"Huff... Huff..."
I didn’t need anyone to tell .
For the Dark Souls Tree to exert its influence from such imnse distance... it had to be a God. Or, at the very least, a... demi-god.
Not that the distinction mattered anyway.
One way or another, the outco was still going to be the sa-
I-It was still going to be... utterly terrifying.
And-
"Hu... Hu..."
I could feel it now.
Despair.
Clench.
It was slowly crawling its way towards .
Clench!
It was slowly swelling within , twisting, gnawing and devouring from the inside out.
I bit my lower lips, trying to suppress the imnse pressure weighing down on my chest.
I-It was now on the verge of consuming .
Clench!
I bit even harder.
I bit until I could feel the tallic tang of blood flooding my mouth. Yet, it did nothing to suppress the fear and dread swiftly rising within .
Instead, their grip intensified.
They slowly pooled and coiled around my chest like an iron vice, and the imnse pressure made it harder to breathe.
I-It made it harder to think.
I knew there was no way to avoid this unavoidable fate.
Yet, I didn’t want it.
I didn’t...
Yet, the cruel truth about my current situation was sothing I couldn’t digest.
It was sothing I couldn’t bear to take in.
Because no matter what I did, all I could foresee was...
Tears welled in my eyes.
...My inevitable demise.
And this only served to increase the rate at which my deafening heartbeat echoed through the stifling silence.
It only served to intensify the despair slowly tightening its grip around my chest.
’How could I hope to defeat a God?’
I was now on the verge of breaking down.
Just... how...?
Tears pooled in my eyes, and my knees showed signs of buckling, the weight of the current situation pressing down on .
And just then-
Ba- dump! Ba- dump!
My eyes widened in fear.
I felt it.
A strong force pulled onto the walls of my mind, dragging ferociously as though trying to pull into an endless abyss.
And then-
Whoosh-!
Darkness swallowed whole.
When I opened my eyes again...
The sight before only served to deepen the terror within .
***
I found myself swallowed by an abyss of endless darkness. Yet, despite the void, I could see them all- familiar and unfamiliar faces alike- all subrged in a sea of bright, red liquid.
And what made it worse?
I was sinking too. Slowly, inevitably, the dark-red tide crept up my body, consuming inch by inch. It crept up my body like a living substance, its grasp tightening with every passing second.
And-
"Hu... Hu..."
Even as despair crept towards . Even as it sought to drag into an endless abyss, a single question echoed in my mind.
It was sothing I found strange, baffling, almost ridiculing.
Why?
Why go through all this trouble? Why not erase us with a re snap of its fingers?
Shadowy dark tendrils crept upward, slowly wrapping themselves around my legs. As though they had a mind of theirs, they only moved on after paralyzing a certain part of my body.
Arms, legs... it was becoming endless.
And before I knew it, the very act of breathing soon started to elude my grasp. I watched, helpless, as the dark shadowy tendrils inched towards my chest.
They emitted a weird glow that seed to remove all thoughts of resistance. Not that resisting would change anything, anyway.
And this knowledge only further served to intensify the dread, and the despair swelling within .
The dread. The despair.
T-They were hell-bent on dragging to hell.
But amidst the pain clouding my mind to the intense, suffocating pressure weighing down on my chest and my lungs.
Realization dawned on . Hitting harder and faster than a moving truck.
Knowledge and mories that were being suppressed by the Dark Souls Tree- surfaced in an instant.
As a young master of the Winchester family, I had access to vast amounts of knowledge. And I had always felt that sothing was wrong.
Because...
"Haa..."
Tears welled in my eyes, spilling over.
I knew this place. The ti, the year, the epoch.
I knew it all too well.
Darkenstein Tree.
They had called it a Darkenstein Tree. And now-
"Haa..."
It all now made sense.
To ascend as a god, It had to embody the basic primal emotions. No- more than that. It had to evoke them.
As the realization set in, my breath slowly left .
"Hu... Hu..."
The shadowy tendrils were now tightening around my neck, and I was now, just barely holding on.
Barely fighting...
Drip-! Drip-!
Tears stread down the corner of my eyes.
The realization. The harrowing pictures that ca together broke , even more.
They broke in ways I couldn’t have imagined possible.
...And to be able to evoke emotions.
What better test subjects than we humans?
"Hahaha."
A hollow laugh escaped my lips, the sound raw and hoarse in the stifling silence.
It was a laugh ant to mask the slipping away of my sanity... yet it did nothing of sort.
Despair. It still weighed down on in all its endless glory.
The shadowy tendrils had now coiled around my chest and my neck, and I was only breathing due to so divine miracle.
Then-
It ca.
A terrifying pain pierced through my chest.
mories. A flood of them ca together.
And before I knew it, a quiet sob broke out of my chest.
I couldn’t hold it in any longer.
I just couldn’t...
"I’m sorry, Xavier... I’m sorry..."
Tears dripped onto the abyss yawning below, the sound echoing in the endless darkness.
The shadowy roots had now enclosed , subrging fully in the crimson liquid.
And then-
Silence.
It lingered.
Until
".....!"
A lightless world surrounded . Here, there was no sound, no warmth. Only the rhythmic pounding of my heart.
An endless darkness seeped into my mind, slowly crawling its way into the walls of my mind and before long-
Thump... Thump...
My breath slowed, almost coming to a halt.
And before I knew it, I began to lose sothing- sothing vital.
My sanity.
I-It was getting harder to hold on to it.
’So... this is it... the end of my pathetic life...’
A final, excruciating pain tore through my chest and-
Drip-! Drip-!
The tears just wouldn’t stop, and before I knew it-
I gave in to the endless darkness.
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