When I opened my eyes, the blood-soaked street was gone. No monster. No mangled bodies of my friends. Instead, I found myself kneeling upon an endless black sea beneath a pearlescent sky. Above me a black sun loomed overhead.
The shock broke my grief-stricken trance. I looked around wildly, my tears momentarily halted by confusion.
Then just like before a figure rose from the waters before me. Draped entirely in the black goop of the sea, it stood tall with its great wings curled around its body. Where a face should have been, there was only darkness deeper than the void itself.
"W-what are you?" I asked, tears resuming their path down my cheeks.
The entity remained motionless, offering no response.
"Th-they're dead," I whispered, my voice rising until I was screaming. "THEY'RE DEAD!"
Still, the winged figure gave no answer. It stood like a sentinel, watching, waiting.
Then a voice spoke—not from the being, but from everywhere at once. It resonated from the sky, the sea, even from within my own mind.
"Do you miss your friends?"
The voice was clear and almost angelic in its quality. I spun around, seeking its source.
"W-what?" I stammered.
After a moment of silence, the voice repeated: "Do you miss your friends?"
"WHO ARE YOU?" I screamed, my voice echoing across the endless expanse.
The voice ignored my question and simply asked again: "Do you miss your friends?"
I stared at my reflection in the black sea, seeing not just myself but memories of their faces. The weight of their absence crushed me.
"Y-yes," I whispered.
Time stretched in this place beyond reality. I counted heartbeats before the voice spoke again.
"Do you want to bring them back?"
My head snapped up, eyes wide with desperate hope. "W-what?"
"Do you want to bring them back?" the voice repeated, patient and eternal.
I swallowed hard. "Y-yes."
"What would you do to bring them back?"
"Anything," I declared without hesitation, my voice echoing across the black sea. "ANYTHING!"
The shadow being's wings unfurled slightly at my declaration.
"Would you fight?" the voice asked.
"Yes," I answered, louder than before.
"Would you suffer?"
"Yes!" I cried, my hands clenching into fists.
"Would you kill?"
Images flashed through my mind—the monster that had taken everything from me. My answer came easily, erupting from my chest in a primal scream.
"YES!"
The black sea rippled outward, disturbed by the force of my declaration. The shadow being's wings spread wider.
"Would you die?"
Tears streamed down my face as I contemplated the ultimate sacrifice. The answer formed in my heart before my mind could process it.
"Y-yes," I whispered, broken yet resolute.
Silence fell once more. The shadow being's wings furled tighter around its body as it grew taller, more imposing.
"Then die."
A weight appeared in my hands. Looking down, I saw a knife resting in my palms. The blade was obsidian-black with an edge that seemed to cut reality itself. The handle was bone-white, carved with symbols I couldn't comprehend.
Understanding dawned immediately. This was the price—my life for theirs.
I gripped the knife with both hands so tightly my knuckles turned white. The blade hovered inches from my stomach as I knelt, a supplicant before forces beyond understanding.
This is all I can do for them, I thought, consumed by grief and desperate hope. This is how I save them.