Adventure Log 7-

It’s so far beyond anything I expected. The outside, the world beyond the wall… It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed. Towering mountains, mysterious and mystical forests, strange and inconceivable creatures! All of it, I’ve only dared imagine… Not to mention the random bits of floating land! It’s all so insane, none of it makes sense, and I love it.

Just now, there was this massive butterfly that flew overhead! You couldn’t see that in Humania! And I just left this weird forest, its trees were all blue, and their leaves formed these big globes, pretty sure some of their leaves are still stuck on me somewhere… Nvm.

The only real problem so far is that I’ve had to start hunting. It’s nothing I haven’t done before of course, but I still feel bad, plus it gets blood everywhere. I have to take off Dad’s cloak every time. It also doesn’t help that all of the animals out here are so dadgum cute. Like, there’s these little bunnies with all kinds of different fur colors, and they’re really nice too. I've even started calling them "colorbuns." Shame they also taste pretty good. Just playing the game of survival, they’d understand if their brains weren’t the size of my thumb. Believe me, I’ve seen em.

---

After the brief excitement of last week, he’s back to walking. Lots of it. He hasn’t left the Guardian Wall much, both because he only plans on reaching the Eastern kingdom of Fawna and because he’s a bit too scared to venture too far out into the world beyond. As enthusiastic he is, he’s currently in the beginning stages of a little kid in a pool learning to swim and refusing to leave the edge. Baby steps. And lots of them, considering it’s been at least a full week out here. He and Elizabeth hardly talk, considering there’s not much to talk about other than his latest kill. Nothing happens, nothing changes. Adventure is boring.

Right up until he encounters a gaping pit reaching deeper into the earth than he thought possible.

The two of them peer over its edge, Will on his hands and knees. Just looking over the side, he feels as if the entire world could fall from beneath him at any moment. As for the pit itself, well, there’s no telling how deep it could go. Elizabeth brushes her hand warningly over his back. “Maybe we shouldn’t get too close…” she worries. Will slowly clambers back to his feet, careful to stay as far from the brink as possible. Elizabeth continues to look into the void, unconcerned for her own safety seeing as how she has no body to break. “Hey, Will,” she calls back. “Didn’t Ratra say something about pits-” She’s quickly interrupted by a rock soaring directly through her chest. She twists around to see Will still in his throwing pose, as the stone knocks into the adjacent wall. He smirks awkwardly at his sister. “Jus’ checkin’ how deep it goes.”

The sounds of the rock bouncing from one side to another slowly drift more and more apart, becoming more and more quiet, but the sound never quite stops. It just slowly quiets until there just isn’t a sound anymore. They never hear it hit the bottom. Will peers inside, eyebrow raised. “Deep,” states Champion Obvious. Finally, they hear a sound; but not of the stone. No, it comes from deep inside, a chittering, a clacking, a hissing. The siblings glance at each other, before looking back in with wide eyes.

Pits.

The Sins came from pits.

Will stumbles back, the image of thousands of horrifying, disfigured creatures erupting from the earth all at once flashing in his mind. That fear that he’d almost come to forget returns in full force, setting his heart pumping and his legs moving. He tilts to his left, wind picking up around him, and blasts off, circling the rim of the pit and picking up speed. But he isn’t able to get far.

A long, black tendril slither from within the pit and, lightning quick, it lashes out, wrapping around his ankle and yanking. Will feels his foot fly from beneath him and, before he knows it, the ground is suddenly being very welcome to his face. He turns his head just before his nose can make contact, resulting in just an agonizing headache. “Will!” Elizabeth calls out, watching helplessly at the scene before her. The tentacle tugs at his ankle, dragging him closer to the pit. She desperately swipes at the slimy appendage, but her hands make no contact.

Will’s on his own. Flipping over onto his back, he kicks and stomps at the tentacle, feeling it squish and squirm beneath his boot, before he finally gets it to loosen up enough to slip from its grasp. Scrambling back and stumbling to his feet, he unsheathes his blade, it appearing in a burst of blue dust in his hand. He watches the pit warily as the tentacle slips inside, waiting for any new developments. The chittering sounds increase in volume and magnitude. He can’t run now, best he can do now is stand and fight.

At last, the creature that attempted to claim him earlier reveals itself. It has no body, no face and no eyes. Instead it’s just a wild, whirling mass of black, fleshy tentacles. Several of its hideous appendages latch onto the ground, acting as legs, and it cautiously approaches the boy. One limb limps broken to its side, not joining in the chaotic action within the rest of the beast.

To its left, another creature ascends from within, its body being just a head with two burly arms attached to its sides, lacking all facial features except for a gaping maw taking up its entire frontward appearance, rows of serrated teeth filling its mouth. To the left, a small creature with no discernible features besides the whirling blades on top hovers. All of them are made of that same, disgusting black flesh, on top of that rancid stink he's come to know well. More come from inside the pit, some similar, some so completely disfigured and unintelligible that they defy description. Some creatures are constantly moving, flesh within flesh, rotating into themselves, others stay completely and eerily still. And they all surround this one kid.

He’s not exactly looking forward to the proceeding event.

There’s a moment in which they just stand staring at each other, man and beast, as if they’re taunting him. Then, all at once, all hell breaks loose.

It starts when the drone suddenly zooms directly at his face, nearly giving the poor guy a surprise nose job and a buzzcut before he ducks, just in time. This is what sets the rest of them off. The tentacle creature charges next, six arms lashing out at the speed of light at Will, who’s currently still in the process of reacting to the drone’s attack. But, as if of its own volition, his sword swings upwards with sudden determination, cleaving straight through all of the tentacles, as if they were made of nothing at all. Carrying the momentum of the first strike, his other hand reaches up to grip the hilt, twisting it around and swinging his blade horizontally, effectively putting an end to the things time on Oracle. Black goo splatters everywhere, and Will feels a brief moment of euphoria as he realizes he can actually fight. This is quickly ended once he sees the pack descending on him all at once. His legs and arms tense, the veins in his hands bulge, and he charges, unleashing a guttural battlecry and swinging with purely violent intent.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth watches from the sidelines as her brother throws himself full-tilt into complete pandemonium. Her eyes gape wide in awe as she sees a totally new side to him, wild and mad, ready to do absolutely anything to survive. Or maybe it's something deeper; perhaps it’s a deep-seated hatred for these creatures, the very embodiments of every cause of suffering in this world. She doesn’t know, and, truthfully, neither does he. All he is is sheer determination.

Sin after Sin falls by his righteous blade, their flesh and blood caking his clothes and skin. He’s let his entire being go to the feeling of combat. A constant whirlwind surrounds him, acting as the one shield between him and his foes. He becomes acutely aware of every flexing muscle, every pumping vein, every beat of his heart and throb of his brain. His body, completely unused to this level of strain, is doing everything it can to hold up under the intense strain. Adrenaline is the only keeping his arms from crumbling into sawdust. He tries to suppress the distracting thoughts of, How in the ever-loving-God am I still alive right now?!

God-given instinct can only go so far, unfortunately, and a new feeling has begun slowly overtaking the rush. He’s dimly aware of a heavy feeling in his lungs, as if a rock had lodged itself within, and his breath has become much shorter. His throat tightens, and he stumbles to his knees, coughing and hacking, but nothing coming out. Just breathing is more of a chore than it’s ever been.

He grips his sword, tabbing it into the ground pulling himself up. He can’t quit fighting now. Elizabeth watches in terror as her brother struggles to do so much as breathe in the midst of a battlefield.

The Head erupts from the crowd, opening its mouth wide, teeth gleaming in the sun, and launches itself at Will’s exposed right arm. It sinks its teeth into his flesh, and he screams.

He falls.

It burns.

God, it burns, God, please…

Please…

A new power erupts in him. His eyes turn into blind fury, as he balls his fist and punches the thing, over and over, before grabbing its sticky flesh and twisting and pulling, rage pain and fear all swirling into one horrible power. The whirlwind, having died down before, becomes an all-out storm. He rips and tears into the Head, screaming, crying, fighting till the end.

He wakes up.

His body is numb. He feels empty. He looks down. Oh crap. He scrambles to his bag, his arm limply dragging in the dirt. He fumbles with the clasp, desperately flipping it open, before yanking out the bandages. He sets to work bandaging his arm, the numbness quickly giving way to searing hot pain. Pain he’d never felt before.

“Will?” He startles, forgetting his sister was even there. He looks up at her, realizing she’d been crying again. Her bloodshot eyes look down at him, fear and worry and joy and sadness and anger and every other feeling clear is those red, teary eyes. He looks back down to his work, setting to bandaging himself up, smiling and reassuring, “I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”

His arm now tightly bandaged, hopefully not irreparably damaged, he struggles to his feet, looking at the scene around him, and at himself. The surrounding battleground is a mix of red, black, and green, the earth stained by the products of intense combat. But the black isn’t entirely still.

A specific lump of Sin flesh trembles, before rising. Will unsheathes his blade once more, before dropping it, gripping his arm and grinding his teeth. The creature stands on four paws, padding to the center of the carnage, before sitting on its haunches and looking up at him.

The beast resembles a wolf, but in place of fur is just more black flesh molded to resemble it. Its eyes are glittering red, not unlike the Demon he met before, but instead these resemble some kind of crystal, like rubies. It yawns, flashing its wide maw and pearly whites, and cocks its head. Will just stares, completely baffled at this thing’s actions. He expected to have his throat torn out by now.

It turns its head around, absorbing the sights around it, before its eyes catch on something. After a moment of staring, it abruptly gets to its feet and walks off, not looking back, not attacking, nothing. It just leaves.

Will and Elizabeth stand dumbfounded at what just happened, before Will decides it’s not worth thinking about. He returns to his bag, pulls out his sleeping bag, and sets off to find a less smelly place to sleep. But Elizabeth hangs back. She’s still watching where the wolf left into the distance. Because she noticed something Will didn’t. When the wolf wasn’t looking at Will, it was looking at her.

---

“Oof, guess ah still got a lot ta learn about all this “magic” stuff,” Will chuckles, lying on his back and watching moons pass over the night sky. Elizabeth scoffs, looking down at him incredulously. “You almost died. That thing could have ripped your arm off, not to mention the whole pack watching it go down! If you hadn’t found that last bit of strength for that “Tornado Slash” as you insist on calling it, even killing that other thing you’d be long dead!”

According to Elizabeth’s account, just before Will blacked out, a final whirlwind burst from him, picking up his sword and cutting up everything around him. He was then unconscious for six hours, while Elizabeth constantly teetered on the edge of a breakdown because she couldn’t tell if he had a pulse or not. Of course, she didn’t tell him that part, but he guessed as much anyways. Elizabeth gets down to her knees just by her brother’s head, the two staring off into the sky, letting thoughts overtake them.

He doesn’t want to admit it, but he’s scared out of his mind. Despite all of his blessings, his mangled arm still hurt like hell. He’s unsure just how much he’ll be able to use it in the coming days. This is on top of just yet another near death experience, proving just how pathetic he really is, with a concerning omen in the form of a wolf as the final layer of icing on the cake. This was the kind of thing he’d much prefer to keep to books, the blood, the fear, the pain. It never happens to real people, just people in books.

“‘Lizbith…” he mumbles, his tear-stung eyes drifting closed. She lets her legs out from under her, lying back in the same position as him. “Yeah?

“Can you sing that song fer me again…?”

She thinks for a moment, trying to figure out just what song he meant, until she remembers. She smiles, unseen in the dark of the night, before she begins.

You, you gonna break my heart…

You gonna tear it apart…

No matter what you do…

I’ll still be there for you.

His eyes drift further closed, the thoughts of nightmarish monsters and certain slowly seeping into the earth as he feels the world below fall up into him.

And when you call my name…

I won’t be far away.

No matter where you go…

You’ll never be alone.

He falls into the void, leaving his worries behind for rest. Hope comes in the morning.

As for Elizabeth, she just keeps smiling, watching the rise and fall of her brother’s chest, before returning to the universe above. She doesn’t sleep, but she could certainly use a rest herself.

---

Adventure Log 10:

It’s been a long couple of days. At the very least, I’m pretty sure we’re getting close. The smell of the air has changed, though I couldn’t quite describe it. It feels fresh, like new laundry, but for the air. My arm’s been basically unusable this entire time, but I’ve been getting by with what I’m left with, though I fear my metabolism will soon catch up with me. I didn’t get this skinny just from undereating, after all. My arm, my head, my stomach, my legs… they all hurt. How much longer this will take, I don’t know.

I’ll have to get back to you on that, something new is here. Of course.

Looking from behind his screen, Will catches sight of something ahead of him, a light shining at the top of a hill. “Will, you seeing that?” Elizabeth says, coming up behind him. He squints, hardly able to make it out, but he can at least tell it’s… green? Blue? The sun makes it hard to tell. He stands, switching the device off. “Hey, maybe you shouldn’t just run off in the direction of random objects-” He’s already moving. “Never mind then,” she gives up, following begrudgingly, absentmindedly fiddling with the invisible link connecting them.

As he approaches, he slowly recognizes the form of a little round ball just slightly hovering from the ground. His face breaks into a grin as he jogs his way up the hill, suddenly crying, “Callum!”

His excitement quickly falters once he realizes the spirit before him is not blue, and is in fact green. He purses his lips, looking down in mild disappointment, before shaking it off and dropping to one knee. “Well, what’re you doin’ out here little dude?” The ball suddenly leaps up, curling around Will before hopping in front of Elizabeth, who stumbles back in slight shock at its sudden appearance. Despite its lack of face, she gets an image of it looking up at her with doey eyes, like a cat’s silent plea to be fed for the fifth time that day. “I dunno how,” she says, kneeling in front of it. “But these things are kinda cute.” She pokes the top of its head with her finger, golden light rippling across it as it shudders, building up energy before it blasts off straight though Will. He stumbles, laughing as he watches it blast off. “Hoo, thing’s got energy!” The two of them chuckle as they jog off behind the spirit.

After days of empty melancholy, not thinking, not feeling, only walking, this is a nice change of pace. It also means they’re close. Fawna must be just around the corner! So off they run, Elizabeth actually managing to keep good pace with her brother, as they go up and over hill after hill. Freedom. Something they’d never had before, living day by day in a village off the map, they finally feel free. They glance at each other, both grinning wildly, both understanding the same feeling.

No matter how terrifying, dangerous or deadly the adventure gets, so long as they both make it out just fine, it will all be worth it for these moments. Will hoots and hollers, listening as they ricochet off of the hills and trees, soaring into Oracle at large. They jump and run and fly as they follow the little green spirit, letting go of fear and pain to just live in the moment.

Eventually, the spirit comes to a halt, Will almost tripping over himself as he screeches to a stop. The spirit rests at the precipice of another hill, before suddenly dropping to the ground with a soft plonk.

A dark feeling comes over Will, all of his previous, unbridled joy leaving at once. He remembers the last time a spirit behaved like this. He climbs to the top, running his hand over its now smooth, glassy surface, before looking over the valley below.

Two figures, one standing out against the green field in their heavy black armor, and another, clearly kneeling in defeat. He unsheathes his sword.