Chapter 1: Another Morning, Another Nightmare

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A shower of rain fell from the blackened clouds above, splattering the crystal clear waters that spanned an eternal distance in every direction

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A shower of rain fell from the blackened clouds above, splattering the crystal clear waters that spanned an eternal distance in every direction. Waves splashed against each other, winds danced around each other, and thunder boomed and flashed above the clouds. Despite the billowing storm, the world remained familiar, yet it was different than when he had last remembered it.

Before, the skies were clear, and the waters calm. He also remembered not being alone. As the young man looked around, he was once again standing on top of the waters, his skin acting as his only protection against the icy winds. He brushed his long, dirty blonde hair out of his cyanic eyes, searching for the one he had been trying to save for so long. Eventually, they landed upon another life form—but it wasn't the beautiful woman he longed to see.

Gone was the woman with the golden hair and green eyes he'd grown to love. In contrast to the smaller, curvy body he saw before, the only thing to be seen was a large corpse. It was unclear whether or not the body was skinless, or if it was so decrepit that it accentuated every crevice in muscle and bone. If it did have skin, the color had all but disappeared, leaving behind a gray husk of a person. Wind tousled the long mane of hair, still tethered to the decaying body. It was far from beautiful; ends were split, and color faded in a way that looked just as dead as the corpse. An old, tattered cloth covered the being's waist, while old gold bands covered its arms and decorated its forehead. The body was so shrunken from life that the cloth and gold barely clung to the carcass. Though its body seemed to have lost its brawn to time, its face was a different story.

While its features matched the rest of the body, with its muscles visible in a rotten way and its remnants of skin completely gray, its expression was stuck. Its mouth was gaping open to reveal withered teeth and eye sockets so deep that its eyes—if it had any—were completely lost to shadow. It was a face stuck in time, as if it were constantly having life drained from it, yet it refused to give. The body could have only been described as the embodiment of purgatory, and while it didn't seem to have eyes, it very clearly had locked its attention onto the young man who stood on the same waters as it did.

As raindrops traveled down the being's body, it took a rigid step forward, splashing the water beneath the balls of its languished feet. Feeling threatened, the young man instinctively raised his right hand up towards his back, yet his hand wrapped around nothing. Unable to do anything, he watched as dark magenta gunge began to ooze from every remaining fiber of the towering mummified corpse. The crystal clear waters began to darken as the malicious slime infected its waves. As the contamination spread, the young man began to step back, doing his best to avoid getting caught in the darkness himself, but his attempt was in vain. As the body's influence spread, the waves grew larger. They violently crashed as lightning cracked down into the waters before one wave, now dark and filled with the embodiment of evil, raised higher than even the tallest of castle towers the young man once roamed. He raised his hands and closed his eyes, preparing to be encased in darkness.

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