Chapter 138: First of Nine
A deep, cocophonous roar of water thundered downwards right behind me; the black liquid of the Sunless Skies reverberated damningly into my ears, echoing almost endlessly throughout both my eardrums and my body.
A mixture of both a physical reaction and sound.
Occasionally, splatters of the liquid sputtered onto my body, sending crackling shivers down my spine.
Was it a fear?
Or because it was a reminder?
Perhaps, it is both.
The further I descended towards the citadel, almost a kilometre below me at this point, the more I had to remind myself, to affirm to myself, as to what my goal was.
Because it's dangerous.
Because-
I bit my lips.
I tightened my hold on the rope.
There is no escaping.
On their own, it is impossible.
I must do it, I, and only I, can lead us out of here, out of this hellhole we'd landed ourselves in; out of this heartbreakingly cruel trap.
I am scared.
The deeper I descend into this basin, the deeper this fear anchors itself in my chest.
How did we get ourselves into this mess?
Why'd we believe, for even a moment, that we had some semblance of control?
That we could reach the Uclidian Mountain Range?
How naive, how pathetic of us.
Hope is important, belief is important, and confidence is important.
But this...
This was never about hope, this was never about belief, nor was it about confidence.
It was only ever luck.
Nothing but luck.
Control?
If we had control, if we-!
"..."
...Why think about the 'if'?
...Why ponder over the 'why'?
...I must bring them out.
I must.
I slipped further into the basin, moving closer to the eerily calm pool of black liquid where the thundering waterfalls of black liquid disappeared into the moat surrounding the citadel like mute mimes.
-----
A soothing peace swept through an empty alleyway, only being disturbed occasionally by the rising and falling chest of a solitary persona.
They rested on the brick-paved pathway with a yawn playing on the corner of their lips, and, occasionally-
No.
Not even occasionally.
Perhaps once a day, this person would raise their arm, sweep their cascading waves of brown hair over and away from their drooping green eyes, only to shut those hair-free eyes again moments later.
Lingering there beneath the blazing heat of the fragment, yet simultaneously not burning, the lady who soaked beneath the light murmured under her breath and grumbled as she relaxed even more into the ground.
Clack.
An echo of a step came from afar.
Clack.
An echo of steps that had repeated many times over the past while.
Clack.
But, as always...
Clack.
...they faded into the distance, their destination being elsewhere.
Or, even, nowhere.
---
My network of ropes hovered over rooftops, interconnecting in locations where the cohort could never possibly put their hands on them.
And, as always, I stood above her.
I stared down at her, then, for a brief moment, I split my attention to a more distant location, towards the source of the receding footsteps.
But, for now...
Nemora.
...I locked myself onto the easiest to handle.
You'll come later.
The least tedious one of them all, not Nemora, but Hildekar.
The fragment of utmost heat was close by; there, I could find him. In the same place he's been lingering at for a while now.
Lingering, studying, observing... I'm not sure what it is exactly that he is doing; his afflictions elude me, but it does make it easier to find him, just as it is easy to find Nemora and Hilda. There is one thing I'm sure of, though.
It's not tedious to bring him along, to string him to me as I pick up the others one by one.
The order in which I pick them up, however, does matter.
It is crucial.
If I mess up...
I won't be able to pick them up within the three-day timeframe.
And that would complicate things.
Stepping over a broken stele that had been tossed onto the rooftop I was standing on, the roof of a small church hidden between a residential area. My boots brushed over the tiny inscriptions scribbled across it like mini snakes; words incomprehensible to me from an unknown language.
The blisteringly bright fragment of light was hazardously tossed in some corner of the citadel. Close enough to Nemora's resting location to be spotted by the naked eye, but far enough away to require a miniature trek.
So, after chasing my ropes across a few more dilapidated rooftops, I arrived beside the damningly bright fragment of light.
The heat wafting off of it bore uncomfortably in my skin, tightening the wrap of flesh as it seemed to shrivel me up.
Yet, even with that immense heat, heat smouldering enough to melt literally anything I could imagine, it didn't burn.
It didn't melt.
It didn't boil.
It merely brushed across my skin, across the visage of the citadel; it left the world around it untouched, almost as though...
As though it did not belong to this world.
To this realm.
This fragment was large, approximately the size of an arena designed to accommodate over a thousand people; its corners were jagged and unevenly cut, as though it had been shattered from its original form.
And, below this fragment, standing almost less than a metre away in awe, with his lush, silver hair bouncing in the wind as it flowed down his back, and his stature firm and large enough to present his muscles with dignity-
"Hildekar."
-it was the man I was searching for, the first of the nine.
His eyes practically bore a hole into the fragment, staring dazedly in an almost enraptured state. As though the source of absolute heat were a miracle of the Empyreans themselves, as though it were a holy grail containing the source of all life.
But that wasn't the case; he was simply staring at the light like a madman.
An obsessed madman.
It couldn't burn him, nor could it ruin his eyesight. But it also couldn't feed him, it couldn't provide him with water, it couldn't, and wouldn't, keep him alive.
That job was mine, and mine alone.
Now...
I hopped over the rooftop, and I let go of the ropes.
I released myself.
Sliding down the broken rubble of the building I had been standing on, I rubbed my clothing along the sharp rocks with a grating sound. Seconds later, I was at the bottom. I was in the clearing that surrounded the fragment, the same clearing Hildekar had been occupying since the day we arrived at this checkpoint.
I don't have long.
Keeping myself light on my feet, I swiftly manoeuvred myself to Hildekar's side, to the point where the fragment towered over me like a behemoth. It bathed us both in its almost blinding, yet not blinding, light.
Bright enough to almost injure the eyes and make visibility nigh impossible, but also not enough to hinder my vision.
A contradiction, yes, but this was the Sunless Skies.
Nothing here is regular.
A seemingly impossibly hot and bright fragment of light that could not burn you.
A lost citadel amid an ocean of blighted darkness.
A monument containing dreaded words.
And, the-
"How fascinating... How fascinating... How fascinating..."
-never mind.
I turned my eyes upwards and sideways at the man standing by my side. He continued staring at the fragment, uncaring of my arrival, almost as though he hadn't noticed my existence.
But.
He did.
That I was sure of.
It's just a feeling, but I'm certain of the feeling.
I trust it.
I have to.
If I don't...
There'll be no hope.
Oh, how cruel hope is... How useless hope is...
I know this...
We all do...
Yet, in the end...
I too...
Taking a deep breath, I audibly sighed, ran my hands through my soft hair and tightened my fingers around the scrunchie that held it together.
I released my golden hair.
Pulling the scrunchie off, I tied it around my wrist and swished my head from side to side. I enjoyed the freedom for a moment; the reduced weight from removing the bun that had been on my head pulled me into a deep sense of relief.
"Hildekar." I spoke to the man beside me as I eased my tension, "Jill and Elden, you've told the latter, but not the former, haven't you? I'll keep Jill for last, but you have to be first. Your Curse forces my hand."
"Also..."
You're the least tedious.
I raised my hands and slapped my face, clearing that thought as soon as possible.
Tediousness is annoying, yes, but Hildekar, I can drag him.
I can minimise the tediousness.
"So, come." I tilted my head upwards and to the left, facing Hildekar's idly staring eyes as they continued to bore a hypothetical hole into the fragment of absolute heat.
My left hand reached out to grab his right hand.
They're cold.
Locking his hand with mine, to make sure the dazed man wouldn't escape, I tugged him towards me and backwards, away from the fragment.
The instant I did that, his body swivelled towards me as his left hand reached out to unclasp himself from me-
Clack.
-only for his foot to get tugged on a rock and trip him towards me.
Where his left hand had previously been aimed at my left hand, now, in that precarious position, instead of moving towards my hand, it moved towards my...
Right breast?
Fucking bastard.