The sun and the false emptiness

The wind rushed through the meadow, lifting the tall grass like green waves. For an instant, I felt that calm had returned after that little argument I had with Noelia and that hooded man. But calm never lasts long here.

I took a few seconds to recover, I felt the meadow breeze hitting my face, it was a temporary relief for me.

After that I remembered that Ikel had been sent to fly far away, so I decided to go in that direction, after all if I stayed alone I was an easy prey for the players and creatures of the event.

It didn't take long to get there, to be honest I thought they had sent it further away, but it wasn't.

I found him embedded in a giant tree, and for a moment I was worried. Ikel didn't move, he didn't make a sound, he just lay there with his eyes closed, was that attack he had received minutes before too much for him, was he dead?

For an instant I almost cried.

That's when I heard a snoring sound, I got scared, I thought it was some monster in the area or an enemy. But it turned out to be Ikel making those noises... I was sleeping.

— eh, Asimil, is that you? — Ikel said barely opening his eyes, trying to wake up, but his rest would not last long, the tree began to shake as if it were alive.

— AAAAAAHHHHH! — Ikel slammed down from a branch, kicking up a cloud of dust as he landed on his back. I froze for a second, until I saw him try to get up, coughing.

— Ikel, you gave me such a fright, my friend, what were you supposed to be doing there asleep? — I asked him, between surprised and relieved.

— Exploring... and watching! — He grunted, shaking the leaves off his head. — Although... well, I fell asleep for a while, too —

The air changed suddenly. A strange chill crept through the grass, and the sunlight began to shiver as if someone had flipped down an invisible switch. I looked up and froze.

The sky... it wasn't darkening naturally. It looked like someone was devouring it from the center outward, ripping chunks of blue out and leaving black cracks that glowed with a faint gray flash. Clouds were breaking apart into pixelated fragments, and the edges of what was once sunshine were warping like lines of corrupted code.

— Ikel... — I froze together with Ikel — This... is part of the event, isn't it? — He shook his head, apparently this was not normal, not even for a high ranking tournament.

Suddenly, a black sphere floated above us, beating like a sick heart. The air around it distorted, and for an instant I felt dizzy as I saw how the ground seemed to undulate, as if it had no firmness.

— Hey, look at that! — Ikel said, pointing at the horizon with his eyes wide open.

— What on earth is that? — Before I could answer, the tournament hostess appeared in the sky, her normally perfect face now filled with fear. Her voice reached us like a choppy echo. — This is not in the program! All players must evacuate the open areas immediately! Do not attempt to fight! Quickly, run to the center! — My heart skipped a beat. The change of tone hit me harder than any previous attack.

— Come on, Asimil... we have to get there. — said Ikel, taking my arm and pulling me along. We can't stay here.

We ran at full speed. The meadow transformed beneath our feet, dark puddles began to form, spreading like breathing inkblots. Each one sizzled on contact with the grass, withering it and leaving a metallic smell that burned my nostrils.

— Watch out! — I shouted, pulling Ikel before his foot stepped into one of those puddles — We don't know what they might do — Small bubbles burst silently, and at some points the ground seemed to pixelate, as if the ground itself was being corrupted. The stones in our path fragmented into distorted cubes before recomposing themselves into impossible shapes.

— This can't be real. — I muttered, panting. — This isn't part of the tournament, is it? — But Ikel just gave me a nervous glance and shook his head. His usual smile was gone.

At that moment we heard a scream. One of the players running ahead of us stumbled and fell straight into one of the larger puddles. I turned just in time to see him get up... or what was left of him.

His body was corroded, with black stains spreading across his skin like boiling oil. A viscous, corrosive liquid dripped from his veins, steaming and with a stench of burning metal. He tried to scream, but no sound came out, only an unnatural silence that ran down our backs.

— What... what happened to him? — I whispered, paralyzed.

Ikel advanced a step, trying to inspect, and the player turned his head mechanically, as if the eyes were just an ornament. Then he fell to the ground, but did not disappear in the usual way. His body glittered, shattered into glowing fragments, and from the liquid that remained rose a small corrosive vapor that burned the grass where it touched.

— Assimil, move! — Ikel shouted, tugging at my shirt as the steam approached. This... this is not a normal player. My heart was beating a mile a minute. The meadow was full of black holes and corrosive puddles. The sphere in the sky was pulsating, and the presenter's voice kept repeating orders in static.

For the first time in the tournament, I felt real fear, we didn't know what we were racing against, or if we would even survive another minute.

And then I understood, what had fallen on us was not part of any test... it was something that no one had ever seen before.

The first player died in a strange way, the corrosive liquid, the sky was devoured... the real chaos had just begun.