Pain.
The sharp hoof pierced through my skull and crushed my brain.
I felt pain.
A momentary pain.
Then.
Darkness.
Not the previous suffocating darkness, it was peaceful.
Peaceful.
The momentary pain disappeared and a new sensation took place.
No..it wasn't new, it was the same old pain.
Pain after pain.
I woke up with a jerk, blood and some unknown pus covered my whole.
The wet sensation was uncomfortable.
As I stood up, something seperated from my back.
And an intense heat hit my back causing it to sting in pain.
I turned around and saw–
My skin.
On the golden roots.
It ripped away.
I cursed in pain, the intense heat was unbearable.
I have returned to the furnace once again.
A stench emanated from my body, from my burning body.
Melting body.
The unknown pus-like liquid was indeed my melting flesh.
Painful.
I gritted my teeth, my hands dug deep into my palms and my legs stood on their own.
No matter the pain, I can't die.
No matter the pain, I need to escape.
My eyes frantically looked around in confusion.
Thick endless fog with an orange tint, flowy golden roots, Sero and...
A pitch black axe at my foot.
I picked it up, its wooden handle remained untouched by the heat and the roots.
I picked it up
I ran, flimsily, but I didn't care about how ridiculous it looked.
My soles burned as it made contact with the shining golden roots, the fog was grilling me inside out.
I couldn't even sweat.
It was evaporated away.
Or.
Dehydration.
Dammit.
Callon was missing, dead maybe, however in my mind my safety was the first priority.
Why?
I can't die but he can.
I should probably go back, shouldn't I?
I glanced back, there wasn't anyone there.
I was alone.
Except the blue soul leading me towards an exit.
Sero, although indifferent, was the only one who remained with me.
What happened to Callon?
Is he alive?
Dead?
No one, no normal mortal can survive this heat.
But can he do it?
He can control mana, he can control the water element.
But in this heat, the water would already be evaporated the moment it gets conjured.
So he's dead...
Unless a miracle happens.
However, scars will remain.
Even if he was completely healed physically,
scars will remain.
Emotional scars.
Either by fear, pain, death or...
Feeling of being betrayed.
He can die, I can't.
But I'm the one who's running for safety at this moment instead of him.
Why?
I'm sure he hasn't abandoned me.
He wouldn't...
Right?
Yes.
Stop.
Stop trying to justify yourself.
Myself.
Accept it.
A coward I am.
Cowardice infront of pain even though death can never claim me.
Accept it.
Accept it that I'm a coward.
I am.
I am a coward.
I ran, sometimes stumbling, sometimes melting, sometimes burning, but I didn't stop.
I couldn't.
I wouldn't.
Death has never seemed this delectable.
And yet I reject it.
Keep on suffering for my goals.
That's what I said to the deer.
It would quite hypocritical of me to give up due to pain, no?
Enough.
I sighed or atleast tried to.
All that came out from my mouth were coughs, gasps and searing saliva.
Even the air felt suffocating and yet I still breathed in.
I don't know if this air is usable for my lungs but I still inhaled.
Who knows, maybe it is usable.
The hot air assaulted my nose and my lungs.
It felt as if melting magma was poured onto my lungs.
Although I've never felt such pain as magma being poured onto my lungs.
Dammit.
The irregularly interwined roots caused me to stumble countless times, the indifferent wandering soul was running infront of me while I struggled to keep up.
No it wasn't running.
Floating?
Now that I think about it, Sero's body has seemed a bit more smokey lately.
Similar to those descriptions of the djinns.
Wandering souls are mysterious, we still don't know nothing about them while they know a lot about us.
After all, everyone alive in this world has a wandering soul.
This is one of their mysteries.
The moment the make contact with the fog, they turn smokey.
A lot of experiments were done with them.
A lot in which casualities were numerous.
One of such experiments found out that–
As long as a wandering shadow is near you in a radius of 400 feet, they can find you and you won't be lost in the fog.
That's why we left them outside back then.
Also, monsters don't attack them.
They're intangible to such.
Whatever dangers lies in the lands of no return,
They don't have to fear it.
I sighed, the ongoing rant about the wandering souls did nothing to distract me from the pain.
The slow yet fading pain.
Pus-like liquid covered my body, its unbearable stench assaulted my nose alongside the intense heat.
Hellish.
I was in agony.
I wanted to scream and roll around in pain.
I wanted to give up and return.
I wanted to go home.
I wanted to go back and search for Callon.
But I didn't.
I made a decision.
Maybe it's a brilliant decision.
Or.
A regrettable decision.
No matter which it was, I made it.
And I will complete it.
I will accomplish it.
As I ran through this root-filled furnace, I decided.
I decided to not turn nor look back.
The pain felt detached, the heat felt faulty, the stench smelt bland.
In my thoughts, everything faded.
In my thoughts, I melted.
In my thoughts, I decided.
I ran.
Towards escape.
Towards exit.
The fog whipped up, maybe it answered my hopes.
The intense fog swirled and twirled, it crashed into my with a poof as my bare body burned under heat.
It happened all around me.
Sero was barely visible in this intense orange fog, it stuck close to me as it stopped.
We have reached.
We have reached the exit it seems.
I stood there, confused.
Now what?
There was no door, no tornado, or a barrier like last times.
Do I just keep walking? Is the exit similar to the one in the starry dunes?
I didn't know.
Sero stopped so did I.
In the starry dunes Sero kept on walking, but here he has stopped.
So... should I wait?
In this intense heat?
My clothes were burned away, torn apart and destroyed.
Standing in this searing fog as it constantly crashed into me while it twisted and swirled was hellish.
I couldn't die.
That made it even more hellish.
So I just stood there, waiting.
Waiting.
With my soulless wandering soul.
Unmoving, almost uncanny.
The swirling fog grew larger as I stared in awe and pain.
It was like a mountain of hellish heat, looking down me.
And then.
The mountain fell.
And crashed into me.
I was swallowed whole alongside my wandering soul.
I was devoured by the heat.
Into the unknown.