Opia [3]

The cloaked man didn't get an answer and continued, "I didn't get a reply, so I will bestow one upon you."

"Sun."

After saying that, he sunk into the ground again.

Encender's eyes opened again. However, she felt something different but couldn't pinpoint what it was exactly.

She tries to leap onto the next tentacle, but she found herself on the one two jumps away.

"Did I forget to control my strength?" she mutters in a stunned state.

She didn't need to worry about that, as a tentacle came flying towards her. Its sharp end was ready to pierce through Encender's heart.

Bang—!

With only one swing from her sword, she shatters the tentacle together with the others which were also charging at her.

'What is wrong with my body?'

The pleasure to worry about such mundane things was quickly taken. The tentacles halts their attacks, as they sunk back into cell walls.

"No!" Encender's eyes wide opened, as she exclaims, "It is the cell that is shrinking!"

She is right on the money. Unlike before when everything was sinking into the floor, this time all the inner faces of the prison were compressing.

"Tsk."

Encender found the current situation she is in, nothing short of distressful. She desperately wanted to go to the roof of the prison.

However, she didn't expect the roof to come to her instead.

"Damn it!" She cursed loudly.

Anyone could tell that there was no way out, except to be absorbed by the prison walls.

That didn't really go well with Encender, she is not the one to give up easily. However, this time she had to.

'I will find my way back no matter what!' She vowed in her heart.

It seems more reasonable to find her way of escape than trying to fight the prison walls.

Placing her two great stone bars on her back, she jumps into the sky and quickly gets absorbed by the prison walls.

.... 

'It is so different than what I thought.'

Encender looked from left to right, noticing nothing but an ocean of molten rock with over a million row boats carrying people who seemed to be in the same situation as her.

She was shackled by white clothes and chains that resembled those worn by mental health patients in order to protect them from harming themselves.

Blood evaporated as soon as it left her bleeding heart. 

She was in agony, but not as mush as the person in front and behind her. 

In front of her rowboat was a buff man wearing a black military uniform. His eyes were gouged out, and he was trying hard to break the mental health patient's clothing.

Behind her was a hollow image of Tsuyoi. She was shaped just like her but an older version. She was slightly busty and taller than she is now.

Her eyelids were closed and seemed to be waiting for a perfect time to awaken.

Encender didn't pay much mind to her and just watched the rowboats melt from existence from time to time. She couldn't move her head to look at the sky, but she could also see a giant shadow of a Chinese dragon passing above her.

Anyone with eyes could tell that the situation before Encender was really bad.

Even so, the young girl felt calm. She knew that the situation before her was not real.

It's just a small world.

It looked more akin to what her brother had told her before.

"When the firefly crystal bug bite pierced my skin, I found myself whisked away to a peculiar world where reality and illusion danced together. In this enchanting realm, fantastical creatures roamed freely, inviting me to release my grip on skepticism and embrace the extraordinary as undeniable truth in order to escape."

Encender knew she wasn't bitten by a crystal bug, but the situation before her was similar to what Max experienced. The place she was in looked more like hell. However, she was positive she would get out alive. As Max said, she needed to accept the situation before her as her new reality.

'This is a trial on the sun.'

She judged that much thanks to the other dream she had previously. Whether it was a good thing or not was up to how lucky she was.

'Let's do this.'

Since childhood, Encender always believed what others told her without question. It was a dangerous thing to do that caused many people to lie to her. However, that thing was now proving to be to her advantage.

'I believe everything.'

She accepted the fact that she was dying from a chest wound and the fact that she couldn't see her friends again.

Slowly but surely, Encender started to cough blood from her mouth and her vision got blurrier by the second. In the end, she couldn't see and died from excessive bleeding.

. 

. 

. 

[Encender P.O.V.]

Clang, clang, clang—!

Loud echoes of metal clashing against metal woke me up. Before my eyes, a pool of blood stretched out.

However, the undead skeletons and zombies clad in rusty armor, and the silhouettes covered in a bright light glow, kept exchanging weapons.

The sight before me looked like a battle from the medieval period, as not a single one of them wielded a gun in their hands.

On occasional occasions, the light humanoid silhouettes would shoot beams of light from their eyes and arrows from their palms.

Nonetheless, like Phoenixes, they kept coming back up and swung their weapons at the light silhouettes, their green eyes screaming in malevolence.

Pew—!

A beam of light passed next to me, burning some of the light brown hair strands on the left side of my head.

"Ark!" I shrieked, my body shivering lightly.

'I could really die here!'

Unlike the situation before me, which was an illusion, what I am experiencing now is true. The fact that I am wearing my orange inmate overall, unlike the unclothed me from before, proves it.

I slowly dived into the blood and held my breath. Furthermore, my eyes stared at the golden moon. I made it this way so I could take in air whenever I wanted.

Hiding myself in the same place eons passed by as the battle continued without any side taking the winning days.

However, my luck ran out.

A pair of emotionless golden eyes were staring at me. It was one of the light silhouettes, but this one wore a mask like the ones the Mayan people wore. The middle wooden half is colored red and shaped like a triangular human face, shrouded by silver snake-like fangs with golden ends.

Not only that, but I also noticed the voluptuous chest it possessed.

Tap... Tap... Tap... 

Dark red blood dripped from the sword stuck in his abdomen, some of it trickling into my mouth despite me hiding in the pool. I strained to get away, but my efforts were futile. 

'My whole body is paralyzed!' I realized in despair. 

Tears formed from my eyes, as the golden silhouette lifted me by the neck like a rag door. His free right hand stabbed through my heart. 

The pain is excruciating, yet I can't even cry about it. 

Weird golden marking started appearing on my body. Each marking was hot, as instant tar. However, it only lasted for a few seconds. 

The moment the marking disappeared, the silhouette spoke in a language unknown to me. 

**"Blessed is the child born today, not yesterday when I was in my perfect form. In my days such a pure soul would have been sacrificed to me a long time ago, one of the seven caves Lords."**