Caleb stared at the gray light hovering so small distance from his wretched face.
He was bewitched, none the wiser on the gray smoke being banished out of his body, swirling for a few monts behind him, as though winter frost refusing the first sunlight of spring, before fading to the four winds.
Before Caleb knew it, he felt significantly lighter, as if he didn’t know he had been carrying an intangible burden all along.
The weight of Damnation...
Was that it?
The mont the once-damned leader ca to, he noticed that everyone was looking at him with expectant gazes. They were waiting for him to confirm it.
But how could he prove it?
Caleb looked beyond the statue. There, the southern border of the Hidden Reprieve beckoned, and he allowed himself to be drawn to its mystical allure.
Everything still felt surreal for him.
Long had he waited, hundreds of small victories that inched him and his wretches closer to salvation, but accompanying them were hundreds of heartbreaks, as well.
They’d hoped ti and again, only for those hopes to be crushed, renewed a few days later, then ruthlessly destroyed, as though the gray heavens were mocking them.
At last...at last here he was, walking with empty thoughts to confirm whether he could return ho, his way back in the hands of his trusted comrade.
Caleb reached the borders. It didn’t ripple this ti.
Why would it, when there was no change to be had — no body to be transford into a Damned shell?
Just from that, he already knew the answer, yet he couldn’t help but look down. His arms...they were those of a human, glowing in color as though a glimr of hope in an expanse of gray despair.
A teardrop stread down from the corners of his eyes, but he was smiling widely, even a bit mad.
"Hahaha!" Caleb laughed. "Yes! Yes, finally! I’m free! I’m free, sis!!"
The saved young man dropped to his knees, grasping at the powdery ash layer. Then, the mont he recalled that his comrades were waiting, he stood up and energetically threw the fistful of ash in his hands, clearly overco by glee.
But there was no need for more words.
After all, his celebratory roar could echo all the way to the ancient settlent on the other side of Egress, amplified by the realm’s strange laws regarding sound.
They heard him just fine.
The mont he returned, laughing with tears still streaming down, he was t by his comrades, drowned in brotherly hugs.
They did it...they really did it.
Daru watched them with a faint smile for two monts before shifting his attention to Lesha.
She was next, acting younger than her years in excitent. She couldn’t wait.
He aid the gray light on her. Then, monts later, she dashed out of the reprieve under a few excited gazes.
She returned a little later, but no one was able to pay attention.
Everyone was already crowding Daru, after all, hoping to be the next to be chosen by the gray light of divine pardon.
Daru wasn’t annoyed this ti, despite the chaos.
He could understand them.
Their salvation wasn’t as dramatic as the first two, since Daru randomly chose wretches in random order, aid the divine relic at them, and then chose another.
Two pairs of eyes watched from a distance.
"You’re not gonna queue up, elder?" Sigrun asked, glancing at the old man beside her.
"Hmph, why would I waste energy crowing like a rooster for attention? I’ll just wait for my turn here."
"Smart."
The disorderly circle persisted for a while, but eventually, it shrank. The wretches would sprint out of the Reprieve’s borders after being pardoned of Damnation, after all.
There were an unfortunate few who had to suffer tiny heart attacks due to their hastiness, believing it was they who had been graced by the divine gray light, even though the wretch behind them was the one rid of afflictions.
They returned in utter desperation after staring at their bony arms, horrified.
Daru was always confused by those reactions. So, whenever he would notice one, he would repeatedly hit the flat part of the leaf-wrapped blade of the key with his palms, as if fixing a faulty tool, before aiming it again at the anxious wretch.
It always seed to fix the problem, so Daru fancied himself savvy, pleased every ti he watched such a scene unfold.
As the last Damned wretch left in anticipatory celebration, Daru watched for a few monts, then turned to the true final one so distance away.
The snarky old man.
He walked closer. At the sa ti he arrived, Caleb and Lesha did, too.
The four of them circled Nando, who seed to be uncertain, slightly evasive of their gazes.
"Old man..." Caleb began.
Nando sighed and shook his head, fully knowing that the annoying brat would ask for explanations again, and this ti, it was highly likely that he would be far more persistent.
Farewells were coming, after all.
"Go and send the others off first, then we’ll talk."
Daru casually pointed the gray light at the old man, ridding him of Damnation before turning and walking so short distance away, stabbing the key’s tip to the ground and summoning the stone stairs.
The wretches...Visitors have seen it earlier, but this ti was different.
This ti, they could actually leave. There, at the end of the stone stairs, was their way back ho.
Daru was more experienced this ti.
He stood in front of the stairs first, preventing anyone from leaving hastily.
While it was highly likely that they would be sent back to the realms of their Sword Trials, accidents could still happen if the portal wasn’t explained properly.
"Wait here, old man. Lesha, keep watch." Caleb said before jogging off to help Daru manage the overly enthusiastic crowd.
Lesha nodded, crossing her arms beside Nando.
Knowing the eccentric elder, there was indeed a chance he would opt for a slippery escape.
Nando chuckled and shook his head. The brats had learned to be so thorough.
So distance away, Daru had just finished explaining that, to be safe, it was advisable to imagine a location in the realm of their Sword Trials, then return to their worlds from there.
Caleb then added that it would be wiser to erge so distance away from cities.
In not even two minutes, the short orientation was done, and the first wretch — Visitor, now, was granted entry, or exit, rather.
Those stone stairs...Emily had almost forgotten what they looked like.
She walked closer, and closer, and closer still until her feet touched the first of the steps. The young female Windar burst into tears.
She was finally going ho!
Still, dying to go as she was, Emily looked back.
"Everyone...Everyone, thank you! Thank you! I would never have survived without you all!" she said as her emotions erupted out of her chest.
She then turned to a specific person — a female human — standing close to the forefront of the disorderly queue.
"Lydia! Big sister...this is probably a permanent farewell, so I just want to let you know that I’ll never forget you. If...if there’s a chance, however small it may be, and no matter how long it would take, as long as I still draw breath, I’ll grab that chance and et you again. Goodbye...goodbye, sister!"
"Hahaha! You’re making tear up, darned bird. Stop spouting nonsense and just go. I’ll never forget you, too. Take care always..."
With a nod, Emily turned, running to the heavens and disappearing into the clouds.
It was a legend instilled in the instincts of every wretch in the gray, god-forsaken realm — even the Lost — that one could toil for freedom, and as it turned out, the legends were true.
A wretch had just been freed of punishnt.
And soon, many more would be.
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