isn't life a massive Play, in which we are the actors ?
We put on a mask so people don't know our real identity.
But acting is never true.
We can never see into a person's thoughts.
We pretend to be someone else, in hopes that we can be liked.
But being someone else never works.
We want to give up on life, and we don't know what to do.
The play fell apart,by my own doing, yet I, an actors desperately try to give out my last line.
Soon enough, the end roll played for me.
Yet I could still act.
————————————
Zero looked at Pilgy, stupified by what he had just said.
The trials had already started ?
If so, the where were they ?
Pilgy seemed to sense Zero's thought and replied,
"This is the 'Preliminary Stage'. Its just to root out the truly untalented or incompetent. Its gonna be a breeze as long as you have two braincells. You missed almost everything, tough, since only one day is left till we get pulled into our respective Dreams."
Zero wondered where Pilgy got that information, since it was heavily restricted outside. But he didn't ask. He had a feeling that Pilgy knew that he knew, too, but it was better to keep the status Quo.
So…They kind of just sat there, awkwardly for hours.
No dramatic turns.
As night fell, Zero felt an extreme drowsiness rising from the depth of his soul, urging him to sleep.
A maw appeared on Zero's face, grinning.
'Its time…'
Zero stood up, and gathered all the soul he could.
'To discover what this nightmare is all about !!!'
Zero blacked out (again).
Yet, before all faded to black, he saw Pilgy's face.
Smiling.
————————————
Zero found himself in a seemingly endless expanse of white.
In there, time passed.
A day, a week, a year…
He didn't know how much time passed.
Eventually, even the mental strenght capable of mercilessly destroying a world started to falter.
No sound, nothing to look at, no stimulus at all.
It was him, with his thoughts. Alone.
He started to reflect.
Every moment, every murder, every act in his two lives.
what did he do wrong ?
'His name was Avery, I shouldn't have killed him. Its because of my anger that I offended the Yellow Kingdom and eventually lead to the betrayal of multiple of the cult's higher ups'
'I shouldn't have learned the Extraction Art spell. It was useless for more than half of the cult's history, why did I think I could do something with It?'
'Didn't I…'
'Shouldn't have I…'
Hundred,no— Thousands of thoughts raced simultaneously in Zero's head. These thoughts was what kept him safe.
One day, however long that is in that space, Zero noticed something.
The space had turned pitch black.
Suddenly, Zero felt something tugging at his mind.
At first, it was faint. Almost negligible. But very, very fast, Zero started to feel pain. Real pain.
A slash to the chest.
The pain of being beheaded.
The pain of drowning.
The pain of getting his heart crushed.
Pain, endless suffering unleashed upon Zero mind.
And he started to notice a pattern.
Every wound, every kill he ever made…
He was suffering the pain from his victims.
———————————————
(Waking world)
A blonde, red eyed man stood in what was seemingly an orphenage.
He was Arhan.
And currently, he was telling the tales of his adventures in the forgotten shore.
"Woah, could a nightmare creature really look like that…"
"Holy, how did you make it out from that alive"
The kids marveled at Arhan's stories.
"About that other guy, was his name Zero? Anyway, what was he like ?"
Arhan paused, before replying:
"He was a Hero."
However, the perceptive kid asked another question:
"In what way ? How did he save people ?"
Arhan paused. this time longer, and replied, with a voice heavy with remorse:
"Zero's salvation was cruel. Like rescuing a drowning person with a blade, those saved by him were inflicted an unhealable wound."Don't make us laugh… This is no salvation…" The people of the castle often said. In a world where no one tried to save another. In this Nightmare where only victims existed, no, a dream where the wounds of the victims were in full display, here was the lone hand full of hidden scars extending out to everyone needing it, all at once . Zero never told us his story in detail, but we know that it wasn't a happy one, yet everytime someone was falling into despair, the person could immediatly see it. Zero was already extending his hand out from the hell he was in.It wasn't just the person reaching out, but the one grasping that hand also required courage to do so. Courage to hold that scarred hand, courage not to give up. Even if they knew this wouldn't heal them, even if they knew that holding that hand would only inflict them with a greater wound – courage to hold that hand in order to live for one more time.
Remember this kids, some salvations are completed by the one doing them, but by the one receiving them."
—————————————
Through all the pain, Zero realized something.
In this life, he was doing the opposite of what he was doing in his last life.
Saving others.
'Maybe it doesn't matter if I lose myself. I'll just keep doing whatever I'm doing right now. It makes me forget the emptiness for some time.'
Zero paused for perhaps a few moment, or maybe even an eternity.
'I like…helping others.'
He admitted it.
Zero changed.
Him going against his flaw, his time with his friends, with Arhan, Kora, Audrey, Stella… Even his short time with Nephis and Sunny.
All these contributed to Zero's change.
The moment Zero admitted his change in ways to himself, the space changed.
Now, in front of him, stood his mother. Smiling.
"MOM!"
Zero screamed, and didn't even notice he had gone back to his old body.
He ran, ran toward the woman he had mourned for more than a thousand years.
She smiled, and ignoring all his pleas and faded away.
"Don't go…Please…Don't go…"
His pleas fell on deaf ears.
She dissapeared, and the space around him—The garden near his mother's bedroom— crumbled.
And he heard something he thought he would never hear again.
"I'm proud of you."
Zero turned back to his Vessel form, and he felt his counsciousness being pulled somewhere else.
But something, something even the Lord of Shades didn't know could happen, happened.
*Drip*
A black, viciscious tear fell from Zero's hollow eye socket.
"I'm glad…"
[Congratulation, Hollow Knight, You have climbed out of the first Abyss of Humanity, Salvation]
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A/N/
Writing this in class, gotta be sneaky so the teach doesn't catch me. If he does I'm immediatly switching to pay gorn.
They gonna make fun of me less for corn than writing an actual story lmao