The lost (false) demigod

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A few hours before...

Well, I'd better get ready, the sun goes down soon.

There I was, walking through the freezing forest. It wouldn't have been so bad if I was still a healthy adult, but unfortunately, now I'm a brat again. My smaller, weaker body shivered under the weight of the cold, and no amount of thick winter clothes seemed to help. I don't think I'll last long. My only consolation is that I have these clothes at all.

Still, I won't survive if I don't find food and water soon. The thought of becoming just another frozen mummy in this endless, snow-blanketed wilderness sent a chill down my spine. I decided, then and there, that I wouldn't die like that. Not here. Not now.

First things first: I needed fire. The flames would keep me warm and, more importantly, keep the animals of the night at bay. I didn't doubt they were out there somewhere, hidden just beyond the trees, watching and waiting. A shelter would've been ideal, too, but I didn't have the time or energy to build one. Just gathering the materials would be enough to kill me. No, I had to focus on the fire.

The sun was already low on the horizon, casting long, thin shadows through the skeletal trees. I had only a few hours before darkness swallowed the forest whole.

It wasn't long before I stumbled across something strange. At first, it looked like a dark shadow against the snow, half-buried and forgotten. But as I got closer, I realized it was a cluster of stones, piled high and uneven like some kind of ancient monument. Their jagged edges poked through the frost, and despite the snow coating them, they didn't seem natural.

Curiosity tugged at me, even as a voice in the back of my mind screamed to leave it alone. I ignored the warning. I had to. If there was any chance of finding something useful—wood, fuel, anything—I needed to check it out. The cold was starting to numb my thoughts, dull my senses. The stones seemed out of place, strange enough to be worth investigating.

The closer I got, the weirder it felt. The stones weren't just piled randomly; they seemed... deliberate. Like someone—or something—had arranged them on purpose. My breath misted in the air as I stepped closer, boots crunching against the icy ground.

That's when it happened.

The stones began to move.

At first, I thought it was just my imagination or the wind, but no. They were shifting, stacking themselves into an archway. A portal.

The snow around them started to melt, and a blue glow seeped from the cracks between the stones. It wasn't bright at first—just a faint pulse, like the light was alive. But it grew stronger, filling the clearing with an eerie, electric hue. My heart pounded as I backed away, unsure of what to do. Run? Watch?

Then, before I could react, the portal exploded.

The roar was deafening. A shockwave slammed into me, throwing me to the ground. I landed hard, the freezing snow stealing the air from my lungs. My ears rang, and for a moment, all I could see was blinding white light.

When the world came back into focus, I wished it hadn't.

I wanted to run, to do something - but my body wouldn't listen. My legs felt like they were made of lead, and my mind was frozen as the forest.

The portal was still there, its blue light flickering weakly now, like a dying ember. Whatever had come through—or been destroyed by—it wasn't natural.

The forest was silent again, but the quiet felt... wrong. Heavy. Oppressive.

I forced myself to stand, every muscle in my body protesting. My knees wobbled, and my breath came in shallow, panicked gasps. This wasn't over. I could feel it, deep in my bones. Whatever had just happened, whatever had caused that explosion, was far beyond anything I could understand.

And it wasn't finished.

Not yet.

It wasn't long before I noticed them—scattered across the snow like the debris of some alien wreckage. At first, I thought it was rubble, or maybe shards of the stones from the portal itself. But as I got closer, the bizarre, almost absurd nature of the objects became clear.

The first thing I saw was a Tetris block, the iconic long blue piece, stuck upright in the snow like some ancient monolith. It made no sense. What was it doing here? Its edges glinted unnaturally in the faint glow of the dying portal.

Nearby, a Pokéball lay half-buried, its red and white surface gleaming faintly despite the frost. I reached out to touch it, half expecting it to open or make a sound, but it was utterly lifeless—a hollow shell.

Further out, a small, charred object caught my eye. I picked it up with trembling hands: a deflated companion cube from Portal. Its sides, once smooth and glossy, were dented and soft, its cheerful pink heart symbols barely visible beneath scorch marks. It sagged in my grip, utterly useless.

I stumbled forward, kicking something solid and cold. It was a single Monopoly hotel, its bright red plastic stark against the white snow. It felt as out of place as I did in this nightmare.

Then I spotted what looked like paper fluttering weakly in the wind. I snatched it up—a charred Uno reverse card, its once-bold arrows now blackened and curling at the edges. The absurdity of it made me want to laugh, but the sound caught in my throat. What kind of madness had I unleashed?

I wasn't done. A glint of metal nearby drew me closer, and I knelt to retrieve a melted lightsaber hilt. Its once-sleek casing was warped and twisted, its activation button jammed. The iconic weapon was nothing more than a useless, burnt relic now.

Next to it, half-buried in the snow, was what could only be described as a broken Minecraft pickaxe. Its blocky wooden handle was snapped in half, and the crude pixelated stone head was chipped and worn. I dropped it in disgust.

More items littered the clearing, each one as strange and useless as the last:

A single Dragon Ball cracked and faintly glowing. A Hogwarts letter, the ink smudged and barely legible, the wax seal is broken, addressed to Seamus Finnigan. An empty Infinity Gauntlet, toy-sized and missing all the stones. And finally, a Rubik's Cube, its colors smeared and mismatched, as if the explosion itself had scrambled it beyond repair.

I stood there, surrounded by this collection of impossibilities and many more, my breath fogging in the cold air. None of it made sense. These objects should not exist, not here, not anywhere. They were relics from different worlds, different realities. And yet, here they were, scattered in the snow like fragments of some cosmic joke.

The portal flickered again behind me, a faint hum echoing through the oppressive silence. I turned to look at it, my heart pounding.

This wasn't over.

Not yet.

—two people lay crumpled and broken near the portal, their blood staining the snow.