Chapter 101: The Fall of a Frozen World(36)
The sun watched over the whole Ring; it saw everything. That was why it had turned out to be impossible to escape. He ran through the streets, pushing people aside, but with every turn, she was also there.
The Queen.
He had not expected her to come and kill him when he was in the First Ring, but that was exactly what she had done. Wearing flawless steel light armor that covered her arms, legs, waist, and rested quietly on her chest.
His blade had done no damage to the armor, considering how fast she was moving in it. It was a game of cat and mouse. Just that this time, he was at her mercy.
As he was running, he passed by some humans, but as he was about to get past them, they clawed him hard with great force, stopping him. But when he turned to them, they were dead, lifeless...
Souless.
Their eyes bled the Abyss, as their smiles were eternal on their faces; it looked like they were smiling on the outside but grieving on the inside.
They weren’t zombies or undead. But puppets for her to use.
Inside their chest, a giant hole, just enough to capture his whole sword inside. So without wasting a second, he summoned his blade from his mark and drove it straight into the emptiness that filled the place their soul was supposed to be.
The next second, the body completely melted into a black liquid that clenched at his feet, trying to stop him from moving. It stuck to him like glue, as much as he tried to escape it wouldn’t let go.
It felt as if it was crying for mercy, for salvation. Which made him wonder, was the human that had once inhabited the body still alive, was he still conscious when everything happened?
After all, he had learned from The Nine’s memory that the Knight, and this probably went for anyone corrupted by the Abyss, witnessed everything, but couldn’t do anything to stop it. Only those whose souls can go against the Abyss can resist her control, just like The Jack and King had done.
He felt his feet burn from his agonizing repetition of trying to escape, like a rat trapped in a trap. He was going to rip his whole leg off if he had to escape. He just... didn’t have enough time.
The sorrowful sound of The Queen’s heels breaking the ground beneath her feet made his whole stomach rearrange itself. With his gnawing at his heart, he pushed through the pain, screaming in pain, as the remains of the human slowly ripped his skin and even muscles off.
His leg was a complete mess, but he knew that Praise was going to take care of that. He just needed to survive.
"You keep running endlessly, but do you even have a destination to your wanderings?"
"What the heck is that even supposed to mean?"
He cursed, jumping on a pipe of the many pipe systems inside the Ring, climbing on top. But it wasn’t painless, the pipes had been made so that no one could climb them, and such, and spikes sticking out of them, just enough so you couldn’t find any cracks to put your fingers between.
He shrieked in pain, as his blood slowly painted the walls of the pipe with its crimson color, it was like a rose full of thorns, with no venom, but deadly either way.
Fighting the pain, he climbed up, jumping on the rails of the catwalks that traveled through the whole of the Second Ring.
He stopped for a second to catch his breath, looking at his bloodied hands and leg, which looked to have gone through a meat grinder. It made him turn pale, nausea coming over him. But the next second, he felt the firm yet soft hand of someone wrapping around his arm, rubbing their thumb over his marks.
"Why did you choose Praise that day? Did you not know that Gods can lie? Warm words are false, reality itself is harsh, that’s how words should also be, their the most trustworthy."
The Queen buried her nails into his marks, yet he didn’t feel anything, as if there wasn’t anything underneath them... which made sense, didn’t it? If there was, how would his blade fit in? It was still weird to think, but it wasn’t like it was time for it.
He gritted his teeth as he thrusted. He turned and pushed The Queen away with his feet, running through the many complicated roads that oversaw the Ring.
As he got further away, he felt the sun get covered by the horizon, but its influence could still be felt, even more from up there, as the roads kept shaking uncontrollably under his feet. He tried to keep his balance.
But as he was trying to put his hand on a rail to help with his balance, the catwalk shook under him, making him miss the bar, lose his balance, and fall over the rail.
He felt the wind ring in his ears as he fell. He stared at the sky, at the many stars that watched over him, not realizing what was happening. Only when he saw The Queen look over the rail did he realize.
When he did, he panicked, waving his arms around aimlessly, as he was desperately trying to catch something to hold on to. But to no avail. He took a deep breath, calming himself, and twisting his body so he faced the ground, he tried not to panic, seeing how he was on the ground.
’Damn it, think fast!’
His eyes wandered around at a fast pace, looking at everything around him for something to save him. But the only thing was another pipe. Looking at it and the ground, he considered which was a better ending.
"Screw it."
He leaned towards the pipe, and grasping his arm around it, but due to his fast pace, his hand kept slipping through. The spikes are ripping his palm even more.
"Damn it, damn it!"
He held his breath as he slammed his hand right into the spikes; that way, they would cut through completely and stop him. But instead of only stopping him, they only slowed him down, as they cut through the cracks of his fingers, but that speed was enough to make it so that he survived. Just that, it hadn’t been painless.
It wouldn’t kill him, but it was extremely painful.
He gnawed in pain as his nails scratched the concrete, making an ear-bleeding sound.
But that wasn’t the end, when he looked down at his waist, he saw that his lanters had completely broken, leaving him in the darkness. And while normally he can resist it... His body was badly damaged, meaning his soul was also weak.
He saw the shadows gather around him to mock and laugh. They knelt down at him, whispering in his ears, well, not really, since they talked with their souls, but the gesture mattered; they were mocking him, showing him hope that the voices could stop if he covered his ears.
Just to laugh more when he realized they were still as clear as before.
But all of a sudden, they stopped completely, making room for her majesty to walk. The Queen raised her arm, making all the shadows kneel as her feet, and those who resisted, vanish completely, to be forgotten yet again.
On the other hand, she held a lantern as if she had known about his marks. And of course she did, after all, they usually belonged to the Vessels of the Abyss. And it wasn’t like she couldn’t see his shadow about them.
She walked over to him, grabbed him by his shirt, and lifted him up in the air, so that he couldn’t look away. She stared right into his damaged soul, like a beast looking at its prey with hunger as if she wanted to devour him.
"You have crossed the line, but since I’m so nice, I’ll give you one last place. Leave the Ring, or else, I’m going to come for you again. If you don’t want to come to me first. It doesn’t change anything either way."
Her grip tightened one last time before throwing him away, like a worthless toy that she didn’t consider fun to play with anymore. He watched as she left, the shadows following behind her, as if they were trained soldiers to never, and never walk in front of her, or by her side. It would be utterly disrespectful.
Coughing from the dust that filled the air around him like a dense layer of fog, he looked in surprise as The Queen’s shadows turned to him with sorry eyes, as she was sorry for him, for what her master had become.
She was almost reluctant to follow, like she hated walking with her.
It made him wonder if his shadows did the same.
But also how loyal she was to The Queen. After all, even an ability as weak as his could work on a Breakers shadow if the shadows so wished to tell the truth.