Vol.1.C3 - From Beyond The Veil

Vol.1C.3 From Beyond The Veil

☆The Game☆

Another notification popped up from his smartphone, and as he retrieved it, he saw this message from Noctelure that made his mouth dry:

“Your time starts now. A little tip: Don't use any light. If you do, you will attract ‘them'.”

The holographic scroll’s glow, which was in front of him intensified, the hieroglyphics shifting into words Ryker could understand:

Objective 1: Locate a fragment of Sienna Nantell within the Sector of Unraveling Echoes.

Beneath the instructions, smaller text blinked:

Penalty for Failure: Fragment obliteration.

Ryker’s eyes widened as his chest tightened. Soul Fragment? Obliteration? What the hell was this twisted game?

Before he could question further, the scroll disintegrated into tiny particles of light, which swirled around him before shooting off into the void, like a siren calling him forward. He couldn't shake Off the notion that Noctelure knew more about him than he knew himself. 

What kind of secrets did his aunt had kept from him all this time? 

His phone buzzed violently, the screen flickering with cryptic messages:

[CAUTION] Player has entered an unstable area. Probability of success: 21%.

“Great,” Ryker muttered bitterly. “Not only am I stuck here, but now I’m being graded like some failed experiment.”

The air around him grew denser, pulling him forward as if unseen hands were guiding him. The ground beneath his feet felt wrong, shifting subtly like a living, breathing entity. Each step sent tremors up his legs, a silent reminder that this was no ordinary world.

Far in the distance, Ryker saw faint shapes—towering spires that twisted unnaturally, defying the laws of physics. One of the spires appeared to pulse, its surface rippling like a heartbeat. Was that his destination?

His thoughts were interrupted by a faint whisper, low and indistinct, echoing from nowhere and everywhere at once.

“...Ryker... come closer...”

His stomach churned. “Nope. Not falling for that.”

But as he stepped further, the whisper grew louder, and it wasn’t just one now, but dozens, Hundreds, and thousands of whispers echoing in his ears, overlapping into each other and weaving into a cut throat thread.

Holding his ears, he fell down to his knees. “Shut up! Shut up!” he screamed into the void.

The voices stopped instantly.

The silence was even worse.

Ryker got back to his feet, his breath rugged. He glanced around, hoping to see any sign of his friends, but the ominous mist swallowed everything in sight. For the first time, he felt truly alone.

And then, he heard it—a faint laugh.

It wasn’t human.

The laugh was high pitched, followed by unnerving white noise, and glitching like a corrupt audio file. From his peripheral vision, he caught some movement. Turning around slowly, he saw a shadow-like figure standing tall in front of him a few feet away. Its body was vague like an outline of a pencil sketch, and black and white pixel Patterns like a signal static.

The figure tilted its head, its neck cracking on the motion. “Nantell.... you’re falling behind.” Its voice was a distorted version of his own.

“What the... who—what are you?” Ryker demanded, taking a step back.

The figure didn’t answer. Instead, it lunged, its form dissolving into a swarm of glitching particles that rushed toward him.

Ryker stumbled and ran, his heart pounding as he sprinted across the shifting terrain. The laughter followed him, relentless, echoing in his ears.

It was pointless, the more he ran, the more he found himself in a far, empty void.

His ears rang as he heard a loud notification from his phone. 

Ryker got strange visions from his time as a baby, playing with his aunt, and….mother-?

‘Mom…. What is this? I had forgotten what you looked like… what you smelled like… is that how you smiled? Sorry I'm such a useless son-!’

He couldn’t understand these odd emotions that surged through him, as he ran and ran.

‘Auntie Sienna…. I swear I will save you. No matter what it takes.’ It was firm in his Mind.

His body's weight was getting heavier, and he felt like his shoulders would slump from the distress.

Eyes watered and his tears flew across his face as he ran faster to escape this darkness, only to be met with more.

He heard a familiar cold, emotionless, and robotic voice.

‘Here is something you might need.’ It was artificial intelligence, from Noctelure named Noctelurai.

Ryker paused hurriedly.

“What now?” He mumbled, and opened the notification. It was a vague map. There were rooms, objects, and small things sketched on it, and, finally, at the end of the map, there was a faint, lavender colored orb glowing distinctively that likely resembled his aunt Sienna's soul fragment. 

He carefully gazed at the map, for a little bit. He was bewildered, he had no idea how to navigate it.

Despite the confusion, he still chose to go through it if it meant having his beloved aunt’s soul fragment back from the cruelty of this cursed app, Noctelure. 

He roamed through the darkness, his eyes adjusting as he walked. 

He took a deep breath to steady himself as he gazed at the vague map on his phone. The intricate details of the orbs were swifting and swirling around him, like excited fairies. His heartbeat echoed in his ears, a constant reminder of his priority at hand.

‘If I'm going to do this, I have to stay calm and focused, no matter what!’

He moved his grip on his phone, and began to move with more caution, the dense air pressing against him like an invisible wall. 

Each step felt like he was climbing a mountain, but he pushed forward, driven by the need to save his beloved aunt.

As he navigated in the pitch black darkness, he heard weird distant sounds; odd mechanical whirring, creepy whispers, and some frequent soft chimes.

The ground beneath him kept surging against his feet, throwing him off the balance more than once. 

His eyes hurt to make out the shapes and rooms in the map, but the lack of light made it nearly Impossible.

Out of his peripheral vision, finally, after the tough path, Ryker noticed a faint flickering light. 

It was a small, blue glowing orb, fluttering around a few feet away.

It was pulsating gently, casting a low, ghostly glow.

‘That might be a clue,’ He thought, carefully approaching the orb. The orb seemed to emit a calming hum, and for a second, Ryker felt His heart soothed.

As soon as he touched it, the orb emitted a crying sound, but it squeezed itself out of his hands.

Soon enough, the orb flew ahead, weaving itself like a lace through the dark landscape, like a will o'the wisp.

Ryker hesitated for a split second, before he decided to follow the glowing orb. It looked like it knew where it was going, and he had no other choice but to trust it as he had little else to guide him through the dark.

☆Don’t you want me☆

The terrain grew more and more treacherous as the ground seemed To get spikier the more he jumped through the rocks that had jutted out from the ground. Some shadowy figures were flickering at the end of his vision, they looked as if they were weeping for help. Ryker felt something creep up his spine as he saw them, but couldn't pinpoint what exactly it was.

 Fear? Maybe. But he's a fearless one, isn't he?

The whispers from before had returned to haunt his ears, 

louder, and ever persistent. 

But he tried to block them out, focusing on the shining orb in front of him.

He walked on and on, his path never seemed to end. 

The darkness was getting deeper, and after what felt like an eternity, the orb had led him to vast, open, space. In the centre, stood what looked like an ancient, towering structure. 

With its twisting spires reaching towards the sky, the structure Was pulsing with an odd rhythmic glow. Below it, there was a smaller pedestal with a silver obelisk, which on top had an abstract shape of an eye.

Ryker knew this was his destination.

The orb hovered in front of the entrance, for a moment, and then it vanished.

Ryker steeled Himself, and slowly, cautiously, stepped ahead. 

As he crossed the threshold, he felt a sudden wave of cosmic energy, and the world around him had shifted once again. 

The cruel darkness had given way to a blinding light that made it difficult for him to see. But as his eyes got used to the light, he slowly opened then, he found himself standing in an endless, ethereal chamber.

The air was thick with a strange cosmic energy, and he could see faint, shimmering, ghostly figures floating in the distance.

At the far end of the huge chamber,there was a torii-like pair of arches that had strange kanji letters written on them, that lead inside a pedestal glowed with an odd, otherworldly light.

On top of it, there was a golden statue that looked like a goddess, she was dressed in a striking silver saree, and she had countless hands which had many ‘Sacred’ motifs,the trident and the kalā chākra (the wheel of time), and one of her hands was nested in a mudra.

There were cosmic mandalas that swirled in the air, and earthen ceiling, representing the cycles of creation, destruction, and rebirth. The shifting terrains formed lotus patterns Beneath Ryker’s feat.

Melting stars adorned the mysterious air of the shrine-like chamber, and clock hands were suspended in mid air.

He approached the statue, and the blue orb that guided him till here seemed To have disappeared. Baffled, a heavenly light came from below the pedestal.

As he stepped closer, he heard a sound. A distinct, wailing sound that pierced his ears.

He clutched his ears as the sound echoed in the phantasmic walls, soundwaves rippling through his body and the very chamber. 

Ryker Took deep breaths as the sounds finally seemed to ease, and took a few steps closer.

Its golden eyes glowed brighter, and it illuminated the inscriptions of Ancient Sanskrit carved into the pedestal. 

The letters shimmered and rearranged On their own, as if it were alive, forming cryptic texts and phrases he cannot fully decipher.

The hands of the goddess began to move in an intricate, mesmerizing dance, each mudra aligning itself with inscriptions, with The power to alter the chamber's reality.

One of the inscriptions revealed the name of the goddess, and she was the holy goddess of time, Dēvi Samāya of Elysvereth. 

The gesture caused distortions withkn the chamber; the walls melted into liquid light, the air grew heavier every second, and finally,

The Dēvi’s voice reverberated:

“कालस्य वृत्तः अपूर्वः। तस्य प्रवाहे आत्मं दहति।”

("Time’s cycle is unparalleled. In its flow, the soul burns.")

Ryker felt a wave of cosmic energy surging through him as he heard the words.

The mudra it formed next created a chilling wind that blew into his senses, he heard a chilling warning: ‘Turn back.’

He thought he was imagining things as he heard a faint crying voice of a familiar orb that guided him here, and he swirled around.

As he swirled, the same blue orb that guided him till here, had returned, the only difference Being it was fractured, and more dimly lit than before.

It seemed to emit a troubled crying sound, and was rapidly flashing the blue light.

The light was getting fainter, and fainter as Ryker glanced at it in confusion, his eyes squinting at it.

“What are you… trying to say?”

He asked, leaning closer.

The blue orb glows faintly, its light rays warped.

It flew closer to Ryker’s face, as if trying to tell him something. 

“...”

He kept staring at it, as the orb was now frantically bouncing up and down in front of him, emitting A strange wailing sound. 

The blue orb was trying to fly below the Dēvi’s pedestal,

But it could Not, as it Was fractured and getting weaker And weaker every passing second.

And suddenly, it stopped flying.

It had dropped to the earthen floor, And its light was so dim that you Would wonder whether it was burning brightly once.

It looked ominous.

There was a final, very Faint howling sound from the orb, as It tried to move towards the pedestal Ground where the Dēvi was stationed.

It tried to slide like a slime on the ground, but the effort seemed to have been wasted.

The orb sadly could not move anymore, a faint huffing Sound Was emitted from it as it made its final try.

At the moment it finally reached where it wanted, that Is, below the pedestal, it stopped completely. 

There was no light coming from it, no wailing sound, nothing.

It was deafeningly silent.

Ryker watched it, as some unknown tears trickled down his cheek, to his lips, they tasted salty.

He couldn’t explain these strange emotions he experienced as the orb was slowly at it's last breath.