the middle road | : | oneshot collection

hazard's equipoise

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THE atmosphere of the broken world was silent.

Stagnant.

Heavy.

It had an air of impending confrontation, making energy crackle the remaining atoms that filled the broken sky. The individual residing within this reality held no fear, however. This was their verisimilitude, their home, and they held full control over who may pass through this world, what they are allowed to do, and where they may tread before the magic forces shoved them back on a viable path.

The world was full of nothing except monochrome shades that slowly spun on an axis, as though it attempted to signify a nonexistent form of time. White fading to different shades of gray upon the horizon, before morphing into the empty black. Currently, the void-like black of the gradient colors nearly took over the entirety of the sky, a symbol of its "nighttime" hours. The pristine white of the gradience was flipped to the ground, looking as though it were an endless sheet of snow that stretched beyond the gray line that was the horizon. The world's floor was invisible to the eye, as though it were a sheet of glass the lonely individual walked upon.

Their footsteps echoed through the empty space, reverberating across the vast, desolate land they called home.

This is a Shattered Reality, a world that was unable to be fully deleted, and left behind only a blank template.

This reality looked as though the Void itself decided to clash with the Anti-Void, creating a unique world closed off to all wandering inhabitants of the Multiverse; not even the most powerful beings, the Balance Keepers of the Multiverse, could access this land without the authorization of the inhabitant and the deity reigning it. This broken world was closed to all, except one:

Equipoise.

The Overseer of the Balance Keepers, the Goddess of Equilibrium, and Hazard's Chosen.

Said Overseer slowly strode across the empty world's glass surface before halting abruptly. Equipoise slowly lifted her head, her gloved hands tightening their grip on her staff. She gazed upon the vast landscape for a moment, thoughts seeming to wander meaninglessly.

A ghostly mirage of the past quickly distilled into the landscape the moment the being's eyes drew across it. It returned to hiding deep within the tattered lines of code that still held fragments of what the world should have been... and all that it used to be centuries ago.

Equipoise turned her attention away from the apparition and to the more pressing matter at hand. She could feel the tension in the atmosphere, hear the crackling of the atoms vibrating, and see the dust-like light particles that fell from the sky like fresh snow slowly encircling a single area several paces behind her. Someone was attempting to step through her world, pushing on the tightly clamped walls that only pushed back at the vain efforts.

Unauthorized access to Shattered Reality #149: D3§0/_47€.7&/_3.exe. Awaiting command.

Strengthen the barrier; push against the attempt.

As you wish.

Equipoise narrowed her eyes, her long, white tail slowly swaying behind her as she watched the cumulation of light particles. They bounced off of each other like pinballs off flippers, vibrating violently as they attempted to breach the very fabrics of reality and allow access to the intruder, making an earthquake of sound resonate across the Shattered Reality. But with the magical barrier encasing the world, it only forced the particles to quickly expand away from each other before they could make even the slightest fissure.