Dawn felt the scene before him ripple, then disappear.
He felt as if he was swimming through darkness, gradually returning to reality. The light assaulted him all at once. His body ached, and the marble floor beneath him was bitterly cold. Suddenly, Dawn felt a sharp pain in his head.
'The In-between… Phaser.' That was the name of the power he had, and the second was the name he was given. He had the initial ability to move between dimensions; he was called a phaser.
'I'm in no rush to explore this… I have seen the dangers of this world. I shall keep reading first, as knowledge is key.'
Dawn was being seriously cautious now; he knew what failure meant.
He lay there for a moment, recalling every little detail of the fight. Dawn let out a deep sigh. He was a little ashamed of himself—embarrassed, even. He had entered thinking it was a mere game, a fun experience. But the world was not this nice, not forgiving.
Dawn had a feeling he would experience that more and more.
After lying in thought for a couple of minutes, Dawn sprang up. He still had plenty to learn and explore. So, he went back to his desk, where the book was placed, and continued reading.
"Congratulations. If you are reading this, you have completed your trial! If you haven't noticed, this book doesn't show the next pages until you are worthy enough."
'How does that work though? Are these books magical as well? Do they perhaps have senses too? I haven't read about this… wait, why would the books include a detail they're trying to hide though?' Dawn wondered. He still had so much to learn about this world of his.
"Anyways, there are stages in the masks. Nobody really knows how many. You are a Darkling: the first stage. You will learn the rest when it's time to."
'Darkling, huh? Creepy name—they sure have a sense for naming things so eerily.'
"There are many types of masks…"
'Can you be a mixture of them? Perhaps with two different masks you could.' Dawn wasn't worried about questions too much, as they would likely be explained as he read.
"These are well known, so explanations shouldn't be needed. To know which one you are, just spill a little bit of blood onto the book."
'Seriously! Just what I needed the most.' Dawn didn't question spilling blood on a book. After all, this book was explaining things related to his mask, and he didn't know much about this world. Maybe spilling blood on things like this was common practice.
Dawn proceeded to use his sharp teeth and bit into his hand; they went through as if he had just bitten into some fruit. Blood gushed across the desk. Dawn then placed his arm over the book and let the book devour it while he quickly regenerated.
"ECHOER." The book wrote on the next page.
'Echoer… perhaps I can replicate things somehow? But how does that relate to my ability to move between dimensions?'
As Dawn was thinking, the next words appeared on the page.
"In order to access the next page, you must leave the Ruins through the gate and explore for a day. A mask bearer with no experience is just a burden bearer."
'What? Leave the ruins? I thought I left them when I passed the first gate. Wait… ad novam domum. To my new home! Perhaps this was really supposed to be it. I really didn't get that feeling when going through though…'
Dawn was settled on leaving the ruins and advancing to the next page of his book. He was brimming with excitement; he might even be able to handle the second floor for longer when he was done.
'But where is the gate? In one of the three doors I saw in the beginning? That must be it.'
Dawn immediately started heading toward the doors; they weren't far from where he was. He walked up to them and chose the one in the middle—it felt different from the others. The door was metal, as grey as the marble plating around it, and at least two feet taller than him. It gave off a vibe he felt familiar with.
'I'll go with this one first. It feels safe.'
So, Dawn turned the handle, pulled the door, and started to walk in. The space was dark, but nothing Dawn wasn't used to; in fact, he could see relatively clearly in this place. It wasn't too much of a surprise—Dawn had been living in pure, true darkness for a decade.
The space was narrow enough for two people to comfortably walk side by side, and the height matched the door's.
Dawn walked for a minute or two in this dark, narrow, shapeless tunnel until he reached light. It shone so brightly for the first couple of seconds before he adjusted.
Then he saw it.
"It's a gate!" Dawn was overly excited. This was the first thing he had ever seen, yet this time he wasn't rushed; he could admire nature in its beauty.
This gate was black and reflective, but with no gems. The inside—the portal part—was brimming with shades of green, constantly alternating, growing more intense as you got closer to the middle of the portal.
The sound was no less interesting; it sounded as if the air itself warped before getting sucked in. Although less beautiful, Dawn admired this sight for minutes.
After snapping out of his trance, Dawn grunted and continued to walk forward. As he approached the portal, he stuck his hand out.
This hand reached in. As he touched it, he felt the rest of his body slowly start to get sucked in.
'I can finally do all the things I want to when I leave. I can explore. I can live out the fantasies in the book. I can find people to conquer new places with! I can hopefully find my family. I can finally live my life…'
Dawn gave himself a speech to summon hope from the deepest valleys of darkness before finally stepping into the unknown.
Dawn walked through the portal.
***
As Dawn appeared on the other side, he found himself on a cliffside. He saw new terrain. It was dark, misty, with a strange dark glow—as if darkness itself could give off light. It was ethereal. A place full of high, dark mountains and structures akin to graves.
There were structures floating in the sky, as if he, with wings, was born to inhabit them.
Dawn's heart pumped faster. His breaths grew fuller—heavier. His eyes glowed, and he was shaking with excitement.
He felt a whole new sensation; he closed his eyes and breathed in air beyond the capacity his lungs could hold. Dawn felt pure bliss!
He walked to the edge of the cliff and simply smiled.
This was all he could wish for in the moment.
He had been scared at first. Anything could have been on the other side, but this? This was at the top of the possibility ladder.
Suddenly, he felt his sight go everywhere before finally landing right on the view he was looking at before—but from a different height.
'Strange, did I lay down?' Dawn was confused. He couldn't feel his body anymore either.
Dawn then saw a huge whale-like creature floating in the sky in front of him. It had one eye, an enormous mask, a huge smile, bat wings, and sharp teeth.
"So, this is the putrid smell I perceived. How pitiful, it seems this was the last one."
Its mouth didn't move to make these sounds, as if it had transcribed its thoughts into Dawn's head.
Time suddenly seemed to slow down.
Perhaps it was Dawn's natural impulse quickening his metabolism, or perhaps it was the power of the mask…
As the creature spoke, Dawn was petrified, paralyzed with fear.
The whale instantly appeared; it was clearly faster than him.
'I have to run, I have to!' But… he couldn't. His body wouldn't move; his head was stuck on the ground.
And then, lying in front of him — the other half of his body. Headless.
'What? My… bo—'
That's when Dawn realized he was already dead.
From the moment he looked beyond the cliff, his head and half his body flew off.
'No! This can't be! I was supposed to go on an adventure. I was supposed to become stronger. I was supposed to live!'
Dawn's eyes grew dark, his pupils tiny, his face utterly shocked. He was quickly phasing in and out of reality.
His heart thundered, beating louder than his own thoughts.
'Can… I' BADUMP 'even escape this?' BADUMP 'Is there' BADUMP 'a point in trying…'
'No!' Dawn's voice echoed endlessly in his head as the loud heartbeat grew louder and faster.
BADUMP, BADUMP, BADUMP, BADUMP, BADUMP.
Dawn's eyes went red, full of pure determination.
'This won't be the end of me! I won't let it. I've rejected reality and I can do it again!'
Dawn used his powers to phase between realms.
The space around him flickered, as if he was a mere glitch in the system. He saw colors—all of them.
'The Spirit Realm…'
Dawn saw this as he phased, but it didn't amount to anything. He was still dying, but he couldn't give up.
'Move! Phase! You can't give up!'
Out of sheer will, Dawn started to move. His muscles shouldn't have been able to, but the mind was stronger.
He started to crawl with all the force he could. He had no strength, yet he pushed himself with strength born from a void.
Slowly, he started crawling back to his body. He was only a couple of steps away.
If he could just get to his body, he would regenerate it all.
A figure appeared before him as an illusion, as if he was never supposed to be there.
He stood over Dawn with a look of amusement.
"It turns out the boy who just got his chance lost it! How pitiful, it was just as I said, wasn't it? Your life is meaningless! Just give it up to me, don't worry Dawn, boy. I'll live for us if you just hand over your control," Eyrndor said.
'No! I would rather go through this a thousand times than give control to you!' he thought.
The masks were evil, and he would rather drown with evil than give birth to a greater one.
'The masks are deceitful; there's no way he would just give me back control.'
Dawn continued to crawl. All he saw was his body. That's all he could focus on.
But the world turned silent, black, dull… a horrifying voice spoke again.
"Admirable, if only you weren't so repulsive and detestable. I'll make sure to end your miserable life this time." The voice said with a clear tone of hate.
A twitch—just one…
A series of high- and low-pitched rings broke the silence.
Then white light enveloped everything.
The cliff, the rock, the dirt, Dawn — everything — disintegrated.