World Online

All Jake could see was darkness.

But not for a second did it feel like he was back in the path of saints. It felt nothing like that.

There, he could move around. There, he could wave his sword even, if he wanted to. Sure, that was a death wish in the making, but he could still do that.

Now, Jake couldn't feel his limbs. He could feel nothing. All of his senses blocked except for one feeling that he just couldn't shrug off.

The cold.

It was freezing cold. Like he was in the middle of a blizzard.

Except, there was no wind. The cold that came from the chilling wind constantly hitting the skin, although familiar to everyone, was not what Jake felt here.

Instead, it was like he was encased by ice. Held midair and forced to this torture.

"Can I… log out? Did I die? What is happening?" Jake could not even speak. All he could do was think.

He closed his eyes, for they were quite useless at the moment.

And as he closed his eyes, they felt heavy. Like he couldn't open them. His arms were too heavy to lift up, and his entire body wouldn't move at his command.

"Maybe I should just sleep it off. I guess I died, and the system is glitching right now." He chuckled as he thought to himself.

But as he tried drifting off to sleep, the darkness was interrupted.

Even though his eyes were closed, he could feel some light piercing through his eyelids.

For light to actually pierce the thin eyelids, it had to be quite bright. And this light was something he was quite familiar with.

A warm feeling swept his entire body, and his eyes as well.

It felt like the sun itself had come to hold him in its embrace. The warm light completely enveloped him in every direction, and he could feel his arms and legs tingling.

The chilling cold still existed, but there was a warmth that was trying to fight it off.

It was like a fight between the light and cold, one where Jake was the battlefield, but also a spectator.

The warmth was strong enough, and Jake could open his eyes forcefully.

It was like a tonne of weight had accumulated on top of his eye lids, for them to be so heavy.

"Where am I?" He said, his hoarse voice actually escaping his mouth this time.

Slowly, the blurry vision that he was being fed became clear.

He could see instances.

A bight, golden light that was not blinding in any way was being projected toward him.

But it seems like it was coming from a thousand different directions, inverted, angled, like they were being reflected from a diamond.

"What am I looking at? This feels so weird." He muttered.

He tried moving his neck, but it would not budge. Apparently the warmth was not enough yet.

"Wait. This cold, could it mean?" Jake paused for a second to comprehend the possibility in his mind.

It all made sense.

The frigid cold, the vision that he was subject to, and the warmth that seemed to help him, but still couldn't free him from this invisible force.

He tried looking down, but all that his eyes could see without bending his neck were his feet.

And as he moved them, the light reflected in so many directions.

"I am encased in ice!" Jake exclaimed.

"It must have been the blood of the evil god. Blood of a god cannot be something a mortal can withstand. It froze me completely!" He understood.

"But this light. The god of light didn't abandon me just yet? But this is still someone else's territory. Even if he can help me thaw, what good will that do? Won't they just grab the stone and kill me?" Jake wondered.

For the evil god himself to act, he wasn't going to let Jake just leave the evil realms in one piece.

He tried looking around, to see traces of the evil god. Were the tentacles and vines still flying around, ready to kill him the moment he came free?

But all he could see was the light that was coming down upon him. It was too bright to see the source of this light too.

"A light this bright, isn't that impossible at this time? I mean, it is the evening." Jake wondered.

He wanted to glance at the time, but he couldn't

Even the game's features were beyond him for the moment.

But the thawing seemed to work. It was comforting, to say the least. The warmth was strong enough to withstand the cold, and to even fight back.

He no longer felt nothing. Instead, whatever was encasing him was melting, and the slimy feeling was a little gross, but it was progress.

"I am tired. Just staying like this, in this process, feels so tiring." He sighed.

He tried blinking, but just blinking in this medium was such a tiring process.

After all, it wasn't as simple as closing his eyes.

His eye lids had to move whatever this encasing was. It could be water, but more possibly, it could be the blood that had fallen on him, which solidified.

It wasn't purple though, so maybe the former possibility still had credence.

His eyes closed, and Jake stayed that way for a moment.

He enjoyed the warmth, the rest, but he knew that it was best not to stay that way forever.

His eyes fluttered open.

"Wait, what?"

Jake stopped.

Fluttered open?

His eyes felt no resistance as they opened.

This time, he was not looking at hazy source of light.

Instead, he was staring the sun right in the eye, and this time, it wasn't so forgiving.

The golden glare burnt his eyes so bad, that his vision turned black once more.

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