The world was dark, cold, and full of unbearable sensations. It was also full of sweet whispers and bittersweet warmth. Moon was warm because he was drowning in an ocean of blood; the whispers felt sweet because they were thoughts alien to him.
His entire body throbbed with pain, his limbs refused to move, and the jagged edges of the rocks beneath him bruised and cut his skin, some biting into his flesh. For the first time in his entire life, Moon felt utterly defeated, lost in a conflagration he understood yet couldn't stand to fathom.
Soon his bittersweet silence was broken, and an abysmal screech assaulted his ears. Moon tried fruitlessly to cover his ears with his palms, a devastating pain rushing from his left chest and right shoulder. He had lost so much blood and so couldn't move his limbs at all.
His once silent world quaked, a dreadful sound resounding from the depths of somewhere far away. A growl filled with malice rolled out from the darkness, prompting Moon to open his eyes as he took a breath in fear and agony. Specks of dust fell on him, soon by pebbles and tiny rocks.
A thunderous boom rolled down from above, the sound of rocks scraping against each other sounding. Moon knew that noise; he knew it all too well. He couldn't possibly mistake the sound of a rockfall.
The world flamed to life, a vibrant blue glow spilling across the expanse. Shadows retreated, clinging to the walls of the narrow path while Moon lay in its center helplessly, watching as something descended towards him from up high.
It grew bigger with each second that it drew closer, and as it did, Moon narrowed his eyes, only to realize that it was spinning horizontally in fluid motions as well. The massive rock was indeed ginormous but was, in fact, not a rock.
It was something else with an armored shell, numerous spikes protruding from its body trying to cushion its fall. It seemed not to care about Moon, who was swiftly watching his end draw near…
And before he could be squashed into a bloody pulp, his eardrums pulsed with blood. A violent shockwave jerked him to the side, causing him to let out a groan as he choked on his blood. The same malevolent screech he heard earlier resounded once more, this time louder and much closer.
His body pressed against the rocky ground, his wounds widened, and his bones rattled, his skin almost tearing apart. The massive creature rolled a good distance away from him, its form disappearing into the distance from where another screech came barreling into him. This one was filled with demented wrath rather than overwhelming agony.
Moon coughed out a chunk of blood that spilled on the sides of his face and neck, his body left in a crimson mess. His eyelids felt heavy, and his limbs, which had simply refused to listen to him earlier, now felt like immovable mountains.
Each breath hurt like a hundred needles through his heart, feeling like they would become his last.
The soft blue radiance that had illuminated a swath of the area surrounding him drew near, an azure spirit landing gently next to him. Moon craned his neck, straining his weakened eyes to get a better look at the beautiful sight.
The spirit lowered itself and crouched next to him, and as the light suffusing the chasm grew brighter, it placed its hands on him. A soothing warmth spread through his body, permeating every inch of his being to wash away the pain and anguish hindering his body.
His body was suffused with a soft glow that seemed to radiate from underneath his skin, and his ruby eyes turned azure. The wounds on his chest and shoulder quickly closed, and he felt the beating of his heart grow steady. His eyelids, which had felt heavy, peeled open, and with little effort, he slowly lifted his left hand.
He grasped the hand of the radiant spirit and craned his neck to get a better view of its visage. The hand, however, was not ethereal; it was corporeal, of flesh and bone and warm to the touch.
And the source of the radiant blue light was not a spirit. What he saw when he looked up was a young woman looking down at him with an impassive expression. Her face, just like the rest of her body, was flawlessly white, while her eyes and hair were of a deep blue color. She clearly wasn't a spirit, but Moon wasn't sure that she was entirely human either.
There was something unsettling about the woman kneeling next to him, a trepidation that he couldn't help but feel.
However, his intuition could wait for later. All he wanted right now was knowledge on where he was and what the hell was happening around him. Sadly, the lady wasn't going to give him any answers. She didn't even let him ask any questions.
The light she expelled illuminated a great distance of the chasm, and as he strained to sit, she pointed to the opposite direction of where she had sent the horror from earlier flying.
Her words were simple and vaguely familiar.
"Make it to the end of the way I have shown. There will be someone waiting for you at the other end."
Just like that, she vanished, a warm wind caressing his face as she disappeared into the distance. A moment later, a devastating shockwave resounded from somewhere deep within the chasm, and hurricane winds crashed into him.
'I should get out of here.'
Pushing himself off the ground, he took a look around the place to ascertain his current location and situation better. He already knew that he was deep below ground; his only source of light was battling some harrowing creature on the other side of the chasm. He could register those two things easily because they were easy enough to fathom.
However, everything else around him lacked meaning. Despite the light that shone along the wide road, the walls of the chasm remained shrouded in deep shadows, as if rejecting the luminous azure shine. The ceilings above him were the same, the darkness shrouding them seemingly much deeper. The laws of existence seemed to twist in this eerie place; the darkness nestling where the light ended revealed to his gaze, and yet seemed to be impossibly far at the same time.
But, in spite of all that he saw, what truly bothered him were the foreign thoughts raging in his mind.
Raising his hands to look at his bruised and bloodied palms, he wondered.
"Who in the world is Nuel?"