Soul Stone

And then, just as suddenly as it began, the raging energy subsided. The hot, surging energy retreated back into the orb. It was slow at first, but after a few seconds, all the energy rushed back into the confines of the orb. Mathew gasped, taking in a cool breath as the pain he felt faded into a dull throb, then dissipated. With his grip o the orb of light still tight, he fell to his knees.

'What the hell was that?' he wondered as he struggled to catch his breath.

At first, he thought that the orb and the light it emitted was there to aid him. After all, without wasting any time, it dispatched the... whatever it was that dwelled in the veil of darkness. But why did it resist him? Was it not there to aid him? Or was it defending itself from him? If that was the case, why did he ear his mother's voice come from it?

'So many questions.'

He raised his head and stared at the orb. It shimmered and pulsed with an otherworldly glow. From it, instead of the raging inferno that nearly killed him, he felt an inexplicably warmth radiating from it. If it wasn't for the sudden change, he would have surely died. He didn't know why, but Mathew felt that his mother, if what he had heard earlier truly was her voice, and not some figment of his imagination, had something to do with that change.

As he stared at it with a burning intensity, a number of questions shot through his mind. But before anything else, he had to know, was it truly her? Rising to his feet, his lips parted, and he was about to speak, but before he could say a word, the orb shattered in an instant. Then the shattered pieces of the orb turned into streams of light, and flowed into him. Then voice of the codex resonated.

[You have obtained a Relic, Soul stone.]

Without hesitation, he summoned the runes describing his new relic. Mathew was shocked to see the orb shatter before his eyes, but hearing that it had become a relic, was nothing short of a relief. Reading through the cluster of runes, his eyes widened in shock.

[Relic Description: The remnant spirits of the world refuse to be whisked away.]

'Huh, tats a strange way to describe something.'

This was only the second time he had received a relic. But Mathew had begun finding patterns in the way it described things. Looking below, he continued reading.

[Forged using a drop of sap from the ???, this gem is blessed with the ability to absorb, and, store and strengthen souls.]

[Would you like to assimilate its power?]

'Would i like to what? What does this thing mean by assimilate its power?'

Mathew contemplated what he had just learnt. the implications of absorbing such a thing was not something he could imagine, but the consequences of not absorbing it were just as dire. After all, if he was right, his mother's soul was trapped inside the relic.

But as the thoughts raced, something dawned on him. he summoned the gem and stared at it with a renewed intense curiosity.

'How did mom get absorbed by this thing?'

It was a reasonable thought. Before he died, he watched her lose her life at the hands of a human. If she perished in the real world, and not the world he currently found himself, how did her soul wind up in the gem?

For a moment, a sense of futility took hold of him, but before it could settle he felt another tremor. This one was different from the rest. It felt like it was coming from somewhere far from where he was. The next thing he knew, the space around him was distorting. Bending and warping as if reality itself was a mirage.

Before everything disappeared from view, in the corner of his eye, Mathew noticed a familiar silhouette in the distance. He quickly turned and reached his hand out, but just then, everything turned black.

In the next moment, his eyes opened abruptly and he shot up from where he sat. His chest heaved as he inhaled deep breaths. His lungs felt like they had shriveled up making every breath more excruciating than the last. He fell to his knees and tried desperately to calm himself.

Eventually, the burning sensation subsided and his breathing stabilized. Looking up, he saw the woman still sat opposite to him, fast asleep. 

'Am I, back to reality?'

He looked down the dark paths to his left, then his right. Nothing seemed to be wrong, but the moment of truth was yet to dawn. He closed his eyes, got to his feet, took a deep breath and opened his eyes. Stood before him was the arch inscribed with the strange language. Nothing about it seemed different from the one he saw in that strange realm. But, the longer he stared at it, the stronger a certain feeling surged within him.

A wide grin appeared on his face as he took another deep breath, and fell back.

'I'm back in reality.'

Whatever or wherever that strange space he had found himself in was, he had overcome the trials put before him, and returned. As he lay there staring at the cobblestone roof, the beautiful woman slept soundly.

A deep scowl appeared on his face.

Soon, Mathew got up and approached the woman. Crouching to meet her face he stare at her for a long time while resisting the growing urge to smack her in the face. Eventually, he turned his face, scoffed and walked to the arch. While he would have loved nothing more that to rest his starved and exhausted body, he couldn't help but feel the pull towards the arch had grown stronger.

'Guess since I'm awake, I ought to do something.'

Stood before the arch once more, Mathew stared with intent. But there was still nothing he could do about the untranslatable language. As he stood there engrossed in deciphering, a tremor resonated through the floor. The vibrations steadily got stronger as the seconds went by.

Mathew's instincts screamed at him to retreat but as he was trapped within the confined of the lightless pathway he could do nothing. Soon the woman stirred from her sleep. Startled by the sudden development she turned to Mathew and asked.

"What in the world is going on?"

'How am i supposed to know princess?"

He wanted nothing more that to know that fact himself. The curiosity that had drawn him here was now mingled with a sense of urgency. He looked left, the right but couldn't determine where the sound was originating from.

The woman who stood behind him now, screamed at the top of her lings.

'It's over here!"