Lucy stumbled through the red darkness of midnight with a faint golden trail of aether blazing from her left hand as she pressed forward. The rapid fall had left her bleeding and disoriented, and her previous desperate attempt to climb the cliff had only drained what strength remained. With no way back, she searched for refuge. But she feared every sign of death at every crevice she passed, afraid each one hid a Rot anticipating to strike.
Pain surged through her legs as she reached a swamp's murky water. The water met her wounds with bits of bark and broken twigs flicking against her skin like tiny bites. She fell forward, hands sinking into the cold water and aggravating the gashes along her arms. She clenched her teeth as tears slipped free from her eye ducts, focusing on the only thing she could still make out; the faint reflection of the moon and her face washed upon it.
She exhaled large breaths as her voice escaped her throat. Each movement made the pain much worse. She couldn't afford to move all at once, but she realized she would have to in order to escape her predicament.
She braced her right thigh and pushed herself out of the water, dragging her body onto the damp shoreline where mud split the bank in uneven ridges. She had braced for the surge of pain, and because she expected it, it struck her less sharply than she feared.
Her left hand tingled as the sensation of something brimming within forced her to gaze upon it even closer. Drops of water tickled her cheeks as she watched a golden trail flow as she moved her hand side to side.
Unable to force out a single word, she set her palm beside her, only to jerk in alarm as a patch of grass vanished the instant her hand touched it. She recoiled, lifting her palm and staring at it, stunned by the power pulsing beneath her skin.
"W‑Wha…" Her voice barely formed a sound. "What the fuck… what is this…"
Rapid bubbles suddenly surfaced from faraway, echoing through the silence of the night. Lucy gasped, recoiling back against the dirt beneath her as her gaze darted towards it. After a brief second of respite once it had settled down, the bubbling suddenly exploded, gushing out of the swamp water as a single gargantuan tentacle sprouted out from the center of its mass. It flung muck into the air as it unfurled its grotesque length.
"WHAT THE FUCK!?" Lucy screamed at the top of her lungs as the tentacle charged straight at her, prompting her to hurl herself sideways just as the limb crashed down where she'd been. Watching as the Rot-infested tentacle slithered slowly toward the swamp water as a gurgling growl bellowed from somewhere beneath the unknown mire.
She sprang upward desperate to break away, but three more tentacles erupted from the swamp and whipped toward her, coiling around her wrists before she could react. A fourth tentacle that was much thinner, almost needle like, shot out after them, driving straight into her flank and latching onto her body. Blood seeped into its hungry tentacle as it hoisted her toward the swamp's center. Her screams tore from her throat as she thrashed against the thick, muscular limbs. But their combined strength held her fast, smothering every attempt at escape.
"HELP!" Lucy cried. But her voices were drowned out by the thunderous splashing of the water, followed by the culprit of what had taken her hostage. A glistening, swollen, and spherical mass of flesh composed of muck. As it lifted itself above the waterline, the creature unfurled a circular maw with rows upon rows of jagged, uneven teeth made from hardened detritus, bone fragments, and calcified sludge.
Lucy screamed for help, but her voice vanished beneath the violent churn of the swamp—drowned out by the thunderous splashes and the monstrous thing rising to claim her. The water heaved upward, and from its center emerged the true culprit: a swollen, glistening mass of flesh shaped like a sphere, its surface slick with rot and swamp muck. The mouth pulsed as it opened, stretching wider than any natural jaw should, revealing previously eaten decomposing corpses within its massive throat.
A choking chemical scent nearly forced Lucy to vomit as it prepared to devour her. As she seemingly prepared to give up, she managed to free her arms from the tentacles grasping around her waist, placing them on its slimy flesh. Light rippled across the tentacle in a molten sheen, coating it in shimmering gold before the entire limb crumbled away into drifting ash, disintegrating as though it had never existed at all.
Collapsing upon the water, Lucy made her escape as she pressed her right palm against the wound gushing out of her flank. Knowing that the creature would never back down, she spun around and held out her left palm towards it, gripped firmly by her right hand in support.
"Alright, come on, you fucker!" She threatened. "You wanna eat ME? HUH? COME ON!"
Just as the beast lunged in a final attempt to swallow her whole, a streak of lightning tore across the swamp from somewhere beyond her reach, striking with impossible speed. Lucy staggered back as a crackling spear ripped through the creature's flank, forcing a strangled whimper from its massive body.
Under the wash of crimson moonlight, her vision caught the faint silhouette of someone materializing out of the darkness. In a single fluid motion, the figure carved through the beast's skull, unleashing a spray of blood that rained down in violent sheets. Lucy scrambled toward the shore and shielded her face as the creature's dying howl collapsed into silence, drowning beneath the abyss.
Breathing hard, she pressed her back against the muddy bank and raised her golden left palm toward the place where the monster had fallen. The figure who had saved her was gone without a trace. She scanned the shadows for any sign of movement, but her eyes could barely make out anything, until a deep voice shattered her concentration.
"Not the first..." The voice croaked.
"Huh?" Lucy jerked backward with a sharp inhale. The moment she moved, her injury flared viciously, sending a hot spike of pain through her side as a thin line of blood seeped outward.
"Not the first time... I've seen... mmm..." A silhouette of a lanky corroded statue sat on the edge of a large boulder with a tattered cloak draped behind its neck. Its spear remained firmly in its right hand, and its pencil-shaped head angled downward, as if it was saddened by something. "Aether... of the same kind..."
"I..." Lucy couldn't last much longer with her pain. She reached out and kneeled upward toward the figure. "I need your help... agh," She trembled, closing her eyes. "I need something... to block this. Medicine, or anything. Please-"
"I can't seem to remember," The figure continued mumbling on its own, ignoring Lucy's pleads. "I'm... stuck."
After impatiently pleading, Lucy pushed forward toward the figure, only to be shocked at what it was composed of. Silver cracked glass stretched across its body, once smooth but now fractured into dull plates. Each crack felt like it corroded the creature. An opaque visor wrapped over its head, all devoid of any soul or life within. It was the first truly alien being she had ever encountered in her life.
The figure's head snapped toward her in an instant with its visor gleaming as it fixed on her. Lucy eased back a single step under the weight of its scrutiny.
"You're not her." It voiced out.
"I don't know who you're talking about." Lucy said.
"You sound like her," The figure said, leaping off the boulder. It circled her in a slow, deliberate arc, studying her with the cold precision of a scientist dissecting a specimen. "Feel like her too."
"Who's... her?"
"Hmm... no," The figure stopped, turning around in shameful thought. "Who was it again?"
"Please..." Lucy impatiently continued. "I'm... bleeding. I need-"
The figure snapped forward again toward her, snatching her left arm with its cold crystalline hands. Lucy yelped, unable to draw back. Her palm extended outwards, revealing the golden energy swirling and mixing within her body.
"Yes..." The figure whispered, holding her palm toward her hip wound. "I remember some now..."
"Wait, stop!"
Her fear of simply dissolving under her own mysterious power vanished the moment the golden energy surged through her. Warm light washed over the torn flesh, sealing the wound shut entirely, as though her body had been bathed in a gentle, restorative glow. She regained her strength once more as her breath began to come back from the depths of darkness.
Lucy's voice faltered. "How did you… how did you know to do that?"
The figure didn't answer. It went still, head angling away as if refusing her gaze, its silence deliberate enough to draw her a step closer.
"Are you… okay?" She asked softly.
It gave a small nod, but a faint shiver ran through its body. It was an unspoken secret dismissal of its forgotten memory. A lie.
"Yes." The figure's voice deepened even more.
She caught on the lie, but she said nothing more. She was intrigued by his characteristics. "So, who are you?" Lucy asked, examining the creature even further. "You knew how to fix me. You knew what I could do. You..." Lucy paused and affixed her gaze toward her left palm as the energy within radiated into the air above her. She deduced that his sudden appearance was far from coincidence. "You know what this is. That's why you saved me. You're looking for me, aren't you?"
"You're not her," The wanderer denied. "All of it was a mistake."
"It can't be a mistake..." Lucy dragged off, turning to her side before looking down hopelessly at her feet. She glanced over at her left hand in denial.
The wanderer remained silent as he studied Lucy more closely. Kneeling down, he immediately caught her attention. They held each other's gaze for a long moment in silence while Lucy struggled to make sense of its enigmatic behavior.
"You're a fragment, like me," The wanderer begun, standing upright from his examination. "We're alike in that manner. Our existence is purely coincidental. I've suffered long enough knowing this... and all of it must end."
"What are you talking about?" Lucy asked.
"You have had nightmares, have you not? Nightmares where you wander endlessly looking for something missing, only to realize there was no connection within what you had experienced."
The faint memory returned to her; she was alone on the same frozen lake beneath a sky drained of all lucidity. She remembered cupping her hands together in the cold, seeking what little warmth she could muster to herself. And in the distance, a solitary cabin sat at the edge of the lake, drawing nearer and nearer, but never once opening its door to unveil the mystery within.
"I have seen it, time and time again. Every memory within us has sought to deceive. The power of deception lies dormant within me. And I can see each and every trickling memory day by day."
"Who..." Lucy's voice faltered as she stepped closer. Her heart quickened. "Who are you?"
The wanderer kneeled down once more, reaching out with its left palm before exerting a jab forward, clutching Lucy's golden left palm tightly.
"Let me show you... what I see."
Lucy froze as a sharp pulse shot through her body. Her eyes flashed gold as the world around her dissolved. A room emerged from the darkness within her vision, obscuring and blanketing her in warmth.
Sunlight spilled through tall windows, illuminating dust floating lazily in the air. Paint smeared hands and stains upon arms appeared. One of them dragged a brush across the surface with a grin while the other laughed and nudged her shoulder. Their voices mingled with the joyous laughter and vigor from each other's presence.
It was familiar.
A vast museum stretched around her, engorging the two in crystal white.
At its center was a podium, standing a colossal statue reaching toward the shadowed ceiling. Its weathered face gazed downward with an expression that seemed both mournful and watchful. Cracks ran throughout the monument's surface, and faint golden light glowed from within them like blood flowing beneath ancient skin. For a brief moment, its head shifted toward Lucy's direction, staring at her before it blanketed up in a haze of smoke.
Die! Just die already! A voice whispered.
Do it.
Never come back.
Screams of a young girl pierced her ears as two collapsed bodies drenched in blood laid before her. Her hands were stained with that same blood, and the stench drowned her nostrils in horrific agony.
A flash of lightning struck her, binding her wrists as she heard one final phrase.
She's got this guardian that watches over her, almost like a statue. With a spear of a gladiator!
A blinding flash erupted across Lucy's vision one last time. Cold air slammed into her lungs as her eyes snapped open. She returned from her fugue state, lurching upright as her heart pounded violently. She clung her chest with her right hand as she attempted to reorient herself. She took two steps back and gaze into the wanderer's visor, drained from all she had witnessed.
"You..." Lucy could barely utter a word, remembering the manuscript she had read aloud with Nocten and Vayne by her side. "You've seen it too. The museum... the girls... but... that statue..."
The wanderer remained silent, allowing for Lucy time to process all that she had witnessed. Yet before she could speak, he retaliated with utter disbelief.
"The frozen lake is real," It said. "And you have given me all that I know to get there."
"What?" Lucy crawled forward, pleading with him in a stance that meant promise. "You saw my dream? You saw the lake? It's all real?"
"Yes... it's real."
Lucy remained aghast, losing her breath as she struggled to piece together the vision of what she had witnessed. "What does this all mean? Why... why does it all feel so familiar...? Like I've lived the life I saw inside your head... all the guilt... all the pain... burning up inside you..."
Without emphasizing any further, the wanderer leaned forward toward Lucy's ears and whispered deeply inside.
"We are fragments, and we must discover the truth ourselves." It said, pointing at her golden palm. It turned around and began stumbling through the shadows past the swamp, leaving Lucy only a few feet behind.
Frustration hit her. Nocten and Vayne were still behind, still clinging onto her mind. She wanted them to know that she was alive, and yet, she couldn't move. She knew nothing about this memory or power that she possessed, and the answers stood in front of her. Perhaps not all of them, but more than she ever did, and she wasn't afraid of it. Left alone, she would be wandering blindly through in a return that might never have existed.
Lucy glanced toward the wanderer's back, approaching it from behind.
"Wait up," She said. She introduced herself, purposefully cutting out her identity and tag from Sancta. "I'm Lucy. What about you?"
The wanderer pulled its spear free from the boulder and swept it behind its back. Crystalline growths spread across the weapon and locked it into place. Then it slowly creaked its head toward Lucy. Its movements were stiff and mechanical, before finally breaking its silence to utter a single word.
"Eris."