He began his journey chained, waking up to the sight of nothing. Kneeling down in a dark space, feeling the cold touch of metal around his wrists. He looked around, but could see nothing. So he used his other senses, he could hear the faint rattle of chains whenever he moved his arms, so he was Chained up. He moved his arm a little too far, and sure enough the chain held his arm back and clanged as it fully extended and strained against his arm. Other than the rattle of his chains and the sound of his own breath, he could hear nothing. He was cold, but not freezing. The space around him was so void that he couldn't tell how large the area around him was.

He sat there, simply staring into the abyss around him, not an inkling of light for his eyes to even adjust to. He began to play with his shackles, one of the only things he knew was really there at all aside from the hard and cold floor. He tried taking them off, no use, they were thick and solid. Tight around his wrists as well, which was fairly uncomfortable to say the very least. He did not dare speak though, almost as if something terrible would happen were he to do so.

Yet it seemed he did not have to speak out, as suddenly a noise came from within the abyss that nearly made him jump out of his own skin. He could hear the sounds of what seemed like gears and various heavy mechanisms all starting to move at once. He felt his chains get pulled back, and he was slowly raised up into the air by his wrists, which was an incredibly uncomfortable experience as he felt his skin tug under the steel shackles. He realized he was naked as soon as he left the ground, seemingly oblivious to that daunting fact until now.

A light appeared, but it came from behind him. Yet what that faint orange light revealed was horrifying. The outline of a massive humanoid silhouette appeared in front of him, the light only giving away their outline and nothing more. Yet they had to be the tallest person he'd ever seen, if it wasn't a big statue like he secretly hoped it was. The light became brighter, but so did the air around him. He quickly realized that something very hot was getting close to him.

"Hey what's going-"

"Quiet."

He froze, he stopped talking. That was the strangest voice he had ever heard before, it sounded feminine but there was something so inherently wrong about it. An underlying tone almost, one that promised great pain and suffering if he were to do anything other than exactly what was uttered.

Yet those thoughts of momentary fear and surprise quickly faded away when he felt the heat get closer, close enough to cause his skin to start stinging just to be in the mere presence of it. Like putting your hand too close to a hot wood stove. Panic began to overtake him as he struggled to find a way out of this strange nightmare he appeared to be having. There was no other explanation he could think of at that moment.

"Alright what the fuck is going-"

The silhouette burst to life and a pale hand the size of his entire head gripped his face and forced his dangling Chained body backwards, and he screamed into the cold giant palm as his back was seared and horribly burnt beyond anything he had ever felt before. Tears pricked his eyes, but it was more of a natural reaction rather than him straight up bawling. The smell of his own skin burning also made his stomach turn, whild the smell of this thing's hand, was also causing his stomach to backflip as the only thing he could describe it as was the smell of a snake, musky and strong like a rotting carcass.

The entire process may have lasted a few seconds at best, but if it felt like a hot flash filled with awful smells and the fact that he was being held up by chains naked while being pushed back by the hand of some unseen giant did not set his mind at ease either. He had half a mind to start throwing up and really would have liked to, but he was pretty scared of what the giant in front of him would do if he were to throw up in its hand after pushing him back and burning his back on something just for talking.

".y̶n̸o̶m̸e̵r̵e̷c̸ ̷n̶o̶o̸M̶ ̵k̵c̵a̷l̸B̶ ̵e̷h̴t̸ ̷r̷o̷f̸ ̴y̴d̵a̸e̵r̴ ̸s̷i̵ ̴e̸h̴ ̴,̴e̸m̵a̸d̸a̵m̴ ̶d̷e̸t̸e̶l̵p̵m̸o̴c̴ ̶s̶i̵ ̶d̵n̸a̷r̶b̶ ̵e̵h̶T̷"

"l̵l̵a̷h̵ ̶n̷i̵a̵m̸ ̵e̴h̵t̷ ̸o̴t̶ ̶m̶i̵h̶ ̴g̶n̶i̸r̶b̷ ̴n̴e̴h̶t̴ ̸e̴l̵t̷t̶e̸s̶ ̶d̷n̶a̸r̵b̴ ̴e̷h̸t̸ ̸t̴e̶L̶"

O̷̧͙͈̍̄͛͆f̴̘͠ ̵̇͊̓ͅĉ̷̟̜͈̞͘o̸̬͒̓̓̚u̴̟͈̞͆̀͝ͅr̶̮͑̓̽̄s̸̥͎͚̔̽̉̍e̸̞̿̏͝ ̸̧̼͚̬̂l̴̫̪͊̐a̶̮͂̄̋d̷̤̤͋͌͊͜y̵Lî̸̗̱̈́͒l̶̘̇̎̅ḯ̸̌͑̆t̶̡̒h̸̊̽"

The hand left Jack finally and slunked back into the shadows, where the thing slowly moved away from Jack, and unlocked something. It opened a door, and Jack briefly saw what appeared to be a massive woman with impossibly long jet black hair…and what appeared to be two massive curled goat horns on her head. Aside from wearing a black sort of dress and having strange black markings all over her arms, that's all he could make out from the red light coming from the huge doorway before she slammed the door shut behind her. Leaving him alone with whatever she had been talking to behind him.

The chains were lowered, and he could still feel the awful sensation of his now burnt up backside. Yet curious, and with nothing else to really do aside from trying to see the other thing in the room with him, which he already knew would be a fruitless effort, he began to poke at his wound. He could practically feel the things gaze burning into the back of his head now that he knew something was there. He still couldn't hear it, nor could he even sense its presence in a physical sense, he just knew it was there. That frightened him. Yet there was nothing he could do about it, and he was rather frightened to speak again after what had just happened.

The cool air of the room did help ease his burn, and he poked at it to alleviate his fear a bit. Wincing somewhat as he felt the sting after every touch, kind of like a scab you knew would hurt but you just kept on prodding at anyways. He tried to make out the outline of the burn, it wasn't ragged, the lines of the burn felt smooth, sharp even, and curved. There was a design there.

He had been branded. By a branding iron.

"What the fuck? What the actual fuck-" He whispered.

"S̷il̴e̵̪̕ṅ̴̖c̶̯̈e,̷̘̈́ ̸̗̇ö̸̥́r̴ s̴̳͆h̴͚̃e̷ ̷̫̎s̷͉̓ḥ̵͋ȁ̶̦l̵̔ḻ̷̀ ̷̪̎r̵ȇ̵͜t̴͖̏ũ̵̟r̵̤̐ņ̶͌.̸͕̚ ̷̏͜S̵͚͒h̶͐ͅȩ̷͊ ̸̫̀c̵̮̊ǎ̷̰n̸͓͑ǹ̷̮ö̸̟́t

s̵̥̔t̶̼́a̶̫̓n̵̬̈d̸͍͆ ̷̬̋th̷̫͝e ̸̥̅s̷̞̉ó̸͖ű̴̱ṉ̴̚d̵̜̑ŝ̶̪ o̸f ̶͙̑m̸͈̓ȧ̷̪ń̷̮.̶̤̀ ̶̲́"

That was incredibly distorted, yet it also sounded like English at the same time. Almost like someone trying to speak through a very distorted radio. It probably meant shut up or die, but he also thought he heard something like she can't stand the sounds of man. He decided that considering not only the size of the hand that wrapped around his head earlier, but also the fact that whatever had lashed out at him just branded him, he wasn't willing to further test the patience of…whatever that was.

So he sat there in silence, testing the shackles that held him from time to time just to pass the time. Hearing the creaking of chains yet never being able to make them move whatsoever. Seemed he could really do anything but talk if the thing behind him not saying anything was any indication. After long enough though, with his burn finally settling down and the effects of surprise wearing away to a strange sense of boredom rather than fear (although laced with anxiety) amidst the darkness.

The most dangerous thing of all crept up.

His own thoughts. The most prominent being of course, was this real?

His initial thought was that it couldn't have been real. He was just having some strange, weirdly realistic nightmare of some kind. He was sure he was about to wake up before his back hit the branding iron.

Yet he never did.

That frightened him beyond belief. The fear that pulsed through his veins once that branding iron actually touched his skin was greater than any fear he had ever felt in his life. The smell too, the smell that still lingered in the room, the smell of his own burning flesh and the smell of that giant's hand were too real. It was unlike anything he had ever smelled before, something his mind shouldn't have been able to replicate at all.

The feeling of the giants skin, the pressure of the fingers that wrapped around his face, the feeling of his skin pulling against his shackles and the feeling of the hot iron burning into his backside all at once we're all far too real to be faked by some mere dream or trick of the mind. He then tried to recall where he last was, what was the last thing he remembered.

He…couldn't?

He tried, yet it seemed like his recent life was just gone. Not his whole life mind you, he didn't have some sort of non-existent identity amnesia. Although then again, who was he to say what was real and what wasn't anymore considering his current situation? Shackled to a dark room, naked, branded and afraid in a room with something sentient but certainly not human that he could not see.

Eventually, he fell into a well of his own thoughts swirling around in the darkness. Where was he? What were these things? What language were they speaking? Why was he here? Were just a few of the thoughts that constantly plagued him, he resisted the urge to just ask the thing in the room with him too, lest the giant bitch come back and brand him again for good measure for something as petty as speaking.

Yet that's when he finally heard something that snapped his mind back into reality, or whatever he was perceiving in that moment. He heard the sounds of a heavy door being pushed open, one that sounded like more of a metal gate than anything. His eyes burned slightly as the faintest bit of light entered the dark room, revealing the stone floor beneath him and also revealing the stone walls surrounding him, revealing a much larger area than he was expecting. He did not dare turn around, suddenly finding himself afraid of what he might see holding the branding iron behind him. The floor was not splattered with dried blood or anything, but it did have a smooth and gothic feel to it.

He saw something enter the room, and saw the silhouette of a new humanoid figure. One that seemed constantly cloaked in darkness, as if it had no real defining features aside from two whitish orbs piercing into his soul. The silhouette pointed at him, and suddenly his shackles came undone as if by magic. He rubbed his wrists, thankful for the release.

"F̸o̸l̷l̵o̵w̵,̶ ̴s̵t̷a̶y̶ ̶s̶i̸l̸e̴n̴t̷"

He understood that, while distorted still, it was more clear then most of what he'd heard until then. To disobey the giant walking mass of Shadow lurking in front of him seemed like a bad idea, especially after it just somehow willed his chains to unshackle themselves by doing nothing but pointing at him. Who knew what else it was capable of. The shadows orbs never left Jack's eyes, they seemed to always somehow remain in the center of his gaze no matter where he looked, even if he looked away from the thing he could still somehow see those orbs burning into him.

So he stood up and walked towards the edge of the massive room, he looked upon the first step, and realized he basically had to climb the massive steps as they were clearly built for something much larger than himself. He climbed up the stone steps and stepped into a hall that looked like it was a massive Cathedral, with arched ceiling and lined with massive torches. He couldn't even see the end of the corridor as the monstrous path curved.

His guide so to speak vanished, and when Jack turned back it was standing at the edge of where the path turned, just standing there, waiting for him amidst a mass of darkness that shouldn't have existed. Never taking its awful, piercing gaze away from him for even a moment. So he walked through the dimly lit corridor, feeling not only frightened but also somewhat embarrassed due to his naked figure. His back still stung, and he didn't like how the red glow of the torches lined on the wall reminded him of the branding.

Actually he didn't like the very feeling of the heat at all, nor the way the flames even flickered. Strange, he never used to fear fire, he had a wood stove so he always had to manipulate it back at home. He had burned himself a fair share of times, but that never caused him to shy away from fire. He even used to have a lighter he liked to play with. Thinking of playing with even something as small as a lighter now was unsettling for him to even think about now.

Everything around him was unsettling.

It was as if it was engraved into its very presence, an unsettling, unnatural presence that constantly ate at his mind. Not one of overwhelming fear that would cause him to scream, but the type of fear that you had when you turned off all the lights in your home and began to question whether something miraculously appeared in a dark corner you didn't check. It was like going down into the dark basement as a child, not sure if some kind of terrifying monster would appear when you least expected it.

The corridor felt longer than it should've been, every step seemingly taking barely a foot centimeter forward. He was half expecting the shadowy figure to simply tell him to hurry up or even drag him to wherever they were going to speed things up. It never did, it just stood there, constantly staring at him with its two white orbs, never even so much as twitching or showing any signs of being alive. It felt like it had taken an hour to reach it, and once he did and turned the corner, the figure was already somehow at the end once again. No indication of it moving, it was just already there when he looked over.

The corridors were all the same, an arched stone corridor lined with giant torches yet dimly lit all the same with his guide somehow just always waiting for him at the end of each bend. It's figure never not undaunting, always towering above him. It's white orbs always somehow following his every movement. He walked for what felt like hours and his legs and feet began to become rather sore, constantly turning corridor after corridor without change until finally, the figure changed.

The figure now had one of its arms raised, pointing towards the end of the final corridor. Where a blue light was mixing in with the orange and flickering light that lit the massive, arched, stone corridor. He slowly made his way past the corner, and looked into a mighty chamber. A circular chamber, with a jagged, stone, circular platform in the center of a much larger space with a roof so high he couldn't truly even see the top that was shrouded in darkness. The blue flames flickered, and he noticed that not only was the abyss above him but it was also far below as well away from the central platform, was a seemingly endless drop into only God knew what.

In the center of the circular, more hellish looking platform was a symbol etched into the very stone with blue torches lighting up the sides of the circle. It was the symbol of what appeared to be a crescent moon with an upside down cross piercing through it. The flames suddenly flared, and Jack looked back to the entrance of the corridor where his guide still stood. The guide just stared at him for a few moments, before finally coming to some kind of decision as it vanished in the blink of an eye without any indication it had ever been there to begin with.

The entrance closed up, sealed by a stone wall that burst out from underneath the ground. Trapping Jack on the circular platform, the blue flames were all that lit the area around him. He stood upon the stone bridge that was all that prevented him from falling into the dark abyss below. The room was silent, with only the strange crackle of the flames around him to fill the void of silence. Yet soon the silence was filled by something else, hushes and whispers that seemed to come from all around him. The ground began to shake, and a new light appeared above, like a massive stone had just been moved that was blocking out the light from the sky. He stared up to see the source of the new light.

It was a crescent eclipse, yet one that did not blot out the sun, no, this seemed to blot out a bit of the bluish moon itself. He heard the hushes and whisper increase in volume yet still could not understand him, he felt constant chills run through his body as if a spectre had phased through him. The cold air in the room chilled him to the bone, and he thought for a moment that he could hear distant laughter.

More blue flames appeared amidst the circular stone walls surrounding the stone bridge and the abyss, lighting up a spherical chasm that went down to only god knows what. He saw movement that did not seem to be like a flame at the corner of his eye yet he could never truly see what was moving as the apparition vanished every time he looked towards them. The flames flared suddenly, increasing in brightness as did the blue glow of the moon shining directly down onto Jack from above. He felt his neck begin to burn, and he helped in surprise. He reached back to touch his scar only to feel something wet, when he took his hand back, it was covered with his own blood.

"e̷͂ͅn̶̟͆o̶̢͝ ̸͎̓n̵̞͌e̸̖͗l̸̢͋l̷̥̎á̴̫f̷̺͂ ̶͓͝e̵̲͐h̸̤̄t̵̳̿ ̵̞̽ŏ̶̼ț̵̾ ̵̳͠e̸̮͌f̶̦͝i̵̟̊ẘ̵ͅ ̶̙̂y̴̘͊l̸͕̄n̴̜̾è̶͚v̶͎̿a̵̪͒è̷̪h̷͕̏n̶͇̈́u̸̢̔ ̸͉͆,̵̂͜h̸̬̋t̷̯͗i̷͙̓l̷̗͂ï̸̜L̴͘͜ ̸̲̾n̴̛͖o̴̻̽o̶̘͑M̴̞̒ ̶̰̋k̵̨̕c̸̤͑ạ̸́l̸͚̉B̶̡̓ ̴͔̏è̸͉h̴͚͠t̸̙̅ ̵̧̓f̶͉̈́o̴̙̍ ̴͇̂y̸͚͊ḋ̴̹à̶̠l̸̡̿ ̶͙̒e̷͓͆ḣ̸̤t̴̏ͅ ̸̘̎y̵̱͗b̸̞͊ ̷̦͝d̸̼̈́e̸̙̍k̸̪͑ř̶͈a̴̰̐m̸̕ͅ ̵͉̓r̷̺͘e̶̝̒v̴̨̚e̸͙̒r̸͈͂ó̵̩f̵͇̆ ̶̹̃ḛ̸̎b̶̗̈ ̴̿ͅl̴͚͌u̵̢͗ȍ̶̺s̸͍͆ ̶͇͋ś̴̫i̷̼͂h̶̞́ ̷̥̋ỵ̵́a̵̛̺M̴̰̌ ̵̑ͅ.̴̟̀n̷̰̋o̷̹͛o̴̜̎m̸̩͆ ̶̮͠k̵̗̾c̴̖͂a̶͇̾l̶̢͗b̵̧́ ̴̖̑ê̷̦ḧ̴̺t̷̡̽ ̵͉̐ó̵̠t̴̫̓ ̴͂ͅḍ̶̔e̶͖͝ń̶̖ȋ̴̦ä̷̻́h̶͙͝c̶͎̓ ̷̹̑s̶͇̾n̶͉̒i̶͔͛a̸̧̛m̴̘̓ë̵̡́ř̶͚ ̶̤̎d̶̯͒l̵̫͠i̷̹̓h̸͕͊c̵̺̆ ̶̧́e̷̟͠h̵̫̽t̴̲̓ ̴͇̊s̵̻̋a̴͕͑ ̵͖̒g̶͇͌ṋ̴̀ő̵̭l̴̨̽ ̸͓̿ǒ̵͚s̵̤͑ ̶͐͜d̷̦̏n̸̥̂à̶̻ ̶̫͌s̸̼̓n̷̮̓r̵͊͜ù̴̪t̵͖̒ ̸͇̔t̷̆ͅí̷̳ ̴͛͜š̴̼a̷̫̓ ̴̤̀g̵̻͋n̶͚͠o̶̩͗l̷̼̉ ̷̜̍ó̷̺ṡ̷̨ ̵̹̈d̸͔͝ĺ̷̯ȓ̷͇ọ̸̈́w̷͐͜ ̸̟͗s̵̩̋i̸̱͘ḣ̸̝t̷̋͜ ̴̥̒k̸̡̍l̵̘̀å̴͎w̸̢̓ ̶̦̒o̷̝̐t̸͎̏ ̴̹͊d̴̪̄l̴̘̈́i̶̮̊h̸͍̉c̷̦̈́ ̴̥̃s̷̙̕ĭ̸̯h̶̉ͅt̶͇́ ̴̱̔d̸̤̈́n̶͈͌ẻ̸̹s̷̭͒ ̷͓̊,̶̘̎ȅ̵͜s̶̳̍ì̴̜d̸̖̀a̶͇̾r̸̫̐á̶͚p̷̞͗ ̴̟̄f̸̰̐o̸͈̊ ̴̟́ṱ̵̀ǹ̷̠ǎ̶̘n̵̨̆m̷̥̽ę̵̋R̵̦͝ ̸̙̿a̵͍̒ ̷̨̃o̶̘͆t̴͆͜ṇ̷̀ù̶̢ ̷͓̀ṋ̸̑o̸̖̾o̴̎͜ḿ̷̖ ̸̱̑k̵̤̐c̶͎̚a̵̠̾l̸̫̓b̵̖͘ ̸̭͊ę̶̒h̶͍̊t̵̨̅ ̸̱͆f̵͙̉o̷͈͋ ̴̪͐ń̶̦g̴̳̍i̷̳̅ṡ̴̹ ̴̱̑ẽ̵̹ȟ̸̘t̸͙͗ ̸̪͗r̵͇͂ë̶̬d̸͙͋n̵̡͌u̵̥̓ ̵̢̅d̵͕̑l̷̼̉i̸͈͂h̷͚͑c̷͍͒ ̷̥̇s̷̘͌i̶̳̐h̷̞̎t̸͉͘ ̸͑͜d̶̥̋n̴͕͒e̴̹̽S̴̥͋"

He didn't understand a word of that, but his heart rate increased nearly tenfold once the flames around him flared brighter than ever before and took on a white color rather than blue. The cold air in the room was quickly replaced by smoldering heat, which caused his mind to shoot back to when he was just branded. Half-expecting something similar to occur once again. Yet in the light he could also see the silhouettes of various humanoid figures floating around him, like spectres staring into his soul without any visible eyes of their own. The whispers became more like distant shouts and screams, and the spectres began to swirl around the chasm, creating a black sort of vortex mixed in with white light. The vortex shot into the sky above the chasm and up towards the moon above.

The moon began to glow to the point where it resembled the sun itself, with the black crescent becoming more visible than ever before as he was blinded by the light coming from the moon above and the flaring white flames around him. His skin burned under the intense heat, the whispers around him and distant shouts no longer felt external, but seemed to come from within his mind right as the worst migraine of his life shot through his skull. It felt like his skull was ready to burst open, and he became so nauseous that he threw up, yet he seemed to throw up not proper vomit and stomach acid, but blood.

The blood immediately filled the carving of the crescent moon lined with an upside down cross underneath him. Expanding on its own somehow, and the blood began to turn completely black. He heard the screams increase in volume again, sounding like someone was screaming into his ear every three seconds. He couldn't focus, too much was going on at once and his head was being torn apart by all the chaos going on around him.

That's when what seemed like chains made from his own blood erupted from the black-liquid filled carving underneath of him. The chains wrapped around his body and dragged him down to the ground. His face slammed into the stone, causing a horrible concussion. A thousand screams seemed to sound at once and he felt his body begin spasming strangely under the restraints made of his own tainted blood. His vision was flooded with White, and suddenly…

The pain stopped.

Everything just stopped. All the suffering, all the chaos, it just suddenly stopped like some horrible nightmare that finally ended. As a matter of fact his senses faded too, like he fell into a deep slumber of some kind.

It slowly came back to him, a sense of dread washed over him until he realized that he was no longer feeling stone, chains, or the sickly feeling of hard blood chains crushing him against solid stone as thousands of screams seemed to enter his mind at once. No, instead he felt strangely at peace, he felt all his worries wash away at once, for the first time in his life he felt truly at ease despite what he had just gone through.

He felt his body float upwards, and quickly realized the reason he couldn't see was because he was deep underwater. Yet he didn't feel the need to gasp for air at all, he almost felt like he could fill his lungs with this liquid and he'd be perfectly okay. He soon saw a light shine down through the liquid, calling it just water, didn't feel right to him. He didn't feel any pressure, he didn't feel like his skin was going to wrinkle and prune, it felt more like a liquid soother. Soon he felt his body become exposed to the air as he floated on top of the buoyant and soothing pool.

He was half-tempted to just fall asleep right there, as he had never felt more at ease than he was when he was lying in that pool. Yet he opened his eyes anyway, and saw that he was lying underneath a tree with bright yellow leaves. A few of the leaves fell onto his body, still naked, as he just realized, but unharmed for once. He felt better than he ever had in years actually, maybe in his whole life.

Yet that allowed his mind to function and process everything that just happened to him clearly. A sense of clarity filled his mind, and he came to a realization.

This was no dream. This was no hallucination, and all of what he was experiencing was 100% real.

Yet that begged the most immediate question of all.

Where was he now?

He sat up, and was surprised to not feel his lower half seek back down into the pool. It was like the pool had somehow become shallow on its own, he stood up in the pool that was now somehow only knee-deep at best, standing at the base of the mystical-looking tree. He was surrounded by a huge stone wall, and the ground around the pool was filled with dark gold leaves that seemed to constantly flow off the tree towering above him. The tree was massive, and growing in the center of what seemed to be three metal rings lined up like a fountain, each ring being larger and lower than the one above and all filled with soothing liquid. He also felt a nice, cool breeze, yet not an uncomfortable one. The area was also lined with massive boulders, forming a large circle of stone around the soothing pool. It was like he was in the center of a small canyon walled off on all sides with only one exit point.

Something about this place seemed oddly familiar to him, especially when looking at the many overgrown stone steps leading down to a neglected path that led towards the pool. He walked to the edge, the pool became shallower as he did so, and looked back. There were snow peaked mountains far beyond the stone walls that enclosed the pool, indicating that he was currently very high up. Despite never having been here before, he still felt an odd sense of familiarity. The area around him felt like it was teeming with energy, with life itself. He could never forget such a place even if he tried, it was the most mystical and possibly wonderful place he had ever ended up in.

So why did it feel as if he had somehow?