A muffled scream is measuredly lost through a heartbreaking echo in the overwhelming immensity of a structure rooted in the gloom, in turn, it was shown as a livid and emaciated figure faded into the blackness of the stone, leaving alone her victorious opponent. She panted heavily, trembling without letting go of her desperate grip on her sword and shield, feeling how sweat mixed with blood, soaking her face and part of her battered armor.
—It's... ah... it's over... —is the only thing she can say as she falls to her knees on the ground, gasping and covered in ash, feeling human for the first time in a long time. She had achieved it, she had just defeated Gwyn, formerly the lord of light, known in his last days as the lord of ash. After such an exhausting journey, her long journey had finally come to an end.
She doesn't say a word as she gets up from the ground, her blond hair darkening her eyes as she still panting tiredly, struggling to catch her breath, she staggers on more than one occasion, however, she does not allow herself to fall; her feet move slowly, sinking slightly into the sea of ash, her gaze straight ahead, focused on the center of the consumed ruins, watching the gigantic group of stalactites surround the spiraling, fluorescent trace of the grayish sand where a small sword has fallen by rust it rested patiently... waiting.
—What am I doing?... —she wonders, stopping halfway, still staring at the mound of stalactin, the last bonfire in the center, she just had to touch it and it would stoke the fire, bringing once again to the age of light eradicating to the darkness that would have slowly passed away like an infected wound... that was her duty, for that she had fought so hard... she had lost so much... she was an undead, afflicted by a curse, sent to these lands with that purpose, this was her mission... her destiny... or so she had been told...
"You must succeed High Lord Gwyn, bring forth the great souls of the other lords, and bind the first flame, thus ending the age of darkness. "
That's what they told her...
She dropped to the ground once more, throwing her weapons into the air with anger and sadness, hugging herself... her whole body shuddered, shivering in the nonexistent cold.
Sacrifice for this world?
"You must destroy the fading Lord Gwyn, who has coddled Fire and resisted nature, and become the Fourth Lord, so that you may usher in the Age of Dark! "
A small laugh is heard in the silence.
The fourth lord? Age of Humanity?
Tears flow from the shadow in her dull eyes, down her sunken cheeks to her armor and the ground.
Was those she only options? Why should the world care about it? Why was that even her destiny?... a joke... this was all a bad joke.
Her silent laughter builds, breaking into a guffaw, followed by constant pounding against the misty floor; the ash rises with each impact covering it even more without decorum.
Stupid things... they were all stupid. Destiny? No... this was not her destiny... that did not exist, she had no destiny, she was just lucky enough to survive, to get up again and again, to be strong enough to get to this point, to be stupid enough to cling to the idea that her existence was really worth something. She cannot remember who she was before the curse... she barely knew her name, she believed that this trip, that said "destiny" would give her the answers she longed for so much... but she only found an immense emptiness in the darkness that consumed these lands, one much larger than the mark on her side that throbbed hungry for souls and power; it was just a tool, used by the same entities that poisoned this world to correct its mistakes... And that wasn't a silly revelation that she got thanks to an existentialist self-contemplation in the most crucial moments of her last battle... no... she already knew it, she knew it from the moment she left that dungeon in which she was to rot until the end of time, from the moment she rang those bells, since she met those crawling and cowardly snakes, since she crossed the confines of the depths and the skies themselves in search of those corrupted souls... she always knew... she was fully aware that her entire journey was written by the mere fortune of finding the needle in the haystack ... it was disposable, replaceable, if she couldn't, someone else would come.
And why had she done all this in the first place then? If it had no real purpose, why bother continuing? Why chase a pointless journey?
"I have come to this great land, the birthplace of Lord Gwyn, to seek my own sun! "
"Thank you for saving me! Mm, you seem pretty lucid! A rare thing these days... I'm an empty-handed woman... but, I could repay you with knowledge and sorcery. "
Oh yes... for them...
The tears fade, slowly fading along with her laughter, which is getting smaller and smaller... so small and inaudible.
They...
Anne of Astora and Marcy of the Big Hat... acquaintances who unexpectedly became the most important people in her life, a part of herself, the first and only... They were the same as her, they were cursed, alone and broken by an uncertain path, but somehow they were less pessimistic, always finding the positive even in the darkest moments of their lives; Anne, kind and compassionate, Marcy, bright and witty, both warm and beautiful... seeing them, she could feel an immense heat that must be impossible in her dead and cold body... And little by little, through her glances, she discovered what her destiny was, she discovered why she had come to these lands abandoned to it fate... she was there to protect them, take care of them, to make their smiles never lose their shine, to be their light in the immensity of the darkness that they covered their existence.
The sound of laughter faded away, leaving only room for crying...a quiet, muffled cry.
"Arrrgh... F-finally, I've found it, I've found it!... M-my own sun... I-I... am the sun!... I've done it... I-I have... Yes, I did... That's right!... " (The image twists, fragmented in blood and darkness) Ahhhhh!... it's over... My sun... dims... it's dark... so dark... "
"W-Who are you?!... S-Stay away from me!... Stay away from my work!... Damn you!... How dare you bother me! " (Everything is red, everything it touches is dyed red)
But nevertheless, she failed... she couldn't protect them... she couldn't save them from themselves... the curse consumed them and took them away, leaving only empty bodies thirsty for humanity and souls, driven mad by their unattainable longings... they weren't them anymore... they couldn't go back.
Why wasn't it me?
What hurt her the most... was that she could never tell them how important they were to her... how much she loved their eyes and their smiles... how she appreciated the sound of their voices... the little moments they counted, their stories and occurrences... she regretted never having been able to tell them how much she loved them...
And that was the reason why she did not deviate and let her humanity be lost, the reason why she continued on that steep path to nothingness... No matter the curse... this world, the Lords, the snakes primal... for her everyone could go to hell... she didn't go ahead for them, she didn't get involved in following that stupid prophecy because she cared, everything was for them, the reason why she had continued until the end was to never forget them, to keep their memories alive with me until the end of time...
But now... she was tired... so tired... she didn't want memories anymore... she wanted them... she missed them so much... so much... just... just wanted to see them one more time.
What would have happened if she had convinced them to leave all of this... get away from these lands and live what was left to them together? just having them by her side was more than enough... but none of that was going to happen... she couldn't change the past.
The cries slowly died away, leaving the cave silent once more... her eyes focused a second time on the extinguished bonfire, eager to consume her entire existence.
She wondered what they would do in her situation, how they would react if they saw her like this... a mess wrapped in tears and pain...
W-Would I let them down? Would they laugh at me? Would they hate the miserable, monstrous thing I had become?...
She shook his head with a small smile, her knees sank further into the ashes, her gloved hands rested in her lap... now she was looking up at the dead gray sky... searching for something in the nebulous atmosphere... not an answer, she already had it, her choice was already made from the moment the great stone doors behind the lord's vessel opened... she was looking for something more important...
"I'm scared... "
She was looking for value for what she would do.
"Scared? "
She stood on her own two feet wielding her second sword, a slender and firm greatsword, its blade gleaming in the darkness.
"I'm afraid of... all of this... what we're facing... of... losing myself one day... turning into those mindless things... "
Metal clanged against stone, stalactin fragments scattering through the air.
"Well... that's something that will happen to us eventually... we can't help it even if we wanted to... "
A fierce scream joined the impact of the metal, the stone falling, sinking into the ash.
"I know... but I don't want it to happen... I don't want to forget you... or for you to forget me... "
Hit after hit more spikes fell, the structure collapsed, trembled
"That's why you care so much about that prophecy, right? Do you want to cure us of the curse? "
The dust of destruction rose up covering everything in its path like a thick, dense fog.
"You don't have to. This world isn't worth it... It's not worth sacrificing yourself for... "
The rusty sword sinks into the stone and ash, frightened and furious, lost in the mist of its own desire... falling into the darkness it so longed to destroy.
"You've already done too much... Why should it be you? Let someone else take care of that. Didn't you tell us that it was foolish to follow someone else's dreams instead of one's own? "
Her shoulders rise and fall, behind her the large structure around her continues to fall, slowly collapsing in on itself.
"Using my own words against me, huh? "
The laughter returns, this time it's not broken or melancholy... it's a peaceful... laughter.
"I... I just want you guys to be happy. "
"We wouldn't be without you."
"What does it matter if we become hollow and lose our memories... souls are immortal, they last beyond time itself... I know that somehow our souls will continue together in eternity... maybe even in another life in a better place than this. "
"We'd still be together no matter what. "
The greatsword falls, bouncing off gravel and gray sand, as she walks back the way she came, refusing to return her gaze.
"Heh... it's like they say that it's my destiny to stay by your side... that's... very corny. "
"Hey, it was your words, not ours. "
"But if it were real... Would it be a horrible fate? "
The image of the warrior is lost in the path of ruins and ashes, her steps echo in the silence while only a tiny and diffuse image remains of her; no dark lord, no successor of the gods, she walks away from the place as a simple undead who chose herself, who chose to hope for something better... in the end the flame will never be fanned, and when the darkness comes it will have no ruler, the world will experience for the first time the uncertainty of solitude and silence.
"No... is the best... "