Chapter 32: Chapter 31: The message from the heavens

I feel its breath blowing past myself as I stand alone in the darkness, my feet planted firmly and strong.

It whispers into my ears.

My sword is drawn and I look over my shoulder, but I see nothing there in the full shadow all around myself. I hear scampering, as rats creep over the brickwork. There is a smell in the air and I try to remain calm. It is the smell of old meat.

— It is the smell of its breath.

Slowly, steadily, I walk forward with secure and sure, confident steps. If I show fear, it will strike. If I falter, it will know. It whispers to me, it tells me about all of the times I’ve failed. It tells me about all of my shortcomings and my fears that I do not outwardly display and it tells me of all of the things I will never be.

Great, loved, admired, cherished, wanted, needed — accepted.

There is a thing that lurks in the shadows of every single one of the deepest dungeons in the world. It isn’t a normal monster like any I have ever seen before. It is a thing of incomprehensible body and mind and it is as much a part of myself as is the rest of this light-less chamber. Myself, the floor, the shadows, the rats, we’re all bathed in the same total, all encompassing darkness. It makes us as one and that is how it, the entity known only as ‘the thing that whispers’, knows what it knows and it tells me what it has seen.

I am the thing that whispers. I am the rats. I am the darkness. I am the man with the sword. I am unwanted, unneeded and unaccepted.

— I am alone, down in the darkest dungeon in the world, all by myself.

It whispers this into my ear.

I grip my sword tighter, determined not to let my doubts beat me now. Not after I’ve come this far.

It's been trying to tell me this ever since I was level one. Since I was a boy. But I didn't listen to it then and I won't listen to it now.