The world began stranger the deeper Worthy went into it, and eventually, he stopped taking it in altogether. Some things were better for him not to think about. Earning himself a headache before he even reached where he was going — still curious about where that was — would be a nightmare.
Fittingly, the deeper the child walked into the disturbed section of the city, the more dreamlike everything became.
After a while of walking in solitude, the boy finally caved in to the creeping thought in the back of his mind. He'd been greeted, so he might as well respond to the wraith. Even if he personally found them deplorable.
"Love what you've done with the place. It really shows you… creative side."
Of course, he waited for a breeze to come by carrying a whisper. That didn't happen, so the boy rolled his eyes and continued deeper.
"Okay. I get it. Not a major fan of jokes this time around. Understandable, you're kind of dead. Deserved end, by the way."
This earned a reaction from the air. The wind picked up briefly, and the child felt the ground beneath himself vibrate.
'Well I'll be… Is he actually laughing at my spite?'
He didn't know if he should be flattered or enraged by this. A bit of both would never hurt anyone, if carried in moderation.
Once he stopped feeling the earth beneath his ground, he knew it was time to stop, and did so before his mind even registered it. Alarmed, the child almost shouted, but regained his composure when he realized that despite having no footing, he wasn't falling either.
He was suspended in space, just as he'd been in his mindscape not long ago. It was not a welcomed change, but it was better than falling into the abrupt, swelling abyss beneath him. It throbbed and released a flutter of pulse of crimson light below.
"Yeah, I'm really not liking this at all. Every time I'm suspended in space, I've been forced to experience some awfully traumatizing things."
He did not anticipate anyone responding to him.
That's the reason it was so shocking when a voice emerged some distance ahead of him. A gentle, deep voice that was laced with melancholy. "Oh. Forgive me, I've lost my touch in architecture. Recreating things from back then is much harder than you'd know. We did not have a traditional way of creating our homes, after all. Many of them grew from the ground, while others persisted for ages from well before we were born."
A man had joined Worthy in the great expanse of space. He had a hazy appearance—impossible to fully make out. There were clearly notable features, like a dress shirt and a tie, which the boy couldn't identify the color of. Obviously, the man was standing, so he needed legs. Yet, as the child searched for the legs, the haziness became stronger than before.
The same went for the face of the man too. Worthy could not see what he looked like. It was like pieces of the wraith had been scrubbed from existence, lost to the fog of time.
"...You're Alice's father." Recognizing the voice of the man, Worthy did not beat around the bush. He recognized him, so he had no choice but to directly address the thought brewing at the front of his mind. "Tell me I'm wrong."
The figure was silent for a while. The haze shifted, indicating the wraith was turning its head. When he looked back, the man answered, "You are not. I am indeed Alice's father… You, likewise, are the vessel her burden occupies now."
"Her burden? You mean the fragment of her memory I collected after… Actually, I don't even know how to explain what happened. Regardless, I received a woman in my mind through pretty unorthodox means. Though, I'm not sure how else you go about getting an inhabitant in your mind."
The haze moved and the boy glanced a nod, "Indeed. The fragment in your mind is what I recognized in that tower. Not just myself, but all the others too. We recognized the burden of the Chosen Child in your being, and so it caused incomprehensible turmoil among the others."
Alice's power was fueled by the burdens of a dead world. Just as the Blood Marauder had consumed an entire world to take all their powers and strengths, Alice had inherited the burdens, and therefore the spirits, of an entire world.
The fragment of her father was claiming that rather than a fragment of her mind, Worthy had received her burden.
"I don't mean to burst your bubble, but I can't have her 'burden' or anything of the sorts. I saw the world through Alice's eyes, and that left a piece of her in myself. From what I experienced, she was definitely a god-like being, but there's no way she could use her power across time…"
"Really?" The man sounded almost amused. It was incredulous to hear the child's words, because it seemed the boy was forgetting something even the wraith could identify.
Continuing, the wraith asked: "Then you receiving a 'piece' of Alice through these memories didn't seem rather strange to you? Your mind drifted to the past and saw a vision, supposedly, of the world you occupy now. During all of that, none of it crossed your mind that you could be influenced by the things you were experiencing? I have not read your mind, but I am more than aware that the existence you share is volatile, and much greater than yourself."
This piqued the boy's interest immediately. He'd assumed these burdens were just poltergeists; wraiths that persisted after the acquisition of their 'burdens' by Alice. Clearly, there was more to them than expected. They not only possessed and brought life to the Prime Settlement, but also warped it and wielded marvelous powers of their own.
"You're saying you're a creep who spies on kids?"
The wraith, who certainly did not need to rely on air in his state of death, choked. Incredulously, he stared at the child, though the boy couldn't see his face. Bewildered, the man took a moment to compose himself before speaking.
"I… I simply cannot fathom where you learned to say preposterous things like that, child. Has your family not taught you to hold your tongue and watch your words?"
Worthy shrugged. "There's something vexing about the worst father in a dead world telling me what my family should've taught me."
Crossing his arms, the child frowned and looked around. There was another question that needed to be asked, it seemed. "Where the hell is the rest of the world, by the way?"
The wraith couldn't help but get embarrassed, rubbing the back of his head with his hand awkwardly. "Well… I've gained a unique level of consciousness among the other remnants of our lost world. It reminds me of something I experienced once as a boy, actually."
Nodding his head, Worthy lifted his hand and glared at the wraith pointedly. That explained nothing.
Taking the hint, the wraith resumed, "Through trial and error, I learned I can influence the city beyond what its original purposes. So, I decided that I would try and recreate my home, the original one. It was a shallow hope, but…"
"Ah. I've spoken too much. Forgive me. I was simply trying to recreate my old home." The wraith cut himself short. Whatever he was going to say must've been a rather sensitive matter. And although Worthy wanted to press him to continue, he knew that the man wouldn't.
Worthy waved him loosely and regarded the spirit's words carefully. "Everything's making sense, a little. You gained sentience among the wraiths that are moving the city for us. Now that you have, you are trying to make something of the city. Within me, Alice sent her burden and it blossomed in my mind. I doubt it's her soul, but it was definitely more direct than I initially thought. More direct than Alice herself thought too, it seems…"
Unless she was lying to him.
'I really hope my mind's occupant isn't lying to me about her origin. Not that it particularly changed anything. She's still just a fragment in my mind, and probably won't become anything more. Though now that I'm reflecting on my decisions—maybe giving her full access to my gallery of memories wasn't one of my best decisions.'
Hopefully, she couldn't and wouldn't cause any needless harm.
Alice's Father nodded. "You have a sound head on your shoulders, boy. I was fearful that you would not be able to understand anything. You have changed subtly since the bell tower, as well. More time must've passed than I thought."
"I had a growth spurt, that's all. Something about the divine radiance in the air is good for my growing, little boy bones."
There was a feeling of being stared at, but the boy disregarded it.
"Right. I suppose growth spurts can appear in many different ways. Your species is a bit different from mine, but you have said something interesting. Divine radiance? You mean to say the divinity of the Lord of Hope has influenced you? That should not be possible."
Worthy was only joking around, but he was truthful when mentioning that the divine energy of the floor was responsible for his changes.
The wraith believed every word he said, though. Which meant that he'd have to explain himself a bit more if he wanted to stop this conversation from becoming needlessly convoluted.
"You're dead. So, I don't think you're very enlightened about the situation we find ourselves in. I also can't be certain of the consequences if I explain them to you either. Just know, I'm one of a couple thousand people in the world that has a unique power. That blood-thirsty demon god that desecrated all of your corpses is kind of like my unwilling benefactor now. Take that however you will."
Though the wraith seemed to hold some doubts about the child's words momentarily, he ultimately returned to believing them. After all, there was no reason for a boy his age to lie to a man that was long dead.
Well, this man was warping space and creating a hazardous zone for human life. None of that made him any more alive.
"There were irregular existences in the age I was born in. My world, as you have likely come to know, had giants that were as tall as mountains, scaled beasts whose voices destroyed cities, and vixens who sang sounds that could snatch away unsuspecting souls."
'Actually, I was only aware of around two of those things. That last one sounds very alarming for a man like Oro, though. I hope we don't ever come across anything with that ability.'
The probability was not zero.
"Nonetheless, there was no true divine blood to be found, until it fell from the sky and swallowed the world. Congratulations on attaining a taste of divinity, young man. That would make you the third… fourth. It would make you the fourth entity in this world to carry it. The Lord of Hope; that viscous, wicked grave robber of a beast; my beloved daughter; and yourself."
"Not whatever slew the Lord of Hope?" The child asked.
"I do not know what the accursed thing was. Do not speak of it either, lest you have the intention of facing it yourself. It was beyond understanding—an abomination of pure evil, without any thought in its mind except destruction. I do not know what it sought, nor what it gained. Perhaps it wanted to consume the Lord of Hope's blood and left when it had its share."
Understanding the being who emerged from nothing and slew a deity was impossible. What the child could understand, though, was that the Blood Marauder was capable of swimming in the ichor of the dead god. It consumed that ichor and the rest of the world, and now it was dormant.
It was dormant because Alice had defeated it, then used its heart as a medium to escape the world.
So, that was where the city was going… toward the heart of the creature that swallowed the world. But, it also left questions unanswered. The conversation had taken many twists and turns, but the child still wanted to know the real reason for the wraith being so engaged with the city. Clearly, he was conscious enough to utilize whatever unique capabilities came with being a creature of the undead. Worthy could not deduce why he would go about doing that, instead of playing his parent and ensuring the city was thoroughly operational like the rest of the wraiths.
"You're beating around the bush too much for my tastes. With your supposed love for your daughter, you wouldn't have gone against the clear plan she left you and the rest of those wraiths here to accomplish. You're abusing your sentience for a reason. Quit wasting my time and tell me. As much as I'm fine speaking with you, I don't find you less repulsive than I did before."
…He was right too.
In the next moment, the world suddenly grew tranquil. The rhythmic pulsing stopped, and the world that was once strange and disturbed became dormant. Familiar roads and streets re-emerged in the boy's view, as the wraith undid the extraordinary works. That wall still seemed quite far away, but the two were no longer in the middle of what he might've called a mindscape, given his familiarities with such.
Studying the boy one final time, the wraith—despite his lack of breath—sighed and stepped closer. He then began speaking, "I am not a good man, as you say. In the wake of the world's end, rather than accepting the natural order of things, I desperately clung to my child. Forcing burdens upon her, I selfishly sought for her to live. I made her carry the burdens of the whole world, because I could not bear to the knowledge that as I die, so too does everything else, including my dearest Alice."
"Alas, I now understand that I cannot rest in peace knowing that my child's work will be destroyed. If that abhorrent demon awakens, the world my daughter did to escape this world will be for nothing. I cannot allow it, I won't. Although my knowledge is limited, I've received enough."
"This sinful man has a final request. You are the one who carries the burden of my daughter, so I know that only you will be able to do this… I'd like to cast burdens upon you, so that you may have what it takes to destroy the heart of that beast."
Worthy's chest tightened, recalling the memories of Alice he'd experienced. They were hellish, a life of solitude where the only other occupant in a dead world was a demon that sought only to consume her. In fact, the Blood Marauder made a much finer neighbor than the burdens weighing on the girl's soul, perhaps.
"Your sanity must've been wisped away by the ages, old man. Hell no, I'm not buying whatever you're selling. Do I look like your daughter?"
The wraith ignored the last remark about his daughter, "I've already done something unforgivable, so this is but a droplet of water in that well of sin. Still, just like before, this is necessary. Believe it or not, but I have seen the might of that armored demi-god they call 'War', and I can assure you…"
There is a brief pause.
Then, a revelation.
"His power is not enough to destroy the heart of that behemoth, because it has almost certainly absorbed the great power of Alice's burden, and is slowly recharging itself with the Dream of Hope. Child, only the greatest of Alice's burdens can be used to dispel and control the last ember of her creation."
Worthy attempted to retort, but the wraith just cut him off again.
"To utilize Alice's creation, you have to destroy the monster's heart. To destroy the monster's heart, you must sever the burden that is tied to the Dream of Hope, and that will require a burden to stand in its place. You must become the anchor for the rift, and destroy the heart."