The pain that had rained down on Levin just moments ago slowly blurred. The screams of the men kicking him grew quieter and quieter, his vision turning redder. Until he saw nothing more...
But it was not over. It was not death.
Levin lay on something solid, yet somehow liquid. It was dark, rendering everything indistinguishable, but simultaneously warm. To the right, a light emerged, like a rising sun. In this sea of darkness, however, it remained only a distant, faint grain of light. Surprisingly, this small speck was enough to displace most of the shadows.
Levin felt drawn to this light, but his limbs were broken, his blood flowed onto the floor, his face was disfigured... so he remained lying there. But it wasn't so bad. After all, he could immerse himself in the darkness. Sometimes it was so beautiful. Carefree. It forced nothing upon you, demanded nothing. So Levin closed his eyes, looked upward, and drifted into the sea of darkness...
Cold! So cold!
(Brrr...)
Instinctively, Levin hugged himself to counteract the chill. He opened his eyes and saw his breath condensing in the air. Through a hole in the rock above, he saw three moons of different colors and sizes. They hung in the sky close to one another, shining down into the cave. Levin scrambled up from his side and inspected the cave with wide eyes.
(Wait, wait, wait... What is going on here?) Levin thought with furrowed brows. Shortly after, he composed himself and rubbed his chin. He was sure he had just been in Gorra. He nodded at the thought, then flinched as he remembered that this filthy city had betrayed him again. The man he had worked for sold him, and then... yes, a group of men kicked him nearly to death, and then he woke up here.
(That bastard, he'll regret it...) A vein popped out on Levin's forehead as he raised his fist. But that didn't matter right now. He had to look around first.
"Where am I, anyway?" Levin murmured.
The cave was small and opened out over a jagged cliff. From there, the three moons appeared particularly bright. One of them was white with ash-gray spots. Such a moon existed in Gorra too, only... smaller. The other two were different—one was bluish, a floating orb of azure with spots of darker indigo. It was very bright, hard to distinguish. The last moon was dark. It was so dark that Levin only recognized it by the absence of stars behind it. An eyebrow raised as Levin inspected them.
(What the fuck? Where have I landed...) He rubbed his chin again. (This is definitely not Terra. And here I thought I got lucky...)
Only now did Levin look down the cliff. In the varied moonlight, the vast forest below was mostly colored red, but the spectrum ranged from magenta to a violet-tinged crimson, stretching across almost his entire view. Although it was night, Levin could see far into the distance. There, the trees ended, and a single high mountain stood, bearing a castle upon its peak.
Levin stood there with his mouth open, squinting. He looked at his hands and recognized every hair and small pore. Wait a minute... Why could he see so well? Everything was clear despite the night. Levin shook his head.
(If this is supposed to be a supernatural ability, I accept it with thanks,) he thought with a smile. However, he noticed how his torn clothes, stitched together from various fabrics, still stank. A mixture of blood, sweat... and urine?
(Ugh... Don't tell me...) Levin grabbed his head with both hands and screamed internally. (Nooooo...)
He stood there for a while looking up, staring blankly. Those wankers really did it. (No, no... don't think about it.) Now Levin was forced to imagine it vividly.
"Those sick sons of bitches," whispered Levin with the same expression.
CLACK!
A sound interrupted him. It came from below. Levin's gaze wandered down over the cliff edge. His eyes shot up immediately. (What in the holy hell is that?)
Below, two creatures stood facing each other. One was a six-legged, giant figure with carapace hardening at the lower ends of its legs and twelve milky-white eyes. They stood above a disproportionately large mouth consisting of two hooks. Before it stood a humanoid, red being with stony shoulder plates.
(It really is another world...) Levin wasn't quite sure what to think about it. On one hand, his past life in extreme poverty was absolutely not pleasant; on the other hand, there weren't creatures like that. Still, this world remained more attractive to him. Where he came from, it mattered less who you were than what you held in your hand. The physically strongest man could be killed by a child as long as the child held a weapon. Whoever came up with that system must have been on something...
Levin swallowed and slowly stepped back into the cave. Suddenly he stopped and jerked his shirt off.
(Fuck, what if they smell blood?)
Only when he took off his top and exposed his frail, thin body did a cold shiver run down his spine. A disgusting, sharp sound filled his ear, like metal scraping on stone, and immediately the air felt heavy. A drop of sweat ran down his face as he turned around in the cold.
Within his peripheral vision, the large spider creature stood before him. Violet secretion was running down one of its legs. Levin's gaze tensed immediately, and his thoughts focused in a rush on one single concept—Survival.
First observation: the spider was too large to enter the small cave. Unfortunately for Levin, it began to smash its head against the small entrance, causing stones to crumble slowly. With every blow, it let out a shrieking sound that made Levin flinch.
Second observation... There is no way out! Levin's gaze froze momentarily until his blue eyes wandered, assessing the situation. This seemed to be it. The spider didn't need much more time; in no world would Levin be capable of measuring up to this thing. His hand went limp, his gaze grew calm, and the entrance grew larger. It wouldn't be long before the spider could get in, and it let out a particularly high-pitched sound, announcing its appetite.
Now Levin stood there, expressionless. He closed his eyes.
(I guess that's it... Again.)
He thought back to his ridiculous life in Gorra. He was born into that city and could never leave it. Without his sister, he would have died long ago or become one of those sick men. If he could meet her again, he would like to apologize first, then thank her.
(But that doesn't matter anymore anyway...) Levin regretted.
The entrance was large enough for the spider to enter. He heard clattering noises against the stone. Levin's brows pressed together, his jaw grinding.
(But this can't be it yet... I won't miss the chance you gave me!)
He opened his eyes. The spider looked almost like it was smiling with its beetle mouth. A leg raised, silver at the tip. Levin saw the movement, slowly even. Yet a world lay between what he saw and what his body did.
(Jump to the side! Move! Do something!)
Death was a fate hard to accept. Life was like a curse. Subconsciously, in this moment, Levin wished to lie in a dark room, curled up in his own arms, carefree. It was like a reflex. Uncontrolled.
Levin was gone; the spider hit only void.