"I..."
Veritas did not know how to answer when faced with a great figure in front of him. It seemed pressurizing, and hard to even speak. He opened his mouth and almost stuttered, nothing came out of his mouth except for a soft breath.
"Never mind, I dare not to know any longer."
With that, he could finally breathe in relief, Veritas sighed and felt his heart lighten upon surviving that encounter.
Valeira stopped staring at him and walked back to the entrance of the mausoleum.
Veritas' mouth pursed and he felt dejected as he could now say anything to her.
Although she had been putting up a tough front, deep inside Veritas knew that she was still a little girl that wanted to satisfy everyone's needs.
He remembered the dream where he encountered that girl wearing a white nightgown as her hair laid down the grass, she seemed so happy to be staring at the moon. She seemed peaceful to spend her time in solitude. And she felt longing, as if she had searched for something for so long yet was trapped in an eternal dream.
Veritas stared at her figure getting much smaller as she headed to the entrance of the mausoleum.
He reached in front of her but could not muster up the courage to talk.
'I want to tell her that she did well.'
Yet he couldn't, it felt as if there was a large cold wall that reflected anything that got closer to the Queen.
That figure walked through the dark halls of the mausoleum. She was so.. so very lonely, as if she treaded a path that was only made for her to be stuck in solitude.
She was surrounded by many who loved her but she was afraid of love, she was scared to love, scared to ruin everything that she built, and scared to lose everything that she possessed.
Veritas stared at that lonely figure.
'Then tell her."
A deep voice echoed in Veritas' mind. His pursed lips soon turned into a wry smile, and his eyes felt the warmest.
Then.. he spoke:
"Queen Valeira!"
A tear trickled down his cheek.
She turned around and stared at the illusory figure.
"You did well."
Veritas smiled warmly towards her, showing his deep respect and sorrow for the Queen.
He saw the Queen's figure, shadowed by the glowing light of the seas below, it was faint.. but Veritas noticed her eyes shine for a second.
Then, it turned cold once more and she said:
"I do not need your affirmations, Fallen Angel."
She turned around and her radiant white hair bounced with the sudden movement. Then, she opened the large door of the mausoleum and left.
Veritas followed shortly and made his way out of the lake under the tree.
He walked atop the water, light particles pulsated below his feet, climbed the vines and roots, and walked through the mossy floor.
Finally, after a long time.. He had finally seen the outside world once more.
It had been clad with darkness but the glowing bugs radiated against it, lighting up the surroundings of the world.
'Which way was it again?'
Veritas looked around for any clues regarding the way back, he circled the tree but was clueless as for the direction that he had come from.
Then, he saw a glowing moth on the ground below. In fact, there were a couple of them, lining up in a single direction.
Veritas gazed at the end of their line and immediately thought of the Queen.
"Thank you.."
Thus, Veritas walked in the direction of the glowing moths and made his way back to the Central City.
Veritas did not know how much time had passed, or how long he had been in the tree. He merely thought of returning back and leaving the vision.
..But Veritas did not know how.
Based on his previous visions, he either had to: Witness a significant event or something of that scale, or.. die.
There was no in between.
If Veritas considered that Golden City as a vision similar to the one that was seeing now, then he needed to die once more in order to wake up.
Granted, there was a magical golden door that led to somewhere. If not, then Veritas was unsure of how he was going to escape the vision.
He leaned in more on the former because of this.
'Everything changed..?'
As Veritas walked back to the city, he saw the grasslands and the forests become desolated and burnt. Maybe it was due to the time dilation caused from being in that tree, but Veritas had truly no clue.
There was no way of knowing whether it was night or day due to the darkness brought upon by the tree.
This made him realize that weeks may have passed already, maybe months, or maybe years!
It trembled Veritas' spine, but he thought that it was highly unlikely.
He walked through an area that had been devastated by what seemed to be a gruesome battle.
There were various steel weapons plunged in the ground, mangled bodies, and corpses of armored knights.
'If what that girl in the dream said was true, then..'
There was no way of knowing unless he flipped one of the mangled corpses.
But, Veritas' had returned to being a true bodiless spirit. He could not touch nor be held by anything.
He could even float once more! But, he wanted to walk for a couple of days to process what had just happened.
After all, he met who probably was considered as Death..
A few days passed and Veritas finally arrived at the Central City of Elrod.
He entered the city gates or rather.. flowed through them, and blended himself back into society. - not that anyone could see, of course.
"What the hell happened here?" He spoke upon noticing the gloomy and gray expression of the city.
Everyone was fear-stricken, as if they felt something lurking behind them, waiting for the proper chance to attack!
It was very noticeable on their faces as various emotions were shown. Some had fear engraved in their hearts, while others were worrisome and tipsy.
Overall, the drastic change from a joyous and cheerful city to that of a terrified city, is quite unsettling in Veritas' opinion.
He then overheard some patrolling knights go into a state of alarm.
"Over there! A Faceless had been sighted, bring all units! Take it down at all costs!"
5 Knights clad in steel armor ran through while carrying their swords with a mighty grip.
Veritas followed through and witnessed a gruesome scene.
A little girl writhed on the ground, her body was bloodied and mangled, her limbs were cut off and blood gushed out of them.
However.. her face was peculiar as it was devoid of basic facial features.
Could it even be called a face if there was nothing on it?
Probably not.
Veritas witnessed a scene where 5 grown Knights continuously stabbed and slaughtered the little girl. Their blades did not work that well so they had to resort to such a gruesome method to subjugate it.
After a few minutes, the torture was over.
"The Faceless has been subjugated, report this to the Agency."
"Will do!"
A pair of Knights left and rushed through the streets of the Central City.
"Hah.. when will this crisis be over? The citizens are fearful for their lives, fuck's sake!"
"I also wish for it to be over, Sir."
Their faces contorted in pain and grief, clearly showing some type of loss in their lives.
After the gruesome scene, Veritas walked back to the streets and made his way to the castle.
Everywhere he looked, there was devastation. People felt sad and cried, while others were grieving their loved ones that they lost from the crisis.
'Just how long has passed?' Veritas wondered.
He made his way to the castle and phased through the walls. Then, Veritas immediately went straight to the throne room where the Queen resided.
He heard echoes and cumulative voices speaking amongst each other. It seemed like they were in a state of panic.
Veritas got closer and eavesdropped.
"We cannot let this go on any further! The Queen is gone and that's already a fact! She could very well be dead at this point!"
"I agree with Sir Thaddeus, it's been 2 months since she had disappeared, there is nothing else that we can do, your majesty!"
It was like a marketplace, everyone was speaking and complaining, expressing their feelings on the matter.
Then, a person wearing a red mantle, sitting on a throne, suddenly spoke:
"Silence!" He sighed, "You two dare to disrespect the Queen?! Head Knight Lancelot, send them to the dungeons to rot!"
The room suddenly turned silent as two Knights entered the room and took the two men.
"P-please, your majesty! I beg you!"
"I have done nothing to disrespect the Queen. Your majesty!"
Yet he stood silent and pretended to not hear the words of the two.
After being dragged away, the man in the red mantle massaged his forehead.
His eyes looked weary and there was a heavy eyebag below it. It seemed like this person hadn't slept in a while.
"Please, everyone. Keep searching.. she's the only one that can fix our situation."
The members inside the throne room nodded and bowed at his words.
Then, a couple moments passed and all of them left.
"Valeira.. where could you possibly be?"
He rested his head on his palms and began to weep.