'Rip your soul out of your body.'
Alchemy's words hung in the air. Mathew felt his face turn cold.
This was the true nature of the entities before him.
Even though Alchemy appeared to be human, Mathew was nothing but a chess piece to her: A pawn for a purpose he didn't understand.
Alchemy began to approach Mathew again and she slowly put her gloves back on. Mathew backed away, his muscles tensing up as fight or flight began to kick in.
"Stay back!" He warned. He put his hands up in defense as she approached.
She smiled gently, but her eyes held nothing but amusement within them.
"Mathew look. I understand you are terrified, but this is necessary. I am trying to save thousands of lives."
Something itched deep in the back of Mathews mind when he heard the word 'save'… But he didn't trust the look on her face.
"You think I am just going to let you take my soul, and shove it into some... Some corpse?"
Alchemy clicked her tongue: "Mathew, don't be like this. You physically can't stop me, so resistance will only cause you suffering."
"Why me? Why am I needed?"
"Despite what Sequence said, you are uniquely fit for the job. Everything from your build to your age is almost identical to the vessel. Even your names are similar. That means your soul most likely won't be rejected."
Alchemy was taking slow steps forward as she spoke, whilst Mathew was taking slow steps backward.
"My name? Why does that even matter?" Mathew said, glancing at the bizarre corpse.
"Names matter the most actually, especially in this realm." She reached out a gloved hand toward him: "I promise I will be gentle."
Mathew responded by turning his back to her, and sprinting away as fast as he could.
Or at least he tried to.
As he began to run, the voice of Sequence echoed through the white void around them:
"STOP."
Mathews entire body locked up, immediately complying with the order. He strained himself, but not a single muscle in his body would move. Alchemy was in front of him soon after.
"I am sorry Mathew. But this is to save the world."
Alchemy again gripped his face with her hands, but rather than the sickening curiosity that had afflicted him before, he felt only agony.
Mathew wanted to flinch away from the pain, but he could not. He wanted to cry but no words escaped his mouth. Suffering replaced every feeling in his body, like thousands of needles were being inserted into every individual pore of his skin.
He opened his mouth in a silent scream.
Then the world was blank. His mind was blank. He felt nothing anymore as his soul he left his body.
When consciousness returned to him, he was lying on the floor, looking up at the misty white sky above. Except he felt strange.
He had awoken in a body that wasn't his.
He unclenched and clenched unfamiliar hands. He wiggled unfamiliar toes. He watched the world with unfamiliar eyes.
The most strange part was his head… if you could call a metal skull a proper head.
The world Mathew experienced now was slightly muted, like he was wearing headphones, goggles, and nose plugs all at the same time. He pressed a hand to his chest, and felt a human heartbeat.
It seemed that his head was the only part of him no longer made of flesh.
Alchemy stood over him, grinning like a wild animal, her eyes glowing golden:
"How does it feel Mathew?"
"Strange…" Mathew said. His mouth didn't move, and his voice seemed to come from somewhere within his metal skull, hollow and metallic.
"Well, I suppose it's time to send you off then. I hope you survive the coming chaos."
"Could you be any less vague?" Mathew asked, his mind addled.
Alchemy smirked as Sequence spoke:
"I will now transport you to the vessels previous location. Prepare yourself mortal." She began to glow brilliantly, and Mathew felt a strange pulling sensation on his insides.
The world began to shift and blur.
Alchemy put her hands on her hips. "Farewell, Mathew. I hope you will become my finest creation: my Carcerem Aeterni Caeli."
What did those words mean? Why did they resonate with Mathew so deeply?
It almost felt like someone was calling him by his real name.
The strange void-like world around Mathew was phasing in and out of his vision.
The last thing he saw before completely leaving the realm of the white void, was a glimpse of Sequence and Alchemy. In that moment he could see their true appearances:
Alchemy appeared as a frightening reptilian creature, at least 3 meters tall. She seemed to be made out of some amalgamation of mud, metal, and wires. Four ash covered wings were spread behind her, like she was some sort of demon.
Sequence was no less unfathomable as before when seen clearly: A twisting mass of white arms that seemed to break all laws of physics and geometry. A white head, faceless, genderless, but watching him keenly all the same.
He somehow knew that if he had seen their true forms before inhabiting the vessel, he would not have survived the experience.
It was the last thought he had before he fell through the floor.
Mathew's body shot through an endless sea of white mist, moving at incredibly high speeds rivaling that of a fighter jet.
A feeling began to grow within Mathew on his journey: the feeling of someone, or something, watching him from within the void around him.
He shuddered, hugging the strange robes of his unfamiliar new body.
And then, a single memory finally returned to him.
…..
Mathews sister sat across from Mathew at the table, as he sifted through some cold mac-n-cheese with a plastic fork.
"its cold." She said nonchalantly, though he could see that her red face and scrunched brows.
If he was closer he would probably hear her grinding her teeth together.
"You didn't have to wait for me to eat it." He replied simply, aware he was fanning flames but too tired to care.
"We could have both eaten it warm if you hadn't been out doing your 'volunteer work'," she said.
"They said they needed my help when I passed them on the way home from work." Mathew said calmly.
"Yeah, from your SECOND SHIFT," she huffed
"I had time…"
"You were supposed to do the dishes too."
"I'll do those after dinner." Mathew put in.
"I already did them. But you could've at least helped me with my homework."
"After dinner?" He tried again.
"No need, I already did that too." She still hadn't eaten a single bite of her food, seemingly content to stir it with her fork for eternity.
"Well what do you need from me then?" Mathew asked, but that only acted as the catalyst for her to release her frustrations.
"I dunno Matt. Maybe I just want to see my brother once or twice in my life. Maybe I don't want to be left alone with grandma all the time. MAYBE I want to have a normal life and a normal family. I'm sick of being here alone. I'm so tired of doing everything myself."
"What do you want me to do about it?" Mathew said, failing to maintain his calm.
"Stop asking me questions!" His sister shouted, tears streaking down her face, "I don't know… Maybe stop helping everybody and their dog and help me for once?"
"I'm sorry Maggie…" was the only solace Matthew could offer, "I will try to be home more…"
"It's not like people would die if you weren't there to help them…" Maggie muttered, sniffling.
He had no response.
…..
Mathew opened his eyes, if you could call them eyes, the memory of his sister lingering in his mind as he returned to the physical world.
His thoughts were a blur as he found himself sitting in a large chair, or perhaps a throne, trapped within a body that was previously a lifeless corpse.
"Maggie…" he muttered.
His sister's name was Maggie.
He stood up from the ornate throne he was sitting in, not paying attention to his unfamiliar surroundings as he held a hand to his cold metal forehead.
He had a little sister.
Something was building within him. It clouded his mind to the point where he barely registered the other bodies in the room with him, until one of them began to speak.
"Master? Are you there? Has life returned to you?" a young man with robes similar to his, if not as ornate, was speaking to him.
Everyone else in the room was bowing to him, but this one fellow was looking up from his kneeling position.
Mathew approached him and growled:
"Where is Maggie."
The mans had a look of confusion as he rose slowly so that their faces were almost touching.
"I am not sure I heard you, master. What did you ask?" He said reverently. The young man's eyes went completely wide as Mathew grabbed the collar of his robes, with hands that were not his, and shouted with a metallic voice that was not his own:
"WHERE THE HELL IS MY SISTER."