A Fool's Call {Discontinued}

zero

The sky was painted in rising hues of red and gold, tearing away at the heavy veil of the night. A brilliant fireball was creeping upwards from the east, making its way up the rocky plains that covered the land.

A lone female figure stepped out of a cavern carved into the side of a mountain, her entwined palms clasped gently together as she gazed out at an eastern horizon full of light.

"Now that the dawn comes, there is no chance for me to flee this battle anymore. But for you, my little one, hope has not been lost just yet. Go to the east, to the humans. And one day, you will return to this dark land, and bring this all to an end."

Raising her hands to the morning sun, the woman unfurled her fingers to reveal a tiny crystal, glowing with an unearthly blackness that seemed to warp and consume the light around it.

"Go, little one," she repeated, and as she spoke, a purple fog began to envelop the black crystal. "Go to the east, where the humans live. When the time is ripe, you will return to this place, and bring unto this little world liberation evermore."

She watched as the shard of crystal, small as it was, levitate right off her palms, suspended in a halo of misty magic.

She drew her hands close to her chest, letting the crystal float following her movements, then swung her hands outwards at the brightening sky. The crystal flew off into the golden horizon, a dark speck in the radiant sky.

The woman sighed, "And there it goes... Now that there's at least one last chance for everything..."

She turned away from the fading trail of mist, and instead faced another sun that was rising in the west. But this one was nothing natural. This disc of light was brimming with divine power, throwing off rays of purple so strong and overwhelming, they made the light in the east but a mere illusion.

"So you've come. I was wondering how long it would be before you came after me and dragged me back," the woman said.

"Drag you back?" a voice issued from that blinding purple light. A cold chuckle echoed in the space around them. "What a fool."

As it continued to approach, the woman could now see a dark figure floating ahead of it, a figure so mighty it would fashion a second sun simply to adorn itself with a halo befitting its presence. This figure she knew well.

"I do not need to drag you back. Instead, you, my wayward avatar, will return to me of your free will."

"No," she replied.

"No? That is unlike you. Has this world really changed you so much, to make you this weak?"

"No," she repeated, "No, I am not the one who has changed. You are the one who has, and I will fight for the person I remember, until he returns to me." Her eyes glowed with power, and she could feel the air still itself around her.

"Then you will be crushed," the voice spoke. The woman's steely gaze flicked around as she saw dark figures, each one different from the other, fly out from behind that horrible purple sun.

She counted twenty-three of them, and at that moment, realised the gravity of the impossible truth. The numbers...they couldn't be a coincidence.

"No, you can't have done this," she insisted, staring up at the being in the sun. "You wouldn't have done this. Not this."

There was no reply. In this dreadful silence, the woman almost felt like she could see the cold amusement within the eyes of that one. But the light of the purple sun only grew stronger, the being before it fading to only a dark shadow that watched, and waited for her next move.

Her eyes were flickering with doubt now, the energy of the magic around her growing frantic. "You-you- No, I will not succumb to your will!" she said. "I am beyond your control, and you will not-"

"You will be crushed under the earth."

An unfeeling voice shut down her feeble arguments. She whirled around to see the other twenty-three approaching slowly in an inescapable ring, like the tightening embrace of a snake. Her eyes darted around, but there was no chance to flee.

"Left to wither for a thousand years."

The light of the purple sun shone from between their hands. She turned again and charged at the one in the purple sun, letting out a cry of anger and pain and despair. But she hadn't even got close when a shimmering wall of purple materialised in her path.

"And doomed to never see the light again."

Slamming her hand into the barrier with all the might of her soul, she let out a pained gasp as it repelled her with a mighty blast. She crashed into the ground, rolling over twice and getting cut by little shards of rock.

"No... This can't... You can't..." The woman propped her body up with one hand and stared at the god in purple before her. She ignored the pain of rough dirt and sand and stone in her hand. She ignored the magic circle around her, the twenty-three figures she had never seen, but yet knew so well. She ignored the pain in her heart, the aching of her soul. All of these she ignored, and simply stared, hoping and pleading and praying in her mind, that he would stop all this, that he would go back to what she remembered well.

"Please..." she whispered. "Please..."

Then the ground itself gave way beneath her, and she fell into an endless chasm of purple light.

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What do you think of this prologue? It's much shorter than a full chapter, but I hope it's still good to read. If you like it, feel free to vote and leave your comments here!

Edit: Changed the author's note to remove potential spoilers