Orion's Rise: From Zero to Hero in Two Worlds

The Beast I Drew

I couldn't breathe.

The portal swallowed us whole. Everything I knew about up and down disappeared in an instant. My insides twisted with that stomach-dropping sensation you get on a rollercoaster, but everything around me was unnaturally still. Just... nothing.

"Ben?" My voice came out wrong. Distorted. Like talking underwater.

No answer.

Panic clawed at my chest. He was right beside me when we stepped through. He had to be here. Had to be-

"I'm here." His voice sounded distant. Warped. "I think. Am I here? This is weird."

Relief flooded through me. At least we were both lost in... whatever this was.

The interface numbers were going crazy. Not just in my vision anymore - they felt like they were inside my head. Behind my eyes. Burning into my brain.

"Make it stop," I whispered. But I didn't know if I meant the interface or the void or all of it.

Time stretched. Contracted. Maybe we were there for seconds. Maybe hours. Reality had stopped making sense.

My thoughts kept fragmenting. Breaking apart. I tried to focus on something solid. Anything.

"Ben?" My voice cracked. "Talk to me."

"Still here." He sounded scared now. Not trying to hide it. "This is... this isn't normal physics. None of this should be possible."

"You're thinking about physics right now?"

"Better than thinking about... you know. Death."

I wanted to laugh. Or cry. Both felt appropriate.

The interface suddenly blazed bright. Numbers aligning into patterns I'd never seen before. The pressure in my head built until I thought my skull would crack.

"Something's happening," I managed to say.

"Yeah." Ben's voice was closer now. "I feel it too."

The void shifted. Reality snapped back like a rubber band.

And we were falling.

Really falling this time. Air rushing past us. The interface screaming warnings I couldn't process.

Ben grabbed my arm. His fingers digging in hard enough to bruise.

"If we die," he shouted over the wind, "I blame your weird powers!"

The earth hurtled toward us like a hungry mouth. I clenched my eyes closed, not wanting to see the end.

But instead of impact, there was just... softness. Like breaking through the surface of water in reverse.

We hit the ground. Not hard. But solid enough to knock the wind out of me.

I lay there for a moment. Just breathing. Feeling the strange surface beneath me. Warm. Almost alive.

"Ben?"

"Present." He groaned. "Mostly. Nothing broken. I think."

I opened my eyes.

And immediately wished I hadn't.

Because the sky above us wasn't a sky at all.

---

The sky was... wrong.

Not just dark or strange, but fundamentally wrong. Silver mist twisted overhead, moving in ways mist shouldn't move. Like someone had taken clouds and spun them into threads.

"Orion?" Ben's voice was quiet beside me. "You seeing this?"

"Yeah." My mouth felt dry. "I'm seeing it."

We pulled ourselves up slowly. My whole body ached, but not like after the rock-throwing incident. This was different. Deeper somehow.

The interface readings had settled into a steady pulse, but the numbers were... off. Like they were working in a different language now.

"The ground." Ben crouched down, pressing his palm against the surface. "It's warm."

He was right. The metallic surface beneath us radiated heat. Not enough to burn, but definitely not natural. I could feel it through my shoes.

"Don't." I grabbed his wrist when he tried to scratch at it with his fingernail. "We don't know what anything is here."

"That's exactly why we should investigate it," he argued, but he stood up anyway. "This is incredible. The implications for-"

"Ben." I cut him off. "Look around."

He did. Finally taking in the full scope of where we were.

Stone pillars floated in the distance. Actually floated, suspended in the air like gravity was optional. They cast weird shadows through the silver mist.

And the trees... God, the trees. Their trunks twisted in impossible shapes, bark threaded with glowing blue veins. Like they had lightning trapped inside them.

"This is real, right?" Ben's voice had lost its scientific edge. "We're not both having the same hallucination?"

"It's real." The interface confirmed it with every reading. "This is..."

"What?"

"I think I've.. seen this before." Like water breaking through a dam, the sentence rushed past my lips unchecked. "In my dreams. Not exactly like this, but... similar."

Ben turned to look at me. The fall had left his lenses dusty and marked, yet I could read the apprehension written plainly in his eyes.

"Your dreams." He spoke carefully. "The same ones where you saw the symbols?"

I nodded.

"That's..." He ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up worse than before. "That's not possible. You can't dream about a place before you've been there. That's not how anything works."

"None of this is how anything works," I reminded him. "The interface, my powers, that portal-"

A sound cut through the air. Deep. Distant. Like the ground itself was groaning.

We both froze.

"What was that?" Ben's voice had dropped to a whisper.

"I don't know." But something in me did know. Something in me recognized it, the same way I'd recognized this place.

The interface numbers shifted. Warning colors flashing across my vision.

Another sound. Closer this time.

"We should move," I said.

"Move where?" Ben gestured at the impossible landscape around us. "We don't even know where we are!"

He had a point. The terrain stretched out in every direction, broken up by those floating pillars and twisted trees. No landmarks. No path. No way to tell where we'd come from or where we should go.

The sound came again. Even closer.

My heart started racing. The interface readings spiked, matching my pulse.

"Something's coming," I said.

Ben grabbed my arm. "Something like what?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but then I saw it. A shape moving between the pillars. Massive. Dark.

And suddenly I knew exactly what it was.

Because I'd drawn it before.

The realization hit me like a physical blow. Those sketches I'd hidden away, the ones I'd tried to forget about. They weren't just random drawings.

They were warnings.

"Orion?" Ben's fingers dug into my arm. "What is that thing?"

The shape drew closer. Interface numbers screaming warnings now.

And all I could think was: I should have burned those drawings when I had the chance.

---

THOOM.

The beast moved like oil through water. Each movement too fluid for something that size. Its skin caught the silver light, dark and leathery and wrong.

"What do you mean you drew it?" Ben's voice shook. "When did you-"

THOOM. THOOM.

"Before everything." My throat felt tight. "Before the interface. I kept having these dreams and I had to get them out of my head, so I drew them but I never thought-"

"Less explaining, more running!" Ben tugged my arm, but I couldn't move.

THOOM. CRASH.

A floating pillar shattered as the beast pushed past it. Fragments of stone rained down around us.

The interface was going haywire. Numbers and patterns flooding my vision until I could barely see. But underneath that, something else was building. That same power I'd felt in Ben's backyard, but stronger. More urgent.

SKREEEEE.

The beast's cry pierced the air. My hands flew to my ears.

The beast's eyes fixed on us. Red. Burning. Ancient.

"Orion." Ben's voice cracked. "We need to go. Now."

THOOM. THOOM. THOOM.

"We can't outrun it." The certainty in my voice surprised me. "It's too fast."

CRACK.

The ground split under the creature's claws. I could see its teeth now. Metal-bright and sharp.

"Then what do we do?" Ben was full-on panicking now. "Because I really don't want to die in... wherever this is!"

VVVVMMMMM.

The power surged under my skin. Hot. Electric. Demanding to be used.

And then I heard it. The Guide's voice, clear as day: "You must control it."

"What?" Ben frowned. "Control what?"

But I wasn't listening anymore. The power was building, pressing against my ribs like it wanted to break free.

THOOM. CRASH. SKREEEEE.

The beast charged.

VVVVMMMMM. The power built in my chest..

Ben screamed something. The interface blared warnings. But all I could focus on was the energy coursing through me.

I raised my hands. Not thinking. Just acting.

FWOOM.

The power exploded outward. Raw and untamed. I felt it connect with the beast, saw it stumble.

But it wasn't enough.

SKREEEEEEEEE!

The creature's roar shook the air itself. It kept coming, fighting against the energy I was throwing at it.

"It's not working!" Ben shouted.

CRACK. THOOM. CRACK.

"I can see that!" My arms were shaking from the effort. Sweat dripped into my eyes.

The beast was so close now. I could smell it - like ozone and old blood.

"Orion!" Ben's voice seemed far away. "Do something!"

VVVVMMMMM. VVVVMMMMM. VVVVMMMMM.

The power was slipping. I couldn't hold it. Couldn't control it.

The beast lunged.

And something inside me snapped.

FWAAAAAAASSSHHH.

White light filled my vision. The energy surged out in a wave I couldn't contain. Couldn't direct.

For a moment, everything stopped.

...silence.

When my eyes cleared, the beast was gone. Like it had never existed.

I dropped to my knees. Every muscle screaming. The interface numbers fading in and out of focus.

"Ben?" My voice came out raw. "You okay?"

"Define okay." He sounded dazed. "What did you just do?"

"I don't..." The words died in my throat.

tap. tap. tap.

Footsteps. Through the mist.

Because something was moving through the mist. Not the beast. Something else. Someone else.

A figure. Walking toward us.

The interface readings steadied. Aligned. Like they were recognizing something.

Or someone.

"We're not alone," I whispered.

Ben's hand found my shoulder. Whether to steady me or himself, I couldn't tell.

"Good not alone?" His voice was barely audible. "Or bad not alone?"

The figure drew closer.

And I realized this was just the beginning.

Of what, I had no idea.

But sure as hell were we about to find out.