"I am your reckoning," the entity said, its voice a thousand voices melding into one. "And you will bow before me, or you will perish in the wake of my power."
Ethan stepped forward, his body tense, every muscle straining as he prepared for a fight that seemed hopeless.
"You'll have to kill me first," he growled, his voice unwavering.
The figure tilted its head, its voice shifting to a low chuckle. "That can be arranged."
But before any more words could be exchanged, the ground beneath them seemed to tremble violently. The walls buckled as the air grew heavier, more charged. Something enormous was coming. The room, the building—everything around them was beginning to collapse.
Mia barely had time to react before the floor cracked open beneath her feet. She screamed as she fell into the abyss, and everything went black.
Mia awoke in darkness, her body aching as if she had been through a great struggle. She opened her eyes, blinking to clear the fog, but everything around her remained pitch black. The air was cold, and the silence was suffocating.
"Ethan?" she called, her voice trembling in the vast emptiness.
There was no response. Panic began to rise in her chest. Where was everyone? What had happened to the room, to the building?
The last thing she remembered was the ground cracking beneath her, the presence of the entity overwhelming the space.
Mia pushed herself to her feet, her limbs heavy and stiff. She took a few tentative steps forward, trying to make sense of her surroundings, but the darkness seemed endless, consuming everything around her. She felt like she was in a void, trapped between worlds.
And then, in the distance, she saw a flicker of light—a weak, flickering glow that seemed impossibly far away. Desperation surged through her, and without thinking, she began running toward it.
Her footsteps echoed in the vast emptiness as she raced toward the light. But as she drew closer, she felt an intense pressure in the air. It was as though the light itself was pulling at her, tugging at her very soul.
And then, as she reached the light, it swallowed her whole. Mia felt herself pulled into the light, her body weightless, as though the very fabric of reality had stretched and folded around her. She gasped for breath, but it was as if the air itself was different here, thick and unfamiliar. Her surroundings shifted violently, and just when she thought she might lose herself entirely, the world snapped back into focus.
She found herself standing on solid ground once again, though not in the familiar place she had expected. The space was vast, open—almost endless. The walls around her were made of shifting shadows, yet there was a strange warmth to the air, as though she was standing in the eye of a storm. The light was no longer just a flicker but a blinding halo above her, casting a pale, otherworldly glow on everything.
And then she saw it.
Ethan.
He was lying on the ground a few feet ahead of her, unmoving. His face was pale, his body contorted unnaturally, as though he had been thrown here by some force beyond human comprehension.
"Ethan!" Mia cried, rushing to his side.