I woke up to the sensation of something rough and wet dragging across my face.
I grumbled, turning my head away.
My pillow was unusually firm and... vibrating? That didn't seem right.
The wet sensation returned, more insistent this time, accompanied by a huffing sound that blew warm air against my cheek.
Memory crashed back like a tidal wave. Not my bed. Not my room. Not even my world.
My eyes snapped open to meet Loki's glowing yellow ones, his face uncomfortably close to mine. His rough tongue retracted, mission accomplished now that I was awake.
"Gross," I complained halfheartedly, wiping my cheek with my sleeve. "Haven't you evolved beyond cat hygiene habits?"
Loki made a dismissive sound and moved away, giving me space to sit up. My body protested every movement, muscles stiff from sleeping on stone and sore from yesterday's events. The cut on my thigh had crusted over, the makeshift bandage sticking to the wound.
Dawn light filtered through the ruins, giving me my first clear look at our shelter since we'd arrived in near-darkness.
The stone structure was more intact than I'd initially thought. What I had taken for random rubble now revealed itself as a deliberate pattern—the remains of a circular building with the dais at its center. Symbols similar to the one I'd recognized were carved at regular intervals around the walls, though most were worn nearly smooth by time.
"So not just a random outpost," I mused aloud, pushing myself to my feet with a groan. "This was something important."
Loki was already moving around the perimeter, nose to the ground, checking for any signs of intrusion during the night. His transformed state seemed permanent, or at least stable for now. The wounds he'd sustained yesterday were completely healed, not even a scar visible beneath his midnight fur.
My own injuries felt... strange. The thigh cut still hurt, but less than it should have. And my arm, where the club had struck with enough force to shatter bone, showed nothing but a faint bruise.
"Whatever's happening to me," I said, flexing my arm experimentally, "it seems to include some kind of enhanced healing. Not as good as yours, but definitely not normal."
My stomach growled loudly, reminding me that supernatural healing or not, my body still had very human needs.
"Food," I craved, looking around as if breakfast might magically appear. "Water. Bathroom. The basic survival trifecta we're currently zero for three on."
Loki returned from his inspection, apparently satisfied that we were alone. He looked at me expectantly, as if waiting for a decision on our next move.
"I don't suppose you've developed hunting skills along with the new look?" I asked hopefully. "Because if we're stuck here much longer, we're going to need to eat."
For answer, Loki turned and padded toward one of the broken walls, pausing to look back at me in clear invitation to follow.
"Hunting it is, then," I said, trying to ignore how surreal my life had become that I was now considering following my transformed pet on a monster-world hunting expedition. "Let me just..."
I trailed off, my attention caught by something I hadn't noticed the night before. In the center of the dais, where the spiral symbol was carved, a small recess had formed. Inside was what looked like clear water, about a handful's worth, collected in the hollow of the stone.
"What's this?" I approached cautiously, half-expecting it to be some kind of acid or poison. The liquid was perfectly clear, reflecting the early morning light like a tiny mirror.
Loki made a questioning sound from the wall where he waited.
"Just a second," I called back. "There's something here."
I reached out tentatively, my fingertips hovering just above the surface of the liquid. No heat radiated from it, no strange smell emanated from it. It looked for all the world like ordinary water caught in a depression in the stone.
Except there had been no rain. And the hollow was perfectly formed, as if intentionally carved to hold exactly this much liquid.
"I'm probably going to regret this," I muttered, then dipped my finger into the water.
It was cool to the touch, with the slightly slick quality of extremely pure water. Nothing unusual happened, no burning sensation or strange effect. Just... water.
Feeling somewhat bolder, I cupped my hand and lifted some to my lips. My thirst overcame caution—if it was going to kill me, it probably would have done so on contact.
The liquid tasted like... nothing. Not the absence of taste, but a purity so complete it defied description. It slid down my throat like silk, and almost immediately I felt a wave of refreshment wash through my body. The stiffness in my muscles eased, the throbbing in my thigh dulled, and the gnawing hunger in my stomach subsided—not disappearing completely, but becoming manageable.
"Whoa," I breathed, staring at the now-empty hollow. "Magic water. Definitely not in Ontario anymore."
Loki made a more insistent noise from his position by the wall.
"Coming, coming," I said, feeling unexpectedly energized. "Lead the way, oh mighty hunter."
We left the stone structure and re-entered the forest, this time with more purpose.
Loki moved with the silent grace of a natural predator, while I did my best not to sound like a stampeding elephant behind him.
The morning air was crisp and filled with unfamiliar scents—sweet, spicy, some almost metallic.
After about fifteen minutes of careful stalking, Loki froze, his ears swiveling forward. I followed his gaze to see a creature that looked something like a rabbit, if rabbits had six legs and iridescent scales instead of fur. It was nibbling on something at the base of a tree, oblivious to our presence.
Loki glanced back at me with a look that clearly said, Stay here and don't mess this up.
"No arguments from me," I whispered, crouching behind a fallen log.
What followed was a demonstration of hunting prowess that would have made any nature documentary filmmaker weep with joy.
Loki circled wide, placing himself downwind of the prey, then crept forward with such careful precision that not a single leaf rustled beneath his paws. The rabbit-thing continued its meal, completely unaware of the predator closing in.
The strike, when it came, was so fast I nearly missed it—a black blur launching forward, powerful jaws closing around the creature's neck in a killing bite that was as merciful as it was efficient. There was barely a sound, just a brief flutter of movement, and then stillness.
Loki trotted back to me, his prize dangling from his mouth, looking inordinately pleased with himself.
"Impressive," I admitted, standing up from my hiding spot. "But, uh, that's yours, right? Because I'm not quite desperate enough for raw six-legged rabbit yet."
He dropped the catch at my feet with an expression that somehow conveyed both pride in his accomplishment and disappointment in my lack of survival instinct.
"I appreciate the thought," I said quickly. "Really. But we're going to need to figure out fire if I'm going to eat anything around here. Human stomachs and parasites, you know?"
Loki huffed but picked up his catch again, apparently content to have it for himself.
We continued our exploration, moving away from the ruins but marking our path so we could find our way back. I kept a careful eye out for any edible plants, though without any knowledge of local flora, I wasn't about to start sampling randomly.
The forest grew denser as we moved deeper, the trees taller and more tightly packed. Strange sounds echoed through the air—calls that might have been birds but sounded more like crystal wind chimes, rustling movements too coordinated to be just wind.
"I keep feeling like we're being watched," I said quietly to Loki, who had finished his meal and was once again on alert. "Not necessarily by anything hostile, just... observed."
Loki's ears twitched in agreement, his gaze scanning the upper branches of the surrounding trees.
We pressed on until the forest suddenly opened into another clearing, this one much larger than the ruins we'd camped in. At its center stood what could only be described as a temple—an immense structure of the same stone as the ruins, but intact and imposing.
Massive columns supported a roof adorned with statues of creatures I couldn't identify. The entrance was a dark archway, uninvitingly open like the maw of some giant beast.
"Okay," I said, stopping at the edge of the clearing. "That's definitely civilization. Or was. The question is whether we want to go in there."
Loki growled softly, his posture tense. Whatever was in that temple, he didn't like it.
"Yeah, that's what I thought too," I agreed. "But it might have answers. Or food. Or a way home." I hesitated, torn between caution and necessity.
"We can't wander this forest forever."
Before I could make a decision, a sound drifted from the temple entrance—a low, melodic humming that seemed to vibrate the very air. It rose and fell in a pattern that was almost, but not quite, music.
"What is that?" I whispered, the hair on my arms rising.
The humming grew louder, more insistent. And with it came a pull—not physical like the void that had brought us here, but a mental tug, an urge to move forward, to enter the temple, to find the source of that haunting sound.
Loki planted himself in front of me, growling more forcefully now. His message was clear: Don't listen to it. Don't go in there.
"I feel it too," I said, shaking my head to clear it of the compelling sound. "Something wants us to go in. Or wants me to, at least."
The humming reached a crescendo, then abruptly stopped, leaving an absence that felt almost as powerful as the sound itself.
In the silence that followed, something emerged from the temple doorway.
At first, I thought it was a person—it had two arms, two legs, a head. But as it moved into the sunlight, I realized how wrong I was.
Its body was composed of what looked like liquid glass, constantly flowing and reshaping while maintaining a roughly humanoid form. Where a face should have been was a swirling vortex of multicolored light, hypnotic in its patterns.
"Yep, definitely not going in there," I said, backing away slowly. "Loki, let's—"
The glass being suddenly turned its attention directly toward us, the swirling lights in its "face" freezing in a pattern reminiscent of eyes and a mouth. It raised one fluid arm, pointing directly at me.
When it spoke, the sound came from everywhere and nowhere, bypassing my ears entirely and resonating directly in my mind.
CONTENDER.
The single word hit me like a physical force, sending me staggering back a step. Loki roared, placing himself between me and the entity.
APPROACH. BE JUDGED.
"No thank you," I called back, continuing to retreat toward the treeline. "We're just passing through. No judgment necessary."
The being took a step forward, its glass body flowing over the ground rather than walking on it.
THE TRIAL HAS BEGUN. THERE IS NO REFUSAL.
"Watch me refuse," I gritted, turning to run.
Before I could take a single step, the ground beneath my feet transformed. The solid earth melted into the same fluid glass as the being's body, wrapping around my ankles and hardening instantly. I was trapped, unable to move my feet at all.
"Loki!" I yelled, panic rising.
Loki leaped toward the glass entity, jaws wide, claws extended. But as he reached it, the being's form simply parted around him, flowing aside like water and reforming unharmed. Loki skidded to a halt, confusion evident in his posture.
THE FAMILIAR IS NOT PART OF THE TRIAL. IT WILL NOT INTERFERE.
With another flowing gesture, the entity created a sphere of the same glass material around Loki, encasing him completely. I could see him inside, throwing himself against the walls of his prison, his roars muted to near silence by the barrier.
"Let him go!" I shouted, struggling futilely against my own bonds. "He has nothing to do with this!"
THE FAMILIAR HAS CHOSEN ITS PATH. YOU HAVE YET TO CHOOSE YOURS.
The being glided closer, its faceless visage now just feet from my own. I could see infinite depths within its swirling lights, galaxies and voids spinning in patternless chaos.
YOU BLEED THE BLOOD OF LIGHT. YOU BEAR THE TOUCH OF SOL.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, heart racing. "I'm just a business student from Ontario. I got pulled here by accident."
THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS IN THE WEAVING OF WORLDS.
The being reached out one fluid hand, placing it against my chest directly over my heart. Cold seeped through my clothes, into my skin, reaching something deep inside me that I hadn't known existed.
THE SHADOW HAS CHOSEN ITS VESSEL. THE LIGHT MUST CHOOSE AS WELL.
Images flashed through my mind—a war between beings of pure light and absolute darkness, a creator watching with detached interest, a rebellion quashed with merciless force, imprisonment, an oath of vengeance, millennia of waiting...
"Stop," I gasped, my head throbbing with the onslaught of alien memories. "I don't understand."
UNDERSTANDING IS NOT REQUIRED. ONLY CHOICE.
The cold spread, numbing me from the inside out. I could no longer feel my limbs, could barely remember why I should be afraid. There was only the light spiraling in the being's non-face, drawing me in, promising answers if I would just surrender to it.
Dimly, as if from a great distance, I heard Loki howling.
The sound cut through the fog beginning to envelop my mind.
Loki. My cat. My friend. He needed me.
"No," I said, the word feeling thick and foreign on my tongue. "Whatever you're doing, whatever you want from me, the answer is no."
The being's lights pulsed with what might have been surprise.
REFUSAL IS... UNEXPECTED. THE BLOOD OF LIGHT FLOWS IN YOU.
"My blood is my own," I managed to say, fighting through the mental quicksand pulling at my thoughts. "And Loki needs me. Let us go."
THE TRIAL IS NOT COMPLETE.
"I don't care about your trial!" With each word, my thoughts cleared a little more. Anger replaced fear, burning away the cold spreading through my body. "I didn't ask for this! I just want to go home!"
The mention of home sent another flash of pain through my head—my grandparents, their faces worried, searching our neighborhood as night fell. The image was so vivid it felt less like a memory and more like... a vision?
"My grandparents," I gasped. "They're looking for me. They need me."
ATTACHMENTS TO THE MATERIAL PLANE. INTERESTING.
The being withdrew its hand from my chest, the cold receding slightly. It seemed to be considering me with new interest.
PERHAPS THERE IS ANOTHER WAY.
Before I could ask what it meant, the being flowed backward, returning to the temple entrance. With a gesture, the glass encasing Loki shattered, freeing him. He immediately raced to my side, positioning himself protectively in front of me, though my feet remained trapped in the hardened glass.
A CHALLENGE THEN, INSTEAD OF SURRENDER. PROVE YOUR WORTH, CONTENDER.
The humming began again, this time with a deeper, more ominous tone. The ground trembled beneath us, and from the temple emerged... something.
At first, it appeared to be simply a larger version of the glass being. But as it fully exited the temple, I saw the differences.
This new entity was easily three times the height of its summoner, its glass body shot through with veins of what looked like molten metal. Instead of a swirling vortex for a face, it had a clearly defined head with features carved from the same glass—a mockery of a human face with empty eye sockets and a gaping maw.
DEFEAT THE GUARDIAN. EARN YOUR FREEDOM. FAIL, AND YOUR ESSENCE JOINS THE COLLECTIVE.
"That's not fair!" I shouted as the first being retreated into the temple, leaving its monstrous creation advancing toward us. "I don't even have a weapon!"
No response came. The glass giant continued its approach, each step cracking the earth beneath its massive feet. My own feet remained trapped, making me a sitting duck for whatever attack it planned.
Loki snarled, hackles raised, but even in his transformed state, he looked tiny compared to the approaching monstrosity.
"Loki, you can't fight that thing," I said urgently. "It's too big, too strong."
He ignored me, charging forward to meet the giant. His claws scrabbled uselessly against the glass legs, not even leaving a scratch. The giant barely seemed to notice, casually swinging one massive arm that caught Loki mid-leap and sent him flying across the clearing.
"LOKI!" I screamed as he crashed into a tree trunk with a sickening thud. He crumpled to the ground, momentarily stunned.
Panic gave me strength I didn't know I had. I wrenched at my trapped feet, feeling something in my ankle give painfully, but the glass held firm. The giant was now just steps away, its eyeless gaze fixed on me.
"Come on," I growled, bracing my hands against my knee and pulling upward with all my might. "COME ON!"
Nothing. The trap held. The giant reached down, its massive hand descending to grab me.
Just as those glass fingers were about to close around me, a black blur shot across my vision.
Loki, recovered enough to rejoin the fight, launched himself at the giant's face. His claws found purchase in the eye sockets, and he tore at them ferociously, trying to distract the monster from me.
The giant roared, a sound like breaking crystal multiplied a thousandfold. It straightened up, hands reaching for the panther clinging to its face. Loki dodged the grasping fingers, leaping to the giant's shoulder and then its back, always staying just out of reach.
But it was a losing game.
The giant was simply too massive, its body too durable for Loki's attacks to do any real damage. And I was still trapped, unable to help.
The inevitable happened moments later. The giant managed to grab Loki mid-leap, its massive hand closing around my cat's body. Loki struggled, but the grip was too strong. I watched in horror as the giant began to squeeze.
"NO!" I screamed, renewing my efforts to free myself. "STOP! TAKE ME INSTEAD!"
The giant paid no attention, continuing to tighten its grip. Loki's struggles weakened, his roars turning to pained whimpers.
Something inside me snapped. Not physically—something deeper, more fundamental. A barrier I hadn't known existed suddenly shattered, releasing a flood of... something... that rushed through my veins like liquid fire.
My vision tinged gold, the world taking on a strange underwater quality I'd experienced briefly during yesterday's fight. But this time, it didn't fade. This time, it intensified, the golden light spreading from my eyes to encompass my entire body.
The glass around my feet cracked, then shattered completely, freeing me. But I barely noticed, my attention fixed entirely on Loki and the giant slowly crushing the life from him.
I moved without conscious thought, covering the distance between us in a heartbeat. My hand reached up, touching the giant's leg, and words I'd never heard before spilled from my lips in a language I didn't recognize.
Light erupted from my palm, not just the golden glow surrounding me but pure, white-hot radiance that flowed into the giant's glass body. The creature froze, its grip on Loki loosening just enough for him to wriggle free and drop to the ground, where he lay gasping and injured.
The light spread through the giant like a living thing, filling it from feet to head until it glowed like a small sun. Cracks appeared along its surface, light spilling from them in blinding rays.
I stepped back, watching with detached fascination as the giant began to disintegrate, pieces of glass falling away and dissolving into motes of light that scattered on the breeze.
In seconds, the massive creature was gone, leaving nothing but a fine, glittering dust settling on the clearing.
The golden tinge faded from my vision. The fire in my veins cooled. I staggered, suddenly exhausted, and fell to my knees beside Loki.
"Loki," I whispered, gently touching his heaving side. "Are you okay?"
He looked up at me, those yellow eyes clouded with pain but still alert. He made a small noise that I chose to interpret as "I'll live."
"That was too close," I said, my voice shaking as reaction set in. I carefully examined him, finding several areas where the giant's grip had left deep bruises but thankfully no broken bones that I could detect. "We need to get out of here before—"
IMPRESSIVE.
The voice in my mind made me jerk upright. The first glass being had returned, standing at the edge of the clearing, observing us with what felt like clinical interest.
THE LIGHT RESPONDS TO YOUR CALL, EVEN UNTRAINED. PERHAPS SOL CHOSE BETTER THAN I THOUGHT.
"I don't know who or what Sol is," I said, placing myself between the entity and Loki. "I just want to leave."
YOU HAVE DEFEATED THE GUARDIAN. YOU ARE FREE TO GO.
The being made a dismissive gesture, and the temple behind it began to shimmer and fade, as if it had never been entirely real.
BUT KNOW THIS, CONTENDER: YOU HAVE DRAWN ATTENTION. THE SHADOW WILL SENSE YOU NOW. THE GAME BEGINS ANEW.
"What game? What shadow?" I demanded, frustration overcoming fear. "Just tell me how to get home!"
HOME IS WHERE YOUR PURPOSE LEADS.
The being itself was fading now, its glass form becoming transparent.
THE QUEST AWAITS.
'THE LIGHT OF A LOST BEING.'
COMPLETE IT, AND FIND YOUR PATH.
With those cryptic words, the entity vanished completely. The clearing was suddenly just a clearing—no temple, no giant, no trace that any of it had existed except for the fine glitter of dust on the grass and Loki's injuries.
"What the hell just happened?" I gaped, looking down at my hands.
They looked normal now, no trace of the golden light that had erupted from them. But they didn't feel normal. Nothing did.
Loki struggled to his feet, swaying slightly but determined to stand. He looked at me with an expression I couldn't quite read—something between awe and wariness, as if he wasn't entirely sure who or what I was anymore.
"It's still me, buddy," I assured him, though I wasn't entirely convinced of that myself. "Whatever just happened... we'll figure it out together."
He seemed to accept this, moving closer to lean against my leg, either for support or reassurance or both.
I was about to suggest we return to the relative safety of the ruins when a blinding pain lanced through my head.
I cried out, dropping to my knees again, hands pressed to my temples. Images flashed behind my eyes—people in strange armored suits fighting creatures like the ones we'd encountered, gates opening in the sky, a figure rising from shadow with an army of the dead behind him...
And then, superimposed over it all, floating blue rectangles filled with text.
The pain subsided as quickly as it had come, leaving me gasping but clear-headed enough to read the impossible message hovering in the air before me:
[Quest Complete: "The Light of a Lost Being"]
[Requirement Met: Demonstrate willingness to sacrifice self for another]
[Reward: Player Status Unlocked]
[Do you accept the System's guidance? ^_^]
[YES] [NO]
I stared at the text, my mind struggling to process what I was seeing. A quest? A system? Player status? It sounded like...
"A video game," I whispered, the realization hitting me like a knock on the head. "This is like a video game interface."
Loki made a questioning sound, his eyes following my gaze but clearly seeing nothing.
"You can't see this, can you?" I asked, pointing at the floating text. "There's... there's a message. Floating right here."
He tilted his head, confirming my suspicion that whatever this was, it was visible only to me.
The text pulsed gently, drawing my attention back to the question it posed.
[Do you accept the System's guidance?]
Did I have a choice? If accepting meant gaining some understanding of what was happening to me, to us, maybe even finding a way home...
"Yes," I said aloud, reaching out to touch the [YES] option. "I accept."
The moment my finger contacted the glowing word, a surge of information flooded my mind—rules, parameters, capabilities, limitations—too much to process all at once. The blue rectangles multiplied, filling my vision with status screens, inventory panels, skill trees, and dozens of other displays I couldn't begin to comprehend.
The overload was too much. Darkness crept in from the edges of my vision, the world tilting sideways as consciousness slipped away. The last thing I heard was Loki's alarmed yowl as I collapsed onto the grass of the clearing.
The last thing I felt was a profound sense that nothing would ever be the same again.
The last thing I thought was a name, rising unbidden from the sea of new information drowning my mind: Sung Jinwoo.
And then nothing.