‘It’s calling for you, Alaric.’

There was a throbbing pain in my head, but not from the fall. This pain felt different.

Familiar Church bells chimed it’s melodious ringing.

A harsh chill raced in my veins.

‘Take it, Alaric.’ Earl urged

What… What do you mean?

Suddenly, a chain whiplashed from the darkness and wrapped around my wrist.

A ray of bright light flickered ahead of me, and what seemed like a floating ring sparkled.

I felt compelled to wear the ring. The chains pulled me closer to the ring, forcing my hand to reach out to it.

“Earl! What is this?”

‘Wear the ring, Alaric.’ Earl reiterated, his aura pouring into the ring.

The chains pulled me closer, and closer, and close enough to where the ring was in the palm of my hand.

I felt a rush of might race down my skin.

Suddenly, I came back into consciousness, being in the same exact position I was in what I thought to be a feverish dream.

Something light and shiny, however, laid on my palm.

It was none other than the ring from my dream.

‘Wear the ring…’ Earl hissed, the voice growing louder in my head.

“There! Get him!” shouted a male, grating voice from behind me.

I spun around only to find the 4 men blocking the only exit to the outside and Celie still laying on the ground. Only then did I realize that we were in a strange cave with engravings on the ground.

One of the men stopped the others from pursuing them.

“Stop! I’ll decide what to do with them.” he hissed, taking off his hood.

“Parker?”

It was indeed Parker, Sir Chalot’s bodyguard.

His face was brim with excitement.

“I warned you, yet… YET!” he laughed hysterically. “Here YOU are! I was really hoping you would do something like this!” He kicked Celie to the side as he approached me slowly, taking large, comical steps towards me with a large smile on his pale white face.

Suddenly, he stopped midway, jumping and spreading his arms, facing the roof.

“What should I do first? Should I peel your nails off? Should I humiliate your little girlfriend right in front of you? Should I slice off each of your fingers? OH! THE POSSIBILITIES!” He paused, shooting his piercing eyes back at me.

This is a nightmare…

‘The ring Alaric. Put it on, and I’ll show you what a real nightmare looks like.’ Earl urged.

Having no other choice, I placed the ring on my ring finger.

“AGHH!” Something violent, mighty, icy, and powerful raced through my veins.

__

*whispering*

A white light blinded my vision, only to fade away a few seconds later, except I felt very light.

“What is this?!” I shouted, hoping for an answer that I would not receive.

As my blurred vision came into focus, I could see a large army of all races assembled beneath me, chanting and screaming and bashing their swords against their shields making an echoing, dark rhythm that dug into my ears.

Behind me was a tall, husky male with a brown goatee. He wore long, majestic magenta robes and what looked to be a purple witch hat.

“_____” The man yelled something unintelligible, and the men beneath him roared in response.

I could only move my head as I scanned the dark, mountainous area around the tower.

*click*

Suddenly, like a photo slide, I was witnessing a whole new scene.

Beneath me were the sounds of swords clashing against each other, armor being battered against the ground, horns proudly singing its country’s triumphant anthem, and the cries of dead men.

*click*

The battlefield was now littered with dead corpses. Only a few men stood from both sides. Some still fought while others collapsed or swayed from exhaustion and the looming death surrounding them.

Only one horn’s singing remained, except it sung with no pride, but of deprivation and loss. That man stood over a small hill of corpses, playing every last drop of his heart out in condolences to his comrades who laid pale and lifeless on the blood stained ground.

The horn’s singing made me shiver.

A lost man in a lost battle. A battle won by no side. A battle with fatal casualties.

With every coordinated blow into the horn came a long, echoing song of a fallen anythm.

A tear rolled down my cheeks and dropped into the scene.

*click*

The man who stood at the edge of the tower a few scenes before was being dragged by two soldiers who survived from the battlefield.

He was dragged up a hill, and into a familiar looking cathedral.

Suddenly, a thought struck me cold-

Earl?

*click*

__

Suddenly, I was back into my own reality and situation.

“What did you do?” Parker hissed.

My shaking body came to a warm conclusion. My trembling hands became thirsty to grab at Parker’s neck. My body felt just as light as it did from what I assumed to be flashbacks.

“What are you doing?” Parker looked at me with a raised eyebrow and a forced smirk.

“I’ll show you what I do with mistakes.” A voice said. It wasn’t just any voice, it was my voice, and it had a sinister tingle to it.

“I know, I’m going to shove your tongue down your throat so you can’t make any silly threats again-”

*whoosh*

“GAH!”

*whizz*

*slit*

The three men behind Parker were now on the ground, either gasping for air or missing their heads. No one had come to my rescue, but myself. My hand rose unwillingly, and everything happened from there.

Parker glanced behind him, and fixed his hollow but joyous eyes back at me.

“It couldn’t be-”

I gave a twisted laugh against my own will. I wasn’t in control of my body. Something else was, and I had a little guess on who it might’ve been.

“You thought your little magic could work on me.” I said.

Earl?

A gust of wind grabbed Parker by his neck, raising him into the air.

“YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD CHANGE THE COURSE OF TRUTH?! I’LL TELL YOU SOMETHING!” I viciously swiped my hand to my right, throwing Parker at the cave’s walls.

“I AM THE TRUTH!” I reeled Parker closer to me, raising him in the air by his hair as he reached for a foothold.

His face was swollen, and he was profusely bleeding out of his nose.

“I truly enjoy this pain, Vampire of Varyn! Come now! You must return to-”

I gave Parker a hard knuckle in his nose.

“Gahh!”

“Do me the favor and explain everything you know to Alaric. Only then will I send you off with a message.”

“Alright! Alright!” Parker cried as he was lowered onto his knees. “All I know is that out of the 7 projects, you managed to break free from The End’s mana capability!”

I raised him by his hair into the air again.

“Explain the 7 projects, dumbass.”

“The 7 Projects are potential vessels with powerful mana potential for The End to recreate the world!”

“And what’s your purpose?”

.

.

.

“Tell me your purpo-”

Before Earl could repeat his question, Parker lost consciousness, and possibly died, from his severe injuries.

Earl sighed and then returned my control over my body.

My body ached, and my mana was exhausted.

Whatever magic Earl casted against the men withdrew significant loads of my mana.

Curious of the ring, I sat down against the cave’s walls and inspected it.

It was a pure silver ring with a red pearl that mightily shined in light.

The ring itself was engraved with words from another language that I couldn’t understand.

“Ugh…” Celie slowly sat up, rubbing her forehead and grunting further. To her surprise, she jumped at the mutilated corpses, letting out a painful scream that she herself felt.

She turned to me with a questioning eye, and I explained everything. She didn’t seem to question anything when I told her about another person living inside of me, or at least, a fragment of who they once were.

We quickly made haste out of the cave, afraid that Parker may awake at any minute.

We found ourselves back at the main road to Webb City, but I wasn’t as excited to explore this new area.

Heavy weight bearing over my shoulders, a vicious craving for my eyes to fall, and more twisting and growling from my stomach, we marched onwards to the city, wishing for no further interruptions.