You shuffled your foot a fraction forth but halted as a ghostly yank caught at your collar and hair. Your throat rattled as you leaned your elbow against the stone for support.

“Keep at it,” you shouted. “Try your damnedest to break it!”

Goldie had her back turned towards you, her form, opaque and fracturing into whirling, pale flames. It was hard to discern her reaction. Regardless, she moved, screaming and thrusting her arms into the insatiable void. The free-floating cube responded with a vociferous hum, tremoring like an intangible earthquake. A vast chunk of Goldie’s soulflesh was torn off her bones as she pushed herself further, the unfeeling monolith only more eager to stretch its unseen jaws wider. Pieces of her luminous soul reformed as quickly as they were torn off and sucked into the devouring space.

Her bone-exposed fingers scraped the corners of the floating ore, her flickering being ebbing in the imposing blackness. She cried out, yanking at the stone with all her might, and then … her light was snuffed out as if it was dry hay set ablaze by the sun. You stood in the pitch-black, your vision limited to the scant inches your own translucent skin could brighten. Thankfully, the faintly blue glow of her spirit came back.

Unnerved, you scraped at the granite with your chicken claw. “Brat? You holding up alright?”

Goldie’s hands were no longer latched onto the cube, and the cube’s ominous field continued to gnaw and tug at her ethereal soul.

Following the silence, Goldie let out a sound you’d never heard from her before: a sob. She swallowed, and then, chokingly managed, “I’m trying. I’ve tried. It hurts,” she said. “It fucking hurts.”

> It’ll only worsen the situation if you step inside. Urge her to give it another go. If she don’t, tell her, it’ll keep hurting. She needs to grapple with it like one would with a festering tooth.
> Go lend Goldie a hand. Your blackened bones got a firm grip on your soul and prolonged how much harm it could endure. Would it be enough, you ain’t sure.
> Tell Goldie to stretch out as much as she be able to. Step inside, snatch her hand, and then give it your all to yank her away from the solid’s drawing force.
> [Write In]