Amazing how I keep pleading for people to update their stories soon, when I don't at all.
Chapter 4: Secrets of the Past
Sonic's PoV
The sudden onset of darkness almost made me slip… How did that come about? An eclipse?
It was scary, running on my greatest and only fear, water… At first, I didn't really think anything about it at all, but after a few close calls, such as this one, it prompted me to be a little bit more careful… I found myself looking for rocks that were protruding out from the sea, not wanting to put my life at risk again... at least for today…
Remembering how close I was to dying when I tripped over that coral reef… I broke into a nervous sweat. I was helpless. I couldn't dog paddle like Tails could; I didn't even know how to keep myself afloat. All I could do was to flail about mindlessly in the water, and slowly make myself go deeper… and deeper into the water.
It was such a close call… The pain of breathing in water was now forever etched my head. If I hadn't been able to clutch onto that rock, I would have… died…
The ocean wasn't like some kind of zone, like Hydrocity; at least the water wasn't really that deep, and that there were bubble pumps and shields everywhere, with a path that can get me back to the safe ground with only spindashing and jumping. Instead, the ocean only had water, no bubble pumpers, no ground, just water. I would just fall into the black void, helpless to do anything.
And the black void was 6000m deep…
A book also said that upon reaching that depth, the water pressure acting on that person would be like having one tonne being pressed on his body, and his remains would be… unidentifiable.
Grotesque images flowed through my mind; that of a certain blue hedgehog with blue eyes turned red, looking as if something had exploded from it inside out, a hideous-looking thing that would be unidentifiable by any means, if it was even found at all… All the innards…
I stopped my train of thought. This was beginning to scare me. I had to chill out… and try to think of something more… peaceful… Being afraid that something will happen, will cause it to happen, I know…
Turning away from the deceptively azure-looking sea, I looked at the sky. This was something much more important.
Why was everything so dark?
I slapped my head at the previous thought I had, Little Planet was the only moon circulating around Mobius, and it would only appear on one month of every year before it fades away into time again. The thing is that, it did not revolute at all during this one month, and the next year, it more or less would stay still. An eclipse would only happen on Little Planet, never on Mobius. 'Eclipse' was an obscure word…, how did I even use it?
Secondly, when I looked back, there was still light halfway towards the horizon. Little Planet wasn't that small… The light and the darkness seemed to be differentiated by, a ring…
Surrounding the whole of West Island… Suddenly, it dawned on me. It frightened me; I could barely hear the words…
"Sonic…Help!"
This whole thing definitely had to do with Tails, something bad was happening… This was more serious than I had previously thought, causing the sun to black out, it was more on the scale of nature than just that of an uncle and sun. I had to save him. I had to grab him quick and pull him out of that island before he got into anymore trouble.
Merlin was behind all this, I knew it.
I sped sonic speed towards the island. I didn't care about the water anymore; my fear of Tails getting hurt was much more powerful than my fear of drowning.
Merlin's PoV
There were two dangers associated with this kind of uncertain situation. As a lone alchemist in a religiously corrupted island, one could never be safe. Normally, the simple-minded citizens would never care about such a paltry thing, a magician in their midst, despite the incessant preaching of Janus, so long as it did not adversely affect their lives in any way, or cause any danger to them. This made me safe.
However, in these situations, when something weird would happen, the authorities would point the finger to me. People in this secluded place didn't really understand what an 'eclipse' was, so this would allow Janus to take advantage, spewing out lies, inciting their hatred, against us, the community who practiced magic and the arts. They would try to bust into the houses, but if we held strong long enough, the citizens would start to disperse…when the temporary thing would stop.
They hadn't come yet… but something would come, very surely…
"Tails would come to us; he will come to you…and mark my words, Merlin. What he will become would be the fall of the heavens and the stars. He may be your nephew, that cute one, but in truth… I would appreciate it if you would…, eliminate him, when he is weak, when he is at his vulnerable stage…"
I scoffed. So untrue…What could happen at all? He was only a 13 year-old young kid, what harm could he present to us? Just because of his two tails?
"Let him drink the water in the vial…"
I walked to the table, and took the small glass vial, grasping it in my hand, letting the bottom half hang about in the air. In it, I could feel an awful aura emitted from it, an aura of death, I could even smell it… With a little playing around with the light, I noticed the small, little, yellow tinge to the liquid. Also, after I shook it, the bubbles moved very slowly up to the surface. Obviously, this wasn't ordinary poisoned water. As an alchemist, I quickly recognized the 'water' that was inside the vial. In fact, it was named after Uzu, the mythical beast who supposedly lived a long time ago.
It was named appropriately, as Uzu was the 'devil who stole the hearts of people' (as far as I read). But it is not the stupid slang in the modern cities, denoting a crush, it was something much more cruel than that, as I overheard. It really stole the hearts of people, both physically and in the spiritual sense. Heroes who could not withstand the constant pressure from Uzu, succumbed to him. They would feel no need or love to fight for their citizen's freedom and such, no need to fight against the darkness, and instead joined the darkness, only hatred in their minds. They turned against the nation and killed many. When they eventually died, it was found that they had no hearts in their bodies…
A nice bedtime story to overconfident children. It has been passed down for many generations. I obviously didn't believe the lie, but it was a good story. My sister-in-law, Rosemary, always loved to tell the 2-year old Tails how one should strive to be a good person, lest they get their hearts stolen… It was strange how a mother could tell morals which had not yet any relevance to their lives…
Suddenly, a memory struck me… how Tails' mother died so cruelly. Tails would hate me for this. It was not pleasant at all…
Anyway, the water was named appropriately. Although it did not exactly brutally snatch the hearts away from the chests of people, it accomplished the spiritual sense of it. I heard that the effect of drinking the water was reminiscent of Uzu's. They would roll onto the ground, screaming in agony… not seeing the world as it is…
Not only did it cause extreme pain to the heart, it also contained the right number of hallucinogens to affect the way people think. How people feel… Suddenly, one would feel the darkness of the mind, all its hidden hatred and hate, amplified to its maximum. It would slowly crush their mind, crush their soul, diminishing all the heart and compassion and replacing it with bad thoughts. As I heard, the feeling was that the whole world was against the victim; everybody hated him.
Eventually, the brain would cease to function, not being able to take it, overwhelmed. It would cause a painful death…
"Even if your lies are true, Janus, do you think that Tails would have intended these things to happen, if they happened at all?"
"What?"
"Do you think that his true self will support these actions? Support the devil's doings with his body? Do you think that, in all absurdity, he will want to do the things that Uzu tells him to do?"
"No… but eventually…"
"If that is the case, why do you want to kill Tails, not Uzu? Is it the fault of Tails if he does catastrophic things? Or is it Uzu's? Why should I kill him if he does no wrong? I do not believe in these things, Janus, but even if I do, I will not kill my nephew, you fool…"
"You sound just like your brother, my friend. Fair enough, but I will still want to eliminate him though other ways, whether you like it or not… I admire your love for your nephew, but the thing is…why would you want to care about your nephew at all? I had heard some reports of… questionable things you have done to him…"
Questionable things… About the lunatic I was before, I didn't want to think about that. I had a lot of stories to tell to him…
It was time to brave the dangers… and meet that single person I have never seen in years, and tell him the truth.
I carried my staff, and walked into the lush forest…
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I am very sorry for the massive delay (half a year). This is definitely no compensation, but, I'll just post this up. And yes, it really seems like it is West Island instead of East.
