Cathedral

The light was blinding, and I felt my consciousness begin to slip but after a short period of time, the light began to fade away and I opened my eyes to dimly lit surroundings, but I could still make out objects within the dim light.

I was standing on what appeared to be a pedestal or an elevated platform inside a large and ominous looking hall but despite this I was overjoyed because I could feel the cold marble floor I was standing on and smell the damp air. The time I spent in the void deprived of a physical body was unbearable and I was thankful to have one back again, but I could tell that it wasn't mine or the one I was used to. Looking down at my arms I realized they were concerningly skinny and pale almost as if they were made of porcelain and I was wearing a medieval looking woolen cloak covering most of my body.

'Possession?'

A fantasy trope in which a person would take control of a different body after their death, usually in a game or novel they had seen before. That would be an explanation as to how I was now in a different body, but it was too early to make assumptions.

First, I had to explore my surroundings. The hall I was standing in had a few more elevated platforms such as the one I was standing on right now and they had items on display like a museum and was very spacious with a very high dome shaped ceiling and walls with very large stained-glass paintings, it felt like a cathedral or church.

However, it had been abandoned for a long time now, dust covered everything I saw, and the metallic parts were rusted adding to the ominous atmosphere that the dim lighting and largely empty hall created. I wanted to leave but decided to investigate the display items and paintings before heading for the large exit doors at the end of the hallway.

There were two items on display placed on either side of the pedestal I had woken up on and I decided to look at the one to my right first due to it emitting a pale glow. The closer I got to the object the stronger the glow became. It looked like a glass orb and was glowing white by the time I was in front of it. As soon as I touched it, the orb dissipated into light particles that then shot towards my heart before disappearing.

Immediately after I saw a translucent blue window appear in my vision that said:

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Vessel core activated.

Initialization completes in: 1:00:00

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It was similar to the system windows that I saw in many light novels and mangas and as soon as I reached out to touch the window it disappeared, I was not entirely sure what that message meant but my questions would be answered in an hour, so I decided to move on to the next item.

The display looked like an opened jewelry box with six compartments but most of them were empty with one containing a small green crystal. Picking up the small crystal I decided to start heading to the exit, looking at the paintings along the way.

The first painting showed many robed individuals kneeling reverently to a figure who had delicate features but had pitch black eyes and an ink like substance emerging from his eyes like tears.

The second painting showed these robed individuals joining hands and having similar features to the one in the first painting, black eyes with tears of ink but most unsettlingly they were all smiling and had an overjoyed expression on their face.

The third painting was the most disturbing one as it showcased many of the people in the previous paintings having the ink like liquid ooze from every pore of their body and begin to collapse still with the joyful smile on their faces.

The fourth and final painting showed a figure encased in complete darkness in the fetal position.

"....."

I hurried towards the exit and opened the door of the cathedral and got my first glimpse at the world I had been transported into.

'What the hell?'

I was in an area that looked like a war-torn city, buildings that had collapsed causing rubble to spread everywhere, scorch marks on the ground and billboards with shattered screens were illuminated by the setting sun. However, what was odd was the way the city had been destroyed, multiple structures looked like they had been cut clean in half, large chunks of the ground looked like they had been ripped out and sharp rocks were embedded into the walls of several buildings.

Turning around to look at the cathedral I noticed that it was made of an obsidian like material and contrasted the city with its pitch-black outer appearance. Strangely the cathedral was unaffected by the destruction of the city, and it looked like the buildings were originally constructed far away from the cathedral as well with a fence separating the cathedral grounds from the rest of the city.

Crossing the fence, I began to walk around the city ruins aimlessly, hoping to find something that would help me figure out the confusing situation I was in or something that would help with my survival. The buildings near me had collapsed in on themselves making them useless so I began looking for places where the destruction was not that severe. I saw a few buildings that were still standing a few miles away behind the cathedral and began walking towards them.

The strangest part of this was that in the time I was walking I was not able to find any corpses as I was expecting from a destroyed city, the entire city looked abandoned and I wasn't able to find vehicles like cars or bikes either, not that they would help with the state the road was in.

While walking, I began to think about how bizarre this situation was. From dying, the void, the cathedral and now the city ruins. It all seemed unreal but what worried me the most were the paintings in the cathedral, especially the last one. The figure encased in darkness reminded me of my time in the void and if it was depicting me, then did that mean I was now the product of some mass cult sacrifice?

No, I didn't know enough yet and there was no point in thinking about that, I need to figure out what I am supposed to do now and find out more about the world I was in as well as 'myself'.

*Ding*

A notification noise snapped me out of my thoughts as I looked up to see a blue window stating:

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Initialization process completed, Vessel core activating.

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