Challenge Submission Reality Breaker

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Challenge Submission Reality Breaker

Synth Dragon

The Dragon at the end of a decayed world.
Inner Sanctum Nobility
Local time
Today 11:58 AM
Messages
306
Pronouns
He/Him
"Step right up! Step right up, one and all! To the greatest magic show you'll ever see!" The magician on stage performs small card tricks and the most basic of magic to warm up as the audience gathers. The man in the crowd makes his way to his front row seat and sits, then watches as fellow members of the the crowd do the same. He watches as the magician waits, performing his mundane tricks.

"This is one show that you'll remember forever and will be talking about, even into the next lifetime, folks!" The magician summoned a flock of doves from his sleeves then sat on his stool on stage, waiting for the audience's full attention. After they gave him their wall, he smiles. "Right, so, I trust you all found the place easy enough. I tried to make the neon signs as accurate as possible." He flips his gloved right hand up and points above him as a giant neon sign suddenly turned on and displayed "MAGIC SHOW RIGHT HERE!" The audience chuckled in unison at the observational humor.

The man in his front row seat was amazed, he surely didn't see the sign there before. He wondered if anyone else caught that as well. "Let us begin the show, then, shall we?" The magician sounded out as he took from his coat, a silver ring. He held it up over his chest as people watched. The ring, big enough in size that a small child could fit right through it. The metal was as thick as a quarter. As the magician spoke his opening monologue, he held the silver ring above his head and gracefully spun it upon his fingertip. It flashed twice as it spun.

The man in his seat thought perhaps it was the light reflecting off the ring, even though for the near ten intervals it spun in, it only flashed twice. "Magic is the essence that binds life together, but can also split it apart," said the magician as the ring above his head seemingly vanished. "The most certain thing about magic," he continued on but with a dramatic pause in the middle, "is that it is the truth." The magician snapped his finger and all the lights in the stadium went out.

The man, sitting in the front row, noticed everything in the stadium vanish as a void of darkness appeared in it's place. And not just everything, but everyone. Even the magician, gone. The man closed his eyes, thinking it was just an illusion. Then opened them back up to find himself in the streets. He rose from his seat as he looked around. Truly, he stood in the empty streets of New York City. No cars, no people, no animals. Just him, the buildings and the wind.

"Reality is the biggest illusion that even a magician can't conjure up," said a voice from nowhere. To the man, it sounded like the voice if the magician. "But, just like every illusion, there are flaws that prevent it from being perfect." The man heard a loud crashing noise start to form. He looked up and saw the tall towers of masonry, steel and glass begin to crumble and fall. He crouched and shielded himself as the pieces began to fall. "And when you finally see the truth," continued the voice, "You may realize that you're truly alone."

The man opened his eyes again as the loud noises stopped. He found he was back in the stadium, in his seat in the front row. But again, he saw that he was alone. No one around him, not even the magician. His blood pressure raised as he began to panic, unable to grasp what the hell was going on. "But fear not," the magician continued to speak, "I am here to help pull you back in." The man felt a pull on his shirt and soon found himself up on the stage. This time, he was able to see the magician.

The magician looked at him with a grin. "May I have a volunteer from the audience?" He asked, looking around. The man looked to his right as he noticed a woman phase into existence and lay on a flat table. The magician went around behind her and covered her up in a box, except for her head and her feat. The man recognized this as an old magician's trick as the magic man pulled out a saw from seemingly nowhere. "I must make a slight correction to my last statement," said the magician, "For, although I can help pull you back in, it is up to you," he was already halfway through cutting up the box, "to find your way out of the abyss. For the truth can often be quite grotesque."

The man watched as the magician finished and pulled the saw away. The saw looked different in the small glimpse the man got. He looked at the box as the magician pulled it apart. As he did, the man saw what looked like a pool of blood pour from the box, splashing onto the stage. It grew and formed into a tidal wave that went straight toward the man. He shielded himself before it crashed into him, closing his eyes once again. As he cowered, eyes shut tight, he began to feel a strange warmth. But it wasn't wet like he imagined it would be.

"However," said the magician, "once you find your way out of all that and have pulled yourself from the abyss known as reality," the man opened his eyes to see himself now in a large meadow of various flowers, "you may find yourself in the graces of the true beauty of the world." The man looked around, seeing endless waves of grass and flowers. When he turned around, he found the magician close to him, sporting a grin. He waved his hand up and down the man's face, making his vision black out again. "Thus concludes the greatest show you'll ever see."

The man, seated once again in his front row seat, opened his eyes to see everyone in the audience again and the magician on stage, bowing. Everyone stood, cheered and applauded. The man was dazed, but stood up and joined the crowd. He spotted the woman who got sawed in half upon stage, giving a bow herself, happy to have given herself to the show. In the next instant, people started filing out. The man turned and met himself face to face with the magician again. "Quite the show, wasn't it?" The magician grinned and chuckled, before he disappeared in the crowd. The magician was right, the man thought. It truly was going to be a show he'll remember forever.
 
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