Chapter 199: Chapter 199

We have a history. Miller and I. I shake my head and amend myself. And us. But I don’t really want to talk about it, you know how I try to keep you away from things sometimes, guy? It’s like that, tell you what. Besides, eyeyoume is here and she doesn’t need to know either. Anyways, what’s in the past doesn’t matter now. I feel better now, having gotten that out of my system though. But he’ll be back tomorrow, as much as I loathe the thought.

 

He’s a metaphor too, you know?

 

  My gaze raises upwards, towards the darkness above as the world shakes. As the heart of the dungeon strikes with a dull intensity. The ground squirms and ripples and tears as a row of spiral teeth rip out of the meat below, tearing through the floor, ripping strands of it out with them as they rise up. The secret-staircase that leads upwards from Miller’s place. What should I do?

 

Thook-thook.

 

The seal is broken.

 

  My head turns towards the door behind me as I hear the disturbance coming from outside, the tearing of the sinew and flesh. Wretched, wet screams of a violent, bloody birth. There isn’t enough time left. I’m on floor eighty-nine now. I need to get to floor seventy-five. My metal glove raises to my eye as I inspect it. My eye, that is, not the glove. This is a strong body. But there isn’t enough time.

 

Something breaks through the distant screaming. A harrowing chorus of explosions that rock the world. Fireballs. My eyes narrow, if the hero-party is here then I’ve run out of time to live again.

 

My boots clank loudly as I step onto the first tooth and begin my ascent.

 

There’s no way I can make any progress before they get down through this floor to the dungeon-master and clear the dungeon.

 

  My cape billows behind me as I climb higher and higher up the staircase, feeling far more lonely than I had last time I was here. Nothing is held in my hands this time, save for the ghost of a memory I unsuccessfully try to clutch and the heavy-metal lance at my side.

 

Thook-thook.

 

I spend a lot of time envying others. The adventurers. The hero. But… -

 

My lance scrapes against the bones as I climb towards the apex of the world, as I follow the call of a whispering voice, calling to me from so far away. From so far up above. I yearn to reach it. I want to reach it. I want to escape.

 

- …But you know what’s sad about heroes?

 

  My boots stop clanking as I stand on the final step of the staircase, before it vanishes into the darkness of the dungeon above and I look to the wall on my left, from which I hear the grinding of gears on the other side. My fingers press against it and I feel the vibrations of the windmill’s spinning blades that must be nested on the other end.

 

- The sad thing about heroes is that they exist.

 

My fist strikes against the wall and sinks into it as I tear out a chunk of red meat, throwing it to the ground.

 

For a hero to be, there must be a great evil for them to vanquish. A hero can’t exist without a dark force to stand against.

 

I slam in my hand again, grabbing another fistful of the meat and ripping it out, tossing it down below into the darkness as I hear a great scream emerge from the other side. From the thing that awakens.

 

  A great evil can’t be called such, without it having already caused great harm, otherwise it wouldn’t be an evil. That means that a hero is always too late. My eyes go wide as I stare at the hole and I arc my arm back, before jamming my lance in to cut the meat apart. That means a hero was asleep when he was needed the most. He’s too late. He’s too late.

 

“I.”

 

I tear out more meat. Asleep. Asleep.

 

“Hate.”

 

Screaming, I let go of the lance, grabbing hold of the gash with both hands and rip it open wide.

 

“SLEEP.”

 

  A hero can’t ever save everybody. Because by the time a hero has risen, there are already enough dead to warrant there needing to be a hero to begin with and I won’t forgive him for it. My eyes shine with CONVICTION. I. HATE. SLEEP. The hero was asleep when we needed him the most and I won’t-

 

The dungeon screams.

 

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He was asleep. Asleep. Asleep. Strands of red meat tear, ripping like strings of fabric as I pull. HE WAS ASLEEP.

 

  A chunk of flesh falls down, ripping free as I force my way through it with eyes that shine bright. The seal is broken. He was asleep when I needed him the most. The seal is broken and it always has been. It always has been. My arm wrenches to the side as the meat gives way and the rip tears open, revealing the outside world beyond, from high up atop the windmill.

 

  - I won’t forgive him. I won’t forgive him. I won’t forgive his lack of CONVICTION. I claw my way through the gap, my metal gauntlets digging into the meat on the outside of the windmill as I force myself out into the world. Screaming, my scream mixing in with the dungeon’s, my scream mixing in with the hum as I force myself out. I’m going to save them, if they like it or not. I’m going to get us all out of here, if they like it or not.

 

  My body slides out of the hole that I ripped open for myself. My violent birth covering me in red as I tear myself free. As I pull myself out of the windmill and climb atop it. The blades spin before me, propelled by the ethereal winds of the dungeon. The great swords sliding past my side as I ascend.

 

I’m not going to sleep.

 

My hands clutch the meat and claw myself up higher, like a demon escaping hell, I’m not going to sleep. My eyes shine bright. I’m not going to sleep. I pull myself up higher and rise to my feet, standing on the roof of the windmill. I’m not going to sleep.

 

  Cosmic winds surround me and my bones crack as the puppeteer that holds me together compresses my body once again, jolting all of my bones together in one violent ripple of energy that surges through me from top to bottom. The gale blows faster, harder and I feel it. I feel it. I feel it on my skin. I feel it in my eyes. I feel it in my heart as it blows, as my cape billows on behind me as I stand up high atop the apex of the world. I’m never going to sleep. I’m going to save them. I’m going to save them all. Because that’s what a hero would do.

 

My bones crack as I turn to look over the span of the floor. The lush, blue-green grasses have long since shifted and now there is nothing but meat. Nothing but sinew. Nothing but red and black and green and white. The seal is broken. It’s broken, because the hero-

 

  My eyes buzz with electricity as I stare out over the meat, over the destruction and carnage and red. Over the thousands of eyes that make themselves seen, the thousands of eyes that grow out of the meat like so many pus-filled cysts and they writhe, they writhe and wiggle and squirm as if they were filled with worms. There are worms in the eyes. I clutch my face. They’re in the water. They’re in the water -

 

  - Where. Where. Where is… where is… He’s ruining it. He’s ruining it. He’s ruining it because he’s too late. Because he was ASLEEP. Because he doesn’t have any CONVICTION. I grip my lance tighter. Bleak winds blow around me, the heavy breeze carrying the weight of a thousand dead souls that coalesce in my presence.

 

I won’t forgive him for being asleep. I won’t stop climbing. I won’t stop saving them all myself, no matter what they feel. No matter what they want. I’m going to do it. No matter what. No matter who. No matter how.

 

With eyes that shine hallow, I clench the lance tightly as I see a flash of blue-orange down below.

 

There you are.

 

The world goes silent and the wind stops together with time itself.

 

The wind-mill stops.

The screams stop.

The buzzing stops.

The fighting stops.

The noises stop.

Their hearts stop.

Their eyes stop.

Their CONVICTION STOPS.

 

AS ALL THEY SEE IS ME. AS ALL OF THEM WATCH ME. WATCH ME. WATCH ME.

 

You think I’ll let you get away with being asleep?! You think I’ll let you just pretend to be a hero when you couldn’t save anybody?!

 

I raise my lance higher, holding my hand out to the hero.

 

YOU THINK I’LL LET YOU GET AWAY WITH JUST BEING THE HERO, WITHOUT BELIEVING IN ANYTHING?!

 

FIGHT ME. FIGHT ME.

 

I SCREAM.

 

"HELLO THERE, MR. HERO!"

 

 

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