'Shit, I can't even die properly can?'
Samael lay on the ground, his body was shattered and his mask was ready to crumble. The bones around him were empty and hollow, looking directly at him as if he was about to join them.
Samael had fallen after giving up, trying to end the life he so desperately tried to safe. While falling he hit his head, his body was torn and his memory was shredded, almost becoming destroyed in the process. He wasn't sure how he had survived, not that he cared though, for now he lay there still, wanting to become nothing but a part of the sea of bones.
The worst part was that the memories with his divine encounter were all too fresh in his memory, not leaving him even in insolence of what had transpired. Now it all made so much more sense.
It made sense why the vessels had stopped climbing, it made sense why they fell, it made sense why they were contempt. They hadn't stopped out of their fear and respect for Samael, no, that would've been too good to be true. They had stopped beacuse they sensed the single one who was in the presence of a divine being, they felt the being grant it his mark, the mark of a prince, the mark of a knight.
Samael probably could've felt that too, if his mind hadn't gone deranged for the climb. He still couldn't believe it actually, he saw a divine being, he was sure he did! Anything less than a god would be an understatement to its appearance. A small but unimaginably powerful being was what he had seen, one that he was all too familiar with.
That was what a pale being is, what it was supposed to be. He saw the creator of the Vessels, their father... his father. Yet there was something odd, a look of disgust and fear in his eyes as he stared at the vessel that had succeeded, Samael noticed it. The king was a god and yet he felt fear, at least, it looked like he did. He looked at his child and saw an endless darkness that was destined to swallow the world, but even still he embraced it, he embraced him. A father had to accept his son no matter what, and so he did...
Then why? Why was Samael left here to rot while his other sibling got to live a life full of prosperity and purpose? Why was he denied purpose yet again? Why weren't the other Vessels saved? So many questions and no answers.
Samael's barely conscious body moved its head, the vessels that were on the ground, the ones that were alive, all looked up, stuck in a trance. He thought it strange for a moment but then he realized that he had also looked up without doing anything else. He hadn't tried to move his body, what little of it remained at least, he hadn't tried to scream, even though it wouldn't have worked, he tried to do nothing and so nothing he would achive.
Everything was really lost, what other way was out of this hell hole? The Nightmare Spell was fair?
'Bullshit.'
It was as fair as the king was to his kin. It was as fair as an ant and an elephant fighting. It was as fair as a drunken man hitting his seven year old son. The Nightmare Spell wasn't fair, it was just a spell, it had no concept of right or wrong, good or bad, it was just following a command, a command that Samael could not understand but he still could hate it, and he did.
Samael hated the fact that the world abandoned him. He hated himself, for what a person he was. He hated the one who created this spell, cursing him into oblivion.
But there was nothing he could do about it, he was weak, insignificant. If he died nothing would change, if he didn't die nothing would change as well. Even if by some miracle he had escaped now he would still most likely die the first day in the dream realm. The spell would've probably sent him to a death zone just for the fun of it beacuse why not? He was expendable, he always was.
'Now that I think about it this body, it suits me quite well doesn't it? Broken and in pieces, exactly what I am... what I always was, a coward'
Even in his current state he couldn't stop hating himself, he even disgusted himself, to the point of considering crawling towards the black water and taking a dip, having his whole being disintegrated on a molecular level no doubt. But he was too afraid to take his own life as well, fearing the pain, fearing the end, fearing that he had given up when he could've tried.
'I'm truly a piece of shit, no, not even that, I'm less that dirth, isn't that right? You described me as such.'
But the Nightmare Spell didn't respond, it didn't need to, it didn't want to and it wouldn't waste its voice on the likes of Samael.
His body was getting even more numb every second. Consciousness slipping away as his vision got blurry, he heard a ringing sound even though he had no ears. He felt at peace even though he was about to die. He was going to do the world one final favor before he left it.
He would leave it bare of him. Leave it with one less pest to worry about, his parents as well. In the end he couldn't even face them so all he had done was leave a note, it had described how life wasn't worth living and that he would go and get himself killed outside of NQSC, beacuse he was sure that he would die and even if he didn't he wouldn't face his own parents again. Truly, for once he did something good...
Ah but it was just that, it wasn't that simple was it? It couldn't be, Samael had more to live, he had more to tell, he had more to endure.
In the end he was too afraid of dying so he didn't, groaning in his mind as he slowly got up. His body a mess of all kinds barely held together like a makeshift person made out of sticks and dirth. He supported his weight by summoning the Old nail bellow him, desumoning it and summoning it back again. This process wasn't ideal but it got him walking.
His mind was filled with a strange calm, wondering what he had to do in order to escape. To clear this nightmare. Had he given up even now then he wouldn't be able to rest easily in death. His usually devoid of strong emotions mind was now filled to the brim with resolve and dark determination.
'Fuck the king and fuck the vessels! I'll carve out my own path! I'll leave this place all from my own efforts, not by a trial made to test bodies that couldn't even think for themselves, to hell with rules and logic, I'll shatter those as well as this Nightmare!'
His resolve was unshaken and his vigor was unbreakable.
He was heading for the Lighthouse.
***
Samael was currently floating in water illuminated by ligh, his cracks were slowly mending and his body was reajusting itself one joint and muscle tendon at a time. It hurt like hell but it healed him as well. He had a feeling that the water would welcome and even repair him as he was one who had a stronger connection to the -unknown- and by extension the water he was currently residing in. This one wasn't trying to rip him to shreds so it was worth a shot anyways.
The moments prior to him making his way here were nothing short of incredible as well. Even as his body crumbled his movements did not. Even as the ravage water beneath him tried to ravage him whole it did not, he had stared into the abyss and for the first time ever in the history of the Nightmare Spell, the abyss looked away, scared of what this being was ready to do. He had almost died when he fell whilst walking towards the lighthouse but he didn't.
He was not sure how long it had been and how long it was going to take for him to fully heal but that wasn't a problem, Samael was patient. Patiently floating and patiently thinking, his head was filled with idea on how to escape, all of them becoming discarded as most of them wouldn't work.
'There's always the climb again but that door... it's shut off for good. I could also take my chances and keep swimming down, I don't think this body needs to breathe but that would only take me further away from escape, not to mention that the deeper I go I'd probably be less welcomed, if at all. So it's come to this huh? It isn't exactly ideal but maybe?'
As he pondered his escape his vision became more clear as the moments went by, his body was adjusting itself as it was supposed to and even his cloak was repairing itself inside his being. Bones connected and tissues realigned. The process had actually started to become invigorating actually, at first it was nothing but a world of pain, now though, it was as if his body wasn't only returning to its former glory, it was going past that. His mask felt stronger than before. His body felt tougher than before, even his once crumbling and in pieces mind seemed to strengthen.
It was a process that came and went too fast for his satisfaction, but it had done what Samael wanted it to. Now was time to take action.
'I wonder what my appraisal will be after all is said and done.'
He wasn't just going to survive now, he was going to escape this abyss and nightmare. That, he was sure of.
***
The body of a vessel was lodged inside a hole barely big enough to fit it inside. Surrounded by dirt and bone Samael had decided that the only way out was to literally carve his own way out. He had thought this possible for a few reasons.
The first one was that his body was strengthened and in it's natural habitat, this place was made by the -unknown- and he was a warrior of it, surely it would grant him at least some kind of a boon.
The second was that this place was holding up by nothing but crumbling bones and dirt, maybe stone as well but Samael could always go around boulders, be it big or small.
And so little by little, with nothing but his Old nail and hands he dug through the ground. His pace was... less than ideal, he wasn't quite sure how long it would take him to escape, days, maybe weeks? If he was truly unlucky he'd reach a wall that he would not be able to break through. But the time for despair was long gone, now was the time to work.
'Ha... HA, HAHAHA, AHH THIS PLACE TRULY IS A NIGHTMARE!!'
Madness had started to take its toll on Ssmael a few days ago, when all the progress he could see was none at all. Light was a strange amd foreign concept by that point. Honestly, how he hadn't gotten himself buried beneath all of it was a miracle or perhaps it wasn't.
Maybe the world heard his pleas and decided to bless him, maybe his king hadn't abandoned him fully and helped him with his divine power somehow, maybe the Nightmare Spell wouldn't let him die yet. All of that was irrelevant, what was important was that he was going to escape, no matter the time it took.
***
His hands sweeped the dirt as his body was completely covered in dirth by now. The nail he jad used to help him to make a tunnel for him was currently resting inside his soul.
'What has it been? Hours, days, years?'
It could've been even more time for all Samael knew. There was almost no way for him to see how much time had passed before, except for the rising level of the bones on the ground and the bodies falling, but now there truly was no means of telling how long of a period had passed.
The only thing that happened around here was digging, digging and then some more digging. His body wasn't allowed rest as his mind was not allowed to think.
He was a perpetual motion machine, each advance fueled another movement and each movement preppeled him to another advance. He was stuck in a vicious cycle yes, but he was also not a coward anymore.
He wouldn't let the abyss consume him, he wouldn't run away from his problems and kill himself. He wouldn't let all of it to go to waste.
But his mentality was getting worse.
Before at least he had stimuli, vastness to explore, vessels and shadow creepers to interact with in what little ways he could. Now was nothing but blind digging. He could've been going in circles for all he knew. He truly could've just been fooling himself with blind hope.
'This, this really isn't working out-'
His mind froze as he felt it, a strange vibration, a sudden movement a thing that he had not hopped to encounter.
Something was moving, above him, that could only mean one thing.
'I'm close! I'm close to the damned surface!'
With renewed vigor he summoned the old nail and started chipping away at the dirst even more frivolously, his pace quickened as he could feel even more movements, more tremors, more hope.
He dug his way up, defying what should've been possible, his mind mending itself under the thought that soon it would finally be over. The thought that finally he would escape this prison, this nightmare, this restraint on him after so long.
His horns drilled up as the dirt got softer and softer, indicating that he was truly close to the surface. He could feel every specks of dirth and every blazing desire for freedom, burn in blazing glory as he finally saw it. After what had felt and possibly been an eternity, he saw light, not the artificial white glow of the lighthouse but actual light produced from something natural. A small hole turned into an opening as that turned into something more. It had turned into his escape.
With one last push and pull he had penetrated through the ground, falling down as he smiled inwardly.
'Ah, I escaped, I escaped... I'm alive!'
His body was trembling, his features couldn't betray that he wanted to both cry and smile but that was okay.
[Wake up, Samaell! Your nightmare is over.]
[Prepare for appraisal...]
He was going to get back his real body anyways.