"Where am I?"
"You are in your favorite place, Prince. You are in the void."
"Ha. And what do you want, creature?"
"Death."
"What?"
"I want to see death in your eyes. I want you to burn this world until nothing is left of it."
"Let the world see the darkness of your light. Let the world see you in your true sight."
"You are just a demon," the Prince scoffed. "Go to hell."
"I don't think you looked closely at my face."
The Prince focused through the darkness, and it was—
"Wake up, Dad."
Daniel gasped awake, panting heavily. His chest heaved as he stared blankly ahead.
"Dad, can you tell Marcus to get eggs while he's out?"
Daniel finally blinked.
Standing in front of him was a seventeen-year-old boy who looked similar to him.
"What?" Daniel breathed out.
"You are doing it again!" The boy turned toward the doorway. "Mom!"
"What's happening, John?"
A woman walked into the bedroom.
She was wearing comfortable sweatpants and a hoodie, her red hair tied back in a messy bun.
But it was her eyes that caught the light—a deep, striking purple.
She walked over and sat on the edge of the mattress beside Daniel.
Gently, she took his trembling hand in hers.
"What's happening, dear?"
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Daniel looked around, then stood up, his breathing heavy.
"Where is the noise?" he asked. "Where is the Prince?"
The woman stood up with him, wrapping her arms gently around him from behind.
"Don't worry," she whispered against his back. "That nightmare is gone."
Daniel stared at her.
Pulling away, he stumbled toward the front door and pushed it open.
He expected to find towering skyscrapers.
He expected the deafening roar of street traffic.
Instead, he stepped out into a peaceful village perched on a sunlit hill.
Children were jumping and running through the streets.
But their hair was a vibrant, impossible spectrum of colors—bright green, fiery red, deep blue.
And their eyes gleamed in shades of purple, cyan, and silver.
"Where am I?" Daniel breathed out.
"Sir Daniel, you seem troubled," an old man called out, leaning on a walking stick nearby.
Daniel spun toward him. "Do you know what year we are in?"
The old man chuckled, shaking his head. "A very strange question to come from the town scholar."
"But very well. We are in the year 10,659... after the Grinding of the Pearls."
The world blackened.
In a single heartbeat, the sky dissolved, swallowing every last drop of light.
"What's going on?!" Daniel shouted.
He took a step, a loud splash echoing through the dark.
He was standing in shallow water.
He started walking. Then, he walked faster.
Then he started to run.
His frantic splashes were the only sounds in the endless void.
He finally stopped, bending over with his hands on his knees to catch his breath.
"Daniel," a voice whispered, echoing right against his ear.
Daniel whipped around, but there was nothing there. Just the suffocating black.
Then, he heard it. The sound of other footsteps.
And they were speeding up by the second.
Daniel bolted.
The footsteps behind him matched his frantic pace, growing louder, splashing harder... until they were right on his heels.
Then, everything stopped. Daniel couldn't move.
A faint sound began to play in the pitch-black void.
It was an orchestra. Behind him, the haunting, solitary notes of a piano drifted through the dark, accompanied by the eerie voices of three small girls.
*Haaaaaaaa...*
*Haaaaaaaa...*
Then, a woman's voice echoed, carrying a sorrow that felt centuries old.
"I wished it was easier."
"I prayed for the dawn, but the night has no end."*
"I watched every hope that we nurtured descend."
"I wished it was easier."
The three girls sang back in a ghostly, sympathetic whisper:
"We wished it was easier."
Suddenly, swelling strings wrapped around the piano's melody, building and rising until the music was deafeningly loud.
The woman's voice turned fierce.
"But the silence is cruel, and the wind is cold."
"So let the end come..."
"May his wrath burn."
"Let the ashes take flight."
"Burn the whole world... give it back to the night."
"His light will be darkness! A shroud for the sun!"
"And his sword will be justice for demons undone."
The three girls began to hum, their voices weaving into a sinister lullaby.
"Blood will be rivers, washing the stain."
"Eyes will cry red, till they wither in vain."
"And kids stay dead... beneath the winter pain."
"And trees will be burned... till the ashes become rain."
And then, the music stopped.
Absolute silence returned to the void.
"Hail Xarlith," a voice as thick as oil whispered directly into Daniel's right ear.
Daniel whipped around.
And the void was gone.
He was standing in the middle of a war-torn battlefield.
He looked down at his chest; he was clad in heavy, battle-worn armor.
Beside him stood ranks of humans.
Their bodies were hulking and distorted, their eyes pitch black as thick, dark slime drooled from their jaws.
Veins of something like black ink had been implanted into their hands jagged as mountain stone.
In perfect, terrifying unison, the corrupted soldiers began slamming the butts of their spears against the earth.
"XARLITH!"
"XARLITH!"
The ground shook violently with every chant.
Then, a solitary figure walked past Daniel, parting the ranks of the screaming soldiers.
It was a human. But dangling from their grip, swinging gently by the hair... was the severed head of the Prince.
The figure raised a hand.
The earth groaned as a platform of jagged stone erected itself beneath his feet.
He stepped onto it, looking out over the corrupted soldiers.
Then, he raised his other hand.
Instantly, the roaring army fell dead silent.
The figure looked directly at him.
"Daniel. This is what will happen when you choose the light."
Daniel blinked.
And he was back at the school, standing beside the stone fountain.
A few feet away, Arthur and Angel were still hugging and weeping.
"Care for a beer after they finish?" the Prince asked casually.
Daniel stayed quiet for a long second, staring at the prince's face.
"No," Daniel muttered. "I've already had worse."
