Elsewhere,
The rain never fell at this rate since Victor left.
He departed two years ago,along with the warriors and they have yet to return.
Residents of Elsewhere felt disheartened even with the constant reassurances from the diviner.
Vincent himself was fed up,he couldn't ignore his father's empire crumbling piece by piece and no reasonable solution was being offered.
As a result he banished the diviner,lest he'll be driven insane with frustration.
Yet there was no active change, conditions worsened, and soon everyone forgot about the warriors.
The sky was filled with lightning;the storm brewed with violence, perhaps it was a sign of hope.
Vincent set out to visit the diviner,the past few nights he struggled with sleep.
Guilt weighed heavily on him as he got nearer.
The diviner's new home lay deep within a forest,all the trees leading to it had been cut down.
The clearing formed a perfect circle,revealing a massive tree at the center.
There were rumors that his abode was impenetrable.
Unless he wished otherwise,visitation was automatically denied.
Vincent faced no difficulty so far,so he considered them debunked.
He was about to place his leg on the entrance when a beast with many eyes fell from the sky and started running away from lightning.
Doing such was impossible,as the lightning spread itself everywhere, roasting the monster to nothing.
After the monster died,the rain stopped immediately.
Vincent was about to go again when someone struck him from behind, knocking him unconscious.
******************************************
Lowest floor of the homeless maze,
Tharros stood up from the rubble, dusting himself.
His body was overwhelmed with exhaustion, but he desired to finish off Andriea before it caves in.
However there were things he needed to hear from him.
He knew he put him in a mood that looking for a moment of dialogue would turn out unfruitful,yet he chose to persist.
The ground jolted from Andriea's footsteps.
He dashed towards him,with chains sprouting from the back of his armor to hurl rocks at Tharros.
Tharros smashed them mid air,seized one of the chains and used it to choke Andriea.
With his remaining strength,he lifted and threw him across the chamber.
More chains shot out, wrapping around Tharros locking him in place.
Andriea struck the rock beneath him, resulting in a violent explosion.
The blast hurled them closer together, toppling them to the ground.
Tharros didn't struggle.
To him,it was the perfect opportunity to speak.
"Listen…."
"I'm not listening to anything!" Andriea roared "You asked for this, I'm not stopping now."
"I didn't say you should…but…..for my judgement to be complete….."
"You're no judge over me!!" Andriea cut in again as he cast him to one of the rocks.
A sparking stone on the verge of detonating was beside Tharros.
He quickly catapulted it across the room.
Thereby, taking Andriea's attention, Tharros stomped him on the face with his two feet.
Pushing Andriea far from him.
Andriea swung the two chains,twisting them rapidly and launched them forward.
Tharros caught them with one hand and yanked Andriea closer, landing a punch to his head.
"Since none of us want to reason with each other."
Andriea headbutted him.
"we might as well imprison each other."
Tharros collapsed,his tiredness was brought faster to him by those hits.
Andriea stared at the nearly unconscious brownie.
"It's my turn to judge you, I am the one true monster!!"
**********************************************
Vincent woke up tied to a chair he couldn't see because the entire place was covered with a fog.
"What do you need from me?" the voice came from the fog, Vincent was surprised at how unchanged it has been since he last met the owner,it was that of the diviner.
"Untie me first!" Vincent ordered.
The diviner didn't listen "I only obey the Nameless One."
"But I am his son!"
"You aren't the king, Vincent," he said nonchalantly.
"Frederick!!!" Vincent shouted in anger, calling the diviner by his birth name.
"Do you think doing that would lead to anything?The same way you can't lead yourself ? Let alone the people under you?"
Vincent was about to spew invectives on Frederick for downplaying his rule but he shunned himself from doing so, rather he focused on the reason he arrived here.
"I came here to gain info about the warriors."
Frederick smiled,"Now that's what I'm looking for, a ruler's concern.You'll make a great king,sir."he said, revealing his earlier harshness was a test.
He went on to answer the question "I had a vision a long time ago, but you banished me so I refused to tell you."
He looked to see if Vincent would show any sign of remorse.
He wore a look of regret "I'm sorry Frederick, I separate myself from anything that makes me feel weak."
"Including your brother?"
Vincent froze, silent.
"Are you only concerned about the soldiers or your brother? I demand an answer!" Frederick asked, looking sternly.
"Victor considers himself to be a warrior" he said faintly.
"Do you feel he is?"
Frederick sighed at Vincent's reluctance "Alright, enough of these questions. I only know about your brother's whereabouts, I can't say the same for the remaining warriors."
Vincent was flustered, "How?But you gave them instruments of combat and communication,so you're supposed to be aware."
"That is not the case, young prince. …I speak according to what I'm shown. I can't go beyond that."
Vincent nodded affirmatively"So what were you shown about my brother? surely his condition would mirror that of the rest".
Frederick took two potions, mixing them into a larger bottle "He's dead."
"What?!"
"You heard me right,Victor is dead," he said with a blank face.
Vincent frowned,his bushy eyebrows nearly meeting each other "Meaning the rest of them share the same fate?...serves him right."
Frederick's blank face changed"Serves you right too….he was never in support of you focusing on other creatures than yourselves."
"Is that an excuse for his incompetence?",
Vincent asked.
"Incompetence? incompetence you say.
Are the warriors incompetent too?"
Frederick shook his head in disappointment.
"They have experience, they've been victorious in many battles they fought.
Lets not lie to ourselves, victor is incapable of doing anything good",
Vincent uttered without control.
"If he was given the same attention you were given, trust me he would have done better.
You may be good at everything, yes, that's it.
You're not great at anything;neither a great son of his father,nor a great leader to his people.
And you look down on people just because you were placed above them."
Vincent looked at Frederick with irritation "Untie me now, I have no time for this nonsense!"
Frederick pretended not to listen.
" Victor is dead only for a moment, he'll return and become greater than you..
Fate wants to discipline you…. You don't know what's in store for you."
Those words fell on deaf ears.
"Untie me!!…..seer of lies."
Frederick poured the liquid in the big bottle on Vincent which sent him away from the fog back to his room.
Vincent found himself on the bed, he walked to the window,the sun rose on his face.
He went back to his bed,said his morning prayers to the Founding Ancestor and set off to work.
He concluded last night events were a dream he didn't wish to continue while awake.
*********************************************
Lowest floor of the homeless maze,
"Did you bring me down here only to be acting like a timid sheep?"
Andriea asked because he's been attacking Tharros without any resistance from him.
Tharros didn't answer,he just stared at him.
Andriea couldn't believe this was the same soldier he held high,the same soldier that pushed him to this height,he felt like leaving him since he turned out to be a hopeless soul.
The lives of the forsaken were not his to take.
"You should kill yourself Tharros, I cannot strangle anyone weak in comparison-especially you, who deem yourself painless."
"Exactly."
Tharros agreed from where he laid down,
"I am weak in comparison."
he brought out a dagger from his pocket and stood up.
"You surprised me when you surpassed me…. this is my conclusion of the judgement."
He stabbed himself in the head and died.
"I…I ….thought …..he…..said he…can't die."
Andriea stammered,not believing what just happened.
He moved closer and lifted Tharros, about to bury him.
Tharros may have been an enemy to him but he deserved honor for giving him his greatest battle yet.
He dug the ground and buried Tharros, covering him with stones.
After he was finished,he remembered Victor might still be on the loose, and started climbing in order to find him.
He couldn't touch the walls,its surface was somewhat intangible.
Anytime he leaped,he kept falling back.
Spotting a rock, he threw a chain to latch onto it, something invisible pulled him and struck him with a crushing punch.
Echoes filled the room "I am…. I am….. I am…. I am"
"Who are you?"Andriea asked, "come out and fight me" he commanded, flaring up.
He heard loud footsteps,the noise resembled that of his metal boots only that they were more disturbing.
The ominous figure finally came into the light,it was an exact replica of him, huge, darker and more menacing.
It held a double chained kama
"I AM,WEAK IN COMPARISON"
*******************************************
Maze pathway,
After consuming victor till he was bare bones,the monster went in search of a new prey.
it hid itself within the shadows.
A few minutes later,the multi eyed beast saw another one,a brownie on a white garment.
It jumped immediately to swallow it but lightning from nowhere struck it and it died,it was no ordinary brownie.
It was actually Frederick (the rainfall in Elsewhere at the time of Vincent's visit,was a spiritual gate hauling the monster into his abode and preventing it from harming Victor by striking it dead).
He dragged the dead beast close to Victor's bones and made chants that clothed the bones with flesh, making Victor whole again.
Victor gained consciousness and something else -the truth!(his soul was transported to the Omniscient tree.)
When he opened his eyes he saw a fleshless corpse,he wondered if it was an effect of going to the Omniscient tree.
The "maze-quake" occurred again,this time more abruptly.
He hurriedly smashed the crystal,a portal was created and he hopped into it.
As he jumped he imagined the joy of returning home,of finally being accepted by his people once he told them what he had learned.
The home he called a paradise in his dreams became a wasteland in reality.
There were no houses, livestock or individuals anymore, only burnt wood in different places.
One could think no one lived in Elsewhere anymore,he told himself to keep going if he could at least see one resident, there was none.
He was so stunned by the horrific sight,he fainted before getting to the palace.