A bright, emerald-green blade pierces straight through my chest, sliding between ribs like silk cutting through paper. The world around me cracked like glass and a feminine silhouette made entirely of glitching green light stands in front of me. She, or most fittingly, It, had no face or details. Just a shifting, unstable outline of a woman.
Her blade is buried all the way into her wrist in my heart.
I tried to stare down at the blade skewering me however, I can only now only watch her buggy hand in front of my chest. I had no choice but to watch my own blood spill in glowing sparks, and for some bizarre reason… my lips twitch.
Normally, this is where that protagonist squeals and has flashbacks that will magically strengthen his resolve to turn the situation upside down.
Normally that is indeed true. My precarious situation on the other hand, demands...madness.
A broken chuckle escapes me. Soft and growing chuckle until it became a full laughter....sharp and unhinged erupts from my throat like a dam bursting open.
"Hehehe… haha… ha—HAHAHAHA!"
I grab her forearm with both hands and grin straight into the empty, static filled haze where her face should be.
"What's wrong?" I say, voice shaking with exhilaration. "Is that all you've got?"
Before the silhouette can react, I shove her arm deeper. Deeper into my chest.Into my heart.
Green fractures ripple across my torso as if my entire body is made of glass.
It should have hurt, but god! It feels incredible...
The silhouette's head tilts, and though she has no expression, I can feel the grin in the shift of her pressure. A playful malice and delighted agreement.
"Nope,"
It whispered, voice layered, glitching, and beautiful.
"Not at all."
A surge of force slams into me, addicting and utterly euphoric. Like a mountain collapsing in a single heartbeat.
My body cracked. My knees felt like jelly. The world bent, fold, and twist, in other words, "I'm having a blast!"
"Ah ....hahaha… dis…appointing…" I rasp, stepping forward despite my fractured chest, despite the blade carved through my heart. "You can do better than this."
With every step I take, her forearm burrows deeper into me, first sinking past her wrist, then her elbow, until I feel bone grinding against the torn muscle inside my ruined torso.
I keep walking anyway, slow and deliberate, letting her hear the wet squelch of my own insides shifting around her arm. Step by step, I close the distance between us until my face is only inches from hers.
I stare directly into the bugged, flickering form of the primordial green's silhouette.
"Admit it Verde" I whisper. "I win this bout."
The silhouette stills. Energy ripples around her like a silent storm, and she smiles or what I assumed she did.
_______
Everything before the madness began.
After I inquired about my status to the receptionist, she handed me the forms like she had handed a thousand others the same thin stack.
My name, my age, my background. Checkboxes for every little sign people in this world use to identify themselves as pre-awakened weaver.
Had I noticed strands of hair with odd colors?
Any marks appearing like tattoos?
Any sudden glow in the eyes?
Any dreams or voices calling me?
Any urges toward elements or places?
I had combed through my hair in the tiny bathroom when I first woke up in this world. Black hair fell into my face the way as it always had. My eyes were the same turquoise shade that had looked back at me the first morning. No weird sigils pulsed at my wrists. No rings of light circled above my head. Nothing wrote itself onto my skin as well.
I checked the boxes for no. The were still countless questions here and there, but my mind was elsewhere again.
My mind tightened around my plan. Judging by the dates on the forms and the notes I had forced myself to memorize from the fragments of this world's memories, the protagonist had not yet made his bargain with Verde, the primordial of color green. He had a total of 3 blessings of primordial colors being white, yellow, and green.
There was still a month to go, and in the original timeline, Finster's awakening was the catalyst to his connection with Verde, and that was my opening.
Verde chose Finster at the lowest point of his life. After his unusual way of awakening as a weaver, he was exhausted, half-conscious, and drifting in and out of hallucinations.
Verde took this as a chance and sneaked into his dreams, taking the shape of the family he had lost. In that vulnerable haze, Finster accepted Verde's blessing in exchange for a single request.
That request branded him as an enemy of this kingdom of Salem. From that moment on, he became a wanted man, destined to see his own face printed on posters across the land. The choice he made in that delirious moment changed the entire course of his life.
Naturally, I wasn't going to let that happen. I would take the bargain in Finster's place, accept the binding so he could keep moving forward without paying the price himself.
I'm not naive, I knew it would cost me something. Maybe it would cost everything. However as a person who knows the future of this world, it is my responsibility to bear the consequences of this knowledge. However, ideals without power are rubbish and thats where Verde comes in.
Just as how he sucked the future of this world's protagonist I will make him into my personal fertilizer.
I handed the completed paperwork back. The receptionist slid a final sheet across the desk. It was a legalese. What kind of legalese you ask?
I took the document and skimmed the first few lines. My eyes quickly caught the words about potential injury, psychosis, permanent rupture, and death. I paused for a moment, then read aloud with a half-smirk, "Injury, psychosis, rupture... yeah, I get the gist."
Without hesitating further, I grabbed the pen and signed my name at the bottom, ready to proceed with the ritual despite the risks.
I laughed under my breath and sighed. The danger they warned about was child's play. It would be nothing compared to a primordial. The ceremony itself felt a billion times easier.
A staff member led me to a fitting room and handed me the suit. It smoothed against my skin like water. The material was engineered to monitor and stabilize, to compress feedback loops so that the process did not immediately tear someone apart.
They strapped a band around my wrist. It was small, a dull metallic strip that fit like jewelry and a clamp. It was the emergency device of the dome.
"Ok, Mr. Salinin, before we start please listen carefully to what I am about to say."The instructor, who was too buff for his well-being said to me sternly.
"Break the band in your wrist if you feel like you are in danger. It will generate a compressed field long enough for extraction. It will also record and transmit vital information for monitoring. Keep in mind that everything you do inside will not be monitored and recorded except your vitals so be careful."
I flexed my fingers and felt the cold weight against my wrist. I wonder if it will also monitor my heartbeat. I don't want them to pull me too early.
He then escorted me through a corridor that smelled faintly of dust and ozone until we reached the chamber.
I looked down at the white tiles beneath my boots, then up at the walls covered in the same stark tiles. The white light overhead was so bright it made every color almost painfully sharp. The instructor was speaking, but I wasn't really listening.
"One minute inside after I get out and it will start. The procedure will last for four hours, during that time, the atmospheric thrum will be compressed and it will be the ideal time to awaken. Your wrist device will vibrate before the field engages, that is the start signal. Any last questions?"
"No questions," I said.
"Are you ready?" the instructor asked.
"Bring it," I said. "I am ready."