Stage 6: Transcendence
The world of opaque void steadily took shape. For over an hour, Samus had limped steadily deeper into an oppressive emptiness, so that when she finally saw the faint outlines of distant structures her heart lifted. The heavy white slowly dimmed into a more obscure gray. Towers and ruined buildings emerged out of the empty mist.
Samus watched the slow unraveling of the space with trepidation. She was entering the outskirts of a vast gray city. Like the great church from before, the scale of the buildings was difficult to grasp. The world of white had no ceiling, but away in the distant periphery, Samus could see the faint lines of still more towers.
As she walked, the world became more solid. The grays hardened into faint blacks, giving the world a sense of contrast and true physicality. Samus felt that she vaguely recognized the general layout of the city. It reminded her of the Chozo Ruins on Tallon IV, only at a scale that dwarfed the efforts of the monastic Chozo.
Samus paused at the sound of her own footsteps. She had been going in silence for so long the sudden return of sound alarmed her. Samus now stood in a major market of the city. The streets ahead and to either side looked empty and forlorn. A cold chill swept through the empty streets. Without her armor to protect her, Samus shivered.
As she passed this first market, Samus began to hear more sounds. The sound of the wind became louder, as did a faint shuffling of movement and the low hum of whispered voices. Samus clutched the grip of her paralyzer. She drifted into the corners of the streets, using the heavy shadows to move as quietly and discreetly as possible.
She paused at the end of a narrow alley and looked up. In the center of an open square, she saw shapes moving faintly. To her surprise, the figures appeared to be human. Samus half emerged out of her hiding spot before slinking back. It had been so long since she had seen a possible ally, and she was desperate to end her solitude. However, she knew better than to rush ahead without caution.
Samus watched the shapes intently. They moved about the square like phantoms. The humans were solid, that was easy enough to see. However, they did not seem to be doing anything, or take any notice of one another. They simply walked in slow, unaltered circles. Samus looked further down the square. The ruined city took no notice of the ghosts that walked its streets.
Deciding that the risk was worth it, Samus raced out of her cover. She approached a woman who was sitting at a bench staring at a stone monument erected in the midst of the square. "Excuse me," Samus started. "Can you tell me where I am?"
The woman gave no indication that she had heard Samus. Her face was still directed at the monument. Samus turned to see what was so interesting. However, all she saw was a heavy black stone. It was not shaped or adorned in any way. "Can you hear me?" Samus pressed. She went so far as to wave her hand in front of the woman's face. The movement caused the woman's hair to move and she stirred. She looked up at what was causing the commotion. Her dark eyes expanded as they searched, but it was as if Samus were of a completely different substance than the world around. The woman could not see her.
Samus stepped back and felt suddenly exposed. She held up her arms and realized the blue of her suit was the only color in that entire void. Samus immediately despaired of any notions of stealth. If anything could see her in this place, then she would not be able to conceal herself amongst the unsubstantial shadows.
Disturbed by this new sense of visibility, Samus hurried out of the square. The entire city seemed to converge slightly, conveying in an almost imperceptible way, that the visitor was meant to head towards the center. Samus followed this unconscious prompting. Along the way she encountered more denizens of that colorless world. Chozo, humans and space pirates alike occupied the ruins. Neither species appeared capable of seeing or interacting with Samus. Though they noticed whenever she did something to disturb their world.
The closer she got to the center of the city, the colder it became. Samus wrapped her arms around her shoulders and bore the sting of the chill. Her teeth chattered and eventually, Samus tried to warm herself up by taking a cloak she found deposited on the floor. Samus tried to wrap the gray mantle about herself, but the cloth fell through her hands. It, like the people, could not interact with her directly.
This proved debilitating as the temperature continued to plummet. Harsh wind carrying icy droplets howled through the streets. Samus winced as the cold stung her face. She wondered if she would be able to journey much further, when she heard something that gave her a spark of hope. Just beneath the roar of the wind, she could hear the faint crackle of fire. Samus started to jog through the streets and eventually the narrow lanes opened. In a wide gap between towers, Samus saw a huge bonfire burning high and tall. Its orange flames burned with a color and vibrancy that Samus had never seen in a fire before.
She raced forward, eager to warm herself. However, the way was blocked. Samus had finally reached the center of the city. The town square was a circle two miles in diameter. The huge bonfire was at the center, but between Samus and it was a thick wall made of solid ice. Samus' heart sank as she approached the giant barrier. Even at a distance of several feet, Samus could feel an icy chill radiating off its surface.
She looked down the line. The wall of ice was solid with no visible breaks. They rose to a height of fifteen feet, far beyond her ability to jump. She considered trying to use the same trick she had used to get inside the tower, but something told her that it would be unwise to touch the ice wall. Even as she stood and considered her next move, the air became even colder. Samus was trembling all over, and her fingers were throbbing.
More to stay warm than anything else, she started to run beside the wall. It took her to the outer edge of the main square, towards an arch leading out of the city. A white gate made of crystal rested on a tall mound of snow. Beyond it was an icy tundra. Here was the source of the blizzard that was blowing into the city.
Samus mounted the hill and turned back. From this vantage point, she could see that the ice wall completely encircled the bonfire. The only opening was on the far edge of the city, but Samus could not see a way to reach it, but she could not look very long. The howling wind was slipping beneath her suit and turning her skin red with cold. She rushed down the hill and back into the streets.
For several grueling minutes, Samus walked back and forth. She had to get to that bonfire, but there did not seem any way forward. Samus considered turning and going back the way she had come, but that didn't seem to make any difference. The cold had settled inside the city. Her only chance at relief was the fire.
She swore under her breath as she started to jog beside the wall. Movement kept her heart rate up, but that was a flimsy shield against the pressing cold. At last, Samus saw something that gave her some hope. A human man was drawing towards the ice wall. He stood stark against the white and gray backdrop because there was still some color to him, though it was heavily faded. The man staggered to the wall. Icicles clung to his beard and he was shaking terribly.
Samus hurried over just as the man collapsed. He crawled closer to the ice wall, his eyes were lifted up. What color remained in them was merely the orange reflection of the distant fire. The man groaned as if in terrible pain. Samus knelt beside him. "Is there a way past the wall?"
The man turned to face her. Red gashes marred his face. Within the open wounds, the blood had frozen. Tears were frozen beneath his eyes. His mouth moved faintly. Samus drew nearer to hear him. "The way to life…is death." The man's voice died beneath a loud gust of wind. That final effort was the last the man had. The color drained from his face entirely. He reached out, and with the end of one finger, he touched the icy wall. At once, he stopped shivering. His entire being turned pale, and he seemed to diminish. He became as the rest of the people of that city were. He was not quite a ghost, but more solid than a shadow.
Samus withdrew and eyed the ice wall with doubled trepidation. "The way to life is death?" She repeated those words as she surveyed the city. What did that mean? Was the only way forward to touch the ice wall and become like these phantoms? But no, the man had touched the ice wall. It was as physical a barrier to them as it was to Samus. "The way to life is death?"
The world of white and gray shadows loomed over Samus. She felt as if it were on the verge of crashing down and burying her in cold, icy emptiness. Samus resisted its spell and started running again. She raced back to the crystal gate and stood atop the high hill. Her gaze swept over the city, searching, praying for some indication of how to proceed. The wind howled behind her. The crystal gate groaned as it was flung open. Snow drifts swept into Samus' eyes. Before her was a world of white ice. A land of endless winter. Samus wondered if the cold that persisted there would kill her in an instant. "The way to life is death."
Samus turned. She looked across the city and saw the opening at the far end of the city. Her heart sank. Could it be that cruel? If she dared the icy bluffs, would the path take her around and towards the fire? Was the path forward actually a path away, was the direction of warmth, actually a trespass into the cold? "The way to life is death." Samus faced the gateway. Just the thought of going forward made her every nerve scream in protest. She was already nearly frozen. More cold did not seem possible. Her fingers shook, and her breath caught in her chest.
It took every ounce of courage she had to walk forward. She nearly hesitated at the gate, but Samus knew that if she stopped, she would never go forward. Samus resolved to die before allowing herself to be turned into one of those lifeless phantoms. Beyond the gate, Samus' feet sank into deep snow. The white powder was intensely cold. Her zero suit had been burned at the soles, so her skin was touching the frost.
For the first few minutes, Samus did not feel much. Her body was already numb, so the added snow did not affect her much. A perpetual blizzard raged around her. Snow blasted her in the face, and the wind howled so loud she could hardly hear herself think. Navigation was impossible. The world before her was lost in white. Samus kept her head down and forced herself to just keep moving forward.
Her legs started to burn from the effort of moving through the thick snow. Her numbed fingers started to ache dully. Samus' left shoulder felt as if it had become detached from her body. All the abuse it had taken left it completely vulnerable to the devastation of the cold. Every breath cost Samus. The air condescended in front of her, and gulping down the cold wind tortured her lungs.
Eventually, the snow drifts came to an end. Samus nearly slipped as she stepped out onto a long plane of hard ice. Contact with the frozen lake made the soles of Samus' feet scream out. Samus curled her upper body into a ball, attempting to shield her fingers with her torso. It was no use. The wind slapped against her with increasing ferocity. Her breathing became more and more shallow as she succumbed to the pain. Against her will, tears formed in the corners of her eyes. Samus had never been in such pain before. Her will of iron was torn to shreds. She would have given anything to get away, to be somewhere else, to be anyone else. She whimpered without shame as she trudged forward. Every step was an agony. Her skin stuck to the ice, causing her to leave strips of her feet behind as she walked. The trail of blood froze instantly.
Samus came to a sudden stop. She could not go on anymore. She collapsed onto one knee. Her insides were freezing. Her breathing started to slow. The pain in her fingers was so bad it drove out every other sensation. Samus looked down at them and despaired as she saw the spread of black that covered her digits. The wind continued to howl. Her sobs were silenced even before they left her mouth.
Something flashed beneath the surface of the ice. Samus watched as a blinking red light steadily grew. It did not matter what it was. Samus was beyond curiosity. Her vision dimmed. The pain had reached its upper limit. Everything was starting to become numb. Her eyes would close and she would not open them again. The red light grew. Suddenly, there were three lights. Something was rising out of the depths of the frozen lake. It grew, until Samus saw something swimming quickly towards the surface.
Somehow, Samus found the strength to move. She staggered backward just in time. A huge claw burst out of the ice and swept at the empty air. Samus jumped to her feet as the entire icy field groaned. CRACK! A monstrous torso broke the ice and rose to a colossal height. Samus gaped as the torso of the beast towered above her. The scaly body was covered in thorny spikes that were coated in ice. A bestial cry echoed over the wind. Samus knew that sound. It was Kraid.
The monster's green skin had been turned a deep shade of white blue. His clawed hands were enhanced with longer claws made of sharpened ice. Three red eyes tracked down and spotted Samus. They narrowed with rage and hatred. Kraid let out another roar. The huge spikes that protruded out of his gut shot forward like loosed arrows.
Samus dived to the side, sliding across the ice as she moved out of the way. She raised her paralyzer, but did not bother to shoot it. Kraid's scales were a match for even her best weapons, her paralyzer would be nothing to him. Her only chance to do meaningful damage was to somehow hit him in the eyes or mouth.
However, that seemed an impossible strategy. Kraid roared again and slashed with his colossal arms. Samus dived under the first attempt, but she was too unsteady on the ice to fully avoid the second. Kraid's arm hit her with such intensity she was flung backwards almost a dozen feet. She landed hard on her back and felt the ice crack beneath her.
Samus slipped as she tried to pick herself up. Only Kraid's upper body had managed to break through the ice. The rest of him was still swimming beneath the surface. He moved slowly because of this, and that gave Samus enough time to recover. Kraid roared in frustration and fired another round of belly spikes.
Without her armor, Samus was a much more mobile target. She would not survive so much as a single strike, but she was able to avoid them easily. Kraid was only using his spikes as a diversion however. As soon as Samus lost her footing on the ice, he fired his hands at her. By some mutation in his body, Kraid could detach his hands and summon them back to his body.
Samus had been counting on this. She had only feigned losing her balance to get him to attack her in this way. She launched herself into the air and landed gracefully onto one of Kraid's hands. When the monster summoned it back, it brought Samus back with it. This gave Samus the chance she needed. She aimed her paralyzer and fired three shots. The wind and poor visibility caused Samus to miss two, but one managed to hit Kraid right in his center eye.
Samus leapt back to the ice covered battlefield as Kraid let out a scream of pain. It flailed its massive body, breaking up more of the ice in the process. In that brief break in the fighting, Samus felt the compounding fatigue and pain fall back onto her. She dropped to one knee. The world seemed to tilt and Samus feared that she would topple over and be pulled into the water.
Kraid's roars brought her back to reality. The great space pirate captain had prepared himself for another round of fighting. He fired a third barrage of spikes causing Samus to run in a wide circle around him. With Kraid relativity hemmed in by the ice fields he was having as hard a time damaging Samus as she was hitting him.
Samus could not resist a wry smile from spreading across her frozen face. She had been almost at her deathbed, beaten down by the combined forces of fatigue, despair and all consuming cold. Yet even in that weakened state, Kraid still struggled to finish her off. The two had fought previously on Zebes, and like Ridley before him, it appeared the monster was not content with a single beatdown.
Crack! Samus had been focusing so much on that part of Kraid that was above the surface, she had completely forgotten about the limbs that were still beneath the water. Kraid's tail smashed through the ice and cracked against Samus' back! The air pushed out of her lungs as she was flung forward. She landed hard against the ice. The skin of her cheek immediately stuck to the frozen glass. Samus pulled away and left a gash of her cheek behind.
The pain was enormous, but Samus had other concerns. Kraid had completely emerged from the ice. He towered over her like a solid wall, breaking off any avenue of escape. Samus was now trapped on an island of ice, with water to her back and Kraid in front. Kraid let out a snort of self satisfaction. It was clear that the monster thought he had pinned Samus down.
Samus could not help but agree with the monster, but she refused to allow him the satisfaction. She fired a single shot from her paralyzer which glanced harmlessly off his front scales. Samus would not die cowering to this disgusting monster. If Kraid wanted her dead, he would have to finish it. In acceptance of her challenge, Kraid threw back his head and roared.
Samus did the same. She screamed into the open air as she sprinted headlong towards Kraid. He fired more spikes, and Samus had trouble avoiding them at such close range. However, somehow Samus managed. She had thrown off all restraint. Death was an inch away, but Samus did not notice the edge. She moved without thinking, without any semblance of fear. "The way to life is death."
Disturbed by the sudden reckless courage of his foe, Kraid swept his tail around to try and destroy the ice at Samus' feet. Without missing a beat, Samus leapt into the air and landed onto the serpentine tail. She climbed hurriedly upward, firing shots at Kraid's face. He countered by firing his hands. Samus jumped onto one and quickly leapt onto the other. She used Kraid's own limbs to bring her closer to his face. Samus fired two shots at his eyes. One made contact and Kraid screamed in rage.
Samus leapt! For one moment she hung suspended in the air. The world seemed to come to a stop all around her. Samus could see the open jaws of her foe in front of her, beneath her was a tomb of white. Time resumed just as Samus landed onto Kraid's lower jaw. The beats snapped his mouth shut, but not before Samus had fired a round into his mouth. She slipped away before Kraid could chew her up and flipped up onto his snout. His three eyes glared at her. Samus shot two and sprinted towards the center third. Kraid let out a faint squeal as Samus drew back her arm. With all the strength she had, Samus plunged her paralyzer into Kraid's eye. She fired a shot just at the moment of contact. The eye burst like a bubble of blood. Samus' arm was pulled into the thick gel-like substance. Samus released her gun and leapt back.
She raced down the side of Kraid's arm and jumped back onto the ice. Kraid screamed and fell back into the water. There was a moment of stillness. Samus sighed as she realized that Kraid had retreated. However, her victory was short-lived. Her legs could not support her anymore. She dropped to the ground. Cold coiled around her like chains. Samus fought against them with all her might as she wrestled her own body. She managed to return to her feet and take a few staggered steps. The battle had turned her around. Samus did not know the difference between the way she had come and the way she was supposed to go.
"It's over." Bitterness raged inside her. She yearned to struggle, to yell, to fight and claw until the end. In the distance, she saw a faint twinkle of white light. Samus moved a few steps in that direction. "Could it be?" Ahead, Samus saw the outline of a crystal gate. She rushed towards it, fueled by a final surge of energy. Samus reached the gate just as the wind blew it open.
Ahead of her, the white fog was blown back by a sudden fierce smoke. Samus had reached the other side of the city. Above her, waiting upon a high set of stairs was the bonfire. Samus crept towards it. Her body was shutting down slowly. She was on her knees by the time she reached the last stair. The closer she got to the fire, the deeper she felt the cold. There was heat in the very embrace of the flames, but around it, was a cold that was more potent than the deepest icy depths.
Samus crawled on her knees until she was a foot away from the flames. She looked down and saw that the fire was burning through her suit. The blue polymer flaked away into dust. Samus was left naked before the golden flames. Only when she was a few inches away, did she finally feel the warmth. Samus exhaled as her body was infused with new life. Her hands trembled as sensation steadily returned to her fingers. Her chest heaved as warm air filtered through her lungs. The tears melted on her face and streaked down her cheeks.
Samus rose to her feet. She felt strong and completely refreshed. Within the flames, Samus saw an image flickering within. It was another archway, this one made of the same bronze color of her Chozo armor. Samus understood. She walked forward, straight through the fire, and passed naked through the final gateway.