"I want to know…"
The Wanderer Who Laughs paused slightly though his grin, wide and mad, did not fade. not even an inch..
".... if you’ve been impacted by agony and emptiness."
Then, The Wanderer Who Laughs stood up... Slowly, intentionally, rising from the unseen ground as though stepping into something more real than the absolute emptiness of the empty void itself.
He lifted up his arms, spreading outward, extending it wide.
His gaze turned upward... towards something, towards nothing and towards everything...
And then he spoke..
"It’s time..."
His voice stretched through the empty silence, filling it, pressing against it, as though consuming the very fabric of emptiness..
"Time to spread my dreams, time to impact more people."
His hands rose higher, fingers splayed open, embracing the void itself.
"Time to led them to find out and understand the true meaning of... "
The nothingness quivered..
Something unseen stirred.
The Wanderer Who Laughs smiled.
"A Great And True Happiness."
And then cutting through his declaration....
A whisper.
Soft... calm, not desperate...
Fading.
"On second thought..."
Darkness Angel’s voice cut through his speech, weak, worn, yet carrying something new.
Something… different as if it has finally achieve it’s goal...
"You were right."
His breathing slowed.
His eyes, dimming, yet somehow clearer now.
"I think I feel empty and.."
"It’s actually for the first time."
In that moment...
CRACK! CRACK!
The absolute emptiness...
Shattered!.... like a glass of countless empty stories unfolded...
Dissolving Into A forgotten distance.. an unfathomable origin of Non-Existence....
****
- Back At The Loose Camp For Wanderers -
The loose camp fire was dying.
A weak, flickering ember, barely clinging to the remnants of charred wood. Shadows wavered against the tattered canvas of the loose camp, stretching, twisting, moving like silent specters. The air was cold.. unnaturally chilling. Not the crisp bite of the night, but a creeping, invasive cold, the kind that settled beneath the skin, that curled into the bones. that burrowed through the very soul..
Celia sat motionless, her deep blue eyes fixed on the faint glow of the embers. The warmth barely reached her. The moment she blinked, she knew.
They were back to the loose camp for wanderers...
The mirrored world was gone.
Jess stirred beside her, shifting slightly, her armored fingers pressing against the dirt as she pushed herself up. The red of her hair gleamed dimly beneath the pale light of distant stars, her orange eyes flickering as she scanned their surroundings.
Neither of them spoke.
Then, as if pulled by the same unseen thread, they stood.
The loose camp was as it had been. makeshift tents, scattered supplies, figures hunched near makeshift camp fires, whispering, chatterings. The scent of damp earth and rusted iron lingered in the air. Distant, indistinct murmurs drifted from the other wanderers. Some sat hunched over logs of trimmed trees, others merely stared into the distance, faces worn and hollow.
But something was wrong...
Celia’s gaze swept the camp.
Jess did the same.
They moved, weaving between bodies, stepping over discarded rations and empty flasks, scanning every figure, every shadow.
But Agon...
Was not here.
Celia’s hands curled into fists.
"Where do you think he is?" Jess asked, voice low, uneasy.
"I don’t know," Celia replied. The words tasted hollow.
She exhaled slowly, her breath barely visible in the stagnant cold. Her eyes sharpened, shifting, drinking in every detail.. the rise and fall of sleeping figures, the glint of steel half-buried in dirt, the flickering movements at the edge of the camp.
No trace.
Not even the faintest echo of his presence.
A shape moved ahead. Two figures, walking towards them.
Uvan and Lovia.
Their steps were slow, measured, the dim light catching against the metallic sheen of their bio-armor. Uvan’s deep brown eyes flickered with quiet caution, his black hair tousled by the faintest whisper of wind. Lovia moved beside him, her dark blonde hair brushing against her iron-touched exoskeleton bio armor, deep green eyes calmly unreadable.
"You both alright?" Uvan asked, his voice steady, grounded.
Celia and Jess exchanged glances.
Then Celia spoke.
"We were pulled into something," she said, her tone firm, precise. "A mirrored world. But we just got back safely..."
Uvan’s expression didn’t shift.
Lovia’s brows furrowed slightly.
"We’re looking for Agon," Jess added. "He’s... not here."
A pause.
Uvan nodded once. "Let’s look together..."
It was not a suggestion.
They moved together, weaving through the camp, stepping past the dim fires and murmuring figures. Celia’s mind worked rapidly, piecing fragments together, analyzing every shadow, every faint disturbance in the air.
Then suddenly.... She stopped.
The others halted beside her.
Celia’s eyes narrowed. Her lips parted, but the words came slowly, carefully.
"I’ve found him."
A breath of relief passed through the group.
But Celia’s expression darkened.
"But something is wrong."
The air shifted.
A tremor... faint, nearly imperceptible.
Then mist.
Thick. Suffocating.
It did not roll in from the distance. It did not creep like fog through the trees.
It manifested.
All at once.
Formless. Boundless. Alive...
Celia’s breath stilled. Her head lifted.
High above the camp...
A figure hovered.
The others followed her gaze.
And the loose camp...
Noticed.
Wanderers stirred, voices rising in murmurs, in confusion. Some stood, instinctively materializing their weapons. Others merely stared, caught between unease and disbelief.
Celia’s lips parted.
"Agon...?"
It was barely a whisper.
Jess took a step forward, her voice low, uncertain.
"That’s him... isn’t it?"
The figure above..
Gray-white hair.
Skin darker than void.
Eyes deeper than yellow.
Not human.
The white ash of his exoskeleton bio-armor gleamed dully in the fractured light, metallic yet layered with something more, something alive...
And then...
Slowly.
Deliberately.
He raised his arms.
The grin on his face widened.
And the mist,
Deepened.
A whisper. Low. Amused. Mad.
"This world....."
His voice stretched across the camp, sinking into the bones of those who heard it.
A pause.....
"Shall know..."
His head tilted slightly, his grin growing impossibly wider.
A breath.
A murmur.
A proclamation.
"Agony."
[SYSTEM]
+
DEFEAT THE WANDERER WHO LAUGHS
FAILURE: ONLY YOU KNOWS
+