Who: Li What: Li has a dream that seems to be a little more than just a dream. When: Today Where: Her apartment Warnings: Mentions of bodies and the aftermath of a battle Status: Narrative, complete
Li had been working on a composition, trying to get it to sound the way she heard it in her head. However, as she worked on it, she felt herself getting tired. Sleep had been a bit of a luxury of late. It didn't always come and it wasn't always restful when she did get it. She tried to work through it, but eventually, exhaustion won out and she nodded off. But restful sleep was not to be had.
Instead, she found herself standing in a hellscape. No, not Hell. It was the High Heavens filled with the corruption and destruction that Diablo had reigned down upon it. Bodies of angels littered the ground around her. She started to pick her way through the ruins of the High Heavens. One thing she noticed was that she was only seeing the bodies of angels, no demons lay amongst them. She was careful, not knowing what was lurking in the ruins with her, but it silent. It was the kind of silent that was eerie and suggested something bad might soon happen.
It was getting darker around her. The light of the High Heavens was going out. Diablo must be at the top of the Silver Spire, the pinnacle of Heaven.
Li started to run through the halls, dodging the bodies along the way until she reached the pinnacle of Heaven, the sight where she'd defeated Diablo himself in her dreams. And just like in that life, Diablo was there.
"You are too late, Nephalem," his voice of a thousand needles spoke. "My victory is at hand!" He declared as he gazed down at Li.
"You will never win so long as I am alive!" Li countered, ready to do battle with the Prime Evil once again.
Diablo's laughter was her initial response. "You do not understand, do you, Nephalem? You cannot win. Your light is already extinguishing. Your soul will be mine, as will your world. My armies will spread forth and lay waste to everything you love."
"You're wrong. I defeated you once, I will defeat you again." Li was defiant, but before she could do anything, she was caught in one of Diablo's cages. He stalked closer to her, the ground shuddering with each of his steps. The darkness was setting in, and Diablo suddenly looked even more terrifying. The only parts of him that Li could see clearly were the parts illuminated by the fire within his body.
"How wrong you are, Nephalem. Countless heroes fell to the corrupting touch of my brethren before you. It is time for you to join them." He reached down, the cage disappearing and he grabbed Li in his fist and picked her up. "You cannot escape your fate, Nephalem." Her body went up in flames and she screamed.
Li then jerked awake, jumping out of her chair, eyes wide and heart pounding. It couldn't be real, could it? No, but it felt real. Just a different kind of real than her dream life had felt when she'd dreamt of it. She brushed a hand through her hair and she could feel that something was going to happen soon. She could almost feel as though something was crawling through her blood. Was Diablo calling to the demon half of her being? Was she going to turn into Diablo? Her mind was starting to unravel a little, and she could tell the spell that Freya had done was no longer holding her symptoms at bay. She'd need to tell Freya about this. They were running out of time.
But more specifically, Li was running out of time.