“Hak-” Strained coughing rang across the silent shores of a forgotten lake, as a young girl managed to pull herself onto dry land.

“Curs-” Another coughing fit overtook her, trying to get the water that she had swallowed by the mouthfuls out.

After a couple of minutes, she managed to pull herself together. The rocky sand below her was soft to the touch, but hard when she pressed against it with her palms. No signs of life were spotted anywhere near her.

The only faint touches of light were from the small hole that reached above into the surface, casting a soft glow on the placid lake. Past the shore’s boundaries, was complete darkness. Instinctively, she knew that there was nothing here.

Nothing living, at least.

Taking a few cautious steps towards the edges of the light, she began to chart her surroundings. No signs of food anywhere. Nothing she could eat here. Nothing signaled to her that it could take her back to the surface.

She muttered a few choice words under her breath. Even getting caught by the guards was better than this fate. At least she could put her Curse to good use and try to lessen the punishment on herself with words. Even if that doesn't work, at least after the guards are done playing with her, they would let her go.

Down here, the only path she could see was death. A slow, painful experience as she slowly starved and wasted away down in the caverns below the capital.

She wished that the fall had killed her instead. A much faster way to exit this miserable life than starving to death.

Evatide looked back at the hole from which she fell. It was much too high to reach, and the lake she had fallen to did not seem to have a bottom. She slowly looked back at the imposing darkness and made a choice.

There were going to be roughly 12 hours until the light of day starts to fade. She has to find something in the darkness until those 12 hours are gone.

Otherwise, the only source of light here would disappear, and she’ll be trapped in the darkness once again.

What you can’t see will kill you.

Strengthening her will, she forged her way into the darkness. As expected, the only thing she could vaguely see was her own hands, with everything else in a monotonous shade of black. Her hand brushed against a fist-sized rock that was triangular in shape, with the sides rounded down to a curve.

Evatide decided to keep it in her hand for protection. Occasionally, she would look back at the faint light glowing from the ceiling to determine her position, and how far she was away from the lake.

The soft, mushy, damp soil compressed underneath her every step. In this darkness where sight was of no use, her other senses were soon magnified. Other than her terrible attempts to control her rapid breathing, this place was as silent as a graveyard.

Suddenly, she stubbed her toe against a hard piece of rock and tripped.

“Fuck!” She quickly brought a hand to her mouth, muffling much of the sound she let out. Her hands collided with a hard surface, making her recoil in pain. But she wasn’t focused on that, instead, the stone here felt… unnatural? It felt man-made, like the buildings that composed the majority of the buildings back in Yrin. Just to make sure, however…

She moved her hands around, feeling smooth ridges between the uniform stones.

‘Yes!’ Who could’ve known that there was a road here, of all places?!’ Maybe, just maybe, escape was possible. She didn’t want to get her hopes up, but there was human activity somewhere nearby. The manmade road confirmed this. All she had to do now was to follow the stone road, and hopefully stumble onto some secret underground settlement.

Crawling on all fours, brought her entire body onto the debilitated road, making sure to look back at the pale light illuminating the surface of a tranquil lake. Suddenly, even from here, she sensed movement near the light. A shape she thought was once a rock moved, although slightly.

Evatide cursed silently. She was not alone here. Moving as quickly as possible on all fours, she moved with the stone road, hoping that wherever it led her, it was away from the unknown entity. Maybe starving to death was a better option.

Maybe.

…

Evatide had been following this gods forsakened stone road for what seemed to be hours now, her pace crippling slow as she had been using all four of her limbs to make sure she was on the correct path.

Her senses had been sharpened for the past hours that she had spent in the darkness, with her only source of light, the small hole near the lake, gone. A few faint footsteps followed in her wake, belonging to the cryptic entity that had been near the placid lake before.

Thankfully, it had been a while since she last heard it. The stones had changed too, with the road becoming much more smooth, and carved, with fewer gaps between each stone than before. She was likely getting near the end of where this road led, and if her intuition was correct, the end of the road led to some form of civilization.

Suddenly, her left hand brushed against a cold solid wall. Using both hands to feel as much of it as possible to inspect, there were countless ridges and carvings on the surface of the cold wall. It felt like steel, but much, much more deadly.

Perhaps it was like an obelisk or a trail marker on an important road. But as she moved to the side, and the same feeling of an impenetrable steel wall being picked up by her fingers, her heart sank as the thought of a dead end settled in.

‘No way… right?’ Perhaps she took the wrong end of the road? But then why was this part paved and smoother than the one near the lake?

Not expecting a gap to be in between the steel, her hand slipped through, causing her to fall on her face. Muffling a few curses and some groans, she carefully slipped past the thin crack between the thick steel wall and continued on her way. The road here was a bit worn, and no longer had the feel of chiseled and sectioned rock.

Instead, it felt like an entire entity, being carved out of a single block. There were no seams or corners to be found, instead, a smooth, almost silk-like path meandered in front of her with no end. Her instincts told her there were strange objects hidden just outside of the road, like the buildings in the slums.

But she didn’t satiate her curiosity. Not until she had to. So on she went, slowly crawling forward on a silken smooth pathway, hoping to reach any sort of civilization. Evatide did not get far, as not long after she entered the silken path, a clicking sound was heard from the darkness.

And as soon as Evatide got ready to run, the once pitch-black void that accompanied her for the past hours vanished in a fraction of a millisecond, blinding white light replacing it faster than she could blink.

…

“Who-” Davis quickly turned around, his eyes scanning the beautiful golden room hurriedly. It was large, yes. So large that he could not see the ceilings. Countless decorations and etchings lined the walls and floors, all lined in gold.

Eventually, his eyes settled down on what he thought was a corpse, a near-mummified skeleton chained by 10 golden chains. A majority of them were bound around his neck, making it look like he was wearing the world’s largest golden collar. An exquisite sword was stabbed into his chest, piercing through and out the back.

Piles of charred bones, ash, and bleached bones lay everywhere around the room, the majority located by the golden chains and near the mummified skeleton itself. Had it not been talked to him, Davis would have had no idea that it was still living.

The mummified skeleton moved, its head which should not have been able to be supported by its thin neck looked up at Davis.

“It’s been a long time. Welcome, Davis Fellwater, to my humble abode.” A parched grin followed that statement, as the mummified skeleton began to quickly grow in size and vitality.

“Oh dear, where are my manners?” Now, even chained and forced into a kneeling position, the entity stood at a staggering 65 meters tall. Davis strained his neck to look up at it. The golden chains seemed to warp and grow with him, accommodating his larger size with larger and stronger chains and cuffs. The entity sighed. “My control is getting worse after all these millennia…” Just as fast as he grew, the entity shrunk, alongside his chains, until he was nothing more than 3 meters tall, still kneeling.

Its form constantly shifted between a myriad of different states. From the most beautiful men and women, young and old, human and… something else. But there was one common denominator between all forms, which is that they were constantly in pain, the sizzling smell of burnt flesh and wispy white smoke floating above his head.

Davis did not see it before, but a golden snake curled around their golden collar, almost blending in with it. Its head reared over their face, dropping caustic acid over his face. The golden chains flared with divine flame every time he moved, and the sizzling of flesh and smell of cooking meat permeated into the room.

“Mind the snake.” With a pained expression, they smiled as best as they could. A flicker of golden firelight caused the almost invisible puddle of acid at the entity’s knees to shine.

“Who did this to you?” Davis blurted out. Everything here seemed… excessive. Unneeded. Overly cruel. No one deserves this kind of sick and cruel punishment. Not even his worst enemies.

“Who did this to me?” The entity repeated, confused. After a few moments of thought, they burst out laughing. Davis’s expression turned ugly.

“Oh, my sweet child. I did this to myself.” Glazed white eyes seemed to stare directly into Davis’s soul, chills running down his spine. “A long time ago. I can barely remember what outside of these chains felt like. But these chains, these punishments-” The entity’s form solidified, until he became a beautiful man of around 24, with ashy blonde hair, pure white eyes, toned muscles, and olive-bronze skin. The golden flames that sat upon the braziers danced and swirled, with the shadows they cast seemingly growing. He gave Davis the most chillingly beautiful smile he had ever witnessed. “I designed them. I installed them. I erased the keys, and I chained myself here for all eternity.”

“I am Prometheus, second of Etyx. Lord Of Golden Flame. Creator of humanity. Thief of magic. Scourge of the Heavens.” His white eyes flickered with power, hints of gold flickered in his milky white eyes, as a pitch-black scroll unfurled itself in front of Davis.

“And welcome to my eternity.”