[The deity, "King of Locusts", is curious as to what you will do]
[The deity, "Knight of starvation", wonders about your situation]
[The deity, "Eternal Sin of Glory", is looking at you]
[The deity, "The Ruler of the Realm beyond Life", is glaring at you]
It seemed that these deities, were interested in the Eternal Fear. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to think much about it.
A large display of numbers appeared above the monster.
[10:00]
[9:59]
[9:58]
I turned north again, and ran. I ran as fast as I could. I could feel it trailing me, I could feel space compress around me, as my fear kept growing till it made my body feel like it would implode on itself.
I had just one hope. I would make it to the regional base of the Runesca Guild, and they would save me. Yet, the subliminal space extended on. The houses now were all broken down, none stood upright. Some had some sort of grey goo moving around it, and others had shadows in grotesque shapes sleeping or creatures contorting creepily in abysmall shapes.
I, unfortunately didn't have the privilege of stopping to take a longer look.
[9:50]
The timer still loomed ominously, it'd just been 30 seconds. It felt a lot longer than that. Maybe that wasn't just an illusion, maybe time truly was different here.
I ran without looking behind me. And i realised, I couldn't run anymore. But the terror was subsiding, and I felt a lot less crushed than before. I braced myself and turned around. My eyes looked around, taking in the never ending sight of ruined houses. There was no sign of him. I sighed, I guess he left me alone, maybe I wasnt worth his time anyway. I needed to go north, and i turned back around.
The mass of shadows, ripping apart space and time, stood just an inch in front of me.
The pressure in my entire body rushed back in, and I felt my heart pumping blood like a machine. This was the end, huh? I wanted to do a lot more with my life. I felt iron in my mouth; was I choking on my blood? I really couldn't think of what I wanted to do. What did I want to become again? None of that mattered anyway; all that mattered was the mass of darkness standing in front of me and the blood gushing out of my mouth.
I saw an amalgamation between a tentacle and a block of cheese; that was the closest way I could describe it, stretching out and attempting to touch me.
____
[9:47]
I opened my eyes, and the timer was still up there, counting down. Wait, I felt this weird tingling sensation on my body. What was that? I looked up to realise the sky was tinted blue, and the sun was as bright as it could be. I was at the hill, my body spread-eagled on the floor. My uniform was neat and ironed, and the sound of cars and bikes, and the other sounds of modern society were audible... I never thought I'd be this happy to feel the sun on my body.
It was all just a dream. That girl Alice must've sprayed me with some hallucinogen or just knocked me out or something.
I sprinted to my house, beyond the valley, and up to what the townspeople called, "The Garden House". My mother loved all things nature, you see. And my grandfather, he hated the outdoors, and barely came out of his room. Id get to see them. I rushed throught the door, didn't take my muck filled shoes off, and rammed straight into my mother. She seemed to have been washing the utensils.
"Oh, Altair, did something good happen at school today? Eek, it's been a long time since you've shown me this much love." Her apron was wet from the splashing water from the basin.
"Mom, I love you. I'm so sorry, I never should've blamed you for everything."
Her eyes narrowed into a cross.
"Altair, what're you talking about, well anyway where's the little princess, didn't you bring her with you today?"
Her eyes grew concerned.
Wait, little princess...that could only mean one person. Wait. No.
"Mom, who are you talking about?"
She turned the tap off and turned around, her face scrunching up in concern.
"Son, you know I hate it when you play these pranks on me. Think about how scared your sister would be. Run off and fetch her now."
It finally hit me. This wasn't my time. I didn't even know if this was real. But it didn't matter, I needed to see my sister.
I ran without closing the door behind me, went beyond the valley, and past the hill. Just as I was passing the pitfall, i saw someone there. A short girl, with long blonde hair.
"Alice", I muttered. But no, she was too short to be Alice. I knew who that was, but my mind didn't want to accept it.
A child's voice came out, "I'm sorry, brother. I can't do this anymore."
Her body went limp as she fell into the pit. I couldn't stop myself and I ran and ran. Yet the distance between me and her seemed to only increase. The space felt subliminal as the pit grew farther and farther away. After a minute of running, my body went boneless, and I fell.
___
I opened my eyes, and the timer was still up there.
[9:27]
That was a long time still. Wait where was I? I still felt the sun's rays on me, I looked around to see, I was still on the hill, next to the pit. The sounds of cars, bikes and many other things that symbilsed a modern city, could be heard. I never thought I'd dread feeling the sun on my body this much.
I looked up, to see her again. The short girl, with long blonde hair. She was about to jump. I knew anything I did was futile, I knew all my efforts would end up in the dumps. I tried to hold myself to this position and close my eyes. But then why were my legs moving. Why was I running past the subliminal space, why was I trying to hard to save her. I knew it was impossible. But I had to.
My legs, once again, gave out, and I fell. My body felt the gravel scratching my knees through the thin fabric of my pants. I could feel one large piece of rock slowly cut through my arm.
____
My eyes opened, I felt the sun, I saw her about to jump, and I couldn't save her. This cycle repeated so many times that I lost count. After the first 50 or so times, I stopped trying to run. I steeled my mind to not look at what was happening, yet whichever way I looked, I could see her jump. For the next ten cycles or so, I tried to close my eyes, yet even with my eyes closed, all I could see was her jumping. I knew I wasn't back home, I knew this was the Eternal Fear trying to get to me. Yet, I couldn't do anything about it. After the first 100 or so cycles, I realised that my life had no worth. Even if I lived past, let's say 1000 cycles and got back to that demon world, I would probably get killed by a Zenith in a minute. I looked at the timer for the first time in a while,
[4:44]
There were around 5 minutes left. I couldn't take it anymore. I pulled myself up, got on all fours, and did something horrible. I started bashing my head against the floor. I went one, two, three, four. Again, and again, and again. I wasn't someone who deserved to live. When someone like her died, why the hell was I living? I kept bashing my head in. Twenty-seven, twenty-eight. I didn't stop.
And then it all went black.
____
[1:16]
I needed to die. That was the first thought that entered my mind as I opened my eyes and saw the timer. This time, I didn't feel the warm embrace of the sun god; I felt the frosty breeze assault my neck. I looked up, and I saw the familiar blood moon, which I never thought I'd feel the slightest happiness while seeing. But it didn't matter, did it? I was going to die. I wandered within the rubble, looking for something, anything sharp.
[0:49]
Time was running out, I needed to die. I needed to die. I needed to die. I needed to die. The thought bashed into my head as I searched for anything sharp. After a short time, I found a knife. It had been chipped, and its blade was half as tall as its handle, but it would do the job.
[0:09]
I needed to die. I held the knife to my neck, and I slowly pushed it in. I felt something dripping from my neck. I felt a weird burning sensation there, and I felt like I would faint. It kept going deeper, slowly injecting itself into my skin. This foreign object kept pushing itself into my neck. Wait what. What the fuck was I doing.
I dropped the knife.
[Sub Scenario, "Death is Permanent" has been completed successfully]
[Rewards (1) have been received. Your life is safe.]
I held my hand against my neck with intense pressure. I needed to stop the bleeding, I couldn't care less about the screen at this point. I looked around, but I couldn't see the Eldrich monster. And the roads didn't seem as subliminal as before, I could see slight smoke coming from the north. Wait, I guess that was it. I'm sure they could patch me up. I grabbed the knife and put it in my pocket.
I walked as fast as I could. My left arm held my neck as tightly as it could. I could feel my blood rushing into my throat. I stopped every few steps to retch out blood, as much as I could at least. And soon I got there, or at least I thought I did. A 2-meter fence with barbed wire was standing in front of me, and 2 large doors made seemingly of iron boomed that I would never be let in.
Well, that was the last thing I remembered before i fainted. My last thought being that if there was a deity of fainting and getting knocked out. I was perhaps its biggest devotee.