my future nightmares. His red eyes burn through the blackness of the space.

"I demand you tell me just what you are, creature. Are you a God? Or a demon?"

"I am neither— I am the all-father of Magic, what humans believe only to be a concept or a figment. I am the source of all Magic Power. I am... the One Magic."