Sijin, his coming tears the sky of the Rift.
In a hypnotic tumult, Sijin seems to emerge from a gaping wound tearing the sky Rift and fascinating and terrifying the spectators. A cosmic rift, a black chasm studded with purple flashes and bursts of blue energy, absorbing light and plunging the Rift into darkness. This vortex where Sijin arises from could be the Inverworld, this enigmatic and forbidden territory, an inverted reflection of Artellium, where the laws of reality bend before the nightmares the most unfathomable.
Around him, weightlessness strikes the rock. Fragments of stone, freed from the ground's pull, float suspended, as if awaiting a will, a signal. The Rift seems prey to an eternal anomaly, a silent boiling, altered by the mere presence of this entity with a thousand frightening eyes.
Sijin, a deformed and enigmatic creature.
There are creatures that can be described as immense, but Sijin is not one of them. He is titanic, out of the ordinary, escaping any conceivable scale. His body does not correspond to any defined form, neither square, nor round, nor oval, nor even polygonal. He is a floating organic mass, bristling with exorbitant eyes of unequal sizes, some of which seem to freeze life, by their very presence. Yellow and red orbs, embedded in dark and viscous flesh, they throb like small, hungry beings, eager for any form of life...
But it's upon closer observation that the real unease sets in. Its contours refuse stability, oscillating between the authentic and the ephemeral. Sijin is here and elsewhere, real and unreal, an aberration that has become the personification of emptiness. More than a creature, Sijin is an oversight, surely deliberate, a living fault that engulfs everything in its path. An incoherent mass of matter, nourished by thoughts, memories, and even the very identities and souls of those who cross its path.
His colossal arms extend in all directions, tentacles adorned with sharp claws that seem capable of capturing anything in sight. The ideas of his prey, their alternate realities, as well as the fragments of existence he shamelessly rips from them. Sijin would even go so far as to seize the very essence of their world.
A memorable face-to-face with oblivion.
In the distance, facing Sijin, stands the tiny silhouette of a man alone, yet driven by incredible determination. His back is turned to us, but his posture remains proud. With his cape whipped by the Rift winds, he has the allure of a hero defying the impossible.
Who could he be? A Rift dweller? A nomad? What faction and clan does he belong to? Perhaps he's already forgotten?
As he gets closer and observes this creature, he feels something inside him slip away, dissipate, imperceptibly. His bearings waver, his certainties crumble. Soon, he will no longer know his identity, nor what he is doing there!
The contrast between this frail figure and Sijin's immensity only amplifies the scene's anguish. Perhaps the dreamcatcher isn't just a thief of memories, nor a predator of desires. Perhaps he has come to annihilate the before and after, leaving behind only absolute chaos, an unspeakable absence, the certainty that nothing but his being ever existed.
Sijin, a waking nightmare?
The halo of light emerging from behind Sijin doesn't seem to emanate from the Rift sky. It seems to escape from the tear caused by the creature. Pink, purple, and blue glows surround Sijin, as if his mere presence is enough to bend matter and energy. All of this alters reality to shape a new version of it, a more disturbing, more...empty reality.
He's the anomaly that sows disorder and oblivion, but he never drifts into chaos. Sijin moves forward quietly. He follows his path. He knows where he's going.
This map cannot be a simple illustration. It is so many things. It is a legend, a confrontation, a frightening enigma, an invitation to interpretation. Does he possess a cosmic force straight out of the Inverworld? Why does he persist in hunting down the dreams of his prey? Why does he hunt down these dreams in particular? What will he do with them? What are the dreams of the man facing him? What are the dreams of the inhabitants of the Rift or even of all of Artellium?
Perhaps there is nothing left to chase away. Perhaps all that remains is him, Sijin, oblivion incarnate, swallowing up thoughts, memories, existences, until only one absolute truth remains. The one that affirms and proves that yesterday never happened and tomorrow will never see the light of day. The only truth that remains is Sijin.
