Condemned

Ceren landed hard on his shoulder. Groaning angrily, he began pushing himself up, but just as he had gotten into a sitting position, he halted abruptly.

He was sitting, but he wasn't sitting anything. In fact, the only thing that seemed to be around him was a thick, black mist.

For a second, he thought he had gone blind, but when he looked down, he could still see his wrinkled, yet strong hands. Likewise, when he grabbed a tuft of his matted hair and pulled it down over his face, he could see the grey, withered strands clearly.

His wild, sunken eyes darted around as he got steadily to his feet, a look of extreme suspicion on his gaunt face.

"Is anyone there?" he growled.

There was no response but his own deep, gravelly voice, which echoed back at him. His eyes flicked rapidly around the mist. If there had been an echo, surely there had to be walls.

Tentatively, he took a step forward.

"Ceren Pontifix," a high, stern voice spoke.

With a motion like one preparing for a fight, Ceren spun around to face the voice, which continued on, even before he could see its speaker.

"Countless misdeeds, you have committed, and far too many have gone unanswered. You shall haunt this world no longer."

Ceren's eyes widened. Before him stood, presumably, a woman. She hovered just above the nonexistent plane upon which Ceren's feet were planted. Bright stars seemed to flow across her velvety dress, which moved in waves around her. What caught the old man's attention, however, was the woman's eyes.

An unnaturally deep blue, they seemed not to look at him, but rather through him. He took an involuntary step back.

"What... are you?" he asked, his deep voice reverberating once more, though hers seemed not to.

She looked upon him with a mixture of disgust and irritation on her face.

"I am Phi, goddess of Earth," she said, then returned to her speech, "You will be sent to the world of Affix, where you will atone for your sins by aiding the hero, Ergo, in his fight against the evil that contaminates their lands."

Ceren was livid. How dare this woman, whomever she claimed to be, attempt to command around him - Ceren Pontifix - as if he would actually do her bidding.

Phi glared down at the furious expression on Ceren's face.

"You have no choice in this matter. You will go. And you will aid him. Or you will die a very, very painful death. I will make sure of it."

Though the woman's voice had been as high and stern as before, her last words sent a shiver up Ceren's spine.

Phi leant back and continued in a more slack voice, as though tired of the conversation.

"You will find Ergo in the capital. Atone, and you may yet be allowed a painless death. Now be gone."

Then, with a wave of her hand, the black mist around Ceren lifted, letting in thin rays of dimmed light. Ceren furrowed his brow and blinked hard to adjust his eyes to the light.

When next he looked up, the woman had disappeared, and all traces of the mist had gone. He stared around, taking in his new surroundings.

All around him were massive, barren cliffsides, impossible to climb without equipment. The valley between the cliffs was strangely dim. Looking up, Ceren realized that the sky was coated in dark clouds, as though it were about to rain, though the lands all around him looked as dry as during the warmest heatwave.

"Hello?" he asked.

His voice reverberated back at him from the cliffs. He supposed they had always been there; merely invisible to him. The old man paused for a moment, but when no response came, he let out a deep sigh.

He was alone.

Turning his eyes to the dull, gravelly path ahead of him, he began traveling along the road. The landscapes he passed were eerie and uncomfortable; devoid of any life or nature.

As he walked, Ceren attempted to organize his thoughts.

The supposed goddess had claimed that she would send him to some place called "Affix." He supposed that's where he was now. But what did it matter where he was. The only thing that matters is the next action he should take.

He let out a ragged sigh, his breath becoming visible in the cold air of the desolate wasteland.

Then, without warning, a roar rang out across the empty landscape. Suddenly alert, Ceren searched the horizon for any sign of the source.

He didn't have to search long.

Some way to his left was a massive, humanoid figure. And humanoid was the right word, for it was most certainly not a human. Ceren had seen such a monster before only in fiction.

A large, thick-skinned ogre hulked over a crowd of people not even half its height. From what he could tell from where he stood, the people were screaming and running away from a horse-drawn carriage, which lay in ruins, both horses dead beside it. It didn't take long for Ceren to decide what to do.

Naturally, he would go in the opposite direction of the terrifying monster.

He turned around and had just taken a few steps away from the location of the ogre, when suddenly--

"Hngh!"

He couldn't move.

The air had become as thick as tar. With every step he tried to take away from the monster, it felt like a massive hand was pulling him back 

"AAARG!"

Ceren let out a roar of fury as he was thrown back toward the place where the monster was. He could hear the people screaming. They must be coming in his direction. He had to get away before the monster followed them to him.

He stumbled up again, but barely had he taken another step before he was thrown back.

A scream sounded from right behind him.

"Help us!! HELP!!! AAAAA-"

*CRUNCH*

Ceren swallowed as he turned to look back in the direction of the sound, letting out a shaky breath as his eyes took in the sight before him.

Before him stood the massive ogre, gazing horribly down at him, its eyes unblinking.

The man who had screamed for help hung limply from the ogre's closed fist, his ribs and lungs crushed.

A pair of bloodshot eyes, filled with terror, locked with Ceren's. As they did, the ogre bit down on the man's skull.

*CRUNCH*