Hurstrate awoke momentarily afterwards. He was dazed but soon realised the situation when he noticed, amid his nauseous state, that he was going to die soon, at the hands of a giant.
He had lost all feelings and sentiments due to that realisation, and only felt a fleeting hint of melancholy.
"You have been running from me for so long. Yet, it wouldn't have come to this if you had just given me the Luminous Branch before." Duran said, staring with expressionless eyes.
"…I couldn't."
"Why not?"
"Because I had seen… a mystical being. One with many pale arms, and a robe woven by the stars. When I found and touched this Luminous Branch for the first time, I met him, and, even if he told me I was not allowed to enter this realm as I was not one of the special ones, he still permitted me to use the Luminous Branch, which was unable to be used without."
Duran seemed to know the being who he talked about, and Hurstrate continued.
"I saw horrors, beyond my imagination. Wars, strife, blood. At the very first instance that my hand grazed upon it to assume all of its power, I felt like I was feeling the emotions of every single being in the world, at their worst moments, and so I let go, and I thought,"
'Was this truly our reality?'
Duran nodded,
"Then, I'm assuming, after that, I came, to retrieve back the branch I had once lost," Duran said, "And yet, you simply wouldn't give it to me."
"Because you are a fool. And, I didn't wish to know what would happen if someone who wishes to explore the world's mysteries and secrets were to be revealed to something like that."
"So, I escaped you, all the way to here. Inside the remains of the Devil's Citadel. …I didn't know what else to do, so I cast the Luminous Branch into the sea, and waited to die out of starvation, or a hungry beast nearby to prey on me."
"But, little did I realise that the sea that I had cast it into, was a conduit for its capabilities. An astral door was opened within that sea and tainted it entirely black. And, intrigued, I fell into it, and soon realised that I had fallen into a world where I could live without that worry, I could live in a place beyond the reach of this dark world."
"You jest," Duran stated, "You thought that you could remain free and happy for eternity?"
"Of course, I didn't. I just didn't want to think about the future. About how war-stricken it soon will be."
"…Yet, you fail to realize that, wars do pass, and eventually, the suffering of humans is not for eternity," Rei replied, only for Hurstrate to add,
"…Maybe for you, it isn't. But for me, pointless strife that leads to death is just a showing of humanity's destiny. Destruction under the gaze of the Gods."
Rei shrugged.
"To each their own."
"Anyway, I must know, where is the Luminous Branch?" Duran asked as he picked Hurstrate up by his head.
"It… it is inside my body, stuck between my heart and my lungs. Haha… there's no wonder I feel so nauseous…"
"But, just let me give you… before you kill me, one more warning."
"The truth of the world's mysteries may be indescribable, or it may be simple. But, do not reach your hand out to 'it'." He said as a tremendous smirk appeared on his deathly face, "For 'it' may be meant… for someone else."
Hurstrate's head was crushed, and his body was lifeless as he fell to the ground. He was right, as this dark world had no sympathy or empathy. No apologies nor sorries, it was by the perfect design of the Elden Gods that this world was a land where only the most decisive and robust resided.
Small grey particles began to flow from the recently made corpse, and as the dead body turned into dust, that dust formed the Luminous Branch, as they knew it.
"Now, let us head into the void at once," Duran commanded.
He began to speak of an ancient incantation that permitted him some of the power to use the Luminous Branch to its fullest capabilities. It was an incantation of purple light, that birthed a black and white portal, that looked like a stain of black ink on a canvas.
It pulsated, with an intensity that almost pulled everyone around closer within.
"How fortunate I am, to find such several Destined Ones in one place," Duran muttered.
"Now, Destined Ones, experience this for me. You are the only ones with the capabilities to."
"Wait, all of us?" Nuru asked, but Duran shook his head.
"No. It will only be you six."
"Hah, then you don't need to tell me twice," Bōshi replied before he walked straight in, clearly the most intrigued by what secrets the spatial doorway would hold.
Then, Hinote followed afterwards out of sheer curiosity, and so did both Kyōji and Rei, both of which didn't seem worried at all, followed soon after by Seiji, who seemed the least curious, and then finally, Shuku, who awaited what would happen.
•••
As he entered through the portal, he felt his body distort, as he fell into what he would call, a 'Starless Void'. It was dark, with no sort of light source available, and this darkness felt like an endless pool of opaque water.
Yet, Shuku knew that going back was not an option, so he swam on, undeterred.
It was cold, and swarthy, and also felt like he was moving through a swamp. He didn't even know if he was going up or down, left or right, due to the influence of distortion in this strange realm.
"…This realm… does it truly encompass a secret? I didn't get the feeling that the giant was lying to us, and I don't think the others did either."
Shuku, as he murmured to himself, then glimpsed a glimmer of light in the expanse far ahead of him, and instantaneously, that great burst of white light shot straight forward at him, leaving him no time to react to it carrying him quite a stretch away from his original location, just before dropping him off at a strange place.
"What… what was that? I had no time to react, and…"
Shuku could see something now. A myriad of countless stars and celestial structures, all around him, brightening up significantly, this empty void.
"This place… what the…?!"
Shuku was entranced. He had never seen such a sight before. Even the few stars in the night sky that he had barely glimpsed before paled immensely before this sight.
"…This isn't a Starless Void… it's just like a sea."
"A sea of stars."
As he spoke those words, mystical, esoteric stairs materialized before him, leading to a starry place far beyond.
"I guess, these stairs are going to lead me to that 'secret'."
Shuku strode onto the first step of the stairs, and unexpectedly, it felt like the distortion effect no longer impeded him, and it was like he was just taking a stroll up a few stairs in a small cottage, and not to an impenetrable secret that even Duran could not fully discover.
He walked onwards and walked and walked until his legs were tired and his feet ached, but yet didn't stop walking. Because Shuku himself was now curious about what this secret could be.
And, he made it, at last, to the top of the stairs, in what felt like both a millennium and just a brief minute, and into a pool of water which he stood upon, instead of immediately sinking into it.
"Strange…"
"Strange…?"
"Young man, what is 'strange'?"
Ahead of Shuku, he could see nothing else except a man, floating in the middle of this strange pool of water, wearing a robe that resembled the celestial structures that Shuku perceived all around.
And then, slowly, this floating man uncovered his countless arms from his robes and strode onto the bizarre pool, as if he were a saint. He walked forward a few steps, before stopping and turning around, to reveal a face of magnificent lustre and beauty, wielding a bronze staff.
His hair was long and of white and a hue of cyan, his pupils were star-shaped and golden, and his skin, especially around his arms and feet, was an impossible shade of black, contrasting with his already peculiar blue skin, to the point that his arms and legs compared to the darkness Shuku briefly swam through.
"Who are you?" Shuku asked, summoning his blade immediately, to which the strange man replied,
"I am but a lowly fool. One who calls himself a renowned magician, but is only just a miracle-invoker. I am a Spellborn of the Tristus Family, which you may know as, the last Imperial Dynasty of the Tristus-Dominatrix Empire."
"Huh?"
"Haha, so that means, the one who stands before you is the Forlorn King of Magicians, Lucas Von Tristus."