My promise is fulfilled yet I feel no better and my heart is no more full. I wait for the satisfaction, for the cheers and invisible hand on my own. Nothing comes.
I take a deep breath, and my eyes widen in shock as I take in the state of the room. Corpses, blood, and rubble are scattered everywhere, it sounds like a bad song. Crater-like holes are in the walls where we fought, and cracks are scattered across the floor. I am the only unbroken thing in this place. I close my eyes and open them again, and everything is… gone.
I wonder if I had a bad dream. The corpses disappeared without a trace, the blood-cloaked flooring had returned to its original decadence. The hall back to as opulent as when I first arrived. The only thing remaining, me. The orb had disappeared as well.
No, to call it pink was perhaps an insult to the color it was. The world was pink, the walls, the sky, and now even the light in the room had turned a dark shade of pink, the darkest shade I had ever seen. I wondered if I had discovered a new shade, my greatest accomplishment in this life, discovering a new shade of color.
I struggle to my feet, nothing to lean on except my thoughts. If weakness was a sin, I had been indulging my whole life. I rip off a tiny chunk of the ground and raise it up to my eyes. I clench a fist, and the chunk turns to dust. I was strong enough to punch a stone wall without breaking my hand, in a world of people who could punch holes in the sky and rip trees off the ground, well, it wasn't quite as impressive in comparison.
But now, I killed someone who Ouroboros deemed strong enough to protect the orb. Was that what Ouroboros was hiding in this castle of despair? It didn't make sense. And why didn't the orb boost Fenrir like it did me, to take away someone's blessing... it had never been done before, not according to any history lesson I had heard. The Cult of Dust would burn me at the stake. So many questions, so little life.
I throw every question away from my thoughts. Irelia would tell me to focus on the mission. They would send more; they probably already had. I need to leave. The only door leads back into the labyrinth, and that would take me far too long to navigate without Zane's tracking. I look around for windows, openings. I press spots against the wall, hoping for secret exits, but all to no avail. I curse, slamming my fist into the wall, the rubble flings off my skin without leaving a mark. The sound of the rubble crashing into ground is distinct, as is the sound of hitting glass.
I look upwards swiftly and find my sweet haven. A what must have been glass roof. I stare at the blooming sky and almost blow a kiss. The seed of an idea comes to mind, I take a deep breath, preparing for the insanity of what I was about to do. The roof must have been at a minimum of 100 feet tall.
I walk to one end of the great hall, and I run. I run so fast I feel the ground crack beneath my feet, and the wind crackles around my body. I crouch, tightly coiling my legs, and launch off the ground. Laughter escapes my lips as I feel the wind lap at my hair. I feel free. I cover my face when I impact the glass, breaking through with a surprising ease. The shards glance off my skin, I see my reflection in the glass, I do not recognize myself.
The sky is beautiful, as are the fields around me, they are full of life, the grass is tall and a hearty pink, the trees are sturdy and deep, I can hear birds chirp and the sound of crickets. I had lived.
At what cost?
I fall as quickly as I rise. I hope my body is as tough as I think because I fly downward fast enough to sting my eyes. I barely see where I land, attempting to roll off the ground, which turns into more of a crash. My body drags through tufts of grass and weeds. The taste of it is not unknown to me. Some nights, it was all I had to eat.
I grasp onto anything I can, eventually slowing enough to hold on to a particularly strong tuft of grass. I spit out the dirt in my mouth, and roll my shoulder back into place. My pain is nothing compared to the loss of today. With Irelia's death, I didn't know what would happen to Vendetta. Perhaps I could lie, say they captured her but who would believe me? There is a endless field around me, an infinite expanse. I had no clue how far it went, and i didn't want to be the test subject.
I pull out a compass Zane made, designed to lead us back to the entrance. East, something deep within whispers to me to run the opposite way. I trust Zane with my life but... I can't, I can't move.
"Come."
"Come!"
"Come? Why won't you?"
My body moves without thinking. I walk west, I walk until my feet hurt and my legs drag. The sky never loses its radiance; it is immortal, an unchanging painting in the air. I have to shield my eyes from the rising glare.
I thirst and hunger, there is nothing but grass and weeds. I finally see the cusp of a color other than pink. A chimney, a hill, I am happy enough that my feet stop aching, for only a second. I crash into the grass face-first, I almost swallow, before remembering grass isn't a replacement for food.
I crawl, my salvation is only a few feet away, there was so much to do. So many to grieve. I make it to the hill, slowly crawling my way up. I make it, barely, rolling onto my side, taking a small reprieve to stare into the sky. I hope it will give me motivation, that it will make my heart less empty.
The glare gets stronger, forcing me to shut my eyes. A thought comes to me, if there is no sun, where is the glare coming from?
I hear the sound of iron against leather, of a boot upon grass. I look, a silver buckle on a boot the color of coal. My eyes are burning now, it feels like they are about to burst. I squint, the symbol, I know it. My mind clears like a lighthouse in a fog, I don't dare say the name, hoping it to be a delusion cocked up by my addled mind.
But no delusion of mine could ever come close to him.
"Kneel."
I move without both choice and delay, I cannot control myself. His words are like commandments, I try to resist but it is like standing in a storm, I am pulled into his eye.
"Do you love me, or do you envy me?"