Dawn swept across the blackened sky, casting light that was shaded a slight bit pink. The colours blended in curious harmony together, signaling the start of another day. Alex was gazing out the window of the wooden house, watching the sun lazily rise from the clouds, pondering a great many things. Theories on what happened to Steve, worries about Luke, what to have for breakfast.
Alex glanced back over at Steve, who had been slumbering peacefully until now. The covers rustled, and he sat up.
"We need to leave," he said, still a little groggy.
"Leave? Don't be stupid. You're still pretty roughed up. Also you just woke up, so I wouldn't recommend trotting around the world in just a pair of shorts." Alex paused.
"Why do you want to leave anyway?"
"You didn't see it?" His face fell. Alex took on a skeptical look.
"See what?" Steve sighed. He threw the covers off of him and sat on the edge of the bed.
"Then maybe it was a hallucination..." he muttered to himself. After a moment, he scrunched up his face and shook his head. "But then how...?" At the very least, something seemed to be troubling him. Alex rotated herself on the stool she sat on.
"I guess you have a bit of explaining to do," she said. Steve nodded, though he said nothing. "Maybe after some breakfast." Alex suggested. She stood, and leisurely walked out of the room and into the lapis lazuli kitchen. Every now and again she forgot that it was entirely blue. Michael must have found a million of these before finding any diamonds. She felt a small twang in her chest at the thought. It hurt...but not as much as it once had. It felt so distant now, but she knew it would never truly fade.
Alex opened the main "fridge," which was just a chest filled with meat. She wondered how none of it went bad. Well, none of it was really breakfast material, so naturally she took out a steak for herself and moved on, nibbling on it as she opened the chest next to her. This one was a little more reasonable, containing fruits and vegetables and the likes. She grabbed an apple and bread, closing the chest with her foot and carrying it all out with her.567Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYbaEDePBIm
She stopped as she came into the living room, sucking more of the steak into her mouth and noticing the look Steve gave her from the table.
"You're still the same," he said, the shadow of a smile entrancing his lips.
"Mmphh," Alex shrugged, placing the food before him. He thanked her and ate, still staring off into nothing with vacant eyes. Alex's face fell. He was never like this. She finished off her steak in record time, shifting herself to sit beside him.
"Steve," she started, gazing at him with concern. "What happened?"
"Where did the others go off to?" He dodged the question. Alex hesitated, then sighed.
"Cadence and Ace offered to water, Lucas is in his caves, and Luke's group went off somewhere. I just hope they don't come back ready to fight."
"So you found him after all." Steve finished his bread, moving onto the apple.
"Did you find him before?" Alex asked.
"When I was travelling, yeah. He seemed pretty well-off. We just kind of waved at each other. He didn't really want to talk."
"Speaking of which," Alex stretched. "I've been meaning to ask, where did you end up going? Also, where's Rufus? I know you took him with you." Steve was leaning in to take another bite of his apple, but he suddenly stopped. He placed the apple on the table, a solemn expression crossing his face.
"No..." Alex shook her head. "He's not-"
"I don't know," Steve said. "We were split up. But in the circumstances we were in...it would be a miracle if both of us made it out alive. It's possible that he's out there, it's just...unlikely." Alex took in a deep breath.
"What happened?" She brought it up again, her eyes hard. Steve seemed to crumble under the pressure.
"I - I think I met God." Steve folded his hands together. He was shaking.
Steve and Rufus had been walking a long way. Through deserts and flatlands they had traversed, searching and searching for a lost temple. And at last, they had found it. In the midst of an eternal jungle, where everything was alive. The towering trees that shrouded them from direct sunlight, the sounds of a rushing river that never seemed to be too far off, frogs croaking at all times of the day. The way that the sunlight peeked through the leaves, never truly blinding yet always enough to make the world around them bright.
On one occasion, Steve and Rufus came across a lone Ocelot that stopped off only to say hello. After taking one of Steve's fish, it seemed quite content to stick around for a while. But once they neared the temple, they split apart. The Ocelot ran off, perhaps in search of more food, or maybe it was simply tired of their company. That last one hurt a little, so Steve liked to think otherwise.
But now he came to a towering building, ravaged with vines and moss that came with existing in such a place for so long. It appeared to be rustic, indeed, with parts of the architecture having already crumbled away. It all looked so fragile, but upon closer inspection, that is to say, Steve knocking a firm fist upon it, it seemed to be quite the opposite.
"Well, Rufus," Steve released his stub from the cool rock. "I think it's time. Let's go." The wolf looked at him with affectionate eyes, yipping as his tail wagged, and stuck close to his side. Steve grinned, patting him, and set off towards the rustic temple.
He pushed open a heavy, wooden door to reveal nothing but darkness. Squinting, he pulled out a torch and placed it on the wall. In an instant, a patch of light illuminated enough in front of them so that a set of levers was visible. There were five in total, and they aligned the wall in such a fashion that it would be foolish to think there wasn't some sort of puzzle involved. A few feet away, there was a locked door. Steve's best guess was that he needed to manipulate the levers to open it. Steve glanced back down to Rufus, who's tongue was out in that sloppy way dogs stick out their tongues. He might not be the best of help in this situation.
Steve chose to head left, sticking torches up as he went. A small room revealed itself, where five signs rested, not unlike the levers from before. In reading them from left to right, he discovered that they were arrows pointing in one of four directions.
"Up, up, right, left, down?" Steve read the pattern aloud. Of course! That must be the way to put the levers, thus solving the puzzle. Steve grinned to himself, thinking he was rather clever, and inputted the pattern onto the levers. He looked to the door with expectancy. However, nothing of note happened. Perhaps it became even more locked than it already was.
Steve scratched his head. Maybe he just didn't have all the pieces of the puzzle quite yet. He trotted over to the right, Rufus at his heels. A single sign hung on an otherwise empty wall, displaying a message.
"Inverted," he read. "That's it? What do you think, Rufus?" The wolf looked at him with sparkling eyes. Clearly not too much, Steve reasoned. He went to the middle of the room again, where the levers were. He had a moment where nothing ran through his head, and then another where a lightbulb certainly could have shone brightly over his head. He went back to the five signs and read them again, then went back to the levers and inputted a new pattern.
"Down, down, left, right, up." Steve flicked up the last lever and jumped as he heard the locks of the door shift. The door opened a crack, and Steve laughed at his own brilliance, calling for Rufus to follow him through the new passageway.
"It doesn't sound that treacherous," Cadence interrupted. Steve and Alex flinched. "...What?"
"When did you get here?" Alex held a stub over her chest.
"When he started. Don't look at me like that! Everyone else is listening in, too." She swung out of the room, saying something to the others in the room. Soon, the faces of Lucas, Ace, and even Mona presented themselves.
"Why are you here?" Alex asked Mona. She just shrugged. Alex sighed. "Were you all listening in to this?" They nodded. Alex groaned, apologizing to Steve.
"No, it's alright," he insisted. "they were going to find out soon anyway. It's probably better like this. Er, probably." A moment of silence. A cough from within the group.
"Well, go on." Ace said. "What happened next?"
Behind the once locked door was a descending staircase, winding down and down. Steve couldn't even see the bottom of it all. Regardless, he trudged forth, prepared for anything. There was another door at the bottom of the staircase, and when he opened it, the room inside was pitch black, like the other one. At this point, the darkness didn't faze him that much anymore. He reached into his bag again to pull out more torches, and suddenly heard a noise that made him stop in his tracks.
It was an alien-like noise, creeping throughout the room. A kind of clicking that seemed to be everywhere. Steve quickly whipped out a torch, lighting up the space before him to reveal a horde of spiders. Their red eyes glittered curiously at him. If he had tried to count them all, it would be futile either way. In short, there was a lot.
"Run," he said to Rufus, who whimpered. As he jumped the stairs two at a time, an awful hissing followed. Steve glanced back for only a second, and regretted that he did. A cloud of blackness followed him, gaining speed incredibly fast. He felt sick when he knew that those were all spiders. He ascended the staircase, burst out the open door, and breathed in the fresh air of the eve.
Steve knew he couldn't hesitate, and promptly began to climb the walls of the temple. He heard a whimper, and stopped. Rufus looked to him with fear-filled eyes. There was a determined glint in Steve's eye. He snatched up the wolf and held him in his arm as he used the other to pull himself higher and higher. He was admittedly thankful that they were in a jungle, of all places, where the vines decorated the place like stench on a hog.
Hissing from beneath him assured Steve that the spiders weren't finished with him quite yet. He heard their legs tip tapping against the wall in a hurry, and he too rushed to get to the top. At least he'd have a chance to fend them off up there.
With a grunt and a great heave, Steve pulled himself to the top, his back and shoulder muscles aching. He shook as he stood, drawing an azure-tinted sword that shone in the light of the moon. He centered himself on the roof platform and deployed Rufus beside him. They were going to get through this together, no doubt about it.
Legs began to show themselves from all angles, along with blood eyes that feasted upon Steve as though he were their next meal. Which, in fact, he probably was. Steve readied himself, waiting for one to strike. A shriek from his left, it was ready to pounce - and it stopped. The spider started to tap on the ground worriedly. Before Steve could even act, a tremor shook the building. And not just the building, but the powerful trees around them. It wasn't powerful enough to knock Steve over, but it was certainly enough to prevent the spiders from attacking, if only for a moment.
Another tremor shook, this time more forceful, and Steve could only glance down in horror as the stone beneath him began to crumble away, leaving him to stand on air. This didn't work fairly well, as Steve found himself falling down the hole. A steady thud and an aching pain in his head that more than likely wouldn't leave for a few days. Rubbing the side of his head, Steve gazed at the room he had found himself in. It was extraordinarily large, yet quite bare, the only thing within it a full body mirror that was feet away from him.
He approached it, and to his surprise, saw nothing. Not even his own reflection stared back. After a moment, the tiniest block appeared, though it seemed to be very far away. Steve squinted into the mirror, trying to deduce what it was. The block soon made itself very clear - and by that it actually jumped out of the mirror straight at Steve's face, knocking him down forcefully.
Steve felt a searing pain on his face, and desperately attempted to claw it off with whatever strength he had, but to no avail. The pain turned into what felt like fire melting off his face - and then it was gone. Steve coughed, his body shaking and feeling twice as exhausted as he was before. He looked up, and everything stopped. The thing that was before him was unlike anything he'd ever seen before.
His presence was commanding, demanding Steve's attention. And it wasn't hard to, with looks like that. He looked identical to Steve, right down to the stubble on his chin. But what shook Steve the most was the one key difference between them. His eyes glowed an impossible white - whiter than the moon that hovered above - stared into nothingness. They appeared to take everything in, yet held none of that information within themselves. Steve stared up at his replica, and the thing stared back. Steve could only know because odd tingles shot themselves through his entire body, making him feel like a rabbit against a fox.
Any and all urges told him to run. Run, grab your wolf and run as fast as you can. But he couldn't move. Whether it be courage or stupidity, something kept him rooted to the spot. His hands were shaking as he rose to his feet, his mind reeling, attempting to make sense of whatever this thing was. For the first time in a long while, Steve was terrified.
"What are you?" he asked. It would be nice to get that nasty question out of the way. The thing looked at him, saying nothing. Instead, it cocked its head, and began to rise in the air. Then, he just hovered there. No, it wasn't so much hovering as it was the air simply moved around him, as though he had control over such things. The being was silent, though it did something Steve wouldn't expect him to do. He smiled. It wasn't a nice, heartfelt smile, no, it was the grin of a villain. A heinous, appalling, wicked smile that shook Steve to his core.
It then looked to Steve, still grinning, and raised an arm. The floor and anything beneath it erupted in a cloud of dust right next to Steve. Steve gazed at the empty space in abject horror, his heart hammering. This seemed to please the being, for he began to laugh. It was more of a cackle, really. Steve took the opportunity and ran. He darted down a nearby staircase, only to realize that it was being destroyed from all sides. As the rubble beneath his feet was torn away, Steve fell to the grassy ground, cold and hard.
He got to his feet quickly, his body throbbing and struggling to keep him up.
"Rufus!" he shouted into the chaos. A soft, yet clearly discernible howl rang through. By this point, the being had taken several blocks and had began to weave them around his body. They floated along with him, swirling madly. There was no way that Steve could get through all that and find Rufus. He hated how he could do nothing.
"Rufus! We'll rendezvous back home, got it?! Meet me there when you're out of this mess!" A yip from afar, and Steve knew that he was understood. Well, as much as he really could be, anyway. The being had begun to rip out the ancient trees right from their roots, stripping away the ground as he went. Steve bit his lip, and ran. He ran as hard as he could, every step a clap of thunder as he distanced himself as far as he possibly could from that thing. He didn't stop running. If he stopped, he feared that the beast would catch up to him and end him right then and there.
It was a long time before he felt his limbs go slack. Where the cool surface of the water brushing over him felt like a caressing blanket upon his face. Where the cries of someone shouting his name became distanced and muffled.
"...And that's it," Steve finished. He seemed paler now than when they had began the story. Nobody was certain of how to respond to this.
"Did it have a name?" Alex asked after a long period of silence.
"No," Steve answered.
"What do we do?" Cadence sank to her knees. Ace gave her a reassuring pat.
"I don't know," Steve said, his voice cracking. Alex looked at him, astounded. She had never seen Steve act like this before.
"What is it?" Ace asked quietly.
"Well, if I had to place a guess," Steve said. "I'd call it a God."
ns 15.158.61.21da2
