Lowly Ascent

Splash! Splash! Splash!

Walking through the red waters tainted in blood, the Herald of the new Raven Cult grabbed Darla by her hair and raised her.

"So strong, yet your mind is so weak you cannot even fight back. Disgusting!"

He brought his knife to her throat.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." An ethereal voice echoed.

Heads turned to see beside the flooding well was a young man with pure spotless glowing white skin. He was in a black robe foreign to them and his eyes did not belong in the realm of humans.

"What are you foul spirit!" One of the Apostles yelled at the mysterious guest.

"Me? Just someone warning you. If you kill that girl, you'll have a fate worse than anything in this world." The ghost warned again.

"What?" The Herald studied the white figure. He couldn't get a read, the crooked smile from their spotless glowing teeth sent shivers down his spine. "What do you want? Not a step further or she dies!" He ended up bringing his knife closer to Darla's neck, but by this time she reacted, her eyes wide open, staring at the mysterious figure.

"R-Raven?" She muttered.

The False Herald felt Darla resist, it was the first time she did. He was caught off guard and she succeeded in escaping his grasp, plunging into the ankle-deep crimson water. Darla didn't care, her eyes were on one person and one person alone.

"Raven!" She leaped for the white figure, her heart pounded as a feeling of familiarity swept over her body like bone-chilling wind, causing each of her hairs to prick up.

Her hand went to grasp his own, but in that moment she touched nothing, slipping through him and collapsing in the bloody waters.

"Oh sweet child, I am not here. I never was..."

Darla paused, her head felt heavy, her body and blood-soaked hair now weighing her down.

Tears formed in her eyes and she turned back to see an emotionless face, in it, there was a hint of pity.

"Why?" Her voice cracked.

Nihil's body condensed fully once more. The construct of soul energy sadly smiled, "Like the seasons, people also change. Emotions are forgotten, thoughts drift away, and the people themselves become something new. Child, I did not mean to leave you behind, but I could not stop my enlightenment for you, though I know it ached to do so."

His legs moved, but it did not affect the water. Nihil moved closer to Darla, kneeling and caressing her face. As his hand touched her, it dispersed into nothing, for he was only an illusion formed from soul energy. His real form was still below, in the well.

"Why...why is it like this?!" Darla's eyes did not stop producing tears, adding to the collective pool of despair below her.

Nihil's eyes wavered, but it was only a reflection of the past still inside him.

In a partially broken tone, his hushed voice spread like a hazy fog, "I do not know why it is like this. I don't know anything, but if I were to guess, it's us. It's our fault for our lives, our responsibility for it. The world is nothing but a playground, we were the ones to decide how we treated it, and we failed in that endeavor. So forgive me, forgive such a foolish person."

If Nihil wasn't as he was now, perhaps he would've joined Darla in shedding tears. But currently, he was unable to, even if he wished for it to be otherwise.

Hearing Nihil's words broke Darla, she began to fully sob. Nihil watched, in silence.

"I-It's not supposed to be this way sniff! You said...you said sniff!" She couldn't even get out a proper sentence.

Nihil sighed, 'Why is it like this? Why does life hold these things? What is all of this anyway? I wonder if there is a secret to it all.'

With birth, came life, and with life, pain. All beings came to contemplate their existence, and all beings didn't find a true answer. Life's secret was only meant for its creator, no one else would know why or how, it was simply how things were and continued to be.

'Damn it...I'm letting myself mess up my head. Enough...' With one swift move, Nihil eliminated all the confusing thoughts in his mind. Such was the perk of being an entity of soul.

Standing up, he looked back to the others in the room. They were looking at him with apprehension.

Before Nihil could continue, however, another guest entered the chamber overflowing with water. With them, they brought stars.

"Oh? Look what we have here. So there was some left hidden from my eye?" The man paused, confused. He called out to Nihil, "You there, why do you seem familiar?"

Nihil felt three strong round objects hidden in the opponent's soul, all the while, multiple magical missiles in the shape of stars floated around them.

The False Herald recognized who barged in. "Kain?! General of the Empire?! Agent of Flickering Star?! You shouldn't be here...you can't!?!" His escape plan had fallen apart.

Nihil too began to have a similar understanding. 'That name... Wait...'

The ghostly figure laughed aloud, "To think it's you! A pity, you grew but have no way of leaving this world alive!" His laughter transformed into cackling.

Kain weirdly stared at Nihil. "What do you mean? Who are you?"

"No one important to you, not anymore." Nihil suddenly dispersed throughout the room, disappearing in an instant. He didn't leave, but he planned to watch.

'An interesting surprise for him to be here. Does this mean the rest of the cult is gone? There goes that plan. Oh wait, do I still have the dream world?' While Nihil watched, he pieced together the puzzle that was the current state of the world.

He did not know of the horrors that occurred, and how the world almost collapsed in flames.

As for the dream world, it was lost as soon as Cain was no more, a new being of body and mind was a change beyond such a weak byproduct of humanity. Soul entities didn't sleep either, not unless they had a host.

With the dream world's collapse, all agents were left without contact, and Raven's Nest completely collapsed. This was also why the False Herald was acting all of a sudden.

The False Herald was at a loss for words. "I...I can't believe this! I can't accept this end! Raven's nest isn't gone yet!" He then made a run for the well. "If the last Herald went in the well for power, then I can too! He may have just failed to get the power below, it's time for me to take it!"

Kain wasn't having it. "Where are you going?"

Vroom!

Three bright stars flew and ripped apart the False Herald, rendering them into a pile of mush, diluting in the pool of water.

'How much time did pass? How many years has it been? Darla doesn't look a day over 30 yet, so she's still young. Hmm...odd.' Nihil grew confused as to why the cult fell to this point. But he wrapped it up to faulty leadership. 

His past self expected this outcome to a degree as well.

'To think it got this bad...I should stop making cults...'

After killing the False Herald, Kain's eyes didn't linger on the surviving cultists, but Darla who was still weeping.

He murmured, "God says to kill the crying Princess, only then can I stake a dagger in that bastard's heart..."

Once more, someone walked toward Darla at her weakest point.