The sun is blinding, as if it were my first sight. I am no newborn, yet perhaps to this world... Where am I? The air is still and dry and I feel so far from home. How did I arrive here? What am I supposed to do?... Who am I? The sun is bleeding. Its oppression falls as acid rain from the heavens above. The pounding inside my head grows in harmony with the massive footsteps in the distance... Inside this cage of canyons--in the arid heat of another world, the Colossus approaches.

Now clouding my thoughts, it quakes the soil. This mechanism obstructs the sun... each step inciting the agony of one thousand shrill sirens, puncturing my brain like needles. This is not my world... This is not my home, for this demon does not exist whence I came. It moves in lethargic strides; a vast extortion, turning structures to naught as the throbbing within my brain grows ever more violent. Harrowing: is the pulse that does thicken and rupture. To sleep: I venture as my face abrades the abature. In sleep, I find abeyance. Though, it is short lived. The illusion of home is stripped from me. I face the colossus. I endure its wrath and yet, feel hope. It crushes my life, with blood emerging from every orifice, though breath yet remains. It hides from me its eyes. Its soul.. the only flaw in its design. Behind sockets of rock, they rest. I claw at them until the cog is revealed and from the monster, I take it.

Leveled land is left withering away in the distance... the calamity of a rampant beast, now a stigma on the face of this alien world. It is behind me--ahead, an expanse of mountains and a quickly coagulating fog. Howling amongst skyscrapers of elements... Visibility diminishing, the temperature plummets. Discordant in contrast to the barren wasteland before, the path to this mountain's summit is a cold one... Thus I advance into the dense cloud, within the abyss between the mountain's peaks... I arrive at a cave, from whence a putrid stench creeps. Rancorous eyes peer from within.. Snarling, it advances into the light. With a plume of fire from its mouth, the fog clears--exposing charred rock and accumulated hoards of bones... from whence, flesh was dissolved by expectorated acid discharge. Howling between skyscrapers of elements... The Wyvern lunges forth, wings abroad. Piercing, its shrill cry. Stalking incessantly, its enfeebled prey... all the way to a cavity in this city of rock. (Its foundation is weak... The Wyvern struggles to progress as the tunnel narrows. It becomes caged inside while I escape the narrow passage and continue forth...)

Haze from the Wyvern's mountain recedes as I reach its substratum--the end of this trail onto the start of the next. The sun, writhing across the horizon, leaves its wake in shades of red and gold--a vast expanse, enveloping the sky above. A portal appears. Pillars of blackened ore erected, streams of charged particles course back and forth. Betwixt the columns, a face of flames flashes as three creatures step forth... the atronachs. The sun is gone, though the sky is yet a lucid red. Before me is a gateway to the plains of Oblivion. Being of frost: a towering fiend without eyes... composed entirely of ice, its limbs sharp as daggers. Being of storm: a diaphanous and teeming entity... swirling with carved rocks, interwoven with electrical currents. Being of fire: a humanoid, mercurial siren... swiftly gliding in black armor, its body a collection of writhing flames. They surround me... preparing their attack. Unleashed, it surges towards me... I lose consciousness, but awake to see they have met their demise, with naught but a feeling of extreme warmth...

I cannot comprehend the force which felled these three beings... I feel safeguarded, as though an angel protected me. It fades so quickly, leaving me with the frigidity from before... Promptly comes steps which convulse the earth and cast me from the floor. Lo: three heads this being does possess. Growling and spouting fire which drudges along, pursuing without falter... evoking forceful and impetuous divigation. I frantically elude its attacks, searching for a place to obscure my presense. The guardian of the underworld ascends from its realm... It breathes darkness into the Earth, and from the Earth does darkness rise. There is no place where I may hide from this. A door to the abyss appears below my feet; Cerberus begins to drag me into the dominion of purgatory... Where is the angel which protected me before? The guardian of the underworld ascends from its realm... the weight of the darkness enfolding, I fall beneath the surface into Hell. Within its domain, I face this sanguine demon... Within the expanse of its jaws, agape, I feel once again the power to annihilate.

My guardian... my weapon, Susano'o... At last, we meet again.

Before the walls of Hell collapse, I make swift my return to the world above. Emerging before the sea, a breeze of wings form fields of debris. Blasts of wind beget cyclones of water and sand as a winged beast descends from its perch atop the precipice... The sea divides... Regress occurs as an eagre surges the shores of land, debasing what was once a tall ridge to ravaged coast... submerged. Between wind is a raptorial entity which awaits my emergence, keeping an austere eye on the surface of the water. Waiting for the slightest ripple... Pressure is crushing me, immersed deep within the profusion--seconds away from my last gasp for air... My angel, set me free. Bursting forth from within the depths of the ocean, bearing widespread wings, I face the Albratross. I summon the very sea which sits beneath us to cradle this beast... to crush it under the expanse of pressure... to deliver it to its grave.

I tread where the water flows in reverse: the Rising Falls, an environment of mechanical substance. The gears grinding in the caverns below operate the dark bastion above. As I stand before the great castle, a sense of staggering algidity spreads throughout my body. This acropolis is home to the darkest of creatures; it is the buttress upon which their emblem is held--a heart to signify the lack thereof. Swarming, convulsing... compulsory projection. They sink within the earth and diffuse into shadows. Growing ever larger as the sun bears down from above, amassing and encircling, their eyes an aureate virus, descending upon those who obtrude their domain. The door is open. A stream of darkness extrudes. I am engulfed, succumbing to the clutches of despair. My heart is fraught with poison--an attempt to siphon the light withheld. However, their shadows are diminutive. They quickly suffer a fate of catharsis. Ascension resumed: through the corridors, I enter the Grand Hall--air still, yet profuse, surrounding the flowing liquid crest upon the wall. It is beckoning... inviting me to within its dark depths. Immersed, I stand now against a hunter of the dark. Howling, it advances and bears ever so throroughly down upon the foundation of my bones. However, it is met with dissection, only to be relinquished--to return to the realm of darkness whence it came. This castle, once ruled by the darkness, now stands a radiant structure of light. The path now leads me beyond, though I hear cries of a beast drawing nigh.

The sound drifts swiftly through the air for a thousand miles over anhydrous plains: a screech like knives to my audition. Calidity evaporates all moisture within this expanse. It ignites organic matter. It constructs the conditions of a livid nightmare through the world of the living... acidic rain falls from the sky. Apace does an errant paladin advance from above a billow of dust... a figure of void bearing a crown of obsidian and a raiment black as its contents hollow. It alights, dismounting as its draconic vessel raises its head and bellows. "Stay, beast." Crown removed, the wraith whispers to me... "come forth." Elevation of thought... suspension of time. An ethereal blade materializes and with it, I pierce this knight of darkness.

Massive pressure moves air inward, following a vast centrifugal force. The ebony crown now kneels before me, its chariot igniting in combustion and drifting on the wind. It collapses inward and dissolves into the void. My eyes turn toward the north--to the boreal terrain in the distance. Within this vista, a sole superstructure protrudes. I am drawn to it as animals to the sunlight... to the cap, upon which a grotto abides: the airee of the king of dragons. To the floor... a paroxysm within my mind. It shakes the very planet upon which I writhe about. The snow withdraws from the lands as the formations of rock collapse; yet the lair of Bahamut remains and in it, he awaits my accession. I elevate my hand and with it, I abate the land... I raise from his den the king of dragons and tear his organs from his skin.

The air breathes silently, This planet, defaced by a power I do not understand, There is an irritation inside, An alien being which rends the walls of my mind, Attempting to control... The air mires firmly, flow disrupted--an obscured conflict, Muscles constricting, the nervous system malfunctions, Ergo do fissures carve themselves from the surface, Do mountains construct themselves from naught, Nature coincides with the circumstances of thought, Thus does the scenery change: from tundra to desert and all in between, Flashing like slides of a reel, reforming earth and atmosphere, Extract... Locus diplaced, a world of error... No longer a replica of some planet, It is a product of my own making, Shifting forms as the flourishing brain activity dictates, A mania, now a separate entity from myself, Bound by purpose to deconstruct the universe, Once a guardian... once an angel... Now, but a virus, manifesting itself exponetitally, Echoing algorithmic patterns, The macrocosm is--

A pair of eyes open to a blinding light; ears, to the wind, howling betwixt course terrain. Hot sand is run through by dry hands. In the sky is two moons, dancing over an unfamiliar place. This is the story of Orra, a young boy from the planet Earth. Needless to say, he is on Earth no more. To sleep, he went, within the warm safety of home. But he has awoken in a different dimension entirely. Orra stands, within the shallow cave in which he was sleeping, making his way to its mouth. Dismay consumes him upon first sight of this new world. Distraught, he collapses. But before he may collect himself, the earth quakes in a rhythmic pattern similar to that of footsteps and their severity yet increases. Lifting his head, Orra pauses in awe of the approaching mammoth: a colossal creature composed of rock. It begins to thrash about, destroying the formations of rock surrounding--pursuing him as he struggles to flee its unrelenting impact on the environment. Before long, the throbbing pain onset by the pursuer's movements becomes to much and Orra fades into slumber. Within this slumber, he dreams of home... but shortly is his dream stripped from him. The colossus lifts him from his feet and crushes him with all its force. However, by some means of miracle, Orra escapes its clutches and frantically searches for some means to impair it. He sees, within the void of its eye sockets, a glow from deep inside. Mounting the colossus, he thrusts his arm into this void and removes a glowing piece of machinery and with that, the colossus collapses. Moving forward, Orra sees in the distance a field of mountains flooded by a thick fog. He hears the howling of another creature within, though there is no alternative route to escape the arid wasteland behind him. The temperature drops as he continues into the range, eventually coming to the base of the tallest mountain--to a pass, leading to the other side. Reluctantly, Orra dives into the abyss. A stench of death magnifies in ordinance with the depth he covers into the pass. Its origin is a pocket in the walls--a cave harboring a pair of glowing eyes. It howls and advances, shooting fire erratically. The fog clears as Orra passes under the beast, into the depths of the cave, in an effort to escape. The Wyvern follows, though the walls of the cave become progressively smaller. Eventually, but a small cavity remains, through which Orra squeezes to escape the mountain range. However, the Wyvern is yet stuck--writhing and thrashing to force through. The foundation ultimately fails to the weight of the mountain it supports and the creature is crushed. Progressing from the city of earth behind him, Orra moves toward plains which sit under a darkening, blood red sky. Two course, curved rods shoot from the soil, the space between them surging with beads of electricity. A fiery wall appears betwixt the columns: a spacial rend leading to another world... the plains of Oblivion. Three beings step forth from the wall of fire, quickly surrounding our hero. A being of frost, launching knives of ice... a being of storm, shooting waves of electric current... and a being of fire, summoning ferocious flames from Hell. Time slows before Orra as he promptly slips from consciousness. Yet again, a pair of eyes open to blinding light, though this time, they adjust to the sight of ashes. A feeling of warmth had overtaken Orra... a feeling fading swiftly as the earth ruptures and sifts, throwing him from his feet. From a black portal to the nether rises the guardian of the underworld, Cerberus. It roars ferally, breathing beams of fire all around. In a state of peril, Orra frantically eludes its attacks, however the three headed beast summons a door to the abyss and it drags him down to purgatory. Within the realm of Hell, Orra stands against Cerberus, with no means to overcome and escape. The beast lunges forth, wrapping its jaws around him snapping them shut. Though, they do not close entirely. From Orra seeps a divine guard--a protective barrier. He feels the warmth he once felt and once again knows the power within himself... and with it, he destroys the hound and rises to the over-world. "What was its name?" he asks. "This entity within me... this entity which protects me." It whispers in his ear. "Orra... you don't remember? I am Susano'o." Orra emerges before a grand sea. Tidal waves and water spouts ravage the shore. Upon the precipice of the coast is perched a giant winged beast. It descends and summons the wrath of the ocean, thrusting it onto the land upon which Orra stands. The wave floods the landscape and engulfs, crushing him under immense pressure. The grand Albatross waits unnervingly for a sign of movement while Orra struggles to summon his angel once more. Seconds before his last breath, the warmth once again explodes as the water surrounding warps and dislocates. He ascends quickly with broad black wings, materialized of Susano'o's cells, to face the Albatross. Raising his right hand, Orra summons the sea once commanded by the creature before him and with it, he crushes the beast. He then soars forth, eventually coming to lands wherein the waves flow upwards. Orra alights before a grand bastion with a towering door. His shadow, festering at his side, rises overtakes him. It suffocates him as the door opens--and from within it do more shadows extrude. They attempt to siphon his life away but they, as the beasts before, dissolve from the power of Susano'o. Orra proceeds into the castle, traversing the many passages within. He comes to the Grand Hall, within which, a large crest rests upon the furthest wall... a crest leading to the Corridor of Darkness. He plunges into the crest, arriving at a valley of void; before him stands a great shadow. It subdues Orra, compressing the bones within him. Though its triumph is sustained only briefly as Susano'o bursts out, severing the creature's head. Promptly, Orra escapes the realm of darkness, returning to the world of light and using his power to cleanse the darkness of the Hollow Bastion. Beyond the castle exists a vast wasteland, over which Orra glides with exhaustive haste. He is disturbed by a thin ringing--a shriek carried over the wind for a great distance. With the cry of this far-off beast comes widespread conflagration, igniting the scarce organic life within its reach. A cloaked equestrian riding a dark, alar creature draws nigh. It summons acid which rains from the heavens and sand which clutches from below. Frail are these attempts, however, to the power of Susano'o. Finally the beast descends and the hooded figure dismounts, provoking Orra... a decision proving to be foolish as Orra materializes a ghostly blade with which he pierces the void of flesh. In an instant, the air pressure changes, becoming drawn to the imploding being. Following is a massive explosion which carries the ashes of the Nazgûl to lands far away. Orra is soon drawn to a collection of mountains to the north--the top of this world. He pursues the highest peak of the tallest mountain, for the beast within its cap is the last he shall face. It howls vexatiously, beckoning his accession. However, his movements come to a stop. Spasms overwhelm him and as he is brought to his knees, the very planet oscillates. Orra's mind races with memories and his brain ruptures, inciting the flourishing and consequently, the hyperactivity of Susano'o. It annihilates the land surrounding, relinquishing the snowy climate and deconstructing the mountains surrounding the lair of Bahamut. The lair itself, however, remains. In an outburst of anger, Orra raises his hand and with his cerebral prowess, he drags the dragon from its lair, suspending it in midair. The King of Dragons, once bellowing of morale, now cries for its life... a life now destroyed. No moment of clarity follows Orra's final endeavor for there is yet an endeavor inside of him. His brain activity continues to derail as the power of Susano'o heightens. It releases immense pressure, consuming structures all around the world. Orra struggles for control, however no force he now commands may hinder the force which is already deconstructing this different dimension. Seasons flash swiftly as bolts of lightning. Mountains are erected and fissures, carved within seconds. Such is the manifestation of a now unruly Susano'o. Orra resists with all his might, though his strength is not enough to overcome this... parasite. "That's it," he utters. "You are a parasite, Susano'o! You are nothing without me!" Thus, he focuses his energy not on suppression, but extraction. He carves into his soul and from it, hales the parasite--however, he concurrently induces a deep slumber. Orra awakens from his slumber with hope that the parasitic entity is no more, though it has adversely obtained tangible form. It is a silhouette... a shadow in a world now on the brink of void. "I am no parasite," it mutters and--as it opens its mouth to speak once more--raises its hand, summoning hordes of apparitions, exponentially dividing and consuming the remaining matter of broken worlds. "I am God."