Chapter 7 - The Dark

***

"Special situation established."

"Analysing."

"Time limit initiated."

***

When those words concluded, once again, I felt the searing pain on my wrist. However, instead of the burning imprint of the searing pain, which I still remembered, it was a cold and detached sensation. Even when my consciousness was barely with me, the pain echoed, it traveled every part of my body, tearing at every cell of my being, like hundreds of needles being stabbed into me, over and over again. And it repeated over and over again.

"When will it stop?" I asked myself helplessly.

For the hundreds of thousands, to millions of times later, I grew numb to the pain, but not the unbearable sensation, how my skin was torn apart and stitched together, how my muscle and fat shrunk and grew continuously, and how my bones were shattered and mended.

Soon, I thought of nothing else, everything simply went black. No word. No sound. Just emptiness. For the first time in my life, I finally understand how loud silence can truly get.

Even my thought abandon me.

Who knew how long had passed, but I knew that my cries fell onto death's ear, or even if I was communicating at all. But for the longest of time, for what felt like an eternity, I was drowning this darkness.

"Please... Just stop..." I said into the void for the umpteenth time. However, no matter how much I talked, there was never a response.

There were only silence and the constant and lasting pain.

Slowly, but surely, my mind began to drift, while a voice appeared in my mind, it sounded so familiar, yet strange and distant, "Don't you feel the pain? Don't you see the horror? And guess what? It has not been a day yet."

"Shut up. Shut up."

I tried to yell back but it was all for naught.

Like a devilish sweet talker, it ignored me completely, "You want to continue? You want to continue treading on this hopeless venture? And for what? Riches? Popularity? There is nothing. Pain. That is the only thing you will remember."

"Take the easy way out, you one is there. No one is watching you right now. No one is by your side like always. Not even your precious Thea is here right now. So, take my hand, and let us get out of this nightmare, shall we?" It extended its hand, toward me.

Despite I knew it was nothing more than a trick, a scam of some sorts, yet, staring at the foggy hand, it felt so welcoming, "And go where?"

"Out of here, out of this place," The voice continued sweetly. "Think about it, you had only been here for not a day. Yet, everything you knew had been turned upside down, so why try? Take my hand, and I will give you everything you will ever want."

"No, you can't, it's too late already..." I screamed at the top of my lungs. "Just go. Go."

"Fine, ha-ha-ha." The voice suddenly laughed maniacally. "I will be back, I will be back soon enough, just you wait, Conrad Graham."

With that, everything grew silent and the darkness, which accompanying me only echoed even louder. Leaving me a pit of sorrow on top of my already tired mind and the painful body. Only when that mechanical voice rang out, did I truly feel comforted.

If only it lasted.

***

"Result concluded."

"Creatures self-terminated."

"The waves passed."

"Twenty-three percent died."

"Seventy-seven escaped."

"Zero population remained."

"A replacement King is designated."

"Candidate Conrad Graham will be relocated to Forsaken Isle."

"King status removed."

***

That was when my consciousness left me, as the darkness finally consumed my fatigued mind. And by the time I woke up, everything around me changed yet again.

In my confusing state of mind, the same mechanical's voice emerged from the fuzzy mind. "Forsaken Isle?" Once those words left my mouth, I felt the energy left my body, and I just slummed down onto the ground. Not knowing what to say or the will to do anything.

"What happened back then? Where's Thea?" I asked myself. Then, the visage of the hog appeared before me. Those red murderous crimson eyes were like daggers, as they barreling down in front of me. Instinctively, my body flinched as they bolted upright.

However, the speed and momentum almost crashed me to the ground, as I barely regained my posture. That was when I realized the horror of my conflict against that murderous hog.

A stump for a left arm, which was covered in every direction with bandages, as they were dyed with red crimson blood. Staring at it, the hog bleeding tusk, flashed before my eyes as it almost forced my mind to go crazy. The more I stared at it, the more lost I felt, "Thea..."

At that moment, I finally took in the environment around me, a luscious green forest. Trees reached toward the sky, covering the beating sun and bathing the ground in a never-ending shade. Then, the forest bed filled with flowers, blooming and dazzlingly beautiful. Lastly was the chirping of birds echoing throughout the forest, almost harmonizing with each other.

Even standing there, in the center of such a sense, I felt nothing but loneliness and anxiety. I was alone. With no one. With no skills. Only some random knowledge to help me by.

"What are you going to do, Conrad?" I asked myself. Helplessly, I picked a direction and walked.

Was it dumb? Yes.

Should I look for water? Yes.

But did I? No.

Why? Beyond me.

But all I knew was to walk. Wherever my feet took me, my body followed.

Before long, the sun had set and I found myself in the dark forest still marching aimlessly on the forest bed. Only when my feet could not take it anymore, did my body slump to the ground, so exhausted that even catching a breathe hurt.

Unbeknownst to me, as the night grew longer and the cold wind picked up, so did the pins and needles. It got more and more unbearable. The pain traveled from my shoulder to the arm, which I had already lost. Yet, it was so vivid. I could feel the agonizing pain as if they were being cut into hundreds of thousands and millions of pieces.

I reached for a near my branch and bit upon it, so I could feel a little sense of relief. But it was all for naught. As the only thing for me to do was sit there, and screaming in pain. Through my hazy and tearful eyes, I watched the moon slowly rose between the dense leaves.

The higher the moon rose, the more tired and weaker my scream became. Even then, I still managed to see the changes of the forest through my misty eyes. The flowers on the forest bed, which had been surrounding me up until then, simply vanished sight. The leafy branches, which had always cover the sky. shrunk back into the tree. Like that, the luscious green forest was no more. Instead, I could see death looming in the darkness. Then, I heard them.

Those eerie sounds.

A gooey liquid being splashed around. From the noise along, I could hear the gunges. Despite not knowing what it was, but hearing how they crashed into each other, how the water splased and wrapped around them, it made for a spine-tingling atmosphere when you heard it in the depth of the forest. But what sent me over the edge was an innocent chirp.

It sounded almost like any others, fortunately, no matter how much it tried, the dead and toneless chirp forced me to my feet.

Standing there, my teeth still bit tightly on the branch, the pins and needles never faded, and the tears never stopped flowing. Even so, I stood firm, my eyes never standstill, as they tried to find it. Find the being, which was ever so close to me.

The longer I was there, the closer and mo vivid the noise became. And before I even knew it, I was running. under the pale light and my misty eyes, I could barely made of the world around me.

Thankfully, along with the nagging and intense pain, there was fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the darkness that was looming over me. I pushed forward, however they did not last long. As helpful as they were, my non-exercise body could not keep up. And when a trip knocked my black glass to the dark below.

"Where is it?" I screamed through the pain, while my right hand ran across the forest bed, looking for the last pair of glasses I had. "Come on. Come on."

"Fine it. You need to find it." I yelled to myself, as I laid on the ground, swinging my body parts in every direction I could. However, in my frantic search, I failed to notice. Only when I touched the plastic frame, did I realize the splashing sound had stopped.

And I could feel it behind me.

Ignoring my glass, the source of my vision, I barely crawled out of the way, as the creature stopped in front of me.

There I was, feeling miserable as can be. Without an arm, without a companion, and in tremendous pain, I was then standing in front of a horrific creature.

While similar to any slime you would find in a fantasy video game, those red, green, and yellow blobs of joy, the one that stood in front of me was an amalgamation of death. It was filled with rotting corpses. Birds, bees, insects and so many more creatures I could not recognize just floating there, insides the gooey blob. Standing there without any strength left, I only looked up with a long sigh.

"This is it, hah?" I almost laughed at myself for even thought of anything otherwise.

Even then, standing opposite the creature of my death, and the pain never eased, my exhausted mind said, "I hope Thea is doing fine..."

"You are helpless, aren't you? You are still thinking about her, now?" That charming voice resurfaced in my head. "She gave up on you, don't you see? When danger rolled around, she ditched you who knows where to save herself, otherwise, how could the city be abandoned with only you inside of it? Now, you are going to die all over again, so, was it worth it?"

"You should have taken my offer when you have the chance, do you regret it?" The charming voice mocked me, its tone grew more and more aggressive.

"I do have regret, plenty of them, but not one of them is yours," I said through muddled thoughts.

However, standing opposite the black blob of death, who was bopping side to side, my knees could not help but tremble slowly, and even knowing escape was impossible, my body still reacted.

As the creature blob left and right, my legs inched backward centimeter by centimeter. however, the pain on my shoulder was the death of me as it flared up and the pins and needles drilled into my marrow, bring me to my knees in an instant.

Like that, before I could even try to escape, the blob shallowed me whole.

Shockingly, even submerging in its murky substance, I could still breathe. As it forced me to suffer so much more. The stench, the horrifying and indescribable stench, assaulted my mind and made my skin crawled. Then, it was barely audible chirping and growling of the countless half-digested corpses, which truly send me over the edge.

Those toneless and death cries only worsened everything.

Finally, it was the gooey substance itself. They eroded my body, torn my clothes in an instant, and melted my bandages, exposing my wound causing the pain to reemerge. As my mind wore away, something floated between the white bandages which captured my full attention.

In the midst of it all was a pink piece of cloth, which was stained by blood, floated there innocently, and the smiling teddy bears almost winking at me, "Thea..."

"I guess, this is the end."

Those were my last thought as my arm waved and my legs kicked, however, everything was truly useless.

My fate was sealed. For the last few minutes I had left, I was unable to do anything but bear the searing pain, the skin melting sensation, like how I would imagine pressing your hands against the stovetop feel like. Even how my body was being cooked while my consciousness faded.

"Conrad.... Conrad... Where are you?" Thea's voice echoed into my ear.

"Am I hallucinating?"

"Is it my last few thoughts?"

"I can't see Thea again?"

"No... I want to meet her."

"Even for a second, I need to see her again."

However, it was all for naught.