The first thing he sensed was the approaching footsteps.
Nico blinked, his eyelids as heavy as lead.
The Grim Reaper was close.
He could feel it.
Soon, he would return to the embrace of the Lord of Death and from there, he would journey across the Styx, before finally coming to a stop at the Great Beyond, where it was said they would rest for all eternity.
At least that was what all the Temples believed, and by extension a vast majority of the populace.
Shaking his head slightly, his neck as stiff as the most rigid bone, the brown-haired boy focused on the approaching sound.
Grime and blood ran rampant over his broken figure, his eyes slowly growing dimmer and dimmer as time went on.
The noise stopped a few metres away.
Nico craned his neck upward, his face pale from losing so much blood.
His gaze reflected a solitary figure garbed in all black, a tenebrous void shrouding his features beneath a cloak's hood.
'What…. does he want?' The boy thought bitterly.
Had his unruly peer come to mock him one last time before his death?
Struggling to stay awake, Nico stared at the cloaked figure, annoyed, and in no mood to entertain him.
'Can't… he see… that I'm on death's door? What… possibly… could he need from a dying man like me?'
As if reading his thoughts, the raspy voice of his bad-tempered peer resounded, filled with dark glee.
"How does it feel to strive so hard and for so long only to meet such a pitiful end?"
Nico coughed, noticing a hint of triumph leaking through the cloaked figure's tone.
He pushed his puzzlement aside and answered, "Bitter… no thanks to you, I'm sure."
The brown-haired boy shot his teammate a vexed glare for a second, before his body sagged like a bag of potatoes, clearly unable to handle the extra stress.
"Oh, how I've dreamed of this… The moment is finally here, and Nico, your bitterness and resignation do not disappoint." The cloaked figure chuckled darkly, an edge of delight concealed within his normal condescending tone.
Confused by the strange words and his peer's apparent knowledge of his name, Nico sighed. "Can… we just get whatever this is… over with? I'd like to spend my final moments in peace."
"Sure," the cloaked figure nodded. "I just have one more question to ask. But before that though, I have a little story I would like to share."
Suddenly suspicious, Nico waited with slight anticipation at his teammate's next words.
The hooded individual took a moment as if savouring the brown-haired boy's curiosity.
His voice broke the silence a second later.
"Once upon a time, a young boy was subject to extreme torture so powerful, intense, and strong… that he wished to kill himself every day for months just so the never-ending suffering could finally end. Somehow, miraculously, through all the pain he managed not to lose his sense of self. He clawed his way out of despair again and again, and again still. Then, just when he had thought the Transcendents had taken pity on him and intervened to give him a reprieve from the constant madness, he found himself thrown into an even greater and more harrowing hell…"
Nico's eyebrows rose at the unexpected grim start to the story.
'Just great…. I'm spending my final moments feeling sorry for that incorrigible bastard...'
Schooling his face into a neutral expression and trying not to wince, the brown-haired boy knew from the intense hatred in the cloaked figure's tone that his peer was talking about himself.
"Still, he persisted as he always had. He protected his mind fiercely, refusing to let it crumble, even under the most intense psychological pressure. All for the sake of making sure he did not return broken to those he held dear. For he knew he would come back. He had to.
"Eventually, with a stroke of luck, he escaped. He frantically made his way home, bolstered by the thought of reuniting with his loved ones. Only… to find to his shock and great horror that those whom he deemed as family had moved on.
"He watched them as they returned to their everyday routine, no longer seeming to care about his disappearance. His heart broke. Still, in fairness, a long time had passed. Maybe they had just given up on ever seeing him again.
"Thinking along those lines, the boy continued to stalk them from the shadows, and that was when he discovered the straw that broke the camel's back… his mother rubbing her round stomach, while his father stood beside her placing a hand over hers in a silent display of love and warmth.
"The seeds of a dark jealousy began to grow in his heart. How dare his parents try to replace him! He suppressed it once more, seeking the companion he had spent his time playing with before he disappeared. Surely, he would never betray him like his mother and father had!
"Oh, how wrong he had been! The young boy found his sister and companion in a fierce argument, each debating on whether he was still alive after all this time. The girl refused to believe her brother was dead, while the friend seemed intent on giving her a reality check, apparently having lost all hope. The boy's heart splintered into a million pieces. Even his friend had betrayed him!
"Jealousy and hatred grew and grew until they held him in their inescapable vice…. taking root in the boy's core and never letting go. Until, eventually, he settled on the decision to forsake the cruel world, resolving to bring it to ruin.
"So, let me ask you this, Nico… Was the young boy right to turn his back on this brutal and inhuman world?"
Nico's mind spun from the sheer overload of information.
Feeling very weak and faint didn't help either.
The silence seemed to stretch for several epochs in the misty corridor.
Nico tried to ignore the intense look his teammate was giving him and racked his mind.
Eventually, after much internal conflict and a whole eternity later, he settled on an answer.
"I understand… where he's coming from. He has… experienced a lot. However… that does not mean he should bring a whole world to ruin because of it."
The cloaked figure suddenly barked a humourless laugh, much like how Nico had done when they first met.
"I figured you'd say that."
"Is that all?" Nico asked tiredly, ignoring the cloaked figure's jab.
He was too tired to care.
"Yes." His teammate nodded.
The cloaked figure then squatted, coming face to face with the brown-haired boy.
He lifted his hands and placed his fingers at the edge of the hood.
Nico's eyes slowly widened.
As the cowl fell, an inky black mask resembling the colour of the void, which seemed to suck in the surrounding light, stared back at Nico.
A seemingly endless number of onyx spikes littered its exterior, twisting and turning in erratic patterns. Twin horns rose menacingly from its crown, supplementing the instinctive aura of dread the mask released.
A set of black eyes beneath the dark veneer regarded the brown-haired boy with a hint of wild madness.
Then, slowly, as if peeling off a second skin, the former cloaked figure removed the mask, his voice reverberating in the hazy gloom:
"How does it feel, knowing you were part of the reason I gave up on this accursed world? I would venture a guess that it's very bitter…" he paused, then added, his voice thick with mocking. "Enjoy your journey to the Great Beyond, dearest Nico. Make sure to carry this regret with you for all eternity."
A blank expression appeared on Nico's face as his eyes widened further.
His gaze reflected a figure riddled with many scars, his face disfigured.
Yet, as ugly and marred as the face was, Nico could instantly recognise the black hair and those dark pupils.
After all, those distinct features had served to haunt him like an ineffable shadow for the past year.
Nico's voice, hoarse with disbelief, shook as it rang out in the deafening silence:
"C-Cedric…?"