Synder glanced at the woman who was working with him, lifting granite sacks without much explanation. She was a strange human. She kept doing things for him, without any reason to do so, without ever getting upset with him. Even when she requested him to work with her, she had been surprised when he actually did so.
"The reason it doesn't matter where I am, even now, or even if I die…is cause I don't exist."
She spoke to him, as if talking facts about why it rained.
He glanced at her, confused. "Don't exist? But you are standing right here?" he tilted his head, confused, humans fr, removing an extra large sack.
She glinted with a slight sardonic smile. "You're cute. But no, what I mean, is that there is a woman called Lysa Graventstein in this world…and that's what I look like, that is who I am too."
"So your name is Lysa then?"
"Not really…" She looked a bit confused at this straightforward question. He offhandedly admired her hidden muscle strength for a human woman, as she moved the dirt effortlessly, but then he shrugged that she was probably just manipulating space.
"Then what's your name, if not Lysa?"
She grimaced, wiping her forehead from growing sweat. "They like to call me…the other."
"Ah, that don't roll off the tongue at all."
She threw some dust at him. "Oh? And what's your name then?"
"You can call me Synder, ig."
She was silent for a moment…"shucks, that's not too bad of a name, just a little feminine."
"Say what about being feminine!" He snarled back at her.
She changed the subject. "So…why exactly are we moving these? Can't I just directly enter into the space of this 'gate'?"
So she finally asked…ok. He smiled, stepping forward, past her. "Actually, I think we've moved enough…Yes, it's right here…"
She watched him brush away dirt, sliding one last sack out of the way. "You see, the main entrance was completely blown up and sealed, so…" He fingered the metal cap, using his abilities to unlock the mechanism, opening the door, and raising it up. "Gotta take a side entrance!"
She raised an eyebrow, smirking. "Impressive, but…you're saying we have to go down there to enter into this 'gate'?"
He glanced at her like she was an imbecile, before he realized she probably didn't know how it worked, he finally just said, "follow me." Descending into the darkness after removing his cargo suit.
She followed without hesitation.
They jumped into a sewer-like tunnel, a safety ladder to pull themselves back out the exit. But no other light sources could be found, she flipped on a flashlight at her waist, however before she could step forward, he stopped her.
"No light."
"What?" she was confused, as he rose up the ladder to close the trap door.
He came down again, they were now cloaked in complete darkness. You couldn't tell which way was forward, or which way was back.
"Even if you can jump into the other space…you won't be able to sense it unless it comes closer to us first…but space doesn't move, so we must approach it instead…to get close…complete darkness is essential." She didn't understand him, but she also felt like she was being led on a chase for futility itself; she'd only followed him thus far because his aura was strange, giving her otherworldly 'vibes'. Space reacted strangely to him, as if drawn away from wherever he moved. Like the space itself didn't agree with him being there.
"Don't worry, I know direction, even in darkness, just follow me."
They began to trek down the path, she stepped to the sounds of his footsteps.
"This is dark." she commented. No dip. He noticed her hand tremble lightly in the darkness. He began to hear her humm, curious, he listened in, beginning to hear the words in her light, chanting voice, stuck in a breath-catching melody.
"Violet was a silent girl,
Grew up with violent starts"
The darkness around them seemed to swallow them up as they walked, the silence outside her steady voice, heavy.
"Her mother was a drinker,
And her father was a b*stard"
Wait, where was this song going? The tendrils of darkness, seemingly grabbing at their feet, the only thing keeping one from jumping away in fright was the steady tread of their feet and her rhythmic voice, consistent in the weighty darkness.
"Every night he'd tuck her tight,
But never left the room"
Say, what? The soft voice, breaking through the horror that began to climb out from around them. Deep, black, heavy, quiet. sh.
"I'll spare you of the things he did
I'm sure her mother knew"
"Ok, wait, wait, wait, what is this song?" Synder had to interrupt her, he figured she sang to comfort herself from the darkness, seeming to fear it very much. But, really? This one?
"Ah," she giggled. "You might not know it, it's a very old song sung back in the common era ."
That's not the problem…
"Oh? Do you want to join?" she giggled again, far too light hearted for how he felt her hand was trembling in fear. "There's a part of the song, easy for you to pick up, I'll just sing a line, and you say, 'silence', got it?"
"Well…" he wasn't confident.
"It's easy," she assured, "let me start,
"Well, say something, Violet,"
Silence entered between the two of them for a moment before he finally complied, since well, at least the song seemed a bit better… "...silence." his voice was even softer and hoarser than hers, easily blending in with the ethereal quiet around them.
"F*cking say something, Violet!" she was getting into this.
"...silence?"
"Wait, say something, Violet!"
"Silence…" he was getting suspicious again.
Her tone changed, and she whispered cutely, "Not one word, she stays quiet"
…and yep, there it is…he shoulda known. Of course, Violet was dead. She giggled at his silent response
"We're here," he commented, as the darkness around them began to actually physically seemed to touch them at certain points. His initial plan was to attempt to break through this barrier…he must have used all his luck to bump into a space user here.
"Now, it's important you don't bend space to enter, we must swap the space out…" he clarified. She nodded in understanding, taking his arm to find him, and then…they both stepped forward, the next moment…they were falling. A glowing marble sea floor approached quickly, but before he needed to react, the space around them bent, the space between them and the ground narrowed to less than a meter, and they landed lightly, the entire distance of a half a kilometer felt like descending a tall cart. A large, black wall, made of vines rose up before them, in a straight line, everywhere else was complete emptiness, just shining red floors and black and red clouds covering the boundless sky.
However, the other could tell by feeling around her, that there was more space beyond the wall.
"Hmmm." She glanced to the side to see Synder stepping forward a little ways, towards the wall, before stopping, veins on his neck, straining a bit. She, curious, followed suit, only to also be met with more and more resistance, the farther she tried to walk that way, until it seemed as if a straight wall blocked her way.
She stepped back, till the pressure disappeared again.
"Ah, so we head that way." pointed Synder, away from the wall.
"Wait." her voice stopped him in his tracks, he glanced over, her earlier fear had completely disappeared, as if it never had been there. He wondered if she had giggled because she didn't know she could be scared. He glanced to where she looked. "Over there, what is that…"
Indeed, in the middle of the bramble wall was a suspended man clothed ina simple white t-shirt, with a thin brown jacket over it, and thick dark pants.
"Let's check him out first…" she gestured to him.
He barely stepped out with her, and suddenly they stood right before the brambles, the man was hanging, barely above the ground, his back to them.
Nothing could be heard from him except heavy breathing.
"Yo!" greeted the other. However he didn't respond, she turned to her companion, to ask, when she noticed sweat trailing down his neck, he almost indiscernibly stepped back a little, suddenly he turned to her, terror filled his eyes. He gestured for her to look through the gap he'd found, as she approached, glancing through, to see a simple old man, sitting down, legs crossed, however, as she looked, his head began to rise.
"He.." a quiet voice came from her side, almost piercing high from being strained to its limits, his lips trembling. "He's…" his eyes shook. "We need to go." He suddenly turned around, grabbing her arm, but she wasn't moving, her gaze was caught by the old man's eyes, who'd just looked up. He seemed to gaze into her, through her eyes, straight to her soul. She shivered, backing away.
"You…" She heard him speak, but feeling instinctive danger from the voice, she instantly separated the space where her head was to the outside.
The man had approached the wall, she backed away this time, with Synder, seeing the blue-hair's mouth move, she unlocked the space around her head. "Yes? Who was he?"
Synder turned to her. "Something you can't handle…what the…when i heard the government say the people disappeared, i thought they had just been evaporated, i didn't realize their very existence had been wiped…" fear coated his eyes. She was shocked in a way, he hadn't even been afraid under fire from her bullets and Geria's knives, but here he was…
She nodded. "Then head the other direction?"
"No!" he shook his head, his eyes were still glued to beyond the wall, his hand gripped her arm tighter. "We need to go OUT. OUT of the Gate! NOW!"
She wasn't going to argue, she didn't even know about this palace until him, much less the random old man blocked by a wall of black thorny vines.
She began to concentrate, however, right then, came a voice, from the wall, a perfect baritone, but almost whispered.
"wait..."