The environment shifted as she walked. The endless floating tiles continued in all directions, but ahead, something new emerged... an incline, a staircase formed from the same shifting tiles. It stretched upward into the unknown, vanishing into the dark green haze that swallowed the sky. The color pulsed, deep and unnatural, shifting between shades like a living thing, making it impossible to see where the staircase led.

  Emma paused at the base of the stairs, her head tilting slightly as she turned to glance behind her.

  Nothing.

  The place she had just walked through had already blurred into the endless void, as if it had never existed at all. The unsettling realization settled in her chest. If she stayed here, would this place erase her too?

  She exhaled, steadying herself.

  There was no other path.

  She took the first step.

  The tile beneath her foot shifted faintly, a slight tremor rippling outward, as if it acknowledged her presence.

  Another step.

  Then another.

  She moved carefully, her balance shifting with each uncertain foothold. Some tiles were firm beneath her weight, others wavered slightly, making her slow her pace, testing each step before committing fully. The climb wasn’t difficult, but it was disorienting.. the dark green hues of the sky swirled endlessly, making it impossible to tell how high she was ascending.

  Then... her foot touched something solid.

  A flat plane.

  She stepped forward, feeling the shift beneath her lessen, the movement stabilizing. But as she did, the world around her changed.

  A thick green fog coiled through the air, sudden and absolute. It swallowed the space before her, stretching endlessly in every direction. It wasn’t a normal mist... it moved unnaturally, twisting in slow, intentional currents, like it was alive. The deeper she looked, the less she could see. The dense shroud obscured everything, cutting off the distance, leaving only the soft glow of the tiles beneath her feet as proof that she was still standing on something.

  Emma narrowed her eyes, straining to see beyond it.

  Then Suddenly .....

  A shift.

  Subtle.. Unseen.

  But she felt it.

  Something had moved within the fog.

  And In that moment

  A tremor surged through the mist.

  Emma reacted instantly. Her body twisted, instincts taking over as she rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the massive impact. A colossal fist, formed entirely from the thick, green mist... slammed into the spot where she had just stood. The sheer force sent a ripple through the air, making the mist tremble, its form momentarily revealing a towering golem, its body shifting like smoke given shape.

  Emma’s breath was steady, her muscles tense, but she didn’t move recklessly. Her first thought was to summon the Sword of Fate, to strike before the entity could move again.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  But in that moment....

  It dissolved.

  Like a sudden puff of smoke caught in a breeze, the golem vanished, its form dispersing into the surrounding mist as though it had never existed.

  Emma remained still, her eyes narrowing. Why? The entity had attacked with force, yet disappeared without resistance. Was it a failed attempt to strike her? Some kind of test? Or was she simply lucky?

  She didn’t know. But for now, she didn’t have to fight. And that was enough.

  Exhaling, she took a step back, preparing to turn..

  Then, in the span of a single breath, everything changed.

  Emma froze.

  The thick mist that had surrounded her... gone.

  Not fading, not dispersing. Just gone.

  It was like it had never existed, like it had been erased from reality itself.

  Her silver-white eyes flickered around the space that remained. What had been an obscured, shifting world was now a clear, empty plane. The ground beneath her was solid, no longer shifting tiles but a surface etched with strange patterns.

  Emma’s gaze lowered.

  The markings on the ground were precise, carved deep into the surface. A massive circle, spanning the entire area where she stood, its lines formed of iron so ancient it had rusted into deep, decayed brown, like discarded scrap.

  But inside the larger circle, there was another... a smaller one.

  And Emma stood directly at its center.

  Something was engraved there. A shape. Something distinct. But the moment she noticed it, a strange unease settled in her chest.

  Emma took a step back.

  The shape became clear.

  It was a book.

  Not a physical one... an engraving, burned into the floor like a brand.

  Then, the text appeared.

  Letters formed before her eyes, written in a language she didn’t understand. The symbols pulsed, unnatural, wrong, twisting in ways that defied logic. They didn’t just exist on the surface.. they seemed to shift, to breathe, stretching beyond reality itself.

  The moment Emma tried to read the words..

  Emma’s vision blurred.

  Her body convulsed.

  Pain.

  Deep, searing pain tore through her as if something had reached inside her being and started ripping her apart.

  Her skin split.

  Blood poured.

  Her soul.. melting.

  The very essence of her existence unraveled, fibers of her being stripped away like fragile threads.

  She tried to move. To close her eyes. To look away.

  But she couldn’t.

  And In that moment, she heard..

  A voice.

  Deep. Beyond sound. Beyond meaning. It didn’t just echo.. it imprinted itself into existence.

  "WHO DARES DEFY MY RULE?"

  The world shuddered.

  Emma’s mind fractured.

  And then...

  Cleared.

  Deleted.

  But just as it cleared..

  Just as she deleted...

  LOOP!

  *****

  Emma’s eyes fluttered open.

  Her breath hitched, a tremor running through her chest.

  She was still standing.

  Still here.

  The same spot where she had... what? Died? No… not even death. It was something beyond that. Deleted. Erased. As if she had never existed in the first place.

  But now…

  Her fingers curled. Her legs were firm beneath her. She could feel herself again.

  Yet.. the etched carvings were gone.

  The massive circle, the rusted iron markings, the incomprehensible text… all of it had vanished. The ground beneath her was now smooth, unmarked, as though none of it had ever been there to begin with.

  Her mind reeled, trying to process what had just happened.

  What happened to me?

  The words barely left her lips, a whisper more to herself than anyone else. But the realization struck hard, snapping her eyes forward...

  And she saw it.

  A colossal throne.

  Vast. Unfathomable. A presence that defied meaning.

  It loomed before her, stretching beyond what her mind could comprehend, as though it wasn’t merely a structure but a force, one that threatened to pull everything in. The air itself bent around it, dragged toward its existence, warping like a vortex that consumed space and time itself.

  And sitting upon that throne..

  A being.

  A towering figure, humanoid in form, yet completely alien in its presence. Its body was obsidian, as if sculpted from the void, smooth yet without definition. There were no eyes. No nose. No distinct features.

  Except...

  Its head.

  An open book.

  Not a head shaped like a book.

  It was a book.