PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING: This is the final sequence of this story, and I thank you all so, so much for reading, reviewing, favouring, and following. However, as said in the description of this story, this is but one world of many. If you guys have any input as to which story I should incorporate into the Intertwine series, there's a poll at the top of my profile where you can place two votes. Of course, this isn't mandatory, but I'm pretty indifferent to what I should do next, so I figured I'd might as well appeal to the audience to some extent. Again, thank you all so freaking much for finding this story and sticking through with it :]
Without further ado, let us complete this little adventure, if that's what you wish to call it.
The trembling only worsened by the second but while the others desperately clung to the collapsing furniture of the dining hall for support, I stood calmly in the midst of it all. I'll admit that I could have ease the shaking long ago, but seeing these usually stoic characters with such large eyes full of fear was too amusing to get rid of so quickly.
I decided it was time to get to work when the ceiling split in two.
"S-S-Somebody s-save m-m-me!" Maurice sobbed while clinging onto a table for dear life.
"W-We need to get out of here i-immediately!" Greenhill shouted and tried to make his way towards the windows. I immediately grabbed his arm and in turn, he tried to shake me off. "What are you doing, Carter?! Let me go! We need to escape through the windows!"
"I promise you that the last place you want to be is outside." I answered calmly before shoving him back. I looked over my shoulder to see that the field outside was breaking apart. Bits and pieces of it were floating into the air and pieces of the sky fell to the ground like shards. Behind the cracks of the sky was complete darkness, where there was Nothing.
With the Key in hand, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I could feel several rapid pulses from many directions. Those were the heartbeats of everybody in the room. That wasn't what I was looking for. What I needed was the core of this world.
I opened my eyes once more and quickly made my way over to Ciel.
"Please excuse me, but I need to borrow your heart for a moment."
"W-What?!"
Without another second wasted, I slammed the hand holding the Key into his chest and watched as my hand went through. The young boy immediately fell limp in my arms. Sebastian was giving me quite the frightening glare at this point.
"C-Carter, what have you done?! What are you doing?!" Edward was shouting as he rushed.
I scoffed and closed my eyes. "Calm down, he isn't dead." I answered while feeling Ciel's heartbeat resonate through my body. "Every world is full of pulses, each one identifying a particular object. Every world has a core and that too, has a pulse. I'm just using Ciel's heartbeat as a guide to find the pulse of the core and once I find it, it'll only be a matter of time before I fix this broken world."
"You'd best hurry up with that. I don't think this building will be able to sustain any more damage." Sebastian answered with a sigh.
"Everybody move; the ceiling is falling!"
I didn't even need to open my eyes to know that Sebastian had gone and moved everybody out of the way. I heard the pieces of the ceiling fall to the ground behind me but I paid no mind to it. Although I thought by now that by staying still, it implied that I wasn't in danger, that didn't seem to stop Sebastian from pulling me aside as well. Then again, he was probably only concerned about Ciel's safety.
"That was kind of you, but please don't touch me again." I murmured, my brows now furrowed as I searched for the core's pulse. "There are over a trillion different pulses in this world and having yours mixing in with Ciel's makes searching for the core that much harder."
"W-What's happening now?!"
I opened one eye and looked around the partially obliterated room. The ceiling had a gaping hole right in the middle and directly above us was a large scar in the sky.
"It would have been appreciated if you gave us some details regarding the restoration progress in advance." I heard Sebastian sigh a couple of feet away from me.
"You hardly believed my story of having to find the Key. I highly doubt you would appreciate knowing that your world would be in the brink of destruction before I can fix it."
"Why is that?"
Frustrated, I removed my glowing hand from Ciel's chest and laid him down on his back. This was going nowhere. His pulse wasn't strong enough to help me locate the core.
I looked over to Sebastian and while answering his question, made my way towards him. "That's just how it is. Simply put, my job is to mend the scars in your world, but the reality is that I need to tear it apart and rebuild it from scratch." I flexed my glowing hand a few times before giving an empty smile to the demon. "Ciel's pulse won't do, so if you'll excuse me."
Without warning, I pressed my hand into the demon's chest and carefully set him down as he lost consciousness. In the meantime, Ciel had woken up and was immediately taken aback from the state of the dining hall.
"How did this happen? I thought you were supposed to be fixing this world." He demanded and gave me a look of disbelief. It was only then when he noticed that Sebastian was resting on the ground with my glowing hand placed in his chest. "What did you do to him?!"
"The same thing I did to you. Be quiet and let me focus." I muttered in an impatient tone. I didn't want to have to explain every little thing to them but my, were their questions annoying.
I sighed deeply and felt the pulses coursing through my body. Although Ciel is regarded as the center of this world, his pulse wasn't strong enough to help me locate the core. This was probably a direct correlation with his size and his actual strength. At least I got a vague idea of what I'm looking for through his heartbeat.
Sebastian's pulse, on the other hand, was much stronger, of course. I had my eyes closed as I searched, but snapped them open the moment I found a lead. The glowing around my hand grew brighter and stretched up to engulf the room.
The trembling stopped, and so did the panicking. The light faded and returned to the Key, whose glow and warmth gradually faded as well. In its place was an actual metal key, one with intricate carvings and a small red gem in the middle of the bow.
The prefects and their fags were now gone. Without a word, I grabbed Ciel and shoved him towards Sebastian. "Make sure he sees and hears absolutely nothing." I ordered the demon without giving them a second glance.
"What are you—?!" Ciel started, but I gave Sebastian an urgent look at the young boy had his eyes and ears covered an instant.
Once everything was ready, I looked up into the seemingly endless darkness. After a few moments of absolutely silence, lights began to shine through the Darkness. One by one, these small specs of light expanded and turned into small images. Once the images materialize, they began to play like movie clips.
Sebastian quickly realized what these were and gave me a questioning look.
"This space is this world's core, in the space that is known as the Darkness." I started while approaching one of the clips.
The Darkness is not to be mistaken with the Nothingness. The Darkness is more like a room where the core is stored, whereas the Nothingness is the median began the worlds. The most significant difference between the two is that space and time aren't nearly as distorted in the Darkness as they are in the Nothingness.
I pressed my hand against one of the clips and began to drag it along with me as I walked towards the center of the Darkness. "The core is what keeps the world together and sorts through the fragments of the world to keep its flow. Of course, you'd recognize these clips as your life thus far with the young Ciel Phantomhive up until now."
Soon, the clips began to produce sounds. It was then when the screaming and tortures cries began. I eyed the image of Ciel being branded float in front of me and across the Darkness. I looked back at Sebastian, who now seemed to understand why I told him to prevent Ciel from seeing or hearing.
"I'll remind you that everything I do is for a reason. Oh, a do be careful; the core will start bringing out your true form in just a few moments." I added before reaching out to one of the images.
Surely enough, as I began to arrange them in a linear fashion, Sebastian's human appearance was gradually replaced with that of a gruesome demon.
This, of course, did not go unnoticed by Ciel. "S…Sebastian, what's happening?!"
With a swipe several of the noisy panels, a brief moment of silence overcame the Darkness. I gestured for Sebastian to release the young boy for a moment.
"Stay put for now. I'm currently in the process of restoring your world. It should take no longer than a few minutes at this point." I explained and once again, the noise returned.
When the panels depicting Ciel's tragic past were sorted out and layered in the correct fashion, Sebastian released the young boy, though I noticed that he made sure Ciel didn't turn around. I thought he would be capable of seeing the demon's true form, though I suppose it's best to keep it safe.
Panel by panel, fragment by fragment, I pulled them together and sorted through them as quickly as I could. My powers enabled me to register images a lot more quickly than a human, but it was still a tedious job but of course, it was the most important.
Soon, panels of the circus and the baron flew by, then the murder mystery in the mansion, which were in turn followed by the events on the cruise ship. I let myself linger a litter while longer on the panel that showed Elizabeth showing her swordplay and smiled.
"You have a stunning fiancé, Ciel." I murmured before continuing with my task. "You'd best take care of her like she did to you."
I smiled to myself from his annoyed mutters and glare.
After a couple of more minutes, panels depicting the beginning of the Weston College began to appear. I stopped for a moment and turned my attention to the two others in the Darkness with me.
"From this point on, the two of you will gradually begin to disappear while I return you to the proper time in your world. With the Key, I will then lock the panels and thus, lock your world. This, of course, will mean that your world has been recovered, rebuilt, and stabilized. Ah, how unfortunate it is to be nothing but a forgotten hero."
"What if we don't forget?" Ciel asked curiously.
I tapped my chin as if I were in thought for a moment before smiling innocently. "Well, let's just say it's best that it doesn't come to that."
Having the characters remember anything about the reestablishment of their world is one of the worst things that could possibly happen. It's never happened to any of the worlds I've handled, but I've heard stories of this happening before, and very, very rarely do I ever hear of those worlds being restored successfully ever again.
"Well then, back to work." I mused, and the sorting was resumed.
With each panel that was stuck in place, the more Ciel and Sebastian seemed to disintegrate. The specs of their bodies gathered around the panels that I had collected and sorted. I reminded them not to be alarmed, and that this was exactly what was supposed to happen.
Within due time, they were just faint silhouettes of themselves. Before placing the last couple of panels, I faced them once more.
"It was a pleasure to make your acquaintances, but let us never meet again, for that would mean that something had gone terribly wrong." I spoke with a smile and with two swift motions of my hands, set the final panels into place.
Although very faint, the last thing I saw was Ciel's speechless expression and Sebastian's intrigued gaze.
The last particles of the two characters faded into the glow that the completed sequence and finally, the light of the panels filled the Darkness and lit up the room to almost a blinding extent. The panels themselves condensed into a black keyhole that seemed to float in the middle of the Darkness, which is no longer dark but is still referred to as such.
I don't give the names, so please don't confront me about its accuracy.
"Another world restored…" I started while inserting the Key, " …Another thankless job well done."
With a faint click, this world was stabilized once again.
Well, that's how it was supposed to be.
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Hm.
How interesting.
It appears Alaine wasn't quite finished with her story.
Perhaps you would be kind enough to let me know whether or not I should let her continue sharing.