Nier woke to pain, deep and agonizing pain. His body screamed at him before his mind fully caught up, nerves firing in a chaotic pattern of random agony.

  His chest rose and fell in shallow, desperate breaths, each inhale sharp and ragged as if he were forced to swallow a cup of broken glass, or heated thumbtacks.

  At the same time, something wet and warm trickled down his face, pooling near the corner of his eye.

  Of course, this something was blood, and his blood no less.

  However, if that wasn't bad enough, the world was sideways.

  Or maybe he was.

  Honestly, he couldn't tell.

  The SUV lay crumpled around him like a discarded tin can, smoke curling from the mangled hood. The stench of gasoline was sharp in the cold night air, mixing with burnt rubber of the tires, and the strong scent of iron, his blood, no doubt.

  His left arm hung uselessly at his side, twisted unnaturally, while his legs were pinned under the dashboard.

  Every attempt to move sent a wave of hot pain through his body. His mouth was dry, his tongue heavy, but he managed a hoarse whisper.

  "…Aghraaa… fwuck… ah… I'm still a-alive?"

  The cabin was eerily quiet, with the exception of the faint creak of warped metal settling.

  Outside, the forest loomed, its shadows long and unnatural under the pale light of the moon. The world felt wrong, dreadful even, like something unseen was watching him, waiting, stalking. Given the situation, Nier didn't need to guess who it might be.

  He already knew what was out there waiting for him.

  Then he heard it.

  A wet, dragging sound slowly approached. It was like a bunch of tentacles rubbing against each other.

  Nier froze.

  "…cough, cooough!!… Fuck… haha… is this really how I die?!"

  He said in a weak voice as he began to process the situation even more, his frustration evident.

  "Ahhh… fuck. No… I can't die here… Not now… Not like this."

  He muttered, his voice trembling.

  His fingers clawed at the seatbelt, slick with blood and sweat. The buckle was warped from the crash, jammed tight. But even then, adrenaline mixed with his uncanny strength kicked in as he yanked at it, gritting his teeth as pain flared in his shoulder which was mostly numb now.

  "Come on. Damn it!"

  With a final desperate pull, the strap snapped free, and he slumped forward, his head smacking against the dashboard.

  Stars exploded in his vision, but he forced himself to stay awake. The dragging sound was louder now, accompanied by a faint, monsterous hum that made his stomach churn.

  Crawling out of the wreck was pure agony. His legs wouldn't cooperate, and every inch he moved felt like a thousand knives stabbing into him from multiple directions.

  Blood smeared across the jagged metal as he pulled himself free, collapsing onto the cold dirt outside.

  The night was eerily quiet. No insects, no rustling leaves, nothing...only the constant alarm of his vehicle.

  The sound of his squirming.

  And the horrible wet noise coming from behind him, or rather, above.

  There it was.

  The same creature from before.

  "W-What is that thing?!"

  He said weakly as it floated at the edge of the clearing, barely illuminated by the moonlight. It wasn't human; it couldn't be.

  Despite its upper body vividly resembling a woman's, everything else defied logic and reason.

  The grotesque mouths on its giant breasts gnashed hungrily as a weird black liquid began dripping between jagged teeth. Its eyeless face twisted into something like a grin, impossibly wide.

  Its lower half was chaos given form, writhing, shifting, a grotesque mass of limbs, horns, and other horrors that Nier's mind could not fully process or give a name to. It flickered and glitched as if reality itself couldn't decide if it should exist, or disappear.

  Nier's breath caught in his throat. His body refused to move any further, rooted in place by sheer terror.

  Then the radio crackled to life again, though even more muffled due to the damage.

  "… m7 *%st… b3@+1|=ul…

  The distorted voice filled the silence, wrapping around him like a noose.

  The monstrous figure loomed over Nier, her twisted form glitching and stuttering like a corrupted nightmare breaking through the seams of reality.

  Every flicker of her body distorted the space around her a bit, like the static of an old television mixed with the sound of bones grinding against each other.

  Nier gasped for breath, every inhale jagged and shallow. Pain pulsed through him, sharp and unrelenting, like a long heated knife carving through his shattered body.

  His adrenaline...the last lifeline of his fading life, was keeping him alert, but that too was fading fast.

  He has lost way too much blood, it won't be long now before he passed out or die.

  The darkness at the edges of his vision crept closer, but the sight before him kept his mind clinging to the frayed edge of consciousness.

  He stared up at her, his vision swimming with blood and tears. Her face flickered in and out, glitching like a broken video feed. Her eyeless sockets seemed to bore into him, and the eyes that were her nipples looked at him with a pleased glare, though they were empty voids of endless black.

  Just that action alone gave him the feeling this thing saw him clearly.

  "This… this can't be happening."

  He rasped, his voice barely audible over the pounding in his ears.

  His thoughts spiraled in frantic, panicked loops as his trembling body failed him.

  "I-I don't want to die... AWWW... I can't move… ahh… My arms are basically shredded chicken wings… my leg's, I can't even called them legs anymore, there smashed, and cut so deeply in many places I might as well just cut it off. And her… what even is this thing? Ahh… No! What do I do now? What the hell do I do?!"

  His chest heaved, and a bitter laugh escaped his lips, as he choked and wep with pain.

  "Again… why me?"

  He whispered hoarsely, his voice cracking under the weight of his own terror.

  Slowly an unknown madness started to flood him.

  "Why the hell me!?"

  THUD!

  The strength left him all at once, his body collapsing into the cold, blood-soaked dirt. His head hit the ground with a sickening thud, sending a fresh jolt of pain through his skull. The night blurred, the sharp edges of his surroundings softening into a dark haze.

  And then, he heard it.

  Her voice was soothing yet terrifying.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  It wasn't a sound; it was a presence, pressing into his mind like cold, invasive fingers. It seeped into him, bypassing his ears and his body, settling deep into his very core of being, it was like something was speaking directly to his soul.

  "Shhhh…"

  The word slithered through his mind, soft and intimate.

  "Sleep, my chosen herald… Sleep… hehehehe…"

  The words wrapped around him, squeezing the last ounce of air from his lungs. He tried to scream, but no sound came. He was drowning in her voice.

  He was…

  '…Dying… Am I… D-dying…?'

  The world and everything else began to fade, and the more he disconnected from the living world, the more he could comprehend whatever this Flux was.

  "Oh, my beautiful herald… The closer you are to death, the closer you are to me. Just let go… let our frequencies align. And then… we will truly meet."

  It was after those words that Nier departed from this world, his life slipped away, and he died.

  Nier stirred; his thoughts a jumbled mess of half-formed memories and lingering pain.

  "Open your eyes…

  The words came like a whisper, faint and fragile, as though they might vanish if he didn't focus.

  "…Open your eyes, Nier…

  The voice was softer this time, almost tender, and impossibly close. It tugged at his awareness like fingers curling around his wrist, pulling him out of the oppressive darkness.

  With a strangled gasp, his eyes snapped open.

  The world around him was disorienting, his vision swimming as he struggled to piece together where he was. Of course, he quickly realized that all his injuries were gone, and so too was the pain.

  He blinked a few times, his senses slowly sharpening as he took in his surroundings. Looking around, it was clear he was in some kind of cabin.

  The cabin was strange, the air damp and heavy with an earthy scent that made his stomach churn.

  The walls were made of uneven wooden planks, old and warped, their surfaces etched with strange, curling symbols. He squinted at them, but the shapes seemed to shift when he looked directly at them, leaving a faint ache behind his eyes.

  A single lantern hung from the ceiling, its light flickering erratically and casting jagged shadows that seemed to twist and writhe against the walls.

  A crooked fireplace smoldered in one corner, the embers dull and weak, barely giving off any warmth. Meanwhile, the furniture was sparse and unsettling: a table scarred with deep grooves as if clawed by something feral, and a single chair, its back splintered and its seat stained with something dark.

  The mirror in the corner caught his eye. Its surface was cracked and tarnished, splitting his reflection into fragments. He looked like hell. Blood streaked his face, drying in uneven trails. His clothes were torn and caked with dirt, and his body was covered in bruises, scrapes, and deep cuts. His left arm hung awkwardly at his side, clearly dislocated.

  But the weird thing was that the mirror showed him how he looked earlier, yet looking at himself now, it was the opposite of what the mirror showed.

  "What the fuck is this… am I… in hell?"

  He muttered, clearly confused about what was going on, but he soon paid attention elsewhere, looking at other things. What he found only made his situation even weirder.

  The cabin was silent, save for the faint creak of the wooden floor beneath him and the uneven crackle of the dying fire. Each breath he took felt thick, the air stained by scent of something he couldn't name properly.

  Eventually, he walked toward the door, his steps slow and careful, his guard up given he had no idea where he even was. The doorknob was cold and slick under his fingers as he twisted it.

  The door creaked open, revealing the world outside, and his heart stopped at the mere sight of what he saw.

  "Dear God."

  Nier said as he stared forward, because before him was an otherworldly forest that stretched endlessly in every direction, ancient and gnarled trees clawing toward a blackened sky.

  A dense fog blanketed the ground, swirling in unnatural patterns as if it had a mind of its own.

  The air was unnervingly still, yet somehow alive in the sense that something filled it, humming with an energy that made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

  But it was the sky that stole his breath.

  Eyes.

  Hundreds—no, thousands—of enormous, disembodied eyes floated above, each one different in shape and color. They blinked slowly, their gazes fixed on him, unrelenting and suffocating.

  Their irises shimmered with colors he couldn't understand, their pupils dilating and contracting as if adjusting to the sight of him.

  To him, they might as well have been a sea of endless planets or stars of different sizes. Screams echoed faintly through the forest, distant but constant.

  They seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once, a song of anguish that clawed at his sanity.

  Even the ground beneath his feet moved, rising and falling in a slow, steady rhythm, as though he stood atop the chest of some colossal, slumbering beast.

  Nier's breathing quickened, panic rising in his chest like a tide.

  "This can't be real...right!?"

  He whispered, his voice trembling.

  "This isn't real…

  He stepped onto the porch, the wood creaking under his weight. His gaze remained fixed on the forest, the fog curling toward him as though beckoning him forward. He leaned against the railing, his legs shaking beneath him, and took an involuntary step closer to the edge.

  The ground’s breathing grew louder, yes like a person's chest, heaving up and down, the ground of the world was breathing, the screams more distinct. A sharp, acrid smell filled the air, burning his nostrils.

  Just as his foot hovered over the last plank of the porch, a voice stopped him from going any further. He looked around, confused and scared.

  "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

  Standing in the doorway of the cabin was the figure from before...very tall, about 7'3" in height, but now, she looked different.

  She was no longer a glitching, chaotic monstrosity, nor was she transparent. Her form was solid, unnervingly real, and dripping with a dangerous, almost obscene allure.

  Her skin was a deep, lustrous shade of chocolate brown to point one might think her skin was dark red to a degree, and it was smooth and flawless.

  It glistened faintly in the dim light, emphasizing every curve of her voluptuous figure. Her ample chest was barely concealed by a thin, black gauzy fabric draped carelessly over her torso, a fabric so sheer it seemed to tease more than cover, clinging to her body like a thin layer of second skin.

  Her waist was narrow, flaring out into wide, inviting hips that moved with a hypnotic sway as she stepped forward. Her legs, while undeniably feminine in shape, were inhuman; slee white fur covered them from mid-thigh downward, leading to strong, cloven hooves that clicked softly against the wooden floor. Her goat-like legs only enhanced the unnerving aura she exuded, a primal beauty in this horrific-looking world he now found himself in.

  But she also had a pair of massive, curling black horns, similar to those of a goat, that sprouted from her head. Their surface texture was like old wood, twisting elegantly yet menacingly into the air. Her face was hauntingly beautiful; she also had wild, flowing black hair that spilled over her shoulders and down her back in untamed waves.

  Also behind her she had long black prehensile tail, similar to that of a succubus as the tip.was heart shape and black.

  Her lips were full and painted a deep, glossy purple, a stark contrast against her rich brown skin, and her glowing eyes were like twin rubies burning in the darkness. These very rubies bored into Nier with a hunger that made his blood run cold, and a shiver went up his spine.

  Nier naturally stepped back at the sight of her as she approached him.

  "Who… who the hell are you?"

  Nier asked. In response, the woman smiled as she spoke, her voice having a creepy echo effect.

  "I go by many names: Mother, The Great Bahora, The 3rd Matriarch, Shub-Niggurath… but you can just call me Kal-thryn-Zofola… or simply Kaly for short. Well, those are the names that won't drain your sanity, at the very least."

  She spoke calmly, her voice unnervingly soothing, as if they weren't in the midst of an otherworldly nightmare.

  As she stepped closer, her towering form loomed over Nier, her gaze locking onto his. Her eyes gleamed with an unsettling, almost gleeful intensity, and the smile that spread across her face wasn't comforting, rather it seem like it was more obsessive, hungry, and unhinged, than it was curious or worried.

  At the sight of her expression, Nier's chest tightened, not from her intimidating presence, but from something far worse...familiarity.

  That look. That terrifying, love-struck madness. Flashbacks slammed into him like a freight train...women who had fallen victim to his curse, their sanity unraveling into obsessive devotion, and the haunting memory of his own mother's deranged yandere fixation on his father.

  His heart raced, his body slick with cold sweat as he realized what he was dealing with. His instincts screamed at him to reach for a weapon, to end this now before it spiraled out of control. Survival. That was the key. He had learned it young, growing up in the shadow of his mother's ruthless possessiveness—or rather, it was in his blood, rooted deep in his genetics to some extent.

  After all, his mother was a woman who would destroy anyone she saw as competition for his father's love. The fear of death from his father's side, and sheer determination from his mother's.

  That inherited mindset had shaped him, leaving him with a dangerous reflex for solving problems the way he did..quickly, decisively, and with zero mercy.

  Kill first, hide the body, regret later.

  His brain urged, but he had no weapon, sadly.

  Even worse, this wasn't an ordinary woman. Her very presence pressed down on him like a physical weight, suffocating and inescapable. His body refused to move under the sheer gravity of her aura, leaving him frozen, vulnerable, and entirely at her mercy.

  'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck…

  The mantra repeated in his mind, a desperate attempt to anchor himself.

  'What the hell is up with this situation? Honestly, just killing me outright would've been a mercy compared to this.'

  There was no escape, and he knew it.

  Nier's instincts screamed at him to run, to fight, to do anything, but his body betrayed him, frozen as Kaly approached. Her movements were graceful yet predatory, like a lioness toying with her prey.

  "Oi… stay away from me."

  Nier said in fear and concern as Kaly approached him slowly, but she ignored his plea.

  He was worried for his own life, after all. Then again, he was probably already dead and this was hell, but still, dying a second time—if it could be avoided—was an option he wanted to take.

  That, and the fact she suddenly pulled out a weapon while approaching him.

  In her hand, she held a great black dagger that looked more like a swollen artery with deep carvings in it—if it could even be called that.

  Its surface shimmered and shifted as though it were alive, writhing with shapes and symbols carved into the flesh-like structure of its being, which his mind couldn't fully process. Just looking at it sent a cold shiver down his spine, an unknown in its existence that seemed to burrow into his brain.

  Kaly brought the blade to her lips, dragging her tongue slowly along its edge. The act was grotesque and strangely intimate, her voice dripping with unhinged desire as she whispered.

  "Ahh, I can't take it anymore… I want you to be mine, Nier. Completely, utterly mine. But we can't be together like this, not when I'm still just an abstraction, clinging to this plane. The mortal world rejects things like me, you know. Your kind refuses, or rather, rejects us into the unknown, viewing us as fears that the mind can't comprehend."

  She tilted her head, her eyes gleaming with an unsettling mix of madness and affection.

  "Humans… you're all so stubborn. So fragile… But Mommy understands. If mankind ever truly accepted us, it would be the end. You would all cross the final threshold and bridge the gap between your material plane and our immaterial sphere. And then? The Silver Gate would open."

  Her voice grew more fervent, her words spiraling into a feverish rant.

  "Fear itself would lose all meaning. On either side of existence. But you know what? Fuck existence! Let it collapse under its own weight for all I care."

  She stepped closer, her towering figure casting a shadow over Nier.

  "Lust, Body, and Darkness… those cowards. They have their heralds, their precious chosen ones. But when I want one, it i suddenly a problem. They treat me like a child, always scheming to keep me at bay. But they can't hold me forever. I will soon escape this place; it is only a matter of when."

  Her voice softened, dripping with sickly-sweet affection.

  "I've felt you, Nier, from the day you were born. Your affinity to me… it was intoxicating...so much so, that even from here I could sense you. And with every passing moment, it has only grown stronger. They can't stop me if you keep evolving. They're afraid of us, of what we could become together you know."

  She knelt beside him, her face inches from his, her expression one of both obsession and triumph.

  "But I won't wait for them to decide my fate. I am the black sheep of our bloodline, the chaos they fear most. So I'll act like it."

  She leaned in, her voice a low, as she speaks sultry whisper that sent chills down his spine.

  "I'll give you the final push, my beautiful herald. Let me open your eyes to the truth of this world. Drink my milk, my essence, and let the veil fall away. All your fears, your doubts… they'll melt into clarity. Your imagination, your madness, that is the greatest power of all."

  Her right hand cupped his face, so large his whole head fit in her palm, her touch cold and electric, and her smile widened even more.

  "The faster your affinity reaches its peak, the sooner we can be together. Forever. Just you and me."

  Nier looked at her in fear as his eyes darted toward the knife.

  She then take it and said.

  "Take this. Pledge yourself to me… only you can make that final push yourself."

  Kaly said as she handed Nier the black dagger.

  Naturally, he asked with a worried tone.

  "W-what the hell am I even supposed to do with this?"

  He asked more out of fear than anything else.

  Kaly answered.

  "It's a ceremonial dagger. I will explain what it does later, but all you need to do is claim ownership of it."

  "Do I have a choice?"

  He asked.

  But she responded, her loving smile never fading.

  "All you need to do is claim ownership of it."

  "..."

  "…"

  "…But… Um…

  "All you need to do is claim ownership of it."

  This conversation, if it could even be called that—was not going anywhere.

  He had so many questions, concerns, and fears at this moment, so for now, he inwardly sighed and said to himself, clearly making up his mind on something.

  'Sigh… I guess I'll take that as a no… just my luck, I guess. But still, at this rate I won't get answers… so I'll just take the dagger, and when she least expects it, I'll hit her from behind and end her life.'

  As such, he grabbed the dagger from Kaly’s hand and said.

  "I will claim ownership of this dagger then."

  At that very moment, Kaly's grin stretched impossibly wide, her delight bubbling over in an almost childlike display. Without warning, she pounced on Nier, her movements unnervingly swift and graceful.

  Before he could react, he was enveloped in her embrace, her impossibly soft breasts pressing against him like marshmallows, smothering him in an overwhelming mix of warmth and suffocation.

  Her hold was so firm, her dark nipple at the tip of his mouth, he could feel them through the thin fabric around her.

  She held him tightly, her arms coiling around him like vines, her voice dripping with satisfaction.

  "Ahhh… I knew I could count on my beautiful herald."

  She said with great delight, her tone filled with both affection and possessiveness.

  "Now that we've crossed this little threshold… come inside. There is so much we need to discuss about your future."

  Her words were sweet, almost playful, but the power behind them was suffocating.

  Nier, on the other hand, was anything but pleased. His body was tense, his mind racing to make sense of what was happening, though every answer only led him further down the spiral of dread.

  'What the hell is even going on right now?!'

  He thought, his inner voice frantic, until a thought crossed his mind.

  'Oh… Oh no… don't tell me… Shit… It's painfully clear what has happened. She said she was watching me from birth, right? So does that mean just by existing, I've triggered a fucking route?'

  He tried to steady his breathing, to wrestle some control back from the storm of fear and frustration building inside him. But her hold on him, physically and metaphorically, made it impossible to think straight.

  'This can't be happening. A Flux Route… a fucking Flux Route.'

  But he did not have time to think as she called out to him and said.

  "Come now, my herald. Follow Mommy."

  With that, she turned her back toward Nier.

  Him seeing this, immediately began to act.

  '…Good. This might be my only chance…

  Nier jumped toward her, preparing to slit her throat from behind.