A heavy silence swallowed the air as Joshua tumbled through the void, his body weightless yet pulled in every direction. Darkness stretched endlessly, not the absence of light but a swirling mass of shifting shadows, forming and dissolving like whispers of forgotten nightmares. There was no ground, no sky—only an infinite abyss pressing against him, a place where reality twisted and time lost all meaning.
Then, the silence shattered.
A sudden force yanked Joshua downward, and in an instant, he crashed onto something solid—yet not quite. The ground beneath him was neither earth nor stone but a pulsing, living surface, shifting under his weight like breathing flesh. The air was thick, heavy with an unnatural warmth, filled with the distant echoes of voices—whispers that slithered into his ears, speaking in languages he didn't understand.
He pushed himself up, heart hammering. Around him, the landscape stretched endlessly in jagged ridges, some floating, some collapsing into the void. The sky—or what should have been the sky—was an endless mass of shifting eyes, watching, blinking, vanishing, reappearing elsewhere. There was no sun, no stars, only a sickly glow emanating from the cracks in the ever-shifting terrain, casting eerie shadows that moved even when he stood still.
Then, in the distance, something stirred.
A figure—no, multiple figures—drifting just beyond his vision, their shapes undefined, flickering between human and something else entirely. He wasn't alone. And whatever lurked in the Unknown World had already noticed him.
Joshua took a cautious step forward, the whispers in the air curling around him like unseen hands. Shapes flickered at the edges of his vision, shifting in and out of existence—too fast to be certain if they were real. Then, ahead in the distance, a cluster of golden lights emerged, suspended in the air like beacons piercing the void.
The glow was soft, inviting, pulsing gently as if alive. The longer he looked, the stronger the pull. His heartbeat slowed, his body growing lighter. A strange warmth pressed against his skin, seeping into his bones, coaxing him forward.
"Come closer. We will lead you home."
The voice drifted through the heavy air, smooth, familiar—almost comforting. Joshua's mind swayed, a part of him eager to step toward the lights. They felt like safety. Like an answer.
But something held him back.
A flicker. A shadow behind the glow.
For just a moment, the warmth wavered, turning cold. The golden lights shifted, their gentle flickering replaced with something unnatural—a calculated rhythm, too precise, too controlled. And then, the illusion cracked.
From behind the glow, something vast and watching stirred.
The lights were not beacons. They were eyes.
A massive, grotesque face loomed in the darkness, its flesh rippling like melting wax, constantly changing, never settling into one form. Its mouth stretched too wide, too wrong, curling into something that might have been a grin.
The whispers turned to laughter.
Joshua's breath caught in his throat. He was not alone.
Joshua's pulse thundered in his ears as he took a step back, his foot pressing into the shifting ground beneath him. The golden orbs flickered erratically now, no longer inviting, but watching. The thing behind them did not move closer—it didn't need to. It had already caught him in its presence.
The warmth from before turned suffocating, pressing against his skin like unseen hands. The whispers, once soothing, fractured into jagged echoes, their voices overlapping, distorting into something impossible to understand. His head pulsed with the weight of their presence.
Then—the eyes blinked in unison.
A deep, resonant sound, not quite a growl, not quite a laugh, rumbled through the air. The lights began to drift apart, spreading outward like an unseen force was stretching open a massive mouth.
Joshua didn't wait to see what came next. He ran.
The uneven ground pulsed beneath his feet, shifting as if trying to trap him in place, but he pushed forward, his breath ragged. The golden lights chased him—no, they followed with purpose, weaving through the air, always just behind him.
Then, suddenly—silence.
The whispers ceased. The warmth vanished.
Joshua skidded to a stop, his heart hammering. The golden lights had disappeared. The towering presence was gone. For a moment, the world around him felt empty, as if whatever had been watching him had lost interest.
Or worse—it had changed its approach.
Something cold brushed against the back of his neck.
A sharp chill ran down Joshua's spine. His breath hitched as a presence—vast, looming, inescapable—settled behind him. The air grew thick, heavy, pressing down on him like unseen hands, and then—
Cold breath slithered against the back of his neck once again.
It was close. Too close.
Every instinct in Joshua's body screamed at him to move, but fear anchored him in place. He could hear it now—not just the breathing, but the sound of something shifting, stretching, twisting unnaturally. A low, guttural noise, almost like a chuckle, rasped through the silence.
Slowly, cautiously, Joshua turned his head.
And there it was.
No longer hidden behind its golden lures, the creature loomed over him in full, grotesque detail. Its form was never still, its flesh shifting like molten wax, trying to settle into something recognizable—but never quite managing. Its many eyes blinked out of sync, scattered across its ever-changing face. And then there was its mouth—too wide, curling into something that might have been a grin, rows of shifting teeth glistening in the dim, sickly light.
Joshua's stomach twisted. The golden orbs had never been lights—they had been its eyes, watching, waiting for the right moment to strike.
And now, it had him.
Joshua bolted.
The moment his body jerked into motion, the creature lunged. The air ruptured with an unnatural shriek, and something long and writhing lashed toward him. He ducked, barely escaping as the grotesque limb smashed into the ground where he had stood. The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the shifting terrain, forcing him to stumble but not stop.
The creature was fast—too fast.
Joshua zigzagged through the warped landscape, his breath ragged. The golden orbs—its many, blinking eyes—darted around him, tracking his every movement. Another limb lashed out from the shadows—a jagged, shifting mass that stretched unnaturally.
Joshua twisted his body, throwing himself into a desperate roll, the monstrous limb grazing past him with an unnatural hiss. He landed hard, but there was no time to recover.
The whispers returned, but they were no longer inviting. They snarled, a chorus of twisted voices hissing through the void. The creature was toying with him.
"Run, run, little one… but we are everywhere."
Joshua's mind raced. He had to find a way out. He clenched his fists, forcing himself to focus. The landscape around him was unstable—maybe he could use that.
With a burst of desperation, he lunged sideways at the last second, forcing the creature's next strike to slam into the shifting ground. The terrain rippled violently, momentarily throwing the monster off balance.
Now!
Joshua seized his chance, pushing himself forward with everything he had. His legs burned, his breath came in sharp gasps, but he refused to stop—he couldn't.
Then—a shadow moved ahead.
Too late.
Something coiled around his ankle.
Before he could react, the limb yanked him off the ground, sending him tumbling through the air. His body twisted violently before he slammed onto the shifting terrain, the breath knocked from his lungs.
Darkness swirled around him. The whispers laughed.
The last thing he saw before everything went black was the creature looming over him, its wide, grinning maw stretching open.
The creature's massive jaws snapped shut, sealing Joshua in total darkness.
A crushing force pulled him downward, deeper into the beast's insides. The walls of its stomach shifted and pulsed around him, pressing in, as if trying to absorb him into its very being. The air was thick with a putrid heat, a foul mixture of decay and something old—something that whispered of endless hunger.
A suffocating silence filled the air.
Joshua floated in nothingness, his body weightless yet crushed by an unseen force. The darkness around him wasn't just absence—it was a prison, a grave, a living nightmare.
And then—the memories came.
Flashes of laughter, love, and betrayal surged through his mind.
He saw Jennifer, her smile warm and gentle, the way she used to tease him about never being able to stay still. He saw William and Rachel, their small hands reaching for him, their voices calling out—"Daddy!" He saw Monica and Joseph, his parents, always standing firm, always reminding him to fight for what mattered.
And then, he saw him.
The man he once called brother. The man he trusted. The man who, with a cold stare and steady hands, had pushed him through the Unknown World's gates and stolen his place in the Ancestral World.
A burning rage erupted in Joshua's chest.
The pain, the loss, the betrayal—it was too much.
And then, something shifted.
A spark ignited inside him, and his eyes snapped open.
Red.
A deep, searing crimson.
The void around him rippled as raw energy surged through his veins. The suffocating weight, the consuming darkness—none of it mattered anymore.
Because he wasn't done yet.
And the creature that swallowed him was about to learn why Joshua Destiny could never be consumed.