Chapter 21: Darkenstein Tree.
"Huff... Huff..."
I didn’t need anyone to tell me.
For the Dark Souls Tree to exert its influence from such immense distance... it had to be a God. Or, at the very least, a... demi-god.
Not that the distinction mattered anyway.
One way or another, the outcome was still going to be the same-
I-It was still going to be... utterly terrifying.
And-
"Hu... Hu..."
I could feel it now.
Despair.
Clench.
It was slowly crawling its way towards me.
Clench!
It was slowly swelling within me, twisting, gnawing and devouring me from the inside out.
I bit my lower lips, trying to suppress the immense pressure weighing down on my chest.
I-It was now on the verge of consuming me.
Clench!
I bit even harder.
I bit until I could feel the metallic tang of blood flooding my mouth. Yet, it did nothing to suppress the fear and dread swiftly rising within me.
Instead, their grip intensified.
They slowly pooled and coiled around my chest like an iron vice, and the immense pressure made it harder to breathe.
I-It made it harder to think.
I knew there was no way to avoid this unavoidable fate.
Yet, I didn’t want it.
I didn’t...
Yet, the cruel truth about my current situation was something I couldn’t digest.
It was something I couldn’t bear to take in.
Because no matter what I did, all I could foresee was...
Tears welled in my eyes.
...My inevitable demise.
And this only served to increase the rate at which my deafening heartbeat echoed through the stifling silence.
It only served to intensify the despair slowly tightening its grip around my chest.
’How could I hope to defeat a God?’
I was now on the verge of breaking down.
Just... how...?
Tears pooled in my eyes, and my knees showed signs of buckling, the weight of the current situation pressing down on me.
And just then-
Ba- dump! Ba- dump!
My eyes widened in fear.
I felt it.
A strong force pulled onto the walls of my mind, dragging ferociously as though trying to pull me into an endless abyss.
And then-
Whoosh-!
Darkness swallowed me whole.
When I opened my eyes again...
The sight before me only served to deepen the terror within me.
***
I found myself swallowed by an abyss of endless darkness. Yet, despite the void, I could see them all- familiar and unfamiliar faces alike- all submerged in a sea of bright, red liquid.
And what made it worse?
I was sinking too. Slowly, inevitably, the dark-red tide crept up my body, consuming me inch by inch. It crept up my body like a living substance, its grasp tightening with every passing second.
And-
"Hu... Hu..."
Even as despair crept towards me. Even as it sought to drag me into an endless abyss, a single question echoed in my mind.
It was something I found strange, baffling, almost ridiculing.
Why?
Why go through all this trouble? Why not erase us with a mere snap of its fingers?
Shadowy dark tendrils crept upward, slowly wrapping themselves around my legs. As though they had a mind of theirs, they only moved on after paralyzing a certain part of my body.
Arms, legs... it was becoming endless.
And before I knew it, the very act of breathing soon started to elude my grasp. I watched, helpless, as the dark shadowy tendrils inched towards my chest.
They emitted a weird glow that seemed to remove all thoughts of resistance. Not that resisting would change anything, anyway.
And this knowledge only further served to intensify the dread, and the despair swelling within me.
The dread. The despair.
T-They were hell-bent on dragging me to hell.
But amidst the pain clouding my mind to the intense, suffocating pressure weighing down on my chest and my lungs.
Realization dawned on me. Hitting harder and faster than a moving truck.
Knowledge and memories that were being suppressed by the Dark Souls Tree- surfaced in an instant.
As a young master of the Winchester family, I had access to vast amounts of knowledge. And I had always felt that something was wrong.
Because...
"Haa..."
Tears welled in my eyes, spilling over.
I knew this place. The time, the year, the epoch.
I knew it all too well.
Darkenstein Tree.
They had called it a Darkenstein Tree. And now-
"Haa..."
It all now made sense.
To ascend as a god, It had to embody the basic primal emotions. No- more than that. It had to evoke them.
As the realization set in, my breath slowly left me.
"Hu... Hu..."
The shadowy tendrils were now tightening around my neck, and I was now, just barely holding on.
Barely fighting...
Drip-! Drip-!
Tears streamed down the corner of my eyes.
The realization. The harrowing pictures that came together broke me, even more.
They broke me in ways I couldn’t have imagined possible.
...And to be able to evoke emotions.
What better test subjects than we humans?
"Hahaha."
A hollow laugh escaped my lips, the sound raw and hoarse in the stifling silence.
It was a laugh meant to mask the slipping away of my sanity... yet it did nothing of sort.
Despair. It still weighed down on me in all its endless glory.
The shadowy tendrils had now coiled around my chest and my neck, and I was only breathing due to some divine miracle.
Then-
It came.
A terrifying pain pierced through my chest.
Memories. A flood of them came together.
And before I knew it, a quiet sob broke out of my chest.
I couldn’t hold it in any longer.
I just couldn’t...
"I’m sorry, Xavier... I’m sorry..."
Tears dripped onto the abyss yawning below, the sound echoing in the endless darkness.
The shadowy roots had now enclosed me, submerging me fully in the crimson liquid.
And then-
Silence.
It lingered.
Until
".....!"
A lightless world surrounded me. Here, there was no sound, no warmth. Only the rhythmic pounding of my heart.
An endless darkness seeped into my mind, slowly crawling its way into the walls of my mind and before long-
Thump... Thump...
My breath slowed, almost coming to a halt.
And before I knew it, I began to lose something- something vital.
My sanity.
I-It was getting harder to hold on to it.
’So... this is it... the end of my pathetic life...’
A final, excruciating pain tore through my chest and-
Drip-! Drip-!
The tears just wouldn’t stop, and before I knew it-
I gave in to the endless darkness.