New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1015: A Strange Flame

Adrift in a void, swallowed by the impenetrable blackness, Jin-Sil's mind raced with the uncertainty of when this journey would cease.

She had been floating for around five minutes, but each of those minutes felt like hours for her. With nothing to lay her eyes on, not even her own body, as the darkness enveloped everything in its icy embrace, she thought she was going mad.

And to make matters worse, when she opened her mouth to complain about it to the powers that may be, her voice refused to pass her lips.

With nothing in sight, not a sound to hear, not even the clapping of her own hands, Jin-Sil's mind raced in panic. She couldn't even feel her hands touch when she tried clapping, almost like she wasn't there at all.

'Am I dead? Did something happen when that white orb hit my head, and those pains were paradise? Was I ejected from paradise?'

The thoughts stumbled in her head one after another, her heart beating faster and faster, with nothing to offer her respite in her downward spiral.

Suddenly, a blinding white light erupted around Jin-Sil, and gravity reasserted itself, sending her crashing to a floor that she didn't know existed.

The sound of her hitting the ground and the light that allowed her to see herself for the first time in five minutes was a blessing to her, and tears of joy started sliding down her cheeks as she hugged herself.

"Oh, thank the gods above! I swear I'll never complain about my body again! Just don't take it away from me like this ever again!" she exclaimed, gripping herself in fear.

But something interrupted her thoughts, almost calling out to her soundlessly, pulling her gaze toward something she couldn't yet see.

Her curiosity skyrocketed, and her self-loving stopped as she stood to her feet, looking in a direction with nothing in sight.

However, her mind was telling her to go that way; that something was waiting for her there. Something that belonged with her.

Walking in the direction her mind was pulling her, Jin-Sil knew not how long had gone by, her body almost walking on autopilot, and her gaze never wavering from before her.

'What's that way? Why is it calling to me so strongly?' she wondered, as her feet dragged her toward whatever it was.

Minutes passed before she finally saw a speck of something other than white light in the distance. Instantly, without her thinking, her body launched into a jog, before devolving into a full sprint, until she stood right before the object in question.

Stopping a mere foot away from it, Jin-Sil stood there in a mix of awe and curiosity.

"What is this?" she thought aloud.

Floating in front of her was a small white flame, with blueish hues, that flickered silently three feet off the ground. The flame was no bigger than her head, but shone bright and warm, warming Jin-Sil's face comfortably.

She extended her hand to touch it, her hand going through the flames painlessly, but filling her body with warmth from a single touch.

The flame didn't burn her, instead filling her body with a feeling of familiarity. It felt like... home.

She hadn't the slightest idea what to make of this, but stopped passing her hand through it, removing it cautiously from the flame to keep it undisturbed.

But as she removed her hand, it remained on fire.

"What the hell?" she asked, her brows furrowing.

That was when a voice echoed in her mind, with words she'd already heard before.

'Make good use of it, child of the hunt.'

They were the harpy queen's last words.

The flames on her hand changed colour suddenly, going from white and blue to a vivid shade

of green, the fire going cold on her hand before expanding abruptly.

The green fire became heavy in her hand before extinguishing and leaving behind something she was very familiar with.

A bow.

"What the fuck is going on?" she asked, her voice betraying her excitement.

The bow in her hands was heavier than any bow she'd ever held before, almost like it was made of steel, yet, at a touch, she could tell it wasn't the case.

The upper and lower limbs of the bow looked like giant feathers, sporting the same white and brown colours as the harpy queen's plumage. They felt like feathers, too, soft and flexible, with a core part rigid enough to give the bow a firm tension.

The central part, where the limbs connected, though, was what confused her a little.

Instead of a hand grip on the bottom and a nice arrow rest in the center, it looked like two sword grips connected at the pommels to form the arrow rest.

"What a strange design..." she mumbled, flipping the bow in her hand.

Both sides of the bow were perfectly symmetrical, so she could fire it without worrying if it was upside down. But the design still felt strange.

Gripping the grips with both hands, trying to inspect the bow closer, a light snap echoed and the upper and lower parts separated, the bowstring suddenly vanishing.

"Oh, shit! No! Did I break it?" she panicked.

But as soon as she put the two pieces together, they reconnected, and the bowstring snapped back into existence.

Her brows furrowed deeply, forming creases on her forehead all the way to her hairline.

"The hell?"

She pulled again, and the limbs separated once more, the bowstring vanishing again, and she was left with the two feathers in hand.

But something was different. She could tell the feathers looked hard now. Almost like they had transformed into actual metal.

Lightly tapping them together, she got the light ring of metal on metal, and her mind fell into deeper confusion. She could tell these were swords, but she'd never wielded swords before.

Why would a bow turn into a pair of swords?

"I'll have to be careful never to grip the bow like this in the middle of combat. What the hell would I do with swords? I don't have the beginning of a training with blades..." she complained, putting the bow back together.

She wanted to inspect her new weapon some more, but she suddenly felt dizzy as her surroundings became blurry.

"What now?" she mumbled, before her legs gave out under her.

And back to the darkness her mind went.

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