I wake up with a fit of hacking coughs, my lungs feeling like they’re squeezing out more dust than oxygen. Opening my blurry eyes I find my vision plastered with a massive blue box. I stare at it in a befuddled state and wait for my brain to catch up. It takes a moment before the words become clear, and then suddenly it clicks.

Blessing of the World Anchor Brand Allsun Essence of Self Bestowment 0 Physique 1 Vitality 1 Perception 1 Wisdom 1 Evolution of Self Mastery

n / a Path n / a n / a n / a Skill Empathic Link (Lv 7)

“Fuck…” I breathe out, causing another fit of coughs to take over me. Forcing myself to sit up I try to ignore the blanket of information in front of me. My wish to see it disappear seems to have an affect as it suddenly vanishes from my vision and the world around me enters my sight. A much worse sight.

I stare out at the expanse of dead, barren land. The events before I fell unconscious come back to me, and I struggle to keep a grip on myself. Scrambling to my feet as fast as my injuries let me ,I turn this way and that and come to the same conclusion. A dead land. The ground is covered with a thick blanket of ash that sticks to my tattered clothes like dusted ink. The ground itself…I shiver at the cracks that run across it like numerous spiderwebs, its sense of decay and death making me feel as if it would swallow me up in an instant.

Nothing here feels right. Nothing feels alive. I can feel my breathing hitch up, a sense of panic threatening to overwhelm. I close my eyes and remember an old trick. Just focus on breathing. Remember a happy place. I remember holding a dog. His eyes stare up at mine, his emotions a wave of joy and love. Peaceful, welcoming emotions. I let him wash away my fear. When I feel ready I open my eyes again and stare out at the far expanse.

After a brief moment I look down at myself. I look, and feel, frail. I can’t see any injuries, but everything aches and my skin is terribly pale as if I hadn’t seen the sun for years. Rummaging through what remains of my clothes I’m able to clutch tight to a single water bottle. At the same time I feel the cold hint of metal next to it. That strange hum enters my mind as I touch the familiar item. I draw my fingers in and bring out the token, alongside the necklace, and hold them in my hands. I clutch them tight.

I take another deep breath. I sit down and focus my mind again, conjuring up the previous box. My eyes drift past the unhelpful parts and settle down at the bottom, where a ‘skill’ shows itself. One which looks awful familiar. Before I can blink the box jumps out at me.

Empathic Link Level 7 Advancement 37% Touch upon and channel the emotions of other sentient entities.

I just sit there and stare for a good minute, my mind playing back the parts of the previous events I can remember. Being ripped out of the house. I can still feel the searing pain of the skeletons, their screams of agony. And the explosion before I lost consciousness. I put the necklace around my neck, the dream-like orb resting against my heart. I watch the token as I move it across my hands. Its hum gentle, with glowing wisps of blue light tracing across its engravings. It’s calling to me.

My body aches. My mind is weary. But as I clutch the token tight in my fist I feel it soothe me. Abba’s words come unbidden to me and I focus on my need. To survive. To continue surviving. The place where my hope is. The token blazes alight, its glow escaping from the cracks between my fingers and piercing directly into me. I feel myself taken away from my body as my sight expands and takes in the world beneath me. The land all around me is dead. The only thing in sight are skeletons drifting from one place to the next without purpose. The sight of them gives me pause, but I’m not given a chance to think.

My sight moves as it turns to face the sun. The land rapidly disappears beneath my feet as I cross a great length before freezing in place. I stare at it. In the middle of death and decay stands something alive. Something real. A giant castle, alight with a verdant green flame. Lush with vegetation and life. A paradise surrounded by the ash and the dead. And in a window high on one of the towers is a shadowed figure, lit alight with two glowing green eyes. As I look at them, they in turn look at me. Their eyes pierce into my soul and I feel myself shaken before being thrown away, back across the desert all the way back into my body with a heavy thump.

With a gasp I sit up, my body adjusting surprisingly well to my movements. I notice the sun having long crossed the sky and starting to set. I fumble for the water bottle and draw it out. My mouth burns, but I grit my teeth and take a short swig before closing it again.

When I close my eyes, I see it again. That castle. Those eyes. The token in my hand is dim, but it still glows. I look at it briefly before putting it in the pocket of my tattered pants. I stand this time, and turn my eyes to face toward the castle.

The sun continues to set as I walk. Its heat bears down on me, testing my will time and again as I clutch tight to my shirt. Refusing to take another drink of water. My mind grows dazed as hunger and thirst weaken me, but my body never wavers. One step after another.

The clacking of bones shocks me from my daze. Alarm bells ring in my mind as I realise the danger of my lax state. I snap my head toward the sound and discover a skeleton moving toward me slowly, still rather far away. I try and keep my emotions cool as I observe it walking closer toward me. I flinch as phantom pain from the previous event hits me. But I refuse to budge. Or rather, I cannot. I don’t have the resources to take a detour. It’s forward. Or death.

My eyes travel along its figure, identifying the cracks and aged nature of its bones. It holds nothing in its hands and its vision or sense is weak as it stumbles vaguely in my direction. I take a deep breath and prepare myself for the assault of emotions. It doesn’t take long to answer me. As the blanketed wave of pain washes over me I almost stumble to the ground, barely able to keep myself together. My fists are gripped tightly enough to draw blood.

I take a breath. Then another. Each one building up my tolerance as I slowly start to pick myself up. Until finally I stand straight and stare at the skeleton quickly closing the distance in front of me. My eyes harden and I jump toward it as it nears me, my hands grappling its bones as I push it to the ground.

The sound of bones continue to clack as the skeleton’s joints give a little when it impacts the ground. But before I can capitalise it moves fast, blindingly fast compared to before, and latches its hands onto my arms as its teeth go for my throat. Fear hitches my breath as I use all my strength to throw it to the side, its teeth barely missing my neck and tearing into my left arm instead.

The pain mixes with the blood seeping out of the wound as it bites down hard, thankfully not tearing completely through. I wrestle my right hand out of its grip and slam it down on its head. It gets knocked back slightly but still doesn’t budge from my arm, its teeth digging deeper. The pain digs into me, making it hard to think, but I force myself to focus.

With an angry cry I drive my fist deeper into its skull, its grip finally relenting as it collapses to the ground. Its hands attempt to grapple me again but I throw its body to the side as I drive my fist again into its skull, ignoring the cutting pain my bleeding fists give in return.

Cracks start to form in its skull and finally after my third and last fist, driven with all of my strength, it breaks apart into multiple pieces. The skeleton itself quickly stills with its head gone and its body collapses onto the ground. Panting deeply I stare at the now silent skeleton, my mind a deep mess.

I clutch my arm as I look down at it. Now a mangled mess of torn flesh I panic a little as I see the blood seeping out. Gritting my teeth I reach down and tear a large strip off what remains of my long pants, tying it semi-loosely against my wound. My eyes identify the cuts and scrapes on my fists but at least to my relief they’re barely noticeable.

Still catching back my breath I simply lay there and take the moment in. A few minutes of silence passes. And then I laugh. A deprecating laugh filled with a sense of absurdity. “What am I even doing,” I mutter to myself, blankly gazing at the sky. “Where the hell am I…” I shut my eyes tight, letting the tears seep out of the corner of my eyes.

After giving myself a long minute I conjure up that box again, noticing something new. I look at it blankly.

Blessing of the World Anchor Brand Allsun Essence of Self Bestowment 0 Physique 1 Vitality 1 Perception 1 Wisdom 1 Evolution of Self Mastery

n / a Path n / a n / a n / a Skill Empathic Link (Lv 7) – Resilience (Lv 2) Resilience Level 2 Advancement 53% Mental adaptability.

The world acknowledging my suffering somehow makes it worse. Silently, passively, watching me break down. I force my eyes away and look at that first box again.

Empathic Link Level 7 Advancement 37% Touch upon and channel the emotions of other sentient entities.

I stare at it. “Next time…” I tell myself quietly. My voice only reminding me of how parched my throat is. I hesitate, but in the end I grab the water bottle out of my pocket and take a sip. My throat cries out for more but I force myself to close the lid and put it back.

I ignore the wave of weakness that fills me and step forward, continuing on the path I was on before. This time with my eyes straight, and searching. The sun starts to lower as I continue to traverse this decayed land. Cracked, dead ground fills my sight. The thick film of ash sticks to me.

Sometimes the barest of objects reveal themselves. A thin trunk of a tree, or a small raised platform of earth. They all turn into ash at my touch, adding their own presence to the littered ground. And the sun too accompanies me, its bright warmth no different from Earth. My thirst is barely staved off with each sip of water. I keep my pace steady and maintain a modicum of hope.

Then I hear it. The clacking of bone again. My body tenses as my blurring eyes refocus themselves. It doesn’t take me long to identify them. Two skeleton’s. With the same old, breaking down bones. I stare grimly at them. My body is too tired. Too weary. With a heavy heart I conjure up the skill box once last time.

Empathic Link Level 7 Advancement 37% Touch upon and channel the emotions of other sentient entities.

My eyes travel across it searchingly as I try to piece together even a semblance of understanding. Then the skeleton’s emotions hit me together. Their blinding pain and anguish amplified, causing me to fall to my knees as I nearly pass out. My mind focuses in its desperation. This time I don’t try and reject the emotion. I let it touch me, desperate to understand. The sickening emotions continue to wash over me.

I attempt to feel the emotions, to touch them, each moment drawing me closer to them. I can almost grasp the feeling. And then they’re upon me. I barely have time to roll out of the way as the first one attempts to collapse on top of me. The other manages to hit me off-balance with a wide swing of its arms, sending me sprawling to the ground. My mind continues to race, poking and prodding the powerful wave of emotions that sit inside them.

Another skeleton hand grabs me as a face appears in my view, and I watch as its teeth move down toward my neck. My mind screams out, my survival instincts kick in and I can feel it. Just the barest touch. I draw out the emotions and then –

Crack. The skeleton’s teeth crash against a thin black barrier spread across my body. The moment it knocks against it, the barrier begins to crack. But the moment it gives me is enough. I raise my own fist and slam it against its skull, knocking it away as the barrier breaks into pieces. The other skeleton reaches over to me and I roll out of the way and spring myself up. My body staggers at the movement, barely being kept together.

Then, before I can do anything else, an overwhelming wave of illness and disgust washes over me and I collapse again to the side, throwing up what remains in my stomach. Even as I hack and cough I can see the second skeleton stumbling toward me. I desperately touch the emotions again and draw more from it, the thin barrier reforming as a larger wave of sickness and disgust pushes itself through me.

I retch even as the skeleton slams into me, the barrier immediately cracking again. I force myself to move and raise my fist as I slam it into the skeleton’s skull. One. Two. Three times and it collapses just as my barrier falls. The second skeleton is still trying to get itself off the ground as I catch my breath. I attempt to draw on its emotions again, but this time I feel a strong sense of rejection. Of wrongness. I feel as if I could force myself past it. But something told me I would not like the result.

So with some gathered breath I stumble to my feet and walk over to the remaining skeleton, almost collapsing as I slam my fist once again into its skull until it collapses. I fall along with it, hitting the ground hard. I survived. And yet I feel no relief. My dazed eyes remain unfocused as I look everywhere and nowhere. I feel, for a long time, relief will not be coming.