Ka-tet – Path of the Beam
The reunited ka-tet exited the castle through a back entrance and found themselves on a new road. The street was simple hardened dirt, unlike the ruined asphalt of the roads to the ruined castle. The road ran on in a straight line farther than they could tell. Almost at once, the ka-tet looked up to the sky and saw that they were once again standing underneath the beam. Satisfied with the day's events, they embarked on their journey to the Tower once more. The gunslinger walked on, his lips closed but his mind at work. He scratched the stubble on his face and tried to remember how long he had been on his journey for the Tower.
Link brushed his bangs out of his face. They had grown long during his time in Mid-World, although one could hardly call it that anymore. As the ka-tet walked on, the world continued to change around them. The Tower was continuing to weaken and the temporal rifts were becoming a normality in some parts of the world. Pieces of lost worlds fused and meshed, curtains of Twilight expanded, and throughout all of this, Randall Flagg laughed upon his throne in admiration.
From where he sat, he could see over a realm of the world that had been plunged into darkness and chaos. The rift was a pit of darkness, adorned with brilliant scars of lightning and beams of white energy. He held out his hand as if manipulating a puppet. "See boys, that is precisely where Midgar will go. The rose will be delivered to my doorstep on its last breath. After I take that too, the Tower will fall and we will absorb all that has ever existed and become gods. Doesn't that sound swell?" Flagg threw back his head and laughed. That was what he did, he laughed during times of chaos and misery. Flagg was the nightmare you woke up from, screaming and sweating. Flagg was the darkness in everyone's heart, whispering evil and begging to be unleashed.
Almost terrifying to think that there was actually something more terrifying than Flagg. Flagg did answer to one being, the most powerful, insane creature the universe has ever seen. The Crimson King watched and waited from his own place at the end of the world, waiting for Flagg to bring the Tower down.
Untold miles away, the ka-tet marched on. They knew little of the Crimson King or of Flagg's char-tet's true intentions, but they did feel that resonating feeling of justice. The feeling that they had to stop the King's plans, and not just for themselves. They hit the big leagues, these heroes that had been used to saving their own worlds. Because they weren't fighting for their own worlds anymore, but for all of them.
AN: That, dearest reader, marks the end of Arc Four. Thank you for sticking around to hear my story, I'll be back before you know it. Travel well, friends. -Dylan Kennedy