In one moment, she was at the boundary of the collapsing nightmare that was closing in on them.
And in the next, her transient white arm plunged into the chest of Aldric.
---
Aldric awoke in his soul sea.
The tenebrous clouds, the expansive stars and the ever-growing void. Everything seemed to be normal. His soul sea was stranded in the emptiness of space, with nothing but a platform of clouds suspended in the cold expanse; countless stars rested well above him. For how deep this sea of clouds went and what rested within it, he did not know.
His mind wandered as it did every time he witnessed the unique state of his soul sea.
Looking to that familiar corner in the void, the chasm of red stirred silently. The alien existence had taken root in his soul from the day that he consumed the first aspect legacy bestowed upon him. After, in his mind, surviving and overcoming the element and concept of nothingness, [The Seed of Chaos] was his reward. As the nightmare spell put it, he metaphorically broke the 'chain of Nothingness'.
While there were many different explanations and conclusions he could have drawn from what was said, instinct told him that he would have to overcome. Overcome the universal laws that held this world together and conquer the rules created by the Gods.
'Just what else can I overcome? Death... Yeah, right.'
The sudden thought and sarcastic humour brought him back to the present, or so he thought.
'Why am I here?'
It took a moment; flashes of images played in his head. Him standing on a grassy field surrounded by the cohort. But just as he was about to remember what occurred, he noticed it.
A lone figure stood.
In the sanctuary of his soul, a foreign entity stood as though nothing was amiss. As if they were meant to be there. A domain of stillness surrounded the person.
'Hope.'
The thought brought his tired mind back to what had just occurred. The figure of Hope blasting his sense of perception and impaling her translucent hand into his chest. With no feeling of pain or signs of anything else, Aldric connected the dots.
'With the lack of danger from my senses and the lack of pain, it must be a conceptual thing.'
He concluded. But the question still remained: why?
'Is this a way for her to access my soul? 'Dammit, I'm at her complete mercy.'
Aldric would just have to hope and pray that her intentions were nothing short of curious and non-threatening.
'The gap between us is too vast to think of anything else. Even the thought of retaliation might spark something. I need to play this safe and swallow my pride.'
And that was a blow to his pride and ego. A feeling of weakness that he long swore to never feel again. But in the face of a divine being, what could he say or do? Yet the human mind is not as logical as it claims or hopes to be.
This point of contention was something that was beginning to corrode Aldric from the inside. With the addition of [Child of Nether] as well as the already existing [Tranquil Core], his mental acuity and calmness were at their peak. Yet this clashed with the heightened emotions of being a young man under so much stress. Death, change, leadership – the challenges were endless. While Aldric wished he could be a rational decision-making machine, the source of his motivations and goals was completely irrational. That dichotomy was now a small seed that would sprout the longer this contradiction existed.
Looking towards Hope, he noticed immediately where her eyes were drawn.
The chasm.
And like a flutter of leaves on a cold autumn day, she spoke.
"This feeling... Just how have you remained uncorrupted whilst having the source of corruption resting within your soul? Are you not one of Nether's creations? No... You truly are so much more..."
Hope rattled off questions with a strange tone. As though she already knew the answer while still watching him. It was a strange moment for Aldric, watching a divine being be in the dark.
From Nether to Weaver and the Gods, they all seemed so omniscient regarding everything. Yet that did not translate when it was regarding himself, a true anomaly.
Without waiting for a response, she continued in a mutter.
"The void... So this is what it feels like to be in the embrace of the pure void. The cradle of creation."
Staring back at the chasm, the ominous eye continued to loom above with strands of energy twisting and turning around it as though they were the eye's limbs.
'Does she not see the eye? The massive eye that is staring right back at her!'
Finally finding the courage to speak to the intruder, he asked the question that was most on his mind. Ever since that conversation with Noctis regarding his imminent mortality, he knew that nobody would be on his side once this nightmare was over. There was no expert in the field of corruption, and if there even was, he would have to go through the sovereigns to even catch a whisper of their existence. So asking Hope would be his best bet, regardless of her reaction.
Knowing not to address her by her name, he asked.
"What do you see when you peer at the eye in my soul? One of the chains that held you captive spoke to me of my imminent death. How the presence of corruption in my soul was growing until it would overwhelm me."
The loaded question left his lips with a sense of urgency and speed. Unsure if the divine being would even entertain speaking to him. After all, Aldric remembered just how brief her interaction with Sunny was. But still, Aldric knew to word his question in such a way. Bringing up the chain in hopes that she remembered who it was that guaranteed her freedom.
The Daemon did not stir or move, only standing silently as her eyes did not leave the chasm.
"Eye? What eye? What is it that you see, child?"
Hope spoke out. Her question was laced with the curiosity of a therapist talking their client through their feelings.
While Aldric wanted to refute with a sarcastic remark or even a chuckle, he knew not to. Taking that energy, he thought instead.
'What does she mean?! The eye, the eye that's been staring at me since I consumed that damned legacy. Is it an illusion? Something that my mind is conjuring?'
And the next words of Hope revealed it all.
"Whatever it is that you see, what you have resting within you is the pure void. An energy that should not exist in the laws of this world they have created. Looking at the contours and shape of your soul, you are suffering from the root effect of corruption while also not."
An illusion or perhaps even reality came to life in front of him. A clear beautiful stream of water flowing down a tranquil meadow, with lush forests surrounding it. A clear visual aid that Hope was using to explain herself. Yet, to think she could alter a soul sea that was not her own?
"For that is all that corruption is, the influence of the void mixing with the realm of flame. In the comfort of your soul there is no danger of corruption, yet every time that you interact with the sullied void spreading in a world of flame, you slowly adopt the blight of contradiction. The change of seeking the flame as an abomination. And that sickness will continue to grow until you are fully infected."
And yet at the tail of the river, a small flow of muddy water trailed into the river slowly from the muddy soil surrounding it. The slow depiction of the river being polluted by a form of water that originated from itself. A perfect representation of the interaction between the existing corruption and the untouched, primordial void within Aldric.
Now truly looking at and facing the owner of the soul sea, a pulse of intent pushed towards him, and she truly understood it all. Reading his deepest and darkest desires was child's play for a divine whose domain encompassed that concept.
"The void is but a transformative force. It does not know evil or good. And it seems that you have used that concept yourself. Where do you think your 'apostles' came from? How did you think that you changed them?"
In that feeling, his mind reeled at the revelation. The hint of what corruption truly is. Thoughts burned in his mind.
'How does she know that?!'
One
'The flame... Nether! Nether spoke about it in the runes! He said that it was 'waning'.'
Thought.
'The void is just an energy. I doubt void beings exhibit the same traits as corrupted creatures. And here I am, receiving the legacy of the void while being a denizen of the flame.'
After
'If the void in me is 'pure', like that river, I am being infected by a sullied version of that water which originated from the void. Even with the same origin, they are not the same thing at all.'
The
'What would happen if the 'contaminated' corruption reached the 'pure' void? Would I instantly become corrupted? Would I transform?'
Other
'So would the solution be to expand my 'river' so I don't succumb to the infection quickly like Noctis said?'
"What can I do? How can I fix this?"
Aldric mumbled out. His words struggled to come out in the gaze of Hope.
Cutting through his thoughts, she continued.
"You are stuck between two paths. You could forsake the flame and embrace the void. Should you do this, your power would compound, yet you will become even more susceptible to the outward forces of corruption."
The river began to overflow endlessly as it flooded the surrounding forest. Crashing against the trees, its movement and direction gave it a tremendous force. Even when infected, it continued to crash and move like an animal on its last legs. It would not be long until the river would turn into a polluted one. Like a candle burning extremely fast, should Aldric choose this, he would not last long at all. But the gain in power would be unfathomable.
"Or you could strike a true balance. A balance between the flame and the void. Separating the two conceptually would protect both from the outward forces of corruption."
A shimmering barrier began to form around the transparent, pure river. Blocking out anything attempting to sully it while not inhibiting its natural flow or movement.
'Is that why my flaw is the way it is? That the reason I am more susceptible to corruption is because I am a being of both the void and of the flame. What does that make me?'
The information, the feeling of dread knowing the nightmare might end before Hope helped him, and everything in between made Aldric silent. And so, all that Aldric could do was nod.
A solution had emerged. One that would separate the pure chaos from the tainted void that became corruption. While this would not strengthen Aldric in any way, that separation would give him a measure of security. Conceptually it made a sick kind of sense that every time the powers of the void grew, he would become more susceptible to corruption. But this choice would combat that completely.
Hope had made her move. Creating a divine miracle in the last sparks of a nightmare. Her translucent hands twisted and contracted as names and words left her mouth. Words that he could neither understand nor comprehend. Using the Sorcery of Names as her conduit, the divine miracle began to come together. Wisps of light coalesced around her, creating a sharp ring.
With nothing but a name, the ring expanded and then moved. Shifting towards the chasm, it orbited the eldritch eye. With a final murmur that sounded like a completely different language, the rings multiplied. Creating interwoven concentric orbits that surrounded the chasm of chaos. With a thin sheen of light connecting them like a barrier.
A deep sense of gratitude emerged from Aldric. Living in a world where nothing was free, where every action had an expectation, this was one of the first times that he could receive without worry. In the waking world, you did not know who to trust because you did not know who they served. But who could a Divine Daemon possibly serve aside from themselves?
While Aldric wanted to ask and ask, clarifying exactly what she did and its effects, a different question left his lips. An instinctual one coming from a young man that had to fight for everything that he had. One laced with endless gratitude.
"Why..."
Turning back towards him, the Daemon, or the shade of the Daemon within a nightmare, spoke out.
"It has been done once before. Sealing the void in a wall of desire, it was simply my turn. Perhaps It was fated."
Those words entered his ears like a divine proclamation. Moving on, she went on to explain.
"With your desire at play, you will continue to lean on that power. That overwhelming power that seems to not fit your stage of ascension. Heed my warning. Never use that power near corruptive sources. That will become the end of you."
"And as for the small essence of corruption that already lingers, continue to ascend, and it will be cleansed."
And with those words, she put all of Aldric's worries to rest. A feeling of relief that he had not felt in a while washed over his tired body.
With all of that done, Aldric had expected the Daemon to leave, but that was not the case.
Hope peered deeper. Beyond the layers of his soul and at the core. She found it.
The nightmare spell.
"Why can I feel traces of myself?"
The Daemon muttered out in unequal parts alarm and curiosity.
But as fate had ordained, the nightmare of the Kingdom of Hope was now completely over.
As the shattering of the nightmare even reached Aldric's soul, the nightmare spell announced.
[Your nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for Appraisal.]
"Who said that?"
Hope muttered as she looked around.
"Ahhh... This entire thing has Weaver's stench all over it. Those strings, this dimension. Just what have you done?"
With one last glance at the world around her collapsing, she uttered.
"Father..."
And with that, Hope was gone. The translucent figure faded from his soul sea.
And darkness engulfed him as the nightmare finally ended.
---
Back in that familiar void of stars and light, the nightmare spell spoke.
[Awakened! Your trial is over.]
***
Thanks for reading.
Sorry for the slow updates, life is beating me in the arse right now. A nice chapter to end the second nightmare. What did you think?
Till the next one.