Dark jagged pillars rising into the sky.
A familiar view.
A hollow view.
"You are nothing."
The same hollow sounds.
A dull ache pulsed through Riven's skull. His blood had flowed down mixing with the forests.
He didn't know when he'd stopped. He didn't know if it was mercy or weakness.
"...h..."
His breaths still came ragged, for this was a never ending nightmare.
"You'll die, just like all before."
The whispers still coiled in the silence, threads of voices weaving through the bubbling blood below.
They hummed, breathed; as if the forest had taken them in.
Riven's eyes slacked half-lidded, grey and bloodshot.
"The Lord calls...."
He caught nothing but shadow and red haze.
His body was shaking, like a tap closing to run dry.
...It seemed this was it.
Trr...trrr...trrr.
The critters roamed free as the darkness waned.
"Succumb."
Would this be his last view?
Would this be the last words that whispered in his ear, and not the goodbyes of those he cared for?
If a laugh could leave those parted lips...it surely would.
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
Would these be the last sounds he'd hear?
It truly seemed so.
"....h...."
He was mentally declining.
And with that, his body was too.
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
Despite the heat, his body sagged further, threatening to lay across the ground in his whole entirety...
His lips parted, but no sound came. His spine slid further down; the forest's bubbling drowning every beat.
Piece by piece was being uprooted:
"Pathetic."
Like a repeating record, the many words went on and on. The previous frustration to pull his hair out was slowly replaced by a flickering flame.
It seemed natural at this point.
What did the sound of stepping through snow echo?
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
The flowing of liquid crimson and chants had wiped any remembrance.
Splash....
A puddle spread as his body slowly....dripped down the floor; the tips of hair dancing across the red.
Mael's Fang had slipped out beside him, resting near a tree's stump. His hands spread to his side.
"That's it...."
His head thumped with pain that shot through his eyes.
Those same eyelids sank, heavy, drowning in the haze.
"Fall...deeper."
The stench of iron pressed on, as the sounds were swallowing him whole.
It was like a pool that filled in his mind, gush by gush, cutting through the very marrow of his skull.
Just like his mind, his body was close to drowning also...
His jaw relaxed.
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
The heat shot through his clothes, biting into his flesh potentially searing skin...
But he couldn't feel it.
"...Offer yourself."
He wasn't sure if he could feel anything.
He wasn't numb or dull...the words and sounds still bit.
He wasn't exactly tired either...
He was...
"Let go..."
Slipping...
"Riven....!"
What was that?
A voice?
It slipped through the dark.
His eyelids shook slightly.
It wasn't like the others. It wasn't cruel. It wasn't endless.
It was thin, barely audible....but it was real nonetheless.
...It could've still been the forest...
Still....something changed.
"....ha..."
His chest rattled with a broken breath.
'...huh...'
"Submerge....Fall...."
The whispers stacked, trying to bury the feeling slowly running through the air.
His jaw clenched first.
The muscles in his face shook, a strain forming on his forehead.
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
Then his shoulders twitched.
His palms pressed flat against the wet ground, slipping once, before they found enough hold to push.
Splash...
The bubbling floor hissed beneath his weight, blood licking through his fur-covered hand.
"Fall...." The forest ordered.
His knees buckled as he forced them under him.
Every joint screamed...
"....haa...."
"The blood calls...."
Every word whistled through the trees...but he still moved; there was something about that voice...
Veins bulged against pale skin as his body trembled, his spine straightening as he grabbed a hold of tree bark.
Mael's Fang was right there...
"....haaa..."
Another breath expelled.
A longer one.
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
"You worthless waste...."
The ground still echoed, the voices still pressed...
But his mind seemed to shift; not stronger, just different.
It wasn't defiance.
It wasn't courage.
"Listen...."
His shoulders twitched, his breath hitched.
The whispers still dug, gouging deeper...yet his body twitched up as though pulled by a fractured tether.
It bit. It tore.
But he moved.
"Fall for him!"
The words seemed to get louder. His jaw clenched.
This was not a victory.
...It was the shadow of something else.
Blubblhh....blurrrhhh...
His hand rummaged until it found Mael's Fang. The hilt was warm, slick red, but it was here with him.
"...haa."
Hot.
It was hot.
A breath slipped, jagged, broken but steady to rise again slowly.
"Succumb to him...."
Nothing was a clear thought in his mind.
It was fragmented, but the haze hovering slightly lifted.
There was no thoughts of hope, not even calls for strengths.
It was just motor actions operating.
His knees unbent. Holding Mael's Fang with a renewed grip, he dragged his spine up the bark of tree.
Splshhh...
Insects roaming through its grain scattered as his spine dragged.
Trr!
Trr!
Every joint screamed. His teeth grit until he stood.
Finally.
"Listen to his call...."
The whispers didn't stop. The forest still bled.
"...Or bare witness..."
His mouth shakily parted.
A short breath exhaled....
Was it a laugh?:
"...I don't know if I'm alive, or just refusing to die."
Was it persistence? Or hollow resignation that voiced those words?
Splosh!
A ripple spread as he took a short step; shaky, like his fractured vision.
"Judgement."
The word rang through the trees, heavier than the words previous.
"....haaa.."
Then, silence fell.
Blubblh---
The bubbles halted.
The smell of iron seemed to flush.
Riven stood there, breath parted as he stood flat-footed.
Something gnawed at his stomach.
In the back of his mind, he flirted with one idea...
A cold one.
All around it went quiet. Even the insects muted.
The whispers had finally died...but they left a void that seemed to rise in danger.
The forest no longer whispered.
It only watched now.
"....haaa...." "haa...."
Blood still warmed Riven's temple and clothes.
His chest still shook, but he stood; not whole, not sane...but he was standing.
But for how long?
How long can one succumb to darkness?