~ Back in the past ~
Today is the day to find the purest vessel of them all. The one that doesn't have any emotions, no mind to think and no voice to cry out.
Only one will be his vessel to trap the Radiance and stop the spread of the infection.
The Pale King sigh as he rubbed the spot between his eyes slowly. This is proving to be a difficult task indeed. Why must it be so hard to fulfill just this one task?
Currently, he's standing on a metal platform. His feet clanked on the cold surface of the metal, making a metallic sound. The view here is very high up from the almost non-existence ground down below, giving him the sight of all his hard work going into the drain that is "Abyss"
It breaks his heart to throw all of his work away, which is quite sad…
"Huh? What's this?", He thought as his eyes catch a glimpse of a white mask climbing up the platform he's standing at the moment.
The vessel climbed upwards with grace before standing in front of the king. Their eyes are void of any emotions at all, that's how the Pale King sees it. Their body exerts something akin to tiredness, but that's understandable since it's such a long climb.
The king waited a bit more to see if there's going to be any other vessels that would climb up and prove to him their worth...but so far, there's none.
"Well, it looks like out of thousands, millions...(actually he loses count of that) of vessels. Only one survived that fall...hmm" The king sigh once more before turning his back away from the Abyss. Only one will suffice.
"Come" He called out to the vessel with two horns with two tiny nubs for each side. Their posture is straight and full of grace.
He only walks for a couple of steps before he heard a small sound of metal tapping. He turned back to the black inkiness that is the Abyss and saw another one climbing up. Their feature is almost the same as the one before it, only their horn is less curve and shorter.
The "pure" vessel stood there and watches as their sibling tries to climb up. If they help the other one, then no doubt the king would throw them down also...
"Shadow"
...
"Ancient enemy"
...
"Will you wake UP!"
The knight woke up from their slumber and to their surprise...they're hanging on the ledge for their dear life. What are they doing here?
The vessel looked up and saw their other sibling "Pure", they thought and behind them, they could see...their father with that cold gaze, but in reality, the Pale King is just waiting for the vessel to climb up and that is just his face.
"That is what I'm wondering also...", The moth mused from the back of their mind before looking down below them. The vast darkness is enough to engulf her light away in a blink of an eye. No warmth and only unwelcoming feeling linger.
The radiance frowned. If the king locked her up in here instead of inside that tiny body consists only of a small portion of void...
She shuddered at the weird, cold feeling in her chest at that thought.
Oh, wait what? The Radiance is still here with them?
Ghost's hand slipped from the rail and only one of their hand is holding them up.
Oh no no, not again They thought while panicking. They aren't sure what they're doing here, but if this is the past or some twisted dream, then there's no way for them to make the same mistake again.
But it's so hard. It's like they have no energy left to finish the climb. The Radiance seems to understand the little shadow's situation, so she lends over them her power to give them the final push of strength-
The Pale King watches as it struggles to climb up with the last of their strength. He tries to push down the feeling of "come oooooon, you can do it" as one of their hand slips from the edge.
He was going to leave the moment he thought that they aren't going to make it, but such a miracle, the little vessel finally climbed up from the edge and fell down to the platform, huffing tiredly.
Well, two is good too.
He waited a bit more for the new vessel to get back on its feet and ready to move. While he's waiting, he glanced over to the "Pure vessel" and at that very moment, their eyes meet each other. It felt like a small connect, but then the king quickly broke it.
"There's no need to get attached to it", he thought.
Right after that, the vessel seems ready to walk again. Their body is feeling alright now after that...moment.
"Come, we don't have all day" The pale being said to the two vessels as he walked out of the door and not looking back again. Pure looked at Ghost while Ghost just nodded their head before walking forward, following right beside the older vessel.
"Well, this is going to be interesting", The sun goddess chuckled. Maybe she might find something embarrassing about the Pale Wyrm that she could tease him later on.
And with that, the door to the Abyss closes. Never to be open again...