The Eternal's Gambit: Shards Of Fate

Sunday arrived, Liam, on his way to meet Ethan, couldn't shake off the image of his friend looking utterly dumbfounded, his face a mixture of shock and disbelief. Liam had dismissed it as typical Ethan drama, a ploy to enjoy a free movie. After all, who wouldn't want to get free movie show, especially with Liam footing the bill?

He found himself walking past an alleyway, the air thick with the stench of decay and fear. A small crowd had gathered, their faces pale and drawn.

"Poor souls," a woman whispered, her voice trembling. "Such a gruesome sight."

Liam, morbidly curious, edged closer. "What happened?" he asked a young boy standing nearby.

The boy, his eyes wide with terror, stammered, "They… they were found this morning. Dead. Horribly disfigured." He shuddered. "They say… they say they were cursed."

"Cursed?" Liam scoffed. "you guys still believe in superstition in this chaotic era."

"But… but they were having nightmares for days," a woman chimed in, her voice hushed. "Pain, suffering… it was awful."

"And the hunter?" an old woman with piercing eyes asked a man, her voice a low growl. "Where is the hunter when we need him?"

'Hunter?' Liam frowned. 'What hunter? This was starting to sound weird'.

He shook his head, dismissing the unsettling scene. He had a movie to watch, and his friend might be waiting. So, he left the scene.

...

At the theater, Ethan had just arrived, a sheepish grin on his face. "Sorry I was late," he said, "I… I had a bit of a… detour."

Liam raised an eyebrow, a skeptical glint in his eyes. "You're sure you didn't just sleep through the whole exam?" he teased.

Ethan nervously chuckled, "Maybe a little. But seriously, we need to go or else we might miss the opening scene." He changed the topic, while it was good, his friend was misunderstanding the situation, only he knew the rank he was weird thing.

He met with his lecturer and checked the answer sheet, but what he saw was a bizarre thing. He had written all the answers, and all of them were correct. Moreover, it was his handwriting.

'The situation was creepy' he didn't like at all.

After the movie and they had a lunch, then they go to new amusement part.

"Did you know that, apparently there was a strange energy condensing in slums of western city" Ethan asked.

Liam nodded and added "Yeah, there seems to be evacuating 200 km radius and a paragon on standby"

The day passed, and it was now evening, 3 pm.

"We need to go home," Ethan sighed.

Liam grinned, "What do you say if we take the abandoned route".

"Isn't that prohibited by the government?" Ethan asked, confused.

"Yes, so what do you say, are you in or not?" Liam asked.

Ethan thought for a moment and finally agreed, "Fine, let's go."

They decided to take the shortcut through the abandoned factory area. The air grew heavy as they ventured deeper into the desolate landscape, the silence broken only by the rustle of leaves and the distant howl of a stray dog.

Suddenly, a guttural roar shattered the stillness. Liam and Ethan felt a jolt of icy fear as they saw it.

A grotesque creature, its body a twisted mass of limbs. Six spindly legs propelled it forward, each movement a blur of motion. Its skin, a sickly shade of black, seemed to writhe and pulsate with an unnatural energy.

"run"

Terror seized them. They turned and ran, their feet pounding against the cracked concrete. But the creature was too fast, its movements a terrifying display of unnatural agility. Ethan could feel it's hot breath on his neck, hear the rasp of its claws against the concrete.

They stumbled into an abandoned warehouse, their hearts pounding like drums. They climbed up the stairs, reaching a small, dusty room on the top floor.

"Quick, hide!" Liam whispered, his voice trembling.

They crouched behind a stack of crates, their breath catching in their throats. The creature, a grotesque parody of nature, reached the warehouse door. Its eyes, glowing with an eerie, malevolent light, scanned the room.

They are terrified to discover that there is no escape from this room, the entrance, which is where the creature was present and they are at three floors high.

the creature launched at them but suddenly 

--bang--

A loud noise resounded as the creature leapt backwards and debris formed in the room.

The wall on the right side of the room had collapsed, a figure standing in debris. A young girl, no older than sixteen, stood amidst the debris of a collapsed wall.

The boys turned their eyes towards the destroyed wall and found that there was nothing attached to the wall on the right side. This meant, the girl had jumped three floors high and destroyed the wall without getting a scratch.

Her blue eyes, cold and calculating, met the creature with an unnerving calm. The creature let out a guttural roar and lunged forward, its legs a blur of motion.

But the girl merely sidestepped, her movements fluid and graceful. With a swift, almost effortless motion, she punched back of creature head.

The impact was devastating. The creature's head exploded in a spray of blood and gore, its body broke through the wall and fall outside the building with a sickening thud.

Liam and Ethan stared in stunned silence. The girl turned to them, her expression unreadable.

The red-hued sunlight entered the room as they saw her hair fluttering. One word came to their mind as they watched that beautiful girl.

'So Strong.'

Before they could even utter a word of thanks, another figure appeared, a man dressed in awakened council uniform, his face obscured by a wide-brimmed hat. "Lady Dahlia," he said, his voice a low growl, "You should have waited for me. I was supposed to handle this."

He surveyed the scene and thought 'she is a monster' as they said

Dahlia merely shrugged her gaze fixed on the fallen creature. "It was hardly a challenge," she said dismissively.

The man, who appeared to be some sort of authority figure, sighed. "This is not the place for such… displays," he said, his gaze sweeping over the corpse of creature. "Go home, boys. This is not a place, you play games."

With that, Dahlia turned and left, followed by man, leaving Liam and Ethan alone in the dust-choked room.

As they cautiously made their way towards stairs, Ethan couldn't shake the feeling that they had stumbled upon something far more dangerous than they could ever have imagined.

Liam, however, felt a strange sense of Deja vu. The creature, the sudden appearance of the mysterious figures... it all felt eerily familiar. He tried to place the feeling, a nagging sensation in the back of his mind.

Had he seen this before? Dreamed it? He shook his head, trying to dismiss the unsettling feeling.

"That was… something," Liam said, still visibly shaken. Ethan nodded, his gaze fixed on the ground.

"Yeah," Ethan murmured, his mind racing. The whispers returned, faint at first, then growing louder, more insistent.

Cradle of Creation... Eternal...The Crimson Keep

He tried to ignore them, to focus on Liam's worried gaze.

But the whispers persisted, a persistent hum in the background of his thoughts.

Liam felt a shiver crawl down his spine. What did it all mean? And why did these events feel so… familiar?

Then suddenly, memories surged into his mind and one thought emerged.

'No wonder I feel the situation is so familiar; it is because I have... regressed'.

Liam was regressor.