Chapter One

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Wailing. Screaming. Crying.

The wind howling in the shredded steel. The glimmer of fire, and this feeling of weightlessness.

She was hugging someone in her arms, eyes closed by fear.

An impact, and nothing.

The void.

Nothingness.

And this nothingness seemed to smile, contemplating adrift fragments of existence with a gaze who, until recently, was filled with boredom, now replaced by a look of interest.

“Yes… Those ones could be… something… What do you say ?”

This idea resounded a long time around him. Innumerable eyes then opened, both big and tinny, colorful or not, some even hard to imagine for mere humans.

“Do as you want, just let me sleep.” Said a chore of voices.

“I still don't understand.” Added something else.

“This interest of yours for those creatures… but I say, enjoy yourself.”

“Hahaha, great ! It’s time to paint another picture of madness…” Said the nothingness, still smiling.

She - Nowhere

Sensations assaulted her all at once. Tentacles where filling her lungs, her throat, her vagina, her stomach, her anus, her nostrils, burning, oily, horrible. She started struggling, seeking air by all means, trying to take out the tentacles choking her but, even before she had the occasion to do it, all those viscous appendages withdrew themself in one go from her body. She breathed by reflex, just to swallow some kind of liquid, that she started to cough up. The burning feeling from the lack of air, the asphyxia was covering pretty much all her others senses, but she was still able to feel herself slip through the mass of tentacles before being expelled outside the liquid she was bathed in. The influx of air relieved her so much that she didn’t smell it reeking of flesh and blood, the acrid smells of life. Then, the pain, the one from smashing against the ground. She stayed there for a long time, enjoying the most basic pleasure of human life : breathing. She was rocked by the slow pulsations of the ground, to the point of falling asleep.

She slowly regained consciousness, feeling the air coming in and going out of her lungs, still painful. She tried to open her eyes, panicking when she did not succeed to.

What’s happening to me ? Was the first coherent thought that she had, pain letting more and more space for rational thinking, if ever this kind of things existed by there. The young woman, slightly appeased, started exploring the vicinity with touch, using her hands to slowly uncover the room. She was lying down on a spongy material, soft and pleasant to touch, albeit a little viscous. She was feeling a pulsation coursing through it, four little surge like a four-stroke heart. Still without moving, she tried to listen carefully. Ripples of water, sliping of tentacles against each others, drop falling into puddles or on the ground, the hissing of something like a big mouth, opening and closing in a breathing-like fashion. She stayed focused for another couple of minutes, but that was all she could make her ears gather. She finally used her nose, now that she had time to, smelling the organical scent floating in the air, the flesh, the blood, the mucus, and other thing she didn't know how to describe. But this smell woke up something in her : hunger. Like a hammer, hunger hit her in the guts, unexpected.

She got on all fours with great difficulty, her limbs struggling to even support herself, and crawled to those things that had the unidentifiable smell. She touched them, caressed them with her hands, enjoying their texture, their firmness and, no longer able to stop herself, took a big bite of it.

The texture in mouth was pulpy, with a taste hard to describe, something between apple, beef and egg yolk, and the juice flowing from it strangely reminded her of the one she inconveniently swallowed back in the pond. A special sensation but, on the whole, quite satisfactory and, above all, satisfying her hunger and quenching her thirst.

She devoured a first one, then another, and another, and yet another.

She stopped counting, gobbling them without a stop until she fell slowly on the floor, sated, tired, sleepy… She yet again fell asleep, still rocked by the groud’s pulsations.

She opened her eyes by reflex. Everyone open their eyes when they wake up.

Bad idea.

The light burned her retinas, making her pass through awful suffering.

So much that she screamed, a long, inhuman scream of pain, resounding through the place she was in. She stayed curled up there two or three minutes, letting the pain fade away, before finally sitting with her back against the wall. Strangelly, she was smiling. Indeed, the first shock outstriped, she realised that she could see again. She just needed a little bit of gradual practice...

She put her hands before her eyes, covering them to the utmost, and opened her eyelids so slightly. Light assaulted her, but not as much as the first time. After a minute, she closed her eyes again, tired by the effort of bearing the light, and turned back to take one of the flesh fruit from the wall, eating it more slowly than those from her past rampage, less hungry this time.

She repeated this routine a lot of time until finally, finally, she could open her eyes in full, seeing for the first true time where she was.

The room wasn’t big, The ground, walls and ceiling where covered with a some kind of organic substance which colour varied between pink and brown. A pond swarming with black tentacles was sitting in a corner, crawling onto one another in a tar-like substance.

She then looked at herself, curious, and saw that she was covered by something looking like this strange tar, only dry and coagulated. And she was totally naked, which was bothering her more than she thought she needed to. She then frowned for one seconde, having a feeling of discrepancy with her own body.

Is this really me ? My body ? She thought, filled with confusion. Indeed, she was now a lot more muscular than in her recollection, her legs and arms longer, slender, her fingers thinner, more delicate, her skin darker, more tanned, her breasts more imposing, her feet more symmetrical.

What's going on ? She thought while starting to panic. She was stranded in strange room, in an unfamiliar body, eating freakish things, lost, confused.

Am I mad ?

“No, not yet, to my dismay.” Replied a voice to her, at the same time like an elderly, a mother, a killer, i child, a robot, a monster.

“But i’ve hope. Welcome, dear, in my Labyrinth.” Pursued the odd voice with joy.

“Ho and, by the way, all my congratulations my dear, you’re dead !”

the young woman tried to speak, to respond, but only a weak gurgle came out of her mouth.

“Haaa, my child, don’t push your body too much, it’s still very young you know ? Think, and i will respond.”

She did like she was told…

Dead ? So i’m in Hell ?”

“Hell ? Bah, my Labyrinth is much more interesting than Hell, this lost and lukewarm hole. Nieh, my Labyrinth isn’t a place made to torture, like the old Scratch’s territory, but a place made to change things, and people...”

Changing them ? How ?

“That’s a good question actually ! But, i’m afraid my dear, i don't know this answer.”

What ?

“Well, yes ! Where would be the fun of the maneuver if I already knew the outcome ? This place change things in an unpredictable way, that’s what made its charm ! And i hope you will appreciate it, in due time. Thereupon, a good day to you, my dear ! Or night. Or morning. Time don't really make any sense here, as you will see. Bye !”

No, please wait ! I don’t understand ! She screamed in her head.

But it was too late, the voice was already gone, letting the young woman with a troubling sense of void.

She curled up on the floor, trembling, not understanding what was happening to her.

Where am I ? What’s going on with this place ? And with me ? How did I die ? Am I really dead ? Who or what is this voice ? So many questions swirling in her head without rest. She finally fell asleep, shaking, teardrops on her cheeks. She then fell in a vicious circle, waking up, eating, crying, falling asleep, repeating it a lot of time.

Until one day…

“Grmbl…”

I’m hungry.

She reached the wall she was using as a pantry, just to discover that it was empty, withered, without any flesh fruit remaining. And she stayed there, dazed, contemplating her dried source of food, taking multiple minutes to put herself together.

What do I do now ? She asked herself, too focused on the immediate problem to think about her other concern, like being dead or lost and other trivial things...

She gazed at the only door of the room, a circular flesh membrane casted over a hole of the same shape.

So, for the first time since she was stranded here, she got up. The ground was very low for her, who lived on all four for so long, but she found her surprisingly stable on her support, her feet firmly rooted in the ground.

Unconsciously, this was very reassuring to her, and she started walking toward the exit with confident steps. The door reacted to the girl approaching it, opening in a little hiss and unfolding a long corridor, covered by the same organic substance as the room she was leaving and softly illuminated by it. She stopped on the doorstep, struggling with a last wisp of hesitation, with this fear of leaving the known and diving into the unknown. Her valor won, and she took a step. An strange voice then resonated in her mind.

Crawling then walking. Running and flying, swimming, burrowing. Movement is the vector of change. The one who change live, the one who stagnate die. And you, you walk. How are you to be called ?

Heeee... Hello ? Who are you ? She asked, without success. She weighted this question two seconds, struggling to find the answer. Suddenly, her mind was enlightened.

Eleonor

And this thought was making her serene.

It is good to know who we are, Eleonor, to know what we can become, how, and why. Because you know what you are, there is your first fragment. Grit your teeth, it’s always painful.

An humongous pain suddenly flooded her mind, giving her the impression that she was annihilated during an infinite time. The next seconde, it was gone, letting Eleonor catching her breath. When she looked up again, she was surprised. Something changed. She was feeling it, as if she knew herself better, somehow. Lines of text appeared in front of her, mixed character from the latin , cyrillique and chinese alphabet, and others she knew nothing about, before finally display something intelligible.

[Eleonor]

[Level : 1]

[Ressources :

Health points: 50/50 Stamina: 50/50]

[Body : 1]

[Mind: 1]

[Soul : 1]

They’re fucking with me, right ? I’m in a god forsaken game ?

A fragment to comprehend and understand oneself, the most basic skill to master here if you want to survive. Good luck.

...Ok, that was strange.

The voice had broken her in her momentum, but she quickly pulled herself together, helped by the hunger radiating from her stomach. She then walked fearfully along the corridor, mindful of each noise, and finally arrived in front of another membrane-door like the first one. It opened as softly as the other, letting the wind rush through, making Eleonor shiver.

The hole led to a large balcony that, in comparison to the rest of the pit, appeared quite tiny. A gigantic cavity, so big she wasn’t able to see the floor or the ceiling. That was the room waiting behind the door for Eleonor to enter. Creatures were flying here and there, hunting, battling each others, attending to whatever business they had. A kind of big organic spines were suspended from floating platforms, snapping whatever things to stupid to approach them. Clouds were floating everywhere, with red, brown and black waterfall coursing through the walls, creating natural lake in cracks and gulchs scattered along them, as if time was slowly breaking down this place.

What a beautiful place. Peaceful, now that the Sauriot Swarm has abandoned it, leaving pieces of its brood killing each others and creating this ecosystem. You can drink its water, it isn’t fool for you, but if you want to eat, I advise you to scavenge something. You’re not the most dangerous thing around here, not yet. Search in the rifts and cracks, along the walls, stay away from the floating islands.

Thank you, i guess ?

She took three steps in the balcony when a little creature suddenly jumped from behind a rock covered in biological tissues. This little thing looked like a rabbit, with a little nose, big fluffy ears, and cute eyes, giving it the look of a toy made for cuddling. It gazed at Eleonor, jiggling on its little feet.

Hooo, so cute. Maybe this place isn't so bad after all. She thought while slowly approaching.

The little thing stepped back a little before stopping, intrigue, and started to approach the young woman.

While close enough, Eleonor crouched and reached out to pet its head. The little thing sniffed her hand one or two time before moving forward.

Yes, yes, good little thing, good littARGHHHHHH !

The body of the little rabbit had opened in two, uncovering three rows of sharp fangs that it sank into the flesh of the girl with all its might. A meteoric pain penetrated the wrist of Eleonor, where she felt the teeth shredding her flesh and drinking her blood.

AHHH ! LET ME GO MOTHERFUCKER !

She started swinging her arm in all directions, without effects, before putting it against the floor and crushing the creature with her knee while hitting it with all her might, again and again and again, splattering blood and brain all over the balcony until the thing stopped moving. She opened the vicious jaw that locked up her left hand, bleeding a strange substance.

She curled up, her hand against her chest, trying to contain the pain and the bleeding, paralysed by this torture.

Appearance are deceitful, above all in this hold hive. Go back from where you came from, dive into the black pond. It will heal you, If you’re able to do it. Otherwise, die here.

The voice was like a whip for her. She was feeling herself losing strength, a black veil slowly covering her eyes, but she stood up, she walked in the corridor and, finally, she dropped herself into the pond full of tentacle. And all of this because, above everything else, she wanted to live.